Schools UNblocking Social Network Sites?

[mb2k01]

Hi All,

 

Has anyone unblocked / unfiltered Social Networking Sites in their school for pupils to use?

We are currently discussing the possibility, and I / we would be keen to hear your experiences!

 

The theoretical pros and cons regarding this are fairly obvious, and while I'm happy for general discussion I'm specifically interested in experiences gained from those already having moved this way.

 

Thanks

[linkazoid]

Blocked for Staff and Students here... The head asked us too as staff were spending to much "work" time on it and the students only insult each other....

 

Staff are not as bothered now as most access on their phones if they are realllly desperate, but most just wait until home time.

 

We have access because we sometimes get asked to check student profiles for evidence about fights and such....

 

Michael

[FN-GM]

We allow staff on them before and after school. It gets blocked during the day.

[linkazoid]

We allow staff on them before and after school. It gets blocked during the day.

 

Maybe i'll configure this on smoothwall during the break...

[gaz350]

we've had 18 months of facebook, when you 1st unblock it not many people realise. but slowly peoples habbits change.

 

now its like the students are at home, they login, logon to facebook, then start working.

 

this week we just banned it for 5 days, but the kids who dont want to work still find something else to waste their time on (surprise surprise) the good kids have just returned to getting on with their work.

 

Will feed back to see if the ban stays after half term with the looming coursework deadlines or if they are allowed access again, we'll see (SLT and Student Council will discuss 1st day of term)

[mb2k01]

Thanks to all who responded so far.

Was the decision to allow social networking made strategically or ad-hoc?

Has there been any fall out from opening up access?

Did you consult with staff or parents beforehand?

[JJonas]

We have moved onto an e-learning cast that allows social networking at the moment we block

 

Facebook for everyone

Youtube staff access - students blocked

twitter staff access - students blocked. we are using twitter for quick webpage updates.

 

other social networking blocked for students

[CyberNerd]

Some of our staff are quite keen to teach social networking using facebook as part of internet safety - we've not done it yet as other staff have reservations about it.

I'm mixed minded, but think it's more likely to waste time than cause any deep seated problems.

 

I think there is value in hosting inhouse social network sites such as mahara - but it's not a real world situation, so not sure.

[Tunster]

Being a boarding school we've blocked all social networking sites for staff/students during the school day. You'd be surprised how much bandwidth we've saved since going over to our new leased line and how quick most sites run. It's all incorporated in our IT Policy now (except for one exception for our marketing manager who uses twitter to update parts of our website).

 

Helps me work better to tell the truth (yes, we're bound to the policy as well!) .

[mossj]

when I was working in a school we had a 'privileged' group on our filter server, these where students that were allowed access to social media because they had received a recommendation from a teacher (usually the media teachers).

 

If they where caught abusing such things, they would be removed from the group and never returned, teacher recommendation or not...

[PyROm]

We block all social networking sites we can find here. Due to ICT teaching requirements we do allow two groups of ict students access during their ICT lessons. We also have to allow this same group of students to use msn messenger for their ICT course, however all conversations are monitored and logged with smoothwall.

 

We had a problem here with students creating facebook groups (both in school and from home) called things along the lines of "People who hate teacher xxxxxx".

[Sylv3r]

We don't allow any access to Social networking sites for staff or students in school. We use to actively publish our school facebook and twitter page on our homepage, but after being left with little choice I have had to remove this. See news release from the Director of our LA.

 

The following information was recently issued to all staff in Children and Young People's Services (copied here for schools' information):

 

 

 

Use of Social Networking Sites

 

 

 

As you might be aware, the County Council does not currently have a policy on the use of Social Networking Sites although we understand that this is currently under consideration.

 

 

 

However, pending the introduction of a County Council policy, everybody should be very clear that Children and Young People's Services does not support the use of social networking sites as a suitable means of contact with children and young people due to the necessity to adhere to certain professional standards for some groups of staff and, importantly, some very significant safeguarding concerns. This is in line with guidance and recent comments from CEOP, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre - more guidance and information can be found on the CEOP site.

 

 

 

Managers are requested to ensure that the use of sites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc., for the distribution of information or for personal contact with children and young people is not permitted and any failure to comply with this instruction could result in investigation and possibly disciplinary action.

[jmair]

We currently work backwords when it comes to internet filtering. We only allow certain sites.

 

This however (I feel) is counterproductive to students who then may not get 'real world' advice when it comes to using the internet. This is something I would like changed.

[tom_newton]

Glad to see someone using the IM filter!

[rh91uk]

Social Networking almost definetly blocked here. Opens up too much of a window of opportunity.

[fiendishlyclever]

There's an article in Secondary Education that might be worth a read.

 

Sec Ed 11th February 2010

[NewOrder]

Today, Ofsted released their report based on an e-safety survey that they ran last year in 35 primary and secondary schools. .

 

The report recommends the use of ‘managed’ systems instead of locked down systems. One of the key findings reads:

 

“Pupils in the schools that had ‘managed’ systems had a better knowledge and understanding of how to stay safe than those in schools with ‘locked down’ systems. Pupils were more vulnerable overall when schools used locked down systems because they were not given enough opportunities to learn how to assess and manage risk for themselves.”

 

One recommendation made reads:

 

“The DCSF, in conjunction with Becta, CEOP and local authorities should…Encourage and support schools to move from locked down to managed systems.”

 

Note that it says ‘encourage and support’ so while not mandatory it is recommended by Ofsted.

 

Links

 

BBC summary: BBC News - Pupils 'must manage online risks'

 

Full report from Ofsted (I recommend you read it all)

 

The safe use of new technologies / Thematic reports / Documents by type / Browse all by / Publications and research / Ofsted home / Ofsted - Ofsted

 

 

I also like this where a school through fire got up and running through the use of facebook.

 

 

 

The school they couldn't kill ? 'We are Campsmount'

[mb2k01]

Just to give a bit more background as most replies have been kindly detailed...

 

We are considering changing our (largely inheritted) approach to filtering of Social Networking Sites, and were/are interested to hear from others having taken similar paths.

 

I would rate my personal opinion as somewhere between neutral and positive.

I can see the sense in considering unblocking, as education isn't gained from preventing experience.

It also makes no sense that while we block access so tightly at school, we all largely accept that the majority of students go straight home and use the sites - largely safely and sensibly.

Having controlled access in school at appropriate times would allow for education and an element of monitoring, as well as a cultivation of more mature use of what could be a useful resource.

 

Going that way would obviously bring challenges, but only time would tell if the rewards were worth the effort.

 

[edit - thanks to the previous two posters and your links - both demonstrating similar thinking and highlighting positive reports]

Edited February 11, 2010 by mb2k01

[AngryTechnician]

At my last school (secondary level), Facebook had never been blocked. I was there when Facebook membership was opened up and its use started to become prevalent. The decision was taken that the school would rather monitor and educate than block. This stance is now being borne out by the recent Ofsted talk about managing online risks rather than locking everything down.

 

In my own experience, our 'watch-and-learn' culture meant we were able to log and catch several instances of cyber-bullying that would still otherwise have occurred in the same medium, but out of school hours where we would never have caught it. It's not a reason to unblock on it's own, but it's worth thinking about.

[limbo]

We have written a basic social networking element into our VLE. All externally hosted ones are blocked by the LEA.

[NewOrder]

We have written a basic social networking element into our VLE. All externally hosted ones are blocked by the LEA.

 

That may change when they read the reports but I doubt. Most schools are happy it is easier to block than manage and monitor.

[flyinghaggis]

I can see the sense in considering unblocking, as education isn't gained from preventing experience.

It also makes no sense that while we block access so tightly at school, we all largely accept that the majority of students go straight home and use the sites - largely safely and sensibly.

Having controlled access in school at appropriate times would allow for education and an element of monitoring, as well as a cultivation of more mature use of what could be a useful resource.

 

I think the fundamental problem is one of control.

 

At the end of the day you as a school have no control over what is posted and what materials the pupils/staff are subjected to by themselves or others on the website so I'd see it as largely irresponsible to allow pupils to use the sites. You cant really supervise what's going on and the 'what if...' scenarios would put legal responsibility of anything that happens as a result of you encouraging them to use it right at the schools door.

 

Far better to have an internal VLE style social network IMO where you can control/view all content to keep the pupils safe. You dont need to let pupils put themselves at risk to teach them about the dangers of the internet and social networking.

Edited February 15, 2010 by flyinghaggis

[mb2k01]

I think the fundamental problem is one of control.

 

At the end of the day you as a school have no control over what is posted and what materials the pupils/staff are subjected to by themselves or others on the website so I'd see it as largely irresponsible to allow pupils to use the sites. You cant really supervise what's going on and the 'what if...' scenarios would put legal responsibility of anything that happens as a result of you encouraging them to use it right at the schools door.

 

Far better to have an internal VLE style social network IMO where you can control/view all content to keep the pupils safe. You dont need to let pupils put themselves at risk to teach them about the dangers of the internet and social networking.

 

As I said in my original post, I remain fairly neutral on the idea, and agree with some of what you've said, but there is a flip side as well.

 

Currently a school who blocks access to a social network has no control, no supervision and no say in how it is used. If a pupil runs in to difficulty it will largely go un-noticed and unreported.

If controlled access was available in school then an element of monitoring, education and advice can take place. With technologies like Smoothwall and Securis (for example), schools can be confident that while access is enabled, pupils remain protected.

 

I would argue that a "what if" scenario was much LESS likely to happen in the above scenario - and if one did, the school would be best placed to action some form of intervention.