Filters? A problem of complacency?
Oct 17th, 2009 by Cathy Nelson
I shared this blog post recently with SCASL friends, and felt the need to keep this conversation stirred up. Why? Because the gut reactions to the recent call to arms, action plan, finger wagging, or “state of current school library” address (pick one that aligns with your opinion — you’re entitled to it) recently posted in the October 2009 School Library Journal (read it here–written of course by two librarian buddies Joyce Valenza and Doug Johnson.) (Note: I personally see it as sort of an instrument or gauge to measure my success as a 21st Century Librarian.) Still more see it in other ways.
Push Back
If we as LMS’s don’t push back and advocate for leniency where the filtering is concerned, that will never happen. There are very few groups in our educational communities pushing this agenda, and far too many teachers don’t feel they have the power to push it (tho in reality most principals listen to the cries of teachers before the listen to any LMS or tech specialist. Don’t forget many of us are singletons in our buildings.)
Complacence?
Main Entry: com·pla·cencePronunciation: \kəm-ˈplā-sən(t)s\Function: nounDate: 15th century1 : calm or secure satisfaction with oneself or one’s lot : self-satisfaction
2 obsolete : complaisance
3 : unconcern
Actually, I think the biggest problem at hand is complacency among educators in general. They are allowing a segment of professionals (the IT network people) who fit in like a square peg in the school community to be the deciding factor of good and bad. (When do they interact with students? Try never, at least in my 24 years of experience!) This heavy-handed decision is leveled based on policies that are seemingly purposefully kneejerk or written based on worst case possible scenarios (i.e. because CIPA and how technology/internet access is funded in schools.) Keep the board members and adminstrators uninformed, and nothing else matters. And as I understand it, this is more the norm than the exception in k12 public schools. (Note: I realize that is not true everywhere, but again it’s more the norm than the exception–especially it seems in South Carolina.)
Why complain? After all, I am among the lucky few…
Considering that, I feel blessed that I have now worked in three school districts where I had no problem getting sites opened upon request. For me, it has all been in how the request is presented, with lesson plans that show goals and objectives grounded in our state standards, nets, and more. I will continue this brave (and sometimes lonesome) battle. But I am angry for the masses out there who do not have the luxury of getting portals opened, even if only a small crack and only for a temporary time limit. This IS an issue of intellectual freedom. Rights are being infringed here.
So, are educators part of the problem?
"Oh well, I'll look for a different link."
How can any of us educators feel we measure up with the status quo regarding filters? I used to think filters were not for protection, but rather for lazy educators who rely on the filter to guide their practice. Now I think it’s more of a direct reflection on educators’ complacent attitude to accept filtering as just the way things are. My goal is to continue advocating to “just say no” to blanket filtering to the degree it is done. Schools can be compliant with CIPA and other rules without shutting us all out of information that helps us remain relevant to our students.
Stepping down off soapbox.
Image: ‘complacent‘
www.flickr.com/photos/78837989@N00/2345922796
“complacence.” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009.
Merriam-Webster Online. 17 October 2009
<http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/complacence>
I don’t know if it’s complacency or not. Maybe it’s that they are weary of the fight. Or, they’re too busy to worry about it. Or, it’s a good excuse not to have to learn all the new stuff. I don’t know. But, when a school blocks the Smithsonian’s site due to nude paintings I think the insanity has gone too far.
Yes I’m sure your idea is probably part of it too. I know. Let’s campaign for the librarian to be in charge of the filter!! But only after they measure up according to that SLJ article written by Doug and Joyce!!
Cathy,
When you feel most alone in this battle, you can count on me for moral support. Keep fighting for what’s best for the students … not what’s easiest for the techies.
And if nothing else, when you don’t know the answer, model a an alternative … just say, “Let’s try it!” … rather than “No!” http://snipurl.com/sko62
Amen to that. I will not take a “no” laying down.
“‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ is the slogan of the complacent, the arrogant, or the scared. It’s an excuse for inaction, a call to non-arms.” ~Colin Powell
Cathy, I think you hit the nail on the head. I get so frustrated when people complain about the filter issues but then take no constructive action to educate the decision makers about the resources we want unblocked.
Just this week, I had to spend some time making a case for a tool I wanted unblocked so that students could access a powerful social bookmarking and sharing tool. I thought it was important enough for my students that I took the time to compose a professional letter of request complete with links of articles the outlined the educational uses of this tool and an explanation of how it was endorsed by AASL on their Top 25 Websites for Teaching and for Learning, which included a great explanation of how the tool was tied to one of the 21st Century Standards for Teaching Learning. I took time to explain how I planned to use it and why it was important to our research project. I even offered to go to the district office and do a demonstration of the tool.
Because of the efforts I made, I fully expect the tool will be unblocked next week. Was it about me? No–these efforts were made to help my students. At the end of the day, we need to remember that our efforts are for our students and providing them equitable access to information.
The era of NCLB has bred an era in K-12 education of fear, conformity, and silence, qualities that have led to a sense of complacency or helplessness. Inquiry and purposeful thought in both teachers and students have been squashed in favor of uniformity and lower level thinking. The focus on testing and grades has marginalized a focus on learning.
We as educators must speak up and take our classrooms and libraries back. For the sake of our students, and I believe our country’s future, we must speak out and create a chorus of resistance to the policies we know are killing education.
Buffy Hamilton
School Library Media Specialist
Creekview High School
Canton, Georgia
YES! to all of the above responses. I’ll “amen” Mr. Gates’s comment that most of us are tired of fighting the powers that be for access – as we’re almost always on the losing side of the battle. You know my situation so I wont go into detail. But that is why I can’t just ask for something to be unblocked by the IT department. I must go the extra mile as Buffy has outlined in her comment. Link the site to standards and show how it will improve student engagement and achievement. Take it up the chain of school administration (Principal, Area Superintendant, Area Council, School Board), not just to the IT department. If more folks besides the IT department come on board, the more pressure IT has to loosen up and/or can’t say no to the request!
I do think this needs to be a call to arms for SCASL and for the State Department of Education. It would help mightily if they had a list of items that should MUST be unblocked (such as Edublogs, Wikispaces, PBWorks, Voicethread, etc.) and backed up by the Dept. of Ed. Maybe if they’d adopt the ones on the AASL Top 23 Websites for Teaching and Learning it would be a start.
Sending your response to M. Alewine –> I do believe she mentioned at SC EdTech some sort of organized attempt to get a statement from the SDE about sites which should not be blocked in SC public schools. Hope that’s okay Heather! May as well be, she often reads this blog too.
I have long been arguing that complacency is our worst enemy and we do it to ourselves. ROck on!
Great discussion here, and such a well-written post, Cathy!
And Buffy, great example of using the standards to support your students–wow!
I do think people just get tired of asking. I also think from the teacher’s vantage point–the IT person is some person in the “sky” so to speak and they don’t necessarily feel empowered to ask them, and many districts have no process for handling complaints either, so no one knows what to do when they hit the roadblocks. (that’s true in our district and it’s often up to the librarians or techs to ask).
I’ve been advocating for a filter committee–just like a book selection committee works to consider books that have been challenged, I think we should have a group that works on filtering issues. I know sometimes the sole IT person may feel beleaguered or like they are responsible if something slips by. When you work with a committee, there is more protection for everyone involved!
So not only are decisions better, but it’s a better safeguard for those making the decisions. I also frankly think these decisions should be in the hands of the curriculum department and NOT the IT department.
I do think this is a battle everyone has gotten very weary of, and in my own school, I find these days I am usually the sole person even trying (along with our tech coordinator).
But I do believe when we make a concerted effort, such as Buffy describes above, it does help convey our interests and purposes. I know we had a great deal of success after several meetings with the tech department and curriculum department at the outset of the web 2.0 tools in convincing them to open the floodgates, by explaining the purpose of sites. And that has subsequently made it much easier to get sites opened up.
One thing I suppose we can hope for (sort of teasing here) is that the more of us and the more students who have iPhones, the more we can hop online and search whatever sites we want!
Sorry for all the typos–! My keyboard has something stuck underneath the keys and it’s making it hard to type!! I can spell