And if he gets found out he’ll be in trouble…
Better get google glass so you can nannycam your kid wherever he goes to ensure compliance. since that is EXACTLY what you are defending on the part of the school system.
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Clearly you’ve never been in charge of a network, or had any association with managing staff and students in a K12 environment. I’ll ignore your ad hominem attacks and attempt to clear up your misstatements, which I’m hoping are based on ignorance rather than malice.
I’m only doing this once though, so pay attention:
That would almost be a reasonable statement, except that - as I mentioned earlier - there is absolutely no detail about anything in this article. He mentions “spyware” being put on new iPads at the very end of the article (iPads that are, by the way, purchased, owned, supported, managed and the responsibility of the district and district staff) but doesn’t say what that means to him. Does he consider network management tools like PRTG to be spyware? Because every network admin everywhere uses tools like that to understand how their bandwidth is being sucked up - tools like that help us make better use of taxpayer money, and knowing where to apply resources.
In schools, IT is often seen as a cost center, so anything that can be done to reduce costs there is good. If done right, the bottom line in a school is about educating children not supporting your porn habit, or making sure that no child ever feels that they’ve had their precious “right” to use a taxpayer funded network designed to facilitate learning any way that they want to.
Yep. Because remember - the person in charge of filtering isn’t just the director of IT, it’s the superintendent, the principals, the teachers, the school board and by extension the entire community. The dir of IT typically applies filters that are considered best practice, including ones that would be damaging to the network, and then lets the rest of the stakeholders make changes from there. Read “damaging to the network” as “costly” and/or “working directly to take resources away from the primary objective of the school - educating the children.” Is this starting to become a little more clear now?
Really? I don’t suspect that at all. Now, I don’t want to malign your reading comprehension, I’m sure it’s much better than mine, because somehow I missed any reference by him of his attempts to work with the staff and admin to correct what he saw as a problem or perhaps even to work with staff in order to ::gasp:: enhance his understanding of the reasons and extent of the policies.
If the teacher, the principal, the director of IT, the superintendent … if all of these people gave the responses you assume he was given (without any indication thereof), guess what? There’s a public forum policy for all school boards that would give him the absolute right to air his issue to the board and in that way the community.
So what is he upset about? He’s mad because he didn’t agree with a policy and, instead of trying to fix it, communicate it, or understand it, he actively and underhandedly worked against it, put the investments of the community at risk, reduced the resources available to educate his fellow students, and disrupted the process of supplying a 1:1 tech program to kids who might not otherwise have access to tech.
I’ll ignore the slight in #1 here, and I’ve already responded to #2, but you answer your own question in #3 - staff ignoring valid concerns. Clearly what this young man and the people that actually have responsibility for educating our children (and have to pay for things) consider valid is a bit different.
This is not to say that the admins in this process acted as effectively as they could have - it’s tough to tell with this disjointed and vague tale of woe - but it’s likely they didn’t. I know that when I was presented with similar situations, it took time for me to learn that often the best response was to work with principals and teachers to turn it into a “teaching moment,” exploring the issue with the student and explaining what was really going on “behind the curtain.” We often turned our most active ‘crackers’ into our loudest proponents, and found a lot of great ways to use smart kids to mentor others or help with basic tech support and related tasks.
Ghostly1, someday you’ll be old enough to hold a job where they give you a laptop instead of a nametag, and you’ll find out how aware all employers are of their network and eqpt usage, making sure they aren’t expending a penny more than they have to to maximize the bottom line. When that happens, I am sincerely hopeful that you don’t respond the way this kid did; I really don’t want to waste any more taxpayer dollars on you, supporting you in welfare and/or prison time.
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no, it isn’t.
The author provided a short list that was applied to the author. That you are unable to find the list indicates you did not read what I wrote, did not read the article, are unable to understand written English, or simple don’t care. I suspect the truth is a combination.
Well thank you for involving yourself in a grown up discussion.
Given that you are not reading what I write, did not read the article, are unable to understand written English, or simple don’t care, there is no point in trying to engage you in a grown up discussion. It is clearly beyond your ability.
Exactly this time…
That’s what we always impress on the kids we catch trying to bypass our filtering. School should be preparing them for real life, not be a free-for-all do what you like fest.
So you believe a 13 year old trying to access Wikipedia using a school computer is a “free-for-all do what you like fest”. Seems to border on the fringe of sanity. But that’s just my opinion.
Oh, now I get it. Punishing a 13 year old for trying to use a school computer to access Wikipedia is certainly punitive. So the “real life” you want to teach is that the 13 year old is likely to encounter sanctimonious assholes; people who believe punitive is good and necessary. Nice lesson.
I live in Minnesota, and DO pay for those things via taxes. So does our esteemed hero, via sales tax.
I thought it was an article about a school with policies that permit and encourage surreptitious monitoring of children’s activities, even when they are off school property. You know, like it says in the article title? And like it says in the policy excerpts somebody posted above? Let me give you a few key points you may have missed:
Yeah, now you’ve resorted to being a patronising dick. I’m pretty sure you’re not exactly the kind of person who’d respond intelligently or sensitively to student or parental concerns vis-a-vis filtering, your tale of magically turning ‘crackers’ into your most ardent proselytizers notwithstanding.
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It’s about them as well. But it also covers filtering.
It’s not worth arguing with you. You’re rude and aggressive, when I don’t believe I have been either of those things. I’m here for debate and I’m willing to change my mind. I’m not here to get sworn at and have myself be misrepresented.
I used to swap pirate games with my IT teachers.
Not a lot of hacking you could do with BBC micros anyway.
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So do I. Oh, and I work in IT in Education.
…and respond with one of my own…
Seems Legit 
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I’ve think you hit the guidelines of what he could and couldn’t do. Now from standpoint as a kid I could say TLDR; but then he too way long and read up on how to by-pass the system.
I think his next move is probably studying this material and coming up with a resolve with school administrators.
OR… Do an interview with Alex Jones Show.
I do not fault “Our Hero” in this story for his attempts. Plenty of adults wouldn’t do the due diligence.
I did quite a few things when I was in HS, but it was mostly mischievous and not really in the name activism, like making Dobbs Head in Print Shop and saving it on all the library disks or calling BBSes when I was in the back of the computer lab. No networks then.
At the same time I do have to say, if this guy has his own tablet and internet, why does he need to hit all this stuff during school time? His classmates are capable of achieving whatever they are supposed to do with that access.
I am the IT guy at my job and we are a small office, 7 workstations and I don’t have anything locked down. I did lock down facebook when we paid a guy to come for work to train us all on our new system, but he just switched from his laptop to his phone. The only issue I have is one co-worker that likes to use youtube as a jukebox and listen to music when she works because it takes up bandwidth, but so far it continues until the boss decides it interferes with her ability to work.
Really taking the high road there, aren’t ya? At least I attacked your ability at a career based directly on your own statements (not techically an ad hominem, btw, since I never said you were wrong BECAUSE you were awful, I said you were wrong and then made a judgement that you were poor at your job based on that), whereas you come out of this based on, pretty well nothing (I have no idea of your age, but odds are we’re contemporaries). Yes, I’m aware many employers have onerous policies. Some also have decent ones. I have the right to make my choices based on my own tolerances of them. Students generally don’t, which makes them being forced to adhere to them somewhat less justifiable.
The school bathrooms are also purchased, owned, supported, managed, and the responsibility of various people, it doesn’t give them a right to put cameras in the stalls.
But you’re right, he didn’t give a lot of details, and he probably should have. He’s young, I can give him a break on that. What he did say was that neither did the school board. They weren’t clear on what information they were collecting, what they were doing with it, and who had access, and asked to sign a contract that explicitly allows the district to monitor them at any time, for any reason. So, either they’re spying on students, or they’re demanding the right to spy on the students, without giving a lot of details. Neither looks very good, and I think the latter gives one a good faith belief that they are spying, and they’re adults, so I’m not willing to give them a break on that. And the fact that he’s vague about exactly what he considers spying does nothing to help the fact that your first point claimed that the headline was incorrect because filtering is not spying. Yet the article clearly indicates that he believes the school is not just filtering, but also spying on their students.
“If done right.” You’re neglecting the fact that many legitimate websites, websites which facilitate the education of the children, were blocked. Part of the benefit of using the internet in education is that you CAN range out widely, investigate anything that catches your attention. If they only want to facilitate the learning in specific, approved, and tightly-restricted ways, they don’t need to waste money on an Internet at all, they could just get a good digital encyclopedia. If it was just porn that was blocked, I suspect he wouldn’t have much of a problem with it (though it’d still a little stupid, given how easy it is to get porn).
Yes, it’s clear that you think it’s appropriate to be able to block anything anybody on the school board finds objectionable. Deeply religious principal wants to block evolution or any sites that discuss birth control? Not a concern to you. Allows Christian sites but considers Muslim sites terrorism? Cool. Wants to ban a work of literature because it promotes disrespect for authority? Hey, that’s their right.
I guess you missed the part where he was told “we don’t think you technically broke any rules, but you’re still in trouble”. Or when he was given, on multiple occasions, “if you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to fear” with regard to privacy issues. Or the part where your colleague told him he had the right to invoke any punishment at will for any conduct relating to computers, and cut off his access until he wrote a letter apologizing. Or the part where by pointing out to the students the new iPad policy that allows the district to spy for any reason, he was hauled in and his access removed again. These are only the parts that are actually part of his story, not including a lifetime of non-computer-related experience that questioning the rules doesn’t change them. And see my response a few messages back to somebody else: if he didn’t point out the problems (like services they were asked to use for class being banned), do you think nobody else did?
And why exactly is it HIS responsibility to work with staff, and not staff’s responsibility to make those policies clear? When he got pulled in and punished for informing students about what the school’s been doing, why didn’t the school take it as an opportunity to clarify their policy?
(And yes, I’m aware, we’re only hearing his side. But, that’s all we have to go on from a first hand person involved in this case, right now, anything else is guessing).
He’s a kid, they’re teaching him how the world works, and what they’re teaching him is “appealing to correct a problem by reasoning with the authorities” doesn’t work. So now you criticize him for believing in that message and not going even higher, to a body that is disinterested in the events and likely to view him, as you did, as a kid who should “stop whining?” Convenient. I’d rather criticize the people who put the poor policies in the first place, and brought the hammer down instead of working with him and other students.
I suspect he’s also upset about the fact that they’re given technology with cameras and GPS tools and told that they may be monitored at any time and for any reason, and when he pointed that out to other students so they could be more aware of that and, if they choose, protest in their own ways about it… he was punished.
Good for you, maybe you weren’t as horrible as your first post let on. But you’ve still put forward some pretty poor attitudes about what’s okay and where responsibilities lie, in my book.
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Just a bit of correction, the meetings of doom were last year; the Associate Principal for me then was Ms. Janecek. I don’t really blame her personally so much as the people in the technology administration itself - she was merely asked to uphold a bad rule, whereas the technology administrators were the ones that were instrumental in the whole undertaking.
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Hmmm…that would make us contemporaries. I wonder what the chances are that we actually know one another.
The librarian questioned the OP on why he would want or care about privacy?
I’m a librarian myself, and guarding privacy is a core mission of the profession. I’m certainly not doubting the story, but I wonder if the school librarian is a para-professional. I’m surprised and disappointed, otherwise.
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Oh Wayzeta, How I have missed thee ( not really). Back in 1996 I was a student of Wayzeta High School. During my time at this school they had a “web development” class which I really wanted to get into but I couldn’t because I didn’t have the prerequisite of the “typing” class.
So I decided to take the typing class to up my game so I could get into the web development class, essentially it was Mario teaches typing on a DOS system with internet access. Since I could already type 100 WPM I spent most of the class waiting for people to finish.
I had gotten bored one day and subverted the “security” system and left a nice little message for the teacher. “Your Security is Weak”… I think I kind of did this as a way to show them I had what it took to go into the web development class but it didn’t really work out that way. (more likely i wanted to show them the had no idea what they were doing) Typical mind of a teenager right?
Anyway, I was kicked out of the class, put into ACT(i think thats what its called) for a while became acquaintances with all the “bad” kids and ended up smoking pot and all that shit, THANKS FOR TURNING ME TO DRUGS WAYZETA.
Ultimately I ended up getting kicked out of Wayzeta highschool completely for setting off a smoke bomb inside school during the dead of winter, (terrorist activities these days) ended up leaving right afterwards and going to little Caesars, upon arriving back at school the entire school was outside in the PE yard freezing their asses off. It was hella funny then, and hella funny now haha.
Moral of the story, fuck the system, computers are awesome. hack the planet, and the gibson.
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Mod note: Cut back and the snark and sarcastic insults.
@TechTalkWRLR and @ghostly1, this bickering is pointless. Stop talking to one another, at risk of temp ban.
