Teaching Around the Firewall
Posted on November 18, 2008
Filed under Internet, Social Media, Twitter, Web 2.0, blogs, collaborating, education, facebook, schools, wikis, youtube
Edutopia recently explored how teachers have gradually found ways to teach around the firewall in “Stumbling Blocks: Playing It Too Safe Online Will Make You Sorry.” How do teachers teach in school districts that block Facebook, Twitter, and many Web 2.0 applications that can enrich learning and encourage lively, hands-on learning?
When I present to school districts about Web 2.0 tools and technology, I often run afoul of the firewall in a given school district and can’t use the system to display these tools.
So how are teachers working around overprotective content filters to use Web 2.0 tools in the classroom?
Edutopia’s piece, written by Suzie Boss, advocates four steps teachers can take to teach in spite of the system:
1. Befriend the keymaster
2. Innovate in Safe Places
3. Teach Good Digital Citizenship
4. Advocate for Access
Here’s what Antero Garcia, a teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School System, says about putting up walls to keep Web 2.0 out of the classroom:
“Sooner or later someone is going to expect my students to be able to quickly and effortlessly post to a blog, add to a wiki, or collaborate via some sort of social-networking protocol. And once again, my school will have failed to prepare them for such a task.”
Word to the wise.
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5. Use a web proxy (i.e. translate.google.com) to get to the blocked page.
Oops. I misread the topic of the list: Four steps to teach in spite of the system. Suggestion #5 would probably be considered bypassing the system and frowned upon by your district policies. (Besides being poor role modeling for the students.)
I’m not sure I understand the issue completely. Our school board has a firewall and has blocked facebook and youtube, but is encouraging wikis (wikispaces workshops).
Are the school districts in question completely prohibiting blogs or simply blocking specific domains (i.e. wordpress.com, edublogs.com).
Perhaps my suggestion #5 should be Teachers, schools, or districts could always run their own self-hosted blogs (courtesy of wordpress.org) to provide a more moderated environment.
As an elementary teacher (Gr7/8), I’m not completely opposed to some of the blocked sites, although I appreciate the frustration that my high school colleagues go through.
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