Web filters from a student’s perspective
February 6, 2009
As educators, it is our responsibility to provide our students with the tools necessary to be successful, not only in our classroom, but in life. As a technology integration specialist, I believe part of this responsibility we have is to teach our students how to be good cybercitizens.
Most districts in the United States and around the world implement some sort of web filter. In some districts, the web filter is doing exactly what it is designed to do, protect our children from online pornography, obscene material, and anything else deemed harmful to minors as required by the Children’s Internet Protection Act. Others, however, are much more restrictive.
Jon-Michael Poff, a senior at Batesville High School in Batesville, Arkansas, has written an excellent article in Edutopia entitled “Stop Blocking Online Content” which focuses on web filters from a student’s perspective. He discusses his frustration with the filters in place and describes a situation in which a fellow student was unable to access a blog that was assigned by his teacher and an incident in which another student was unable access image files, from a popular image hosting site, for her desktop publishing class.
No responsible educator would argue that students do not need to be somewhat protected when accessing computers in our schools, but what about teachers? Teachers are trusted with the safety and well-being of our nation’s children everyday yet, in most districts, they are not trusted to make sound, responsible decisions with regards to the internet. In some cases, teachers are “digitally handcuffed” and are unable to use some of the best resources available. Google Docs, YouTube, and Flickr all have high educational value but are blocked in most districts. Why?
Last I checked, we live in an unfiltered world. Are we truly preparing our students for life after school when we have such restrictive filters in place? In many districts, why are teachers not treated like professionals and given the opportunity to make the decision on what is appropriate or inappropriate for their classroom?
This topic always raises many more questions than answers. If you have an opinion, let us know in the comments. – JERRY SWIATEK
“Stop Blocking Online Content”
Related stuff:
How to cope when your school blocks YouTube
Search visually, safely with Redzee
