Trends-School Accused of Secretly Spying on Students Through Laptop Webcams
This article was very disturbing. In Pennsylvania there is a recent case filing in Robbins vs Lower Merion School District on behalf of school issued laptops assigned to students that had webcams on them that were being used to “stalk” them. Certain software was downloaded on each laptop that allowed administrators to activate the webcam. It is just really disturbing to think that someone would spy on their students, the article did not give specifics as of how old the students were (elementary, high school etc) not that it matters. You wonder what goes some people’s minds.
Lists-8 iPhone Apps for the Perfect Valentine’s Day
I thought this was a very fun interesting article. It gave you a list of 8 top iPhone apps for the perfect Valentines Day with a short description of what each one was. So I highly encourage everyone to check out the 8 apps if they have an iphone or ipod and see which is your favorite, it’s a little late seeing how valentines day is over but they are still neat.
1. iWrite: Love Poems
2. Valentine ~ Postage
3. Creative Romantic Ideas
4. 20 Minute Means – Jamie Oliver
5. Be Mine Hearts
6. Send e Flowers
7. iFlirt
8. iXplode – Valentine’s Day
of the eight I would have to say my favorite one was the creative romantic ideas because I am cheesy and fun that way haha.
How-To: Create and Distribute Effective Online Coupons
This one caught my attention because I used to make coupons working at Harley and I was curious to what this all entailed and what I could learn from it to use for future references. This whole started when the economy went to crap and they were looking at the high increase in numbers of people printing online coupons. The site even gives you tips on how to market and target your audience as well as how to successfully distribute them. I found this site very useful and actually plan to share it with my manager and see what he thinks and if we might use it.
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Its really funny that you talked about the webcam article, because I had a discussion about it in my Advanced multimedia class. It just goes to show how technology is starting to become a scary tool when in the wrong hands. Using webcams as a spying object seems almost like a perverted thing to think about a school doing.
ReplyDeleteIt's unbelievable what people will do these days. The fact that they are stalking people through their school computers is beyond creepy. I'd kind of understand if it was during school hours and they were monitoring what they were doing on school grounds I'd kind of understand. But it just seems incredibly perverted that they'd watch them at home with their families. The fact that the school got away with it for as long as they did, just shows how many people are messed up in the world. As for your iPhone apps, I thought they were just hysterical that people would buy these for their loved ones, what a joke!
ReplyDeleteThe webcam story sounds like something I encountered at work. I'm one of the student managers at the weight room and we had a student bring in his laptop to use in the weight room. He said he was using it for the P-90X videos so we had a meeting with our boss and a few other important figures in the weight room. Just when it was about to be allowed somebody brought up the point of people using their webcams to film other people working out and that opened up a whole different BIG can of worms so we don't allow it. It's not cool that it came down to that as the deciding factor but everybody knows there are some creepy people out there that ruin it for everybody.
ReplyDeleteI agree 100 percent with you. The webcam story is scary. I guess you can chalk it up to what people in positions of power are able to do with the Patriot Act, but a severe invasion of privacy such as this one is really sick and twisted.One of the questions we must ask is if it is even necessary to give students laptops if we are just going to spy on them? Regulating the websites they view is one thing, but the reason we give students personal laptops is so they can learn what it feels like to be grown-up. They are responsible for their own laptop. It's counter-productive if we spy on them instead of giving them some sort of trust.
ReplyDeleteI just don't even understand why the schools thought it would be necessary to spy using a webcam. It would have been more understandable if they tracked where the students were going when using the internet, since it is school equipment and should only be used for educational purposes. I’m interested to see what happens with the case when it goes to court.
ReplyDeleteWow, this definitely explains why our school systems suck. They spend more time watching kids on laptops than creating a good course. This shocks the hell out of me. I personally think that some terminations and maybe jail-time is in order here.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, that is the same school district Kobe Bryant went to.. Random trivia for you
I actually found a video of the teachers spying on their students. I think it's the same one that you mentioned in your blog. The teachers can actually see all of the programs that the students have running, and they even take pictures of them! How creepy is that?? You have to check out this video.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/80925160/