Documentation:Digital Tattoo Curriculum/Case Studies for Student Teachers/Pop-up Problem

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Case Study: Pop-up Problem

Theme

Despite the associated risks, it is often necessary for teacher candidates to use personally-owned technology in their teaching.


Table Discussion

In groups of 3-4:

1. Read the case study and consider your response to the personal reflection question as you read.

2. Discuss each question below with your group, using the resources to support your responses.

3. Take notes on your discussion to share when the large group reconvenes.


Personal Reflection

While reading the case study, consider your personal response to the following question:

Technology and the internet can enhance my teaching. Knowing this, am I prepared to incorporate technology into my instruction and handle any awkward or difficult incidents that occur as a result?


Case Study

Girl and laptop.jpg

Shira is always looking for creative ways to engage the grade 3 students she is teaching in her practicum. While searching online for fun ideas to incorporate into one of her upcoming art classes, she comes across a lesson plan that involves painting using toy squirt guns, which she thinks her students would enjoy. While her students are working on their math problems, Shira decides to search for inexpensive squirt guns she can purchase to use with the lesson. She uses a personal laptop that she brought to school because her school advisor is using the classroom computer for her own work. Although she was advised that teachers are encouraged to use only school devices for their work, teacher candidates were not given computers to use for their teaching, which means that Shira has had to use her own laptop for most of her instruction and planning. At the beginning of her practicum, she created a separate account on the computer for her to use at school, and she tries to keep her device locked with a password when she is not in front of it. Her school advisor does the same with the classroom computer as a way of ensuring that students cannot gain access to any of her work or personal accounts when she is away from her desk.


While searching for suitable toys with search terms like “squirt gun” and “squirt toy,” Shira explores the suggested webpages, one of which unexpectedly features sex toys with names and descriptions related to her search terms. She quickly returns to the Google search results to continue looking for appropriate resources; however, unbeknownst to Shira, a pop-up advertisement featuring sexually explicit images has emerged behind her search window as a result of clicking on the previous link. While she continues to explore the other search results, Shira notices that a student has his hand raised to request assistance with a math problem and, hoping that he has not been waiting long, she leaves her computer. In her rush to help the student and any others who may have questions about their work, Shira forgets to close her search window or lock the device, and does not think to do so as she becomes busy helping students for the rest of the period.


Later, as Shira prepares to switch from one subject to the next, she connects her laptop to the classroom projector in order to show her students a video she plans to incorporate into her next lesson. After the projector has been connected, she realizes that the search window she had been using earlier is still open. She quickly closes the search window, and becomes distracted by two students arguing at their desks long enough not to notice that she has just made the sexually explicit pop-up visible to everyone in the classroom. When some her students start pointing at the screen and talking about the advertisement on display, she looks back from the arguing students to see the image for herself for the first time. Although she hurries to close the pop-up, she is not able to do so before all of her students and her school advisor have a chance to see it on the screen. Her advisor is alarmed by the images that have been made visible to the young students, who are now asking questions about the pictures on the pop-up. Embarrassed and unsure of what to do next, Shira knows that she needs to find a way to discuss what happened with her students, their parents, and her school advisor, and she is immediately worried that she could be disciplined because of this, despite it having happened unintentionally.


Discussion Questions

1. Has Shira violated any policies regarding the use of technology or the standards for educators in BC?

Consider these resources as you answer:


2. How should Shira address this situation with students, their parents, and school administrators? Could this scenario be grounds for discipline?

Consider these resources as you answer:

  • Read "Thinking About the Standards: A Case Study" on page 12.
  • Read the section titled "The Back Story: Spyware Cause Porn Popups on Teacher's Computer."


3. How would you handle the use of personal devices in your teaching? What steps can you take to avoid an incident like the one in this case study? What factors would you consider when deciding whether or not to use a personal device at school?

Consider these resources as you answer:

  • Read "Do's and Don'ts of Using Email" and "Know Your Rights and Responsibilities."
  • The comments on this post have additional suggestions.


4. How does your position as a teacher impact your internet searches and other online activity? How would your online activity change when using internet connections and/or devices owned by a school district?

Consider these resources as you answer:

  • Read "Inappropriate use of employers' technology" and "The past can haunt you."
  • Read "Kid-Friendly Search Environments" on page 5.


Additional Resources

If time allows, explore these additional resources:

  • Read the Douglas Lee Saunders case summary.
  • Note the "Factors upon which the Court relied in this case" at the bottom of page 2 and the Court's findings at the top of page 3.


Sharing Permissions

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Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document according to the terms in Creative Commons License, Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0. The full text of this license may be found here: CC by-sa 4.0
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When re-using this resource, please attribute as follows: developed by the University of British Columbia: Digital Tattoo – Case Studies Project Team.

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