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Should School computers have firewalls?

Should schools have firewalls

  • Total voters
    51
Layla_Z said:
I could wash my clothes on a rock but that doesn't make it the best way.
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Not the same thing.
I recently heard that when students step into a classroom they step back in time.
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No they don't.

Not all of a student's time should be spent on a computer but a lot of great learning can happen there. One of the best ways to get a student to remember something is to attach it to something he or she already knows. These kids know technology.
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Thats what extra curricular classes are for.

Why not attach the other things we want them to learn to what they know about technology? Take a science project. In my day we would have constructed our experiment and maybe a nice poster with hand drawings and hand written information. Now a student can accompany that same experiment with a power point presentation complete with video and graphs. This student is developing skills he or she is likely to need in the workplace.
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Shouldn't the science project be about science not pretty printed charts,power point presentations and videos?
 
jamesrage said:
Shouldn't the science project be about science not pretty printed charts,power point presentations and videos?
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Who said it wasn't? :roll: The charts and graphs is the presentation of said science.

What is it that you oppose about this exactly? So far you haven't presenting anything as a counter-argument other than "it is not necessary". Is there something wrong with integrating technology into lesson plans that you are displeased with?
 
jamesrage said:
Not the same thing.

No they don't.
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Great counterargument. Did it take awhile to come up with that? Students do exactly that. They go back to methods and technologies that are no longer in use in the real world. Some of this is necessary as a foundation for what they need to know. For example they do need to be able to do math without a calculator but they also need to know what is being used in college and the real world. Much of this "step back in time" is caused by a lack of funding and a lack of knowledge or fear of the teacher's on how to use the latest hardware/software.
jamesrage said:
Thats what extra curricular classes are for.



Shouldn't the science project be about science not pretty printed charts,power point presentations and videos?
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The science project is about science. I never said the charts etc. should replace the experiment but why not have the student create something interesting. This would not only increase their interest but also the interest of those students looking at the project.

I don't understand why you would not want students to have all the best tools for their education. I know that sometimes fancy extras can take the place of real learning and of course that should be avoided. I also see know reason for students to experience the education we did 20 years ago. Just because it was "good enough for us" doesn't make it good enough for them.
 
jamesrage said:
Not the same thing.

No they don't.



Thats what extra curricular classes are for.



Shouldn't the science project be about science not pretty printed charts,power point presentations and videos?
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The science can be explained easier through charts powerpoints and videos as well as a hands on instruction. i have yet to see a decent counter argument to this whole point. some people have said a few good things though.
 
Layla_Z said:
15 years ago you didn't need computer skills for lots of things that you do now. That's the point.
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Certainly, but with technology (and interpreting Moore's Law liberally), being able to figure out which technological trends will be used as the building blocks of future efforts and which others will be tossed aside is a bit of a guessing game for educators and technology enthusiasts alike. And you do have a point that educators can be "behind the times", ignorant, or flat out angry neo-Luddites. Nevertheless, there is likewise a tendency to think technology will save everything, or perhaps more modestly, become the future approach and replace traditional methods of learning or job training, when in fact, technology is not the be-all-end-all approach. A lot of the time, more traditional methods are recommended. People need to be mindful of history, while maintaining optimism as well as skepticism about future developments.

Right now we are in transition period, as far as I can tell. Programs like Mathmatica, and so on, are useful, but at the same time, not entirely certain if it will be a necessity in the future. Online research is certainly improving, but the publishing industry is either in reactionary mode or is unable to find a particularly good business model in this "Information Age" where a great many people expect information to be free and open. Educators on the whole have and probably will always be technologically deficient no matter how often they go through training seminars.

I have always been an enthusiast of high technology, but at the same time, I think a healthy dose of skepticism should remain.

Again, Firewalls are a security godsend, but likewise cause problems. Content-control software are also a godsend, but also cause problems. As technology progresses, algorithms improve, and customer satisfaction grows. Then, of course, newer developments cause problems for blocking software, but that is to be expected. These are necessary evils.
 
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I don't see anyone arguing against a firewall anymore. I guess it's no longer an issue. :roll:
 
Ikari said:
School's computers/network so they can do as they like.
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Public schools are just that: public. It is not the administrator's computer to do as he likes with. He answers to the Federal government.

The Post-Autistic Economics Network has grown bold enough to demand that federally-funded economics associations censure anybody who displays “axiom-happy behavior,” as this is considered symptomatic of autism.

Real-World Economics Review said:
It is accepted fact that the economics profession through its teachings, pronouncements and policy recommendations facilitated the Global Financial Collapse (GFC). To date, however, the world’s major economics associations have declined to censure the major facilitators of the GFC or even to publicly identify them. This silence, this indifference to causing human suffering, constitutes grave moral failure. It also gives license to economists to continue to indulge in axiom-happy behaviour.
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At this early stage of the Post-Autistic Movement, the most obvious point of comparison with the Nazis is their campaign to ban academic papers. However, it would not come as a surprise to learn that they have also bribed and/or intimidated computer filter companies to block sites guilty of “axiom-happy behavior.”

If there is anybody here who has access to a high school computer, I would be interested in learning whether the Post-Autistic Economics Network has succeeded in blocking my economics site.
 
American said:
I don't see anyone arguing against a firewall anymore. I guess it's no longer an issue. :roll:
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Well, firewalls are tools...As in, only as good as the person using/designing them.
 
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