Thursday, June 21, 2007

To Filter or Not to Filter - Is that the question?

Some of us have found that there are useful teaching resources located on websites that are blocked within the school district. Do you think we filter too much, not enough or just about right? What would you like to see changed regarding web filtering at school? Make your argument! You may remain anonymous with your comment.

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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please remove filters to allow teachers to access all sites. Very frustrating to get blocked from legitimate sites.
RE: filtering for kids. Teach appropriate use, provide clear guidelines and consequences, supervise closely to allow access to legitimate, valid sites that get blocked with broad net that is now cast.

Unknown said...

I think it is just about right....I personally don't think the kids need access to Youtube unless the teacher is working with them on a special project. There is so much negative stuff out there that I personally don't want the responsibility if a kids sees something objectionable on Youtube and the parents get upset.

I've always been able to access anything I wanted on the spsd server so I think it is just about right.

Anonymous said...

There are times when I want to go to a web site that has been blocked. I think we need to filter out the hard core stuff, but somehow give teachers the professional discretion to access things they would find useful in their teaching.
Donna

Anonymous said...

I would really like to be able to access all sites for myself to use at school. I don't allow the students on my computer----but I understand that its an all or nothing filter situation. It is frustrating not to have access to sites that could be used in order to enrich teaching.

Anonymous said...

I think we filter too much, especially for older grades. We need to have a filter that works on a per machine basis...codes perhaps, not unlike your codes for cable tv

Unknown said...

I think that if we are to pave the way for kids we need to keep a filter. Particularly with the young elementary children just beginning, skills what is our purpose? If we do not protect the children, there may not be a place where that happens. We talk about "safe" schools. We need to consider all areas of safety.

Nancy O.

Anonymous said...

I think the filter should be lifted, but teachers should be able to block access as needed. Much like the way parents can limit cell phone numbers on phones or channels on cable. As a K teacher, I would love to limit the children to one website so that they don't get "lost". The filter often blocks emails from other educators, even my mom! Which I then have to retrieve to get.

Anonymous said...

Jeanette said...

I think it is a good idea to filter, the really bad stuff but the sites that could be educational shouldn't. It was hard in this class because trying to set up web sites, etc. should be considered educational and our students should be able to use this in a class.