Mind/Shift on Internet filtering and equity

 From Are School Internet Filters the Forgotten Equity Battleground? by Katrina Schwartz on Mind/Shift:

It’s common for school districts to block social media, chatting services, online games and video services. That means some teachers spend hours downloading YouTube videos to use in their classrooms the next day — energy that could be better spent elsewhere. Educators argue that a highly filtered Internet restricts the intellectual freedom of students to read and share ideas where the conversation is happening, often on social media. And perhaps most troubling, kids without Internet access at home rely on school Internet for their digital needs and may be missing out on what has become a big part of being an active citizen.

Yours truly was quoted, but more importantly, so were library and intellectual freedom gurus, Joyce Valenza and Michelle Luhtala.

It's great to see this important topic be picked up by the mainstream educational media. Is BWAD (Banned Website Awareness Day) finally getting some traction?

Comments

[Robert Schuetz]

Thanks Doug,
I shared Katrina's Mindshift post to Twitter yesterday because it revealed a perspective that I had not considered, that of ignorantly creating inequity by restricting access. I appreciate you sharing your insight on this, and I also appreciated how Joyce Valenza exposed the weak argument of the distractions of devices. My hope is that more educators will read posts such as yours, and then engage in meaningful conversations about, "what year are we teaching for?" Your quotes were spot on. Thanks for shining a light on an unexposed aspect of Internet filtering.
Bob

[Doug Johnson]

Thank you, Bob. I appreciate the comments.

Doug