Help! How do I fight restrictions?

[Tiffany Whitehead]

I have a question for all of you proactive, veteran librarians. I'm in my second year as a TL in an elementary school, moving into my library after only half a year of teaching. I'm a baby in this profession all around. I inherited a complete mess of a library, and I've spend the past two years developing the collection (thanks to a huge fundraiser that allowed me the cash flow to do so) and generally getting the program straightened out. Now I'm ready to put on my armor and fight my battles.

 

The state of Louisiana has some pretty strict internet safety laws for schools. My district has taken those laws and created an extremely restrictive internet policy. Basically, anything that is not provided/monitored by the district is not allowed. No interaction between students and teachers may take place via any program other than what is provided by the district. I wanted to create a blog to communicate library activities with parents, but I was told that I could not do this. The district is apparently looking into a program that will allow us to create blogs, but it is still in the research phase, I was told.

 

My question is this...where do I start? I have the support of my administration. In fact, my assistant principal has been "fighting the filter" himself this year because he's a very technology driven educator as well. I'm ready to gather information and make my case, I'm just seeking advice on the most effective route I should take in doing this.

[Ashley Nichols-Lampkin]

Hi Tiffany,
I am also fairly new in this world but it may help if you can get parental involvement in your cause. Perhaps, start off with a paper newsletter to parents and then bring up an interest in getting a blog set-up but that you need their voices to the higher-ups. Just a thought!! Let us know how it all goes!!

[Tiffany Whitehead]

My district is new and I think there is a lot of fear with using what's out there - blogs, wikis, twitter, social networking sites, etc. The reason I was given is that we (teachers) are not allowed to communicate with our students through media that is not monitored by the district.

My current plan is to assemble some examples of ways that others have used these web 2.0 tools to enrich the learning of their students. I want to present it in some interesting way, but I'm still working on the info gathering!