Open Internet Access for Each Teacher

Hi All - I'm discovering that most teachers are blocked at school from using social media programs like twitter and facebook, and even wikipedia. The funny thing is that the US Dept of Education has a twitter account for teacher information. Further, in the National Educational technology Plan, the use of social media for professional development is encouraged, so what's with this blocking of teacher access? According to CIPA, students must be protected (filtered) on school networks, but this does not mean that teachers should be in the same category. I was in Washington, DC last week and spoke with Jim Shelton (Innovaitons guy under Duncan), Hal Plotkin (senior policy advisor), and Karen Cator (Educational technology Director) in the Dept of Education. Each agreed that blocking of teachers is a hindrance to teacher growth and connectivity. However, I don't think the administrators across the United States are clear on this. If you feel like being heard on this issue or any other issue pertaining to the NETP, you can leave a comment on the dept of ed site. When I met with the Ed people, each asked that comments be posted. So I did. You can do the same at the following link.

http://www.ed.gov/technology/netp-2010

Terry Smith

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Judith Behrens on May 3, 2010 at 11:24pm

Terry,

There is a way to get by this, maybe. Do the teachers have login accounts that have more capabilities than the students? The computer "Administrator" can set up the students accounts so that the students are blocked from certain apps as well as blocked from just the sites you don't want them on; i.e. Face Book, You Tube, and Twitter. There are ways if integrating the Web 2.0, and Wiki communities into the classroom. Get the principal and teachewrs to collaborate on what sites are not educational and block them and their subsites.

Judi in Sarasota FL

Permalink Reply by Terry Smith on May 4, 2010 at 5:27am

Thanks Judi.
I use wikis, blogs, web sites, video conferencing, etc extensively in the classroom. (www.smithclass.org). What is missing is the rich communication available on professional networking sites such as this one - Ning, Facebook, and Twitter. The CIPA filter cannot be sidetracked in any way. Teachers do not have accounts that will allow this. If the CIPA filter is turned off, then that computer cannot access any site on the Internet. The district has determined that social networking sites are "bad" and will not open them. The process of opening a web site, sometimes take several days. So what I am saying here, is that I think an overall effort and communication from as many teachers as possible to Washington is one way to get the message to the place where it might have some impact.

Did you have a look at the Ed.gov site?

Terry

Permalink Reply by Judith Behrens on May 4, 2010 at 10:17pm

Terry :

Have you read this article yet? http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/fashion/02BEST.html
If not, please do so. It is in reference to schoolagers using Face Book and Twitter. I will check your website. :)

Judi

Permalink Reply by Charlie Gerancher on June 16, 2010 at 3:06pm

I had the same problem with our "firewall Nazis". But, I found a platform that has all of these Web 2.0 tools built into it (wiki, blog, chat, mail, discussion boards, and social networking is on the way). The tool is called EDU2.0 - take a look at it here: http://www.edu20.org

I think you'll find it pretty amazing.

Charlie

Permalink Reply by Matthew on June 22, 2010 at 9:23am

Hi All, I've also found this to be the case. Though, www.iteachtoo.com isn't blocked and is for educators only. You can check out one of the ways you can broadcast yourself via this link and if your interested you are more than welcome to join. http://www.iteachtoo.com/index.cfm?go=journal.viewpublic&Journa...

Have a great day everyone,

Matt

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