Original Article: http://thejournal.com/articles/2011/08/01/fine-tuning-internet-security.aspx
At my school, the school's cafeteria manager makes teachers pay twice as much as students for the same portion of food. For instance, if a student gets a hamburger and fries for lunch it will cost that student $1.25. If a teacher gets the same hamburger and fries for lunch it will cost $2.50. Same portion. Teachers don't even get extra fries with that. That doesn't sit well with me. I know, it may sound petty but I feel teachers deserve to be treated with a little more respect. Give us a little more fries or charge us the same as the students, that's all I'm saying!!
I feel that very same way whenever I find a website that I feel could help my students learn and the website is blocked for the sake of protecting students from online predators. Protecting the kids, I get that. But to deny access to educational websites like Quia.com or most wiki and blog sites for everyone, including teachers to me is another example of how teachers are being disrespected. Most teachers feel the same way. I think the idea of lower the restrictions for teachers to access certain websites so that they can have more resources available to them is a good idea. Making password protected access for teachers would keep students from going onto certain websites that may be deemed dangerous for kids and at the same time grant access for teachers and administrators to use for educational and research purposes.
I see and understand exactly what you're saying. To deny teachers access to educational resources is absolutely ridiculous. Luckily, at my school, we have students blocked from certain sites, but the teachers have very few restrictions. This has allowed us to pull up and show students many important sites on the projector. It has worked well for us.
ReplyDeleteThe problem too is with the students being blocked. Students are blocked from many Google sites. However, now that we have learned about Wikipedia's creative commons images, this could help students be aware of how they can find images that they can use in their projects.
By the way, at our high school, teachers are charged more for their lunches as well...