Limited access to social networking

Hi everyone.
I'm new here, but wanted some advice...
I'm really interested in the educational implications of social networks, such as Ning. I really like the administration of the Ning community, and can see so many useful ways of using it in and out of the classroom to supplement and expand the learning experience.
Here's my problem...
Our district currently blocks all social networking (AKA "dating") sites through proxy regulations, and I'm told that if they were to unblock Ning, it would open up facebook and myspace and others as well, which would be inappropriate for students to have access to at school.
Any thoughts on how i might convince them otherwise, or some redirection to networks or other resources that might offer the same advantages without the fight against proxies?

Tags: networking, ning, proxies, social

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Permalink Reply by Minda Pengelly on May 7, 2008 at 9:37am

I'm sure everyone's filter system is different, but I would question that they can't put certain sites through without changing a whole rule to let all social networking through. I know I was concerned that my district blocked Ning at a level where you had to log in to access it. I was planning on giving the students the school wide password and then changing it after each class. I was pleasantly surprised to find when we started our projects that the district had unblocked Ning and I didn't have to go through all that. MySpace and Facebook are still blocked, but Ning gets through. I would push your tech folk to see if it's really true that they can't assign individual sites certain rights in your filter system.