Unit 7 - Filters & CIPA

The topic of filtering and blocking of certain sites in schools keeps coming up in my reading and discussions with my classmates. I thought it was only in my district that sites such as YouTube , Facebook, MySpace, Skype, etc. were blocked; however, I am finding out that this is the case in many districts. This is very discouraging considering the amount of new technology that is available and beneficial to student and their learning. So, for this week I have decided to focus filtering. One of my classmates mentioned CIPA, Children’s Internet Protection Act, as one reason why schools must filter content and programs available online. Thus, in order to find out more about CIPA, I consulted Wikipedia for a brief overview. Here if what I found:

Background
The CIPA is one of several bills that the U.S. Congress has proposed in order to limit adolescent's exposure to explicit content available online on school and library computers. Senator John McCain was responsible for introducing the bill that would later become CIPA to the U.S. Senate in 1999. President Bill Clinton is credited for signing the bill into law on December 21, 2000 and it was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 23, 2003 (Wikipedia, 2009).

CIPA in a Nutshell
CIPA requires schools that receive federal funding from either the E-Rate program or Title III, to enforce Internet safety policies with technology protection measures. Failure to adopt a policy that implements a protection measure on technology could cause a school to lose federal funds. District are free to select filtering or blocking programs, however, there are no specifics about whose access must be filtered and what types of material must be blocked/filtered by schools receiving federal funding (Wikipedia, 2009). In addition, the ALA decided to challenge CIPA in 2001.

While I understand that legally something must be in place in order to protect students and provide guidelines for school districts, CIPA does NOT select which programs and sites must be blocked or filtered. With this in mind, I question why schools are going to the extreme when it comes to blocking and filtering. I understand the need to protect themselves from lawsuits, but having heavy filters and extreme blocking is NOT allowing digital natives to engage in meaningful learning. Consequently, there needs to be an advocate for students in regard to proper Internet use and instruction. To me, this job should be fulfilled by library media specialists.

While it should the job of ALL educators to model and encourage proper Internet use and safety, it is ultimately the role of the library media specialist to TEACH it. In the article “The Library Media Specialist’s Role in Teaching Online Safety” the author suggests that “As a technology leader in the school, the Library Media Specialist must also take a leading role in teaching students and classroom teachers about online safety and privacy issues” (Schmidt, 2009, p. 11). The article goes on to express the notion that librarians must strive to meet the standards set out for 21st century learners including learning how to use information technology responsibility, ethically, and safely (Schmidt, 2009, p. 11). Also, the idea of CIPA is discussed and in regard to that the author writes “If our professional standards state that students need to be able to use technology responsibly and safely, it is our responsibility to ensure that students have the knowledge and skills necessary to do so” (Schmidt, 2009, p. 12).

With this in mind, librarians will have a larger role to fulfill as the use of technology increases in school. On one hand this is exciting and a step in the right direction in order to provide meaningful learning to students. On the other hand, this requires additional pressures regarding keeping up-to-date with professional development, resistance from colleagues and administration, as well making sure that Internet guidelines are put in place district-wide, monitored, and followed by both teachers and students.

Children’s Internet Protection Act. (2009). Wikipedia. Retrieved December 1, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_Internet_Protection_Act

Schmidt, C. M. (2009). The library media specialist’s role in teaching online safety. Library Media Connection. 28(1), 10-13. Retrieved December 3, 2009, from Academic Search Complete database.