"Swimming pools can be dangerous for children. To protect them, one can install locks, put up fences, and deploy pool alarms. All of these measures are helpful, but by far the most important thing that we can do for one's children is to teach them to swim."
-National Research Council, Youth, Pornography, and the Internet
My Opinion/Experience
Just like the above picture states that "Technology is a given not a debate." I believe that 100% especially with the amount of information you can find on the Internet. The Internet is giving you access to anything you can think of 24/7 365 days a year. As an educator it is important to teach students to be good digital citizens with the amount of media and access these students have today. The Internet is a crucial part of their everyday lives. The Internet is full of inappropriate places for students but if you teach them how to be a good digital citizen that will cut down on misuse.
I can see the benefits of filters especially at schools but I can also see the draw back of it first hand. Filters in our school really are beneficial especially with a 1:1 of iPads. We pull reports at least once a week of things students try and search that are not appropriate luckily our filter blocks it so they can't actually see it. We use Lightspeed as a filtering system. Students are required to log in to the internet using their username and password before going to any website. If a site they are trying to get to is blocked it comes up with a blue screen and says "Sorry (insert website) is not currently accessible because it is categorized as (why it is blocked. EX: gambling)." Now administrators and teachers have more access to websites than students. And we try and unblock websites as teachers request them but it doesn't always happen right away.
One of the drawback from having filters at school is that teachers and students have different access. So teachers can find great website on their iPad at home come to school the next day and have their students try that same website and it could be blocked. The technology department might not be able to unblock the website that day so then the teacher has to scramble and find another website or change the whole lesson. As a technology integration specialist I hate to see this happen because it has taken awhile to have the teachers feel so comfortable with technology and want to use it.
Social media is becoming huge at our school. We recently started a corporation wide Facebook page to share exciting things that are happening at our school. I also got all of our administrators to join the world of Twitter to share information and so they can have a personal learning network(PLN). Teachers are now making Twitter accounts for their classes to share what they are doing as well. Which is so exciting but they are wanting their students to join. Right now we have all social media blocked for students, the technology department has already said they won't be allowing access to the students. Could this hurt the students? I don't think so right now because if they have a personal device they still could have access.
The future students are going to be so immersed in technology its going to be hard for them to turn off their devices. I believe filters will always have a role in technology to keep them safe, but I can see in the future the filtering systems becoming a little more relaxed because technology is so prevalent. Students are going to be using technology since they are basically born so as they grow up you would hope that they learn how to search and become good digital citizens which should happen second nature but also reinforced in schools.
I can see the benefits of filters especially at schools but I can also see the draw back of it first hand. Filters in our school really are beneficial especially with a 1:1 of iPads. We pull reports at least once a week of things students try and search that are not appropriate luckily our filter blocks it so they can't actually see it. We use Lightspeed as a filtering system. Students are required to log in to the internet using their username and password before going to any website. If a site they are trying to get to is blocked it comes up with a blue screen and says "Sorry (insert website) is not currently accessible because it is categorized as (why it is blocked. EX: gambling)." Now administrators and teachers have more access to websites than students. And we try and unblock websites as teachers request them but it doesn't always happen right away.
One of the drawback from having filters at school is that teachers and students have different access. So teachers can find great website on their iPad at home come to school the next day and have their students try that same website and it could be blocked. The technology department might not be able to unblock the website that day so then the teacher has to scramble and find another website or change the whole lesson. As a technology integration specialist I hate to see this happen because it has taken awhile to have the teachers feel so comfortable with technology and want to use it.
Social media is becoming huge at our school. We recently started a corporation wide Facebook page to share exciting things that are happening at our school. I also got all of our administrators to join the world of Twitter to share information and so they can have a personal learning network(PLN). Teachers are now making Twitter accounts for their classes to share what they are doing as well. Which is so exciting but they are wanting their students to join. Right now we have all social media blocked for students, the technology department has already said they won't be allowing access to the students. Could this hurt the students? I don't think so right now because if they have a personal device they still could have access.
The future students are going to be so immersed in technology its going to be hard for them to turn off their devices. I believe filters will always have a role in technology to keep them safe, but I can see in the future the filtering systems becoming a little more relaxed because technology is so prevalent. Students are going to be using technology since they are basically born so as they grow up you would hope that they learn how to search and become good digital citizens which should happen second nature but also reinforced in schools.