This blog printed on 100% recycled electrons.
It's not a blog -- it's a clunky PDF document, and it still smells of euphemism and adminspeak -- but it's a step in the right direction: the Madison Central School District has posted a document on its website titled "Update on Technology Infractions."(The link is available on the superintendent's webpage, where the document bears the title "Tablet Summary Statement."
Even the Madville Times must slumber, so deep reading will have to wait. But some quick math:
- The school suspended 14 students.
- The document says "less than ten percent (10%) of all students in the high school were found committing infractions" [p. 3... and note the bothersome administrative passive voice]
- 10% of the student body is roughly 40 kids.
- 14 is a lot less than 40.
- The document says all hackers "faced an out of school suspension of two days and loss of tablet."
- The document says "all consequences were equally dispensed." [more passive voice]
Question: is "less than ten percent" just a really bad estimate, or did some hackers escape punishment? (Yes, that darned Madville Times always has to nitpick... but this is a central question for a lot of students and parents.)
I find it amazing that it takes eight days to re image a computer's hard drive. I used to work at a computer store and if I remember correctly, it took us at most ONE day to do it. I wonder if this is their 'period of time away from the computer'. And you can have more than one running at a time, in my opinion, it might take at most three days or so, but thats on the outside.
ReplyDeleteIt probably took eight days to re-image all the computers -- kids who had their computer reimaged were without them for only part of a day.
ReplyDeleteWhile you are hacking on the adminstration for grammer and fairness in punishment you missed a point. Who's in trouble for not changing the password on a regular basis. From the referenced document
ReplyDelete"In addition, we will now regularly change the local administrator password."
If these breaches were so critical and carried such harsh penalties the passwords should have been changed often. The students shouldn't have done it but it shouldn't have been easy to do.
Don't worry, Anon -- I've got more observations than grammar and style critique coming. But first I'd like everyone else to read through the document and offer their impressions. Keep 'em coming, and invite your friends!
ReplyDeleteIt has been said that to re-format just 30 computers took 14 hours, and with almost 400 computers, there's no way it would be feasible to do all the computers and tie up even more resources for several weeks. There were 14 students suspended initially, but I understand that additional students have been suspended as the investigation continues. All are receiving the same penalty. This entire laptop initiative is new to Madison High School and when you have a security breach this widespread, parents need to take a step back, talk to their kids about the importance of ethical use of technology and lay the blame where it belongs. After all, if so many kids had the password, I'm inspired that only 10% decided to open that illegal door.
ReplyDelete