Teacher-Librarian

ALA | Filter-Savvy Students Barred from Most of Web

Yes, this is the place I work.   I have spent the last two months working many extra hours, like most librarians do, helping teachers, planning, collaborating, running book fairs, and all the other stuff we do. This one hit is in the face.

Not as the article implies-librarians had no voice or input into the decision to restrict Internet access for students.  I personally had a 1/2 day notice before the restrictions were announced to principals.  Most had no advance notice.  Librarians were not ever even close to consulted.

The full restrictions only lasted two days.  The plan was to block all sites for students and only open sites on the firewall requested by teachers.  This quickly overloaded the server, and the district is now working on a new solution with our local phone company.  Things seem pretty spotty right now some websites work and others are blocked. 

Frustrations are high and communication is low.  We have no district librarian, so we have no official voice.  We work from grass roots and will work through this too.

It seems clear that student abuses (accessing music, videos and -yes-porn) sighted in the news were mostlythe result of students not being supervised, and inadequate implementation of filters or other security options.   The whole thing has sparked quite a conversation between community, students, teachers and the news.  Conversation is always good.  It allows us to see what people are really thinking out there.  Pretty scary! 

 In all the conversation no one mentions librarians and their role in teaching information literacy and collaborating with teachers on projects.  More collborating, more engagement in learning and more integration of various technologies for students so they become motivated learners. 

This problem is not going away, and neither is the need for students to be tech-savvy and information literate. So we will just keep working on it!