Wi-Fi access now open to students

 

It’s here. Wi-Fi, accessible to students, staff, and parents/guardians, has arrived at CVHS. The new accessibility is due to the updated CVUSD Technology Plan.

The primary goals of the technology plan is to define the near-term improvements that the district will make to its schools. CVUSD is trying to deliver a fast, reliable network that will meet the classroom standard for technology. If this plan is successful then it will result in a robust technology environment that will support every student having a wireless network connected device (find more information at vsenn.com).

Before, CVUSD would block wireless Internet access because of concern over the students using the network inappropriately.

History teacher Jeff Goldstein thinks the new rules will be an improvement over the previous standards.

“Before, the district blocked everything on the web to students because they might use the Internet inappropriately. It’s like fearing that students might say something inappropriate in class, so we put duct tape over their mouths to prevent that. We don’t do that, and our current policy doesn’t do that with the Internet. It allows for open access, and teachers can discipline students who use the Internet inappropriately just as they would is a student uses inappropriate speech.”

CVUSD is allowing students to access the Internet, but with restrictions. Everything is unlocked except for sites containing pornography and violence.

Out of class the students may use the Wi-Fi to access social media or other websites. Now you can use the school Wi-Fi to access the internet instead of your data plan, your social media is easier to access now on campus while outside of the classroom.

In order to make the internet accessible to the students, CVUSD had to expand the bandwidth of the server. A way of thinking about bandwidth is comparing it to a pipe; before, it was a small pipe accessible to only the staff of CVHS, but now, the school board is expanding this pipe so that students, staff and guests can easily have access to the school Internet.

“I like how you can use your student ID and password, that’s convenient,” said senior Siby Samuel.

Over the next two to ten years, the school will experience a change in the landscape of the technology-enabled classroom. Some of the forces behind this change are computer adaptive assessments, online classrooms, and digital textbooks. The schools infrastructure must be capable of handling 10,000 Internet enabled devices. These may be tablets, desktops or cell phones  carried by staff, students, parents/ guardians, or other guests on the CVHS campus.

The student login is similar to that of the Chromebook. The network name is your identification number followed by @cv.k12.ca.us, and your password is the password you have chosen when creating the account. How parents will access the Internet has not yet been revealed.