I focused my last PLN on filtering of websites like YouTube as well, but like Mr. Fisch said:
"Okay, I’m about done with this topic, I promise. But I keep finding more and more thoughtful folks talking about filtering and responsibility and what/how/why we should be teaching our students about this..."
I find it interesting that, no matter how old we get, and how much we mature (well, most of us) we can't be trusted enough to take filters off websites that most people our age use every day. It isn't fair that we should all be punished because a few students choose to abuse their web privileges. Websites like YouTube do not even allow anything to be concerned about to be posted, and yet, it is blocked to us. Everywhere, websites are being blocked to students. I realize that this is for our own safety, but we can never learn to be responsible decision makers if we are never given the chance to try.
Carolyn Foote stated this perfectly:
“Swimming pools can be dangerous for children. To protect them, one can install locks, put up fences, and deploy pool alarms. All these measures are helpful, but by far the most important thing that one can do for one’s children is to teach them to swim.”
Censors are set up to protect us from websites that might be "offensive", but honestly, no student will ever know anything about the web, or even know how to make wise decisions when surfing the web if we are never given the opportunity to chose for ourselves. I believe in blocking pornography sites, but otherwise, if we never get the opportunity to decide for ourselves, "maybe this website isn't appropriate for me" in school, how can we be expected to know what to do when the censors are gone, and there are no teachers to say "no" when we go to a filtered website on accident?
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