Jeff Dyke

Elective (2)

Filtering

 

 

5 Pros of Internet Filtering

 

  1. Internet filters can be a very positive thing in the school setting. I believe it is important for students to stay on task and the use of internet filtering disables students from checking out websites that do not apply to what they are currently studying.

 

  1. A second pro of internet filtering in the schools is that children are not able to access sites that are not age appropriate. With the use of filters students can not access sites that promote drinking, gambling, pornography etc.

 

 

  1. A third pro of internet filters is that it takes some of the responsibility off the teacher. It would be impossible for a teacher to constantly see what every student is looking at on their computer screen. With the use of filters, the teacher knows that the students can not be looking at websites that are not appropriate.

 

 

  1. A fourth pro of internet filters is that they help students and teachers follow the curriculum. The use of the internet in the classroom should be for a learning purpose only and that learning should follow the curriculum. By using internet filters the students can access the sites they need for learning and will be blocked from the ones that don’t

 

  1. A fifth pro of internet filters is that they bring a sense of comfort to the children’s parents. Parents do not want their children off task and away from the learning environment. The use of internet filters allows the children’s parents to know that their children are denied the use of the same websites that they are denied from at home.

 

 

 

5 Cons of Internet Filtering

 

  1. The first con that I see with internet search filters is that sometimes material gets blocked that a student should be able to access. The peace fire website listed several different filters and different sites that those filters blocked due to the keywords in the title. Among the list of sites that were blocked were an animal rights web site, Time Magazine, an anti racist site, and the marijuana policy project site.

 

 

  1. The second con I see with internet search filters is that you have to constantly update your software. If it is discovered that the filter is blocking something it shouldn’t be and that site becomes available, the user must then update their software before he or she can access the site. Although it is not hard to update one computer, it may be hard to update the thousands of computers across the school district.

 

 

  1. The third con I can see with internet filters is that it would almost be impossible to turn off keyword blocking. Most filters spot certain keywords and therefore blacklist the sites containing those words. Due to the fact that many filters work this way, sites like breast cancer awareness and the aids memorial quilt were found to be on the blacklist.

 

 

  1. The fourth con that I came across involves the restriction of health information. According to a study on internet filtering by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 24 percent of health information and 50 percent of safe sex information is blocked when the filters are set at their most restrictive level. The study also showed that setting the filter at its highest restriction level only has a minimal increase in the amount of pornographic content that is blocked.

 

 

  1. The fifth and final con that I found dealt with internet filtering in China. It appears that almost all users in China and the Middle East are being blocked from accessing sites which contain the words “freedom”, and democracy. Almost all users are blocked from accessing political Web sites that criticize the government of their country. I do not believe that anyone should be blocked from accessing these sites.

 

 

I am studying to be a physical education teacher, so my students will not really ever use the internet while in my class. Although students will not really get the

opportunity to use the internet during my class, I believe that teachers play a significant role in protecting students from harmful material. Teachers are in control of many children and should be monitoring what these students are doing. It is the teacher’s duty to make sure that all of their students are not looking at harmful material on the internet. While using the internet I believe that all teachers should constantly be circulating the room to make sure that all of their students are on task. The internet can be a great tool and can provide sources to students that they normally wouldn’t have. The internet should definitely be used in the classroom, but the students need to be monitored very carefully.