Joyce, I'm sending this link to the BOCES SLMS on my Listserv. Like me, many won't be able to read this at school. I'll include a message to take a look whenever and wherever they can. It is very important. (I contacted the NYS Education Department to get a definitive statement on their student email stance. The message is being "forwarded" to the appropriate personnel. If I ever get an answer, I'll share it.)

On second thought, I'm pasting this into a Word Document, with hyperlink, so that all of my colleagues will have the chance to read it.

Thanks for adding your voice to the crusade, Diane! You march with style!!!!

Indeed this is an issue. We are blocked for almost all blogs - most which are at blog sites. This one is not because it is not at blogspot, but AASL's blog was. There often does not seem to be a rhyme or reason. We can request that a site be unblocked and several of us have begun submitting sites. But it is a slow process and can be very frustrating. We also sometimes receive the bandwidth issue excuse. Even though we have run a lot of fiber. We are a very large district (Baltimore County -24th largest in the nation) and our bureaucracy is very large and sometimes difficult to navigate.

Right on, Joyce. In our district, we came out with a new AUP this year that explicitly states students will "use 2.0 tools" and cites a few examples. This was an opt out policy, therefore, it is assumed that all students will use these tools. We went into this school year with renewed faith that 21st century pedagogy was informing our policy. Yet, somehow our filters and the "men behind the curtain" who choose what gets unblocked are making decisions with no regard for this policy. This week we lost flickr and librarything. A group of us have decided, among other things, to create a wiki compiling the best practices using 2.0 tools of faculty members at our school as well as a running list of now-unusable tools. Once we've compiled a critical mass, we hope to use this as just one bit of evidence in a more formal argument to get our tools back. I hope the tipping point is near.

Thank you Joyce for all you do to push these issues forward! Wish it weren't so hard for people to get past their fears. Bit by bit, one by one, it will happen. I had two encouraging emails yesterday from school librarians. Both had created new blogs and their administrators got on board when they saw what they'd done. One is now getting the principal set up with a blog. Yay!

This appears to be the issue that your new AASL 2.0 task force needs to address.

Polly, that's great news! And, Jan, yes. I am hoping we can work on some sort of statement of support. I welcome all ideas!

I was surprised that no one from Abington was present, because the faculty, librarians and CFF staff are all using wikis and blogs and there is no blocking of wikis, blogs, etc. Like Springfield, Abington teachers have become engaged learners of the 2.0 world and all it offers and the students are the ones who benefit!

I posted a response to your Blog...The Next IF Front...last Tuesday but I don't see it here. What happened to it....is it somewhere in cyberspace??? Love your stuff to bits....

jillmaza commented that she had recently lost access to flickr and librarything. Sometimes the people making these decisions aren't district employees, but the filtering company itself - which is even worse, IMHO. In my district, we get an updated "block" list from the filtering company each night, so things we have access to one day may be blocked the next.