On February 16, Pennsylvania high school student Blake Robbins and his parents Michael and Holly sued the Lower Merion School District; claiming that either the school district or Harriton High School administrators activated the iSight webcam on Blake's school-supplied Macbook to spy on him at home.
Although Superintendent Dr. Christopher McGinley of Lower Merion issued a statement clarifying that the district only activates the webcam to help find lost or stolen laptops, other school administrators across the nation have done so for other reasons.
During a segment of PBS's Frontline broadcast, "digital_nation," Assistant Principal Dan Ackerman of Intermediate School 339 in the Bronx, New York, explained how he remotely monitors sixth and seventh graders through their webcams.
"So I click and there's an observe button," said Ackerman. "And it brings up their screen."
Commonly Ackerman observed students using the Photo Booth program (standard in the Macbook), however, "they just use it like it's a mirror," said Ackerman.
However, Ackerman did not state his intentions for monitoring the students, he only explained how he did so.
"They don't even realize that we are watching," said Ackerman. "I always like to mess with them and take their picture...nine times out of ten they duck out of the way."
For one teacher though, the computers have become invaluable in class.
"I've found with my students that are easily distracted that computers have helped focus them," said the teacher. "I was worried about the computers coming to my class...but the computer has been amazing."
That is due to the student response the teacher has noticed since the computers arrived.
"The same students that struggled with independent reading, the same students that struggled with focus...are flourishing with laptops," said the teacher.
One student explained an typical reading assignment in which the students will read the passage on their laptop, answer questions regarding the passage, finally submitting their answers into a spreadsheet emailed by the teacher.
"She sees who has it wrong or right," said the student. "Then we review the hardest question in the test."
Although students admitted to playing games, surfing the web, or chatting when the teachers begin to bore them, they always make sure they get their work done, stated one student.
Which is one of the key aspects the quoted teacher seeks to provide her students with, multitasking skills.
"I think that teaching students to multitask is really important for their future jobs," said the teacher.
Even though Ackerman stated multitasking is a fairly common sight during his monitoring (students having multiple programs open at one time), he seemed aloof to the benefit students inherit from multitasking. Instead, Ackerman appeared throughout his time on screen as a bored assistant principal snooping on his students.
For the students at Intermediate School 339, computers in the class room have proven to increase their learning capabilities. In 2006, only 9 percent of students performed at grade-level mathematics; now 62 percent of the students perform at grade-level mathematics, reported PBS.
However, the snooping eyes of school administrators toying with students in class may draw dire repercussions over the success laptops have had for students.
"[We] get to do interesting things by ourselves," said one student. "You feel independent."
Although a teacher monitoring their students desktop in the classroom will benefit the class by keeping students on track, administrators snooping on students freely will only deter students from utilizing their laptops once they know their being spied on.
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