Post by wvhsparent on Dec 1, 2006 10:40:01 GMT -6
Computer firewalls are a waste of students’ time and energy
Posted Friday, December 01, 2006
Quick read: It seems to be purely spiteful to prevent a student from searching for the picture of a poet for English class or a turtle for biology. It can only be assumed that administrators are against furthering the education process.
There is a silent menace stalking the cables of high-schools around the nation: the firewall.
A firewall is a block placed on a computer that prevents access to certain Web sites. High school administrations seem to be taking firewalls way too far, blocking not only games but also most images (whether inappropriate or not), light profanity, access to e-mail, and even pornography!
Most high schools allow Internet access either during certain classes for projects, reports, etc., or during lunch periods. A typical high school student will not want to spend their lunch period looking up Bible verses; they will want to check their MySpace or Facebook sites, or AOL accounts.
Some will want to spend their brief moments of relaxation and freedom playing some sort of brief Internet game. Since this is during lunch and not class time, I cannot see anything wrong with this behavior. After all, MySpace is supposed to be “a place for friends.” Don’t administrators want students to have friends?
As for class time Internet use, most teachers require some sort of picture or graphic to be used in their reports and slideshows. Unfortunately, firewalls filter all image searches, and most students are forced to use remedial clip art. What is the point of blocking image searches?
There is already a block for pornography, so it seems to be purely spiteful to prevent a student from searching for the picture of a poet for English class or a turtle for biology. It can only be assumed that administrators are against furthering the education process.
As for blocking porn, that is absolutely ridiculous. What sort of crazed pervert would look up porn at school in a library or lab room when both are constantly full of adults and other students? Besides, most students see their share of school-time genitalia during the STD slideshows in health class.
Really, there is no reason for firewalls. Most students just use CGI proxies to bypass them anyway. Why not do the right thing and save us all a little time and trouble?
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dailyherald.com
Posted Friday, December 01, 2006
Quick read: It seems to be purely spiteful to prevent a student from searching for the picture of a poet for English class or a turtle for biology. It can only be assumed that administrators are against furthering the education process.
There is a silent menace stalking the cables of high-schools around the nation: the firewall.
A firewall is a block placed on a computer that prevents access to certain Web sites. High school administrations seem to be taking firewalls way too far, blocking not only games but also most images (whether inappropriate or not), light profanity, access to e-mail, and even pornography!
Most high schools allow Internet access either during certain classes for projects, reports, etc., or during lunch periods. A typical high school student will not want to spend their lunch period looking up Bible verses; they will want to check their MySpace or Facebook sites, or AOL accounts.
Some will want to spend their brief moments of relaxation and freedom playing some sort of brief Internet game. Since this is during lunch and not class time, I cannot see anything wrong with this behavior. After all, MySpace is supposed to be “a place for friends.” Don’t administrators want students to have friends?
As for class time Internet use, most teachers require some sort of picture or graphic to be used in their reports and slideshows. Unfortunately, firewalls filter all image searches, and most students are forced to use remedial clip art. What is the point of blocking image searches?
There is already a block for pornography, so it seems to be purely spiteful to prevent a student from searching for the picture of a poet for English class or a turtle for biology. It can only be assumed that administrators are against furthering the education process.
As for blocking porn, that is absolutely ridiculous. What sort of crazed pervert would look up porn at school in a library or lab room when both are constantly full of adults and other students? Besides, most students see their share of school-time genitalia during the STD slideshows in health class.
Really, there is no reason for firewalls. Most students just use CGI proxies to bypass them anyway. Why not do the right thing and save us all a little time and trouble?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
dailyherald.com
