B - L - O - G
Is “blog” the new four-letter word for school districts? I guess it could be. There is a lot of content out there in the blogosphere that is suspect at best and not appropriate for educational consumption at worse. But is it appropriate to just as a rule, block EVERYTHING that even smells of a blog?
As an educator and Educational Technologist, I have to be honest that there are more than a few times a day I have to count to ten because of how frustrated I get. So many sites I need and want to glean a bit insight and information from is blocked by the district’s firewall because it is a blog. I am not purposely looking for obscene or inappropriate content, so that’s not the reason for it being blocked. I am usually looking for other people’s views on technology, educational technology, technology integration, Web 2.0 in schools….you get the picture.
Unfortunately for me, many of the opinions, resources, views, INFORMATION that I am looking for can only be found in a blog. Some of the smartest most interesting people I will never meet write prolifically in the form of a blog. And they have a vast amount of knowledge and experience that amazingly enough, are willing to share FOR FREE. If only I could get to it.
If the topic of my search is really important, I will often times find myself completing my searches at home. But should I have to resort to this? We as a district are proposing the purchase of a “blog server” or Web 2.0 server for teachers and students. If that is true…then as a district we need to come to terms with Web 2.0 and all the good and evil that comes with it.
How are we going to handle the new four-letter words like
blogs — wikis — podcasts — social networks — social bookmarking — etcetera
I’m not proposing an answer here. I hope that someone else is reading and maybe we can discuss solutions here or in person. Meanwhile, I’ll probably be home…completing my search on how other school districts handle the problem because too many of the sites I’m trying to view are currently blocked.
