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"Commenters nearby don't get that the school district and its administrators will be liable if kids are using school resources (bandwidth) to access controversi

"Commenters nearby don't get that the school district and its administrators will be liable if kids are using school resources (bandwidth) to access controversial websites." Then teachers shouldn't assign homework activities that require use of those same websites (Twitter being one example from the article). "Your homework assignment is to go use Twitter to find 5 spanish language articles and translate them, then tweet in spanish. Oh, and Twitter is deemed 'controversial' enough to not be allowed on school property. And you'll get a 0 on this assignment if you don't complete it". Sweet...

CocaKoala 12y ago
That doesn't sound that weird at all? "Your homework assignment is to go [home and] use Twitter to [...]". If they were saying "Your in-class project is to use Twitter to find these articles. Also, Twitter is banned on the school network. And you get a 0 if you don't do it", then yes, I'd be agreeing that it's weird. But homework is, sort of by definition, meant to be done at home. When I was in school, I would certainly take advantage of down time to get homework done early, but (until I started getting free blocks in high school) I never felt like homework was meant to be done during school hours on school grounds. Why are teachers assigning work to be done on websites that the school network blocks? Because at home, it's the parent's job to ensure their child doesn't access material that parents object to; at school, it's the administrator's job to ensure that EVERY child doesn't access material that ANY parent can object to. That's a much more challenging proposition, and (for better or for worse), schools tend to paint with a broad brush when it comes to enforcing limits.
- mgkimsal 12y ago
  not everyone has internet access at home. Make it a book. The school system has deemed that "Huckleberry Finn" is too controversial to be allowed in our library. Your homework assignment is to do a book report on "Huckleberry Finn".
  - CocaKoala 12y ago
    Public libraries don't block access to Twitter (and also carry copies of Huckleberry Finn).

CocaKoala 12y ago

That doesn't sound that weird at all? "Your homework assignment is to go [home and] use Twitter to [...]". If they were saying "Your in-class project is to use Twitter to find these articles. Also, Twitter is banned on the school network. And you get a 0 if you don't do it", then yes, I'd be agreeing that it's weird. But homework is, sort of by definition, meant to be done at home. When I was in school, I would certainly take advantage of down time to get homework done early, but (until I started getting free blocks in high school) I never felt like homework was meant to be done during school hours on school grounds. Why are teachers assigning work to be done on websites that the school network blocks? Because at home, it's the parent's job to ensure their child doesn't access material that parents object to; at school, it's the administrator's job to ensure that EVERY child doesn't access material that ANY parent can object to. That's a much more challenging proposition, and (for better or for worse), schools tend to paint with a broad brush when it comes to enforcing limits.

mgkimsal 12y ago
not everyone has internet access at home. Make it a book. The school system has deemed that "Huckleberry Finn" is too controversial to be allowed in our library. Your homework assignment is to do a book report on "Huckleberry Finn".
- CocaKoala 12y ago
  Public libraries don't block access to Twitter (and also carry copies of Huckleberry Finn).