The problem. I am actually impressed that my students found a way to communicate with one another digitally within the police state environment that is managed Google Chromebooks and GoGuardian. Yes, if any of the memes were inappropriate I get that, it's bad. But I mean the technical solution to communicating with one another uses tools outside the box (definitely at their age) from within an authoritarian local system.
What should I do? I feel like telling them that their initial inclinations are valid because information wants to be free. Whether that be digitally, printing press, gossip etc.
Long story short again, I think what they figured out is a good thing. It means they are thinking criticality about how to solve technical conditions which they consider problems. Thoughts? Any brilliant, wealthy people want to vouch for my perspective?
I think the Chromebook culture is a form of kneecapping that is harmful in its own way.
On the other hand we are seeing that the "open internet" is also harmful to children in terms of cyberbullying, pornography, etc.
My wife and I had a disagreement about letting my son (now 23) have my old desktop replacement laptop. As a child of the 1980s I saw the personal computer as a tool of liberation and something that taught me about math, science and technology at a personal level. In the 2010 my son found some dark corners of the internet that did him harm and I can say I know more than one of his cohort who had the same experience.
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I think of the bodies of thought from the 20th century that most needs to be revisited is the literature of "Total Institutions" including Goffman, Foucault, "One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest", etc.
The widespread distrust of authority is one factor that drove Donald Trump to power and leads to authoritarianism. If you think you are working for a dangerously authoritarian organization you should consider (i) disabusing yourself of that belief (e.g. you organization wields authority for a positive purpose) or (ii) getting another job.
Could there be a team project where they must use the groupware suite to solve for learning objectives?
In HS, we had a "students in small groups take a few weeks to prepare a lesson plan and teach one another" (with the instructor to fill in as necessary) that brought understanding.
In MS, there was a shared drive folder called "Ralph Nader _files/" - that looked like the report on politics and Save as HTML report - was full of ROMs and emulators until.
But that was 8th grade. ("Eighth Grade", "Good Boys")
It sounds like you're "good cop, bad coppin'" them. Good, good.
Perhaps there's a way to use social instincts and technology for learning objectives.
-Wanted sites like Parler and other social media sites completely censored -Want people fired at work for sharing inappropriate memes/content (you can see examples of this over the years with leaks and other news stories about big tech, which is where a large portion of the people reading and commenting on HN work).
"authoritarian local system."
HN and the tech community in a nut shell.