It has been a while since I last blogged. The process of finishing my master’s has seemingly taken much longer than I had expected. Today I find myself wondering about the best way to approach filtering in a school. I can easily see the need to keep kids safe, but I am also wondering from what. In looking at my own district, I am truly beginning to see the value of integrating web 2.0 technologies into the classroom. However most of them are blocked. I control the filtering policy with input from the principals of our schools. We have pretty much stuck to the basic filtering policy as recommended by our Internet service provider with additions and subtractions to the whitelist done as issues arise. This method has always worked for us, but as I emerge from my master’s experience with a different perspective on the entire process of schools. I am left wondering is the internet a friend or a foe?
Last week I had an opportunity to attend a meeting in another school and they had kindly made a wireless network available to us. The problem was that the network was so locked down that I could not even access my email via POP or the web. As the presentation was on technology on how they are effectively using it in their schools, I wondered how such a restrictive policy was allowing teachers to push the limits of their curriculum? However, I was very sure that the school would be a very safe place for my children to access the Internet. Yet, I started to think about George Orwell’s 1984 and how the government surveillance effected the characters within it. Are we teaching students to be thinkers or followers?
A few times during my tenure in my current position I have been brought into a student discipline action to discuss how the filter works or how we could use it to better address the activity for which the student is being disciplined for. As a future principal, I know it is my job to ensure that students are educated in a safe environment. The educational technologist within me wonders about what is a safe environment is. Does CIPA tell us specifically to block sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Ning? The technology-literate principal within me wonders if allowing tools that students are generally more familiar with than the teachers is a good idea to promote classroom growth and curriculum development. I am also feeling cautious about the idea of setting up different policies for different users. Our teachers all have a laptop that does not log directly into our network (they log in locally and most of the laptops are Macs) in order to promote a better user experience, and for selective filter this would be required. Reading notes from other people in similar positions makes it appear that setting up such policies and reporting requires a significant investment of both time and money. As a smaller school district, we simply would have problems affording this. Does filtering help integrate technology or promote ambivalence towards technology?
So here I am fully able to see both sides of the argument and seeing our students caught in the middle of it (as usual). Is solving the problem as simple as just starting conversations and educating students and teachers? How does one convince the administration that might not be as knowledgeable about technology and how it is evolving? Can a school district loosen its filtering rules and still meet the safety needs of every parent? So today this is my dilemma, both as a technology director and an emerging principal.
