I agree with a lot of people. Just do your work and don't worry about the websites you can't go to. When I'm at school, I do my work, then I go to MS paint and doodle if I have time. Just find something to do if you're bored. The reason why they block websites is to prevent you from fooling around, not doing your work, and destroying the computer with viruses. Sure, they sometimes block websites that you actually need to use, but there are tons of websites around that. Internet = Deus ex machina. Just remember that.

Short_Circuiting

Phantom Penguin
I remember back when I was in High School they blocked Myspace and sites like it and the stuff you would expect them to block (porn,ect). And I didn't really care, seeing how the only classes we had computers in was so full of class-related work that we didn't have enough time to mess around on the internet anyway.

Why do kids need to be surfing the web when they should be doing work anyhow?

because, some websites are actually useful. for reports and stuff. because i don't like opening up books that don't have the words “dystopian future” and “cyborg army of doom” in them.

Heh, I do agree that the web shouldn't be blocked altogether. But I do think it should be un unuseable until a project needs to be done.
Because if someone is going to choose not to do work in their class they shouldn't get to surf the web you know?

well, our teachers just punish them if they're not doing their work.

and as for dissing wikipedia, my school does that too D:<

Like I said before, I can understand why websites liek youtube and the likes are blocked. But blocking Wiki is just retarded. That's like banning the encyclopedia from the library.

I hate the damn blocking thingys. I don't go on sites and stuff during ICT unless I'm ALLOWED to. I go there at break time…I need a life…………………..

if you can't look up information then what is the point of the internet?

suzi
And Wikipedia. ESPECIALLY Wikipedia.

God I hate teachers that do that. -_-

Just shut up about the blocked sites. The ones they block are the ones that have no business in a classroom. I should know. I was the net admin for a couple schools. And the IT department isn't a brick wall. If you need a site unblocked just fricken ask. If you can't think of a good reason why a site should be opened you don't need it (exceptions aside of course). Wikipedia is not always accurate either which is why the teachers ask to have it blocked. If you're doing your job as a student and go on to university, you'll learn that its not a citable source.

And to repeat an earlier comment. Why the hell are you asking to have myspace unblocked when you can't even spell! get off the stupid computer forget any supposed “projct yur doin bout te inernez!t” and learn your english!



*whew* Any websites a school will block can wait till you get home. When you join the workforce (assuming you do better than minimum wage) you'll find that companies do the same blocking so get used to it. You can bitch when the ISP does it to you at home.

I'm going to sound like a stick in the mud. ;___;

I actually don't like students using Wikipedia. It's not blocked or anything but I wouldn't want it listed as a source. It's a great tool to use as a starting point to research or to find out odd facts but the problem is that a lot of students use that as the start AND end point to their research. Your research should never end at Wikipedia.

I'm a high school teacher so…

BLOCK, BLOCK, BLOCK!!!

Within reason though…our school has a “white list” that keeps preferred sites and Websenses the hell out of anything not on the list. Anything NOT pertinent to education or research. Myspace? BLOCK IT! Youtube? BLOCK IT! Google and Yahoo allows you to stream videos and music - BLOCK THE HELL OUT THEM!!!! Other forces of mass distraction and PROXIES (sneaky bastards) - BLOCK IT! Wikipedia? What is it you kids say? Meh??? Now there's a word I wish I could BLOCK!

It's SCHOOL…not an Internet Cafe. I don't know why students get so pissed when something is blocked. It's usually blocked because chances are, half of the students in the school are loading up the bandwith with crap, bringing the network to a crawl and/or are abusing the system - never mind the potential threats that are out there (I'm talking to you LIMEWIRE users out there). That's why they make students sign usage contracts.

You'd be amazed how functional people were in school before the Internet came along!

Not trying to be a jerk but from an educator's stand point, it can and does become a disruption in the learning environment.

Black_Kitty
I'm going to sound like a stick in the mud. ;___;

I actually don't like students using Wikipedia. It's not blocked or anything but I wouldn't want it listed as a source. It's a great tool to use as a starting point to research or to find out odd facts but the problem is that a lot of students use that as the start AND end point to their research. Your research should never end at Wikipedia.

Same thing my teacher did while I was in school. I remember she saw a few people using it and logged on and changed the words, just to teach them a lesson.

We could use it, just not as a lised source in our work. (we had to list at least 4 sources)

imshard


Just shut up about the blocked sites. The ones they block are the ones that have no business in a classroom. I should know. I was the net admin for a couple schools. And the IT department isn't a brick wall. If you need a site unblocked just fricken ask. If you can't think of a good reason why a site should be opened you don't need it (exceptions aside of course). Wikipedia is not always accurate either which is why the teachers ask to have it blocked. If you're doing your job as a student and go on to university, you'll learn that its not a citable source.

And to repeat an earlier comment. Why the hell are you asking to have myspace unblocked when you can't even spell! get off the stupid computer forget any supposed “projct yur doin bout te inernez!t” and learn your english!



*whew* Any websites a school will block can wait till you get home. When you join the workforce (assuming you do better than minimum wage) you'll find that companies do the same blocking so get used to it. You can bitch when the ISP does it to you at home.

Like I said, mine blocks almost _everything. EVEN USEFUL SITES. Not all schools block the same sites, you know. My school's retarded program even blocks a few teacher-suggested web sites, and why? Who the hell knows.

I just realised that in my Primary school, they didn't have anything blocked in the IT suite.

Missed chance.

Maybe instead of using these over sensitive web blockers (which more times than not block perfectly exceptable site for, say, school work you are asigned to do in class) Schools should take the computers out of the classroom.
If you take the majority of the computers out of the classroom and put them in a designated computer lab it's much easier to watch what students do online. If you have a teacher and an aid whose job it is to sit there and make sure people do their work walking around it makes it that much harder for kids to access black listed sites.

That worked at my school for years, it was only recently that a 5th grader accidently accessed Spongebob porn and ruined the internet for everyone (because now, not only does the elementary school have two computer labs, the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade classrooms all have 10 computers in them that students are free to use when ever they wish. Aside from 4 computers in the back of the science lab, no classroom in the high school has computers other than the teacher's personal computer.)

But, putting the computers in a separate room means someone has to watch them and OMG! The school has to pay someone more money! They can't have that! DIE PROPOSEL DIE~!
;P

Amazingly, I managed to get all the way through school, finish all my school projects, learn a great deal of stuff and discover a great deal of information pertinent to the subjects I took, without ever once having access to the internets.

Good god, people. Anyone would think before the internet was invented, there was absolutely no means of communicating information - and that there's no other way to obtain it! Do you believe all of us educated before your precious ‘net somehow gained knowledge through osmosis, or some kind of bizarre psychic power?

The internet is not a reliable source of information, because anyone can publish on it. Schools shouldn’t have it.

End.

… ok… a question for the teachers…. What school you in in which state…. cuzz im a senior at Independece high school in ohio…. And i want to know if i know which teacher you are. And plus…. gaiaonline says that its blocked for “Games” when you can't really play games on the site cuzz the school comps can't really play the games… and the site is kinda kiddy… I have an account on gaia and i have a few friends that are basicly my best friends and well most of the girls on gaia that are my friends like me. so please…. unblock gaiaonline. i only get on a comp when i have free time anyway and im like the only one that gets on gaiaonline at my schools… (i go to NECC.)

I don't think it works that way.

Here's a amusing lil' anecdote. The website ‘Last.fm’ was blocked, so my friend decided to send an e-mail to the company/business/organisation who runs the block site thing, claiming it was educational and all, and it worked! Ho-ho-ho.

Maybe you should try that :3, but you know, with capital letters in the right places and stuff, you know, english at a 3rd grade level.

Short_Circuiting

imshard


Just shut up about the blocked sites. The ones they block are the ones that have no business in a classroom. I should know. I was the net admin for a couple schools. And the IT department isn't a brick wall. If you need a site unblocked just fricken ask. If you can't think of a good reason why a site should be opened you don't need it (exceptions aside of course). Wikipedia is not always accurate either which is why the teachers ask to have it blocked. If you're doing your job as a student and go on to university, you'll learn that its not a citable source.

And to repeat an earlier comment. Why the hell are you asking to have myspace unblocked when you can't even spell! get off the stupid computer forget any supposed “projct yur doin bout te inernez!t” and learn your english!



*whew* Any websites a school will block can wait till you get home. When you join the workforce (assuming you do better than minimum wage) you'll find that companies do the same blocking so get used to it. You can bitch when the ISP does it to you at home.

Like I said, mine blocks almost _everything. EVEN USEFUL SITES. Not all schools block the same sites, you know. My school's retarded program even blocks a few teacher-suggested web sites, and why? Who the hell knows.

Over zelous PTA?

The internet and EVERYTHING on it is unfortunatly part of kids culture nowadays. I'm an art teacher and the blocking of site is inoying to me because it restricts the ammount of data and images pertaining to class I can collect. Unfortunatly my school does not segregate teacher and student machines which it should. That being said I wish more of the web was blocked on student machines, i see an over whelming trend in classes, especially middle school, to rush through their work so they can play games online.

That being said the capitolist in me see my comic's target demographic being kept from my content, until computers become sophisticated enough to visually tell smut and shock material from a good natured webcomic or potrait of degas then well just have to deal.

heymelby
The internet and EVERYTHING on it is unfortunatly part of kids culture nowadays.

I disagree. My high school has quite an extensive list of approved research sites: http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/schools/whitmanhs/media/onlineresource.shtml

That is, ultimately, why my school has computers.

And I agree with whoever said regular classes shouldn't have computers…well, except computer classes, you kind of need to be in the computer labs for those :p

Also, if anyone can find a school that blocks scuzzstuff.org, I'll be impressed. I'm guessing it IS possible…

Thevampire_kain01
… ok… a question for the teachers…. What school you in in which state…. cuzz im a senior at Independece high school in ohio…. And i want to know if i know which teacher you are.

Helluva English program the have in Ohio

Haha. My school blocks sites that have the word “videogame” in them but not sites with words like “shit” or “fuck”.

Also, the school committed the ultimate crime when it blocked Drunk Duck. Now what am I supposed to do to pass the time during Computer Graphics class?

I teach at a Canadian at-risk school.

I just want to say that it's been almost a week since I've taken my students away from the computer lab and I feel so much better about the class. Students are working and there are less distractions. I've also been able to filter who gets to use the computers so I've sent only the students that I know are serious back to the lab for the day and the ones who aren't get to hang around the classroom getting bored out of their minds (while the unfinished work just sits there.)

The time I've spent getting kids off of Facebook/YouTube? I can now use it to teach, help students, and prepare/organize for the next lesson. There are no more fights I have to break up over who gets to listen to what music on the computer. No more issues with passwords and no more “visitors” to the classroom.

It is as Pixie said as well. There are other resources out there besides the Internet. The library is a wonderful resource and more students should take advantage of it.

When I taught Digital animation, most of the younger students spent most of their work time messing around on Deviant art, MySpace, Youtube and a million other emo sites…

The mature age students spent 100% of their time working.

The younger students were brilliant with the computers, understood the programs straight away, and were amazingly creative.

The mature age students had no idea at all and needed careful teaching.

Guess who did the best in the class and got the highest marks? Yeah, the turtle beat the hare, beat him pretty damn flat! One or two of those younger students failed completely… Such a shame since they had brilliant ideas, but there was nothing I could do if they didn't submit a finished project. All the mature age students romped in, it was harder to teach them what to do, but they kept at it, didn't get distracted with some silly site or other and all produced great pieces of finished work :)

Let that be a lesson…: screw around on your own time, class is for work!

they block these awesome sites:
gaia
photobucket
youtube
all google images
ubergeek

They dont block:
mangatutorials
tektek
neopets (big woop)

unsure about this site though…

its stupid but i guess it prevents us from goofing off…
i still hate it.

let's be perfectly clear. School is there for learning. ZIP!
It is entirely possible to learn and be a good student and go on to be an intelligent and productive person with zero computers in a school. Computers are simply anther tool for teaching. If the student abuses the privilege of using that tool they get it taken away.

Tax dollars and tuition fees are not spent just to fill some time in your day kiddos.
You may whine now that it isn't fair when they block your games and diversions.
You'll think its really unfair later though, when you end up working for wally world or McD's and can't afford internet at home. Why you ask? Because you should have been studying instead of dicking around with your friends during class.

well guess what… in columbic public schools…. or the new name… columbus city schools. they only have computers for the students and teachers… meaning that the students and the teachers have to use the same computers and i know some school teachers that hate the block sites.

Thevampire_kain01
well guess what… in columbic public schools…. or the new name… columbus city schools. they only have computers for the students and teachers… meaning that the students and the teachers have to use the same computers and i know some school teachers that hate the block sites.

And that matters why? Teachers having blocks just makes sure they have to do their jobs.
Namely teaching a bunch of kids who are studiously ignoring them and trying to use government property to download illegal content.

Thevampire_kain01
… ok… a question for the teachers…. What school you in in which state…. cuzz im a senior at Independece high school in ohio…. And i want to know if i know which teacher you are. And plus…. gaiaonline says that its blocked for “Games” when you can't really play games on the site cuzz the school comps can't really play the games… and the site is kinda kiddy… I have an account on gaia and i have a few friends that are basicly my best friends and well most of the girls on gaia that are my friends like me. so please…. unblock gaiaonline. i only get on a comp when i have free time anyway and im like the only one that gets on gaiaonline at my schools… (i go to NECC.)

You're complaining… because GaiaOnline is blocked? o.O Firstly, Gaia is an absolute cesspit, which gets trolled so often it's not funny any more. Secondly, even if you are the “like the only one” in your school that uses GaiaOnline, and you only do it in your spare time; GaiaOnline has nothing to do with school. Therefore, no school is even remotely obligated to unblock it.

I can see Wikipedia being useful as a place to start your research (though I suggest that you look at all the external links provided, and try to find the book-sources listed), and I can see Google/any other search engine being useful if you're looking for information or pictures - but Gaia? DeviantArt? Not very likely.

Also, you are sort of undermining yourself by consistently abusing grammar in your posts: Periods are solitary creatures, and don't need to travel in packs ('…' ) and you're supposed to begin sentences with capital letters. Since this is a forum, and not a chat, the excuse of “I type faster without capital letters” is a bad one. If you're from Ohio, you're most likely a native speaker of English. If I, with English as a second language, manage to write more clearly than you, perhaps it's time to get off GaiaOnline and pick up a textbook?

Frostflowers

Thevampire_kain01
… ok… a question for the teachers…. What school you in in which state…. cuzz im a senior at Independece high school in ohio…. And i want to know if i know which teacher you are. And plus…. gaiaonline says that its blocked for “Games” when you can't really play games on the site cuzz the school comps can't really play the games… and the site is kinda kiddy… I have an account on gaia and i have a few friends that are basicly my best friends and well most of the girls on gaia that are my friends like me. so please…. unblock gaiaonline. i only get on a comp when i have free time anyway and im like the only one that gets on gaiaonline at my schools… (i go to NECC.)

You're complaining… because GaiaOnline is blocked? o.O Firstly, Gaia is an absolute cesspit, which gets trolled so often it's not funny any more. Secondly, even if you are the “like the only one” in your school that uses GaiaOnline, and you only do it in your spare time; GaiaOnline has nothing to do with school. Therefore, no school is even remotely obligated to unblock it.

I can see Wikipedia being useful as a place to start your research (though I suggest that you look at all the external links provided, and try to find the book-sources listed), and I can see Google/any other search engine being useful if you're looking for information or pictures - but Gaia? DeviantArt? Not very likely.

Also, you are sort of undermining yourself by consistently abusing grammar in your posts: Periods are solitary creatures, and don't need to travel in packs ('…' ) and you're supposed to begin sentences with capital letters. Since this is a forum, and not a chat, the excuse of “I type faster without capital letters” is a bad one. If you're from Ohio, you're most likely a native speaker of English. If I, with English as a second language, manage to write more clearly than you, perhaps it's time to get off GaiaOnline and pick up a textbook?

While I agree with almost everything you've written here, I'd just like to point out that “…” is an ellipsis, and a perfectly correct form of punctuation.

Usually, an ellipsis is used to indicate missing words in a sentence, particularly when quoting. For example: Dillard says that the weasel “bites his prey at the neck . . . and he does not let go.” (the missing words being either splitting the jugular vein at the throat or crunching the brain at the base of the skull, and the specifics of how the weasel kills its prey being less important to the person providing the example than the content of the actual quote used - that it does not let go). Obviously, using ellipses in this manner can be used to misquote and mislead, and sometimes are for humourous effect.

It can also be used to indicate…




suspense!

And to show that a sentence is left unfinished because it has simply trailed off…

These are all considered grammatically correct forms of written english. But, as is the case with all punctuation, it probably shouldn't be overused and abused, as Thevampire_kain01 is clearly keen to do.