School iPad Disasters

iPorn on school iPads?

School iPad disasters are becoming more and more evident.  A Colorado school district advised the new Apple iOS7 upgrade wiped out all existing technology protection measures requiring the school to collect the iPads from students before they go home:

• "Dear Mustang Parents," by Manitou Springs School District 14, 27 September 2013:

  Dear Mustang Parents,
  
  This correspondence is intended to provide information regarding the latest software upgrade for the student iPad devices.  Apple has provided IOS7 for its products, which appears to be an effective upgrade.  However, Apple did not realize that installing IOS7 would remove our (and thousands of organizations across the country) safety protection measure, which now makes the iPad devices unfiltered when accessing the internet away from school.  The Apple engineers are diligently working on a solution to this issue. In the short term, the district will be collecting iPad devices at the end of each day until the safety protection measure is reinstalled. iPad devices, while at school, will continue to be filtered through the district's server.
  
  Since this is a national (and potentially global) issue, we expect the problem to be resolved within a few days.  If you have any questions, you are certainly welcome to call....
  
  Thank you for your support.
  
  Manitou Springs School District 14

That sounds like a school iPad disaster to me, and I'm happy but sad to break that news.

Here's another, in California:

• "New Problems Surface in L.A. Unified's iPad Program; Hacking by Students and Missing iPads are Only Part of the Problem. Did Anyone Ask If the Teaching Software Is Any Good?," by Steve Lopez, Los Angeles Times, 28 September 2013:

  Don't worry, L.A. Unified officials keep telling us.  The $1-billion program to give iPads to more than 600,000 K-12 students is going to work out fine.
  
  Maybe.  But so far, nobody at district headquarters gets any gold stars for the rollout.
  
  Last week, students at Roosevelt High were almost instantly able to breach the wall intended to keep them from using the iPads as toys rather than tools.  They simply deleted the personal profiles on their tablets and presto!  A free pass to YouTube and Facebook.
  
  As my colleague Howard Blume reported, the district initially said 185 students had broken through the wall, but soon the number was adjusted up to 260.  Then an additional 80 students at two other high schools made monkeys of the L.A. Unified geniuses who approved the setup.
  
  As one Roosevelt student explained, they had to do something.  The problem with the iPads, as issued?
  
  "You can't do nothing with them.  You just carry them around."
  
  Where do I begin?

• "The Inside Story on LA Schools' iPad Rollout: 'A Colossal Disaster,'" by Anya Kamenetz, Digital/Edu (The Hechinger Report, Teachers College at Columbia University), 30 September 2013 (hyperlinks in original):

  The project is now being resoundingly panned, as reports surfaced quickly of high school students going around the security software on the iPads to surf for non-approved content. The district has called a halt to students bringing iPads home amid disputes over who will be held responsible for loss or damage–parents or taxpayers.

• "L.A. Unified Takes Back iPads as $1-Billion Plan Hits Hurdles; School Staff and Students Report That iPads were Collected Friday at Some Schools.  One Official Says Only Two-Thirds of the $700 Devices were Turned In," by Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times, 30 September 2013:

  Roosevelt had been one of 13 schools to test iPads last year, but the 400 students who participated did not take the devices home during the spring semester trial.

• "LA Schools Give Every Kid an iPad—What Could Go Wrong?," by Robby Soave, The Daily Caller, 29 September 2013:

  Another 300 students figured out how to rig the security settings on their iPads to visit unauthorized social media websites.  This prompted administrators to ban students from using the iPads while they are at home, away from school supervision — at least partly defeating the point of having the devices, which are intended as supplemental learning tools.

Oh boy, this is bad.


NOTE ADDED 4 OCTOBER 2013:

I have more breaking news on the MSSD14 situation.  iPads have been restored to the students.

Quoting one of my sources from yesterday:  "My school district, Manitou Springs Colorado MSSD 14, as of this day has apparently resolved the IOS 7 problem and has allowed students to take computers home today, presumably because the computers have restored operational content filter technology."

On the other hand, in Los Angeles, it goes from bad to worse.  Look at the LAUSD's superintendent's latest tweet touting how supposedly transformative are the iPads in a child's education:

We are transforming education! #allyouthachieving pic.twitter.com/dHoTgOoV03
— John Deasy (@DrDeasyLAUSD) August 27, 2013

In reality, good schools like those in South Korea, don't use iPads, at least not like LAUSD uses them:

• "In iPads We Trust," by The Scrapbook, The Weekly Standard, 4 October 2013.

Considering the current debacle, no wonder Superintendent Deasy has stopped tweeting to this point.

The girl pictured holding the iPad is adorable.  LAUSD's use of the iPad is not.

So just in case he gets embarrassed and deletes his latest tweet (27 Aug 2013), here's a graphic:

URL of this page:  safelibraries.blogspot.com/2013/10/SchooliPadDisasters.html

Follow @SafeLibraries

Go To Hell, ALA, Says Trend Setting Library Director; Wants to Implement Monitoring Software to Watch Computer Screens From Afar

A trend setting library director essentially tells the American Library Association [ALA] to go to hell, according a media report. In Lakewood, OH, Lakewood Public Library Director Kenneth Warren says, "If you need privacy, you should get your own computer." To this the media reports, "Warren's views on privacy for library computer users clash with those of the American Library Association." "Warren dropped his membership from the group after it suggested libraries erect privacy screens for public-access computers." In other words, go to hell says the library director. (Privacy screens are a known failure.)

The ALA's response in the article is that monitoring computers would make people "feel uncomfortable," in other words, embarrass them. Irrelevant, and the ALA knows it! ALA Deputy Director Deborah Caldwell-Stone was deeply involved in the US Supreme Court case the ALA lost and lost big. It is called US v. ALA. She appeared in the media discussing the case. Yet here she is, in yet another community, making believe the case doesn't exist, changing embarrassment to feeling uncomfortable. Here's what the Court said about embarrassment that the ALA apparently doesn't want you to know:

The District Court viewed unblocking and disabling as inadequate because some patrons may be too embarrassed to request them. 201 F. Supp. 2d, at 411. But the Constitution does not guarantee the right to acquire information at a public library without any risk of embarrassment.

This library director is a trend setter. "Lakewood was one of the first libraries to help police nab a patron viewing child pornography." (Recall the ALA is nearly silent about the library employee fired for doing the exact same thing.)

He's about to do it again, to set another trend. Pay attention, as this may be the wave of the future:

"Now the library ... might expand its monitoring policy by using free software that allows librarians to remotely monitor what a patron is viewing on a computer screen."

Yes, that's right! Read more at "No Privacy at Library; Some Officials Consider Use of Software to Monitor Patrons' Use of Internet on Public-Access Computers," by Molly Kavanaugh, Plain Dealer, Wednesday, Jun 18, 2008.

If ever a library deserved an award from Family Friendly Libraries, it would be this one.