Get your head out of the sand!
Jan 20th, 2008 by Cathy Nelson
Do Ostriches really bury their heads in the sand when frightened? According to “Phrase Finder” this is a myth. Ostriches basically when frightened lay down and flatten their heads along the ground, so as to disguise themselves from possible predators. But this reminds me very much of how our schools and IT deal with content they block at school.
I really, really, really try NOT to write about filters and blocked content so much. After all, I am a mother of one teen-aged son, and one young adult son in college. Living w/ guys you kind of know what their world revolves around, and how easy it is to be sidetracked by less than academic content, especially online.
But it is infuriating to know that I cannot access the Nings set up at school, even though many of my PLN resides there. I must wait until I get home to actually partake of the plentiful servings of rich content and collaborative opportunities that are there! Why are they blocked? They are classified as a blog, a social network, and a forum. I am getting ready to participate in a collaborative project, and yes, I want TOTAL access 24-7. I don’t want to wait until I get home from school. This opportunity could actually lead to GLOBAL projects for classes at my school, and egads, yes, during the school day! I belong to several nings, including Classroom 2.0, TeacherLibrarian, and most recently Powerful Learning Practice for Teachers and Students. These are NOT risqué, profane-laced sites, but rather places where I can learn more, and pass the learning on to students and teachers, even at my own school. If there was ever a place to see authentic 21st century learning, the Nings I am a member of are it. And best, its members are ready to open their arms and welcome all, and can answer JUST ABOUT any question.
This has been nagging me for some time, but it has become really frothy and ready to fizz right over. You see I tried to network w/ another friend, and low and behold she wasn’t getting any of my emails b/c her email filters out all incoming mail from gmail. Now what’s with that? I know many of the EXPERTS in the field use GMail as their primary email for professional contacts. Is this district making the implied statement that only pedophiles, rapists, child-killers, and prostitutes use gmail? What about parents who use email and want to contact their child’s teacher?
Well, very soon I will be participating in a learning/leading excursion and will be charged with leading a group of newbies into the fray we know as web 2.0. Our main portal will be a Ning (called Powerful Learning Practice for teachers and students,) and my goal is to hopefully generate some collaborative projects for my school and students, and therefore we will need that portal (Ning) open. Yes folks, its time to approach IT about loosening this clamp on Nings. All blogs, nings, wikis, and social networks are not bad for kids.
Let us be the professional and offer guidance
into sites where we can teach our students to evaluate situations and circumstances and exhibit making good choices–what an authentic teaching scenario—instead of sticking our heads in the sand, like the fabled ostrich.
Image: ‘untitled‘
www.flickr.com/photos/49358150@N00/298444281
Image: ‘ostrich‘
www.flickr.com/photos/13119988@N00/213159950
Cathy,
If blocking these sites were a national policy, I could deal with it better – disagree, but cope.
But there is no consistency in my state, let alone my nation.
Arbitrary decisions are being made by…whom? Informed stakeholders, locally elected Boards of Education, individual ITs?
Our teachers are being crippled and our students are being deprived of necessary tools for learning.
Not a promising situation for our future.
diane
This is an argument that I often find myself in. I see many problems like this throughout my school system. The fact is that the “policy makers” tend to try to fix all problems with a sollution that creates another problem. Blocking sites that are important learning avenues is ridiculous.
When students are on a computer in school, there should be an adult keeping track of what content they are accessing. If students know this, they will be less likely to access inappropriate info. It basically comes down to trust. School systems do not trust the teachers and students… this is the sad state we are in.
I push the envelope every day in my school… whether it is with the use of technology or experimental lesson. I wish that I didn’t have to do this, but it is necessary for the learning of my students. I do have to constantly explain the relativity and basis behind many of my actions to the leadership. They often say… make sure you are real careful when you do that. Oh well, I don’t want to fall into the stagnate rut I see many teachers falling in.
@Woody and @Diane wish me luck as I go in to ask for the portals to be unblocked. I agree Woody just as the block can be taken as a higher up saying students are not to be trusted, on the flip side it is also a way of saying teachers cannot be trusted.
Have I ever worked with teachers that absolutely turned their classes loose in the library or computer lab. Yep, unfortunately I have. But I have run many a classes out fo the library after forbidding the “unstructured, unplanned, and activity that was not collaborated on with me” out of the library where one might say I am in charge. Most of the people who work with me understand that the library is not a free play area for the Internet. The computer labs on the other hand are not as highly observed or controlled, and therefore more taken advantage of by students and teachers I’m afraid. These labs are probably why we use filters.
I definitely agree Cathy. The controlled variable is the teacher. Teachers that put their feet up and read their e-mail while students are working, need to find a new profession. I can’t count the amount of times I see this when I pass classes in the hall. My point is that the problem can’t be fixed with bandaids. It’s easy to use money to block sites. We need to solve the problem with education.
Well said everyone. I am about to start using more computer technology in my room with a smartboard and hopefully a blog that I want students to put comments on. I am not sure though what the department have in place at present, but I have been told there are work sharepoints but I think these are still limited to within the education department. But it would be great if teachers and students could be trusted to do the right thing.
Teachers of science, foods and woodwork etc always give safetly lessons as part of their courses, other teachers using computers should include computer and internet safety and use as a normal part of their introduction.
[...] Get your head out of the sand! …and exhibit making good choices–what an authentic teaching scenario—instead of sticking our heads in the sand, like the fabled ostrich. [...]