New Canaan librarian draws attention to schools' Web filters

STAMFORD -- Many school districts in Fairfield County have strict limits on which Web pages can be viewed by students during school hours, effectively outlawing the use of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

New Canaan High School's Library Department Chair Michelle Luhtala takes issue with these restrictions, which she likens to the practice of banning books in school libraries. In an effort to raise awareness around the importance of freedom of information for students, Luhtala plans to launch Banned Sites Day on Sept. 28, piggybacking off the American Library Association's annual Banned Books Week the last week in September.

"I see it as similar to banned books in that there are other voices telling people what they have access to in relation to what people are reading," Luhtala said.

While some educators see sites like Facebook as a distraction for students, or a gateway for harmful materials to seep through a firewall, Luhtala sees a learning opportunity.

"What's important is that students have an opportunity to share information with the world in a supervised setting and share and use social media for learning," she said. "It's important for students to have an opportunity to be in the real world in some degree of instruction."

And the real world is a Facebook-ridden place, she noted.

"This is the kind of culture they'll be in once they get into the workforce, and for students to be participatory in the workplace and school, we have to provide a wider array of experiences," she said.

Luhtala described New Canaan's Web policies as "free-range," where "harmful things are blocked. Pornography is blocked, obviously, and it should be."

In terms of the social media New Canaan High School students are allowed to access within the school's walls, the district is fairly liberal when compared to other neighboring towns. In Darien, students are not allowed to access YouTube, Facebook or Twitter, though teachers can pull up the sites on their computers and project them for classroom instruction, according to Darien Public School's Director of Information Technology Jeff Adams.

"The educational benefit doesn't outweigh the dangers of it," Adams said. "Any of the cyber bullying or just that nonsensical stuff that goes on."

Every district in lower Fairfield County blocks pornography and gambling. Darien tacks on retail sites, most social networks and games to that list, Adams said. While there are currently no override codes to allow access for special exceptions, Adams said the district will have software up and running by the beginning of the coming school year that will make such exceptions possible.

It's a similar scenario in Greenwich, where Coordinator of Media and Technology Fran Kompar said "we'd like to control access to inappropriate material, and Facebook has material that might be educational, but also has what could be inappropriate."

The rigid rules in Darien and Greenwich are typical of smaller districts, according to Stamford's Chief Information Officer Phillip Dunn. In Stamford, where there are more resources, the rules are a little more flexible.

"The school media specialists have been trained to administer access in terms of a white list and a black list," Dunn said.

"On the white list, we filter pornography and gambling, but say the students in a biology class need to research breast cancer. The term `breast' may be blocked by the filter. The students can then contact their media specialist, who has been empowered to approve a particular site. Instantly the kids would gain access to that," he explained.

The black lists are left up to the individual schools to decide whether they choose to block sites in addition to the district's minimum filter.

"There are a lot of different opinions out there, and this isn't my professional opinion, but in my personal opinion I do think social media can be a very effective medium for learning, and it has a lot of power for connecting students with practitioners, and leaders of industry. It can offer guidance for students," Dunn said.

In Stamford, where Dunn said "there's always an adult that will place eyeballs on a site and make sure it's safe," the benefits are worth the risk.

In New Canaan, Luhtala creates a Facebook group for juniors who are working in research groups as a way to communicate about assignments.

"It's convenient because they're already there. You could use something other than Facebook. I'm not married to it," she said, noting that she emails students who are not on Facebook, so she can still communicate with them about assignments. "We could go with, say, Google Plus next year."

She frequently "friends" students on Facebook, and keeps both a personal page for her friends and family and a professional page for school purposes.

She has an "exceptionally supportive administration in terms of our use of media," she said. But elsewhere in Farifield County, the practice of being friends with a student online can cost educators their jobs.

The Westport Board of Education approved a social media policy in April, which bans such virtual familiarities between teachers and students.

"Absent an unrelated special relationship (e.g. relative or family friend), it is not appropriate for a teacher or administrator to `friend' a student or his/her parent or guardian or otherwise establish special relationships with selected students through personal social media," the policy reads.

While it's taboo at other districts, Luhtala stands behind the importance of connecting with students online.

"Another advantage is, before we start a social media project, it's an opportunity for us to have a conversation about their Facebook profile, as though they were sitting in a room with a college interview, and going to look through it with them," she said. "More than once I've had kids say `Thanks, I haven't seen it that way, and it was interesting to look at it through a different lens.'"

That's a teachable moment, not just in an academic way, but in a tangible, real-world way, she said.

"I think it's important for schools to have a conversation with teachers interested in using (social media platforms)," Luhtala said. "If there's an instructional objective that can only be met by that platform, they should have access to that platform."

Staff Writer Maggie Gordon can be reached at maggie.gordon@scni.com or 203-964-2229.