Hide My Ass
I came across an article that discussed Internet safety for students and it briefly touched upon different ways students find to get around our “safety” mechanisms. This one in particular caught my eye and struck me as being quite insidious. Hidemyass.com states:
.. An anonymous free proxy service aimed at hiding your online identity. Use our service to hide your IP address and bypass your work/school web filter with ease. For example, is MySpace blocked at work/school? It won’t be any longer if you use our free service
It also provides a link to 28 more such services.
The Internet has certainly brought so much value and power to the individual learner. I just wonder if there is any documentation out there that would let us know the percentage of students who are using such services to LEARN vs. those who are using them to access inappropriate content and services. MySpace, Facebook, and other social networking sites are commonly blocked at many schools and are frequently destinations for students multiple times throughout the day. I would not put those in the inappropriate category, but they can certainly be a distraction when time is supposed to be put on learning activities rather than social ones. Yes, students can and should be networking as part of their learning, but I doubt that this is the majority of social networking use for teens.
But, what if teachers structured things so that students needed to network virtually in order to complete learning assignments and projects? Many teachers are doing just that. This would require that social networking services not be filtered while at school. The solution – many districts now host and manage their own such services in-house. But somehow this still takes control and responsibility away from teachers and students and keeps the power in the hands of the administrators who play “god” with permissions, settings, accounts,… something many of us resent as we are used to controlling our own learning and networking when not at school. When we take such control away from students, to the benefits (safety) outweigh the drawbacks? If so, from whose perspective? Teachers? Parents? Administrators? IT personnel? Students? Or, are we fooling ourselves with such protection mechanisms, as students who want to can easily get around them. For every new proxy service that gets discovered and added to school filter rules, new ones emerge. Is it a game worth playing? Is it a game that must be played? Kids are kids, after all.
Internet-facilitated networking and learning sure makes things more messy and potentially problematic. If anyone out there knows of some documentation that reports on the types of interactions students are embarking on while using these proxy services to get around school-based filters, I’d love to hear about it.
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September 4th, 2008 at 7:59 am
Sure, when I was in high school, I hated that these networking sites were blocked. Nothing bothered me more than checking my email at the library and seeing that I got a new facebook notification, but was unable to check them. But, looking back, it almost seems like a good thing that these sites are blocked on school campus’..And not just for the obvious reasons that they are distracting (I should know – I’m constantly distracted by facebook!) Couldn’t the school be held liable if a kid were to use it inappropriately?
I had professors in college who used sites for class assignments, but they were mostly blogs, message boards, and wiki’s. I don’t think I’d ever heard of a teacher trying to use MySpace in order to get their students to complete a class project, but wouldn’t that be interesting if they did.
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September 4th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Students always have to sign an acceptable use policy (AUP) whereby they agree to a certain code of behavior and ethics concerning use of Internet and school networks, and digital devices. The school really can’t be held liable unless they failed to take action when they know their services were being misused. You’re right though, that such resources can be a significant distraction to learning. I have heard of teachers using such sites for educational purposes. There are quite a number of different social networking services out there. Ning, for example, allows you to set up your own social network and is used by many folks in education.
But, I am less concerned about sites like MySpace and Facebook, though (as long as students are not accessing them on classroom learning time). My real question is are students using this type of proxy to get around social networking sites or are they typically using them to access inappropriate or forbidden content?
Thanks for your input.
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September 7th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
That’s true..I would hope that most students are smart enought not to look up inappropriate websites at school. One of my friends is going to Syracuse for Library Science and at first we made fun of her, saying that most of her courses are going to teach her how to kick kids off facebook.
I didn’t know that students sign a policy for how they treat school computers. I don’t remember signing one in high school, but I guess I must have. But, I guess it’s worth mentioning that I had to sign one for my teacher’s assistant job!
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September 8th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Well, perhaps your HS didn’t have an AUP at that time, but it it is certainly common practice now – per your TA AUP acknowledgment that was required. Even my 4th grade son had to sign one this year. It is a good thing due the myriad of off-task or inappropriate behaviors that students can engage in this digital world. But, it does serve to free the school from a great deal of potential litigation and administrative nightmares for those students who do choose to behave inappropriately. Even college campuses are requiring the same of students. Did you have to sign/agree to one at Nazareth?
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September 8th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
As we were discussing blogging during the last class, the title of your most recent entry caught me off guard. After the explanation that “hide my ass” had to do with students finding ways around district content filters I was even more entrigued. Because I share my classroom with another teacher I spend many planning periods in the library and have had the chance to observe students sent to the library to study use the computers for things that are not productive at all. There have been times that I was not able to use a computer to check my district email because there were so many students using the 20 or so computers. Students were playing games online, which in most cases are on sites that are not blocked by the district, to being on myspace, a prohibited site. Students find ways around district blocks, then tell everyone in their classes. Often times students use the computers to watch mucis videos and street figts on youtube when they are supposed to be studying for an exam or doing research. I am amazed at the application of technical knowledge these students exhibit doing things to entertain themselves instead of enrich their learning, and wonder how a more specified restriction system may affect student achievement.
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September 9th, 2008 at 9:24 am
Geoff,
These are great questions and observations! Thanks for sharing them here. I think what we are seeing are cultural battles on this issue. Social networking is part of the fabric our students’ lives. Socializing is certainly evolving, perhaps to our dismay. Yet, every generation has been criticized by the generations that came before them on new social behaviors. I think schools certainly need to keep students’ instructional time focused on learning. However, during non-instructional times, students need to make decisions on how they will use that time, whether it be for homework, clubs and activities, or simply socializing (digitally or physically). But no doubt, when in front of a computer, there are many new distractions that have to be dealt with. I think we can all attest to that. Sometimes I have to go to a place that has no wireless access to get serious work done. Otherwise, email, on-line readings, IM, and the like constantly pull me away. These are wise choices each of us need to make – and students need to learn to make these types of choices as well. I’m not so sure if their behaviors are any different when you think about it. They used to come to the library and talk, doodle, pretend to do their work, read other content unrelated to the task at hand,… Now, they are using the computers. Making good life choices is key here and needs to be talked about in schools rather than ignored or simply blocked. And, holding students accountable to learning contracts and AUPs is also key. Many districts monitor their students’ network traffic and hold them accountable to agreed upon AUPs. The workplace does the same now (no non-work related email, Internet browsing, phone calls, …). Perhaps it feels more like Big Brother, but as the workplace has figured out – they must ensure that their employees remain productive. At school, we need to help students develop these habits and skills as well. And, part of that may just be close monitoring, which is getting easier to do every year. But no doubt, there needs to be consequences for both employees as well as students if they are accessing inappropriate content with or without the use of proxy services. As for distraction, that concept is nothing new. Only the tools are new.
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