To filter or not to filter....

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Permalink Reply by Brian Mull on March 17, 2010 at 4:16pm

I would be very weary about completely turning off the filter. There is a lot of really bad stuff out there that I don't really want students of any age seeing. For me, it's not a matter of "students will run across this one day so we might as well be here to guide them." It's a matter of it just not being appropriate. I would run the same filter in my house (which i do) even if I didn't have a child in the house. I just don't want to deal with it.

That being said, being open to outside tools and information is great, and I would encourage you and your school to be open to the possibilities. At the same time, I encourage your school to come up with regular opportunities for students to use various sites for work in school. Just opening things up is not enough. As you mentioned, teaching is the other half of the equation. I think this is the best way to prepare good digital citizens.

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Permalink Reply by Kelley Schwartz on April 22, 2010 at 2:53pm

Hi Rick,

We don't filter at all- it is a board policy not to, we believe in teaching responsible digital citizenship and emphasize classroom management. Truthfully, it is working out beautifully. I think because it is open the temptation to do something "forbidden" has withered away.

Our greatest challenge now is how to take the fullest advantage of being open and unfiltered because there are so many possibilities! :)


Kelley

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Permalink Reply by Nica Waters Fleming on May 4, 2010 at 10:21am

At our school we went back and forth on this issue. At first I felt that, as a school, we it would be more responsible to filter thereby protecting our students from inappropriate material. Then after a great deal of thought it made sense that it was being more responsible not to filter and, as the guides to student learning, use non-filtering as a learning opportunity. Inappropriate content exists, whether we want to be bothered with it or not. I feel it is more responsible to help students face inappropriate material and guide them through the process of questioning the content what they may discover and will definitely be exposed to at some point. We are fooling ourselves if we think that not facing it makes it non-existent.

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Permalink Reply by Casi Houck on May 8, 2010 at 10:04pm

What a debatable issue! Our district uses filters, although when it comes to blogging, wikis, and podcasts, I am definitely a novice, so I am not sure how extensive our filters really are. In a text I am reading for a class, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, the author Will Richardson suggests having districts block only some of the large Weblog sites like blogspot.com or xanga.com or myspace.com. This of course is a double-edged sword, as millions of questionable sites will be blocked from student access; however, this also eliminates many appropriate sites.

I was wondering if your district requires parents to sign a permission slip or letter explaining the terms and conditions of the project and how to utilize sites appropriately. If so, do you think removing the filters completely will result in an increase of parents NOT willing to sign a permission slip for their child? Also, when a student does not have written permission to publish on the Internet, etc., what modifications do you make for their assignments?

Thanks for addressing this issue,
Casi

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Permalink Reply by George King on June 22, 2010 at 2:12pm

So what does your "responsible digital citizenship" look like? Does it include some type of student training/inculcation?

Kelley Schwartz said:

Hi Rick,

We don't filter at all- it is a board policy not to, we believe in teaching responsible digital citizenship and emphasize classroom management. Truthfully, it is working out beautifully. I think because it is open the temptation to do something "forbidden" has withered away.

Our greatest challenge now is how to take the fullest advantage of being open and unfiltered because there are so many possibilities! :)


Kelley

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Gentner on July 14, 2010 at 8:24am

My District uses filters but is very open to fulfilling specific requests for sites that teachers want to use.From request to open site can usually be done within 30 minutes (often less). I do not think we would ever open up EVERYTHING, but knowing that I can get it open quickly and easily if I need to get to a site either for students to use or for staff development, seems to be working for me.

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Permalink Reply by Debbie Kelley on August 30, 2010 at 9:30pm

What types of filters do you recommend?

Brian Mull said:

I would be very weary about completely turning off the filter. There is a lot of really bad stuff out there that I don't really want students of any age seeing. For me, it's not a matter of "students will run across this one day so we might as well be here to guide them." It's a matter of it just not being appropriate. I would run the same filter in my house (which i do) even if I didn't have a child in the house. I just don't want to deal with it.

That being said, being open to outside tools and information is great, and I would encourage you and your school to be open to the possibilities. At the same time, I encourage your school to come up with regular opportunities for students to use various sites for work in school. Just opening things up is not enough. As you mentioned, teaching is the other half of the equation. I think this is the best way to prepare good digital citizens.

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Permalink Reply by Brian Mull on August 31, 2010 at 11:07am

I have been very impressed with what I have heard about the filter Lightspeed Systems produces. It's highly manageable, protects mobile computers off and on campus, and has a special feature that gives students access to approved YouTube videos and other Web 2.0 material within an area called My Big Campus. I encourage you to take a look at the demo.

http://www.lightspeedsystems.com/resources/Lightspeed_TTC_Demo.html

Of course with any filter in a school, I think it is important that we trust teachers enough to give them the ability to override the filter as needed. Having teachers wait minutes, hours or days to have someone else approve a request to override a filter just isn't acceptable. Teachers need access to the material they need when they need it.

Debbie Kelley said:

What types of filters do you recommend?

Brian Mull said:

I would be very weary about completely turning off the filter. There is a lot of really bad stuff out there that I don't really want students of any age seeing. For me, it's not a matter of "students will run across this one day so we might as well be here to guide them." It's a matter of it just not being appropriate. I would run the same filter in my house (which i do) even if I didn't have a child in the house. I just don't want to deal with it.

That being said, being open to outside tools and information is great, and I would encourage you and your school to be open to the possibilities. At the same time, I encourage your school to come up with regular opportunities for students to use various sites for work in school. Just opening things up is not enough. As you mentioned, teaching is the other half of the equation. I think this is the best way to prepare good digital citizens.

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