Change bLog

I’m increasingly frustrated by the amount of useful content that is blocked in school. I’m also increasingly frustrated by the number of useful gadgets that are banned in school. I know this is nothing new and I’m certainly not the first person to blog about it, but this is a good place to vent my frustration.

Two of my teachers needed video clips for their lessons today. One needed the Diet Coke and Mentos (sorry, can’t link to YouTube version in school) video for a science lesson and one needed Chamberlains infamous ‘Peace for our time’ speech. After a teacher commented that ‘you’ll never find Chamberlain on YouTube’ I set about proving them wrong. Today I have a memory stick containing both of the clips, downloaded with CosmoPod, ready to transfer to the teacher’s MacBooks. But I find it soooooo annoying that I have to go home and download these videos, which in itself is a bit dodgy as I don’t have permission from the owner, when YouTube works perfectly well on its own. If a student wanted to gain access to inappropriate material, they could, and they do sometimes. There are numerous way around the various blocking and filtering systems that are in place in our schools and the students know how to use them!

Another teacher has heard of of Derek Robertson’s work with Nintendo DSs in maths lessons and want w a piece of the action. This is exciting news as other teachers take up the mantel and integrate ICT their classrooms across the curriculum.