A Guide to Networking a K-12 School District
by
Bradley H. Lamont
Beyond networking
After a district has installed a network, the process is not complete. Looking back to Figure 2-9, a repeat and refine step needs to be continued. Additionally, it is useful for all of the people involved in the district networking process to come together and review how the process worked. The group should discuss both past work and future plans during this meeting. This will allow the district to make future plans based upon past experiences.
4.1 Long term planning
During the design and implementation phase, compromises would have had been made based upon time and budgetary constraints. After the network installation is complete, a district can reevaluate those compromises, and can begin to make plans concerning the replacement of the lower performance equipment as money becomes available in the future. Even in areas where a district made use of the best equipment available future changes be needed. New technology will appear and current equipment beyond the means of a district will drop in price to the point where a district can afford it. A district should have a plan in place to take advantage of these new opportunities as they arise.
Technology planning is extremely difficult today because of the rapid changes appearing in technology. Products that did not exist only a few years ago are now available at low prices. This makes predicting where technology will be several years from now almost impossible. Instead of planning specific upgrades of equipment, a district should evaluate what parts of their current network are the bottlenecks, or limits. A district can make plans to replace the bottlenecks with whatever new equipment is available when the time comes to replace it.
Another area to consider is the increase in use that the network will experience by as more students and staff begin to use it. Immediately after the network installation, the usage will be low and the network will seem fast. As more people start to use it, they will divide the bandwidth of the network across more machines and the network will start to seem slow. At this point, a district should have plans in place to replace the bottlenecks with faster technology, increasing the aggregate, or total, bandwidth. In most districts, the bottleneck will be the WAN. By the time the network enough people use the network to cause problems, new WAN technologies should be available or current ones will have dropped in price.
The district will also need to assign someone, usually the network administrator, to keep all the district's software up to date. Upgrades and bug fixes will become available for the application and server software that the district owns. The administrator will need to be aware of when these appear and will need to install them on the respective machines. New versions of the software will also appear in the future, offering better performance, more ease of use, and/or have new features that are not currently available. These will usually cost, and a district needs to budget for upgrades.
Finally, a district will need to keep an eye to what other districts and the state and federal governments are doing. As already discussed, sharing resources, network access, or knowledge with these institutions can improve the opportunities available to a district.
4.2 Grant writing
Receiving grants is a great way for a district to get money for computers and networks. To help districts write proposals, this section compiles some of the important issues to consider when writing proposals.
4.2.1 What to include
A proposal should be written with it's intended audience in mind. If the grant is being offered by the state board of education, then the proposal should emphasize the educational uses of the grant. If a technology company is offering the grant, the proposal should emphasize how the district will use that company's technology in education.
The grant writer should be sure of fulfilling all the grant requirements in the proposal. Although this seems straightforward, often the grant writer will not discuss a requirement because the district already fulfills it. If the district already fulfills it, then be sure to specify that in the proposal and discuss how to integrate the grant into the current network.
Involve teachers in both the grant writing and the grant fulfillment processes. Avoid writing a proposal and fulfilling the grant for someone without involving them. Teachers will be more involved and prepared to use new technology if they are involved in the process. Most grant agencies know this and will want award grants to districts with strong teacher involvement.
If possible, the proposal should involve the community in the grant. Have an open house once the district fulfills the grant and allow the students to show off some of the work they have created on the equipment funded by the grant.
The proposal should include information about past successes that the district has had. If the district networked a different building with another grant, mention in the proposal how that previous experience will help in fulfilling the new grant.
Ways that the district will extend the opportunities presented by the grant interests most grant agencies. If the district is using the grant as starting point for all of its networking, explain what the grant will offer to the district and how the district will continue to use technology once it fulfills the grant. A district's plans to provide additional funding to expand the opportunities presented by the grant will also interest grant agencies.
4.2.2 What not to include
Just as there are important things to include in a proposal, there are also things that the writer should exclude. The first is to avoid including anything in the proposal that is not part of the grant. Most grants seek to improve education through the use of technology and allow some of the grant money to provide a network for that purpose. Most grants do not cover buying computers, and the grant writer should avoid including them in the proposal unless the grant allows them.
Often when writing grants, the writer will promise too much. The writer should avoid committing the district to more than it can offer. Most grants need to be completed in a specified amount of time and under a specified amount of money. If the proposal promises too much, the district will not fulfill the grant may have difficulty receiving grants in the future.
Finally, remember that grants are about innovate uses of technology in education. Avoid writing proposals in which the money will be used for a glorified textbook project. Design a project for the grant that uses the new technologies that will be available through the grant.
4.2.3 Using grants within a district
With a large percentage of its district networked, Champaign has begun using an internal grant process to determine which classrooms will receive funding for computer equipment. This is one way to determine where to spend the district's money and gives every teacher an opportunity to receive money for technology.
Each interested teacher must submit a proposal indicating what equipment they would like to buy and how they will incorporate the new technology into their current lesson plans. A group of district administrators and qualified laypersons then review the proposals. They award points to the proposals for their innovation, use of technology, level of student collaboration, and incorporation into the curriculum. The equipment and software needed by the top proposals is then bought and given to the teachers.
Teachers are also allowed to work together on a proposal, and this allows them to ask for additional money. When groups of teachers submit proposals, the reviewers also judge the degree of true collaboration in the projects.
4.3 Acceptable use policies
Once a district has connected to the Internet, it becomes easier for a student to access and view controversial and even offensive material. Before this happens, a district needs to have a policy in place about how to handle this type of situation. This section lists some suggestions, and Appendix F shows a sample acceptable use policy.
4.3.1 Responsibilities of a district
A district will need to understand and establish a policy stating its responsibilities in the use of the Internet. These include punishing inappropriate usage, placing adequate measures in place to prevent most violations from occurring, and teaching students what is and is not acceptable behavior in a school environment.
A district should have a strong enforcement policy for violations of its acceptable use policy. Just as if a student brought a pornographic magazine to school, the displaying of pornographic pictures on a computer demands immediate action. Teachers should reprimand students, the severity of which will depend on the number and intensity of violations. Most districts already have inappropriate behavior policies in effect, and can modify these to include computer violations.
Regardless of its policies, a district will still need adequate supervision and safety measures in place to prevent students from violating the rules and getting away with it. Districts should avoid unsupervised computer labs where students can easily access inappropriate materials without penalty.
A district will also need to place emphasis on pro-active programs that will teach students what is and is not acceptable use of computers. School should be a place of learning, and students should be taught the correct behavior instead of being prevented from using the Internet because the possibility exists that they could display inappropriate material.
Rules regarding Internet usage. The district should teach the rules of acceptable use of the Internet to each student who will be using it. The rules should include such things as what can and can not be accessed on the computer, how passwords should be considered private information, and other background information that a student will need to know in order to access information on the Internet.
Student usage tests. Once a student has been taught the rules, they should be required to pass a quiz on this information before they can use the Internet. The quiz will review the information presented in the rules and regulations and will force a student to know the rules.
4.3.2 Parental consent
A district should also involve the parents in the process of getting students on the Internet. A district should send copies of the district policy on computer use and the student quiz to the parents along with a parental consent form. A district can decide how to send the information home. They could place copies of the forms in the student handbook and mail them at the same time. An approach that Champaign and Tolono have found that works well is to have the students bring the policies and forms home to their parents just like a field trip permission slip. The parents will then be aware of what their student could come in contact with on the Internet, and they will also be aware of the districts policies to prevent this from happening.
A district can write the consent form either in an inclusive or exclusive form. In the first, students will not be allows access to the Internet until the district receives a copy of the consent form allowing a student access. In the second, students can access the Internet unless the district receives a copy of the consent form prohibiting a student from accessing it.
4.3.3 Software solutions
Along with implementing an acceptable use policy and enforcing it, a district can buy filtering software that will prohibit access to many of the unacceptable locations on the Internet. Table 4-1 lists some of these programs, as well as URLs for information about them. Although this can be a good approach, it is expensive and not one hundred percent effective because new locations are always appearing on the Internet that contain inappropriate material. By forcefully preventing a student from accessing certain information, a student is not taught about responsibility.
4.4 Summary
This guide has presented a lot of information about computers, networks, and the networking process. Following a design process similar to the one presented in Figure 2-9 on page 25, a district can be sure to execute all the necessary steps in the network design process. Once a district is ready to begin developing specific plans for each building, it should refer to Figure 2-10 on page 29 to be sure it misses no important steps. When a district is ready to implement the network plans, a district should refer to Figure 3-1 on page 45 that lists the necessary steps. Finally, a district can use a checklist similar to the one presented in Appendix B to be sure that it misses none of the necessary steps in the entire process.
Although this is a complex project, all districts have staff members who are more than capable of networking the district given the correct training. By combining outside help with the resources available in a district, a district can develop an advanced network that will enhance the learning opportunities available to its students.
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This file last updated on 05/09/96 at 13:52:58.
© Copyright by Bradley H. Lamont, 1996