George Mayo, the teacher from Virginia that I posted about last week, has had his sites turned back onby his district, and his kids can now get back to the important business of blogging and podcasting and learning. Seems it was the quality of the work that changed the minds of those in charge (go figure) but that next year he’s got to use the blog software provided by the district. Seems like a reasonable solution to me, and it’s a nice reminder that there are ways of navigating this course when cooler heads prevail. Now, let’s see what happens in Orange County…
It is great to know that George Mayo got his sites turned back on. Unfortunately, the educational organization that I work for has just informed all of us to remove SKYPE from our computers immediately. The explanation was that SKYPE presents “a huge security risk, and it has locked the regional network a few times”… Now, I understand the risks, but I can’t ignore the wonderful potential for student learning. My greatest concern is that it won’t stop there. How do you move forward in a school when the restrictions on “unfiltered sites” get greater and greater?