This week's readings and postings have enlightened me to protect my personal computer. I have a very old laptop with a virus software expiring soon! After my readings for this class last night, I felt guilty and invested on a brand new anti-virus software for my computer. Because I use a USB drive, transporting it back and forth for work, I felt this was the safest move. Even though it is additional money, this protection will save me much time and effort in repairing my infected computer.
As for temporary devices, our school district has officially banned all students from bringing flash drives to school. This is a precautionary act, yet continues to stifle student technological uses at school. Now students can only save or send documents via email. It is amazing how school districts like mine are evolving the wrong way!
Brian,
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing scarier (well,maybe a few things), but there's not a whole lot scarier than having one's computer wiped out by a virus. It's especially scary for people like ourselves who depend on our computers professionally. I know on the days when something is wrong with the Internet or my computer at school and I can't use it, I feel like a fish out of water. So, I'm sure you feel a big sense of relief now that you have updated your virus protection.
Our corporation is really good at keeping the security up-to-date. To my knowledge, there has not been a widespread virus problem in the five years I have taught here.
It is a little painful to dish out a the extra cash to personally protect your own computer, but as you stated it is well worth the cost.
I was suprised to hear that your district has banned the use of flash drives at school by the students. This does sound a little counterpoductive. If we want students to become critical thinkers as users of technology, we should take a more proactive approach to security issues. Instead of banning storage devices, why don't we show students how to scan these devices for viruses? Of course, the occasional one may still slip through, but the school's protection software should be able to handle this problem. You're right, that does seem to be a step in the wrong direction (unless there is some reasoning behind that action that I have failed to see). I hope none of your technology coordinators are reading your blog :-) Just kidding, I'm sure they can handle constructive criticism.
-Alison Sanders
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ReplyDeleteGlasbybr,
ReplyDeleteI believe it was Ben Franklin that said “those will to give up freedoms for security shall have neither security nor freedom.” I think your administration will find that this is the case regarding their usb policy.
In my opinion it is the job of your network administrator to ensure that all computers have up to date virus protection and are protected against most viruses. This is not to say that viruses cannot get past security they do, but that is when your school network administrator must work with the district to eradicate all viruses from the network.
It sounds to me that you administration is making reactionary decisions based on fear. What happens if USBs are banned and another virus comes through are they going to ban the students from going online. Computers and data storage devices are the future of education and with anything new there will be some risks involved and your administration has to accept that. I suggest that you discuss this policy with your administration and help them see the error of their ways. On second though you better not, administrators rarely like to be informed about the error of their ways.
Anti-virus is such a needed thing in today’s age. With computers getting infected with viruses on a regular basis, computer users need to use all the protection they can find. I think at times we feel that if something is old it’s not worth protecting, but we are so wrong. The machine itself may be old, but the information on it is vital to our everyday lives. Its memory holds our pictures, videos, and work documents. I’ve had technology fail on me before (non-virus related) and have felt lost when realizing what had been destroyed in the process. To this day I still come need things but realize they were on a hard drive that died ages ago. Virus protection is one way we can stop this from happening. No, it would be a cure-all for every computer ailment, but it will help in this one regard.
ReplyDeleteIt seems as if your school is following the same policy as mine. As much as I would like to allow my students to bring their flash drives to school, I can completely understand their reasons why not to. Our school is networked to a few central servers. If one computer was infected and that infected file found its way to our server, there’s no telling what damage could be caused, what files could be irrevocably lost. Flash drives have been known, and are often targets, of virus attacks. To provide a solution to this, we have set up file lockers for our students to use when transferring files to and from school. They have gotten quite efficient at uploading and downloading their documents and seem to prefer them to flash drives as they are always available as long as there is Internet access. We do not allow the students to access personal e-mail during school hours, but again, our students do seem to use the file locker more than they do flash drives or other mobile storage devices.
I’m curious, other than e-mail, has your school made any other concessions to the no flash drive rule?
Brian,
ReplyDeleteI have always been an anti-virus nut! In my house we use Norton, Ad-Aware, CCleaner and Spybot Search and Destroy. I had one too many viruses in College and refused to have these same problems now that I have a family and use my computers for just about everything in my life.
However, when it comes to my work computer and network access, I'm always leery. At the beginning of this school year I bought a brand new USB drive and when I went to use it my computer crashed, twice. So I contacted our tech facilitator and she explained that USB drives have been known to carry viruses and was telling me that my new drive was probably infected. Now I get that USB drives make it easier to spread viruses, however straight out of the wrapper, I find highly improbable.
I could definitely see our administration jumping on the same band wagon as your school and not allowing USB drives. However, lucky for teachers and students alike at this time they are still allowing the use of USB drives! For now at least, however when the time comes to ban my USB I will be distraught because my entire teaching career is on that little memory stick.
Kristin
Last year, I had my entire hard drive wiped out by a very stingy virus. I had a free virus protection on my computer. It is always safer to invest in one of the trusted programs. I was also naive to not backing up my files with the thinking that it would never happen to me. I now know better.
ReplyDeleteWhat scares me about flash drives is reading how they are a carrier of viruses as well. I have invested in flash drives for different things such as lesson plans and newsletters. It is even scary to think that you could send a file from your computer to a professor for an assignment. If he opens it and it affects his computer, then you could be in trouble since the university is a state facility.
Just when we think we are protected at school or home, something happens to create a doubt. Always back up files!!!
@ Miss Salaka,
ReplyDeleteOur school district does allow our students to save work on the school's computers, each having their own hard drive space. I understand all the virus risks involved with flash drives, but you would think that my district has a strong enough anti-virus program installed on our computers.
Brian