What Are We Blocking?

Our district, like most, has an Internet filter and guidelines for what gets filtered. And, like most educators that work in districts with filters, I hit that filter a minimum of once a day, most days it much more than that if I'm reading and researching. There are a number of sites that I use as an educator and technology specialist professionally that are blocked within our district, Twitter being the most frustrating block for me (although I do find access to it through a couple of widgets). I use Twitter as a professional in a number of ways, from learning from others, to share my learning, as well as the occasional "Help, I'm looking for _____ resources." And my Twitter network never fails to deliver when I need it. The latest frustration is with image sharing sites. We've got a large number of teachers starting to implement blogging into their classrooms and are wanting to use a template from the Internet. The problem is that the images for those templates are hosted on image sharing sites that are blocked in the district, which means the templates can't be properly viewed within the district. The worst part is that teachers and students have the same filtering levels, so teachers don't even have the ability to evaluate a website for classroom appropriateness if it does happen to be blocked for the students.

I understand the concept for blocking, that we're keeping students from viewing inappropriate content and materials. But I am often left wondering what we're really teaching students (and teachers) when we block so much of the Internet. How can we fully teach Internet safety if we block so much of its content? How can we convince teachers that we trust their judgement to select appropriate resources and content for their classrooms if they have to rely on someone else to evaluate whether or not a site should be blocked? How can we teach our students to collaborate in our global society if we block so many of the social networking and media sites that exist today? These are questions that are often spinning around in my head.

I read about others using social networking, media, and bookmarking sites all the time in their classrooms and district, but as we not only filter but do not supply our students with email addresses OR allow them to use their personal emails, we are not able to use a large number of these tools as they are intended. As I'm not in a position to actually make the decisions as to what types of access students have, I often find myself spinning my wheels when I hit that filter searching for a tool to use in the classroom. Some day surely we will be able to give our students safe access to all of the tools that are available out there, and surely if we all keep trying and promoting the incredible advantages to the massive number of tools that are available to us on the Internet. Considering our students (and teachers) are using a large number of social networking and media sites at while they are at home, we won't have to spend much time teaching the tools. We'll actually be able to teach our students (and teachers) how to use these tools appropriately and how to harness their power in the classroom in order to become responsible citizens in today's global society.

Image thanks to Flickr and epmd.