PLN #8

Today i chose to read from the Fischbowl. The article that I thought was interesting was Two Steps Forward... by Karl Fisch. It talks about the filtering program that schools set to their computers. Karl Fisch argues that this can be a good and bad thing because the filter blocks so websites that might be useful for students like videos on Youtube. He alos thinks that schools should set up their filters so that teachers can override it if they feels that the website is appropriate. Alot of schools dont have that like our schools so he suggests that we get it.

What matters: The article Two steps forward... grabbed my attention so much because I agreew tih Karl Fisch. That the filter can be a good and bad thing. It keeps students from getting off task and going onto inappropriate sites such as Facebook, Myspace, and Youtube. i agree that nothing on Facebook and Myspace is educational but Youtube is a different story. There are not only dirty videos on there. Are many that can help students with assignments and can inform them on whats going on in the world. Schools really need to see this article and then think of ways to fix this problem. They should think about whether they should get override for thier teachers or if they should get a whole new filtering system.

How it Matters to Me: I am very glad that finally someone sees that the filtering sytem needs to be fixed. It is causing more and more problems. In Ms. Smiths class we use computers all the time. Most of the sites we visit are appropriote but when we were doing our google earth projects i began running into problems with the filtering system. I wanted to put pictures onto my google earth project but the only way to do that was to download the pictures onto the picasa web album. When I tried signing up for the web album the filter kept blocking it. I fail see what is wrong with going to this site. So I had to go home and try to sign up on my own computer but my computer was having problems so I wasn't able to put any pictures on my project. This fustrates me because I bet that there are many other students at Arapahoe who are having the same kind of problems. AHS really should think about fixing their filter system so that the teachers can override it if they think that it is appropriate.

How it matters to the world: Nearly every school in the nation uses filters on their computers. So many kids these days like to look at inappropriate things so these filters are nessescary to have on the computers so that they can keep their students focused on their work. But not all kids are like that. Schools need to be informed aboutt his problem