Let’s solve everything with Technology #2
IT professionals, especially in schools, are frequently asked to address problems that are not technical in nature, but that management have decided are best handled with a technical solution.
Today’s instalment is one of my favourite examples of this:
“Students are playing games on the internet during my lesson! Why don’t you block all the games sites?”
Why indeed. Well, you see, its because as fast as we block them, new ones appear. Forgive me if I don’t want to get into a never-ending game of cat and mouse. How about you exercise some classroom control instead? Didn’t you do teacher training to learn this stuff? You wouldn’t ask me to stop them playing cards at the back of the room, would you?
Another good one is when kids see nice pictures on Google images. They try to blame IT asking when we haven’t blocked them…
We’ve tried to use Safe Search but it’s so easy for the kids to switch that off :-)