Science & technology March 2020 | Youth Hong Kong
Guarding against online unknowns By Simon John
L
ess than a year ago, who would have thought that Hong Kong’s parents, teachers and students would become veritable virtuosos of online learning? In the process, what traps have they been trying to avoid?
With schools closed and students kept at home, demands for online learning have spiked across the territory. Everyone has been hastily familiarizing themselves with various e-learning tools and it has been quite a challenge. Issues that we weren’t properly prepared for have arisen in the rush to create the illusion of life as normal, so it seems sensible to remember a few things we can do to ensure we are navigating educational cyberspace as responsibly as possible.
Logging off and signing out
as you would when logging out of your personal online bank accounts: close down after use.
Webcam-woes A class conducted via webcam invites a whole host of problems into the learning equation. Laggy connections and problems with audio-visual synchronicity can foster an incredibly frustrating experience for both teacher and student alike. Invasive screen grabs of less than flattering images of oneself can also do the rounds.
Google classroom. Zoom. Skype: e-learning requires online platforms and that means being signed in to a multitude of different sites at any one time. This is something many of us are used to as far as google accounts are concerned, but leaving a litany of accounts open when they aren’t being used is unwise.*
While these issues are irritating, they don’t tend to do much damage other than to one’s patience (or ego!). However, it is important to remember that webcams aren’t responsive to actions within the browser and so do not turn off automatically when a lesson is over. This wouldn’t be such a problem were webcams not notoriously easy to hack.
This is largely because of the transmission of files through different mechanisms. With personal computers being used in many cases, we can’t be entirely sure malware isn’t being inadvertently circulated. Logging out of applications can also prevent the snooping of active cookie data open in browsers or windows by bad online actors.
Controlling the hardware is the only way to keep yourself safe from prying eyes so shut down the computer or physically close your laptop lid after the session. If you are using a tablet device, place a piece of tape over the lens. If the next friend you chat with on facetime is greeted by a barely visible frosty blur, they’ll be quick to point it out.
We would therefore be wise to take a few seconds to log out of e-learning accounts before we close all devices at the end of each session. This goes for browsers too. Many people think that having different browsers open means information is restricted to the active browser in use. Actually, they all link to the same “family” of browser, so if you are on less secure sites in one browser this may compromise the security of the browser being used for study. The best approach is to proceed
Firewalls and passwords For many students and teachers, learning online is more distracting than learning in the classroom. An innocent enough comment in a lesson can spawn an Alice-inWonderland-like departure from concentration on the topic you are trying to teach as everyone searches out definitions, examples or clarifications online.
*Read more lifehacker.com/do-i-really-need-to-log-out-of-webapps-1482782887 38
