In Wayzata, Minnesota, a school spies on its students
boingboing.net
boingboing.net
This librarian is a bad librarian who must have dumped whatever he or she learned as part of their MLS program. Librarians are against filtering, they are against censorship, it is written into the code of ethics of the American Library Association. Librarians understand the chilling effect that privacy intrusions create. Protecting the privacy of library patrons is a central tenet of being a librarian and in my opinion this librarian needs to have an attitude change or lose their job.
http://www.ala.org/advocacy/proethics/codeofethics/codeethic...
http://www.ala.org/advocacy/privacyconfidentiality
Librarians fight censorship and privacy intrusions, they stand up for their patrons and fight school boards and other government agencies. They have fought the controversial patriot act provisions that required revealing library records to law enforcement without informing the affected patrons.
This librarian makes me so mad.
It's frustrating people don't realize this.
And yes, that would totally gut advertising models.
That worked for about a year until I graduated and then I transferred all the code to the school and they ran it on an internal machine and stopped using the URL which got blocked soon after. I still had siblings in HS and MS so I just bought 5 .info domains (dirt cheap, like $2/each and a further discount b/c I bought 5 at a time) and named them all after popular songs (The thinking being kids remember song lyrics/title easily). I then would text the mirror URL to my siblings and they would distribute them to their friends and I would also post 1-2 of the URLs on the site itself with a reporting tool to let kids let me know when a mirror they were using was blocked.
The site was not only a proxy but also hosted a couple thousand flash games (all custom PHP that I wrote at the time). The ad revenue from the games covered all my hosting costs for this site and other ones I was working on and covered the buying of new domains every few months when I had exhausted the old ones.
I had the opposite encounter with the administration though. The games were the main focus and kids were just starting to get into FB/Twitter and the admin knew me because of the programming I had done for them and so didn't care. Kids would get in trouble for playing games when their work wasn't done (as they should) but (most) teachers didn't care if they kids played games as long as they had their work done.
This story isn't super related to the linked one but I felt it was in the same vein and wanted to share. I also used SOCKS proxies out to a server I owned and booted off an external USB HD so I didn't have to deal with the locked down computers and never had an issue (though I didn't rub either in the admin's face).
I say good on the author for standing up against the schools asinine blocking policies.
Intentionally doing things they do not want you to do is a terrible idea. I agree that the rules are stupid but the author is very lucky they haven't run into someone vindictive and stupid who called the police, or just expelled them. These things happen.
Even if you thought the policy is a good fit at a high school, they should be trying to use this as a chance to tune the student's interests into a classroom assignment or something rather than just tell him he's in trouble.
I help run the web proxy for a large bank. /That/ network has plenty of reasons to be completely locked down, and we even provide wifi for employees to use their devices for personal web access. My point being that I recognize the legitimate use of a proxy to secure a network from malicious software and completely inappropriate sites (for a public net) like porn, violence, etc. But this is a place that should censor as little as possible.
We have a direct interest in this.
E.g., there's an audit and someone starts looking into the router logs, and then word leaks to the local newspaper. ("Think of the children!") So the district in effect must put in a filter. Now we're just arguing about the threshold on the filter, and it's not a matter of absolute principle, just the setting of a knob.
The same reasoning applies to a school-supplied laptop or iPad.
The situation is similar to a job-supplied network and computer. There are limits on what you should be doing on it, because it's not yours.
If you want to do whatever you want, you'd better own the resources.
Then teachers shouldn't assign homework activities that require use of those same websites (Twitter being one example from the article).
"Your homework assignment is to go use Twitter to find 5 spanish language articles and translate them, then tweet in spanish. Oh, and Twitter is deemed 'controversial' enough to not be allowed on school property. And you'll get a 0 on this assignment if you don't complete it".
Sweet...
But homework is, sort of by definition, meant to be done at home. When I was in school, I would certainly take advantage of down time to get homework done early, but (until I started getting free blocks in high school) I never felt like homework was meant to be done during school hours on school grounds.
Why are teachers assigning work to be done on websites that the school network blocks? Because at home, it's the parent's job to ensure their child doesn't access material that parents object to; at school, it's the administrator's job to ensure that EVERY child doesn't access material that ANY parent can object to. That's a much more challenging proposition, and (for better or for worse), schools tend to paint with a broad brush when it comes to enforcing limits.
Make it a book. The school system has deemed that "Huckleberry Finn" is too controversial to be allowed in our library. Your homework assignment is to do a book report on "Huckleberry Finn".
The district could actually not put in a filter. That is a thing they could just do. Then, when the newspapers complain, they can yes that's what they did. I promise you the world won't end.
Do you know where underage school children can go to access "controversial websites"? The public library. They can walk right in, sit down at a computer, and view the internet in all it's uncensored glory. For free. In public. As children. Shocking I know.
Also they can just use their smart phone because it seems like every kid over the age of 10 has a smart phone with internet. As best I can tell the world has still not ended.
For the teacher and the school administrator, it could. We don't live in the world you're writing about.
The smart phone comparison is not the same, because the kid's parents control whether there is a phone and its settings.
The public library comparison is interesting. Not the same (because their missions are different), but interesting.
Even in the face of public anger the school district could choose not to fire the targets of public ire. That would of course require having a backbone and principles, but it's totally a thing that could happen.
Kids look at porn at smart phones. I'm not even sorry if this bothers you. It's a thing. You can't stop it. Stop trying.
I think I see. My aims have been unclear.
I'm pointing out a political reality that I feel is controlling outcomes here. I'm not staking out a personal position, because in the context of a school administration embedded in a city government with oversight by the voters, my personal position means little.
To be honest, and this is where we diverge, I'm not interested in staking an opinion on this one. The school can do whatever it wants. Let it be open, or restrict it -- whichever works.
The library case is different; there are obvious free expression interests at play there -- including patrons who rely on the library for all internet access. (Would it further irritate you to mention I've been an ACLU member since the early 1990s?)
As I mentioned, the smart phone comparison is not apropos, because parents would supply the smart phone, and what their kids do on the phone is up to their family to decide.
How about, "our children, our rules"? I would personally like to see school rules that do not single out and punish harmless behavior from students who merely don't act "normal."
Welcome to 21st century education.
I ran into administration on multiple occasions, and within the broader laws of corporal punishment they can exact any reasonable, or unreasonable, punishments. I've heard of schools now taxing parents if students are tardy, moving the responsibility up. You don't have the same rights as an adult when you're in school, you don't get to do what you want, conversely when you do screw up you don't get as heavy handed a punishment an adult might.
Imagine the same scenario, but instead of school, this is the place you work, and instead of a school administration its the IT department bringing you in. You'll lose your job pretty darn quick right? Even if you're innocently exploring, cross the wrong person and you'll get cut.
Additionally, instead of complaining about the school we should be congratulating the kid. He or she has bucked the system, questioned authority, pushed their boundaries, found limits, and circumvented them. Don't come to their defense, it will do them no good to continue growing, instead help them back up, pat them on the back and say 'good job'. He or she is a welcome addition to society! Congrats on questioning authority and sticking to what you believe, I can't wait to see what you do.
This is exactly the opposite of what a school is supposed to do. Spreading awareness that the system is so badly broken ("complaining") is anything but silly.
I learned in college not to fight with administration, just focus your efforts on improving yourself and doing something great with your talents. This will someday hopefully put YOU in the position of power, and then it's your responsibility not to be a hypocrite.
--EDIT-- Apparently Ghostery was turned off after an upgrade (I hate when that happens) - and apparently its a recursive tracking nightmare where some load some more, and then more, and then more. I reblocked everything and now I'm showing 8 - but it does balloon to 104 for non-blocking users. If you are brave you can pause blocking and see :)
BoingBoing is pretty bad, but not at all exceptional.
A kid that's arguably more knowledgeable than any of the school's IT staff is bypassing the schools federally mandated filters, and the solution is to ban him from the school's internet?! There are so many better ways of handling the situation that it's almost funny.
All computers are full of surveillance software (Apple Remote Desktop), and there is a person constantly monitoring them (in the library and in classrooms).
The internet can only be accessed through a firewall blocking content that really shouldn't be blocked. Pages like nmap.org are blocked under the phrase "hacking". Minecraft and any pages related to games (like wikis), or even slightly related, possibly completely unrelated, were blocked for for the reason "games", as if that would have stopped people from bringing them on a USB drive. At some point I had a school project about Minecraft and was told to research. I could, but that was because of my SSH socks proxy.
It's sad that Google gets set to "safe mode" and deactivates HTTPS when accessing it from a specific IP address on the will of schools. However, that's great for WiFi sniffing and practicing the use of Ettercap.
Don't ever accept a school-provided device without removing whatever OS or ROM there is on it and flashing/installing something new.
Great choice of Arch Linux tethered to the phone (me too).
The "laptops issued to high-school students in the well-heeled Philly suburb have webcams that can be covertly activated by the schools' administrators, who have used this facility to spy on students and even their families. The issue came to light when the Robbins's child was disciplined for "improper behavior in his home" and the Vice Principal used a photo taken by the webcam as evidence. "
- http://boingboing.net/2010/02/17/school-used-student.html
Edit: The case was apparently settled for $610,000: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbins_v._Lower_Merion_School...
I live in Austin TX now and have a 2nd grader. School district is loaded with computer science / tech industry children. His computer science teacher would give him an award if he could get around a firewall - and then have him teach the others.
https://educationrealist.wordpress.com/2012/01/15/teacher-qu...
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/heres-the-nations-easiest-colleg...
Notice that that blog post references undergraduate grades, and that the parent to my post, as well as the post to which I link, mentions SAT scores. A global inflation in teachers' undergraduate grades does not imply those teachers are unqualified.
Also notice that the blog post I reference, in turn references this in-depth report on teacher quality.
http://www.ets.org/Media/Education_Topics/pdf/TQ_full_report...
Ofc, most of my teachers were great, but at the same time some of the worst adults I've ever met were teachers.
That's not exactly "the lowest SAT of any major". That place is held consistently by either 'Other,' 'Mechanic and repair' or 'construction'. So, there's that.
Stop spreading misinformation based on belief instead of facts. The 'Stalinist' approach to things, especially technology stems more from outside entities claiming to know what's best for education and cramming the same reforms down our throats on a rotating 5 year cycle for the last four or five decades. Ever notice that everyone has a theory about how to fix education? Ever wonder how many of those theories are based in research?
CBS news article from 2011:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/heres-the-nations-easiest-colleg...
I'm sorry to see how little this has changed in fifteen years.
I don't agree with the school's response, but I also don't buy kids hiding behind the "aptitude for computers" thing. In high school, I was programming in C++. Took a class in it. Got praised for it. You can display aptitude and interest in computers without indulging your adolescent urges to toe the line with the rules.
Even more so, any American with children, like me. The treatment this guy received is unethical at best - if the adults in charge don't know what the (insert expletive here) they are doing when being paid for it, harassing an educated person, regardless of age, because they are smarter & better with technology is in no way a solution.
What we need to do is stop educating the Americans we have, "Free speech," if these policies are reflective of the modern nation state we've built. If that's not the case and we still value some form of, "Free speech," then the way this has been handled should be investigated and dealt with.
Not yet another Benghazi investigation. Seriously.
What's more concerning to me is school administrators who are so quick with the stick when they could be using a carrot instead. Give this kid a study hour to work on stuff with the IT guy. Probably he could do a lot of good work for the school, effectively for free, and he'd have no reason to keep up the circumvention game.
Which, to be clear, is what this is. It's fun to break the rules and feel you're speaking truth to power. I know I did that in high school, even taking apart a computer to remove the CMOS battery to reset the BIOS password to launch a different OS. No good reason for it, it's just fun. The trouble is it's a dangerous game this kid is playing. And it needn't be, they could turn this into a great learning opportunity.
But no, school administrators keep up their tiny dictatorship image, and this kid will get expelled or something. Oh well.
Is it so hard to publish the, "Rules of the road?" In my day, we called them, "Terms of Service," for private companies and public institutions have laws, etc, that govern their operation. All of that is how the system, near as I've ever been able to figure out, should function.
Then this happens, when a kid can't actually find out what policies are or why, or who implemented them, or what rule was triggered to ban / block certain things, that run counter to the established curriculum...again, read the article.
My children have multiple passports and I know very well how restrictions work in multiple countries, having worked in three so far full time for long enough to need to know. The way the high school in the article is being run, as well as the opaque nature of the system administrators rules, is abhorrent.
Tax payer money being spent to...enshrine and embiggen the ego of some two bit hack who can't get a job in the private sector because their technical skills aren't up to par? From the sound of it, this may be the case. Sorry but regardless of public or private sector, a person needs to be qualified to hold the job they are hired to do.
Somebody, please, fire the webmaster and the director here. Then let's start implementing some transparent policies or dump the notion of, "Free speech."
I did read the article, and there's no mention of what the student did to find any of this out. Did he ask anyone?
You seem to be jumping to conclusions based on a one-sided account.
My reading of this piece is that it's petulance, a child who doesn't get it that school internet access is not a right (hell, when I was in high school, there was one computer in the library that had access at all).
When you use a school's internet service, you're subject to the rules of such privileges, and the administrator (in this case the DoT) is the final rulemaker. Don't like it? Do what he's doing now, and get your own internet service.
The actions of this student are easy to look at as activism designed to influence those voters.
Furthermore, for smaller government bodies, voters outside of the residential area for that government body don't have a vote at all! You have to go even higher to put your faith in a state or county school board candidate.
It's an important part of our system, but I'm not sure we should celebrate when important and far reaching decisions are made on a 51/49 basis.
I think we just are talking about slightly different things. Of course mechanistically, voters, as you say, have to put up with what they get. But philosophically, their agents (the board and those the board hires) are meant to act in their interests.
Actually getting it done, however, proved nearly impossible. The majority of departments (clinical departments included) literally had no documentation of their policies or procedures, the ones that did (i.e, human resources) insisted that they were out-of-date or not suitable for reading by employees. Eventually I was told to drop the issue entirely and simply post the few, out-of-date and known incorrect policies that I had on hand. The remainder of the policies posted to the intranet were purchased, en masse and without vetting, from the company that produced the document management software (that is, though they might appear legitamite no one had actually read them and it's unlikely they described what people were actually doing).
Perhaps I am just naive but the big surprise to me was how those in power understood that clear documentation placed bounds on the extent of their power and introduced accountability; providing a very clear dis-incentive for them to write such documentation. In fact, the organization as a whole appeared to agree with this position and willfully mis-represented their documentation to the accreditation organization, something that posed very real risks to the organization itself (dates were changed on existing documentation, the canned articles were presented as if they represented real policy and procedure).
TLDR: I am not surprised there isn't a clear internet policy at this school. I am surprised they spelled out the extent of their snooping in a contract that was passed out with the iPads. At least there's that.
The article clearly states that it's not just "off-hours" activities that are being blocked.
Our censorware, however, blocks material ranging from Twitter to comic books. Meanwhile, students are told to use Twitter as part of our Spanish classes and our school offers a course on comic books. Beyond blocking sites that are used in classes, there are also many false positives.
Unfortunately, in this day of NCLB, unless its a great "preparation for taking a standardized test" opportunity they're uninterested.