Tuesday, March 19, 2013

A Safety Measure?


Parents, colleagues, students, community members,

If you have interacted with students since we implemented our 1to1 computer initiative in the high school this year, you surely have encountered student frustration about websites being blocked and you yourself may have encountered blocked content while using the school network. There is a concept bandied about in education blogs called Digital Citizenship or Netiquette.  Basically, this is the idea that instead of blocking social media sources, blogs, and other valuable resources online, the school makes them available while simultaneously  modeling and teaching appropriate online behavior.
                                 
There are obviously a wide range of opinions about and approaches to internet safety but the purpose of this blog post is to share with you the following: Based upon conversations with other teachers observations of and conversations with students, I have developed the opinion that the current method of internet filtering in our school is actually inhibiting student access to valuable resources, discouraging the development of self-motivated student learning and inquiry, and, perhaps the most egregious of all, creating student contempt for technology. I realize there is some strong wording in this statement, but there has to be a way of running our network that is an improvement upon the existing practices.

So, what do you think? Let’s start having this conversation in the comments below with an eye on improving our practices to lead to improved student achievement and attitudes!

Here are a couple of blogs and resources to fuel your thinking:
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