I recently crowdsourced my Twitter network for their perspectives on internet blocking in schools. The above flash slideshow is a collection of their responses. A gallery of the individual tweets is here.
Taking part:
There are several ways you can contribute and collaborate to this evolving discussion:
Twitter: If you wish to contribute your thoughts on this issue, please write a 140 character response to @melaniemcbride in Twitter and I will add a screen grab of your tweet. All images are licensed with a Creative Commons share and share alike, attribution, non-commercial license. Open policy: Please contribute your thoughts and ideas to my collective-produced school internet policy document. Tags: Please tag your related resources and articles in your favourite bookmarking tool using “beyondblocking” as your tag or in Twitter using #beyondblocking. I use Diigo so you will find my collected items there. Blogposts: Please pingback this post with your bloggy response. Comment: Leave it here!
Further reading
Howard Rheingold on internet censorship and blocking (circa 1993). Annotated bookmark
Not simple! Think about age of students, amount of ethical learning they do and tech awareness/literacy of the adults showing the way
I had an entertaining hour last semester during which I tried to demo a website for the local elementary school’s parent-teacher association, but the district had blocked pbwiki.com — not even the principal was able to override it!
Obviously colaboration’s to be discouraged . . . .
I probably can’t share your slideshow at work because flickr is blocked….
Twitter Comment
Watching: “Beyond blocking: Schools v. the internet at melanie mcbride online” ( [link to post] )
– Posted using Chat Catcher
This pushes all of my hot buttons and I am more than a little opinionated about the subject. I have simply reached the point that I rarely allow myself the hope that another cool tool I’ve learned about will not be available at school, or worse that my request to unblock is ignored or shut-down outright. Since this is not my blog, I will leave it at that, and just keep trying to move my school and my district forward in any way I can.
Lisa, you are more than welcome to opine on this subject! But what I have learned since offering this presentation is encouraging: many, many principals and school admins have adopted the benefits of web2.0 and understand the potential for student and social success (versus the more negative uses most frequently cited as reasons for blocking). I spoke to one principal who strongly endorsed the need for a smarter approach that does not involve blocking. Like me, she believed the solution lies in the very heart of teaching – the teachable moment. That the web, like any other subject or issue, simply needs proper and effective scaffolding. And who better than teachers to provide it.