Of all the big players in the social networking landscape, Facebook is the only one that I can honestly say that I actively participate on. After arriving home from NECC, I posted a question asking people to share their one ‘big’ takeaway from the conference. Alfred Thompson’s response was:
Bloggers will talk and talk and talk if you put them together in a room with other people.
Seriously though I took away that there are many more technology tools for education then administrative support to use.
He makes a great point that was one of my major takeaways too. With all the talk of Web 2.0, School 2.0, Teachers 2.0 and Students 2.0, who (besides Doug Johnson) is really talking about Policies 2.0?
With nearly every type of software being represented on the internet in a free, cross-platform, browser agnostic version, why aren’t more schools adjusting their filters and policies to encourage teachers and students to make educational use of these tools? If students using real world tools in a more organic fashion isn’t a good enough reason to make the switch, what about saving schools some major dollars? Wouldn’t that be a good enough reason?
I know that there isn’t any single sector that we can target that will instantly enact widespread change, but antiquated school policies can certainly serve as an inhibitor. If the tools are blocked, then teachers won’t even have the opportunity to make use of them.
Given that we’re still in the heart of summer break, this is a perfect time to start revisiting your school’s policies and see if they properly reflect the environment you want to your teachers to promote. Do they really address the needs your school has in 2007? Are they structured in a way that allows teachers to prepare students for the real world? If not, get the conversation rolling and start making some change!
Here are some links to posts and policies that you may find helpful:
How do we teach kids to cross a busy street?
Bud the Teacher’s Blogging Wiki - Examples, links and more. Contribute!
AHS Blog AUP Wiki
Youth Voices AUP
EFF’s page on Student blogging - Great info, well worth reading through.
7/5/2007
Steve,
I completely agree that the filters should be in the hands of the educators… or rather un-filtering should be a privilege that educators can assert. In fact, if you actually READ the Child Internet Protection Act, it provides for just this:
“it may be disabled for Adults for… lawful purposes”
http://www.universalservice.org/sl/applicants/step10/cipa.aspx
So my school just purchased a filter service from 8e6. It provides VLAN support with differential filters (with the option of blocking time wasters and bandwidth wasters for students) UNLESS a teacher overrides it. I’ve found that our district blocks not just inappropriate content, but any content that MIGHT be inappropriate one day in the future. Many of these sites are great Web 2.0 resources. I’m happy to say that I can at least grab the keyboard and bypass the filter for that URL or site…
Should every teacher just bypass a site? No. Think Julie Amero. But should every teacher get some basic instruction on problem areas and pitfalls on the Internet? YES.
As you said last week, Steve - we at NECC know a LOT… there are teachers in my school that don’t get it… but I can help them begin to
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