How important has it become in your school to have the ability to monitor student, teacher and administrator activity while using computer systems? 

In the past, knowing that there were problems brewing in school was as simple as walking the halls to notice students fighting, bullying or simply planning mischief. In today’s technology-driven world, that has dramatically changed. Computers are available to nearly every student at home as well as in the school library or computer labs. Computers are necessary to prepare our youth for the real world, which uses computer systems in nearly every aspect of industry, from diagnosing problems in our automobiles to managing our bank accounts. 

Students use computers while in school in a variety of ways. They research their term papers, write stories for English or look up that illness discussed in health class. They even use web sites on the Internet to translate words for their foreign language class. 

With the wide-spread availability of computers also comes concerns of misuse, even abuse. Schools have created a policy for acceptable use of computer resources. Even legislation, CIPA, the Children’s Internet Protection Act, was created in an attempt to encourage schools to prevent student access to “harmful” and “dangerous” resources. How does a school monitor student, teacher and employee cyber activity?  There is more to it than just watching access to the Internet. As a teacher or principal, have you ever walked past a student on a school computer and noticed that he or she quickly minimizes or closes the window or program they were looking at? What was the student doing to cause this quick action as you approached? How can a school proactively monitor undesirable activities such as child enticement, access to pornography or simply abuse of the school's acceptable use policy? What about students communicating about bombs or students changing grades using an administrative or teacher password? What about discussions regarding bringing guns to school using email, instant messenger or some other computer based means?  How does a school walk these CyberHalls?

As I noted, in the pre-computer days you could walk the halls to see problem activity and often know when inappropriate activity was occurring. Now that a lot of student activity has moved to the computer, how do you “walk the CyberHalls?” Is there a way to track activity of inappropriate student cyber behavior in order to support sanctions or capture the illegal activity by a school official (principal, superintendent or teacher) to provide forensic proof to support immediate actions?  Actions might be a warning or a termination and could even lead to criminal action. The potential liability associated with letting activities continue without taking action can be significant. Even beyond the liability, some activities themselves could be disastrous (bombs, guns or child pornography).

A company in La Crosse, Wisconsin called Sergeant Laboratories has created a solution for “Walking the CyberHalls” named Aristotle Academic™. Aristotle Academic™ allows a school to teach appropriate computer use. It frees technicians or school administration from being the “thought police.” It provides no more guessing about the usage of lab computers and software. Aristotle Academics™ can provide notification of planning activities before the bomb threat, track teacher or student email/chat room harassment, even intercept suicide discussions or plans to run away from home. It can do this all with real-time notification. Custom tailored “security events” when triggered, can be routed to the personnel responsible such as: lab monitors, district administration or technical school coordinators. The comprehensive reporting allows school board members to understand district computer use and demonstrate computer usage costs during budgeting cycles. Aristotle Academic™ also gives you the ability to see everything that is done on your computers, down to the keystroke. Through the use of custom security events based on key words which you define, you will be alerted when an incident occurs. If you suspect past inappropriate behavior, simply search for keywords or events and you will have the forensic quality data you need at your fingertips, thanks to Aristotle Academic’s™ DataVault™.

I’d like to study briefly a couple real life cases where Aristotle Academic™ helped a school in very powerful ways. The following Case Studies are based on real incidents, but the specific details described have been modified to protect the privacy of the actual event.

[Case Study #1: "Suicide in Your School"]
[Case Study #2: "Guns in the Building"]
[Case Study #3: "Benefits for Administration"]

To summarize, these cases are but a few examples of the situations that Aristotle Academic™ has been involved in. From saving lives and preventing school tragedies to helping manage the computing environment and ensure that acceptable use policy is being followed. More and more schools are finding a need to have the ability to track the use of computer systems.  This ability can help you answer questions from the community on how the limited budget is being spent and how much educational value is being gained from the proper use of new technology and applications.