N2H2 (BESS) filtering Shockwave.com
EDTECH Editor-Beil
Crossposted to LM_Net and EDTECH:
BESS has apparently added http://www.shockwave.com to their offical list
of blocked sites. The installation of the Shockwave player requires
access to that URL to complete the installation. Many legitimate sites
have Shockwave applets that are now unavailable to machines using the
BESS filter (unless they were installed previously or find an alternate
way to install the Shockwave plug-in).
Anybody else hearing complaints from school users about this filtering
action? The BESS filter can be overidden by the network operators, but
this is a difficult request for most end users and requires a political
decision by administrators. I know the Shockwave site has Southpark
cartoons and other materials that are non-educational, but do we throw
out the baby with the bathwater? Should this site be left to user's AUP
policies? Or maybe Shockwave.com is such a distraction we should only
allow technicians to install Shockwave and then turn the blocking back
on for the main site? Any comments?
All the best,
Russell Smith
Edtech Consultant, Journalist
Region 14 Education Service Center
Abilene, Texas 915-675-8659
http://www.rustysmith.com
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EDTECH Editor-Beil
When it comes down to it, the same problem can occur using Windows Paint
or the Draw component of any of the MS applications. At some point, you ha=
ve
to wonder if blocking the site does more harm than good? There is no way t=
o
block everything -- the schools and parents need to require that the studen=
ts
accept responsibility their actions.
Right now, I have one of my advanced (high school) classes developing softw=
are
tutorials. Some of the tutorials require these browser=20
enhancements. Without them, I would not be able to share the tutorials
with other teachers. I am sure there are many other situations. This is
just one. Just my 2=A2.
Keith Chadwick
Madison Central High School
>X-From: Wilson Mike <wil...@westgrand.k12.co.us>
>The most objectional game we encounter on shockwave is the drawing game.
>Someone else draws a picture, and the first person to guess the key words
>gets to draw the next picture.
>
>You can probably guess some of the types of pictures people make with
>line drawings.
>
>I was informed we could not block just the drawing game, but would need to
>block the entire site.
>
>I really hate to lose the shockwave software.