Curricular Management of the Internet: Beyond the Blocking Solution.

Establishing the safety and welfare of students is a prime responsibility for all educational leaders. If a building is not secure, if the classrooms are not free of verbal, physical, or emotional harassment, if fire hazards and safety code violations exist, then there is a serious problem in a school. Parents certainly would have difficulties entrusting their children to such an environment. However, child safety is not the only charge given to educators. If the only success a principal can point to at the end of his or her tenure is that the children were protected, would that principal be considered a success? Safety is a prime concern, but certainly far from the educator's only concern. In fact, all of our curricular goals and objectives presuppose the proper custodial care of children as merely a springboard towards educational excellence. The same must hold true for the current argument of how to protect children from the "evils of the Internet." Great debates have arisen all over the country, especially in public schools and libraries where tax dollars are being spent. Any and all attempts to restrict student access to "inappropriate Internet sites" are frequently met with the cry of censorship. However, is it possible to consider the question of Internet restriction on another set of terms rather than those of censorship and student safety? Perhaps the debate over student access to the Internet should be discussed in the language and discipline of our trade -- as a curricular and instructional challenge. The most popular blocking software titles in use in homes, libraries, and schools do just that -- block sites. Generally a software company generates a master list of subjects, words, or images that are deemed inappropriate for children. These key words are fed into a program that does not allow children to view Web pages that contain the stated objectionable material. More sophisticated programs actually let the proper authority (parent, library director or principal) select the level of restriction. These programs generally allow the software to be turned off by the use of a password. Users can then readily add or delete sites from the master list. As a first amendment issue, this debate will certainly continue for years. Yet, beyond the issue of censorship, a nagging question remains: just because the blocking programs help create a safe environment, do these programs help us work towards educational excellence or simply towards our bare responsibility of the proper custodial care of children? Managing Students' Time One of the most dangerous obstacles to learning is "time off task." In sixth grade I got in trouble for reading what I considered a more interesting story at the back of the textbook while the teacher wanted me to analyze what I considered to be a more boring story in the front of the textbook. While my capricious imagination called me to read one thing, the rigor and discipline of learning demanded that I pay heed to the task at hand. There always needs to be time for students to read what they want and motivate themselves, but there must also be a time when students must struggle with what is in front of them. The Internet holds much greater distractions than my sixth grade reading textbook. My choices were limited to the selections a textbook publisher gave me. Our current students literally have a world of information to choose from, even if they only have access to the items deemed appropriate. Any hobby or passing interest that a student has is just two mouse clicks away when she or he travels the Internet. A teacher may plan the most exciting learning adventure possible. She or he may create a task that demands that the students synthesize, analyze, and do everything else Bloom would like us to do. Student motivation may be a given because the text for analysis is a Web page with interactive media on it. However, once the student decides Sports Illustrated is better, or that dinosaurs are more interesting, then time off task has begun and the learning at hand is lost. …