FACEBOOK!

[Danlewis3]

+1 for smoothwall

 

Otherwise stick a keylogger on a few machines, get a few of their username and passwords and hijack their accounts, then send a memo to be read to all kids that using proxy sites allows the proxy hosts to see your username and passwords :-)

 

Really pointless as well!

 

You can reset passwords why bother logging there password :S

 

If you have basic internet filtering you should be able to divulge into the logs to find out what sites they are using but then it comes down to is it your responsibility. If they find ways to get on the site in lesson shouldn't it be the teacher responsibility to sort it out. But then the other argument is security are these proxy sites safe 99% of the time no.

 

You just need a better plan of action confirmed with SLT, if we find any student trying to bypass our security its a weeks ban from the internet simple as that and no one can come in and say urban them.

[OverWorked]

Smoothwall will definitely do it.

 

Two years ago we knew we had a problem with social networking sites esp. facebook. Just sitting at the back of the room, the teacher would be waffling away at the front, oblivious that half the laptop screens were showing facebook.

 

Our LA blocked facebook, but they were al using a range of proxies.

 

Smoothwall killed this dead, as well as their webmail and loads of other time wasting stuff.

 

I've said this before. For a few weeks I would get abuse off whole classes of pupils. They would scream things like

 

WE CAN'T DO ANYTHING NOW BECAUSE OF THIS F:censored: SMOOTHWALL!

 

The teacher and I would stand at the front smiling at them, whilst they calmed down and got on with work.

 

It was entertaining watching them trying whole lists of proxies - all blocked.

 

Staff love it, kids hate it. Just as it should be.

[KK20]

dont be too proud of this technical terror

 

The damned problem now is that after killing blogging sites I now need to open some up for the A level Artwork. Damn! Thats ANOTHER group I need to create for DG. Dont get me started on i-GCSE ICT and their live practical exams.

[cookie_monster]

I take it no one here like the idea of Facebook in class then? Just wondering after reading this article.

 

But not all schools are so keen to embrace technology. Many still ban the use of mobile phones and social networking sites such as Facebook.

 

BBC News - Schools must embrace mobile technology

[LeMarchand]

Children in the future will have choices about where and how they learn and if schools aren't enticing, pupils won't come.

 

FFS!

 

Is it me, or are kids given entirely too much choice? They're kids, and not necessarily capable of making the best decisions for themselves. I'm sure a lot of kids, if given the choice, wouldn't go to school or take any form of education at all!

 

As for Facebook in class - lots of teenagers like sex too. Perhaps we should allow them to have sex in class: it's a bit of exercise and improves their social skills.

Edited January 15, 2010 by LeMarchand
Typo

[cookie_monster]

FFS!

 

Is it me, or are kids given entirely too much choice? They're kids, and not necessarily capable of making the best decisions for themselves. I'm sure a lot of kids, if given the choice, wouldn't go to school or take any for of education at all!

 

As for Facebook in class - lots of teenagers like sex too. Perhaps we should allow them to have sex in class: it's a bit of exercise and improves their social skills.

 

 

 

Yeh I had to have a good laugh at the 'choice' comment, as though the majority of students would stop attending schools because they couldn't use their netbook of FB in class.

 

'Get to school now or you'll get a thick ear'

[pwds]

Apart from the child protection aspects of social networking, every teacher I've spoken to regards it as a menance when in computer suites as it absorbs so much of students lesson time.

 

Not that it stops some of them using it in school themselves.....

[gaz350]

anyone seen kids using https to access facebook?

 

hard to believe it but we've just done a 5 day ban on facebook across the school(our head allows students to access it, was ok untill they came back after xmas almost all of them have come back as addicts),

 

took some of them 36hrs to realise they could access pages via https://. going to have to check it out a bit more tomorrow and as a quick fix added a DNS zone for facebook which broke it nicely in the short term.

 

I have a feeling this was due to SSL port being open on the firewall...... (we use DG/smoothwall express although 1 of toms lot is coming to see us soon ) but haven't had a real chance to look at it properly with my "senior" tech(18!) off sick this week.

[browolf]

kids and the internet are like the [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem]infinite monkey theorem[/ame]....and it doesn't matter how unclever individuals are, collectively they figure stuff out quick.

 

the most foolproof system is a walled garden type affair in which "unknown" sites are blocked by default. Such is ours and applies to staff too. The most problems we have are kids playing flash games when they should be working.

Edited February 9, 2010 by browolf

[mossj]

kids and the internet are like the infinite monkey theorem....and it doesn't matter how unclever individuals are, collectively they figure stuff out quick.

 

the most foolproof system is a walled garden type affair in which "unknown" sites are blocked by default. Such is ours and applies to staff too. The most problems we have are kids playing flash games when they should be working.

 

You mean a whitelist?

[OverWorked]

anyone seen kids using https to access facebook?

 

hard to believe it but we've just done a 5 day ban on facebook across the school(our head allows students to access it, was ok untill they came back after xmas almost all of them have come back as addicts),

 

took some of them 36hrs to realise they could access pages via https://. going to have to check it out a bit more tomorrow and as a quick fix added a DNS zone for facebook which broke it nicely in the short term.

 

I have a feeling this was due to SSL port being open on the firewall...... (we use DG/smoothwall express although 1 of toms lot is coming to see us soon ) but haven't had a real chance to look at it properly with my "senior" tech(18!) off sick this week.

 

From experience, this approach won't work. I know, I used to do it too. Browolf is right - students will soon find ways round url blacklists, or DNS poisoning very quickly. We don't go as far as a whitelist (walled garden), though.

 

Our LA's ISP block facebook and similar social networking sites, and I had little idea how they were still spending all their lesson time on it.

 

When we got Smoothwall School Guardian two years ago, I found it blocking the whole load of proxies they had been using.

 

Facebook is dead in our school now (as far as we know!).

 

I would seriously recommend you get SG or something similar.

[sonofsanta]

perhaps using a program such as 'Terminator X' which reads the title in the window and closes if it displays a certain word 'Facebook' for example.

Annoys them to hell and they soon give up trying

 

That sounds hilarious. I don't have the problem at this school but I almost wish I did now.

[browolf]

the persistence of kids really knows no bounds!