To 'guide' teacher towards better internet safety?

[musicmaiden]

DS8 has a newly qualified teacher for his form this year. We have not met her properly yet – the parents' evening is this week. DS has been having ICT lessons, including a focus on internet safety, this half term. He came back from school recently and asked DH why he needed so many passwords for the internet, as 'X said she is a bit rubbish with passwords so has the same one for everything which is easier'.

Now, of course, this was a throwaway comment, probably meant to be a bit jokey and self-effacing, but clearly DS had picked up on it. DH works in the tech industry and is shit-hot at this stuff so wasn't too impressed. He is now planning to take a sheet of info on password protection into the parents' evening to give to her and explain why she needs to vary her passwords and why it's not great to say what she did.

DH is very lovely and kind, and won't be trying to make her feel bad or anything, but AIBU to be nervous that she'll probably still be embarrassed and it'll chalk us up as 'those parents'? Or am I being a wuss and it's actually just constructive feedback?

Ties - Hackers don't try to "guess" passwords, except in movies. They pay for your passwords on the dark web, leaked from insecure platforms like mumsnet used to be. And once they have that they can try to use it to get into common sites/apps, so if you are using the same one everywhere you're pretty much screwed...

Well, they'll find a lot lol. I'm secure.

Ties please see what I said about the MN hack. They took passwords and email addresses. If you used the same password for you email then that’s it. They can see who you bank with, get into your Amazon account, credit cards- everything.
Your password could be 1000 different unconnected letters, numbers and symbols. It’s no use if it’s being kept in an easily hackable website they you have joined.

I don't use the same one for my email.

Are you the OP's husband?

If a parent did that to me, I would think that were a patronising twat.
I post diplomatically on here usually... this hit a nerve. Her personal passwords are none of his business and parent meetings are to discuss the progress of the child. If I were you, i would be going alone to the appointment.

I've never come across an ICT teacher with a qualification in the subject...

Really? Most I have worked with in secondary in the past had A levels and/or degrees in the subject specialism.

I have GCSE and A level in Computing/Computer Science, a did a couple of years of a Computing degree before transferring onto a Bed degree with the ICT/Computing specialism. I have since done further training with regards teaching ICT and Computing to various ages - was secondary and I now teach it at Infant School level, as well as some in school training for staff.

OP - please dissuade your DH from trying to 'teach' the teacher Online Safety - esp in form of a letter. A brief comment when discussing your child's computing lessons, perhaps but don't make a fuss of it right now - wait and see what comes out.

What @MrsPestilence said. Age and stage appropriate. The likelihood of a class full of 8 year olds all remembering one password successfully and consistently is precisely nil. Imagine the chaos of them trying to remember multiple passwords....

Ties, you said And for the record I have a pretty much standard password I use to cover all bases. which I took to mean that you have one password that you use for everything. Now you say you don’t.

The teacher wouldn't be embarrassed by what your 'shit hot' dh says, you and him would just be the laughing stock of the staffroom. Go for it OP, if that's what you want.

I also said "My email account that receives password resets has a different password to the one I use on everything else. "

That you stated your dh is 'shit hot' at IT is embarrassing enough. I can only wish I was a fly on the wall while the shit hot Dad makes a holy shit hot show of himself.

And I ain't even shit hot!

I have a degree in Computer Science by the way, so some of us do!

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that qualified teachers of Computing don't exist! I have mostly worked in schools that are reasonably old-fashioned and generally there's been a bit of an element of "We need somebody to teach ICT - you're a bit light on your timetable, you'll have to do it" "But I'm an RE teacher!" "Well, you know how to use a computer don't you? You'll be fine." I've never worked in a school that had a teacher who was employed to teach Computing alone (nor, for that matter, a school that taught Computing for a qualification).

None of which is particularly relevant, nor do I think these situations are desirable, but I suppose, when someone questioned her subject knowledge, I was wondering whether she actually is an ICT teacher or someone who has been roped in to do it. She should still know about internet security though!

That has definitely been a problem Dahlietta in the past! Getting better with the Computing PGCE though and the fact that ICT is not in the curriculum anyway so things like 'Using PowerPoint' isn't taught anymore. An RE teacher would struggle to teach Binary Addition or Algorithms off the cuff now. Also, it would be unlikely as an NQT to teach something out of their subject in this case, as could affect their NQT reports, I would have thought?

Ooo cringe...

Ah, true, you're right, I hadn't factored in that she is an NQT and therefore (hopefully - again, I have seen....) teaching her own subject. I'm glad to hear that things are improving - it seems such an important and relevant subject for teenagers today that it's depressing to see it taught in a half-arsed manner so often.

I still think the husband shouldn't write in by the way- I'm guessing the teacher in question made an ill-advised jokey confession.

There's probably a reason why not many people with a computer science or IT degree go into teaching. I might retrain!

Hilarious to think of that man carefully explaining about complicated passwords to the Y3 children and then spending the whole of every subsequent lesson resetting 30 passwords that no one could remember.

Our y2s all have the same password to log onto our network. He'd have a fit.

I showed this thread to my BIL who is also a bit "shit hot at that kind of thing" and he laughed. Says that ShitHotDad must think he's still in the mid 70s when only ShitHot people working for M knew ShitHot stuff about computers.

I'm afraid to say that in the six schools in which I have for any time taught, I've never come across an ICT teacher with a qualification in the subject....

Waves

Well technically it's Computer Science.

nor, for that matter, a school that taught Computing for a qualification

All secondary children have an 'entitlement' to Computing / computer Science at GCSE so all schools should be teaching it (if they can find a teacher).

OP

Tell your dh to give his head a wobble, an 8 year old is hardly likely to be using online banking and tax returns. They are more likely, unfortunately, to come across unsuitable subject matter.

Also if your son has a password for access to a computer, email or whatever, surely as parents you should know what it is?

That would be a big no no for an adult wouldn't it? Shared passwords?

You see this is what teachers do, teach in an age appropriate way and sometimes simplify things for younger pupils. GCSE pupils lear there are OR, AND and NOT gates, they don't learn about NOR and NAND until post GCSE.

I teach 'bubble' sorting, no one actually uses a bubble sort these days but it is a simple sort kids get very easily and is a foundation for other sorts (it's also on the GCSE sylabus).

Think about sex ed, do 8 year olds practice putting condoms on a banana? No.

Do 8 year olds get sex education? Yes.

But contraception is really important I hear you say. It is but not for an 8 year old. Maybe your dh could take in some condoms and a condom demonstrator so she can learn how to put one on properly.

I wouldn't take a "cheat sheet" in but I absolutely would discuss is with her at parents evening to find out what happened.

Haha Barbie. Yep. Teacher should get him to take the lesson. I'd love to see that. Wonder how shit hot his teaching skills are 😂

Taking in a worksheet would definitely be cringeworthy overkill. But you could try saying "I was quite surprised to hear that you advised using one password becase it's easier," with a raised eyebrow. At least then the teacher woul realise that her throwaway comments are being remembered by the kids.

Alternatively the obvious solution would be to really drum it into our DS that his teacher was wrong, and the reasons why - then he's bound to pipe up with "my mummy and daddy said you need lots of different passwords" in the next IT lesson.

Your OP isn't cLear, is the NQT the same one who's given the IT lessons?