me arts ed

A discussion on blocks from using certain technology tools

I am on a several email lists that send me articles and/or links to blogs. Every so often there is an article that I pass on to you because of its connection to arts education. Periodically I get one that is something I know many educators deal with. This is one of those…

This came through from “Teacher Magazine”, November 10th, written by John Norton. Mr. Norton refers to the issue that some of you face on blocking access to certain websites or tools. I know there are some educators on the arts ed list-serv who can not get to the blog from their schools. Some of you are reading this from home because that is the only place you can access it.

When teachers bring this to my attention I suggest a conversation with the technology administrator reminding them that being able to access the meartsed blog is a professional development opportunity that is being blocked and is unfair. If this doesn’t help I suggest a conversation with the school administrator reminding them of the same as well and letting them know that as educational leader they need to consider the policy and who is making the decision.

Below is the beginning of this article, click here for the link, so you can read the entire article. And by all means please comment below if you have an opinion or are one of those teachers who is reading from home since access at school is blocked. And, of course, I realize that some teachers are not reading this at all because of the block.

The issue of school systems controlling access to the Internet—and teachers complaining about it—is not new. Firewalls and content filters have irritated tech-savvy educators since the early days of blogs, wikis and streaming video. And those same virtual barriers have been defended by safety-sensitive IT directors and ever-cautious school attorneys since the first MySpace page pranked a teacher or revealed far too much about a student.