An Unfiltered Look at Education

12/5/2011

You have heard Garth and myself, along with countless others in the world of education speak to the truth that filters need to be removed from school district internet access. Schools are the place that students should be learning about good digital citizenship and leaving positive digital footprints. The world is not filtered, so what message (other than lack of trust) do school filters really send.

I have heard the excuse that money is attached to filtering certain content, or that ignorance to digital media causes a knee-jerk reaction to block & ban everything and people have even told me that kids can't handle an unfiltered environment.

Today I arrived at school to find that, as promised in an email Friday, YouTube and GoogleDocs are now unblocked in my school district. The number of happy teachers far outnumbers the nay-sayers so far. Two teachers have already started using movie clips and GoogleDocs in their classes today! Instead of allowing students to discover these new tools on their own, and risk them thinking they have stumbled upon a secret, I used this as a great opportunity to talk (again) about appropriate internet use. I showed the students a few examples from the historyteachers to show some of the content-rich material available via YouTube. The science department is very excited to finally be able to access some great videos concerning real-world science. I am proud to say that several teachers in my building have slowly been emailing and urging the people in charge to take a serious look at our filtering system. It is also nice to see my district act in a progress way and trust faculty and students to use these new tools for academic endeavors. This is really a case of "one man can make a difference" actually happening.

My next challenge is to decide how to help acclimate staff with these new sites. Students will be students and the next two weeks until winter break will see students going on YouTube for other than academic reasons; at least that is the stereotypical thing to say. It is my gut feeling that if we engage students in conversation concerning YouTube and GoogleDocs, then it will be a great assess to their learning. I was thinking about addressing each grade level during advisory to talk about digital citizenship and leaving positive digital footprints. What are your thoughts? How should we react when students are surfing the web? Please leave a comment or suggestion.

11 Comments

Raphael Gisstand

12/6/2011 05:01:37 am

Google docs are great for receiving multiple answers by friends and family on one document that can be emailed to the whole group. I also agree that school districts should ease up on the filtering and let our children learn Technology Tools.

Octavia Hardaway

12/7/2011 09:59:14 pm

Having filtering for students is a great idea.

Tim Sisson

12/13/2011 09:13:14 am

As you know, I agree with you 100% Mike. If we are to prepare our students for life, we must facilitate their learning to become good digital citizens. We can argue that we are protecting our students more by facilitating their learning of appropriate use of digital resources than by filtering and putting up walls. The walls only teach students to circumvent the blocks while limiting our opportunities as educators to be... well educators.

Please keep making that difference.

Brian Gregory

12/19/2011 10:34:05 pm

very nice post) thanks

Alexander Veltz link

1/7/2012 04:08:20 am

One of the most frustrating attributes of my school district, as you mentioned, is the desire for them to sensor and limit extremely useful resources. Do the risks of a student potentially watching a music video that contains a woman in a bikini outweigh the benefits that a resource such as YouTube can provide? There are SOOOO many useful videos such documentaries, news clips, etc. that make YouTube an extremely valuable learning tool. In addition, students that are designing presentations will have to ability to embed these videos directly into their PowerPoint documents and even upload to their videos to share with the fellow students. It is extremely frustrating that pessimistic, closed-minded -- NON-teachers -- make the decision to filter these resources and not even realize that they are depriving the students of an incredible learning tool. I am glad to hear that there are some progressive districts out there such as yours and it is my hope that this is the beginning of a trend and not a rare occurrence.

Marcia Lewis

1/7/2012 07:50:13 am

I think the key to harmony on this issue is for all to grasp that both sides of this debate have merit. No good guys...no bad guys...just good, caring educators sharing a difference of opinion for the common purpose of maximizing the education experience. There are a lot of things that we can all agree on. To name just four:
1. There is an immense number of outstanding resources available on these sites and on the Internet as a whole.
2. There is an immense amount of counterproductive, school-inappropriate media available as well.
3. There are students that will seek the appropriate resources and use them constructively.
4. There are students that....will not.
Given that we can all agree that these for statements are true, we can now apply this dynamic to an unending list of nearly every advance and innovation in history, including the pen, the knife, the gun....on and on all the way back to "fire." Nearly everything that has ever been invented for noble purposes has found itself in the hands of abusers that reassign its function to one that is slightly (or grossly) less respectable and productive.

As a society, we have overwhelmingly embraced a philosophy of accepting the good with the bad in regard to innovation. We didn't stop cooking with fire because someone got burned by it. We didn't stop building and driving cars the moment someone was killed in one.
Yes...the Internet can be a powerful tool and a dangerous weapon. It can be used to enlighten but also to mislead. It can focus a room full of students but it can also distract them.
My personal opinion is that we should refuse to "throw away the baby with the bath water." That we should accept that the Internet is here to stay and that, luckily, there appears to be a lot to be gained by its presence. Once we can all agree on this...once we can lay to rest the issue of whether or not to fight this unstoppable force and accept its arrival, we can get on with the business of promoting its many features and benefits.
The Internet is swelling around us in every direction like an ocean swallowing up an island. We can all join in a futile attempt to stack sandbags to stop the swell...but I think our time and effort is far better spent teaching our students to swim.

Alex Veltz

1/7/2012 08:31:47 am

I think Marcia makes excellent points in her post regarding the need for unfiltered internet access for students. School districts that opt to train their students to utilize a limited version of this vast resource are performing a huge disservice to their students. The internet is arguably the greatest development of mankind and to remove one of its greatest tools in YouTube is irresponsible. I understand that YouTube may contain some content unsuitable for students, but as Marica mentions, “we didn't stop cooking with fire because someone got burned by it.” Similarly, we should not limit this remarkable resource just because there is the possibility that students will access inappropriate content. There is also something to be said for the old adage “you want what you can’t have.” In reference to quote, if we provide students with full internet access, there is a greater chance that they won’t misuse the privilege since they will not want something that they can’t have -– because they have it all.

Garth

1/7/2012 09:09:04 am

First, thanks for reading Marcia and Alex. It is great to see ideas from others. I agree with you both, you have made many great points. I see your arguments and understanding your thinking. I am the same way. I understand the "problems" of the wide-open web, but our goal as educators is to teach children how to be productive citizens. They have to learn how to navigate the web, like a fire, so they can accomplish things on their own in a safe manner.

I had a parent ask me about why I teach so many computer skills during my history class. After I explained what I was doing, he said "Oh the Digital Humanities". He is a professor at Case and had just spent three days at a conference learning skills his seventh grader already knows how to do. The tide is rising, are we doing all we can to help our kids swim to a quality life?

Again thanks for posting your comments.

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1/10/2012 01:53:14 pm

while limiting our opportunities as educators to be... well educators.

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7/10/2013 04:32:51 pm

Internet now became common among most of the people across the world. I believe there is no need of any age limits for using Internet. But kids should be prevented from using bad websites. These habits should be taught from the school itself. I am against blocking Internet on schools and I totally agree with your views on this subject. Thanks for the article and keep up writing.

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An Unfiltered Look at Education

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