Teachers, Trust, Teaching and Filters
So long time readers know that I am not a fan of filtering of the Internet in schools. My wife is a librarian who enthusiastically marks Banned Books Week every year for the chance to discuss censorship with her students so its a family thing I guess. We’ve both long embraced using student visits to “bad sites” as teachable moments – as opportunities to educate students. Alas that is seldom an option at schools who accept e-rate money – like the one my wife currently teaches at. But in my opinion the worst part about filters is not losing that teachable moment but that too often filters make it hard, if not impossible, for teachers to use Internet resources as the educational tools they are.
Recently Will Richardson wrote about filters getting in the way of his educational consulting and training. One superintendent told Will that he (the superintendent) could not get the IT department to open sites for him. Even if you accept the notion of filters for students (and Will does a good job of addressing that canard in his post) shouldn’t we be able to trust the adults in the building? I mean seriously. If you have valid reasons to think that an adult is going to abuse Internet access shouldn’t you run them out of the classroom on a rail? These are people we trust with our kids after all. Teachers and administrators (btw since when do superintendents not have authority over school tech support?) should be able to get to valid educational resources.
Of course there are teachers that do abuse the trust we place in them. The same is true in every profession. But honestly is a few people stepping out of line reason to treat school superintendents like children? We need educators to have reliable access to the Internet and we need to trust them to make good decisions. Filters do not make great decision makers. I’ll never forget the day my wife told me the school filter blocked her from getting to the American Library Association ethics page? We’re blocking pages that outline and promote ethical behavior now? Come on tell me that’s a good thing.
There is a lot of good on YouTube. There is a lot of good on Google Docs. There are even valid educational uses for teachers to use email tools like Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail and others. And Skype! What a cool tool for virtual school visits. But many of these sites are blocked by many schools. Preparing students for the 21st century? Let them learn that from their peers the same ways they learn how to get drugs, porn and sex education? Wouldn’t it be better to learn good practices in school? But how are we going to do that if we can’t or will not trust teachers to act like adults.
I have to also bring in a question of mission. What is the purpose of the IT team in a school district? Take a look at this blog post by Doug Johnson. Shouldn't everyone in the school and school district see education of students as their mission? It shouldn't always be about minimizing the amount of work they have to do.
BTW What are schools going to do about the really clever teachers and students who find their way around filters and even completely around the school network. Dave Briccetti wrote a post titled Goodbye Lame School Firewalls, I have a Wireless Modem Now. You can easily see what that means! Students are clever about getting around filters but teachers don’t always have the time or technical know how to do it even for valid educational uses. The increase of wireless modems is going to be a game changer though. Scary or exciting? Probably depends on which side of the “schools need to be censors” issue you stand on.
Maybe a wireless modem is something for me to give my teacher wife and teacher son for Christmas? Yeah I’m bad. :-)
