Posted by: anderebe on: April 7, 2010
After completing my “interview a learner” post I was really inspired by Diana Laufenberg’s thoughts but was also reminded of one thing that really bothered me. Many school divisions have put a ban on youtube, facebook and other networking sites like this. I know in my highschool it became a game to try and “outsmart” the teachers to find a way to get on these sites. As Diana said it ends up wasting so much valuable learning time as it causes teachers to have to do more patrolling the teaching.
Another problem I personally have with these bans is the fact that the students may miss out on a lot of great resources. I understand there is a lot of garbage out there but the school divisions can block all these sites should there not be a way to only block the garbage? Teachers in these school divisions do have access to these sites but do you think it is enough? I believe that the teacher can show a video or help a student collaborate but why shouldn’t the student get the opportunity to explore and make connections?
Here is my question: What are your thoughts on the bans? Do you think they are the right thing to do or do they cause a loss of learning? Can you pose any solutions?
I don’t know the answers to these questions nor do I know what is right. I do however believe some sort of change should be imposed.The video below is one that I found of a class implementing twitter and other networking sites that could be greatly beneficial to a wide variety of age groups if permitted!
April 8, 2010 at 9:04 pm
I think that there is an answer to the question that you pose. I think there’s no denying that there’s a loss of learning. Missing out on sites like YouTube, which do have videos of significant educational value, will no doubt restrict the amount of knowledge that students are able to access. Most would agree that banning websites accomplishes nothing in the end, as there are always ways around security measures.
I understand that school divisions block sites in order to keep elementary students, for example, away from obviously offensive material. I think you would find, though, that if the computer policies are laid out to students and students are mature enough to know what material they should and should not be on, that blocking of sites often isn’t needed.
I’m primarily focused with secondary education, and at the level, I don’t feel as though there should be any sites blocked. Students should be aware of appropriate computer uses and are aware that improper usage will have consequences.