While at the local pizza shop at lunchtime, I was reading this news article about some kids who broke into their school computers. The so called "Kutztown 13" figured out the admin passwords on the laptops they were issued, and started causing a variety of havoc.

So, read the article, then decide what the moral of the story is. You may choose more than one:

• Don't give computers (especially expensive ibooks) to school kids
• If giving expensive ibooks to students, and intending to lock them out of some features, don't leave the admin password taped to the back of the laptop
• Don't put Internet filtering software on the client, put it on the server
• Don't give a Porche to a group of unsupervised 16 year olds and expect them to travel the speed limit and stop at all stopsigns.
• It doesn't matter that anyone signs an agreement saying that they'll obey this and that, and may be criminally charged if they break the rules -- there will always be parents (and thus kids) who think they are exempt from having to follow the rules and consequences they agreed to
• Don't give "locked down" computers to young/immature people who are also smarter than you
• Don't leave security vulnerabilities on locked down machines (they didn't say this was the case -- but they did say students cracked an encrypted password (after having the original password, taped to the back of the computer, changed). Being that it's a Mac, it was likely the passwords in the /etc/shadow file. Which should not be readable by users, so it seems that there may have been some vulnerability they took advantage of)

Actually, I may be shooting for an "all of the above" here. Did I miss any?

Although I agree with most of the above lessons, I could add a few. Students are going to do what they are going to do especially when giving them laptops to use at school and home will make them feel it is their computer not the schools. An enforceable / monitorable AUP policy has to be developed for school time ONLY. Students can then do their *fun* stuff when it will not interrupt the learning of others. Monitoring laptop usage needs to be carefully considered and might work better with an elaborate web cam system then using laptop software.

Although I don't exactly agree with the school's policies, I have a real hard time feeling sorry for the students. They were warned in writing and frequently by other disciplinary measures - why are they surprised the police were called?

On a philosophical note, these technology issues need to be resolved if education will ever advance into the 21st century. Students must have access to more technology if they are going to be prepared for the real world. Just avoiding giving them computers is not the solution!

For the most part I agree with Shana. I think that all the lessons you listed are lessons that the IT department/School Board *might* have learned. However I think ( in line with what Shana said ) that it slightly misses the boat. Afterall the students broke the rules. Saying that it's the IT departments fault for not having tougher network security in place is a lot like saying that it's the homeowners fault for going to bed and forgetting to lock the door, not the burglers fault for opening it. I am just sick to death of black hat hackers being treated like they've done nothing wrong and that it's the beleagured Sys Admin's fault. Imagine the progress we would have made in the field if we hadn't had to stop and think of every devious thing that ppl might do to a system. We have some of the brightest minds in the world worrying about network security when they should be creating tech that changes all of our lives for the better.

We make heros out of people like these kids. Kevin Mitnick sells a bunch of books and gets a sweet gig in network security. I'm sorry, but the guy is a criminal and shouldn't be able to profit from that. Lots of ethical programmers and Sys Admins get up every morning and work hard all day long, and they get no book deals or cushey jobs. To me it's like letting a pedofile out of prison and then giving him a job telling administrators how to better secure their playgrounds to keep guys like him out. It sickens me.

First off, the above is meant to be "morals that responsible people should learn after reading and/or participating in the story". For one reason or another, I was avoiding placing blame... though I think my 5th point hints at my thoughts on the matter.

Regarding the laptops in general, I'm not sure I support the idea of students being given them at all. They have enough distractions in life -- in class, at home, etc. Further, the amount of resources it would take to maintain those computers.... both keeping them in working order, and keeping things secure so kids can't break anything, would require more man-power than a typical business would need for a similar amount of people. And businesses are already considered under-staffed in that department.

I don't disagree that it'd be good to learn computers, but I'm not sure that's the best way to do it (and in some cases, it may even be going around parents, as many parents don't want their kids having their own computers until they're older).

I think an ideal way to do this is to have a decent computer lab or labs. Teachers should be able to use them when desired, and students should be able to as well during study halls to complete assignments.

I don't think kids need computers in their hands all the time in order to learn how to be productive in the business world. And I just think the temptation to do "wrong" with these is far too high... schools don't supply cars to teenagers (even though I've sold two cars for cheaper than an ibook). When teenagers get to make use of a school car for drivers-ed, it's one on one, or maybe one on three. At home, parents may choose to get their kid a car. But in order for them to use it, it requires months of training with a parent involved.

And afterwards, teenagers are still the most dangerous people on the road :-)

What's being done in this school with the laptops is bypassing all the checks we have in place for other issues that remind us that kids are kids, and not yet responsible adults.

Josiah's point is good -- maybe for those who care to learn more, we can create additional computer related activities. An after-school programming club. Get them involved in developing the school's website. And even have a program for kids who want to learn some basics but for one reason or another don't at home.

I'm resisting the desire to flame Eric :-P

Computers in schools should not primarily be there to teach computers to kids. Rather, learning in all subjects can be greatly enhanced by curriculum software, interactive tutorials, multimedia, and the rich amount of web resources. A computer lab (or two) in a school just doesn't cut it. Kids end up only learning to type papers, and the computers really aren't customized for different subjects because each teacher can only reserve the lab extremely rarely, if at all. Almost all classroom activities would be enhanced if laptops were made available.

I agree with Nate's position that all this malicious computing is really stunting growth of the tech field. Society has got to start seeing computer crimes as just as detrimental as other types of crimes. And ethics in general should really go back to it's wrong even if you don't get caught or punished.

Hey, flame away :-)

But in that, make sure you explain how you hope to get the money to pay for the massive amount of manpower it's going to take to do what you want.

I can't fathom how having laptops available in the classroom wouldn't become a huge distraction. You know this -- you're already constantly fighting for their attention... do you also want to have to use more time to monitor what they're doing all the time to verify that it's school related?

And what about the parents? Many parents understand that they're unable to keep track of what their kids do, and thus set up a computer in the family room, that everyone can see at any time. There's no privacy, which is what may keep the kid in line. These computers often have filters, filtering out what each individual parent feels is not okay.

Handing them a laptop they can carry around anywhere may add additional burden to families, and ignores the wishes of each family.

In fact, because of that, some of these students tried to give their laptops back! But the administration wouldn't have it, everyone was to have their laptop.

Indeed, it's a neat idea that computers could be a part of school and the learning process therein.

But I can't see how this could possibly be successfully implemented in all but the richest of school districts; which is of course is the group who really doesn't need it. And even in the wealthy districts (such as Kutztown, who had a million laying around to buy Macs) are going to continually struggle with making a program such as this successful.

I think programs such as this will be continually plagued with problems greater than the issues they solve.

Regarding computer labs, I'm aware of those issues... so, if a district is set on providing computers, they can put together multiple computer labs that students can make use of under supervision. Computers in a lab like this can be obtained for 75% less than the up front cost of the laptops, and is far cheaper over the long haul due to less maintenance, easy upgradability of parts, and less resources need to be used on prevention and security.

Five labs? Ten labs? Fifteen labs? At a certain point, it might require an addition to the school. But I think a solution like that is far more viable than giving students their own computer.

Oh, and I almost forgot... the first time one of these students becomes overweight after receiving a laptop, or carpal tunnel (regardless of whether it was related at all to said laptop), the school district will become the whipping boy in court.

I think we see the beginnings of that already with how the parents are standing up for what the kids are up to in Kutztown (there's a website dedicated to getting these kids off the charges -- I didn't mention it because I think it's ridiculous and I don't want to link it).

If the parents spent half the time with their kids, as they do fighting in court and making a public issue out of this, it may not have happened in the first place.