This will not be a well thought-out post… more likely the general ramblings that were the basis of blogs, so let’s dive in!
In K-12 technology, there’s an ongoing and growing dichotomy (or it seems so) between those who want to be more open about Internet access and those who want to (choose your phrase) block, filter, lock it down, control, police access to the web. Both sides have valid points and I’ll try to touch on them briefly:
Open it up, we filter too much as it is – Who are you, technician and non-educator, to say what is or is not relevant to my students’ instruction? Do you not trust the teachers, degreed professionals, to properly manage their classrooms and the students’ Internet browsing habits? Filters are notorious for blocking legitimate web content along with “bad sites”. YouTube has tons of educational videos! I can use Pandora to teach about various cultures and their musical backgrounds! If the kids are spending their time on Facebook, why can’t they use that environment in school? We can’t ask them to unplug or turn off when they enter the school and expect to hold their interest! HELP!!!
Block those sites – I have a responsibility to manage the environment for everyone. Bandwidth is not unlimited. Do you know what happens when hundreds (or thousands) of simultaneous connections are made to streaming media sites? You’re the ones complaining about slow Internet access and I’m trying to help. Have you seen your Internet logs? If I open up YouTube for students, bandwidth use will skyrocket and it will all be a bunch of YouTube usage! We have teachers that are not on task and that are allowing kids to play poker. Music? Let kids use their iPod because I can’t have everyone streaming audio. HELP!!!
What we’re talking about here are resources, utilities… and opportunities! As tech leaders, we need to run with the utility analogy and help educate our educators. As tech leaders, we need to wake up to the fact that there are TONS of educational resources on a site like YouTube. What is a flipped classroom? How do I tie a Windsor knot? How do I sharpen a lawn mower blade? Can the Oak Ridge Boys sing ‘Seven Nation Army’? So, yeah… you can find pretty much anything on YouTube. It is a library. We don’t keep our kids out of the library! Sure, not every book in the world in in our library and there’s a time to be reading Shakespeare and a time to be reading Sports Illustrated.
As with any utility, though, there is a responsibility to promote proper use and there’s a need to realize that the resource is limited. My good friend Marty has convinced me that kids can often focus better on tests with instrumental music playing. We might argue over whether hundreds of concurrent music streams or iPods are the better solution, and proper resource management is a factor. Hopefully, though, we can get past the fact that all [insert here: streaming media, social networking, etc] sites are bad. True, we have to manage utilities and everyone can’t flush their toilet at the same time. Cutting peak demand can sometimes lower your electric bill.
Like your utility provider, IT staff DOES have a responsibility to help educate others and, yes, potentially help manage bandwidth as a resource. However, the school district or company as a whole needs to be involved in the conversation about the solution. The solution may be to restrict high-bandwidth content at times, and the solution may simply be to find more bandwidth for the benefit of your users. Educate and inform, but don’t make that decision in a vacuum on behalf of your users.
[Image: http://www.hometoys.com/mentors/caswell/aug02/bandwidth.htm] Ironically, a post from 2002!