Learning & Leading Through Technology

While hackers ap-
pear frequently in
the news and other
media as criminals
who steal vast
amounts of data
ranging from email
passwords to Social Security numbers,
the truth is that a similar number of
relatively anonymous hackers work just
as furiously to thwart those engaged
in illegal activity. Large corporations
and even the U.S. government employ
computer-savvy individuals to expose
vulnerabilities in their systems in an
effort to protect the public.

As something that sparks students’ imagination and engagement, hacking also has untapped educational value.

The Common Core State Standards have called for increased rigor and levels of critical thinking in the classroom, and students need to develop digital skills to function in the world. What better way to achieve these goals than to turn hacking into a problem-solving endeavor?

In my years of teaching, one thing I’ve noticed is that students are inherently curious. Introduce the basics of a new app like Pic Collage, and before long they’ll have figured out, without any help, how to change the background, add stickers, etc. If there’s a button, students will push it. If there’s a menu, they will explore the options.

This is exactly the type of lifelong learning skill we want them to develop and apply with purpose.

Besides, regardless of how many layers of security we install, the complexity of the passwords we require for profile removal, or the control we think we have over devices, our students will find the loopholes. Adults are afraid to touch buttons that will have unknown consequences. Students are not. Adults take great pains to bar all the doors.

Students will point out the window that we neglected.

The key to what happens next lies in
our response as educators. Do we treat
hacking as a heinous evil and punish
students for their curiosity and prob-
lem-solving prowess? My experience
has been that this approach will only
engender resentment and a greater
desire to elude the system. Chances are
A couple of years
ago, my com-
puter science class
explored ethics
in computing.

Hacking was a
hot topic even
then, so we held a formal debate on it.

Student groups researched both sides of the issue, and each group presented their arguments.

Many of the students thought hackers were good guys who do companies a favor by exposing security holes.

They pointed to companies who hired
known hackers for their expertise in
identifying internal network security
issues. Needless to say, there was a lot
of excitement about cultivating their
burgeoning hacking skills on our dis-
trict’s internal network.

But the most compelling argument of the day was a great analogy that one student presented: If you leave the front door of your house unlocked, is it OK for a stranger to come in, sit down, and leave you a note on your kitchen table? No! This student argued that the same logic applies to hacking.

His group also shared that malicious hacking is against the law. In the end, the panel of student judges agreed that hacking is unethical and that there are better ways to alert companies to possible security issues.

There are also many other reasons
hacking is a bad idea. For school dis-
tricts, hacking wastes a lot of network
administrators and computer techni-
cians’ time—not to mention taxpayer
money—on investigating malicious
attacks. Their time would be better
spent configuring and maintaining ed-
ucational resources. Hackers also risk
exposing the confidential data about
students and staff that schools store on
their servers.

Recently, a neighboring school district’s website was hacked. Hackers posted obscene photos and offensive messages in place of the district’s content. No confidential or financial data was stolen from the site, so why did the hacker do it? I believe people who hack without financial gain do so to expose others’ faults and prove that they can outsmart others.