Security vs. Usability

A Information Systems character in a recent Dilbert cartoon stated something to the tune that security trumps usability. This struck a chord because lately I’ve been consistently hearing from teachers about their frustrations with filters. More and more web sites are being blocked by school districts. One district blocks wikis, another blogs, another Google images, another Flickr, another YouTube, and so forth. These applications do have the potential to be risky to students. As you are aware, each of these applications also has potential to help students learn.

The purpose of this article is not to degrade people who work for information services in schools, not district administrators who determine policy. IS people, district administrators and teachers all care about students safety, and rightfully so. However, one problem with filters is that students quickly figure out ways to bypass them. For example, when Google images are blocked, students do a web search and add the words “images” and “pictures” to the search query: this returns web pages with images students need. For each video site blocked, students find another, and so on. Marc Pesce notes "The net regards censorship as a failure, and routes around it."

Students’ safety is an ongoing concern. One appropriate question is “What are the best ways to do that?”

I think another more appropriate question is “What is the primary purpose of technology in a school district?” The only answer is to help teachers to help students learn. Therefore, a major focus of IS policies should be on that concern. This includes policies related to the district’s internet filter.

Security trumping usability? Sometimes teachers and students feel that this is a policy. In my opinion, such policies (either stated or supposed)that stifle and suppress teachers’ and students’ creative uses of resources tend to have a negative effect on their moral. One teacher said “The filter although is needed, often frustrates the students as they become blocked.” Another stated “The filter on the computers sometimes lets questionable information come through and other times information that’s needed can’t be accessed.” Still another told me that so many sites are blocked by her district’s filter, she doesn’t bother using the internet much. Many other comments related to me over time were of a similar nature.

Along with software-based filtering, districts are using educational programs such as I-Safe and acceptable use policies as tools to teach young people internet safety. A teacher stated "Teach students to use the Internet safely instead of restricting access through arbitrarily placed filters that dampens curiosity and motivation."

Brian Rimes asks a key question "Who should control the filters?" Should it be left totally to a machine scanning for a list of words so that it will block any web site containing any of those words, no matter the context? Shouldn't humans, more specifically your child's teacher, be allowed to choose appropriate web sites? You trust your child's teacher with your child. Shouldn't you trust your child's teacher's judgement on web sites that both protect your child and provide the best opportunities for your child to learn?

In my opinion though, the best “filter” is, of course, the desire of students to stay on the learning task that they have bought into and that a teacher helps them to focus on. Another great “filter” is teacher vigilance and frequent checks of student learning progress. A third “filter” is the speed and certainty of consequences when students are found using technology in inappropriate ways or for inappropriate reasons. A fourth "filter" is the role of administrators who evaluate teachers by their ability to help students remain focused on their learning tasks.

Christopher D. Sessums wrote "In the end, who we might might become and how social software enhances our lives is entirely up to us. While we might currently reside in a house dominated by fear and anxiety over growth and change, we ultimately have the power to change our individual and collective futures. But only if we allow ourselves the opportunity to do so."

Security trumping usability? What do you think?


Credits:

Creative Commons Attribute images courtesy of
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lexrex/153457185/

Dilbert cartoon that was referenced: http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20071116.html

Marc Pesce quote: http://blog.futurestreetconsulting.com/

Christopher D Sessums quote: http://eduspaces.net/csessums/weblog/330651.html

A Dash of Hope

Referring to the ISAT, Illinois’ version of the NCLB assessment, a respected local high school teacher stated in a news interview that “Students at younger ages simply may be more inclined to succeed on tests, driven by an optimistic view of the future. By high school, she suggested, some may be worn down and worn out, seeing their parents work two jobs to make ends meet and feeling they have little chance of doing any better.” “They get to this stage and they don't see that American Dream anymore. They don't feel that anymore," she said. ‘I believe that a lot of our kids feel as if they have no future.’ ”

In a discussion with another teacher, she recounted that some of her 8th grade students have told her that there was no reason for them to try to do well in school. When the teacher asked for the reason these students feel this way, they said that they didn’t have papers, and not being U.S. citizens, they would not be allowed in colleges or, if they do get into one, wouldn’t get money to help them. They said that they could get a high school diploma, but in the end they will be doing the same jobs as their parents, so why try on school work or tests.

Whatever your personal position on immigration issues and proposals for changes in federal laws, the present situation is stripping hope from a generation of kids living presently living among us. (The Senate this year in essence voted “No” on a bill that would have granted legal residency to children of illegal immigrants while the young people pursued college degrees.)

Do we want to create a permanent underclass without hope? Ask our teachers who each day try to help these kids learn. Teachers pour their time, their best efforts (and yes, even their hearts) into these kids. Just perhaps, the rest of us might, at a minimum, provide a dash of hope.

Pressures and Dedication


I feel for teachers who are working under the myriad of pressures existent today. An example is a teacher in one school who has had cases of lice in her classroom time and again. She told me that every time they think they have the problem licked, the lice rear their ugly heads (or whatever a louse rears) again. She is a second year teacher (we all know the intense work load a newer teacher faces from developing an elementary school learning program) and along with this is very embarrassed that the situation continues to reoccur, no matter everything the school is doing. She also apologized to me because she hasn’t gotten her class blog off and running this year as she had last year. (Last year she was a first year teacher having third graders blogging – she’s a brave and visionary person!)

Another teacher has been expecting technology to be installed and operative for quite a while. She said “We've all been there...when you're waiting for something, because it's been spoken about so many times...it's got to happen...and the waiting continues. The poor students hear how excited you are but never see it happen.”

A third teacher noted “Isn't it sad that often as teachers in order to get things done, we have to, and are almost always expected to give up so much of our time? Of course many of us do because we care, that is why we became teachers, right? Maybe if we were given freedom like we used to, we'd be able to do a lot more during the school day. Unfortunately, I feel like we are being dictated to so much of what we have to teach and how to teach it, that the creativity and freedom that I loved so much about being a teacher is slipping away.”

I was working with a fourth teacher whose students were receiving their individual laptops today. She is expected to teach how to use the laptops, a process that could take up to a week of class time. When reviewing the changes to her lesson scheduling, she sighed and said “We were lectured this morning on the importance of improving grades. Now I have to put aside what I was going to do to teach all this instead.” She’s not at all unhappy about the laptops, just about more to do.

Teaching is an outstanding career choice for those who love learning, care for children and who wish to help others. Of the many qualities of a good teacher is the ability to deal with almost anything and to try to make the best of it. I tip my hat to these dedicated people who try to do their best, no matter all the pressures that come.

Online Teaching


I am presently involved in teaching my first online graduate course and have conflicted feelings about the experience. I miss the human contact aspect. For example, I can’t read body language being online.

Having a teacher available at a moment’s notice can be comforting to a student. In an online environment, I check their work sites once or twice a day each day, but in the system we are using, my students and I aren’t necessarily on at the same time. When participants need assistance we rely on the site’s email account. There may be a long interval between the question being posed and the answer given. I can only tell if learning happens if a participant posts his/her work. In a face-to-face environment, I would observe the work being produced and provide feedback immediately.

One participant told me that an online course meant more work for the student. She said that, in a face-to-face environment, students don’t have to participate in each discussion. In an online course, students must answer each discussion question. They can’t stay back and just listen. There is no place to hide in an online class.

I once read that technology has the potential to deepen or humanity (sorry – can’t remember the source). I’m still on the fence about this one. I think the participants in the course feel the same. It’s an interesting point of reflection. What do you think?