[Year 12 IT Apps] educache (not applicable to those teaching in non-government schools)

[Cameron Bell]

I inherited exactly the same system. We have since moved over to 
BrightSparks unlimited plan ($500 per month flat rate) and opened it all 
up so that
1) staff and students can access the same things (students can actually 
see more than staff cause they know about proxy sites ;) )
2) students that have returned acceptable use agreements have internet 
access and it doesn't matter about "credits"
3) we don't bother the office staff with kids paying for internet 
credits or have kids carrying money to school to pay more and more
Staff know the system you have / we had is simply a pain in the neck and 
an administrative millstone that has no educational rationale to back it 
up other than it narrows down searches quickly (you can achieve the same 
with a clickable worksheet). You should have heard the cheer in the 
staff meeting when I told staff it was open access!

So you go to your leaders say "Bright sparks offers $500 per month 
unlimited access" we can afford this, it maximises the potential of the 
internet as an EDUCATIONAL TOOL not some administrative empire that none 
shall pass! It reduces teacher and office workload and will ENABLE open 
learning skills rather than RESTRICTING you to a small (but quality) 
pool available.
<rant over>
Cameron


Meadows, Roslyn M wrote:
>
> Sorry folks, I know this may be Offtopic (please don’t yell at me!) 
> but it affects all of our students at BSC, especially the VCE kids.
>
> While I was away from Bentleigh last year students’ access to the 
> internet was limited to the educache. This was done because it was 
> thought that websites within educache did not cost us if students went 
> to them, and many staff were frustrated at kids not having internet 
> credit, so the educache only rule was applied.
>
> In my first lesson this year I asked a Year 10 class to do some 
> research on the when, how, who, why, etc of the origins of the 
> internet and the WWW. I had no idea that the educache restrictions had 
> been put into place.
>
> No results were returned in their searches. Even when I TOLD them to 
> search for ARPANET or BERNERS-LEE no results were returned.
>
> In the end I turned on the projector, did a search myself (teachers 
> can go outside educache) and showed them the answers which they 
> dutifully typed into their word documents.
>
> Now I know that I can ask for websites to be added to educache (if one 
> can predict exactly the way a lesson will go that is fine), but I 
> cannot find out WHICH websites can be visited unless I ask a kid to 
> try going to that site (for example I wanted to use w3schools, so had 
> to check with a kids internet first)
>
> I really wonder how we would have coped doing Unit 1 Outcome 3 last 
> year under this system!!!
>
> Now to me this goes totally against the grain of VELS, and must make 
> it very difficult for so many VCE classes (not just IT) and is rather 
> like saying “You can only access the top shelves in the library”
>
> What I need is a large number of excellent arguments for restoring the 
> internet to our students. Your help would be truly appreciated. A 
> bottle of wine or box of chocolates will be sent/delivered to the best 
> response!!!
>
> Cheers
>
> Ros
>
> **Roslyn Meadows | Information Technology***
> ***meadows.roslyn.m at edumail.vic.gov.au** 
> <mailto:meadows.roslyn.m at edumail.vic.gov.au>
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