Computer abuse is expensive and can have far reaching negative consequences-- disrupting the educational process through intentional deletion of another's course assignment; dampening the creative process through theft of intellectual property; violating an individual's privacy; or infriging on a copyright.
In November 2000, national legislation referred to as the "Children's Internet Protect Act" (CIPA) was passed that requires that schools receiving either federal discounted rates for services under the E-rate program, or federal funding through the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund (TLCF) program enforce Internet safety policies.
To Comply with CIPA legislation and the CVES Acceptable Use Policy, we have instituted an internet filtering system to protect our students. Internet filters are by no means fool-proof, sometimes things that probably should be blocked make their way through the filter. Other times the system blocks legitimate sites because of certain phrases or content within the page.
Looking for something?
Check out our CVES Web Resource Links page for tons of helpful links to all sorts of things from fonts to clip art, research sites to lesson plans, and even a huge selection of approved educational online game sites for kids!
You may have noticed that a lot of places you are used to going are now being blocked by the new filtering software. Instead of going where you wanted, you were presented with a screen that states "The page has been blocked because the content has been deemed unsuitable by the administrator"
This usually happens for 2 reasons:
1. You are attempting to access a legitimate site for educational purposes which has triggered the filter because of the content on the page. (for example a page about the crusades has pictures of medieval torture)
If this is the case, don't panic... simply copy the ENTIRE URL from the address bar in your web browser (see picture below), paste the URL into the body of an e-mail, with an explanation of what the page is supposed to be, and mail it to CIPA
Web sites sent to this e-mail address will be reviewed for content daily, and if appropriate, will be unblocked.
2. You are trying to access a site that is inappropriate according to the CVES Acceptable Use Policy, for example:
Each attempt to access a site which is blocked is logged with data that identifies the exact date, time, user and other information. This information is reviewed on a daily basis by the technology staff, and will be used to determine if there has been a willful violation of the AUP.
When you search, use google.com or yahooligans.com these are approved sites and should work well for finding websites.
When searching for sites to go with lessons keep in mind that you should make sure the site is CREDIBLE. just because it's written on the internet doesn't mean it's true. Most credible education or news sources have their names in the URL. good examples are:
Especially note URL's with .gov or .edu on the end... these usually mean that they are run by a government or educational institution.
A large number of sites that have been requested to be unblocked are personal sites. typically these sites are simply the opinions of someone on a particular topic, or a list of websites that refer to a topic, and not actually anything to do with the information you were originally looking for.
The URL is a good indicator of whether you should pursue a link for information. the following places SHOULD NOT be considered credible sources of information:
With very few exceptions, these types of sites will REMAIN BLOCKED, as they are places known to provide access to inappropriate material.