Netbooks, networks and internet safety : are you ready for the digital education revolution?

Abstract

As the digital education revolution rolls out, the big question for teachers and education infotech managers is: how will we safely use all these new netbook computers on our school networks and the Internet? The digital education revolution program will create many new and exciting learning opportunities for students, but to enable those opportunities educators need to create a safe online environment. How will schools ready themselves for this revolution? The author describes how he planned for this at his own school, St Aloysius College in Sydney. He and his colleagues had to consider a number of issues, including how the school was growing and how technology was being managed as it grew. They also considered the shift from desktop computers to more mobile technology, and the back-end infrastructure to support the growth in technology. Another issue examined was the school's network security and appropriate student access to online content. The Internet is changing dramatically, with user-generated content becoming the norm and traditional web filtering solutions may not have been suitable, so the school chose Blue Reef's Sonar for access control and network enforcement. Sonar's flexibility has opened up new channels for teaching and demonstration. [Author abstract, ed]