Originally published by KQED Mind/Shift, via ASCD and reprinted in its entirety:
Winter 2011 | Volume 17 | Number 4
Can Social Media and School Policies be "Friends"?
Dispelling Six Myths About Blocked Sites
Tina Barseghian interviews U.S. Department of Education Director of Education Technology Karen Cator and reveals six surprising rules that educators, administrators, parents, and students might not know about website filtering in schools.
Accessing YouTube does not violate CIPA rules.
"Absolutely it's not circumventing the rules," Cator says. "The rule is to block inappropriate sites. All sorts of YouTube videos are helpful in explaining complex concepts or telling a story, or for hearing an expert or an authentic voice—they present learning opportunities that are really helpful."
Websites don't have to be blocked for teachers.
"Some of the comments I saw online had to do with teachers wondering why they can't access these sites," she says. "They absolutely can. There's nothing that says that sites have to be blocked for adults."
Broad filters are not helpful.
"What we have had is what I consider brute force technologies that shut down wide swaths of the Internet, like all of YouTube, for example. Or they may shut down anything that has anything to do with social media, or anything that is a game," she said. "These broad filters aren't actually very helpful, because we need much more nuanced filtering."
Schools will not lose E-rate funding by unblocking appropriate sites.
Cator said she's never heard of a school losing E-rate funding due to allowing appropriate sites blocked by filters.
Kids need to be taught how to be responsible digital citizens.
"[We need to] address the topic at school or home in the form of education," Cator says. "How do we educate this generation of young people to be safe online, to be secure online, to protect their personal information, to understand privacy, and how that all plays out when they're in an online space?"
Teachers should be trusted.
"If the technology fails us and filters something appropriate and useful, and if teachers in their professional judgment think it's appropriate, they should be able to show it," she said. "Teachers need to impose their professional judgment on materials that are available to their students."
Tina Barseghian is the editor of MindShift (http://mindshift.kqed.org), a website about the future of learning.
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(3/6/12 update: I just tried to access a Cnet article on upgrading computers from my work computer. My organization flashed a dialogue saying that the site was blocked because it deals with "Computers and the Internet." I'm going to pound my head against the wall now)
And another voice; this time, the voices of students in Los Angeles
Students Demand the Right to Use Technology in Schools
"One by one, students pleaded their case. Though some teachers and administrators think of social media sites like Facebook as being distracting and ultimately harmful, students said it can be used as a tool for learning, for example by creating class topics. “Plus, there’s no time limit to Facebook,” a student said. “Learning stops when class ends at school, but learning happens outside school too. We use Facebook to create a dialogue between teachers and students. We can use Facebook to speak our minds and make changes, share our thoughts, our notes, and resources.”
(read the entire article)
Update: 3/8/12 - Hawaii Teachers May Get Less Restrictive Web Access Soon
"So what? It's just a screenshot of YouTube." what makes this historic is that after six years of contesting state-wide policies, Teachers in Hawaii's Public Schools will have the opportunity to access a multitude of sources in their classrooms that for decades have blocked by Draconian Content-Filtering Policies. (Right now, it's a captive-portal proxy pilot and there are some bugs like the inability to upload images but it's progress.)
It's a good day...
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