What are your views on filtering content in the classroom?
I was very interested in seeing this article or comment appear as one of the readings for eci831. Filtering has been a constant issue within our school setting. Since I started working here many sites have been banned from student use. A common complaint amongst the student population is the issue of not being able to fully research certain topics due to words that prompt a ban on the particular site that they are trying to access.
My views on filtering are the same as the comments made by Bud Hunt. Hunt states “Blocking one distraction doesn’t solve the problem of students off task – it just encourages them to find another site to distract them. Students off task is not a technology problem – it’s a behavior problem.” I remember teaching a highschool class and one of the assignments was to do reserach on a particular topic. The students were not able to access certain sites but found other ways to get there. Further to that the chat sites were blocked but a new one would be found within days. I think that its up to the teachers or instructors to manage their classrooms and to show appropriate ways of researching on the internet.
How should teachers, schools, and districts/divisions deal with issues of content filtering?
According to Hunt, “It requires that staff and students manage their technology use rather than relying on a third party solution that can never do the job of replacing teachers monitoring students.” I believe that schools and districts need to look at and rely on the teachers to fully monitor what is going on in their labs. Filtering does allow some of the monitoring to go on but sometimes to an excess. I look at the program that we have installed in our computers and get frustrated when I can even access youtube. Within our school system a policy regarding computer use needs to be set up to ensure that all staff are aware of the do’s and don’ts of computer use and the internet.
http://budtheteacher.com/blog/2009/10/03/would-you-please-block/
Great points! I think that is so true that if we block all content the students loose so much information. Students will just find different sites, we have to educated them so they know where to look. I also think that some teacher tell their students to do research on the computer, they leave them alone and don’t give them any guide lines of research on the internet. We have to look out for our students.