Student Logs Teachers Keystrokes

handy_vandal writes "A 16-year-old student has been charged with a misdemeanor for rigging a keystroke-recording device onto a teacher's computer. School district police received a tip from students that the boy was trying to sell answers to final exams. The District Attorney's Office has charged the teen with breach of computer information, a Class B misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $2,000 and up to 180 days in jail. This sort of thing has happened before. The problem is so pervasive that the GRE board has switched from computers back to paper and pencil."

Comments

My wife just started teaching...

[AdamTrace]

My wife just started teaching 9th and 10th grade high school math. I gave her a little crash course on basic computer security (including watching out for keyloggers!)

It's common knowledge that the kids are smarter than the teachers, computer-wise... but hasn't it always been that way?

You reap what you sow

[Dancin_Santa]

Every computer added to a classroom is another nail in the coffin of modern teaching. There is nothing added by adding a computer, but much is taken away.

Computers ought to remain in "computer labs" and perhaps on the desks for specialized "computer classes", but they definitely don't belong anywhere else.

Creative usage of computers for teaching is a copout on the kids. By removing the teacher/student relationship and replacing it with an inanimate object, the kids lose out on a great deal of education. This is why home-schooled kids typically do better in college than "computer schooled" kids do.

Is it any surprise that the more technology becomes a part of these kids' educations, the more likely it is that the bad apples are going to find ways to exploit the system?

Re:You reap what you sow

[Derkec]

It's hard though. A lot of times school budgets get grants (government and otherwise) that can only be spent on technology. It's not always the school's dumb decision on where the money gets spent.

Re:You reap what you sow

[Geekbot]

That is such a giant blanket statement. You are way so far to the extreme it makes it hard for people to accept the good points of your post.
Computers are misused by many teachers. I work for a school and my job is to make sure teachers understand how to use their computers, and when and why.

Homeschooled kids will do better. One of the reasons is that a homeschooled kid isn't competing with 29 other kids for the teacher's attention. Sometimes a computer can give a student instant feedback that is just not otherwise possible with the size of current classrooms.

Computers in the classroom allow teachers to present information in different ways, 3-D modeling, conferencing, visualizing abstract concepts, etc.

Federal law states that by the end of 8th grade that a student should be computer literate. There are many research skills that are necessary to understand on the computer. When was the last time you saw a card catalog that was not on a computer?

And how is a school district going to keep track of all of their attendance, discipline issues, etc, without a computer in the classroom? Districts are becoming more efficient and saving money by using programs to enter and track student information including grades and attendance. How would this happen without a classroom computer? And are you suggesting that every teacher should be forced to handwrite every assignment and test they give to the student? Where are they going to type it up without a classroom computer?

Technology is just a word for the tools we use. Tools are not evil, they are not detrimental just for existing. Isn't it more true that the problem is that students aren't using how or when to use the correct tools? Do I understand that you are stating that computers should be used for computer classes but not used to enhance the core curriculum? What a waste of time and money to teach a kid to use a computer if you don't believe computers are beneficial.

What kind of idiot...

[FireballX301]

...uses a keylogger DONGLE?

Seriously. Did he think that the teacher wouldn't notice a DONGLE that was added to the computer?

Please. At least use a trojan-type keylogger, or something even slightly covert.

Of course, they could stay with computers

[RLiegh]

if they placed the computers (with the tests) someplace better. As /.ers know, the most important part of computer security is physical access.

Remove the computer (with the tests) to somewhere that only teachers' can go, and you'll mostly eliminate the problem, without resorting to pen and paper.

My rights online? WTF?

[jdreed1024]

Um, this is simply an electronic version of stealing the answer key from the teacher's office. And I'd expect a student to be charged with a crime for breaking into a teacher's office to steal an answer key. This, of course, is even worse, since the student could easily have obtained other information, such as credit card numbers (plenty of teachers order supplies online), usernames, passwords, etc.

This isn't some poor misguided kid who got thrown in jail because the "lab monitor" saw him using "that Linux hacking tool" on the school Windows machines. Nor is it some grey-hat hacker pushing boundaries. When you actively go and install a keystroke monitor on a machine that is not yours, you're out to get information that you shouldn't have, period. It's totally premeditated, too - it's not like he was poking around in /tmp and found a MS Word auto-save backup file with the answer key in it, or was rummaging around in the trash can because he dropped his retainer and found the answer key - he deliberately went and got a keystroke logger and put it on the machine. There's no possible way to spin this as an innocent kid getting screwed.

Re: Happens so often the charge is ridiculous!

[Horse Rotorvator JAD]

but a fine and the threat of jail time isn't the answer.

I disagree. People seem to think that commiting crimes on a computer is somehow "not as bad" as the normal physical crimes of theft, tresspassing, etc. People need to be taught at a young age that doing things like putting a keystroke logger on a teachers computer is a real crime and not just harmless fun.

If that kid gets a job in an office and throws a keylogger on his bosses computer he will get into some real trouble and rightfully so. They need to learn early on that this kind of behaviour is unnacceptable.

But this is slashdot so I expect a bunch of replys saying that it is not the kids fault but it is the schools fault for not securing their computers.