Comments on: Policies getting in the way http://www.teach42.com/2007/07/05/policies-getting-in-the-way/ Education and Technology by Steve Dembo Sat, 11 Oct 2008 05:42:32 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: chris champion http://www.teach42.com/2007/07/05/policies-getting-in-the-way/#comment-75642 chris champion Thu, 05 Jul 2007 23:48:46 +0000 http://www.teach42.com/2007/07/05/policies-getting-in-the-way/#comment-75642 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 :-) 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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