Unsupervised Learning

(Released to the web January 26, 2008)

A previous article on readingtonparents.org decried the lack of concentration in Readington schools on teaching children how to be effective internet consumers--evaluating the information they find on the net.  Nationally there continues to be deep concerns about children being the targets of internet predators and the tragic real life stories of  cyberbullying fill the newscasts all too often.  Here in Readington parents tell of young children stumbling across hardcore pornography on internet connected computers, and of learning about how to see such images from other kids in school.  Methods of cheating on schoolwork with the use of internet resources are widely shared here too.  Why is the internet being abused in these ways instead of being harnessed by young students for real progress?

As is usually the case, the problem starts with adults, not children.

In Readington the push for technology initiatives has outstripped the development of structure in school or at home which would allow for safe, productive use of internet resources.  Even as the technology staff charged with maintaining the physical infrastructure within our district struggles to keep up with the firewalls, anti-spam software, email configurations, safe-surfing software, and web browser configurations on multiple PC operating systems in our schools, our administrators and teachers are pushing the envelope of internet use with little regard and sometimes little understanding of the import of their actions.

Students are asked to bring from home USB flashdrives to store their schoolwork created in Microsoft programs like Powerpoint and Word.  The files are shuttled back and forth between school and home, where it is assumed that parents have provided a suitable personal computer with the appropriate, matching software.  The administration has previously claimed that 93% of Readington households have internet connect PCs. Students are also encouraged to search the internet at home using Google and similar search engines for images to illustrate Powerpoint slides or for quotes to add depth to their reports.  Instead of looking up the proper format of citations, students are encouraged to use "citation machines" available from websites.  Instead of using a dictionary or thesaurus in paper format, students are encouraged to look up words on websites of similar function or to copy vocabulary definitions from the same places.  The Readington district has now even provided email accounts to students in school, which can be read at home over the internet but not used to send from there.

The pressure on parents from the school to provide unlimited internet access, felt through the demands of our children to complete homework assignments, is relentless.  Add to this pressure from the school the desire of children to participate in other internet activities, from Webkinz, to pop culture stars, to facebook, to youtube, to chat and email, and there is little chance for parents to halt the juggernaut.  Unfortunately parents are clearly not ready for the onslaught and educators are mostly clueless how far into dangerous territory they are pushing students.  Even within the school walls students trade tips about how to get around firewalls and other surfing protection schemes.

Although hardly a news article on the dangers of the internet is published without indicating the need to put internet connected PCs in a public area where they can be monitored, that advice is generally ignored by parents.  First, when multiple siblings need the use of  internet resources each night, a single PC isn't practical.  Second, most families do not have the room or the desire for a student computer lab with multiple PCs in their living room.  As a result, the computers go in the bedrooms.  What is worse, most families do not have the expertise to set up and monitor sophisticated software tools designed to protect kids, or to prevent the kids from disabling the same.  The expense is no small matter either, especially when the services of "PC doctor" type consultants are factored in every time junior manages to pollute the PC with a virus or adware.

Also part of the problem at home is that parents actually have their own work to do, either on the family computer or not.  By middle school most parents give up on sharing a PC with their offspring and many don't have the time to monitor their children using their own PC in their room, either.

And, what are these children doing on their computers in their rooms?  Even leaving aside the well documented issues with email, chat, and social networking, these children are learning to take shortcuts--cheating by old school standards--with the use of internet resources.  They are cutting and pasting reports instead of writing their own words.  They are using wiki resources instead of researching subjects on their own.  They are using online dictionary, thesaurus, citation machine, Cliff note, and essay house resources to copy or plagiarize answers.  Most importantly, they see nothing wrong with this behavior since it is encouraged at least indirectly by teachers.

While these children are using search engines to find the information they need for homework, they are also getting an education in other, unintended, areas.  The most innocent of search phrases can lead to some very disturbing websites.  Many people don't know that some search engines track past searches from a PC or a network address, and use those past searches to modify the search results of a current search phrase.  In a household where a single internet connection is piped through a cable modem to multiple PCs, if an older brother previously searched for various forms of pornographic entertainment on his PC, or if mom searched for information on abortion clinics from her PC, or if dad searched for local massage parlors from his PC, then when little sister does her search for something innocent and related to homework, her results will be tailored to the previous history on that household network tracked by the search engine!   Even when the other family members are searching for more sedate subjects, related to work perhaps, their interests may not be be appropriate for the younger set.

Teachers and administrators in Readington are equally oblivious to the circumstances being created at home and school.  Teachers are feeling pressure to ramp up the use of technology in all aspects of learning, including homework.  The majority of teachers, though, lack the training or the experience to understand all the consequences of their technology related assignments.  Administrators, apparently sensing an opportunity for Readington to stand out from other districts, are pushing hard for integration of technology--whether or not the benefits or the consequences have been thoroughly studied.  The technology staff is so overwhelmed just trying to install and work out the bugs of the vast new infrastructure that they have not stepped up to offer words of caution even if they could.

If we pull back the lens for a moment the scene which unfolds is this.  School leaders believe technology can define the reputation of the district and they are pushing hard for new initiatives and use of technology in learning.  Teachers, lacking any significant new training, understanding, lesson plans, or direction from the leaders other than "do", are directing the use of internet resources and other computer related activities wherever they can--essentially throwing mud on the wall to see what sticks.  Students are going home and relating all the technology "requirements" to parents, especially since these children are only too eager to explore on their own without parental supervision and to make use of all the interesting things they hear about from other kids in school hallways.  Parents, overworked, lacking time, and lacking a full comprehension of what they are doing, are caving-in and spending the money on a home network, individual PCs placed in bedrooms, and school sanctioned software just to make the pressure go away.  Shortly thereafter, junior is cheating on homework, chatting with friends online to all hours of the night, and quite possibly surfing for porn, posting to social networking sites and bullying the kid three lockers down.

How can this issue be resolved?  Each adult stakeholder plays a role:

--School leaders must tone down the technology rhetoric when directing teachers. They must come to the realization that technology initiatives should start with the specific benefits to learning rather than starting with a new gadget and seeking potential benefits to learning later.  School leaders must educate themselves on the technology they promote and  provide opportunities for all of the teachers expected to use the technology to be trained and to find comfort with integration into daily lessons.

--Educators charged with creating or defining curriculum in all subjects must create the structure to teach students how to be good internet consumers, which goes hand in hand with being able to critically evaluate any information. 

--Teachers must refrain from assigning technology related projects and homework without thinking through the negative implications.  At the very least, better communication with parents about what is required versus what is suggested would be a start.  Resisting the pleas of students at home is easier if parents understand what is really necessary and what is not.  Teachers must request a much greater depth of staff development in technology related areas and force the hand of administrators who ask too much too soon.  Silence doesn't generally solve problems.

--Parents must resist the pressure to conform to the blind wishes of their children, who may or may not mean well.  That means leaving the PC in a public area or being prepared to spend a lot of money on sophisticated software and hardware and a lot of time configuring and monitoring the same if the PC is in the child's bedroom.  Either way, the PC must be examined from time to time to see what is being learned by the child through its use.  Just as too many parents are blindsided by drug and alcohol use, they are caught unwary of what goes on over the net too.

The internet and related technologies so popular today are truly transforming society and human interaction in ways that are fantastic and wonderful.  Yet, like any powerful tool, these technologies must be given to children with caution and with heavy supervision.  Educators and parents in Readington, as in other communities, have thoroughly failed in this regard. Already Readington students have been exposed to genies which are highly inappropriate and which cannot be stuffed back in the bottle.  Before a tragedy occurs here, the adults in the room had better regroup.