Blocking blogsites

At Assorted Stuff, Tim Stahmer chimes in on the growing movement of schools blocking blogsites like blogspot.com.

Banning a “long list” of blogging sites is the typical scattershot approach taken by many schools when dealing with any technology educators don’t understand. In the process, we also shut out large amounts of good information, not to mention great opportunities for learning.

Sorry, this approach will not protect kids from the real world. The best we can do is help them learn to cope with and filter for themselves all the stuff (good and bad) they find on the web.

But two of his readers have a contrary view. Patrick Ledesma:

What is missing from those who argue for the use of blogs in schools is a similar document that outlines the rights and responsibilities of student speech on and off campus. This document must be based on legal cases involving the boundaries of student speech, so if any issues involving online slander, bullying, or spread of rumors come up, schools, students, and parents have guidelines as to how to proceed. Review any of the court cases involving student speech and the Internet and you can see the difficulties schools face.

So, yes- schools must help students deal with the Internet responsibility, but to accept responsibility and get involved in gray areas without specific guidelines from county tech officials would be difficult, especially when considering the wide variety of other tasks that already stretch limited time and resources- online SOLs, inventory- cough… :-)

And Michael Guhlin says:

While no educator disagrees that students have to learn how to cope with the good and the bad, the fact is we simulate real life environments in our schools. And, the nature of education resists finely-tuned tools that can differentiate access for end users (e.g. Teacher A has completed XYZ training and therefore should get more access than Teacher B who has only done X training). It’s unAmerican to restrict access based on who you are (”Show me your papers, comrade!”), and somehow, comes across as an invasion of privacy.
That said, school districts reflect the Society they are in. Our Society still values the type of education that’s out there. Complaining about it to other educators is like asking the frog to measure and adjust the temperature of the proverbial boiling pot of water. Let’s stop criticizing education and instead challenge ourselves. Get off your rear and be a political activist!