Unit 4 M2

Legal

EffectivenessData Protection Act 1998The Howard school holds information on all of the students in the school so therefore they ensure that the information is only accessed when it is required. To make sure of this all of the information is kept on a third party site called e-portal, this allows staff to access certain information such as attendance records and student timetables so that they can notify the student. There are also contact details kept which may be used to phone the student’s parents and this is the only time it will be accessed. As well as the information being kept in one place the staff have logins that they have to use to access the database, this does not mean that they are all the same. The staff logins also have information for the staff such as teaching timetables and every staff account holds information on that staff member and can only be accessed by them.

ImprovementsData Protection Act 1998To follow the Act better the school could keep the information on a domain owned by them, this would be difficult to do but it would ensure protection as in the past large companies have tampered with information. The NOTW was found to be hacking phones and was one of the largest newspapers. Another thing the school can do is keep a backup of the information which could only be accessed if e-portal was to go down, this would help keep access available.

Areas of good practiceData Protection Act 1998There are good things about using third party sites to store information, there are first of all no costs for domain names and this would save the school money, this also saves the trouble of encoding password access scripts and login databases into the site which may not be cheap. On a third party site there is a chance of it being hacked but the chance is lower than if the information was on a site owned by the school. Another good thing is that the information is clearly presented in the same template layout for each student page, this means the information is easy to find as it is in the same place as other student pages.

Ethical

EffectivenessUse of emailAt the school the use of email is restricted, the staff are able to have their own personal emails and use them but they cannot be used for school business. This means that the staff cannot send something such as an email to the parents of a student about the student. If they are found to be doing this they can be punished. This also means that staff cannot use the school email addresses for personal use such as sending a

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Unit 4 M2

message to a friend. The school email system is monitored and therefore they will be seen.InternetThe internet at the school is effective; to access it even from a personal computer a login has to be entered. As well as this security of only allowing students and teachers to gain access there is also limitations on student accounts as to what websites they can access. This means they cannot access sites such as Facebook or YouTube during school hours.

ImprovementsUse of emailTo improve the use of email the school could use something such as Gmail; this system allows the use of more than one email address so you can choose which email address to send from. This would make it easier to send personal and school emails without being logged on to two email systems at the same time. The school could also have their own emails this way as Gmail allows domain name emails; if the school owns the domain and can prove it then they can have the site name at the end of an email. For example the site is www.thehowardschool.co.uk therefore the email will be someone@thehowardschool.co.uk. InternetThe internet system at the school can be improved, many Wi-Fi devices such as smartphones and iPods can access the modem with the password but no login appears, this prevents any access to the internet on them and therefore can make things difficult. There should also be more access allowed, many sites are banned when they don’t need to be such as YouTube, some students may abuse it but others do not. All bans on student accounts are the same; it would be useful to allow access to more sites for the more hardworking students.

Areas of good practiceUse of emailWhat is good about the email system is that the teachers can safely contact students without breaking any laws, so this allows the teachers to send out homework reminders and the students to send back word documents of the homework. The reason why this works is because it is monitored. Another good thing is that the school email system also has the domain name at the end; this means that if parents are emailed they can quickly recognise what the email is about and who it’s from. InternetThe internet does have good parts of it; the limited access means that students cannot access anything that is either illegal or harmful to them. Sites that aren’t illegal or harmful are usually banned for other reasons as well. Some sites such as flash games are timewasters and are usually accessed instead of work being done, this also applies to YouTube. Although it is a limitation, the fact that smartphones and iPods cannot access the internet is a good thing; this can prevent students from cheating on exams by using electrical devices.

Operational

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EffectivenessSecurity of informationMembers of staff have secure access to the email database which they can use to send school emails, this allows the recipient to know who the email is from and it also allows there to be a backup copy of the email as the systems are monitored. There is also a system used called e-portal, this allows staff to access information the classes that they are teaching and the individual students they need to access information on. The information is kept secure on the servers which are kept behind locked doors to ensure that no one can tamper with them.BackupsRegular backups are made each night on the servers in the school, this is done securely, there are different servers for the staff and student access; teacher and student shared area. The backups are made offsite so that no one knows and tampers with them while they are being backed. The hard drives that contain the backed up data are kept in a separate room to the servers. Health and SafetyThe school currently follows policies such as the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. This means that the school workstations only have the equipment that they require; computer monitor, keyboard, mouse, tower, printer, projector, etc. Each staff member has to complete training exercises such as fire awareness and evacuation training. There are also things such as risk assessments which may be useful for subjects such as science. The fire doors are clearly labelled and there are set rally points for year groups. CostsThere are certain costs that are made by the school to make sure that they are up to date with the evolving technology. Schools previously used things such as whiteboards and blackboards which these days are not used as much; smart boards and projectors are preferred. New computers and projectors have to be purchased to make sure this is done.

ImprovementsSecurity of informationThere is room for improvements for security, there are much more ways of being able to do things. Staff could forget their passwords or another person could find out what it is. One of the things that the school can do is make it so that the e-portal system can only be accessed from the schools IP address which would mean the person would have to be connected to the school Wi-Fi. There are also other things that can be used such as fingerprint sensors, face recognition, speech recognition which would also prevent other non-staff members gaining access.BackupsThe backup procedure can be improved; the backups could be done more than once and in more than one location. There are online storage facilities which would be useful for storing the most important data, it may take time but it means if the backup and server were tampered with the information can still be recovered. The information should also be backed up onsite as this means the backup can be monitored whereas when backed up offsite there are not many people that know what happens. Health and SafetyThe Health and Safety can be improved, first of all a list of all the equipment needed can be at each workstation so that only that equipment is there. It would also be useful

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to have regular training exercises as well as it would increase safety. Some of the training is done during school days so it could be beneficial to carry out the training during weekends and holidays instead. CostsThere can be some improvements to costs; there are many things that can be changed such as computer programs. There are many free programs available to carry out work in the same way that professional expensive programs can do. For example Sweet Home 3D is a free CAD program which is a better alternative to other programs. There can also be more necessary costs such as improvements to school facilities; compared to competitor schools it lacks things such as up to date computers and smart boards.

Areas of good practiceSecurity of informationCurrently the good thing about the security system is that the passwords are different. This means that if for example the staff members school login details were lost, if someone was to access the login they would not be able to also access the email system or the e-portal system. Another good thing is that the servers are kept out of the way and behind locked doors meaning no one can tamper with it and they are also backed up every night. BackupsThe good thing about the backups is that the information can be recovered if the server was to go down, therefore because nightly regular backups are made the school can be confident that there would not be a huge setback. The good thing about no one knowing when the servers are going to be backed up allows them to be backed up safely without any worry. Health and SafetyThe good thing about regular training is that the performance in the actual real life situations is increased and this means that the students and the staff members are safer. The good thing about there being different types of training allows staff to focus on specific situations rather than a generalised training type and this also increases the performance in the real situation.CostsThe good things about the costs is that the school currently focuses on the costs for the subjects with a large variety of subjects to choose from, this is important as the subjects are the reason for school. Another good thing is that the school uses projectors, an easy way to teach and they do not need to use smart boards with them. The computers also have the standard programs needed to complete work.

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