I admit it, I have a bee in my bonnet and have done sinve I moved from the post 16 sector to Hamble College. Especially with that word trust. As a teacher I am seeking more trust, thank goodness I am not the only one banging that drum, as I read Ewan McIntosh’s post…
‘Just look at the lack of control over their technology and it’s not surprise that most teachers have, indeed, a fair distrust for the education Establishment.’
Today, I wrote to our LEA complaining for being filtered so indiscriminately. Should any educator from Hampshire (or any where really) stumble upon this post (unlikely but possible) please let me know how restricted technology / internet access restricts the learning opportunities for your students.
Ironically, our Art teacher is currently running a “barriers” project in his GCSE class and yet the amazing and FREE Piclens can not access Flickr or Google images! Will someone in a position of authority see sense.
Hi!!
Take heart … there are lots of us banging this drum and indeed the review by Tanya Byron could well help the cause… all over the world people are asking to ‘free up’ their students so that they can engage. We all recogise the eSafety issues as do the students … lets just move on …
Doug thank you for your comments. The Byron report may offer some positives, although Byron does not want to see children stifled her BBC news article emphasises caution (and of course the role of filtering). Unfortunately, that is what is happening everyday in most schools and certainly in my classroom. I am encouraged to innovate and yet filtered / suffocated at the same time. Ironically our students enjoy the challenge of circumventing the filter, I don’t enjoy enforcing a policy fundamentally disagree with. To further insulting (IMHO) is that as a professional teacher that filtering applies to me, me CPD, lesson preparation and the colleagues I work with and support. I look forward to your future contributions…. Is about time we banged that drum a little louder.