Somewhere along the line, how tech depts have taken the lead on many
issues (filtering, login processes, webpage dev or constraints, software
selection, webusability) that really are decisions that should be being
made on a pedagogic basis would be really a good discussion.
Take a look at:
Internet Access & Filtering Issues - School of Library &
Information Science Indiana University Purdue - online
(http://eduscapes.com/sms/filtering.html)
Also (and probably a bit closer to what you are dealing with)
Just Give It to Me Straight: A Case Against Filtering the Internet - Phi
Delta Kappen (http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/k0405cal.htm)
Especially look at Reason 2: Filtering Is Anti-Educational
From a public library POV :
Filtering is a Collection Development Issue
(http://webpages.charter.net/tomeboy/filters.html)
--
Robert Eiffert, Librarian
Pacific MS
Vancouver, WA
pac.egreen.wednet.edu/library
beiffert.net furl.net/members/reiffert bloglines.com/blog/reiffert
Kathy Ofsharick wrote:
> Sorry to be late commenting on this, but this is something which I find also find
>frustrating. Our computers were formerly filtered by our Intermediate Unit, and
>although there times that I couldn't get to something I wanted to look at to see
>if it was appropriate, on the whole I could get where I needed to go. Within the
>last few months our (controlling) tech person has installed his own filter, which
>doesn't necessarily look for personal email, but prevents the staff from viewing
>most of the sites we need to get to.
>
> To access something we feel we need, we must submit the site address to the
>building principal (who is unable to turn on his own computer), who then decides
>whether to submit it for unblocking. I'm still wavering between boycotting
>computer use altogether with students (not too difficult, since the library
>computers are so slow), or swamping them daily with unblocking requests. Of the
>sites I submitted last week, the only one he unblocked was Eric Carle's. We can't
>get to anything that's classified as a personal web page, and most things I want
>are blocked as Shopping/Merchandising, including every publisher's site or catalog
>that I frequently used, which also contain much biographical info on children's
>authors. These he refuses to unblock because "we aren't supposed to be shopping
>at school". I feel like submitting a bill for the increased Internet time I'm
>using at home. The blocked sites are announced in huge black letters as
>"FORBIDDEN", along with the reason, w
hich would be a little funny if it weren't so constantly inconvenient. My favorite
are the links to library jokes or cartoons from LM_NET, which are FORBIDDEN: HUMOR.
Wouldn't want any of that to leak through, now would we?
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