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Internet Issues

Everyone's use of the Internet can impact on the way the school network performs. When accessing the Internet, we also impact on other network users. The following are points to consider when accessing the Internet at your school.

Principals

Implement whole of school Internet usage policies
Many schools and districts have Internet usage policies in place. If your school does not have a policy in place, review the Internet usage policies of other schools in your district.

Consider class timetabling
When preparing next year's class timetable, consider staggering classes with heavy users of the Internet to avoid clashes.

Can students access the Internet outside of teaching periods?
You may consider looking into the provision of supervised Internet sessions during the long break or before and after school to allow students to conduct legitimate web-based research.

Network Managers

Are you filtering staff and student downloads?
You can use MIS reporting to identify popular sites and confirm their suitability to the school needs/environment. Once inappropriate sites are identified, i.e. gaming sites etc, they can be blocked using the MIS. This walkthrough can help you do this.

When are you downloading?
If you are downloading software patches that are not time-critical, schedule the download outside of teaching hours.

Teachers

Are students running downloads during class?
By holding down the Alt key and then pressing the Tab key, you can switch between applications. Students can use this key sequence to hide what they are doing on the comptuer, especially when surfing the Internet or downloading data. They hit Alt and Tab as soon as their teacher looks. Teachers could use this key sequence to check which software applications a students are using.

Does everyone in the class need to download it?
If your class needs to download an application, can it be downloaded once and located on a shared drive? This will reduce the need for all students to download the same file.

Students

What are you downloading?
Are you aware of your school's Internet usage policy? Many types of downloads are prohibited in schools. Downloading mp3 and mpeg files can slow the network for everyone. Network administrators monitor downloads to ensure that everybody is doing the right thing. Don't download files that are not needed for school.

When are you downloading?
Doing your research for an assignment during a class might be good for you, but it can slow down the network for the whole class. This will mean the class gets less work done during class time and could mean more homework.

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