Comments on: Justice is swift

By: Jill

Jill — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:04:47 +0000

My belief has always been that actions have consequences – both positive and negative. Life is about choices and learning that what you choose will draw forth response. A young baby works out the action and response thing really quickly. And isn’t this also the nature of true inquiry. Now this student has two more choices to make to enrich his learning. Hopefully he will learn that messing with others can lead to be messed around yourself. If he chooses to become more antisocial, there is nothing that you could have done differently in response to his behaviour that would likely have brought about a better outcome. I hope wikispaces did provide an explanation of why his account had been discontinued, and what choices he might have in being able to redress the issue as this needs to be seen as a consequence rather than a punishment – i.e something he brought on himself rather than something someone else has done to him. In that way he may more ably see that he could make some better choices such as apologise and maybe be deserving of having his account reinstated but closely monitored for a period. When mistakes are viewed as opportunities to make better future choices then learning can occur.

Cheers, Jill

By: suzievesper

suzievesper — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 08:35:07 +0000

Thanks for all the perspectives everyone. I guess when I wrote to Wikispaces, I thought they would contact the boy rather than just suspend his account. I haven’t changed any of the usernames in this post as the account had been suspended so noone can follow the link and see anything about the lad in question. Still, it is a good point so I will take out the username reference.

By: Dave Winter

Dave Winter — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 08:31:38 +0000

I feel happy that you site was easily resurected and that wikispaces responded so quickly. I am lucky to have contact with students with a lot of time out from the pressure. It is a shame that the virtual world does not allow you to try to council him to better behaviour. I probably sound like a bleeding heart liberal. I have spent some time with my own kids tonight sorting out a dispute between my own children. I know remorse and reform are possible. It was possibly not achievable in this case. Please don’t wreck my wikis they too are all open.

By: teachingsagittarian

teachingsagittarian — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 08:06:19 +0000

When I first started using Wikispaces with Year 7’s, two “lovely” young lads decided to go about creating 256 spaces with the most rudest, crudest names that they could think of. I spent a long time deleting them all and then wrote an apology letter to Adam and the team at Wikispaces who then suspended their accounts for me. I also spent time with the parents and the two boys talking over the behaviour and the consequences for their actions.
As a proactive measure our wiki warranty now includes a conduct clause clearly stating that behaviour similar to this or the behaviour that the 10 year old Scottish lad exhibited will result in a suspended wikispace account and will in no way be tolerated.
I think the young scottish lad got exactly the consequence he deserved. He may now have some empathy for how you must have felt when you first discovered all your work “gone”.

By: greg carroll

greg carroll — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 07:34:50 +0000

Nah …. harden up. If he had tagged your classroom, or pulled a display from the wall of your room in the middle of the night we would feel like ringing his little 10yr old neck and ‘throw the book’ at him. Why is there less enthusiasm for this response with a virtual space? Why is it of lower value?
What he did was vandalism pure and simple …. this is a moral and ethical issue and he needs to learn his lesson. How is this different from a kid intentionally deleting someone elses work at school – I would deal with that VERY severely!!

My assumption would be Wikispaces would let him know why his account was suspended. Lesson learned if he is sufficiently interested in Web2.0 tools to have his own wiki. It will hurt … and hopefully point made.

Maybe I’m a hard ba***rd but I think you are being a bit lenient and ‘understanding’.

Greg

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 06:47:59 +0000

I think the wiki site had a right to do that, I believe its under the agreement you sign as a member of the site.

Still I totally agree with Barb’s point that an explanation should be followed up by email to mitigate the potential for a future hacker.

Also, just to be safe, I hope you have anonymized all names in this post.

I think I would have reported to the administrators of the hack of my wiki site to let them know of a possible security flaw in the system. I would also check with them the actions that they would do to the culprit too. That said, most of the time, we have to leave it in the hands of others to deal justice.

By: Allanahk

Allanahk — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 05:10:08 +0000

I agree with the others- he needs to know why his wikispace account has been suspended, not just that he can no longer access his site. If not he, by now, has probably created a new log in already and will continue his nefarious actions under a new guise!

By: Mr Lietze

Mr Lietze — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 05:03:11 +0000

Hi Suzie
Well that was a lovely little surprise for you! :+/

We don’t know what else the boy has been up to and may not know the full story for why Wikispaces shut him down. I do hope that the boy was informed clearly of why his account was closed!

Barb left an interesting thought – I believe he needs to be worked with so that we don’t create “a future hacker”.

By: Jane Nicholls

Jane Nicholls — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 04:18:29 +0000

I can see why you feel guilty. But I suppose it has to be done for the person to learn the proper way of working online. It would be good if there was a way he could earn trust back again in some way or other. We are just softies because we are teachers and our students’ welfare and learning is the most important thing.

By: Barb

Barb — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 04:04:56 +0000

I agree with wikispaces re suspending the account. Perhaps this could also be followed up with an explanation by email. Will he learn a lesson or are we creating a future hacker out for revenge?