Lesson Learned...Victories Won.....

Privacy is such a large part of the Digital Citizenship discussion.  We talk to the students about not sharing passwords, usernames, etc with their classmates.  We had lessons on Identity Theft and Over-sharing digitally before we passed out the first iPad.  So the decision to ask the students to share their Apple ID's and passwords before we left for Winter Break was not one that came about lightly.  As a school we had already experience two lost iPads.  The thinking was if a student contacted Mr. McHolland over the break and said they'd lost their iPad, we would be able to track the iPad hopefully before it becomes a statistic.  I know, if someone really wanted to take the iPad, the location services would be the first thing the thief would disable. So, yes it was a bit of a straw grasper.

So Winter Break came and went without a hitch.  Matter of fact, I didn't hear a peep about students loosing LTE service, Apple ID issues, or and thing of the sort. School resumed in the middle of Chicago's blistery winter. The wind chill factor was registering below zero. Because of this, Chi-beria. The weather forecaster encouraged citizens to limit their exposure to 10mins.  So most of the area school's closed down for two days the first week back to school.  We returned on a Friday, to some pretty cold temperatures, but the wind chill factor was in a safe range.
Chicago's new nick name has become

After school, Mr. McHolland encouraged the children to leave the campus, all after school activities were canceled. Staff cleared the building pretty quickly.  When I got home, I did what most Chicagoans do on cold nights like this, I began to prepared a hardy dinner for my family and I started thinking about what movie I wanted to watch with my kids after dinner.

In the midst of dicing and slicing, my cell phone rang.  I looked, and saw that it was Mr. McHolland. He told me that one of our Chute students didn't make it home from school, and that his father was really worried.  Mac asked me if I could pull up the students Apple ID and password, and then send a signal to see if we could perhaps use the iPad to locate the child.  My tenure at Chute has been in a role of classroom teacher.  While I have always been aware of some of the dangers that our students face from time to time, I have never been aware of exactly when they were actually in danger. Needless to say, I was truly shaking, hoping, praying that our efforts would bear fruit.

Since I'd used a Google Form to compile the student Apple ID information, I had the spreadsheet in Google Sheets on my cell phone.  I looked up the students name, logged into the find my iPhone App, and located the iPad.  Since I wasn't aware of where the student lived, I told Mr. McHolland the square area of where the iPad was located.  Low and behold, it was the student's house.  Mr. Mac told me to send the signal so that the dad could follow the tone. The dad found his son, asleep on the back stairs to their apartment.  His son had left his keys at home, and couldn't get in.  So, the young man sat on the back porch, and fell asleep.  It was cold, close to 8pm, when he was found.  School dismissed at 3:35pm.

I recognize that this story could have had many different endings. I am so glad, this was the outcome. The Chute family is still intact, our birdies are all accounted for and safely tucked in the nest.

Did I see this as a possibility when I asked the student's to share their information with me? No way! But I am so glad I did.

Tale of Two Missing iPads

I've been playing around with sharing this particular experience for a couple of weeks.  I wasn't quite sure how much of our journey should be shared.  But then I realized, that the purpose for sharing is to help others who are about to embark on this same journey.

We had set the date for our rollout event.  I knew the iPads were in the building, but I hadn't even looked at them one time.  I was knee deep in looking at User Agreement Contracts, getting students under 12 their Apple ID's, and helping teachers become familiar with a new learning tool, the iPad. In the news I saw this heading about a school in the city.

For the first time, I considered the possibility of someone considering the iPads at our school as having a street value. Our tech department had shared as early as August that our iPads wouldn't be of any value to anyone outside of our students.  I listened to talk after talk about security profiles, and MDMs , etc. So, I figured, everything was under control. I had faith in the people and the systems they established. Why? They were the experts.

Then then the unthinkable happened.  Chute hosted a game on our premises on a Saturday.  Some alumni of the school decided to go on a destruction and shopping trip. While probing and ransacking, the ne'er do wellers found an open classroom, and stole one of the teacher assigned iPads and laptop.  It was the weekend. School was closed. 

By Monday morning, Mr. McHolland had done his due diligence.  He had talked with the police, looked over the video footage in the building, and ID'd the culprits.  Case closed! Except, the equipment was still missing. We used the find my iPad site. More than 24 hrs later, we all know that's useless.  This is where the unbelievable begins.

The southside community of Evanston has an anchor and it's our school.  Over the past 20 years Chute has tried to establish itself as a safe heaven.  Routinely, the support staff and the administrators follow the children home, making sure they home safely.  The community is familiar with the Chute Family, and what it represents.  So when Mr. McHolland went to the high school, and questioned about the whereabouts of the perpetrators, no one was surprised.  It also, wasn't surprising to find out that Mr. McHolland followed all leads until he retrieved all of the stolen property on his own. Now, Mr. McHolland has a wife and four lovely children.  Is this apart of his job? It's not safe nor is it smart to go looking for equipment when it's stolen. Is this our plan? Are we going to chase down every lost iPad like this?

We didn't have an established protocol for this. Where is the plan? Who's job was it to make up the rules? Did I forget something?

The second missing, stolen, lost iPad happened.  One of our students went to the Evanston Public Library after school.  There is a section for teens called THE LOFT.  Our student plugged his iPad into an outlet out of his line of sight.  He thought he camouflaged it by placing the iPad inside of his book bag.  Okay, so he didn't think that the white cord leading from his bag to the electric outlet was a clue.  Needless to say, when he returned to get his bag, his iPad was missing.  The student promptly contacted Mr. McHolland the next morning at school.  Mr. McHolland asked me if we had a record of the students Apple ID.  I said no.  But we all know, more than 30 minutes to an hour later, the iPad's sim card was removed and that was that.  So unlike our first experience, we now officially have one lost iPad a month and a half into our initiative.

But again, we are left with the idea that we need a plan.