What are these purposes of these blocks? We know they are intended to stop students from accessing inappropriate or offensive material... but as a history teacher, I can tell you with one-hundred percent certainty, that certain topics in history are offensive, and these topics needs to be explored in order for students to fully understand their impact.
As I begin to rebuild my unit covering World War II, Nazi Germany, and the Holocaust, I find myself blocked at almost every turn. The term "Nazi" cannot be researched because it can lead to online hate groups... it is pretty difficult to study World War II without referencing the Nazi Germany. Some pages leading to the Holocaust are blocked for similar reason... and forget searching the "rape of Nanking" - one of the most brutal events of the Pacific theater during World War II.
Not being able to research primary documents and not allowing access to sites such as YouTube and Skype are serious errors in how we are educating our children in the digital age. With YouTube we can watch footage of the battle fields in France, speeches given by Hitler and FDR, the liberation of concentration camps around Europe, and a host of other topics.. with Skype we can communicate with students and teachers from across the Globe, truly bringing the world to our students...
It is time our education philosophy catches up with our technological capabilities....