Today, I'm the Bitch of Buchenwald, running a homework prison for 12 lovelies who managed to cause so much trouble in school that we were afraid to take them on a field trip. Actually, I volunteered to stay with them because I thought it would be an opportunity to catch up on work and maybe get ahead in this class.
Imagine my dismay when I discovered that, like many other sites, the state's net nanny blocked me from Wikispaces bcause of its potential for "adult oriented, illegal, and racist" materials. Of course, I'm writing this post on my school computer; in the infinite wisdom, logic, and insight of INSchools.net, Blogger is fine, even though Twitter and Facebook are verboten. The filters block sites with equal vigor from elementary through high school; after all, there are no developmental or maturational differences in those groups.
In the reality of my experiences here, the only people genuinely blocked by the nanny are teachers; students know a variety of ways around them. So is in loco parentis just loco? And who are these mysterious censors making these decisions on our behalf?
I know that economics drives the decision for most schools; to be eligible for state-funded internet service, the school must also accept the filters that accompany them.
But I also know that the real impact of the filters is extremely random. For instance, a few years ago, an African American student who was trying to write a paper on the Klan was blocked from primary sources such as the Klan's own website, and another couldn't get to site about peanut butter (come, on, people! Peanut butter?). On the other hand, spam emails offering me Viagra make it through regularly, and I'm still reeling from the results of a search for a recipe by "The Two Fat Ladies."
Nobody is opposed to protecting kids, but isn't it more important that they learn to protect themselves? And isn't that really the role I need to fulfill as I try to teach them genuine information literacy? Working with the filters is a little like trying to teach them to cook without being able to take them to the kitchen.
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If it makes you feel any better, the little darlings I took around were pretty well behaved on their tour. :)
ReplyDeleteThat's because the hard core problems were with me, but nevertheless, good to know.
ReplyDeleteI am in the situation of having the ability to get to Wikispaces at school, but we were told not to use it because we don't have "control" of what the kids post. They might post something "bad", and we wouldn't see it until after someone else might see it. I don't see how that is different from a poster that a kid could make. Also, it makes me wonder why we have the kids and parents sign the AUP each year. I don't think I will ever understand the inner workings of an administrator's mind.
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