The tension arises from four points:
- Point one: The administration has requested that I maintain an official Facebook presence for the school district. In order to maintain that presence, I need Facebook access at work.
- Point two: The web filter we use has limited granularity. I mean, I can block sites (or entire categories), unblock sites (or entire categories), allow Authorized Override, place a time frame to block sites (only allow after hours, on weekends, etc.), or set quotas (time or volume of data downloaded). There is no "block only for students" or "block for everyone but the administrative offices" or "block only for the high school".
- Point three: There are good cases being made for educating students in the proper use of social networking tools so they can avoid costly mistakes in the future. Students need to be aware that what they post online will follow them into the future with very real consequences. Blocking these sites feels like we are shucking responsibility for this education. Perhaps that's not our responsibility to begin with but I feel it needs some discussion and not a knee-jerk reaction.
- Point four: Social network sites are invaluable to the staff's Personal Learning Networks (PLNs). I feel like I am making their jobs more difficult when I block sites that could help them network with their peers. Making work more difficult is the opposite of how I generally describe my job.
So that puts me in a position of being asked to block a site that I have an obligation to access, is difficult to limit access without a near-total blackout, students should be learning to use, and our staff may find useful as part of their professional development. Fun!
The semi-elegant solution I have implemented is as follows:
- Facebook is now listed as "Authorized Override." This means that you will need a password in order to access Facebook. A password has been given to each school principal. Whether they allow anyone else to use it is up to them. If they do not remember the password, they can contact me and I will reset it.
- The people I recruited to help maintain the Facebook pages can continue using the email addresses I gave them. I haven't fully tested the process, but there should be no reason this change should break anything. Let me know if that is a faulty assumption.
This doesn't address proper student usage or staff usage without barriers. Maybe the district is better without the hassles of student/staff abuse. What do you think? Is this new setup acceptable? Does it need tweaked? Does it need reworked from the ground up?
