Teachers As Filters

Michael Kaechele from Michigan writes the blog Concrete Classroom and has an wonderful blog post called Teachers as Filters.  As Mitch Wagner, for Computer World’s Tool Talk writes in a post titled A Simple Fix for Internet Censorship in Schools. Mitch states:

Schools and libraries are hurting students by setting up heavy-handed Web filtering software that block access to potentially educational sites. Instead, educators should trust teachers and librarians to oversee schools Internet access, says Craig Cunningham, a professor at National-Louis University.

I teach a class in the College of Education called Technology for Teaching and Learning to pre-service teachers.  Unfortunately, my students  most often see extreme filtering in the schools they do internships.  In my class, I expose to them all kinds of cool stuff they can be doing in their classrooms and curriculum to integrate the use of technology.  But sadly, they rarely witness examples in the real classrooms.

The filtering has really gone to extremes.

What happened to TRUST!  Teachers are obviously trusted to teach the kids, and apparently not trusted to decided what is appropriate when it comes to using the internet in their classrooms.  I know when my kids were old enough to drive, I did not just hand them the keys and say go, I sat beside them and taught them how to drive and navigate the highway safely. Hmm….. imagine that, teach them!

I encourage you to read Michael Kaechele solution.

Related posts:

1. Alfie Kohn on What to Look for in a Classroom
2. If you don’t get Creative Educator magazine, you should!
3. When rethinking the school itself…by Ira Socol
4. Old ways, new challenges from Box of Tricks
5. Should schools test teachers for tech proficiency before hiring them?
6. Two New School Policies: Cell Phones, iPods Okay In Classroom
7. From Free Technology for Teachers Blog by Richard Bryne

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