Getting There

School librarians have always been on the forefront of identifying, using, and introducing new technology tools into the curriculum and know that the Internet is rich with (mostly) free tools that allow students and teachers to collaborate. A different sort of concern I have is the increase of technology directors and staff blocking access from all students to those Web 2.0 tools that allow for participation and communication with others on the Internet. These tools, to my knowledge, do not fall under the filtering mandate for schools receiving e-rate funds. I understand IT staff and administrators concern about predators, network hacking, and other imagined disastrous effects the media has grossly sensationalized, and I understand administrators trying to protect their students.

In my work with teachers and librarians around Texas and other states, they complain that they cannot use wikis, blogs, Nings, and a host of other tools due to blocking. When I posed this problem to our Texas librarians list, One librarian wrote me… “Blocking does indeed make me crazy. After TLA, I came back fired up and ready to try some of the new ideas I had heard, such as your presentation, Collaboration 2.0, only to find my path blocked at so many points. I have sometimes been able to get things unblocked, but that often takes time and certainly dampens my enthusiasm for trying new ideas.”

Another said “Amen sister!” Ours is so closed we can’t do anything even close to web2.0 or advanced collaboration.” And then another one reads… “You go girl! Thank you for saying what I have been thinking for months. They are probably monitoring this email even as we speak!”
Also, as we introduce these new tools, many teachers are still not too knowledgeable about the read/write web and are not accustomed to their students participating with unknown collaborators or publishing to an unidentified audience. Librarians know that it raises students’ level of concern to have a real, even if unknown, audience. Students have a reason, besides just a grade, to show their best work. But, some teachers are still reluctant to use these new tools.

I believe that we can come up with a positive rationale to use these tools in the curriculum and list of ways these tools can be configured for maximum security for students and the school networks? Too many wonderful chances for collaboration are being wasted because curriculum decisions are often being made by those who are not educators and are scared of losing control. I think if we present a united front with a positively worded rationale, superintendents or other central administrators who have education backgrounds can direct the IT staff to relax the blocking restrictions for those tools we are trying to use. AASL could do us a great service if it would craft a position statement that we could use to give us some words to rationalize the use of web 2.0 tools to our administrators and IT staff. I don’t know what I’d do without my wikis.

What are some ways you have convinced IT staff and your administrators to give access to Web 2.0 tools? Will showing examples alone prove that these tools have positive implications on teaching and learning?