Category Archives: Ohio Hi-Point

Internet Content Filtering

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After listening to a few speakers lately (Will Richardson and Alan November) we are considering unblocking MySpace.com as well as a significant number of websites that fall into chat or discussion forum categories. We have identified a significant number of students who are continuing to find ways around our filtering system in order to get to MySpace.com. This is a fight that we are never going to win, we need to educate the students about what websites are appropriate for school and which ones are not. This past Friday I met with our Student Advisory Council and asked about the fascintion with MySpace and other sites that are similar. The answer I got was that it’s an environment in which they can customize every inch of their space, and they have fun doing it. They are actually learning HTML code while doing so (so I guess you could say it’s educational). The students felt that if we unblocked it, there would be a mad rush of students flocking to MySpace.com in order to update their profile and check their messages. The feeling was that the novelty would wear off in a week or two, and everything would be back to normal.  Right now the students are searching the web trying to find anonymizing proxy servers so they can bypass our filter. The students have all day long to find a way out, and they admitted that it’s kind of a rush when they find a way. I only have a limited amount of time to stay ahead of the students, of course they are going to win.

So, over the next few weeks we may be conducing an experiment. We will go through and unblock most websites (except sites that absolutely must be blocked) to see what happens. I would anticipate that our bandwidth utilization hits 100% for the first few days. Hopefully the novelty wears off quickly and life gets back to normal. It would be nice to find a teacher who is willing to setup their own MySpace page and post school-appropriate content out there. Maybe they could post their classroom activities out there for students who are out sick. I’ll keep you posted…

Life after the first 3 weeks…

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Well, the first 3 weeks of school has been insane. We have handed out around 650 laptop computers, and have had to revisit each one of them due to wireless issues when Ghosting them. We used Microsoft Sysprep and Symantec Ghost, but I think that Sysprep removed all of the wireless settings. We have also had problems with the ThinkVantage Access Connections that Lenovo recommends for managing your connections. Access Connections likes to power off the wireless cards in the laptop, and the student’s can’t figure out how to turn it back on.  Next year we aren’t using Access Connections. We have to find a better way of cloning laptops, and not losing the settings!

 The only real issue we have had is the wireless cards getting turned off. We had some issues with our Anti-virus software not working properly after the cloning, but the support techs at Central Command Vexira were able to get us fixed up in no time. They have a very robust product, and it’s a GREAT deal for Ohio schools. Check them out at www.centralcommand.com.

Back to school!

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School starts for us on August 21st this year, and we are ready. We received 500 new Lenovo ThinkPad laptops that we handed out to students starting on August 15th. This year we used Sophisticated Systems Inc. (www.ssicom.com), a company based out of Columbus, Ohio, to prepare our laptops for deployment. SSI imaged the machines with our standard image, applied the asset tags, and loaded them into the Infocase bags. There is no way that we could have done it ourselves this summer due to us placing a strong emphasis on Professional Development for staff.

As anyone who does 1:1 programs, this time of year is more hectic than anyone can imagine. Once school gets started everything slows down (somewhat) and life (personal and professional) can return to normal. I can’t wait!

Welcome to SchoolTechTools.com new site

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My name is John Case, and I work as the Technology Coordinator at Ohio Hi-Point Career Center in Bellefontaine, Ohio. We have finished the first year of our 1:1 laptop computing initiative. I noticed that there really was not a good place for K-12 technology professionals to meet and share information about what we do, and how we do it. So I decided to startup my own website devoted to K-12 technology professionals. This is a not-for-profit site, and is completely free. If you are interested in contributing content, please comment on any of the blog posts listed.

Thanks!

John

Laptop program helps student enrollment

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Laptop program helps student enrollment


Written by John Case
Friday, 07 April 2006
We have noticed a sharp spike in our student enrollment for next year. We typically have 425 to 450 students on main campus, and that is split between juniors and seniors. We currently have over 500 applications for incoming juniors next year. We can’t attribute all of the spike to the 1:1 program because of other changes on campus, but it has sure helped.So far this year we have had far fewer damages than we expected. In fact, we are considering self-insuring the laptops for next year because of the low number of repairs that we have had. We can credit the InfoCase bags for saving several of these laptops from damages. We have had laptops shot with BB guns, sat on, and even thrown down the hallways for fun. The students never cease to amaze me.
Last Updated ( Friday, 07 April 2006 )

Student blog use at Xanga.com and Myspace.com

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Student blog use at Xanga.com and Myspace.com


Written by John Case
Tuesday, 06 December 2005

It appears that more and more high school students are using myspace.com and xanga.com to communicate with each other. For those who don’t know, these two sites are blog sites and allow other users to post comments on another user’s blog site. These websites are not all bad; they do have some good components. The largest benefit to these sites is that the users of these sites are communicating (whether good or bad) more than ever before.

There is some sort of anonymity to using the Internet, and these students are sharing too much information about themselves. Many schools block these sites because of their potential for bad behavior. Other schools allow the use of these sites, but have an educational program in place to teach the students about the risks of sharing information. Check out the discussion on eschoolnews.com at http://www.eschoolnews.com/eti/2005/12/001239.php

David Warlick’s 2 Cents Worth blog site also has some good information about these blogs. You can check it out here: http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/

Tonight while watching the 6pm news, it was disclosed that a school in central Ohio found murder threats posted on a xanga.com blog page. You can read about it here:

http://www.nbc4i.com/news/5479286/detail.html

The bottom line with blogs is that parents need to be more involved, and talk with their kids about the dangers of online predators. Don’t underestimate the lengths that some of these online predators will go do just to fulfill their desires. Check out http://www.newarkcityschools.org/linksDownloads.aspx for information about keeping your kids safe while online.
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 07 December 2005 )

Internet filtering issues

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Internet filtering issues


Written by John Case
Tuesday, 08 November 2005
I have been quite surprised at the lengths that some students will go to just to have their Internet surfing not be filtered. We have been using NetIQ WebMarshal for the last several years, and have been happy.Over the last couple of weeks, the students have figured out how to get around WebMarshal. The other problem is that WebMarshal does not use blacklists, it has a very nice feature that scans the actual content of the web page as it’s being downloaded. If you import very large blacklists such as www.urlblacklist.com, performance suffers.So we decided to take WebMarshal out of the network temporarily, and replace it with IPCop. IPCop has worked pretty good but our blacklist has caused problems by blocking sites that should be allowed. We have also noticed that if you logout of the IPCop console, all Internet activity stops. So after this experience, I think that you get what you pay for.As you probably know, there are literally hundreds of Internet content filtering solutions out there just waiting to rip off a school district. Many of these solutions are packaged as network appliances that handle everything except make my morning coffee. The problem isn’t that fact that these appliances typically cost several thousand dollars. The problem that I have is that these companies are charging $6000 to $10,000 per year to provide you with current blacklists.Some of these companies advertise that their blacklists are human verified. Can you imagine the advertisement:

Wanted: Dependable, hard worker to surf for pornography, download music files, and try to find online games. Pay is commensurate with experience.

If anybody knows of any reasonably priced web filtering packages that have been working good for you, please feel free to email me at john@jtmcase(dotcom).

Thanks!

October 8, 2005

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October 8, 2005


Written by John Case
Saturday, 08 October 2005
This week has been an interesting week. We conducted our first random laptop raid, wireless problems, and our first experience repairing a ThinkPad laptop.This week has been an interesting week. We conducted our first random laptop raid. We were searching for laptops will illegal programs (according to school policy). We borrowed 14 laptops from a lab, and it took us 4 hours to get them processed. We are still having some problems with our Hewlett Packard AP420 wireless access points. One of the WAPs locks up about every 2 weeks and has to be reset. Most days I would recommend the HP WAPs, but not this week. We sure have had our share of problems with them. I ended my week by trying to find the FRU (Lenovo’s part number) on a ThinkPad R50e motherboard. According to the documentation, the entire machine must be torn down to find the part number. When really all that you have to do is remove the optional memory card cover on the bottom of the laptop. The new Mobo should be here on Monday. Let’s see how long it takes me to put my first one back together.

Random audits are successful

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Random audits are successful


Written by John Case
Thursday, 06 October 2005
Yesterday we did our first random audit of student laptops. It has been very successful so far.We confiscated the laptops while students were in lab (pre-arrangements with the teacher), and allowed them to pick the laptops up at lunch. We found far more instances of inappropriate software, games, and also copies of music on the laptops. Any laptop that was found to be out of spec, was re-ghosted with our master image. Word spread through the cafeteria like wildfire that the raid happened. They were telling each other to keep their laptops clean because it’s better than losing your school work that they have also saved on the laptop. We plan on hitting several more labs over the next week or two. That way it doesn’t look like we are picking on anyone.
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 08 November 2005 )