Lil Hackerz

It seems like we, as educators, may be fighting a loosing battle in our attempts to censor or control the virtual world. We place all these controls upon the internet, 'filters' to keep students away from the sort of information that we deem 'undesirable'. However, this opens two distinct discussions that need to be addressed. The first, maybe most obviously, is the need to decide who is in control of what is censored and what is not? Who gets to make these decisions? The second question, and the one I wish to explore here, is whether or not we are even capable of this endeavor?

Students these days have been brought up in a digital age, and, therefore, are quite comfortable and capable at using the technology. That is not to say that they are more comfortable then we are with the technology, but, and this is important, that they are at least as capable as us at using the technology in ways that interest them.

They may not be very good at using excel or powerpoint, but that could be a direct result of having no desire to. One of the wonders about the internet and the digital world is that once you have the basics, then you can literally use the internet itself to learn about it. You can teach yourself anything you want to be able to do just by persevering, and this is something that our students excel at. They teach themselves all the intricacies of these social networking sites because they want to know it. Likewise, when we block sites from them, they teach themselves how to get around them.

One of my students, frustrated by his inability to play games on the computer due to the restrictions placed upon it, proceeded to restart the computer in safe mode, created a brand new administrator account, restarted the computer as the administrator, and then proceeded to play Halo for the rest of the lesson. While this may be a relatively simple way of getting around the security on these computers, it is non the less ingenious, and, most importantly, it is effective. And that is the message here, if they want to get around the restrictions, they will. So maybe we shouldn't be fighting this, but rather educating students as to how to judge the legitimacy of  the things they are inevitably going to encounter in cyberspace?