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Magid: Treating kids on the Web in a new way - San Jose Mercury News
"I spent part of last week in Washington, D.C., attending a gathering that turned out to be a watershed moment in the 16-year history of online safety education.
The third annual conference of the Family Online Safety Institute brought together about 400 Internet safety advocates around the theme of "Building a Culture of Responsibility: From Online Safety to Digital Citizenship.""
» The Filter. For the Moment. Bud the Teacher
Darren and Bud,
I have had similar conversations in my district around the idea of why do we think we have to have separate rules for technology. The basic values we ask teachers and students to adhere to apply just as well to technology issues as they do to everything else, why with technology do we suddenly think we have to have a laundry list of “shall nots?” Much like our earlier discussion about “acceptable use policies” versus “responsible use policies (http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2008/12/lets-get-rid-of-acceptable-use-policies.html),” I would like the focus to be on how students should be using these tools well, not on which ones should be banned or blocked.
Perhaps this is naive, but this is my basic position: students and teachers know when they are doing the right thing and when they are not. And when they don’t do the right thing, then we should have a conversation with them. But let’s don’t assume they are going to do the wrong thing and then try to “prevent” it somehow by filtering.
We trust our teachers to be physically in the classroom (and on the sports fields and in our activities) with our students day in and day out, pretty much without any kind of “supervision.” There is much more potential for abuse (in all meanings of that word) in that physical situation than with technology, so why do we continue to invest so much time, energy and money into filtering when we apparently don’t really care that much about what’s going on in the classroom (at least based on the resources we devote to observation/mentoring/professional development)?
Utah University Lifts Ban on YouTube - NYTimes.com
Brigham Young University, a Mormon Church institution where students agree to live a chaste and virtuous life, has lifted its almost three-year policy of blocking access to YouTube.
A GeekyMomma's Blog: Are You a Wimpy Whiner?
I was also "surprised" to learn Palm Beach didn't have teacher overrides of the filter. My CIO says that CIPA requires this, and he thinks many more districts are in violation of CIPA because of this than because of any site they let through the filter (since pornography is the only thing that must specifically be blocked). (Nancy Willard <a href="http://csriu.wordpress.com/page/2/">seems to agree</a>.
In case you were wondering - yes, we have teacher overrides in our district, tied to active directory. All of our teachers can immediately bypass most of the filter (it still blocks pornography and some social networking sites - Facebook, MySpace - but we're working on that).
edublogs: Fresh research showing the damage of filtering 'real world' technology
Students in schools around the world find that their research, creativity and learning potential is seriously curbed by filtering and lack of use of their own mobile and gaming devices in schools. This comes from research spanning the Americas, brought to my attention by its author, Research Consultant Kim Farris-Berg.
The Fischbowl: I Just Want to Say One Word to You: Collaboration.
@Patrick - Thanks, and I agree on the leadership concern.
I guess my hope is that once a teacher/team/school is empowered by and experiences the success of collaboration and using the network, then they will refuse to go backward even if they do get a new leader who perhaps doesn't get it.
Maybe self-empowered and interconnected teachers and learners are the ultimate solution to frequently changing leadership?@Patrick - Thanks, and I agree on the leadership concern.
I guess my hope is that once a teacher/team/school is empowered by and experiences the success of collaboration and using the network, then they will refuse to go backward even if they do get a new leader who perhaps doesn't get it.
Maybe self-empowered and interconnected teachers and learners are the ultimate solution to frequently changing leadership?
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