Journal #4- "It's time to tust Teachers with the Internet" (Nets 1,3,5)

Schaffhauser, D. (2010, December 1). It's time to trust teachers with the internet: a conversation with meg ormiston. Retrieved from http://thejournal.com/Articles/2010/12/01/Its-Time-To-Trust-Teachers-with-the-Internet-A-Conversation-with-Meg-Ormiston.aspx?sc_lang=en&Page=1

Summary: Meg Ormiston works with schools to help incorporate technology into the classroom.  In this article she talks about how hard it is to get schools to allow 21st century technology, like social networking sites, into the classrooms.  Ormiston states that schools are not trusting teachers to know what types of sites should be blocked from their computers or not.  When schools tend to block a bunch of sites it restricts the teachers from bringing in technology into the classroom.  It makes it hard for teachers to try and incorporate technology when they are being blocked all the time.  Ormiston is a firm believer that we should protect our children form bad sites such as porn but we should also teach them how to use technology responsibly.   In Ormisons interview she says that when schools tend to be more restrictive it will discourage teachers from bringing technology in and they will most likely give up. One thing that is highly overlooked is that kids now days have access to smart phones and computers that don't have all these filters on them.  Who is teaching them what sites are appropriate and what sites are not if the schools aren't.  Ormiston states that education is the key and that by blocking students from technology we are missing important opportunities to teach.

Question 1:  Do you think teachers should be given the opportunity to decide whether sites should be blocked or not?

Yes I think that teachers should be trusted enough to make that decision.  Like Ormiston said if we cant trust our teachers to decide if a websites appropriate then how can we even trust them in the classroom. Students should be limited from certain sites and monitored while on certain sites but the teacher should have enough good judgment to do so. I think that by putting so many restrictions on technology it is limiting the amount of learning going on inside the classroom. 

Question 2:  How do schools make sure that teachers have the right tools to integrate the technology appropriately?

 I think that a good way to ensure that teachers know how to integrate the technology would be to educate them on certain sites that may be valuable to their curriculum.  Maybe a class to teach them ways that they could use different sites as tools in the classroom.  Especially for teachers that have been teaching for a while and may be stuck in their ways and may not be familiar or comfortable with new technology.