Blocked

Our school board uses a filter. I suppose it is a necessary evil, but as a teacher who tries to integrate IT into the curriculum, the filter is often annoying.

Today, I had planned a writing activity. There is a collaborative writing website called Protaganize. There, I started a story and directed my students to continue the story. Unfortunately, Protaganize is blocked at our school. Why?



Another thing. I like to use games and simulations in the classroom because they are a way for students to learn things while at the same time having fun. Unfortunately, most game sites are blocked. This strikes me as futile. It is not possible to block every game site. I know this, I see students playing games on the computer at school. So, therefore, why bother blocking any at all?

At this school board and at my previous school board, Facebook is blocked. I don't understand the justification for this. The reason given at my previous school board was that too many people were using Facebook and so it was consuming too much bandwidth. So, Facebook was blocked because it was too popular. By that reasoning, email should also be blocked.

On a positive note, Youtube is not blocked at our school. I know that many schools do block Youtube.

That is all.