Does the barbed wire on your school's firewall face in or out?

I am in the IT field. Before you stop reading, my IT is the good kind. Instructional Technology. The other kind…the more common kind…Information Technology is the necessary evil for my job. We exist in a sort of an intertwined Ying & Yang of technology...except most of the time there is no balance. The Ying of information technology overwhelms the Yang of instructional technology. More often than naught I see IT departments locking systems to a point that the barbed wire on the networks faces in, not out. I envision the sad avatars of teachers & students clinging to fences topped with razor wire trying to peek at what lies on the outside...beyond the all encompassing firewall.

Why? Why do they do this? I think nefarious reasons are part of it for some of them...power and control. But I believe most the time they are managed by people that just don't understand technology. If my job is to ensure network security and there is no oversight, I am going to lock everything down. So who is to blame? Leadership. I see it in schools a LOT. Leader doesn't understand technology so relies on IT Director for all recommendations. The result is a technology system that resembles NSA level security. So unless your school requires Top Secret security clearance, you might want to ask some questions (of your leadership, as IT will most likely say 'no').

1: Issue: Social Media is blocked.

IT answer: time waster, clogs bandwidth, student safety concerns, and of course, network security

It is frustrating to travel to schools and see powerful learning tools like YouTube, Twitter, and even TeacherTube blocked! Of my beefs with IT, this one is in my opinion, is the only valid one they have for doing what they do...to a point. There are mean & nasty things out on the Internet...and we need to protect kids. Also, in schools with limited bandwidth, opening YouTube and other bandwidth-heavy sites can knock network speeds to a crawl. The answer, however, is not locking everything. Remember, most IT Departments will do what is easiest for them, not what is best for you.

Compromise: If your IT (Information Technology) is also your Instructional Technology...yikes. Instructional Technology should always be the driver and at the least have some input. If your instructional technology/C&I departments don't have input you might as well stop reading here and wait for next week's article on working around an obtuse IT Department. If you DO have some input...easy fix. EVERY Internet-capable device has what is called a MAC Address (no, not Apple). This is a unique number to just that one piece of hardware. On a closed network, teacher computers can be opened up! Imagine that...being able to use the tools your students use in the actual classroom! If a teacher can't be trusted to use the Internet in a responsible manner in the classroom, then there is a bigger issue here than access.

2: Issue Off-Campus Network Access

IT Answer: network security

After 9/11 airports & airlines would use 'it's a security issue, Sir' when they would tell me to comply with something that they could not answer with a set policy or procedure...it was a catch-all phrase that was meant to intimidate into compliance. The same is true with IT. Ask any question that they don't have a good answer for...or that they don't want to answer since it weakens their case and you will most likely hear, 'No way! That will comprise the network!' Really? Ask them specifics sometime and wait for the sputtering. The term 'information technology' has always bugged me for IT, too. Most are not information managers...experts in information management systems, but just network & hardware people. Hanging a hard drive off a server in 2014 is NOT information management...it is a shared hard drive (congratulations on your 1995 technology achievement). Teachers want to access information off campus. Period. Secure technologies...many that are free (like Google Education) have been around for a long, long time. Making a teacher sit in their classroom to upload grades, lesson plans, etc is ridiculous.

Compromise: There probably isn't a compromise for schools with leaders weak in technology and a dominant IT Department. Chances are if there are still site-based servers running your website, email, document storage, etc., your leadership doesn't know a whole lot about tech, and your IT Department is very good at maintaining job security. If this isn't the case, a migration to a cloud-based system might be possible. Google Education has been the bane of many bloated and controlling IT Departments that soon found many of their positions irrelevant.

3: Issue: No BYOD on the School Network

IT Answer: network security

Bring Your Own Device. Something that is quite common in the business world, but not so much in education. I know that my personal laptop was always WAY better than any school issued computer…plus, it has all my stuff and I am comfortable with it. Plus, add to that tablets, smart phones and other network devices that teachers have (and use)…why block these? Student data, organizational data, etc. are all important and for much of it there are legal considerations...but...wait for it...yes, it can be managed. I am not talking about access to financials, etc., but just allowing a computer on the dang network! That is what wearing the big boy or girl pants of being a network administrator should be about…giving safe access, not restricting it.

Compromise: If I am a teacher with some giant, ancient desktop anchored to my desk and I have some sleek new HP Tablet or MacBook Air...what do I want to use? What am I going to be productive with? Again, this is not working in a secure government agency...so this is just a pure power & control move on IT. If they can't secure the network by providing different channels to allow even 'guest' access, I would question the reasoning (& their competence).

The following paints IT in a rather bad light...and that has (unfortunately) been my experience . This is quite natural as the two ITs are like Window & Mac, Bears & Packers, Elves & Dwarves...not likely to see eye-to-eye. If you have a great IT Department in your school, count yourself lucky! (...just guessing you are an Apple or Google district) If not, take action! There are constructive ways to approach leadership around this...drafting a document with your colleagues on how the pros outweigh the cons. How does NOT doing what you need done impact student learning or business operations? Chances are the leadership just has never heard another side. However, if they dig in...no problem. Stand by for next week's article on IT workarounds...how to tunnel under the barbed wire to get out to the big wide world of information & resources.