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District installed new Internet filter today because the other one was too much like we lived in a democracy. All blogs, including my own class blog and all student blogs on blogspot are blocked. I mean, we can’t have kids WRITING every day! What would the world come to?
Blue Skunk Blog wrote a fantastic letter to the techno-haters in the seats of power who like to control what other people can think, read, write, and view.
I discovered this filter after struggling all morning to get kids onto the laptops, which were 50% broken, and finally getting them some kind of computer access after a month of waiting due to standardized testing. So I guess no more student blogging. This should be interesting given that my broadcast journalism classes have no cameras, computers, or textbooks.
Inspired by this and Wesley Fryer’s post, I decided to compare the new filter to the Great Firewall of China. I tested as many sites as I could remember off the top of my head since I couldn’t get to any of my normal ways of bookmarking. To wit,
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Website |
People’s Republic of China |
Democratic People’s Republic of Sticking it to the Little Guy (i.e. nameless public school district in the American South) |
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Free to think? Read? Learn? View? |
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Can’t open URL |
NO |
|
|
NO |
NO |
|
|
Yahoo mail |
Can’t open URL |
NO |
|
NO |
NO |
|
|
YES |
NO |
|
|
NO |
YES |
|
|
NO |
NO |
|
|
NO |
NO |
|
|
NO |
NO |
|
|
YES |
YES |
|
|
NO |
YES |
|
|
Google documents, notebook |
?? |
NO |
|
NO |
YES (great decision, huh? |
|
|
NO |
YES |
|
|
NO |
YES |
|
|
NO |
NO |
|
|
NO |
NO |
|
|
NO |
NO |
|
|
NO |
NO |
|
|
NO |
NO |
|
|
NO |
NO |
|
|
NO |
NO |
|
|
NO |
NO |
|
|
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/ |
NO |
NO |
|
www.purevolume.com (a student asked me to test this one) |
NO |
NO |
|
Can’t open URL |
NO |
|
|
NO |
YES(but with no graphics) |
|
|
YES |
YES (but with no ads) |
|
|
http://www.thefirstamendment.org/blog/ |
NO |
NO unbelievable! |
|
YES |
NO (can’t have kids comparing the district to communist China!) |
|
|
NO |
NO |
|
|
NO |
YES (Prediction: only a matter of time. They don’t know about this one yet.) |
|
Heil!
14 responses so far ↓
1 Damian // Oct 8, 2007 at 8:32 pm
I know this isn’t funny, but your comment under 911truth.org made me spit pumpkin seeds.
Your immediate (perfectly valid) reaction aside, is there a written policy or rationale that explains these blocks? Can you appeal to anyone’s sense of reason to at least unblock the EDUCATIONAL BLOGS, for cryin’ out loud?
This is just fear of the unknown on admin’s part. Is there any possibility that you could gain audience with the decision-makers and make a case for altering the block?
2 Taylor // Oct 8, 2007 at 8:55 pm
Damian — I’m glad you got a kick out of it. I didn’t want to bring everyone completely down.
No written policy. Extreme case of unapproachable administration, and speaking to any of them is usually a mistake, but I’ll probably end up doing it anyway.
3 ken // Oct 8, 2007 at 10:56 pm
Taylor, speaking to administration is indeed quite difficult. Ours swim in a pool of brine. The odor alone makes them unapproachable.
Just out of amazing curiosity…did you make that chart today? In one sitting??? With all those nifty symbols???
Maybe you should share that post with your admin., explain that you crafted the table during work hours b/c of no blog access (presuming that Excel is still up and running), and presto! blogs reappear! computers running at a gaudy 53% operational level! and writing!
wow…writing…
what an amazing post! well done, soldier of the American South!
4 Amidst K12Online07 launch, content control wars rage on in schools » Moving at the Speed of Creativity // Oct 8, 2007 at 11:17 pm
[…] Taylor the Teacher notes with sadness that after waiting weeks to finish start of school standardized testing / benchmark testing with students, learners of all ages awoke to a new content filter at school that blocks virtually ALL web 2.0 / read/write web content sites: District installed new Internet filter today because the other one was too much like we lived in a democracy. All blogs, including my own class blog and all student blogs on blogspot are blocked. I mean, we can’t have kids WRITING every day! What would the world come to? […]
5 Taylor // Oct 9, 2007 at 7:53 am
Actually I did the post at home. The only thing I did at school was try to access sites. I wouldn’t waste THAT much work time!
6 Taylor // Oct 9, 2007 at 9:46 pm
I didn’t see until I was on a computer with Explorer what you meant by “symbols” YIKES! I am surprised you can read that.
7 dew // Oct 14, 2007 at 3:32 pm
My school is the same way. And what irritates me most is having youtube blocked. Even when I am doing a unit on French music, I can’t convince them to unblock it, so that kids can actually PLAY US THE MUSIC during their presentations. The reason? “We can’t control what they look at, so they might look at more than just the French music videos.” Oh noes! Teenagers! Might somehow! Become exposed! To youtube! I told them youtube has a rating policy for over-18 videos. I told them that the kids spend hours on youtube at home every night. But nope, if I want students playing French music with their presentations, then the students just have to illegally download music at home, burn it to a CD, and bring it to school. Or go buy the CDs. And even then, they are very wary because NO ONE BUT ME really knows what those musicians are singing in those lyrics. And obviously I have no discretion at all. And the kids have no discretion at all. Grrrr.
8 dew // Oct 14, 2007 at 3:33 pm
Oops, I was so busy ranting that I forgot to say you can ignore my email asking for your url. Obviously, I found it.
9 Taylor // Oct 14, 2007 at 7:49 pm
And yet, you can also get sued for using (or allowing them to use?) illegally downloaded music in the classroom.
The real kicker is that many students have Internet access on their phones, so if they want to look up something without the censors watching, they just use their phones, with no filter or censor or supervision at all.
One of the art teachers in my school used to use an online music program to play music while the kids created their art. No more. It’s sad. It sickens me.
PS - I didn’t realize you were a teacher.
PSS — It’s too late — I already answered your email!
10 dew // Oct 14, 2007 at 9:24 pm
I used to listen to pandora.com during my planning period, and now that’s gone, so I know how that art teacher feels.
11 Raewyn // Oct 17, 2007 at 6:04 am
How’s this for ironic. I’ve been surfing all afternoon and evening for a soundtrack that my daughter needs to fulfill an English assignment. It is a backing track to an excellent Youtube video that did the trick perfectly and would have been heavily cited in the presentation but her school has blocked Youtube from students and teachers. She has painstakingly recreated the video in a powerpoint by cutting and pasting similar images but now needs the track. Phew - the explanation has nearly killed the point…
Which is… I would not have found your excellent blog to recommend to my Information Literacy cluster group to add fuel to our movement of change, yay!
On the up side the little Secondary/K12 school that I work at, allows students and teachers free access to Youtube and some blogs.
The kids use proxy servers anyway to access any blocked blogs, so really it is only the teachers who miss out on all the fun.
12 Taylor // Oct 17, 2007 at 8:15 am
Not to mention students missing out on an adult modeling responsible & educational uses of YouTube. If they’re going to look at video, after all, it may as well be without supervision!
Thanks for reading!
13 TixRUs // May 5, 2008 at 4:55 pm
This makes me sob
14 Taylor // May 5, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Me too.
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