Gmail is my all-time favorite e-mail program. I love it. I was surprised when I saw that they were adding chat directly into the application — and I still have concerns that chat in my e-mail might be problematic.
But it really became a problem today when my school district’s filtering company blocked access to Gmail because it is now a "chat" application, and those are blocked. That crippled me. My school district’s mail application is nowhere near as useful, as versatile, or downright as user friendly as Gmail. I have three different accounts that I use at school — one for listservs, one for collecting student work, and then my general account.
Fortunately, as soon as I requested that the site be unblocked, my request was granted. But I still was crippled for a good chunk of the day. Should I be upset about that — or happy that I was able to get the site unblocked?
And why are schools so filter-happy? We know they don’t solve anything.
