Technology and science bloggers and writers have been buzzing recently about the case of Julie Amero, a substitute teacher from Connecticut facing up to 40 years in prison because of an incident in which some students saw pornographic photos on a classroom computer. Amero's defense argues that the pictures the students saw were unwanted pop-ups, the result of a spyware infecting the computer. Her story sounds quite plausible and people who know more than I do about both technology and the specific facts of the case seem to believe she's an innocent victim here, not a criminal.
Somewhat surprisingly, education blogs have been pretty quiet about the case.
Reading accounts of the case, I couldn't help but be struck by the level of technological incompetence and neglect they suggested. The classroom computer involved was seriously outdated--WaPo reports it was running Windows 98. What's more, the school's technology infrastructure appears to have been very poorly maintained: Both the school's firewall subscription and the machine's anti-virus software were expired, which seems pretty inexcusable and possibly a violation of federal law. And I would be shocked if Norwich--which has more-disadvantaged kids than the average Connecticut school, but is hardly high-poverty and spends about the statewide average--is the only school district where this is the case. There's a lot of talk in education circles about the need to get kids proficient in using modern information technology, of which I'm sort of skeptical, but it's hard to see much chance of that happening if the adults in charge can't even take care of basic maintenance of their technology equipment. Moreover, and I know this is a cliche, but what other professionals would put up with working with the kind of out-dated, ill-maintained technology so many teachers are expected to use?
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