I spent a good part of last week with a group of interesting teachers from around Oklahoma. At the workshop, I was part of a staff teaching them about multimedia journalism and how they could pass that along to their students.
But an issue that came up again and again was the difficulty these teachers had accessing the Internet at all in their classrooms — let alone as part of a teaching or journalism tool.
There’s a crisis in our classrooms and it’s this: While the rest of the world uses the web to become smarter, communicate better and learn faster, students in Oklahoma have to learn with one eye closed and one hand tied behind their back. In the name of safety and security, districts have locked down some of the most fundamental sites on the Internet and keep their students — and their teachers — from being able to access them.
Who makes that decision? It’s up to the individual district about what sites are blocked and which ones aren’t. And that usually means either one paranoid administrator or, even more troubling, someone, somewhere in an IT department.
That’s right. While the business world is learning about collaboration and cloud computing, our kids can’t logon to GMail. While journalism is coming to the citizenry, our kids can’t access YouTube. Can students see the works of art put online by the world’s great museums? Can they learn languages easier or communicate with other kids around the world with the touch of button?
Who knows? It’s up to the guy who just installed Norton Antivirus.
Are there bigger problems out there for Oklahoma education? Definitely. But it seems hypocritical to me for officials to decry how competitive Oklahoma students should be, and how they need to return to the state after college in order to help Oklahoma compete on a global level, all while we close the spigot to the biggest river of innovation and information history has ever seen.
There are bad things on the web. Offensive sites and scary people. And I guess it’s easier to build walls than watchtowers.
But if the schools aren’t there to show their students all the good that is available online and how it can benefit them now and in the future, they will end up just teaching themselves and only seeing a tiny corner of what the online experience has to offer.
Mike,
This is important not just for high schools but also community colleges and vo-techs. I have given several presentations at these places and they do not have access. It’s very hypocritical.
There needs to be some sort of balance with education and use especially in the field of journalism. All students should be required to go through some sort of training about the good and bad of social media. It’s our job to try to keep having these conversations as leaders in social media.
Jessica
@blogging4jobs
Mike:
I am going to go along with you on this one. Emphasis needs to be put on teaching kids how to use the internet, what to stay clear of, expect consequences if they stray and rewards for good behavior.
The Internet is a very powerful tool. Without instruction and mentoring, bad things could happen. The schools would be well advised to get their head out of the sand and start showing our children the do’s and don’ts.
My son (15) had a kid show him a YouTube video of a guy blowing his brains out. This happened at school. He came home very upset and started crying when we pressed him for details of what happened. We called the teacher and told her what had happened. She said she would look into it and was very apologetic.
Where Proper use benefits the user, misuse hurts the user and can hurt others.
I’m not waiting on the schools to catch up…
I totally agree. While we were FINALLY able to access Youtube this past year (Hurray for School House Rock, famous speeches, etc.) we still can’t access gmail or many other sites including some educational game sites etc. Frustrating!
“And I guess it’s easier to build walls than watchtowers. ” So sad, but so true.
Not only will this lead to the students only being able to see a tiny corner of the online experience….sadly it also allows our students to only see a tiny corner of the world.