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• Managing internet access at your school
  • Reasons for greater use
  • Advice for teachers
  • Advice for principals
  • Advice for network managers
  • Information for students
  • Email issues
  • Internet issues
  • Walkthroughs
  • Case Study - Caboolture State High School
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  • Glossary

Walkthroughs

This page provides walkthroughs on suggested ways to reduce internet and email usage by staff and students.

• Email a link, not a document
• Compress your files before emailing them
• Which Internet sites are students visiting?
• Is Internet messaging being used by students in the classroom?

Email a link, not a document

Store documents on a shared drive, which other people can access from within your school. That way, when emailing the documents to other people within your school, you can email the file path instead of the document.

When you are ready to attach a file to your email, do the following.

1. Choose the Insert menu item, and then choose File.
2. Select the file on the shared drive you wish to insert.
3. At the bottom right of the Insert File box that is open, click on the down arrow.
4. Select Insert as Shortcut from the options.
5. Send the email as usual.

This walkthrough works with Microsoft Outlook emails that are in the Rich Text format as chosen under the Format menu in emails.

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Compress your files before emailing them

Compressing files can reduce their size. Compressing files prior to emailing them to a colleague can free up bandwidth. If you do need to email a file, compress the file before sending.

To compress a file, do the following.

1. Open Windows Explorer and find the file you would like to compress.
2. Right mouse click on the file and choose Add to Zip.
3. Select any options in the Add window and click on the Add button.
4. Close the WinZip window, your compressed file should appear alongside your original file. (It will have a yellow icon.)
5. Attach the file to your email as usual.

This walkthrough works with Microsoft Windows Explorer with WinZip installed.

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Which Internet sites are students visiting?

MIS administrators should make use of the reports made available to them by MIS. One of these reports can identify the 100 most visited websites from within a school. From this list, staff can see which websites are being accessed most frequently. MIS can block websites that are not related to the curriculum.

1. Log onto MIS.
2. Select the Reports tab.
3. Select the Internet Usage tab.
4. Select the Top 100 Sites tab.
5. Select your school and sort by either Downloads or Requests.
6. Set a date range and click on the Generate button.
7. Click on the column headings to sort the report.

Those sites that are not educationally relevant can be blocked at the school level. Confirm with teaching staff that the sites are not needed for teaching purposes prior to blocking.

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Is Internet messaging being used by students in the classroom?

Students can use Internet messenger, such as MSN or ICQ, during class to communicate with other students in that class. This does not only produce additional network traffic, but diverts students' attention away from lessons. Internet messenger websites can be blocked.

1. Log on to MIS.
2. Select the Filtering tab.
3. Select the School Filters tab.
4. Select your school from the list.
5. Enter the URL of the site that you want blocked.
6. Click the Add button.

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