I happen to work in a similar educational setting and the problem will be that students don't pay attention to the lecturer when youtube / facebook / gamessites are open on their pc which will be why they're blocked.

-justice (September 09, 2008, 06:52 AM)

IMHO people should learn to take responsibility for themselves (and thus, their education). If they can't do that, it's their problem, and that would hopefully teach a valuable lesson.

-f0dder (September 09, 2008, 07:34 AM)

Thats Right! I am currently taking two subjects that are exceptionally boring since I already know them.
Plus they don't only block it in the classrooms but in the dorms as well.

I am not the type to go on naughty things on the internet, so I thought I would not have a problem with my schools filter system. However, the filtering at this school is set to "academic only" meaning anything that is not needed for research, info, ext... is blocked. examples: You Tube, Facebook, Proxies, game sites ext...

The filtering is twofold. Not only are the sites filtered, but every site that you do go on can be checked through log-in.

Is there a way to get around it?

The forum is, in my mind, an almost perfect form of communication.
It has the convenience of an email and it has the potential to reach everyone in the world.
I think it is time for someone  (DC ;)) to pave the way for the next generation of internet communication.
Something that combines the ease of email and the power of bookmarking.
A super-communicator not bound by the old ways.
 
Feel free to add things to the list.

Features I'm hoping Forum 2.0 will have.

• All of the amazing features of DC forums: Unread/ Read, Emoticons, Code Highlight, ext...
• The ability for the user to tag posts and threads.
• The ability for me to mark a thread as always read.
• Every post on one page.
• The ability to cycle through posts as easily as photos on picasa.
• Posts are collapsable like gmail.
• Automatic collaps/ summary on posts that you've read.
• Real time preview!

Edit:

• Customizable themes
• Powerful and easy filtering
• Chat

Edit2:

• Embed flash

I am not a web developer, so I have no idea what a project like this entails, maybe we are really far away from this.
What do you think?