Not so long ago, a vulgar audio message popped out right in the middle of an online history class for the Plus One students of SDPY Higher Secondary School, Palluruthy.
The speaker was found to have logged in using the ID of a girl student but had his video masked. And then amidst the stunned silence, he left as quickly as he had turned up. Shortly thereafter, the student concerned alerted the teacher that someone else had logged in using her ID.
Teachers yet to meet students
“Two weeks ago there was a similar intrusion in a name that was not in our student rolls. We initially thought a student might have logged in using a parent’s ID, in which case the students are required to announce their names immediately on logging in. But the user left as soon as his credentials were sought. That teachers have not yet met Plus One students owing to the pandemic-induced closure of schools. This makes identity verification even tougher,” said Joy Joseph, the history teacher at the school.
Outside intrusions into live classroom sessions are being widely reported from schools across the State. There have been instances of teachers being caught off guard by conversations in Hindi during online sessions.
“Probably students are sharing links of classroom sessions with others or even their anonymous partners from the numerous online games to which many of them are addicted. In most cases, the identity of the intruders goes untraced. Schools are now sharing among students audio clips of cyber police officials warning that indiscriminate sharing of classroom links might inadvertently make them partners in cybercrime,” said Sreenath G., an IT Resource Person training teachers.
Parents’ IDs
Students logging in using their parents’ IDs has complicated the problem, prompting many schools to insist that students log in using their own IDs. Creating email IDs with parental control also enables parents to keep track of their online activities, said Mr. Sreenath.
Mahitha Vipinachandran, a school psycho-social counsellor, said that problems caused by outside intrusion during online classroom sessions are often raised during the interactions with teachers.
