I teach in a year 5/6 class that has a BYOD policy. As an enthusiastic user of technology I have always encouraged students to communicate using digital mediums.
This led to a situation 2 years ago that resulted in our school having to implement our cyber safety policy.
I received a phone call at home from a parent claiming that someone had hacked their daughters account and sent emails with inappropriate messages from their daughter to her friend. Using Rolfe's (2001) model of reflection I would say that my role on the situation was one of significant responsibility, as solving this issue was paramount in keeping the confidence of the parents with both me as a teacher and the school with our BYOD policy.
What actions did I take? I contacted my Principal straight away and she contacted the parents to reassure them that the matter was being dealt with. Then, with the help of our school's IT facilitator, we tracked down the IP address of the house where the computer that was sending the emails was located. We were then able to contact the parents at the located house and solve the problem. A student had allowed a friend to use their computer to access their Google docs account and failed to log off. The student who owned the computer then accessed their friends email address and began sending abusive emails to their peer group, supposedly from her friends email address. By locating the IP address where the computer was logged on, we worked out that the house that the email address was logged on at did not match up with the students home address, rather it matched the address of her supposed friend. When confronted, the student admitted their guilt and lost their IT privileges for a term. Both were young and i think it ended up being a positive experience for all involved.
Was locating the IP address ethical or a breach of privacy? No, because it states in our school's cyber safety policy that
"Users will, at all times, respect the privacy and
copyright of others. This means not
attempting to access or use other people’s passwords, files or e.mail. "
As soon as the student failed to follow those guidelines, they were failing to adhere to the cyber safety policy that they were made to sign at school.
This taught me the need to thoroughly educate students around sensible use of digital tools, especially the need to protect passwords. It made me realize that I really needed to prepare a thorough cyber safety unit of work for my students.
References
Churchill Park School, Cyber Safety Policy, 2018
Rolfe, 2001, taken from, AM Retention team, University of Cumbria, 2016
