November 2005 — Features
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Is Your Network Safe?
Ayer’s business operations and communications are heavily computerized, with data entry used for ordering supplies, keeping track of lunch orders, and running the accounting system. Administrators send electronic announcements, and teachers are constantly e-mailing. Teaching and learning activities include widespread student use of word processing and conducting research on the Web. Students are taking online courses and participating in collaborative online activities with students in other districts. Still, many teachers remain hesitant to use the system more because the district hasn’t solved all the maintenance issues, and there is increased concern about student access to unacceptable or dangerous information.
Ayer started using technology districtwide in the late 1990s and hired its first technology staff person at that time. In attempting to get a system operating quickly, the district made some bad decisions, including choosing an ISP that sent fragmented packets and a low-bid firewall provider that was unable to handle the district requirements. This resulted in the Web site and mail server residing outside of the firewall.
In response to these early missteps, the district upgraded its firewall service to include the Web site and mail server; hired a system administrator whose technical expertise could anticipate and respond to such issues; and upgraded the network configuration to require user passwords for access. The district is constantly balancing security with functionality, but, overall, has been forced to strictly limit user functionality in order to maintain the level of security it’s comfortable with. Currently, students have no district e-mail accounts and no wireless access, and filters block most incoming and outgoing P2P, IM, and AOL activities. Furthermore, the district has used this strategy to block unacceptable use of the system by students.
As a small district, Ayer is constantly trying to manage resources, safety, and districtwide functionality, but generally the district has discovered that it pays to hire a staff with technical expertise; to standardize equipment, operating systems, and software across the district; and to use outside vendors to maintain firewalls when the human resource requirements exceed the district’s staff capacity.
Poway Unified School District (CA). In contrast to Ayer Public Schools, Poway USD is a large district in Southern California with 34,000 students, 5,000 staff members, 34 building sites, and more than 8,000 computers. All schools in the district have a local area network (LAN) and are tied together by a wide area network (WAN). Each school also has at least two drops with Internet access, phones, and cable TV in every classroom. The district currently has 20 people on its technical support staff, while information services has 11 staff members, including clerks and administrative assistants.
As it has trained its attention on IT security issues, Poway has faced three major problems that taught the district valuable lessons.
