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I have been following this debate and decided to weigh in. As a educational technology consultant, I travel to many districts with many different systems and policies. When I come across a district that I believe is too strict with their filters, I find that they cite a lot of reasons that just don't hold water. They will say it is because of CIPA or that they are protecting themselves from lawsuits. Then I will go to a district the very next week that has no problem giving teachers more responsibility in determining which sites to use. I call the over-filtered districts the "censored districts" and the others that share responsibility with the teachers and allow Web 2.0 the reasonable districts. If you read CIPA, it is not nearly as restrictive as some would have you believe. I did a search for "school district sued internet filter" in Google News Search and Yahoo News Search. Very little came up. And what did come up had many cases of school districts being sued to open filters, not filter more. As government employees, school districts are protected from many lawsuits that a general citizen is not. Do these searches yourself and see what I mean. ISTE can give any district many examples of reasonable districts that are not being sued or in the news any more than any other district. An example I would give of a reasonable district is Irving School District, TX. Things still get blocked there, but they have a very reasonable and fast way of dealing with it without treating teachers like they are incapable of making responsible decisions. If you give teachers more authority to unblock filters, it must also come with more responsibility. Those that abuse the systems should be sanctioned without punishing all teachers in the district, most of which are responsible professionals. Unions should allow consequences on irresponsible teachers in exchange for more authority to unblock sites for the rest of the professionals. Why punish everyone for the wrong deeds a few? Filters can do this. I have seen systems that allow teachers to temporarily unblock most any site (except porn) for 15 to 120 minutes. This unblocking automatically sends the site URL and the username (teacher) to a database that the IT department monitors. If a site is regularly unblocked, and reviewed as legitimately educational, it gets permanently unblocked. If a teachers is requesting sites they should not be (i.e. gambling), they lose their unblocking privileges and may face investigation and disciplinary actions. Knowing this, most teachers behave themselves and the students get the benefit of the best the internet has to offer. Teachers feel respected. IT departments can still monitor usage but authority and responsibility are shared with the teachers. We will never get most teachers to use the engaging and effective tools on the web is we constantly treat them like juvenile delinquents and put barriers in their way. Sincerely, Matt Kuhn Lead Consultant - Educational Technology Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) 4601 DTC Blvd., Suite 500 Denver, CO 80237-2596 P: 303.632.5628 F: 303.337.3005 mkuhn@mcrel.org http://www.mcrel.org --- Edtech Archives, posting guidelines and other information are at: http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~edweb Please include your name, email address, and school or professional affiliation in each posting. To unsubscribe send the following command to: LISTSERV@H-NET.MSU.EDU SIGNOFF EDTECH
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