To Block or Not to Block

I took this from an email message I shared with teachers.

I’ve been dealing with the opposite problem in my classroom as I learn about new web 2.0 tools and can’t use them because they are blocked by our filter. Our tech guy came to my room to help me have access just in my room to blogs and social websites because too often the websites I need to use with students are blocked because we incorrectly try to block access to facebook, myspace, twitter and other personal blogs. Even though we need to stop access to inappropriate sites I think blocking social networking websites is wrong and it makes my job more difficult.

I too don’t allow students to access facebook and other such sites during class but luckily in my room I can see all my computers from anywhere in the room just by turning around. It’s much harder for kids to sneak that in my situation. But I do have kids blog and glog and I use Moodle and wikis and diigo and twitter and Ning and drop.io and others that I’m testing. So blocking makes it difficult for my students to use these Web 2.0 tools.

What it boils down to then is a class management issue. It doesn’t matter what the student is doing, chewing gum, wearing a hat, passing notes, texting, using facebook, playing computer games, etc, if they are supposed to be doing an assignment and they are off task they need to be redirected. If a student is constantly redirected and does not improve or change that negative behavior it becomes continual willful disobedience and it moves up in the discipline scale.

As more and more 21st century web 2.0 tools become available and useful in the classroom, whether it’s to teach students how to use the tech they will need to succeed in their future or whether it’s to motivate students by having them use the tools they use for fun anyway, we need to be able to use them in our classrooms and computer labs. So I say don’t block these websites. Allow access to web 2.0 and social networking sites so those teachers who are embracing those technologies in the classroom can do so unhampered.