District Administration - February 2008 - (Page 14)

BRIEFINGS TechnologyUpdate Online Filtering Gets Smarter A NEW TYPE OF ONLINE FILTER ing is sweeping across American schools, allowing staﬀ members to go to Web sites from which students are blocked. As IT staﬀs know, most online ﬁlters are meaningless given students’ knowhow in ﬁnding proxy sites that allow them to check out sites that are inappropriate. But the School District of Fort Atkinson (Wis.) uses OpenDNS (Domain Name System) to block students from restricted sites and from using proxy sites to locate them, while at the same time allowing teachers to go to oﬀ-limits sites that can nevertheless have educational value to the students. “The kids have to stay on task,” says John Ottow, district computer technology director. “We also set up multiple proxy servers and multiple degrees of ﬁltering, but teachers can still go to YouTube.” At Duvall County (Fla.) Public Schools, three proﬁles are set up through the 8e6 technology content ﬁlter. “We have a separate ﬁle for staﬀ members, a ﬁle for teachers, and a ﬁle for students,” says James Culbert, the district’s information security analyst. “That encourages our teachers to log on and get access to sites we would normally block.” For example, teachers can access sites such as YouTube or Google Video for class work, and principals and school resource oﬃcers can use WebMail. The 8e6 system keeps a running tally By Angela Pascopella Monitoring Is Another Avenue BEYOND FILTERING, NANCY WILLARD, executive director of the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use, thinks it makes more sense to monitor student activities on the Web. Monitoring allows teachers to ensure students are using the Internet only for educational purposes because it allows them to remotely and simultaneously view from another computer what is on individual students’ computer screens and to document the evidence. One system by GenevaLogic does just this. It is reminiscent of Big Brother fears, Willard agrees, but “administrators are responsible for what the students are doing.” Another monitoring system, Vericept, has intelligent content analysis, which reviews all site trafﬁc and reports suspicious sites to an appropriate administrator. “We need to take advantage of the new opportunities as well as address the challenges and potentials in school,” Willard says. John Otto, computer technology director at the School District of Fort Atkinson, stands over James Haas, technology specialist. of students’ attempts at accessing inappropriate sites or proxy sites, Culbert says. Usually about 50 or 75 attempts are made daily, from the roughly 125,000 students in the district. When it happens, it kicks the student oﬀ the Internet for 30 minutes, sends a warning page to the student, and sends Culbert an e-mail about it. In December, Culbert says a high school student was suspended for 10 days after he set up an external Web site and posted pictures of blocked pages. “The teachers are thrilled this year because it’s keeping kids on task,” he says. Other ﬁlters and access control tools include Nevis Networks’ Network Access Control, which help schools control who gets to enter their local area networks, where they can go, and what resources they can access. iPrism’s Internet-ﬁltering appliance ensures appropriate Web use among students and staﬀ across various locations, and Cyberoam’s uniﬁed threat management system is a centrally managed solution with Web-based controls over all security features, under one platform. Did You Know? More Internet users aged 10 to 17 are exposed to unwanted pornography these days—33 percent were exposed to the material in 2005 compared to 25 percent in past years, according to a national survey by the University of New Hampshire for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The study’s authors believe the rise is due to aggressive pornography marketers and increased computer speed and capacity. Study co-author Janis Wolak says Internet providers must protect youth. “They need better ﬁltering and blocking and more and easier ways for youth to report problems,” she says. 14 February 2008 District Administration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - February 2008

District Administration - February 2008
Contents
Editor’s Letter
Letters
News Update
Technology Update
Security Update
Virtual Schools Update
Curriculum Update
Inside the Law
District Profile
The “Other” Advanced Program
State of the Superintendency
Landing the Chief
Purchasing Security Products and Services
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
Speaking Out
Professional Opinion
Supervisor’s Opinion
Overheard on the Pulse
New Products
Problem Solution
Computer Literature
Research Corner
Calendar of Events
Products Showcase
Understanding the Times

District Administration - February 2008