The background to this post can be read on my recent post The Effects of Site Blocking.
There were 54 respondents to the survey that I set up in Google Docs there.
You will see from this first image that over 50% of the respondents came from South Australia. That is probably largely to do with the fact that the three of the six distribution lists I sent the information to were South Australian based. This should have been off set by the fact that the two of the other lists are very large. Oddly though there were no responses from Northern Territory or Western Australia so perhaps the theme of the survey did not touch a chord there.
The respondents in the survey were also largely school based.
I am going to focus in the rest of today’s post on the graphics the survey generated. My next post will look more closely at the text responses, and some of the other data that I have collected.
Question 4 identified some of the main target sites which seem to be consistently on “black” lists, including Google Docs where the survey form was housed. People were able to choose more than one of the boxes, so the numbers will add up to more than 100%.
Significantly fewer than 10% of the respondents reported that none of the sites listed were blocked. Perhaps the surprise is that over 50% reported that Flickr was blocked, so presumably that means that these educators are also unable to get to Creative Commons content on Flickr. Over 50% reported that Twitter is blocked. The results on the other sites will probably not come as a surprise although the YouTube blocking will also mean that teachers are unable to get to the education.au channel on YouTube or the Education channel or the K12 Education channel.
The next question asked whether sites can be unblocked. You can see that in most institutions there are unblocking procedures.
But significantly many people do not find these easy, or, perhaps, satisfactory.
My final question asked whether people had been able to complete the form at work. It is embedded from Google Docs, which many people reported as blocked at their place of work. I suspected that what might happen is that some people would be able to access the form, see it in their browser but be unable to submit it, as it is embedded and comes from Google Docs. Someone reported though that they could not even access my blog, which was a bit of a worry.
How do you feel about the results so far? Do they fit with your own experience?
2 Comments
Hmmm, that’s interesting. From my view of the NSW DET network, it would appear that, of the sites on Kerrie’s survey list, only Facebook and Twitter are blocked to NSW DET teachers. All of these sites are blocked to students, basically for “duty of care” reasons.
Blocking student access to web sites is an interesting issue in itself. When examined closely, the terms and conditions of use related to some web sites have age restrictions associated with the use of the site. For example, the YouTube Terms of Service state “If you are under 13 years of age, then please do not use the YouTube Website – there are lots of other great web sites for you. Talk to your parents about what sites are appropriate for you.” In addition, the YouTube Terms of Service state “You affirm that you are either more than 18 years of age, or an emancipated minor, or possess legal parental or guardian consent, and are fully able and competent to enter into the terms, conditions, obligations, affirmations, representations, and warranties set forth in these Terms of Service.”
Therefore, if they are to comply with the YouTube Terms of Service, schools should not allow any student under the age of 13 (all primary-age students) to access the YouTube website and they should have parental consent to provide access to students between the ages of 13 and 18 (virtually all secondary-age students).
Other web sites, including some of those that were part of Kerrie’s survey, have similar terms and conditions of use. Therefore, it’s not really surprising that schools and education systems undertake web filtering to some extent.
The question about applying differential filtering for staff and students comes down to two issues – one is technical and the other is philosophical. For a school or system to be technically capable of applying differential filtering rules they will need to have a range technologies in place, including a secure authentication process and a compatible filtering service. If the technical solution is in place, then the degree of access provided to staff will depend upon a number of complex issues that are related to the value placed on various web technologies for applications such as professional learning and collaboration with colleagues.
Due to the changing nature of Internet services, I’m pretty sure that schools and education systems are constantly re-evaluating their position on web filtering for staff because of the potential benefits that new services might deliver. In this environment, a well-argued justification to have a site unblocked for staff is highly likely to be read, carefully considered and answered – even if the answer may not be in agreement with the request in the first instance.
Hi Kerrie
Interesting as always. I wonder if a blog could be setup to list/canvas reasons why certain sites (eg facebook, google docs/images) should be open in schools. In other words, what are the educational advantages. I think most people in charge (eg the principal) have no answers to this when the issue arises. They get the negative bullying etc from some staff and parents, the easy fix is ban it for all. The students are much clever than we all think and bypass a lot of the security and blocking software that is put in place anyway! So maybe responsible use of these sites needs to be taught not try and block everything?
Over here, ours is a laptop school, some students use wireless ISPs to connect to the net (slow but usable, cheap, workable option, $17 aust a month, unlimited)…we have no control on where they go!!
Thanks
Vic Gecas
ISD Bangladesh
2 Trackbacks/Pingbacks
[…] Skip navigation About « Site Blocking: Alive and Well […]
[…] I have been invited by the CEGSA president to provide some information and perspective on the filter – blocking debate, “to filter or not to filter”. It’s to add to the issues and data posted by Kerrie Smith in her recent blog post http://blogs.educationau.edu.au/ksmith/2009/08/25/site-blocking-alive-and-well/ […]
Post a Comment