K12 Teachers and Administrators have questions about some of the finer points regarding CIPA and their school district. It appears there is a misunderstanding: not all CIPA products are created equal and more importantly your District may actually have the wrong CIPA product installed.
From a technical point-of-view CIPA solutions range in flexibility like Tylenol: Extra Strength Tylenol, Regular Strength Tylenol, Tylenol 8 hour and Tylenol PM.
For a real-world overview of YouTube, K12 web filtering & CIPA: Click Here
Many CIPA related questions from teachers and administrators can be addressed by a single resource: District Technology Policy. If you do not have one — get one — following these easy steps:
1. Google “K12 district technology policy”
2. Read policies posted online by Districts around the country
2a. Find one that looks appealing for the needs of your District
2b. Don’t forget to acknowledge their efforts…send an email acknowledging their work
3. Copy/paste
4. Modify as needed WITH District-wide consensus
5. Publish your Policy under Creative Commons
In many respects the CIPA vendor you choose may limit your flexibility in unblocking webpages. Most robust CIPA products DO permit teachers/district coordinators to permit custom URLs to be available on the fly.
Vendors permit “timed access” to specific pages allowing, for example a class meeting Monday afternoons from 1:00 to 2:00pm will have a block of pre-approved website URLs available for 60 minutes.
Vendors also provide the flexibility to permit access to certain categories like eBay, Amazon or CraigsList with options:
1. Warn: This CIPA option will display a dialog box reminding users that the destination URL has been identified as a non-academic site but still allows access to the page.
2. Tracking: Pages can be tracked by administrators if your Technology Policy is so inclined.
3. Time Quota: This CIPA option will track a set time per day (beginning at midnight) for users to access defined, specific or pages. categories. If your district policy calls for 2 hours/day users are simply blocked after the district-wide site times out.
C O N T R O L:
Teachers have commented they need “special permission” to get access to a page or entire website for class. Management of IT organizations has taught me many schools (and organizations) have adverse relationships with their IT staffs. I’m sorry this exists.
It is often difficult to break the assumption, or the “built-in notion” that IT holds C O N T R O L simply because they install and configure the hardware/software but ultimately do not use the product in the classroom. Do you work in a District where IT is the tail that wags the dog?
Q and A:
Does IT tell you what textbooks to order?
Today more and more textbook publishers are embedding webpage URL resources inside textbooks or have established textbook companion webpages. Think you still have the right CIPA solution running in your District?
The idea that textbook approval is equal to website approval is not real. Textbooks are a single source of knowledge unchanged until the next physical edition is printed/shipped … in some cases years later. The equivalent would be a series of fixed bookmarked websites pointing to content. However in some cases pages move to different webservers, blogs or wikis by the time a textbook is shipped. The advantage to online resources includes the ability to see feedback from students outside his/her classroom on a potential global scale regarding subject matter.
BTW: In some cases a remote firewall can block access to the destination website. Sometimes the webserver crashes.
The internet … like life … is not perfect.
Q: Should the teachers be in this same umbrella of protection?
A: The CIPA law is for the protection of minors.
Q: Should the teachers then be allowed to access the internet without restrictions? If so, where does the boundary lies – shopping sites, personal email sites, etc.
A: Well … do you ALWAYS log off your classroom computer correctly?
I have personally watched teachers leave their restricted login account running after they have exited the classroom leaving the computer available to anyone with access to grading and assessment. There are boundaries/rules/guidelines and dare I say … Policy for a reason — to protect students AND faculty.
Is a computer available in the teacher’s lounge? That computer could be configured to bypass CIPA filtering based upon LDAP or Microsoft’s Active Directory. Some have voiced an opinion that teachers and administrators are employees of the District and must obey rules when using equipment at school. While teachers at home or on the road – different story/different post.
A Technology Policy crafted for your District based upon the realworld needs of your teachers can determine the best product and will serve your District well.
Tags: content filter, CIPA, K12, education, technology, web filter, 8e6, bandwidth, broadband, internet, teacher, school, youtube, K12 Technology Policy, District Technology, Technology Policy, web filter, trends
My TED favorites
K12 Technology Plan: CIPA
K12 Teachers and Administrators have questions about some of the finer points regarding CIPA and their school district. It appears there is a misunderstanding: not all CIPA products are created equal and more importantly your District may actually have the wrong CIPA product installed.
From a technical point-of-view CIPA solutions range in flexibility like Tylenol: Extra Strength Tylenol, Regular Strength Tylenol, Tylenol 8 hour and Tylenol PM.
For a real-world overview of YouTube, K12 web filtering & CIPA: Click Here
Many CIPA related questions from teachers and administrators can be addressed by a single resource: District Technology Policy. If you do not have one — get one — following these easy steps:
1. Google “K12 district technology policy”
2. Read policies posted online by Districts around the country
2a. Find one that looks appealing for the needs of your District
2b. Don’t forget to acknowledge their efforts…send an email acknowledging their work
3. Copy/paste
4. Modify as needed WITH District-wide consensus
5. Publish your Policy under Creative Commons
In many respects the CIPA vendor you choose may limit your flexibility in unblocking webpages. Most robust CIPA products DO permit teachers/district coordinators to permit custom URLs to be available on the fly.
Vendors permit “timed access” to specific pages allowing, for example a class meeting Monday afternoons from 1:00 to 2:00pm will have a block of pre-approved website URLs available for 60 minutes.
Vendors also provide the flexibility to permit access to certain categories like eBay, Amazon or CraigsList with options:
1. Warn: This CIPA option will display a dialog box reminding users that the destination URL has been identified as a non-academic site but still allows access to the page.
2. Tracking: Pages can be tracked by administrators if your Technology Policy is so inclined.
3. Time Quota: This CIPA option will track a set time per day (beginning at midnight) for users to access defined, specific or pages. categories. If your district policy calls for 2 hours/day users are simply blocked after the district-wide site times out.
C O N T R O L:
Teachers have commented they need “special permission” to get access to a page or entire website for class. Management of IT organizations has taught me many schools (and organizations) have adverse relationships with their IT staffs. I’m sorry this exists.
It is often difficult to break the assumption, or the “built-in notion” that IT holds C O N T R O L simply because they install and configure the hardware/software but ultimately do not use the product in the classroom. Do you work in a District where IT is the tail that wags the dog?
Q and A:
Does IT tell you what textbooks to order?
Today more and more textbook publishers are embedding webpage URL resources inside textbooks or have established textbook companion webpages. Think you still have the right CIPA solution running in your District?
The idea that textbook approval is equal to website approval is not real. Textbooks are a single source of knowledge unchanged until the next physical edition is printed/shipped … in some cases years later. The equivalent would be a series of fixed bookmarked websites pointing to content. However in some cases pages move to different webservers, blogs or wikis by the time a textbook is shipped. The advantage to online resources includes the ability to see feedback from students outside his/her classroom on a potential global scale regarding subject matter.
BTW: In some cases a remote firewall can block access to the destination website. Sometimes the webserver crashes.
The internet … like life … is not perfect.
Q: Should the teachers be in this same umbrella of protection?
A: The CIPA law is for the protection of minors.
Q: Should the teachers then be allowed to access the internet without restrictions? If so, where does the boundary lies – shopping sites, personal email sites, etc.
A: Well … do you ALWAYS log off your classroom computer correctly?
I have personally watched teachers leave their restricted login account running after they have exited the classroom leaving the computer available to anyone with access to grading and assessment. There are boundaries/rules/guidelines and dare I say … Policy for a reason — to protect students AND faculty.
Is a computer available in the teacher’s lounge? That computer could be configured to bypass CIPA filtering based upon LDAP or Microsoft’s Active Directory. Some have voiced an opinion that teachers and administrators are employees of the District and must obey rules when using equipment at school. While teachers at home or on the road – different story/different post.
A Technology Policy crafted for your District based upon the realworld needs of your teachers can determine the best product and will serve your District well.
Tags: content filter, CIPA, K12, education, technology, web filter, 8e6, bandwidth, broadband, internet, teacher, school, youtube, K12 Technology Policy, District Technology, Technology Policy, web filter, trends
Related Blog Posts:
by donkasprzak
Bookmark the permalink.
Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.