News and views from the There's got to be more to this story
I've been crazy busy, but couldn't resist a look at some of the items on the new issue of American Libraries Direct. First, there's the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District in Alaska that is now banning access to all websites "unless the site ends in a .gov or .edu domain name, the site is a database whose content is licensed by the district, or the district has approved an educator's request that the site be unblocked." Wow. Double wow. Apparently, the kids have been bad. The third-most-visited URL in the district was gecko-proxy.com, which enables students to sidestep the software filter installed to comply with the Children's Internet Protection Act. The Anchorage Daily News reported that MTV.com is particularly popular among the high school students. Over a 37-day period, the district tracked some 14,862 hits to that site.
Parent Richard Leo observed that such heavy restrictions "will deprive students of an essential research skill: the ability to distinguish between useful information and bunk." Teacher Kathy Ernst is quoted as saying "There's got to be accountability. If there's a tool that's being misused we don't take away the tool from everyone; we make sure there is adequate training and supervision." Hear, hear!
On a sweeter note, a six-year-old boy was selected as Volunteer of the Year by the Allegheny County Library Association. He was concerned that starting first grade would cut into his volunteer time at the library. Awwwwwwww.
Parent Richard Leo observed that such heavy restrictions "will deprive students of an essential research skill: the ability to distinguish between useful information and bunk." Teacher Kathy Ernst is quoted as saying "There's got to be accountability. If there's a tool that's being misused we don't take away the tool from everyone; we make sure there is adequate training and supervision." Hear, hear!
On a sweeter note, a six-year-old boy was selected as Volunteer of the Year by the Allegheny County Library Association. He was concerned that starting first grade would cut into his volunteer time at the library. Awwwwwwww.
4 Comments:
But does he make Super Unicorns?
:)
Oh how to wish this wasn't true. As an Alaskan librarian who values open access to information, within bounds, I feel that the school district in question needs to try this, but I for one hope it will be a total failure. The district obviously needs to choose which websites students can get access too.
I am hopeful that there is an easy way for teachers to request sites to be unblocked.
Aaron, I'm sure he doesn't. But I'm also sure he would LOVE to learn how. Maybe I should send him this link?
Darla, thanks so much for your comment. Sometimes it's hard to tell from reading news stories just what really happened. The solution here seems horribly draconian. I'd like to think there's more to the situation than what's being reported, but I'd also like to think there's a sane middle ground.
Oops, my link in the last comment has a boo-boo in it. Try this one.
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