By Jeanna Bischer a student submission
UBLY – Complaints about banned websites can be heard in classrooms throughout Ubly Community Schools.
The district’s 800 students, give or take, have been assigned iPads in the classrooms for over seven years. During this time, they have seen the rise and fall of technological freedom. Students have little to no control over these devices.
Students struggle to enjoy their free time after completing assignments. These devices have been locked down very tightly, sometimes within reason, other times it has been seen as extreme. Here the students’ voices of disapproval can be heard.
One of the websites under the ban in the 2021-2022 school year was Delta College’s portal. This caused stress for many students who wished to do dual enrollment through Delta. Students had to go and ask for this site to be unblocked. The cause for this ban is unknown to me, but the issue was quickly resolved.
Delta was fortunate enough to have its ban lifted, Clarkston College does not share this triumph. Students cannot unsubscribe from their emails on school-issued iPads, which is inconvenient. The inaccessibility of these websites was/is peculiar because they are run by reputable organizations.
Another website that has been blocked within the last year is https://www.coolmathgames.com/. When this was blocked, snide comments were heard around the school for weeks.
Much of the standoffish attitude from students about this ban stems from sentimental value. Many students were first introduced to this website in elementary school. Taking away this website took away part of the culture students at Ubly share.
However this website, https://picturecards.online/static/index.html, is an online variation of Cards Against Humanity and remains accessible to students despite not being educational, only age appropriate.
Pinterest and Netflix also managed to get on the list of restricted sites.
Students were not too fazed by the restriction of Pinterest, blocked in 2019. This website was useful for finding reference photos and entertainment. The latter got Pinterest banned because of the meme content, which is reasonable. This blockage did not upset students for long because they found that typing “.ca” instead of “.com” after “Pinterest” takes you to the Canadian server.
Another entertainment platform, Netflix, is also blocked on the iPads. But the keyword is iPads. Not all the content is age-appropriate, so this also seems reasonable to block. Netflix’s disappearance upset students because iPads are portable, but the website is still accessible on desktop computers. This seems counterproductive, but so be it.
Ubly Community Schools’ blocked website list expands yearly. Some of the restrictions are viewed as unjust by the students because the content was useful, entertaining, or safe for all ages. Other methods of entertainment that students find are often at risk of restriction.
These bans remain an inconvenience to Ubly’s students. Sometimes alternative websites exist and create peace; sometimes the blocked websites remain a chip on the shoulder of the student body.ge
