Journal # 4- It's Time to Trust Teachers With the Internet: A Conversation With Meg Ormiston (Nets I, II, IV, V)

Schaffhauser, D. (2010, December 1). It's time to trust teachers with the internet: a conversation with meg ormiston. Retrieved from http://thejournal.com/Articles/2010/12/01/Its-Time-To-Trust-Teachers-with-the-Internet-A-Conversation-with-Meg-Ormiston.aspx?sc_lang=en&Page=1

              Teachers want to educate their students to the best of their abilities. Technology is a growing tool that is starting to take over much of society and the world around us. While technology can be intimidating, it is a great learning tool that can be very useful in education. Teachers are now instructed to implement technology in the classrooms, and this would be easy if teachers were allowed to access proper websites. Meg Ormison, a fellow educator, argues that teachers need the most access that they can get as they have been instructed to teach to the best of their abilities. Most schools issue blocks on internet access that teachers can't even work around. As much as teachers want to implement technology into the class, they have very limited resources to use.
              School computers are configured by technologists and websites that get blocked are getting blocked by people who don't even work in education. It is not fair to teachers that they do not have the proper resources they feel would be best to use in their classrooms. It is kind of hypocritical to not trust teachers with their classrooms when they were chosen to lead and be in charge of their classrooms. While it is not the best to completely unblock everything at once, eventually teachers should be able to control what they can access in classrooms. Security issues are constantly of concern which is why so many blocks are implemented in the first place. Teachers should be able to go to educational workshops to be aware of what can be a great learning tool for students and what actually needs to be blocked. People think that blocking everything altogether is the solution so that students don't have any chance at all in finding anything inappropriate. The problem with that is students and teachers are restricted to great learning opportunities. Students nowadays have smart phones and computers that don't have any blocked websites. Students also know how to work around the blocks, and teachers are left clueless. Technically, students have access to everything 24/7 that schools are trying to block. Teachers give up trying to format technology in their classrooms because everything they want to use is often blocked. It is of no use going to administration to get permission for the website because it can take up to two weeks and the answer is most often times a no. Teachers have been trusted to lead their students in their own fashion, so why not let them do it? Workshops can train teachers to implement security policies for the internet. Teachers should be allowed to do what they are instructed to do, implement technology into their classrooms.
              Technology is a vast scope of information that can be detrimental to students, but on the flip side it can provide great learning tools. Teachers who are constantly blocked from the wide range of learning tools give up because they can't access what they need to. With proper training, teachers can effectively implement technology into their classrooms with proper security measures. Teachers have been instructed to teach the class, so why hinder that?

Analysis Questions:
1. What can be done to make unblocking websites easier for teachers?
             I believe that schools have a right to block students from innapropriate websites, however there should be a system that allows teachers to configure websites to their learning activities. Teachers should be able to unblock websites for their own convenience, and monitor the students. While student computers should be blocked, teachers should be able to permit or block a website from their own computer. With technology constantly upgrading, I know it is a possible solution.
2.  Students are coming into school knowing how to configure and work around website blocks. How do we fix that?
             It is obvious that computer systems in schools need an updated security measure. It is unfortunate that no matter what we do to block innapropriate websites, students are getting information on how to work around configurations by people who input the configurations, or a third party. People need to be more aware of the information they share with students. The only way to fix this problem is to completely design a new blocking or configuration system, but some way or another the students are going to figure it out. The best thing we can do is monitor them when they are in our classrooms to the best of our abilities.
3. What are some great technology tools for teachers to use?
             Many popular websites can be useful for teachers. Youtube and Skype are two websites for example that are becomming more useful for educators. Skype is a great tool that allows students and teachers to reach out to fellow students/teachers of other countries. Youtube is starting to gain popularity from educational videos that can be watched. Blogging is also popular now, as students can gain more interaction with their fellow students and teachers. There are endless posibilities. The most important thing is that you monitor students to avoid them finding anything that may be innapropriate.