Wednesday, September 22, 2010

The Warning

Not posting in two weeks seems egregious. If only I knew that I wasn't posting while I wasn't posting, then I probably would have posted. Nevertheless.

A warning came down from the company. I don't listen to my company, ever, so it really doesn't matter. They say that the Board of Education has a way of seeing what everyone who uses the internet at school is looking at so that we should be careful and only use the internet for school related purposes. Hmmm. While I don't doubt that being able to remotely track a computers history, or even being able to watch a screen in real time is a reality, in fact I know it is, let's examine the reality of the situation.

I work at a school with at least 73 teachers. Right now five computers that are connected to the internet at the computer station are open and running. In addition we have about 25 laptops that are available for teachers to use at their desks and WI-FI that runs through the whole school. Add to that teachers personnel computers at their desks and the numerous teachers that use their iPhones off of the WI-FI. That is one school around 43 or so in the school district. Are we to believe that one person employed full time could even keep up with the activity at this school? Are we further to believe that they could interpret what was actual use and what was useless. I sometimes mail other teachers using Facebook to ask about lesson plans. I sometimes use Gmail and ask about school and then an unrelated question or two. Sometimes when I am using Wikipedia to research a grammar point I stray off topic but end up learning more that I talk about in class. Some teachers use the computers to watch basketball. Then again, they are basketball coaches. Are we really to believe that one person can not only see all of this information but also analyze it? Is there a team of 40 or so people just doing this at the school board? If so, does the money wasted there not eclipse, by far, any productivity lapses by internet surfing teachers? I suppose my real question is; Why they gots to play me for a stupid?

1 comment:

Caitlin said...

I knew plenty of teachers who used Facebook during school time for worse things.

attempting to silence the voices in my head.