Is it more unethical to allow threats to students/schools (see list above) or to deny students/teachers access to instructionally-relevant Web-based tools and content?
When considering the difficult situation of how to handle access to technology in a classroom – ie, if, how, where and why to block – I believe there is no one right answer where ethics are involved. In many schools, blocking is implemented to preserve the security and efficiency of the school's precious computer system. Is this worse than denying open access to all the Internet has available, including instructionally-relevant content? No. Keeping a school's entire system is far more important than allowing access to potentially dangerous content and viruses. A few lessons or papers may suffer, but that's far preferable than losing an entire server's worth of data.
What does this mean for the classroom, however? Well, it pains me to say this as an English teacher, but I feel we must take comfort in cliches. What do I mean by this? Well, when all the debate comes down to it, there comes a point when we must “make the most of a bad situation” and even sometimes choose “the lesser of two evils”. In fact, a teacher's wish for free access for their students might even be a case of “be careful what you wish for”. Let me explain...
Can't access an informative video because your school/district blocks YouTube? Well, you can “make the best” with clever use of a screen-capture program like Jing or SnagIt (either at home or another location with access) and proper credit to help get your lesson across. It may not be what you had wanted exactly, but take the opportunity to model creativity and resourcefulness to your students to go along with your intended lesson. In fact, you can then use your example of resourcefulness to inspire them to do something similar on their own. “This is what I did to get you important information; now what can you do?” Double whammy.
Worried that unfettered access brings both wonderful opportunities for learning as well as overwhelming temptation for distraction and objectionable materials? Then site filtering and blocking just might be “the lesser of two evils”. At least with direct restrictions and monitoring of sites, students have the benefit of focus and good lessons on appropriateness. For example, if a site they want to see/use is block, start up a discussion on why that might be and what other avenues they can use.
Now the fact of the matter is that many students – not all, certainly – have free access to the Internet at home, including both educational and objectionable material. Without considered filtering, however, how do we expect them to focus? At least if they see and learn why certain sites are blocked at school, they can possibly learn to stay away from those sites when they get home (or use the Internet on their phones, if applicable). This can also spark creativity of their own by searching out new and innovation information for their projects, as opposed to relying on sites they know are unreliable or possibly objectionable they know wouldn't be accessed at school.
While you don't want to deny learning opportunities, you do in fact want to impart the idea of appropriateness and proper use. This idea in particular is getting harder and harder to impart on the current generation of students. There are little to no boundaries for them online, and school is supposed to be the model for not just how they learn from the world, but how they will survive socially and economically. Free access only benefits students in the short term if they are not taught the consequences of therein.
Let's say there is free access in a classroom, and the teacher openly encourages searching far and wide with little to no regard as to what their students are seeing so long as the papers come in time and they find a few interesting piece of information. Do those little tidbits balance out any bad they might encounter? I say no. However, I will not follow that up with a blanket call for block and aggressive filtering. I believe this is more of a case for “teacher monitoring”, as explored in Teachers Discovering Computers. “Teacher observation is extremely important and, in most cases, a final measure to prevent students from accessing objectionable and inappropriate materials on the Internet. For teacher observation to be effective, teachers must constantly and actively watch what their students are doing in the classroom and viewing on the Internet” (Shelly & Gunter, 2010). It really boils down to this: if your students can go freely about the Internet, you need to be along for the ride to keep them safe. This includes not just what they find, but how they use it.
Plagiarism is a very real danger in any learning situation, elementary through higher and even in professional circles. Teaching the concept of fair use, copyright and correct citation is a difficult battle with the sheer mountains of information available with just a few clicks. The old cliché of “be careful what you wish for” is becoming ever more of a reality as student just harvest information left and right for their own use and almost no consideration. The result is a beautiful presentation or thought-provoking research project that bears the terrible stink of theft.
The temptation for plagiarism is alive and well for modern learners. As Plagiarism.org explains, “Today's students learn quickly that finding and manipulating data on the Internet is a valuable skill. With the wealth of information available online, the production of original analysis and interpretation may seem like "busy work" compared to finding the best or most obscure sources. Teach your students that the real skills they need to learn are interpretation and analysis -- how to process the information they find. Tell them that anyone with some basic knowledge can find information on the internet -- it's what they do with that information that is important ” (2011).
Injecting lessons about plagiarism into assignments should be an on-going discussion. Keeping students informed with knowledge about how to use the information they find can actually enhance their learning over time, making them better researchers and analyzers of information.
In the end, I feel that in the end, the importance of a safe and secure computer system throughout an entire school outweighs the individual access of the classroom. However, I also feel these restrictions act as wonderful opportunities for creative and resourceful teachers. If I can end on one more tired cliché, with every restriction teachers encounter, if they “find for the silver lining”, they will always come out on top.
References
Plagiarism.org (2011, February). Educational tips on plagiarism prevention. Retrieved from http://plagiarism.org/plag_article_educational_tips_on_plagiarism_prevention.html
Shelly, G.B., & Gunter, G. (2010). Teachers discovering computers. Boston, MA: Cenage Learning.
I agree with you I feel that plagiarism should be a constant lesson taught by every teacher. It is important for the students to understand what plagiarism means and the consequences for doing it. For example we had to take a quiz so we knew how to cite properly at the beginning of this course. It is important to be reminded how to give credit where credit is due. Since students will now be accessing research over the internet its important for them to know how to cite the websites and know which sites are creditable.
ReplyDeleteI also liked what you said about students having free access at home to both educational and non educational sites. I think you’re right if they see what sites at school are creditable they will know when they are at home doing research for an assignment which websites have more useful information and stay away from the bad ones. If we teach our students the proper way to find and interpret information on the web they will become better researchers in the future. Since most of us started our education without computers we see the technology as a privilege and most students now don’t see it that way. They see it as for entertainment only and not as an educational tool. Once we teach them how to properly use it they will have more respect.
I agreed with your point about the difficulty in coming up with a right or wrong answer, but it seems that some elements will have to be kept in order to keep safe the hardware in the school. I can’t imagine what would happen if days before the last report card all the grades were corrupted and I was stuck with a blank grade book. As many people don’t make hardcopies anymore as the recent papers shortage due to budget restrictions. There would be no way to prove how well a student did and what justification for retaining a student there was. It would be straight out of the movie “War Games”.
ReplyDeleteAs long as there are people determined to play pranks and do harm, there will be restrictions to protect hardware and it’s users. I think that one way around filters, is to use flash drives to capture useful data, edit if needed and then present it in the classroom. We are however the ultimate judge and are trained to know what is appropriate. Some people may ask if this is ethical, well that’s an opinion based on who is looking at it. If it is something that should have never been blocked, it may be ok. But if the material was specific ally blocked you may run into some trouble. Finally, I think there should be an avenue to request a site be considered to be unblocked, as most sites are blocked because of their type or certain words it contains.
I think that the biggest referees on what is objectionable are parents. Some parents let anything go, some are overprotective. It is best policy to most administrators and school boards to allow the research to be done at home so that the liability falls on the home not the school’s responsibility. As with everything kids learn, the “street smarts”, and this will always come with their friends. There really is now way to keep information from children. At school I think it’s a matter of not being the guilty party that allowed it to happen on their watch.
As for teacher monitoring, students will always wait until your back is turned to do what they’re not supposed to. That’s what makes it fun. As much time we spend teaching what the right thing to do is, they are advancing more quickly then we can in technology and coming up with new ways to make their classmates laugh. So monitoring is needed, but without a mature student, you will have problems, and that’s why we need school filters. It is how the world turns around. A few bad apples can ruin the bushel. As I said before we as teachers are the ultimate filter, but with such large class sizes it makes it impossible for everything to be restricted.
I think the biggest reason why plagiarism is used is convenience. Starting with time constraints, it ends with what is easier and most convenient. Temptation is the biggest beast that students must learn. Throughout life we are tempted to follow the easiest path and what will get the best results. I think sometime that willpower is tested so much that it is near impossible to say no. Also I think that some people truly don’t understand and it’s too hard and plagiarism is a quick and easy way out. Although you said how to teach student s not to plagiarize is important. But when their in elementary school students are taught to actually rephrase the question in order to give a “goo, complete answer”. So we actually start teaching students to plagiarize, and then as they get older we as teachers change the rules and tell them it’s wrong. No wonder by college they have no idea of the difference between the right and wrong things to write when doing research.
I think that with the increase of technology, there will be a huge amount of instance when cutting and pasting will show up and plagiarism will run rampant but as teachers we need to facilitate and keep students on track to proper ethics and etiquette when it comes to using technology.