Soon, students may be able to send a quick tweet, check their Facebook and watch a video on YouTube, all while on a Libertyville High School computer.
On Dec. 1, the LHS Building Council and the Superintendant Council met and discussed for the first time the possibility of opening up YouTube and social media sites for student use on campus. No decision has been made yet, and both Libertyville and Vernon Hills are discussing the option. The minutes from the Vernon Hills meeting indicate that conversation centered on instructional need, current access limitations, user rights, and staff monitoring of student use.
“The educational information that is available on these sites now merits serious consideration for their incorporation within our school,” said Assistant Principal Ray Albin.
Last month, Vernon Hills completed an enhancement of their overall bandwidth from 20 MB to 100 MB, and while Libertyville is planning on doing the same, the process will take a few weeks. Mr. Mick Torres, the district’s technology director, has recommended that LHS wait until the switch is completed to open up social media and YouTube to students.
Response to the potential change has been largely positive, especially among students.
“I think it would be convenient at certain locations like the drop-in lab so students can use them if they have a little free time,” said senior Jared Pavelske.
Other students have similar opinions regarding how students spend their free time at school.
“Students end up playing games anyway so Facebook and YouTube wouldn’t be any more distracting,” added senior Kalyn Constable.
Some teachers have been supportive of the new policy, although slightly more cautious.
“YouTube would be great for band because we can use it as a resource for students to look up pieces that we are performing. I don’t think Facebook is necessary for any instructional purposes, but most kids have it on their smartphones anyway,” said band director Jeff Daeschler.
Other teachers don’t agree at all with the potential change.
“I believe that student access to information is so great in most of their ‘out of school’ lives, and now even more so actually IN school, that the benefits of opening up this access to students is far outweighed by the potential problems,” said English teacher Dave Lapish in an email.
Teachers that have responsibilities in the computer labs share similar concerns.
“What it really comes down to is how difficult it is to police these pages. I’ve been in the computer labs during lunch periods and it is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to keep track of what everybody is doing and their motives behind it. It is just easier to issue a blanket ban for the monitors,” said social studies teacher Kevin O’Neill in an email.
As far as actually unblocking the sites goes, the Libertyville network manager Temple Murphy says it is as simple as “just flipping the proverbial switch.”
Image courtesty of stuad.com