Today I continued my exploration of connective options at school. Here are the results:
- Twitbin and Twiteroo are blocked on school computers and my MacBook
- Twirl will come up on my laptop but tells me "There is an error receiving direct messages" so the screen remains blank
- I installed Snitter on the MacBook - it also comes up blank
As an experiment, I tried to search for proxy sites on Google. The entire search was blocked, "Category: Web-based Proxies/Anonymizers." I suppose I could find the addresses of proxies before I left home in the morning, but there is no guarantee that would work either.
My one success was surprising: YouthTwitter is not blocked here at school! I did get a WARNING! but was able to click through to the site and read student postings on both school computers and my Mac.
Interesting that a student online community is permissable but not an adult one. It seems that our youth are deemed more capable of interacting appropriately than their teachers. Score one for authentic Voice.
Perhaps if Twitter were subtitled AdultTwitter...but no, that sounds vaguely risque. It all comes down to trust. I would like to be treated as I feel our students should be treated when it comes to cyber safety and digital citizenship: provide instruction on safe & appropriate use of the Internet, set clear and reasonable limits, spell out the consequences for inappropriate use, and enforce policies consistently.
If I'm not trusted to conduct myself professionally, perhaps I shouldn't be here instructing children.
At least, that's my opinion. If you disagree, please speak up. I'd like to know the rationale behind Internet censorship.
Update: Now Twitbin is unblocked! I'm not sure why, but I'll link to this posting and hope for the best!
