To Ban Or Not To Ban this is the question

[Michael_84]

I hardly ever ban computer access out right but just internet access, I use ISA server to create a safe list which then allows students to surfs sites I allow them to, so if a teacher comes to me saying a student needs to access site X I can grant them access so the student can do work.

 

Teachers also tell the students they can check their history be calling me.. a quick grep of the web log takes seconds and gives the teacher instant evidence

[tri_94]

Hi there, we choose not to ban, although we have an AUP in place at the end of the day banning only creates more work for us, And you know the moment you ban a pupil the next teacher wants them to have access and they don't care why they got banned in a different lesson.

 

So we keep it simple and let the teachers deal with the problem themselves, either in letter home or talking to the tutors. When we can also monitor the network and do some screen shots of the abuse that they are doing. And sometimes our head of ICT will write home and include a print of what they child is doing. Seems to work really well here.

 

cheers

tri_94

[duncane]

I appreciate this thread is quite old, but I'm not exactly clear what you all classify as serious.

 

For me, I banned some students for physically risking the computers. They were playing up - which is purely a classroom discipline issue - but one in particular got so frustrated that they yanked the keyboard away from the PC with so much force that the entire PC and monitor lurched towards the edge of the desk. This not only risked the damage to the computer, but them injuring themselves or someone else.

 

Personally, I think that should result in an immediate ban. I set the ban to one week (after consulting with my network manager) which should be enough time for their form teacher / house leader to talk to them. Yes, this makes things difficult for people teaching them, but that's the student's fault, not mine. I don't deliberately try to make things difficult for the teaching staff.

 

Our AUP only has sanctions specified for inappropriate access of the network - namely a 1 week internet ban for for the first offence, and increasing there after to the account being banned after the third offence. In terms of the gravity of the situation, I don't think a 1 week disabling of their accounts is inappropriate.

 

I've been asked how they're meant to do their ICT coursework - I would have thought that question would be better addressed to the students themselves.

 

(In the past we've had to ban students from the internet for inappropriate access, and we've given them standalone laptops to continue their coursework - so we do go out of our way to help. When the problem is a threat to the physical hardware, I'm not really sure what options we can provide.)

[grumpy_git]

Hi all - I'm new here, but thought I'd add my perspective.

 

If we ban someone, they can still log on - but get a lovely bright yellow screen once they log on saying that they're banned, and all they can do is click a button to log off. However, there's another option which a staff member can click, enter their username & password and allow the student on for a specified period. The staff are told to keep an eye on anyone they let on in such a way. Hence we can ban people, yet don't get "I can't do my coursework!" complaints. When they get banned an automated memo goes out to the relevant tutor and head of years so that they are informed.

 

Each student has an AUP which they have to sign, get parents to countersign and return before their account is enabled, and once their ban period is expired they've got to sign countersign and return another before they're back on.

 

As to why they get banned, there's a roughly half an half split. Often we get emails from staff saying that a kid was playing games during their lesson and can they be banned. Random VNC-ing when there's something suspicious going on is helpful sometimes. I can relate 100% to the "doc1" thing, very satisfying to make it "disappear" and show the game when the staff's standing right behind them.

 

We're lucky to have SMT support and the bottom line is that use of the system is a privilege - which can be withdrawn if it's misused. A couple of head of years are more militant and will kick up that "jonny can't do his homework now" - tough!

 

Issues like messing about in class and being disruptive, well they're a classroom problem not an IT one so it's the class teacher's responsibility to follow up. The ones who do 'physical' vandalism like breaking chairs, swapping keyboard characters over and pratting around with mice (though this isn't so much a problem now as most of our mice are optical) get to spend a lunchtime with the Head of IT cleaning keyboards, mending stools etc. Which I love, because it saves me a job!

Edited October 11, 2008 by grumpy_git

[Tamarside]

We use a three-tier Internet access system and students that misbehave - in or out of ICT rooms - may find themselves in the Red zone, meaning they can only acess a set white list of web sites.

 

We add to this list all the time, with the end goal being that students in the Red zone cannot go on any site not formally approved by a member of staff. This removes the "but I can't do my coursework and it is all YOUR fault" arguments.

 

We have an intranet site that shows staff members which students are in the Red zone, for how long and the reason they are there. Heads of Year are the only people that can unban students. They can do so via a web page on the Intranet, or by submitting a helpdesk request via our web-based helpdesk.

 

In the IT Support department we use Ulr@VNC, which allows us to monitor and control student PC's, but also to lock their keyboards, mice and screens. Teachers use SynchronEyes as classroom control software and we found no conflicts with simultaneous usage of both. We also use Free Screen Recorder to record VNC sessions to be used as evidence.

 

Overall we explain to students that all of them have te opportunity to gain Green zone access, which includes access to social networking sites, but they need to show over a period of time that they can be trusted with that level of responsibility.

 

We tie the system to overall student behaviour and students may be elevated to Green zone or reduced to Re zone for a variety of reasons that seems entirely disconnected from ICT.

 

I am currently working on a system that will automate a great deal of this and that would see students being moved between Green, Yellow and Red zones automaticaly based on events entered into our MIS system, CMIS. Events could be merits, praise postcards sent home, or negative events, such as aggression, etc. Students' desktops will show how near they are to either being promoted or demoted, and the desktop will show positive steps they can do to avoid being demoted or be promoted, e.g. "If you achieve two merits you will be taken out of the Yellow zone and moved to the Green zone".