I have always been an advocate of not blocking, but rather educating children to make good decisions when it comes to websites they access. I have also been known to say that if students are constantly being filtered, then when they don’t have a filter in their life they won’t have the skills to make informed decisions about what websites are good and which aren’t. With that said, I believe it is a fine line. Our schools have to be a safe environment for all, but they also have to include education about what is out there and exposure to a variety of social media so students can be successful in their digital world. Now that part of my job is assisting teachers with unblocking websites that are instructionally sound, I have had to reevaluate my ideas and how they can jive with this new role. With that said, I have come up with the following process.
When deciding what to block, and what not to block, there are several questions that need to be asked.
1. What does the law say? In the U.S. we have several laws that require schools to have filters. CIPA (Children’s Internet Protection Act) is tied to e-Rate funding by the federal government. CIPA requires that schools filter websites that are obscene, shows child pornography, or is ‘potentially harmful to children’.
2. Who is making the decision of what to block and what not to block? Has the decision become a technician’s decision or an instructional educator’s decision? Don’t get me wrong, our techs are amazing, but they don’t know what is an educationally sound website and what isn’t. (and quite honestly they don’t want to be the one making the decision) It is important that the person making the decision is looking at educational purpose, as well as content and safety of the site.
3. How are they making the decision? This is certainly something I have been working on since I am the first step for teachers who want sites unblocked. Here are the steps I take to check out a site.
- What is the instructional value of the site? How can this site improve learning? (Teachers send me this information with the website url.)
- What kind of ads are there on the site? Are they appropriate for students to see?
- What kinds of links are within the site? (This involves looking at the way the site is organized)
- If I put inappropriate words into the search feature within the site, does anything come up?
- What is the instructional value of the site? How can this site improve learning? (If there are any red flags from numbers 2-4 I ask myself: Is there another site that would fulfill the educational goal and be more appropriate for students to use?)
Notice I begin and end with the same question, because I do believe that is the most important part. Of course there are times that I can’t unblock a site due to inappropriate material. In that case I do my best to try and find a better alternative for the teacher who requested the site. Sometimes I would like to have more control over how our filtering software works, but that is another exploration for another day.
There has been some interesting conversations lately on this topic, here are some of the posts and resources on filtering:
Web 2.0 Fuels Content Filtering Debate: Great discussion on how dynamic filtering can allow more flexibility, as well as the importance of instructional input as to what to block and not block.
Mr. Administrator, Tear Down this Firewall! Great perspectives from teachers, administrators, and techies.
Don’t, Don’t, Don’t vs Do, Do, Do Great blog post about what we should be doing instead of blocking.
1 thought on “To Block, or Not to Block, that is the question…”