My Challenge

A challenge I am having concerns the sixteen computers I have in my classroom. Because of space, I have the computers lined up around the walls of my classroom. It is difficult to watch all sixteen computers at one time. Most of my students are very trustworthy, but I also have students who can’t be trusted out of my sight. Just this past week, I received a student referral from one of our administrators letting me know a student using one of my classroom computers bypassed the school security system on the internet. The student used a program that has the ability to bypass the security system on our network. When I received this referral, I was disturbed for two reasons. First, I was not informed by our administration at the time of the incident. Secondly, the student involved is an above average student and was surprised she had done this. I questioned the student about her actions. The student told me she did this action because of an assignment I had given to her group which was a group power point. I inquired as to how my group assignment affected her decision to break a school rule. She replied that she was attempting to get a better grade on the group project by adding a video clip to one of the slides. She tried several different ways to download a video but each time the Cobb County warning appeared on the computer. After several attempts to get the video without success, she decided to use the bypass software to get the video.

I was not at school that day. I believe the student would have had second thoughts on doing this action if I had been there. The substitute teacher was not aware of the student’s action at the time. I feel I may have let my students down by not giving more explicit instructions on the use of classroom computers. I am now correcting that oversight. Students are now not allowed to use any personal devices on my classroom computers and computers rules will be posted for all students to see around the classroom.