Monday, February 15, 2010

Stevens Point School's Laptop Program Includes Filters

Link to February 15 Stevens Point Journal, "Schools filter Web on student laptops".

Excerpt: Ben Franklin Junior High School ninth-grader Savannah Faxon knows the district gave her a laptop as an educational tool.

But she's a teenager, and when she's not using it in the classroom, she wants to use it to update her Facebook profile and enter chat rooms.

She has just one problem:

"Anything that we would actually want to go on is basically blocked," she said. "No YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, chat rooms."

All ninth-graders in the Stevens Point Area Public School District received laptops about two weeks ago through the Sentry Insurance Foundation, and the district has a strict filtering system on the computers to make sure students stay safe online.

"The care and responsibility of a laptop and Internet safety were the big issues (for) the parents," Ben Franklin Junior High School Principal Connie Negaard said. "We have a very good district filter. When they go home with those laptops, the Internet's being filtered through the district filter."


Retiring Guy's response.

There shouldn't be any surpirses here, kids. The school district has an appropriate use policy as well as other agreements which, apparently, you are required to sign.

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