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Digital Barriers to Education Help No One

October 30, 2008

My Director forwarded this article to me, which I found fascinating: "'Digital Disconnect' divides kids, educators" in eSchoolNews.  What I found most fascinating was the following line from the study:

Students who took the survey said the major obstacles to their use of technology at school include filters that block the web sites they need and administrators who impose rules that limit their technology use.

Can we have a better argument against filtering?  Against blocking ports, blocking sites, blocking programs, blocking use?

Project Tomorrow conducted the study (titled Speak Up 2007) and held a webcast reporting the findings (which is archived so you can watch it).  The report itself is available as a PDF as well, including many more interesting findings about students feelings about particular blocks, specific technology success rates, and more. 

The study was done in 2007, mind you, so my guess is that it's even worse now.  I hear more and more every month about schools and libraries tightening the leashes on their computers, especially those used by kids and teens.   While I firmly believe that is the exact opposite approach that we should be taking, I understand that it is driven by fear.  Fear of a lot of different things.  I hope for a better day, and hope that school librarians can use this report as a way to explain to administrators and other stakeholders how important open access and technology support is to libraries, schools, and the education of our young people.

“Digital Barriers to Education Help No One”

  1. Amanda Wortman Says:
    October 31st, 2008 at 12:18 pm

    Hi there,

    I work for Project Tomorrow, the nonprofit who runs the Speak Up survey. I just wanted to write and let you know that Speak Up 2008 is now open for input through December 19th! If you’re interested to see how your own students feel about technology issues in school, considering signing up. You can find lots more information on our website here: http://tomorrow.org/speakup/index.html, and feel free to email me with any questions you may have.

    Thanks,
    Amanda Wortman
    Program Support Coordinator
    Project Tomorrow

  2. Lori Reed Says:
    November 7th, 2008 at 6:20 am

    I’m still amazed at how many libraries block content and applications from their staff! How can we expect our staff to learn and become tech-savvy if they don’t have access to basic functions on the Internet such as chat and social networking!

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