L.A. students breach school iPads’ security

I'm sure that the "education reformers" will find a way to blame teachers for this "clustermug":

Any glitches in our billion-dollar technology program were due to those "bad teachers"...

...who were unable to inspire their students to great expectations rather than to fall victim to their baser instincts.

But, wait a minute...

Isn't it the "education reformers" who always deny that students have baser instincts, that all children are good, that all children crave learning.

I know...

It was those godawful, meaningless, boring homework assignments, understandably and rightfully ignored, that drove our frustrated seekers of knowledge to more stimulating endeavors.

I mean...

If the IT folks can't keep students on task with devices they "control", how is the harried teacher in the classroom suppose to control BYOD?!

Pouring good money after bad...

A second approach would be to buy and install a new security application.

Okay, another one-week challenge for the student hackers.

(BTW: I'd be willing to bet it didn't take a week. More likely, it took a week for district officials to find out (or to admit) that their bright, shiny iPads had been turned into vehicles for personal pleasure.)

I also like...

The concern of district officials that students were using the hacked iPads to visit "forbidden sites", like YouTube and Facebook.

Excuse me...

Haven't we been bombarded with articles touting student use of YouTube to watch educational videos? What about the flipped classroom, where a student's homework is to view the "lecture stuff" at home...freeing classroom time for engaging in creative learning and critical thinking or getting "face time" with the guide-on-the-side teacher?

Facebook? Didn't we read that districts were touting it as a wonderful means of education communication, where students could contact other students, to share their educational thoughts and ideas? Oh, and that teachers could be on call 24/7 for student questions?

But, most of all, I like the assessment of the billion-dollar technology program offered by (probably) a typical student:

The excitement of receiving the device quickly wore off for senior Kimberly Ramirez when she realized it was for schoolwork only.

“You can’t do nothing with them,” she said. “You just carry them around.”

Ahhh...

The thirst, the hunger for education!

Reminds this old dinosaur of the TV interview conducted with a student in Cairo during a strike back in the 20th Century (1994-1995 if memory serves.) The reporter asked the student how she felt about her education being disrupted (the intimation being "by those greedy, don't-care-about-the-kids teachers".)

Although, I'm sure it wasn't the response the reporter expected, the reporter knew a good sound bite when she heard it. So, she rolled the video tape...

After the student indicated that she was cool with the time off, she got down to the bottom line:

"Those teachers are trying to teach us more than we want to learn."

Bears repeating:

The thirst, the hunger for education!

If only those "bad teachers" would just get the hell out of the way...

POSTSCRIPT:

Interesting that district officials (probably upon the advice of their attorneys) mentioned student access to YouTube, Facebook, and Pandora Radio as the students' dastardly deeds.

No mention of baser instincts...

Surfing porn sites and using their district-provided iPads for sexting and bullying.

I am such a cynic...