だめ！ Don't do it!

I found myself in a little bit of an ethical quagmire the other day with a student in one of my computer classes.

I was going through the students' "home folders" on the network to retrieve assignments from the previous week and found some dangerously offensive material stored there. I don't use those adjectives lightly.

I didn't know exactly what to do because I'm not officially authorized to directly access the students' home folders... however any teacher on the network has open access to them as well as materials stored by other teachers. The access is a little convoluted, but nothing is secured. It's truely an open network.

I have no idea what the decency laws are in Japan or at this school for that matter. He might have been disciplined, suspended, expelled, or even arrested. I have no idea.

After consulting another teacher confidentially about the matter, I decided that it would be best that I delete the materials and speak to the student without reporting the incident to the administration. (I'm mostly using "I" in the sense that I'm taking full responsibility for what might happen).

When I approached the student he didn't know what I was talking about at first. He only gave a slight indication of knowing at the end of the conversation. I addressed him as the adult he is, but let him know sternly that it cannot happen again.

He came up to me later and let me know that he did know what I was talking about, language barrier and all, and that it had happened a long time ago and was a joke. Mostly that he felt ashamed. And I'm going to take him on his word.

Students need to be educated about the perilous nature of freedom. I love America for the freedoms we have: speech, religion, even firearms.

I don't think the Japanese fully understand the concept of those freedoms at times. I don't think that I or some of my fellow Americans understand that fact either at times.

We have to pay a price for freedom. Is that price ever too high? Ask those grieving Amish folks, or others who've suffered from recent acts of violence in America. I would like to say "no", but I know that that feeling is probably circumstantial.

So, back to my student. I think this reinforces my role as an educator deeply committed to technology in the class room is to address media literacy in my classes. About how to do that... well that's another post.