One of my school tech folks forwarded a message to me that she had received from a teacher at her school…
This is a new, annoying, and popular site for the kids. Can you block it?
She was just as appalled as I was that someone would actually want to block this site.
This is sooo wrong on so many levels that it’s hard to know where to begin. Apparently the students were trying to use Google Earth to find their houses and other cool things instead of doing their work. As I’ve stated in previous posts, I’m not going to block access to a resource just because one teacher doesn’t know how to manage their class. Even if I did block this one, I’m sure those students would find some other creative method of diversion. I might was well completely block access to the Internet, or, better yet, take the computers away from them.
What is even more appalling is the fact that this was a social studies teacher. This teacher needs to be engaging the students. Use Google Maps and other resources to complement the lesson so that the kids don’t lose interest.
In other words, these kids have a natural draw to an excellent resource. Rather than block it, why not take advantage of it and capitalize on that interest? I would love to see how this teacher would cope should some of these one-to-one laptop initiatives come to fruition. How would they handle an entire class, each with their own laptop and with Internet access?
[tags]censorship, Google Maps[/tags]
i had to laugh at this…please tell me the english teahcer do teach irony
Maybe she was offended by all the nudity in Google Maps 😉
new, annoying, popular, for kids = block
wow, that is a teacher that needs a new profession, maybe at Guantanamo Bay…