To better prepare students for post secondary school and the world of work, the school district is embarking on a pilot program to enhance teacher and student access to Internet based, instructional content. Past Internet filtering practices have limited some teachers’ ability to access websites that might benefit students; therefore, the Long Beach Unified School District will implement updated Internet filtering in high schools on a pilot basis.

Changes will be effective Thursday, Nov. 1 allowing high school teachers and students (with teacher guidance) to access a greater variety of Internet sites.  At the end of the fall semester, the pilot project will be evaluated by the school district’s Information Services (Technology) Office, administrators and teachers.  The school district developed the pilot project after surveying standards for Internet use in other California schools.

The updated filtering will allow, for instance, access to online communities such as www.facebook.com and www.myspace.com , video sharing sites including www.youtube.com , and image servers whose primary function is to deliver images, including artwork and photo galleries for commercial use (sites such as images.google.com).  Voice over Internet Protocol sites that allow telephone calls using the Internet (like www.skype.com) will be permitted, as will certain web-based storage sites, web-based newsgroups, message boards, web-based emails and web logs (blogs). While access to these Internet sites is being permitted, proactive measures will remain in place to protect our students from objectionable content.