Facebook

I received complaints about Facebook abuse by students at the high school along with a request to block access to the site. This creates a tension that I have tried to resolve. Please read the following and let me know how successful I have been.

The tension arises from four points:

• Point one: The administration has requested that I maintain an official Facebook presence for the school district. In order to maintain that presence, I need Facebook access at work.
• Point two: The web filter we use has limited granularity. I mean, I can block sites (or entire categories), unblock sites (or entire categories), allow Authorized Override, place a time frame to block sites (only allow after hours, on weekends, etc.), or set quotas (time or volume of data downloaded). There is no "block only for students" or "block for everyone but the administrative offices" or "block only for the high school".
• Point three: There are good cases being made for educating students in the proper use of social networking tools so they can avoid costly mistakes in the future. Students need to be aware that what they post online will follow them into the future with very real consequences. Blocking these sites feels like we are shucking responsibility for this education. Perhaps that's not our responsibility to begin with but I feel it needs some discussion and not a knee-jerk reaction.
• Point four: Social network sites are invaluable to the staff's Personal Learning Networks (PLNs). I feel like I am making their jobs more difficult when I block sites that could help them network with their peers. Making work more difficult is the opposite of how I generally describe my job.

So that puts me in a position of being asked to block a site that I have an obligation to access, is difficult to limit access without a near-total blackout, students should be learning to use, and our staff may find useful as part of their professional development. Fun!

The semi-elegant solution I have implemented is as follows:

1. Facebook is now listed as "Authorized Override." This means that you will need a password in order to access Facebook. A password has been given to each school principal. Whether they allow anyone else to use it is up to them. If they do not remember the password, they can contact me and I will reset it.
2. The people I recruited to help maintain the Facebook pages can continue using the email addresses I gave them. I haven't fully tested the process, but there should be no reason this change should break anything. Let me know if that is a faulty assumption.

This doesn't address proper student usage or staff usage without barriers. Maybe the district is better without the hassles of student/staff abuse. What do you think? Is this new setup acceptable? Does it need tweaked? Does it need reworked from the ground up?

Clip Organizer Error 80070005

Many of you have noticed that the Clip Organizer hasn't been working. Specifically, you receive this message when trying to search for clip art:

Clip Organizer cannot access the file.
Access is denied. Error code: 0x80070005

This seemingly unrelated support page from Microsoft had the answer. Apparently an update over Christmas break removed the "Everyone" user from C:\Program Files\Common Files\System. I've now replaced it.

The upshot is that Clip Organizer should now be working. If not, Reboot And Try Again™.

Fall 2007 Updates (Part 1)

This was going to be a really long post about everything we did over the summer and everything we are still working on. It was so long, it would have been Fall 2008 before I finished it. Therefore, in the interest of time and sanity, I am breaking it down into sections. Here is Part One of the Fall 2007 Updates.

District-wide Changes / Updates

Items of interest to the entire district include:

• Updated Web Site. Thanks to the tireless work of Mr. Keinath, the Web site has undergone a makeover. This is not just a change of graphics and updated schedules. No, we've rebuilt the site from the ground up with an eye on making it easier to update and easier to find information. After a couple months of making sure it is working as well as it should we'll start working on some more improvements we've dreamed up. If you have suggestions, criticisms, ideas, or dreams for the Web site make sure you tell them to Isaac or myself.
  
• Help Desk. Since I obviously have short-term memory issues, and a phobia about checking voice mail - not to mention short-term memory issues - I have installed a Help Desk application to keep track of everything that needs done around here. The idea is to 1) keep track of what needs done, 2) keep you informed of progress on the things that need done, and 3) keep a record on what has been done. This should allow us to see trends in the type of requests that are made concerning technology. With that information, we can do a better job of managing technology in the district. Plus, I have short-term memory issues that I don't think I mentioned yet.
  
  Anyway, the Help Desk app is located at http://crlxp01/helpdesk. (This only works inside the school buildings.) You can put in your own requests as well as view the status of requests you have already entered. Let me know if you have trouble using it.
• Server-related Updates. I'll discuss the new servers some in future posts, but since they affect the whole district, I will mention them here as well. We've purchased six new servers. Three servers will power the new Wyse Streaming Applications in the North and High schools. This is relatively new technology that allows students to run a full version of Windows XP and needed applications on a thin client computer. I'll try to post more info on this in the future. The remaining three servers replaced our two terminal servers. This paves the way for more thin clients in the classrooms. It also paves the way for...
• New Domain Controllers. Well, not precisely new - just newer than the current ones. The year-old terminal servers I replaced this summer will find new use as our domain controllers. The intent is twofold.
  
• One, remove the aging servers before they stop working. We've used these servers to control user logons, network security, printing, and a few other vital network functions for about two years longer than we should have. I really don't want to risk having catastrophic failure on the servers that control that much of our network.
  
• Two, the new servers are faster and have more memory than the old servers. This should decrease the amount of time it takes to log on to your computer. A related issue is our ScripLogic application that controls which printer you print to, where your My Documents folder is and numerous other functions. By moving it to one of these faster servers, we should see faster load times for it.
  
  This isn't an upgrade I am entering into lightly. If I am not comfortable with it, I am not going to risk destroying our network just to get it done. On the other hand, I strongly feel it is necessary to do this before we're forced to do it by aging hardware. Keep an eye out for updates.

I think that's the main points on the District-wide stuff. I'll discuss some building-specific updates over the next week.

Attention Crestline Teachers

I am spending the summer reviewing the way we use our servers. Since we have two very good file servers, I am removing files from some of our other servers. This will allow those servers to focus on specific tasks and simplify our backup strategy.
At the moment, I am moving files off of the old High School server. If you discover a folder called "From cresths-server" in your U:\ drive, it is files I found with your name on them. You may do with them as you wish.

teAchnology.com

I recently found teAchnology.com. It has rubric generators, worksheets, lesson plans, etc. Some of it is free and some of it requires a paid subscription. I need some feedback. Could some of you check it out and let me know if it would be worth purchasing a site license for all our teachers to use?

Either email me or send me an email to let me know what you think.

HelpDesk

I've had trouble keeping track of everything that needs done in the district. I also have no way to report on what has been done or how long it has taken to do. To rectify both situations, I am implementing help desk software.

To access the help desk, go to http://crlxp01/helpdesk. This will unfortunately only work from within the school buildings and administration offices. Once there: enter your email address, a brief summary of the problem or request, and a detailed description of exactly what is wrong or what you would like.

Please do not email your requests, leave voice mail messages with your requests, or stop me in the hall (unless you immediately follow up by submitting to the help desk). I forget verbal requests, lose notes and do not check voice mail frequently. By entering your requests in the help desk software you can be sure that they are checked frequently and that we can now account for how long it is taking to resolve requests.

Of course, you should continue to CALL MY CELL PHONE if there is an emergency.

Clip Art

In case you were looking for clip art...

Links

Mrs. Smith was nice enough to supply me with Mr. Loescher's Internet Site lists he used to send out. I'm going through and checking them:

1. To make sure they get through the filter
2. To make sure they still exist

I'm removing the dead sites and posting the rest to the side of this blog. They all get through the filter. Remember to email me if you need a site unblocked. I check them myself and then unblock them if they pose no threat.

The list of links isn't in any order other than the order I enter them. If they are useful to you, I'll try to organize them better. If they aren't useful to you, I may take them off altogether.