I probably write about this too much. I hear from multiple school districts about issues they’re dealing with. Some district leaders are trying hard to filter as little as possible, believing that most of the underlying access issues are not related to technology. Other districts have been the victim of an unfortunate event that brings this topic to the forefront and inevitably leads to more focused filtering.
This is just a quick entry to “take the temperature” of what’s out there. To get this information, I simply entered a very general phrase regarding internet filtering into a search engine and reviewed a few of the top results:
* Good blog entry by Wesley Fryer, who helps organize a free K-12 online conference. Lots of good comments and links in this blog entry. As he puts it, “…it’s hard to learn to swim without getting wet.” I got caught up in looking at links within links and ran across a reference to “The Death of Common Sense“, which is a good book that looks at some examples of how the fear of litigation has altered our behavior.
* An EdWeek blog entry that mentions a North Dakota example where educators are pushing for less-restrictive filtering policies.
* A very telling quote/blog entry featured on Scott McLeod’s “Dangerously Irrelevant” blog.
* A brief question (and lots of good discussion) on the Classroom 2.0 forum.
These were on the first page of my search. I feel like that many of my districts have learned that “the more you block, the more you will be asked to block.” Some users have been conditioned to assume that the tech department is (or should be) the “Internet police.” Lately, I’ve heard from a few who lament the number of sites they’re asked to unblock.
It’s interesting to see how this evolves, especially in a society where the pace of technological enhancements far exceeds that of internet filters, knowledge of users and educational policies in general.