has anyone else found themselves frustrated by the amount of websites that are blocked by the filters at your job?
just as an example at my current place of employment some of the websites blocked include:
-all .mail sites
-youtube
-blogger
-all store sites
-all bank sites
-all game sites
i actually had to fight with them to get google documents unblocked since i use it for my classroom website, and am currently trying to get blogger unblocked.
i understand why much of this is blocked, some of it is to keep the kids from abusing the internet at school. some of it is because my district has a very "screw you you will do nothing but work for us" toward the staff. but much of it is just fear
and i feel that what is lost in this culture of fear and control is some of the potential that having the internet at the fingertips of our students includes.
heck, as we have been doing finals this week, and wrapping up the school year i have found myself only half able to use the class website as so many of the links are blocked at work.
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Welcome to the class Ray! You have some great insights. You need to update your profile so we know a little more about you:)
ReplyDeleteIt took me a long fight with my tech guy, as everything blocked"shopping", 'violence". etc...connected to something I teach (forensics = need for violence). Finally he gave up and gave me his level of clearance "everything but porn'. --- now I find I sometimes have to help students do research on my computer because of the lowered blocking...sigh.
ReplyDeleteGreetings Ray,
ReplyDeleteNice to "meet" you. In our school, teachers' computers are not blocked from content. It allows for us to find materials that we can use to help us teach. I can't imagine being blocked from Youtube, given its usefulness.
This is a huge frustration - I do understand the need to block some material, but I think that too many districts go overboard...and also don't trust their teachers to use good professional judgement.
ReplyDeleteAs for youtube, you can download appropriate videos for your class by using www.kickyoutube. IT is really easy to use. Let's say you want to download this youtube video (not real):
www.youtube/supersciencevideo
All you need to do is add "kick" to the URL
www.kickyoutube/supersciencevideo
and select the format that you want!
Our school has a choice on the teachers accounts that allows them to go to the blocked site. It's basically an override for the filters. I use it often, for some reason the Physics applet sites I like are blocked, so is wikipedia (but I get that). As of yet I have had no issues using the override, but of course as Eric mentioned, I am using good professional judgment.
ReplyDelete