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Technology in School Systems

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by ltheodoru

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6 months ago, after having worked a dozen years in the corporate and consulting world, I accepted a job as the first ever network manager for a school system which had recently been wired for Internet and email access. I feel as if I have stepped back in time to the 80's. The technology and infrastructure are here, but trying to get people to actually use them is another matter. Today, I had a discussion with the principal of the high school about setting up individual accounts for students,instead of having them all use a guest account with no password. He said my suggestion frightened him and he wanted to know what other schools were doing. Does anyone else out there work for a school system? What are you doing?

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by ps101

I too am a network admin for a public school system.We have individual NT accounts for all students 6-12 and classrm logins with restricted access for k-5. (I used adduser.exe and the student DB to create the accounts) .Even the 5 yr olds can login with no problem. Forgotten passwords weren't even a big issue, a few teachers were trained as "account operators". Login scripts helped too. At first teachers resistant to use the computers, but we provided 8-10 hrs training for all staff (outsourced)and that helped alot. By the end of the school year the whole school was screaming if the network or internet was down for 10 minutes! Beginning this year we are going to try having all notices,grades,attendance etc., on our intranet.
Motivation for the NT security model was an email threat and parents concern of internet misuse. We have a strict Acceptable Use policy that all students must sign before they are given accounts.
Good Luck!

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