I found an article on Education Week online. The link is http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/09/02/02filter_ep.h29.html?r=1809427331
and I had to register as a member to see the whole article. If it's any consolation, it looks like you can find a lot of related articles here.
Summary- This article discusses an Alabama school districts choice to open the "internet floodgates" to students and teachers instead of constantly showing that dreaded ACCESS DENIED page. Their argument for allowing increased access is that they should be preparing students to use the internet and its resources properly instead of sheltering them from the possibility of inappropaite content.
Opinion- I wholeheartedly agree with what Tussville, Alabama is doing. They take their job to educate children seriously and a complete education includes access to all avenues of the internet (including youtube, blogs, etc). This gives teachers an opportunity to model good navigating skills for their students to replicate. I worry that our students have the possibility of being totally overwhelmed when they finally get unrestricted access to the internet. It's safer for us to educate them while we can on proper online procedures and netiquette.
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I agree that we should teach students how to use the Internet instead of denying all access, but I also believe it should be in a scaffolding fashion. For instance, at the primary level of our school we do not encourage Google searches. Kindergarten through third grade students do not understand the search process and will yield thousands of results, and they cannot comprehend the reading level of most of the choices. We encourage using child friendly search engines with a lower readability level. At the fourth grade level, we open Google up to the students to use with instruction on how to narrow the searches. Fourth graders are beginning to have more abilities to read the choices. Any time our students search on the web, a reminder is given about the possibilities of inappropriate content. Last week, my sixth grade students were searching for information on sewage pollution and its effect on humans and marine life. They read the book, Flush over the summer and were working on a related project. Obviously, when you start searching for Flush and sewage, the results could bring some inappropriate images. It was a teaching opportunity about what to do if something appears that is not appropriate. We also focused on search terminology and Boolean searching. Middle school is a time to open the blocks even more, and at the high school level, most blocks should be removed. Our school does block YouTube from K-12, but we are creating our own YouTube station at the school to teach the concepts of use. Our computers are blocked by who is logged in. Teachers have more rights than students, so I can get to some places that the students can’t. I am in the process of trying to get Glogster (the educator version) unblocked, so that I can use it with my upper elementary students.
ReplyDeleteI do not agree with this article. While I do think school filters block o many web pages and some necessary content, I do not think it is the school or teachers job to show students how to navigate the internet safely. I think this is the job of their parents. Also, unresctricted internet access while at school would make it much more difficult for teachers to get students to complete assignments on time while using computers. I just think it would be counter-productive overall.
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