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GN blocks social media sites Territorial government says those sites were taking too much bandwidth Jeanne Gagnon Northern News Services Published Monday, Oct 22, 2012
The Department of Education made the decision this spring, said Catriona MacLeod, a spokeswoman with the department. She added social media sites remain accessible from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. in school libraries participating in the Community Access Program, where the public can access the Internet for free. "It is strictly because of bandwidth issues. It takes up a lot of bandwidth," MacLeod. Nunavut Teachers' Association president Robin Langill said teachers brought up the issue during each of the three regional training sessions at the start of the school year. Langill said they were informed of the decision after meeting with the territorial government after the Rankin Inlet and Cambridge Bay training sessions. "We don't support it. We shouldn't have heard from teachers about it. Government should have given us some warning it was going to happen," he said. "It is something teachers are using. We should have known about it. Teachers were a little shocked. Now, they're trying to work around it." But he added he understands the rationale as Nunavut is at a disadvantage, compared to the south, when it comes to bandwidth. In a course involving a discussion of current events, for instance teachers might play YouTube videos of news to their class to start discussion, Langill said. That is more effective than asking the students the night before, or the morning of, to watch the news. "The issue is a lot of our teachers have talked to us about how they used some of these bandwidth-grabbing things like YouTube and blogs and Twitter in their classes to enhance their lessons," said Langill. "And now they're not available." He said other people are following tweets and blogs related to education. Teachers are working around the issue, saving what they need at home from their home computers then bringing the material to class, explained Langill. The territorial government has informed the teachers' association a process exists for teachers to access social media sites, but Langill said he is still unaware what the process is.
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