I would like to provide a wider context. What technologies are students using to bypass the filters and where else are these technologies being used? The bypass technologies have been developed, in part I understand with funding from the federal government, to allow ways for dissidents in eastern and middle eastern countries get around government filters. In fact Sen Specter just applauded these technologies: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-arlen-specter/attack-the-cyberwalls-the_b_227114.html. Attack the Cyberwalls!: The Internet Is the Pathway to Democracy in Places Like Iran!

Now, I am quite sure that the shah of Iran also considers people who bypass their filter to be enemies. So how about a new slogan for students: Attack the Cyberwalls!: The Internet is the Pathway to a 21st Century Education.

Most schools we work with find that by making students allies in word and deed, and not treating them as enemies, both sides gain respect for the other. If you tried it, I believe you would benefit so much more than you think you might be losing.

Why are we blocking social networks?

I try to err on the side of wanting to hear both angles, before coming to a conclusion.

I truly believe that the percentage of kids who would willingly hack into the system to create havoc is much smaller than those who would not.

Most filtering systems are put in place to “protect” our children. From what? Viewing something obscene? Seeing things they should not see? Reading something they shouldn’t read? Wrong. The filters that most of us work with on a daily basis are there to keep kids from playing games, visiting social networks… you know, those things that kids do in their everyday lives OUTSIDE OF SCHOOL.

I’d much rather have a very limited filter that blocks kids from only the most heinous sites, and then TEACH them to do the right thing. Teach them to use those games and networking sites to learn.

We seem to spend an awful lot of energy to “protect” our kids from the very things they will need to know how to use once they leave the school environment…. and, if I were attending this conference, I would probably sit outside this session and protest. Loudly.

Same argument. Same wrong solution.

Do your own google searching to see what happened to the dozens of school districts who recently decided to completely turn off their Internet filtering. Teachers wanted it off and gone; now they all want it back.

Most of the gripes I hear about filtering are because the teachers don’t know how to use it (open it up as needed, etc.), don’t care to learn how to use it, were not part of the process of selecting it, or just think everything in the world should be available to students at all times. Books are filtered “in” to our school libraries and no one seems to mind.

Having maintained the Internet filter at a public school, I can tell you that many students ARE the “enemy”. When you look for ways to beat the systems put in place to protect everyone, you are not helping. Instead of hacking the school filter, if these students hacked into your faculty/staff email accounts, would you still not call them the “enemy?” Enemy can be a strong word as used in this proposed NYSCATE session, but what other word she the vendor use to describe these students? His session will most likely help IT admins and school staff figure out ways to prevent the students from doing what they should not be doing.

If the students cut all the fences in the school yard, do you want to include those students in some kind of decision making process as to why they felt the need to cut the fences? No, you find out who did it, discipline them and try to prevent it from happening again.