Blocking Youtube and Using Docs - not simpatico

[Wayne Stagnaro]

I have a quick question and hope someone can help. Our CTO insists that Youtube and Google+ be blocked within the district, which is causing an issues with Docs and News not working at all now. They are completely inaccessible currently. This on the eve of what I thought was going to be our launch of GAFE which I have been battling to get rolling for the better part of a year.

Anyone out there is a similar boat with blocking these tools (+ and Youtube) but allowing others(Sites, Docs, etc) to be available?  Does it work smoothly and reliably?   How have you set your GAFE environment and/or your district filtering to make it work?  What filter are you using in your LEA?   There is obviously a conversation about the hyper blocking mentality too, but if that goes nowhere I am hoping for another idea. THANKS!

Wayne

--
Wayne Stagnaro
Curriculum Specialist - Technology
Stockton Unified School District
Google Certified Teacher-Mtn View 08
Central Valley, CA

[Jon Corippo]

Wayne,

iBoss is our filter. 

Google + is blocked and several flavors of YouTube all function. Just for fun, try YouTube Instant (not a YouTube URL) for a workaround. :)

Jon Corippo

Charter Director, Minarets Charter HS 

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[Bradley Chambers]

I block Youtube  (and the short url for it) on our student SSID (student devices are all wifi).  It's a feature of our wireless system (Aerohive).  Google Docs and Sites seem to be still working great.  I'm unsure of what in Google Docs is not working right without Youtube. Can you explain? What kind of security device are you using?

[Wayne Stagnaro]

Thanks Everyone!  We are currently using M86 as the filter which cannot differentiate between the various YouTube sites and evaluating several others.  I know one is Lightspeed and another is iBoss.

Max,  agreed that there are many potential educational uses for G+, but as you know, I dont get to make that call and we have a blanket block it all policy on social networking.  I could make the same arguments for having FB or Twitter opened up as valuable ed, communication, and PLN tools, but our CTO views filtering differently.  We keep having the talks, demonstrating the benefits and discussing where to best focus his limited resources, but havent gotten there yet. 

Bradley,  the page either immediately just brings you back to the main Google screen or gives a connection to this page has been reset error dpending on the browser when you try to access the docs page.  M86 currently. 

Randy, that is correct.  It is not a part of the K-12 GAFE suite, but that kind of defeats the purpose of it not being there if the student can simply log out and access it.  Again, I realize there are great benefits to the tool, but I also know what I am going to hear from our CTO. 

Thanks again!  If any of the above triggers a thought, please let me know. 

Wayne

[Ed Crist]

We’re using the latest Marshall (M8E6) filter appliance.

 

We block all of YouTube, but teachers can submit addresses of videos that they want to use in the classrooms and to allow student access.

 

I find it a decent compromise since it’s not difficult to add exception url’s to the filter for these vids.

 

 

 

 

Edward Crist

Technology Manager

City Charter High School

 

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[Mark Young]

WE are having the same problem... We block Youtube and Facebook and more recently the HTTPS: URL of each.

Now we do not have access to Google Docs (yet, mail and calendar are working fine).

We use our county office provided filter Websense, and the head person there said that blocking the secure YouTube access also affected Google Docs. Not sure how they are attached, but I need to get Google Docs unblocked as we use it district wide (also for website).

Ideas, suggestions?

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Mark Young
Director of Technology
Santa Rita Union School District
831-443-7200 x 213
www.santaritaschools.org

[Randy Damewood]

It seems like that all https traffic has been. Can you get to any other https sites like a bank?
>>> Mark Young <myo...@santaritaschools.org> 5/10/2012 11:25 AM >>>

Randy Damewood
Technology Director
Coffee County Schools
Direct Number- 931-222-1055
Central Office - 931-723-5150
Fax - 931-723-5195
Cell - 931-273-9299

[Joel Lowsky]

Hi Mark,

I use the hosts files on student-accessible computers to permanently block Facebook and Twitter ... it can be used to block Youtube or anything else.  This solution lives at the machine level, so I don't have to mess with the network.

This implies, of course, that you need soft or hard access to each machine.  If you are using Macs, you can use ARD to push out the adjusted hosts file.  I'm sure there's a way to do it on PCs too.  But if you're in a BYOD environment, this method probably won't work for you, unless you can still get your hands on each machine.

Another method is an internal proxy server that routes requests to FB and YT to some other site, like your school's home page.  You'd still need to access each machine to configure the proxy settings.

Bear in mind that students can always get onto FB via online proxy servers, and I have never encountered a web filter that could keep up with the changing names/addresses of online proxy servers.

Joel

Joel Lowsky
Director of Technology
North Country School and Camp Treetops
(518) 523-9329, ext. 5406
4382 Cascade Road
Lake Placid, NY, 12946
www.ncstreetops.org

[Wayne Stagnaro (MTV 08)]

I am curious what browsers are being used out there. Many of you have heard this before, but my CTO will ONLY allow IE as the district standard. We are currently running IE8 as the standard. He will not entertain another browser unless our main systems ( financial, data, SIS, purchasing) were to state that IE is not supported any longer.

Our position is offering an alternative to IE like Chrome which our data(chrome is preferred browser), student info systems(chrome is preferred over firefox), and of course, Google Apps does not play well in IE. He brings up issues of training, issues with people trying financial in chrome and it doesn't work, etc. We counter with people just don't use IE at home. In fact, I never use it unless I am working in our SIS. He just doesn't get it!

I am curious what browsers districts are using and what, if any, security concerns districts, IT directors, or CTOs have with Chrome. We are trying to continue to move forward with GAFE roll out for next year and trying to beat back the roadblocks we encounter. We are currently testing filters and we thought it would be a great time to test an alternate browser too.

Even if you just respond with a quick email with the browsers your district provides, that info would be a huge help! Any security concerns would be a plus.

Thanks!

Wayne
Mountain View, Ca 2008

Sent from my newly outdated iPad 2 after Apple's recent announcement with lots of errors since my daughter dropped it.

[Sharon Eilts]

Huh. We use whatever we want. I have Firefox and Safari. My computer is too old for Chrome. Used to do IE when it had a Mac version.

Sharon

Sent from my iPad

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[Jon Corippo]

We use everything under the sun.

If the limited-ability DO folks want to live in IE, so be it. Some even "need" to get their gmail via Outlook, so, ugh, fine.

The DO has nothing, I repeat, nothing to do with education, so their needs do not limit a classroom teacher or student.

No deaths or dismemberment so far.

Jon Corippo
IT Director, Chawanakee Unified

Charter Director, Minarets Charter HS
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On May 28, 2012, at 2:42 PM, "Wayne Stagnaro (MTV 08)" <wsta...@gmail.com> wrote:

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<br />

[Ed Gonzales]

We use them all but only support our sis in IE because that's what
they support. Firefox handles scripting better so we started
recommending that for our grade book. But our users are not local
admin so they just can't install whatever they want. We are switching
to GAFE next year and it will be hard to avoid chrome since GAFE
recommends it.

[Sean Eisner]

I would say that most of our users use Firefox, although some of our users use Chrome and Safari. Our DO folks use a mix of IE8&9, Firefox, and Chrome, but mostly the latter due to IE not working very well with GAFE. I use all three so I can be comfortable with what is out in the wild.

IE plays much better with GPO policies and can be more easily locked down, if need be, globally. That being said, I don't think it's as big a deal as it was last decade.

With the add-ons and such available for Firefox and Chrome and the fact that they are just faster, more user-friendly browsers, it makes sense to open the mind and explore what 'the rest of the world' plays with. :)

Sean

[Bradley Chambers]

I give folks the option of Safari, Chrome, and FF. Our SIS only works
in FF on Mac.

Bradley Chambers

Sent from my iPad

[Jimmy Anderson]

We're an Apple district, so our browser of choice (and the one that the IT department supports) is Safari.

We also load Firefox, Chrome and Opera on every machine that goes to a student or teacher or admin. The IT department doesn't really care what they use, and my boss backs me up on that.

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[Curts, Eric]

Chrome is the default web browser for our school district.  It is fast, secure, updates automatically, is standards-compliant, and works great with Google Apps.

If someone needs IE for some special site that only works with IE, we encourage them to use the Chrome extension "IE Tab" which will load IE right inside of Chrome and can even be configured to launch IE Tab automatically for certain sites so they do not even have to make a choice.

We are a Google Apps district, so IE is not a good choice for us.  Docs loads significantly slower in IE and the Gmail screen does not format correctly in IE.  For those schools like us who still have loads of Windows XP in our schools, we cannot update to IE9 even if we wanted, so we would have to use IE8 in which these incompatibilities are more pronounced.

Also, Chrome continues to grow in popularity world-wide as indicated by the browser stats.  It has now become the most widely used browser in the world: See http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/21/3033566/chrome-most-popular-browser-weekly-may-2012

Eric

* Eric Curts

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[Ed Crist]

We use IE9, Chrome, and Firefox.  As the head of tech, it really doesn’t matter to me at all.

 

Our internet filter logs ALL website hits and has great reporting tools and alerts as I need them for internet useage.

 

 

Edward Crist

Technology Manager

City Charter High School

 

OUR NEW LOCATION!!!

 

201 Stanwix Street

Pittsburgh, PA 15222

Main office - 412.690.2489

Fax - 412.690.2316

Skype - ejcrist

MCP - MCSA – MCSE

 

[Anne]

We finally have ff,ie and chrome on our computers. IE does not play well with google apps and you can no longer function in an entirely IE world unless you deal only with that world. I find that the tech directors just don't want to give up their control. To keep growing, we have to get past that mindset.

[Ed Gonzales]

I can understand just supporting one browser that is supported by some
program you have to use. But if a user wants a different browser then
let them. But if the program don't work in another browser tell them
to use the supported one. I know I don't have time to trouble shoot
browser problems when I know it will work in IE or Firefox.

On May 29, 2012, at 2:42 PM, Anne <anned...@gmail.com> wrote:

> We finally have ff,ie and chrome on our computers. IE does not play well with google apps and you can no longer function in an entirely IE world unless you deal only with that world. I find that the tech directors just don't want to give up their control. To keep growing, we have to get past that mindset.
>

[Wayne Stagnaro (MTV 08)]

Thanks Jayme!

I appreciate the info. Since there is no Mac version of IE since like IE5 that is a good way to avoid it. We are solely a PC district.

Sent from my newly outdated iPad 2 after Apple's recent announcement

On May 28, 2012, at 2:50 PM, Jayme Johnson <jaymelin...@gmail.com> wrote:

> We are a mac school - we provide Safari, Firefox, and Chrome. It is up to the students to decide which they prefer to use.
> Jayme
>
>
>

[Wayne Stagnaro (MTV 08)]

Lucky! Thanks Sharon! Been a while since there was an IE version on Mac. That is way out if the question currently though.

Sent from my newly outdated iPad 2 after Apple's recent announcement

[Wayne Stagnaro (MTV 08)]

Thanks buddy! I appreciate the info Jon. Different worlds for sure, but I keep pushing for the betterment of the classroom experience and to put useful collaborative tools in the hands of kids and teachers.

See you soon.

Sent from my newly outdated iPad 2 after Apple's recent announcement

[Wayne Stagnaro (MTV 08)]

Thanks Ed! Where are you located? Just curious. That is our desired approach too, with the IE and SIS but they are slow coming to the table with it. They have blessed GAFE but are halfheartedly supporting.

Wayne

Sent from my newly outdated iPad 2 after Apple's recent announcement

[Ed Gonzales]

I am in Eldorado Hills Ca. We are excited to switch to GAFE this
summer. And I am excited to turn off my aging exchange server. I just
loaded IE9, Chrome and Firefox on our new image for the new laptops
for next year.



On May 30, 2012, at 5:40 PM, "Wayne Stagnaro (MTV 08)"

[Wayne Stagnaro (MTV 08)]

Thanks again Ed! Switching off exchange is way out in the distance and not even on the horizon for us. Our CTO has no interest in that at all currently.

That is great! Congratulations on the switch to GAFE and providing options for your staff and students.

Wayne

Sent from my newly outdated iPad 2 after Apple's recent announcement

[Andrew T Schwab]

Chrome will install in a local user profile without admin rights unless they just plain up block the executable in Group Policy. But that would just be mean.

Refreshingly, my new district runs Firefox in addition to IE because it works better with the new SIS (Infinite Campus). We will be installing Chrome when we update the base images this summer. Macs are running Safari.

Maybe you can get them to install Chrome Frame in IE? https://developers.google.com/chrome/chrome-frame/

Say hi to your CTO for me.

andrew

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[Bjorn Behrendt]

If you install chrome make sure to use the buisness msi version because it installs for all users: http://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/business/

There is also an adm template that you can use inside group policy to manage Chrome: http://support.google.com/installer/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=146164#Obtaining_the_Administrative_Tem

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[Curts, Eric]

We use the policy template with Chrome to mange lots of thing such as homepage, extensions, plugin behavior, what gets saved, etc.  You can see a list of the Chrome policy settings we use in this Google Doc:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XtRqy4tK5-h2hefG4VdP0GpndDpSy40EBulCNfl5VWo/edit

Also, we go a step further and automatically refresh the policy on all our non-domain computers each time they boot up through a local logon script, so we have basically created our version of the "Poor Man's Chromebooks".

Eric

* Eric Curts

* Technology Director, North Canton City Schools

* 525 - 7th St NE, North Canton, OH 44720

* te...@northcantonschools.org

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