Our school's IT is dumb. I need help!

[Beef Boss]

16 minutes ago, Ryois said:

Bioses have a password... you can’t mash any key to get into dell boot selection..

I would wecommend some solutions but I dont want any wawning points :3 I hate computew systems that have every filtew and lock known to man. 

[Ryois]

Just now, BadluckBrian said:

I would wecommend some solutions but I dont want any wawning points :3 I hate computew systems that have every filter and lock known to man. 

iBoss to monitor and secure internet.

Domain Policies to restrict access on pcs

Azure to control login

and more!

[Shreyas1]

13 minutes ago, BadluckBrian said:

filter

 

21 minutes ago, BadluckBrian said:

it bwoke  

AHA

 

[Uzume]

The number one concern with school based IT is to minimise liability and maximise oversight. You can thank a litigious society drowning under a constant tide of moral panics for that.

 

Everything else is an afterthought.

 

[vong]

I can understand why the IT person won't change things, probably has to do certain things the school says.

• school probably wants to monitor students' accounts to see there's no funny business
• to make sure it's for school use only
• they probably couldn't be bothered to fix it.

[Ryois]

7 hours ago, zzrhardy said:

The number one concern with school based IT is to minimise liability and maximise oversight. You can thank a litigious society drowning under a constant tide of moral panics for that.

 

Everything else is an afterthought.

 

ok

5 hours ago, vong said:

I can understand why the IT person won't change things, probably has to do certain things the school says.

• school probably wants to monitor students' accounts to see there's no funny business
• to make sure it's for school use only
• they probably couldn't be bothered to fix it.

1: ok

2: ok

3: they are lazy

[Windows Server 2003]

Whoa man, do we goto the same school. These issues are bullshit. Except for the fact we trade off password change for not being able to remove icons.

[Windows Server 2003]

And dont get me started on iboss and how it blocks any website with the words "game, fun, cool, etc" i was using tor for a bit to get past this when we were still using windows 7 but since we got to 10 we cant even drag folders to the desktop. Most fun thing to do is change the background to something retarded and watch the teachers reaction as she walks by and sees that Im doing retarded things and she doesn't know how to stop me. 

[marten.aap2.0]

12 hours ago, BadluckBrian said:

every

I thought you said your r-key was broken?

[chiller15]

I am an IT Technician/Administrator in an 11-18 school in the UK, looking after all aspects of our IT infrastructure. I thought I'd share my two cents.

13 hours ago, Ryois said:

So at our school, the IT is clueless about what our teachers and students need/want out of our technology.

• First of all, we cannot change our password https://gyazo.com/e113ef17fdf965644b8fabaf16fd2199. Our passwords are six digit numeric only passwords.

Our policy is six alpha-numeric characters and students can change their passwords, but only when they are already logged in. The most common issue is that they have forgotten it or someone else knew the password and has changed it. Giving pupils the ability to reset their passwords without being logged in is a no-no, as you cannot confirm the identity of the person resetting it. Which is usually why only admins or teachers (if given the permissions/a tool to do so...which I have given to our teachers) can reset passwords.

Quote

• Secondly, students cannot email and we cannot receive emails outside our domain. Example my@gmail.com to myschool@assigned.email
  • other teachers that are not our teachers
  • other students
  • outside our domain

This is a purely safeguarding measure and is something that I personally implemented in our school and know that it is something that most other school's also do. It prevents inappropriate communication between the pupil and other individuals or groups. This could be anything from sexual grooming to extremism. Yes, the pupil could do this outside of school, but the school needs to protect itself.

Quote

• Third, our website is absolute trash. It's not mobile friendly, it takes many clicks and going back to view a simple page.

Generally only the website content is managed by the school, with the actual website being a template from an online hosting company. It could even be that the content is not necessarily be managed by the IT team, but by another member of staff specialising in media or communication. As for the design, that could be a simple question of money. The IT team may not have the funding to implement a better or more modern website.

Quote

 I need help on trying to communicate these problems with them. Should I try to talk in person with them or send them an email assuming I can email them or what? Other students are frustrated with these problems.

I'd consider chatting with them informally to understand why certain restrictions are in place, rather going straight to complaining. Some of the measures may even be out of the IT team's control and mandated to them by the school's management or even the governing body/council/ward (sorry, I don't know how school's are managed in your area).

 

 

[Eduard the weeb]

my school is like this 

 

Are password are our birthdays and cannot be changed.

 

Teachers are given to shitty laptops. 1 a old I-3 laptops either Clarkdale or Sandy bridge I think and a chromebook which I am using now.

 

they block websites at school but at home they don't block anything and are school assigned accounts cannot even be changed just the basic letter Gmail account no background and nothing can be used for the email and the emails don't work with are personal so on project we have to use are school assigned becuase almost everyone only has Apple emails instead of gmail.

 

 

Also no hangouts.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

16 hours ago, Ryois said:

So at our school, the IT is clueless about what our teachers and students need/want out of our technology.

• First of all, we cannot change our password https://gyazo.com/e113ef17fdf965644b8fabaf16fd2199. Our passwords are six digit numeric only passwords.
• Secondly, students cannot email and we cannot receive emails outside our domain. Example my@gmail.com to myschool@assigned.email
  • other teachers that are not our teachers
  • other students
  • outside our domain
• Third, our website is absolute trash. It's not mobile friendly, it takes many clicks and going back to view a simple page.

 I need help on trying to communicate these problems with them. Should I try to talk in person with them or send them an email assuming I can email them or what? Other students are frustrated with these problems.

Not allowing password changes is pretty dumb. I remember my elementary school would default everyone's password to a single letter. This made it easy to access other people's account as user IDs were just composed of room number and the number for the student on the class list. Though this was at a time where only a few kids were smart enough to figure out that they can easily use this for sinister things. They didn't disable the ability to change passwords so every year that was the first thing I did. 

 

With regards to the email thing, it's pretty common practice as it's mainly used for internal communications. For example, mine doesn't play well if you try to send emails to any outside domain. You can also say it's a safety net as it almost completely eliminates the risk of phishing. As for the not being able to send emails to within the same domain, yea I don't really understand the point of providing students with an email account if that's the case. 

 

Websites are absolute trash. Not surprised. If it's not an University, there's little incentive of making it as up to date as possible with regards to features.

[Ryois]

5 hours ago, Windows Server 2003 said:

Whoa man, do we goto the same school. These issues are bullshit. Except for the fact we trade off password change for not being able to remove icons.

Lol

5 hours ago, Windows Server 2003 said:

And dont get me started on iboss and how it blocks any website with the words "game, fun, cool, etc" i was using tor for a bit to get past this when we were still using windows 7 but since we got to 10 we cant even drag folders to the desktop. Most fun thing to do is change the background to something retarded and watch the teachers reaction as she walks by and sees that Im doing retarded things and she doesn't know how to stop me. 

Same we can’t change wallpaper, windows start menu layout, but we can add and move icons not remove.

5 hours ago, chiller15 said:

I am an IT Technician/Administrator in an 11-18 school in the UK, looking after all aspects of our IT infrastructure. I thought I'd share my two cents.

Our policy is six alpha-numeric characters and students can change their passwords, but only when they are already logged in. The most common issue is that they have forgotten it or someone else knew the password and has changed it. Giving pupils the ability to reset their passwords without being logged in is a no-no, as you cannot confirm the identity of the person resetting it. Which is usually why only admins or teachers (if given the permissions/a tool to do so...which I have given to our teachers) can reset passwords.

This is a purely safeguarding measure and is something that I personally implemented in our school and know that it is something that most other school's also do. It prevents inappropriate communication between the pupil and other individuals or groups. This could be anything from sexual grooming to extremism. Yes, the pupil could do this outside of school, but the school needs to protect itself.

Generally only the website content is managed by the school, with the actual website being a template from an online hosting company. It could even be that the content is not necessarily be managed by the IT team, but by another member of staff specialising in media or communication. As for the design, that could be a simple question of money. The IT team may not have the funding to implement a better or more modern website.

I'd consider chatting with them informally to understand why certain restrictions are in place, rather going straight to complaining. Some of the measures may even be out of the IT team's control and mandated to them by the school's management or even the governing body/council/ward (sorry, I don't know how school's are managed in your area).

 

 

We can’t change passwords for any reason. We can’t email other teachers... Wordpress websites are cheap and we have like 5 domains registered.

5 hours ago, Eduard the weeb said:

my school is like this 

 

Are password are our birthdays and cannot be changed.

 

Teachers are given to shitty laptops. 1 a old I-3 laptops either Clarkdale or Sandy bridge I think and a chromebook which I am using now.

 

they block websites at school but at home they don't block anything and are school assigned accounts cannot even be changed just the basic letter Gmail account no background and nothing can be used for the email and the emails don't work with are personal so on project we have to use are school assigned becuase almost everyone only has Apple emails instead of gmail.

 

 

Also no hangouts.

Wow passwords are your birthday... my dad which is a teacher has a decent i5 3340M on a Latitude E6430. We have Microsoft Teams but teachers disallow us to chat via those and Skype for business if disabled.

2 hours ago, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

Not allowing password changes is pretty dumb. I remember my elementary school would default everyone's password to a single letter. This made it easy to access other people's account as user IDs were just composed of room number and the number for the student on the class list. Though this was at a time where only a few kids were smart enough to figure out that they can easily use this for sinister things. They didn't disable the ability to change passwords so every year that was the first thing I did. 

 

With regards to the email thing, it's pretty common practice as it's mainly used for internal communications. For example, mine doesn't play well if you try to send emails to any outside domain. You can also say it's a safety net as it almost completely eliminates the risk of phishing. As for the not being able to send emails to within the same domain, yea I don't really understand the point of providing students with an email account if that's the case. 

 

Websites are absolute trash. Not surprised. If it's not an University, there's little incentive of making it as up to date as possible with regards to features.

The password: lol wow 1 char. Teachers are forced to change very 90 days, Windows would bug the teachers every time they log in. Emails: exactly, I can’t even email a state function or a .gov domain... nor receive emails for github edu, grammerly edu, and Microsoft edu. Yeah we can’t receive emails from a Microsoft and our email servers are Microsoft... Our websites for each school and the main district is non mobile and desktop friendly. It gets a 59/100 on Google’s page speed insights and has small tap targets with wasted space.

[ianspy1]

.... our School has a own Server room but doesent use the Server and the securty Software dosnt work so we have a Virus on every pc

[Ryois]

Just now, ianspy1 said:

.... our School has a own Server room but doesent use the Server and the securty Software dosnt work so we have a Virus on every pc

... we have server mounts in every school with switches, routers, and storage servers. With Windows Defender because that's great not really

[ianspy1]

Just now, Ryois said:

... we have server mounts in every school with switches, routers, and storage servers. With Windows Defender because that's great not really

lol the funny Thing is that the Virus is up since halfn year and that even the teachers have it on ther personal laptop

[KhandakeF]

21 hours ago, BadluckBrian said:

it bwoke  

Username checks out

[chiller15]

13 hours ago, Ryois said:

Lol

Same we can’t change wallpaper, windows start menu layout, but we can add and move icons not remove.

That's a no-brainer. Students could add offensive or obscene images to their (or someone else's unattended computer).

Quote

We can’t change passwords for any reason. We can’t email other teachers... Wordpress websites are cheap and we have like 5 domains registered.

A lot of the time it's a case of 'if it's not broken, don't fix it'. Since the website is working (albeit not to modern standards), the likelihood is that they won't get the permission/funding from management.

Quote

my dad which is a teacher has a decent i5 3340M on a Latitude E6430. We have Microsoft Teams but teachers disallow us to chat via those and Skype for business if disabled.

Again, it comes down to funding. I have to provide our teachers with even some first/second gen i3/i5 laptops because we don't have enough budget to replace or upgrade the laptops. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to provide band-spanking new devices to all our users - but we don't have the budget for it so it's a case of make-do.

Quote

Emails: exactly, I can’t even email a state function or a .gov domain... nor receive emails for github edu, grammerly edu, and Microsoft edu. Yeah we can’t receive emails from a Microsoft and our email servers are Microsoft... 

If you need to email external domains, you can do that from your own personal email account when not in school.

 

11 hours ago, Ryois said:

... we have server mounts in every school with switches, routers, and storage servers. With Windows Defender because that's great not really

You'd be surprised, it has gotten better over the past few years, especially in enterprise form. If your school are using Microsoft System Centre Configuration Manager to deploy and manage their site...it also has an anti-virus capability in the way of Forefront / SCEP / Defender. 

[KuJoe]

Study hard and graduate early. This is the best solution to the problem.

[Ryois]

1 hour ago, chiller15 said:

That's a no-brainer. Students could add offensive or obscene images to their (or someone else's unattended computer).

A lot of the time it's a case of 'if it's not broken, don't fix it'. Since the website is working (albeit not to modern standards), the likelihood is that they won't get the permission/funding from management.

Again, it comes down to funding. I have to provide our teachers with even some first/second gen i3/i5 laptops because we don't have enough budget to replace or upgrade the laptops. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to provide band-spanking new devices to all our users - but we don't have the budget for it so it's a case of make-do.

If you need to email external domains, you can do that from your own personal email account when not in school.

 

You'd be surprised, it has gotten better over the past few years, especially in enterprise form. If your school are using Microsoft System Centre Configuration Manager to deploy and manage their site...it also has an anti-virus capability in the way of Forefront / SCEP / Defender. 

If I want to email somebody about school business I shouldn't have to use my personal email for that that's what a school email is for.

1 hour ago, KuJoe said:

Study hard and graduate early. This is the best solution to the problem.

I could've skipped a grade but I didn't want to. 

[KuJoe]

2 minutes ago, Ryois said:

I could've skipped a grade but I didn't want to. 

Make better choices.

[Ryois]

Just now, KuJoe said:

Make better choices.

I was born in May. I am one of the youngest in my grade. At least I'm not those students that are 3 years older than everyone else. 

[chiller15]

6 minutes ago, Ryois said:

If I want to email somebody about school business I shouldn't have to use my personal email for that that's what a school email is for.

I could've skipped a grade but I didn't want to. 

If you want to go down the official school business, you can go through a relevant member of staff to do it.

 

And I suppose that if the restriction was lifted and a shady person on the Internet started sexually exploiting/grooming one of your follow students, it's still alright to have external email access?

[Ryois]

1 minute ago, chiller15 said:

If you want to go down the official school business, you can go through a relevant member of staff to do it.

 

And I suppose that if the restriction was lifted and a shady person on the Internet started sexually exploiting/grooming one of your follow students, it's still alright to have external email access?

I can't email a .eud domain or a .gov domain. Sure I get if students can't email a gmail.com, yahoo.com, or a public email. Plus there's the bathroom...

[Ryois]

About the passwords...

https://gyazo.com/78fde5c141b6e089c295bdb3f772ec06

this was in the Azure Portal. Which I can access via a student account