Kathryn Whitehouse
Luhtala, M., Svec, D. (2012). A tale of two students. Why acceptable use policies make such a difference. American Libraries 41, ⅞. p.48.
Luthala
and Svec provide an A/B comparison of the high school experience for a
student who benefits from a school with a progressive policy of open
access to wifi and internet based content, and a school that bans
devices and imposes significant firewalls that deprive students and
educators of utilizing social media, blogging and micro blogging, video
and photo uploading, and collaborative projects. Not only is there no
investment in tools tailored for educational settings, even free tools
such as Skype, Google+, Facebook, and Twitter are forbidden. So what is
the result? The savvy student has received an education in digital
citizenship, is practiced in information seeking and gathering tools
utilized in the real world and at universities, and has created a
responsible digital persona. The other student, deprived of all access,
is at considerable disadvantage in the college admissions process, and
is less equipped to be an effective and independent seeker of
information in college and in the job market.
The
authors say “access to learning is an intellectual freedom issue, and
many schools are denying students access to critical modern day learning
tools.” I would clarify or even expand that point and say this lack of
access represents inequitable access to
basic information. To me, it is no different from offering library
books that are useless, dirty, inaccurate, superseded, and irrelevant to
the curriculum while not investing in new titles.
Sadly, both circumstances are chronically evident in my children's school
district. If you have experience in successfully convincing your IT administrators that your post graduate degrees in information science does in fact qualify you to determine what level of internet access you can administer on behalf of your students, I would enjoy reading of your success could learn from you.
My first try at this! Thank you for reading. I'll try to keep my original posts short and sweet.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Kathryn. I agree that it's a tough issue in school environments. We are charged with educating the students but also in not exposing them to undue risks. We tend to compare social media access to field trips. We don't get special permission for any activities that happen inside the class and the same is for anything done within closed, internal school networks. If we take the students out of the school (physically or digitally) we make sure that the parents are informed and the trip is scaffolded in such a way that any potential risks are mitigated. Of course age and experience of students have to be considered as well. A grade 2 student isn't likely to have the skills and maturity to deal with an open blog or Facebook account, while, by grade 12, we should have done our jobs well enough that our students can operate in an intelligent and independent manner.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your explanation. I remember from my 263 class the teachers who complained how their restricted internet access blocked out all the cool blogging and digital book trailers we had created and posted on places like Vimeo, Voicethread, and Youtube. Most of the feedback I hear locally comes from exasperated teachers who have useful tools getting shut down.
DeleteI guess what is missing from my understanding is that I can't see when the students at my kids' school would get up to mischief. The opportunity for abuse is obviously there, but I can't help wonder if the threat is over-stated. Computer lab is once a week and supervised by an extremely qualified tech teacher. (there are no drop-in open hours). The pathetic iMacs in the library can barely make it to the OPAC. But the teachers with their smartboards are really thwarted in integrating emerging technology into their lessons.
Again Marc, I appreciate your explanation. It fills things out nicely from the pieces I hear.
I have the same arguments with my IT department. In their ideal (corporate history) backgrounds everything would be locked down as tight as a drum. In the end, the important question is around what we hope to achieve with our use of technology. If we stick with the model that a school has walls and bells, then why would you need social networking? In that model, everything that you need to do can be achieved in a closed virtual space. In many of those instances, you don't even need a virtual space.
DeleteIf the model for a school is devoid of walls and is not restricted by an 8am-3pm bell schedule, then the opportunities for learning open up. When we enter into discussion with our IT departments about why we need to turn off the filters and allow Facebook into the classroom, we need to be able to state clear pedagogical goals in a way that provides the scaffolding for the students in the technological environment. We also have to be able to answer the question "What does technology tool X allow the students to do that they couldn't do before?" I really don't think that this thinking is anything different than what should have been doing all along. We don't take kids on field trips "'cause it's fun." We don't buy a new textbook "'cause it's shiny." We have clear, justifiable reasons for doing all of these things.
I believe we should be guides to the internet while we can. My last school removed all filters from the internet because we had graduates return from university and tell us they were overwhelmed by all of the freedom once they were at university. The school still blocks Facebook so it is not a totally open environment.
ReplyDelete
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Lots of useful websites are blocked by my school district's Internet filters. As a result, I just try to focus my energy on all the great alternative sites that aren't blocked at my middle school library. For example, Facebook is blocked but Edmodo is not, and Edmodo looks just like Facebook but it is much safer and school-friendly.
ReplyDeleteKathryn,
ReplyDeleteI agree with your earlier comment--about how the old Macs barely make it to OPAC--our technology is so bad it doesn't even support google chrome--it would be nice if they could spend less time worrying about what the kids were searching for and more time worrying about computers that work and work efficiently.
jaymi marie
It seems that there should be a way for schools to "unblock" websites for teachers by request. That way students and teachers can be allowed to use the sites and the tools that they need. I used to work at a high school and I was able to access blocked websites by request, and the filters for teachers blocked less than they did for students. This doesn't address the bigger issue, but it may be a start for parents and administrators to see the benefits of incorporating more digital and social media tools.
ReplyDelete