Monster May 10, 2012, 22:49:24

As a fairly new tecaher it’s exciting to have this shift happening early in my career. When I first started teaching I was staggered that the standard classroom was no different to when I went to school.There is still one access issue, access to the internet in some homes. Yes, there is free wifi, but I’m not encouraging my kids to sit in McD’s and do their homework. A number of kids at my school still don’t have internet access at home, although hopefully they will be exerting some pressure on their folks to get even the cheapest of connections.There is one thing you didn’t touch on here, that is, internet filtering. A Google search for MP3 is blocked, yet, it was for a legitimate purpose. We were investigating bit rate in IST.The current filtering policy doesn’t just block the illegal and socially unacceptable sites.I’ve been using a free version of for years, recently it was re-categorised and blocked. It’s a crucial tool for keeping myself organised. It was blocked because the paid versions allow the storage of files.You quite rightly said if we continue to grasp onto control and continue to act as the filter of knowledge then we are not assisting our students overcome the new access issue. Problem is, the internet filter is doing that. I strongly believe that having the internet filter in place has not allowed us to model and encourage appropriate use of the internet. Instead, we have enabled some kids to be experts at finding ways around or flash games sites that are not blocked.To me, a key next step in this revolution is to better consider the policy behind filtering. An open discussion is required.