Neenah Joint School District installs computer surveillance system

Link to September 20 Appleton Post-Crescent article.

Excerpt: The Neenah Joint School District will install a surveillance system this fall to monitor computer use by students and staff, right down to the keystroke.

The system, called Aristotle Academic, brings to mind George Orwell's Big Brother character in the novel "1984." It can pinpoint who visited an inappropriate Web site, who downloaded a particular music video or who printed a bomb threat.

It also can combat plagiarism by identifying the author of a written assignment, and it can fight hacking by ensuring only authorized users access the district's grading system.

Steve Dreger, Neenah's director of curriculum and instructional technology, said students and staff would be told about the system and the consequences for inappropriate or unethical computer use.

"Would be told"? Apparently, students and staff have just learned about this as I have, through this news article. I see no mention of the system on the school district's homepage. (But I'm willing to give administration the benefit of the doubt and consider the possibility that they sent out an announcement via email.)

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