Filters, Fans, and who watches the Watchmen?

“Who watches the Watchmen?” Alan Moore. The Watchmen

No, this is not going to be one more fanboy drooling about the new Watchmen movie; I’m referring to the slogan/question recurring in the original graphic novel because it seems relevant to this week’s topic. The question of the week is, Should provincial Ministries of Education create web filtering standards for schools? In a way, the Watchmen catchphrase means, “Who is in charge of keeping an eye on those who protect us?” On a personal level, I don’t know if many of us educators have given a great deal of thought to this question. But the topic of web filters in schools begs a few more questions:

Do we need filters in schools? Unfortunately, I don’t believe that some students will not deliberately access inappropriate sites or material at this point. And a horror story (from a peer in my Information Technology for Learning course) about viruses taking down entire networks in Vancouver makes me think that the need for high security is evident.

Nevertheless, there are clearly problems with web filtering. Alvin Schrader has argued that:

Internet filtering and rating technologies are theoretically unworkable. It is not that they are technologically unworkable or technologically limited. It is that the essential ambiguities of language, text, reader, rating and blocking methods ensure the failure of automated filtering. The problems of identifying and describing Internet content for purposes of control and prohibition are intractable: new sites, new terms, new issues, the world cacophony of languages, variable interpretations of meaning, variable perceptions of offensiveness, variable perceptions of age appropriateness and variable cultural norms.

At the same time, Jenny Ryan has pointed out that there can be a positive role for filters in collection management and responsible service. To date, I have not seen many alternative solutions to getting rid of filters other than educating students about responsible internet use, ensuring educators are vigilant, and creating good Acceptable Use Policies.

A technology specialist in my school division informed me that many feel filtering is required to limit liability, while a small contingent appreciate that filtering is a band-aid at best and would rather approach the issue of how to deal with inappropriate content through education. I think that is a good way to look at web filters, as band-aids that are going to stay on longer than we wish. Make no mistake, if we really want to help students become safer when using the Internet, we would teach them how to do so – after all, they are accessing the web outside of the classroom all of the time on their phones, laptops, home computers, and so on. But the information I gathered from my local tech specialist indicates that some discussion has already taken place as to the place of filtering, at least in my division. Since Learning with Information and Communication Technology is a big push in my province and school division, it makes sense that web filtering should be a part of how technology is used in schools. Many schools and divisions in Manitoba have in the past few years started utilizing MERLIN (Manitoba Education and Research Learning Information Network) as a provider of several IT services including the filtering of web content. MERLIN employs a hardware-based technology called 8e6 R3000 Enterprise. I have been told that although we still have the ability to selectively block or unblock sites via the tech consultant, a fair degree of control has been relinquished subject to our deal with MERLIN. A look at MERLIN’s website shows that the system:
· Allows administrators to create their own categories of blocked sites (“black list”)
· Allows administrators to create their own lists of acceptable sites (“white list”)
· Allows differentiated Internet access criteria for groups of users
Nonetheless, I don’t know that schools or school divisions are taking enough responsibility. For example, if our filter allows differentiated access for groups or users, shouldn’t teachers, librarians, and administrators all have unfettered access? Should high school students have more access than elementary school learners? I think as a start for a provincially mandated web filter standard, all educators should have no restrictions except for security reasons (viruses and so on). Optimally, educators should have free access to whatever they need to perform their job, and limiting that access while pushing information technology literacy makes no sense.

Who should decide what is filtered? – Peers in my Information Technology for Learning course have informed me that some schools do not filter out YouTube and Facebook – so why do so many other divisions exclude them? Clearly a divide has been created that allows greater access in some divisions. Wouldn’t a common web filtering standard help level the playing field for all students in a province? A decision to unblock a particular site or web 2.0 tool could mean a victory for all, not just one division, if a standard was created that allowed for regular (daily?) updating. It would seem to me that this issue may be too big to leave to individual divisions, and the same goes for individual schools – how could one tech specialist, or even a small team, have the time and expertise necessary to make the big decisions about what is accessible for all students?

Why should Ministries of Education create web filtering standards? – Isn’t the purpose of a Ministry of Education to oversee educational matters? In addition to idea of leveling the playing field, the provincial arm of the government has the capability and power to ensure that all school divisions follow the standards. In the spirit of the collaborative nature of Web 2.0, I would like to see provinces bring together teachers, librarians, administrators, and tech specialists work together to create the standards that would benefit all. In Manitoba, a former teacher (who won numerous awards for his work in schools) is the Minister of Education, Citizenship and Youth – I say we take advantage of his being in office to create a policy of web filtering standards sooner, rather than later. Why? Because who watches the Watchmen? Why, we do, of course.