Sunday, November 16, 2008
"Stumbling Blocks: Playing it Too Safe Online Will Make You Sorry"
This article addresses the issue of blocked websites and teaching tools by school internet networks. Teachers often have trouble accessing these tools to implement into their lesson plans. The article describes the situation of one teacher who wanted to use the messages in advertisements in their lesson plan, but could not access the YouTube clips because YouTube was blocked by the district server. In order to get around this problem, the teacher had to load the clips on his home laptop and bring his laptop to campus. The article goes on to describe helpful ways to circumnavigate online barriers placed by your school district for academic reasons. Firstly, it is important to establish good rapport with the school's technological staff because more often than not, they can help you access websites that you would like to use for a lesson. The article also stresses the importance of teaching "digital citizenship." This means that instead of blocking websites in schools, it is better to teach students how to find information and to utilize the internet to its full potential in an academic way. This method means creating an atmosphere of academic information literacy, using new technology to its fullest potential while still meeting standards and giving students new and innovative ways to complete a common lesson.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
That's interesting. It raises the question of what should and shouldn't be blocked for students in school, and is YouTube a site that should be blocked? It's true that most students have access to these blocked websites at home, but should they still have access at school?
I think this is definitely an important issue in schools, but I am not sure how it can be fixed. YouTube is a very useful site for teaching many different sujects, and it is also useful for student research. It can be used academically in these ways, but it can also be abused in school by students. There are some really bad things on this site and it can be a source of major distraction for students. So how do you block the different ways the sites are used? Another thing that comes to mind when I consider this issue is free periods for students. Older students especially now how ipods or cell phones that connect to wireless internets, so what is the point in disabling and blocking certain sites online? Free periods are their time, and I feel that at a certain point, teachers cannot act as parents in these cases.
I definitely agree that teachers need to be technology-savvy, and one way I feel this could be done, besides buttering up to janitors, is an overall increase in teachers knowledge of the technological generation. They must stay updated on the technology and how to use it. This will keep them informed as to what can be helpful in their classrooms, and also keep them aware of the ways that technology can be misused, leading to more prudent and efficient blocking or disaling of things on the computer.
Post a Comment