The Microsoft K-12 Connection 

October 1997

1. Connected Learning Community    http://www.microsoft.com/education/k12/clc.asp 

•	“Return Through the Looking Glass: Developing Business Partnerships in K-12 Schools.” In this article, part of a series about Greynolds Park Elementary School in Miami, Florida, you will learn about the school’s successful strategy for obtaining financial support amid a climate of shrinking state and district funding. Within five years, Greynolds Park, an extremely overcrowded, underfunded urban school, was transformed into a model technology school. 

•	“Who’s Driving the Technology in K–12 Education?” This is the second of two articles detailing the problems that Lomira School District in rural Wisconsin has had in implementing technology in their classrooms and curriculum. 

2. Network/Desktop Operating Systems   http://www.microsoft.com/education/k12/desk_net.asp  

•	“Making Network Computing Work in an Educational Environment (Without Breaking the Budget!)” Microsoft® Windows NT® Server is a dramatic success, and that success continues to benefit education in many ways, especially in the area of cost management. Because Windows NT Server lowers the total cost of managing and maintaining a distributed network, it’s the ideal choice for educators concerned with both performance and price. 

3. Internet/Intranet  http://www.microsoft.com/education/k12/int.asp 

•	“Internet Security and Microsoft Proxy Server” With Microsoft Proxy Server, you can build an electronic firewall that protects your school or district from hackers, and you can take advantage of some surprising added benefits. 

4. Classroom Corner   http://www.microsoft.com/education/k12/cc.asp 

“Bringing It All Together.” So you have computers in the classroom. . . now what? The Microsoft K–12 Connection recently interviewed two award-winning teachers who have been recognized for their creativity and skill in integrating technology into their curriculums. 

1. Return Through the Looking Glass: Developing Business Partnerships in K-12 Schools 

By Joan Kuperstein 

“Can you do Addition?” the White Queen asked. “What’s one and one and one and one and one and one and one?”

 “I don’t know,” said Alice. “I lost count.” 

 “She can’t do Addition,” the Red Queen interrupted. “Can you do Subtraction? Take nine from eight.”

“Nine from eight I can’t you know,” Alice replied very readily, “but—” 

“She can’t do Subtraction,” said the White Queen. “Can you do Division? Divide a loaf by a knife. What’s the answer to that?”

“I suppose,” Alice was beginning, but the Red Queen answered for her. “Bread and butter, of course.” 

—From Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass 

Our schools operate in the real world, but many of us are often asked to perform operations that would only work in Alice’s “Wonderland,” such as making technology programs materialize from negative budgets. 

In reality, budget shortfalls and cutbacks have forced schools to explore three avenues for funding, namely, corporate and local business partnerships, school-based programs based on volunteerism, and public and private grants. My intention in this article is to share with you some of the techniques we used to develop business partnerships at Greynolds Park Elementary School. 

Allies from the Business World
Partnerships are a good way for (what I call) “alien” institutions—schools and businesses—to get to know each other as they establish mutually beneficial relationships. As our school searched for partners in the business world, we found we had something important to offer to the companies that we turned to for help. Many large businesses and corporations are particularly conscious of their public image as cold and unapproachable and long to build a relationship with a community institution, such as a school, that can change that perception. Allowing these business people to link hands with us, to feel a sense of ownership in education at Greynolds Park, was something valuable that we could offer in return for financial assistance. 

At Greynolds Park, school-business alliances typically begin with a company adopting a school program under which company employees volunteer as mentors or tutors. Generally, businesses or corporations prefer to sponsor the purchase of a specific item or underwrite a specific program so that they can receive some public recognition of their contribution. We made a special point of developing partnership projects that took this need into consideration. 

Parents and Businesses Join Hands
Presently, over 50 businesses throughout the local community are participating in the Greynolds Park Academic Achievement Program. Our business partners seek to improve academic performance by sending a message to students that working hard in school brings rewards in the real world. Students provide the achievement, and businesses provide rewards in the form of goods and services.

A gold achievement emblem is printed on the report cards of students who earn a 4.0 grade point average (GPA). Silver achievement emblems are printed on the report cards of students who earn a 3.5 to 3.9 GPA and on the report cards of those students who raise their GPA by 1.0. In addition to the emblem recognition, the students also receive a discount booklet listing all of the participating businesses and their “reward offers.”  Participating businesses offer discounts that range from 10 percent to 20 percent. By extending the student discounts to parents, some businesses also recognize the efforts of the family in helping students to achieve. 

All of the participants in this effort are winners. Businesses receive signs to place in their windows showing that they support a local school—a wise strategy for building good community relations. Greynolds Park sees increased effort and academic achievement by the students. Parents reap rewards of savings and cash dividends for their efforts in assisting students to achieve. Finally, the biggest reward of all goes to the students who quickly recognize that Hard Work + Good Grades = Rewards. At Greynolds, we are hopeful that students will transfer this lesson to life, recognizing that putting forth a wholehearted effort will result in achieving lifelong goals. 

Jumping on the Bandwagon
One of the first businesses to jump on the Greynolds Park bandwagon was the neighborhood McDonald’s. In a letter supporting the school’s efforts to receive state challenge grant funds, Adolph Arabitg, McDonald’s store manager, describes his business partnership with the school: 

For the past several years, McDonald’s and Greynolds Park have enjoyed an outstanding partnership. Activities have included school administrators cooking for the students and their families when students met challenges such as reading competitions or super school attendance. Store employees have served as chaperones on special school field trips. On Family Nights, a percentage of sales was donated to the school. We are very excited about the school’s new technology program that lets kids use laptop computers while on special trips. It’s hard to believe that we have come to the point where 1- and 12-year-old children work with store employees who will help them understand what it takes to do a good job. Having the kids take notes and keep journals on their computers will deliver a lasting message on how to act in the real world—what it takes to get a job and keep a job. Greynolds Park is preparing children to enter the workplace, and McDonald’s is proud to be a part of it. 
	
McDonald’s is within walking distance of the school, and the company has assumed a primary sponsor role at Greynolds Park. With McDonald’s as well as other businesses, the following rules of thumb helped us in building strong relationships: 

•	Make contact personal, one-to-one. We contacted Adolph Arabitg nearly five years ago. After personal visits, we established a sense of trust. Often, we extended invitations to school events and to various special meetings to include him and his restaurant in decision making.
•	Keep requests small in the beginning. We volunteered to have students provide artwork for Mr. Arabitg’s store, and we asked for complimentary beverages with the purchase of other food. Also, we bought in bulk; that is, we often descended upon the restaurant in groups of 20 or more. 
•	Offer to bring publicity or good public relations to the business (press releases, press coverage, advertisements). Whenever McDonald’s sponsored an event at school, their logo was present. At public events, we formally recognized Mr. Arabitg and his employees who graciously donated their time, food and gifts. 
•	Allow the business to sponsor something specific. We had a Greynolds Park Parents Breakfast before school. The restaurant donated all of the beverages and a percentage of the food. 
•	Try to pair and match businesses. We found that McDonald’s and Coca Cola were already natural business partners and that local Coca-Cola vendors were willing to contribute various items because of  their connection with this particular McDonald’s. 
•	Be persistent without being rude.  Touch base with your partners frequently. Don’t just call when you need a favor—let them know they’re on your mind by sending school newsletters, holiday greetings, and samples of student work. Invite your partners to participate in special school events and meetings. Our partners went to great lengths to fulfill our requests, but we were always cautious to create situations that were mutually beneficial.

In a fairly short time, word spread that Greynolds Park welcomed and openly solicited partnerships with local businesses.  As the number of partners grew, the involvement grew deeper and the range of activities broader. We learned that each partnership has different needs. With McDonald’s, we offered increased recognition in the local community; however, for The Net Digital Services, the company that connected Greynolds Park to the Internet, we provided credit on our Web site and referrals to other schools who paid The Net Digital for the same services they donated to Greynolds Park. As an added bonus, the outstanding Web site created by The Net Digital has been a key factor in drawing additional business partners to the school. 

Ron Vigdor, owner of The Net Digital Services, affirms that the partnership is a win/win situation: “At the time we started helping Greynolds Park, we thought a small Web site would suffice for the school. But because of Joan’s persistence, we helped create a self-sufficient site and installed an ISDN connection for the school. It has been a great pleasure working with Greynolds Park, and we look forward to growing along with them. Being involved in the community and supporting schools is our way of helping a community that supports us.” 

Bringing the Outside In
“You can’t accomplish anything worthwhile without the help of other people.”
—H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Whether you use old math or new math, the bottom line is always the same.  Schools don’t have the money to accomplish all that they’d like to. Today’s educators need to reach out to parents, local businesses and civic organizations, corporations, and other agencies: the resulting partnerships are an essential element in bringing the outside in and breaking the isolation of schools. 

At times, we felt we were dealing with an insurmountable task, but through the efforts of a supportive administration and the personal investments of many dedicated teachers, we were able to improve the quality of education we give to our 1,404 students. 

Although schools do not have public relations agents, they must market themselves by showcasing their endeavors and talents: As public awareness increases, so do the partnerships. 

•	Next month: Creative financing ideas and tips on grant writing.
•	Last month: Generating support for change among parents and teachers at Greynolds Park.  See “Three Cheers for Change” at http://www.microsoft.com/education/k12/articles/clcsep97.asp.
•	May issue: How Greynolds Park raised money to fund the initial development of its infrastructure. See “Fundraising at a Florida Elementary,”  at http://www.microsoft.com/education/k12/articles/clcmay97.asp.

Resources:
•	You can reach Joan Kuperstein at castle@thenet.net or visit her Web site at http://www.thenet.net/~castle/ 
•	The Net Digital Services is a multifunctional Internet service provider (ISP) and Web site design company, available at http://www.thenet.net

About the author: Joan Kuperstein was employed as a grant writer and curriculum specialist at Greynolds Park Elementary through June 1997. Currently, she is working as a consultant to K–12 schools. “Time after time, I have seen successful technology programs result in improved student achievement. For the last four years my passion has been successfully developing and implementing technology plans at schools. Watching children utilize the new technologies to explore, to investigate, and to enter the discovery zone has made me recognize that technology is often the touch needed to push the gifted and talented “button” in our students; to help children understand that education is a journey, not a destination.”

© 1997. Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Who’s Driving the Technology in K–12 Education?

By Suzanne Sowinska

Every night, interrupting episodes of Dangerous Minds, The X-Files or Baywatch, teachers, students and parents see ads for the latest computer magic: Take a picture of yourself and send it to your boyfriend over the Internet, send e-mail to family members all over the country, learn to speak Spanish by talking to your computer. Next thing you know, those teachers, students, and parents come knocking on the schoolhouse door: How can I do that in my classroom? My mom’s computer can do that; can I do it in my class? Are my kids learning that in school?

If you’re on the technology committee or if you are the person designated to know something about computer technology at your school, what do you tell them? During Lomira’s awkward entrance into the age of connected learning communities, the answers were often defensive and went something like this: We don’t have the technology, but we’re getting it. Or, We have the hardware, but not the software. Or, We have the hardware and the software, but none of our teachers are trained in how to use them. 

Lomira School District is small, with just 1,100 students shared between the K–12 school in the village of Lomira (population 1,700) and an elementary school in the nearby town of Theresa. Currently, Lomira has a mixed hardware configuration with 60 Compaq Pentium-based computers, 120 PCs (mid-1980 IBM PCs), 40 Macintosh computers and 30 Apple IIes. Networked with Novell NetWare 4.11, the district has machines running MS-DOS®, Microsoft® Windows 3.11 and Windows® 95. Nowadays, five years into introducing computer technology, Lomira staff can respond with answers that are actually productive solutions—proving again that experience is the best teacher. 

Growing Pains
“Technology shouldn’t drive curriculum” has become a cliché for many K–12 educators. But what does this really mean? According to Andy Knowlton, a keyboarding and computer applications teacher at Lomira Junior High (and interim technology coordinator for the district), the biggest problem Lomira had during its growth years was “having the wrong driver behind the wheel.” Knowlton gives two examples of  how the district got off on the wrong foot: 

1.	Buying computers before staff development is in place. A pilot program testing the feasibility of school choice is currently underway in several cities in Wisconsin; not surprisingly, technology seems likely become an important factor for families making the decision about where to send their children. Anticipating this need, a progressive school board and superintendent bought equipment and set up three computer labs in Lomira. In at least one case, however, an instructor was using a high-end multimedia computer lab to teach MS-DOS–based programs. According to Knowlton, “Lomira was driven to buy the latest and greatest technology, but we didn’t realize teachers would also need to be trained in how to evaluate and use the software available for those systems.” 

2.	Focusing lesson plans on gaining software skills.  In the beginning, instruction in computer applications classes was concentrated on learning how to use software programs. Lesson plans, for example, taught how to use a spreadsheet or word processing program. Tests were skill-based. Knowlton explains that “these courses seemed empty and irrelevant to [computer-applications] teachers, especially when a new version of the software would make their lesson plans obsolete.” The software was the curriculum rather than being integrated into it.

Knowlton says that the district has definitely learned a few things from their mistakes and offers the following solutions:

Solution #1: Create a Vision Statement for Curriculum 

The biggest lesson Lomira learned is simply to take the time to develop a clear plan for implementing changes. In 1992, a planning committee representative of the school and local businesses went on a three-day retreat to develop a technology action plan. This year, Lomira hopes to develop a similar vision statement to guide curriculum development. In addition to covering nuts and bolts issues such as which applications teachers should be using in their classrooms, the plan will also address more philosophical questions such as What do we want our students to be learning?

Solution #2: Hire a Staff Development and Curriculum Specialist

Lomira is considering hiring someone to spearhead staff development and take charge of curriculum, but as always, the school budget will be the ultimate decision maker. Ideally, this specialist would evaluate software as well as demonstrate how to integrate lesson plans with computer technology. This year, says Knowlton, Lomira is offering an after-school program for teachers called the Technology Academy. The academy will offer training in how to select and use software, how to develop lesson plans that include a software component and how to integrate Internet distance education into existing courses. As an incentive, the program will offer credit hours applicable only within the district.

Solution #3: Develop an Integrated Curriculum

Lesson plans at Lomira are undergoing a radical shift now that Knowlton and others have begun to develop ideas for a more integrated curriculum. Among others, the following key changes are moving students and teachers much farther down the road toward a wiser use of technology in the classroom:

•	Practice good communication and teamwork when developing content. As the keyboarding and computer applications instructor, Knowlton now goes to other teachers first to find out what content he will use in his classes. This year, for example, an eighth-grade science teacher will be teaching a segment on air and water and the place of these elements in early Native American cultures. In Knowlton’s class, students will create a Web site and publish content, such as reviews of science articles, on the site.

•	Integrate software skills into educational content. The database skills that Knowlton wants his eighth-grade keyboarding students to learn include how to put information into a database, how to display and sort database information and how to print database reports. The accompanying curriculum, developed by the junior high English teacher, is called “The Futures Project.” In segments on medicine, transportation and housing, students will research and collect articles that they will enter into a database. Knowlton will then teach students how to find the information their classmates have entered, how to sort it into the categories they need and how to print reports—all based on content the students are providing for the English class.

•	Get connected to distance education programs. A short range goal (January 1998) will get Lomira High School connected to distance education programs so that they will have access to teaching and technology resources not readily available in their own district.

Lomira has come a long way in the last five years. The district has learned a great deal from its mistakes and is developing good plans for the future. Perhaps the most important lesson learned has been to be cautious about who’s driving when technology pushes curriculum into the slow lane.

Resources:
•	Last month: Problems/solutions to implementing technology at Lomira. See “Reality Bytes Back” at http://mscominternal/education/k12/articles/clc2sep97.asp.
•	Visit Lomira’s Web page at http://www.lomira.k12.wi.us.
•	Andy Knowlton can be reached at aknowlton@lomira.k12.wi.us.

About the author: Suzanne Sowinska, Ph.D., a university educator, technical writer and software consultant, can be reached at sowinska@oz.net.

© 1997 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
2. Making Network Computing Work in an Educational Environment (Without Breaking the Budget!)

By Annmarie Flynn Kelly

The relationship between price and performance is one of the most important issues for an administrator facing the challenge of what network operating system to invest in. A favorite phrase in the industry lately, “total cost of ownership,” or TCO, is meant to express this relationship. But how can the total cost of ownership be determined objectively and accurately? Microsoft relies on independent research companies to make this mystery clear, and all of the figures we’ll discuss were furnished by Business Research Group (BRG). To establish total cost of ownership, research companies survey customers to find out how much they originally spent on hardware and software, on software development and training, on the ongoing costs of upgrades and upkeep, and on the expense of downtime and other problems. Overall, BRG shows a 20 percent savings for Windows NT Server over a UNIX/NetWare environment. The study can be found at www.microsoft.com/ntserver/info/tcodl.htm. 

Since those in the educational field have distinct requirements, concerns and budgets, we will look into the ways in which Windows NT Server is becoming the obvious choice for delivering lower cost of ownership and a quality computing environment that will best serve administrators, educators and students.

The Advantages of the Integrated Operating System and Applications Platform
A large part of the success of Windows NT is due to its architecture as a multipurpose server operating system:  Windows NT provides file and print services, robust and scaleable application services, directory services, legacy host connectivity, and messaging, systems management, and Web publishing services. In other words, Windows NT Server is a complete networking solution. 

Unlike Windows NT Server, Novell NetWare is not a multipurpose operating system, but rather a network solution that runs on top of an operating system (inheriting all of the shortcomings and complexities of that operating system). Prior to Windows NT Server, many school districts relied on Novell NetWare on top of an applications platform, very commonly a UNIX variant. This was a costly model requiring the maintenance of two entirely separate infrastructures. Windows NT Server offers school districts the combination of the best of NetWare as a file and print server and the best of UNIX as an applications platform, in one integrated, comprehensive and easy to manage and maintain platform. 

The single solution approach to networking means that your network is truly 32-bit native, increasing speed, stability and compatibility. And no need to worry about your legacy system: Windows NT Server easily coexists with NetWare and Macintosh systems. The user interface is the same for all users: administrators, teachers and students. The benefits of a single platform are quickly becoming obvious to school districts that trade the old model for the new, and with great perks. 

A Success Story to Remember
The Kentucky Department of Education (KDE) is one educational institution that has chosen the newer, simplified, lower-cost system provided by Windows NT Server. In 1993, KDE began a major technology initiative to bring the benefits of technology to K-12 students throughout the state. The technical aspects of delivering this were challenging to say the least. The goal was building an infrastructure capable of supporting a homogeneous network of over 650,000 users—the largest planned network of its kind. That’s a computer account for every student in the state!

The initial design was created in 1993, and at the time, Novell NetWare 3.12 was the way to go. The NetWare system was intended to support primarily file and print services. Also, a single Microsoft Mail post office was to be housed on each server to enable e-mail functionality. Supplemental financial systems were placed on IBM RS6000 systems running the AIX operating system. But after two years of paying the huge costs involved in managing multiple networks and crushing network traffic, the Kentucky Department of Education began to look for new options.  

As a  result of the reevaluation, KDE decided that Windows NT Server coupled with Microsoft Exchange Server was the only server operating system available capable of delivering network services to every classroom in the state. This combination satisfied all file and print needs and all applications needs, and at a surprisingly lower cost.

David Couch, director of the Office of Education Technology at the Kentucky Department of Education comments, “Today, our network is running more efficiently and much more reliably than it ever has and at a cost that no other vendor could match. And, with the strategy that Microsoft has clearly defined, I am certain that Windows NT Server will continue to serve our needs well into the future.”

And the Winner is…
The success of the Kentucky Department of Education’s choice of Windows NT Server is obvious when you consider the study done by BRG. The results of the study emphatically show that Windows NT Server does indeed deliver lower total cost of ownership when compared to Novell NetWare used in conjunction with UNIX. 

Simpler Administration
While Microsoft has made great headway in lowering the total cost of ownership, it won’t rest its elbows on its mousepads yet. Currently, Microsoft is furthering its efforts through an enterprise called the Zero Administration Initiative for Windows (referred to as ZAW). ZAW is a core set of technologies that will give network professionals new levels of control and manageability over their Windows-based environment. All of the features of ZAW are part of the not-yet-released Windows NT version 5.0 and Windows® 98 operating systems. 

The ZAW initiative will give school network administrators greater levels of control by automating such tasks as operating system updates and application installation. ZAW will also provide more tools than ever for centralized administration and desktop lock-down, including the capability to hide devices such as the disk drive, hard disk and CD-ROM drive from users.

In effect, ZAW means zero administration because administrators now simply need to set policy from the server instead of having to go to each computer periodically and ensure that the user has not changed things beyond recognition. This ability to establish a central policy means that groups of users will have consistent, predictable hardware and software configurations, thereby removing the guesswork from technical support efforts. Since technical support is a large factor in the total cost of ownership (usually estimated at about 21 percent), ZAW will clearly save money.

Another feature ZAW employs is the Active Directory, the new directory service in Windows NT Server 5.0 whereby an application can store configuration information for users and for the application itself. This makes it possible for users to access their custom environment at any time, regardless of which physical machine they use to log on. This can be especially useful for students who move from classroom to classroom but still need access to their programs and desktops.

To help you start lowering your networking costs today, Microsoft has delivered the first component of ZAW, the Zero Administration Kit, or, you guessed it, ZAK. ZAK is focused on reducing end user operation costs on Windows NT Workstation 4.0 and Windows 95. These costs include wasted time due to self-induced system problems and unproductive activities. Examples of such problem behaviors fly to the minds of experienced educators: unintentionally deleting necessary system files from a hard drive (whoops! Um, Ms. Jones?); modifying the control panels or registries incorrectly; introducing incompatibles or viruses by installing new software (cool man!); “futzing around” with system settings like colors, backgrounds and desktop arrangement; and installing and using unnapproved software such as games.

ZAK requires Windows NT Server to run, but the documentation requires only Microsoft Word. For the documentation and the whole Zero Administration Kit, go to www.microsoft.com/windows/ZAK/getzak.htm.

Windows NT Server: The Smart Choice for Today’s Educators
Smart school districts are using Windows NT Server to make their education systems globally competitive through technology initiatives. They are choosing Windows NT Server and getting lower total cost of ownership and an increased return on investment as they bring the educational benefits of technology to their students.

Resources:
•	The BRG total cost of ownership study is available on the Microsoft Web site at www.microsoft.com/ntserver/info/tcodl.htm.
•	The Kentucky Department of Education’s case study is available on Microsoft’s Web site at www.microsoft.com/ntserver/info/kde.htm.
•	More information on ZAK, the first phase of ZAW, can be found at www.microsoft.com/windows/zak. 

About the author: Annmarie Flynn Kelly is a technical writer for IKON Office Solutions/ Technology Services/Valinor.

© 1997. Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
3. Internet Security and the Microsoft Proxy Server

By Philip Carden

Increasing numbers of classrooms have access to the Internet—and the value to students of this new resource is widely publicized. But the use of the Internet in schools need not be limited to providing students with World Wide Web access and teachers with e-mail. Internet-based networking can provide low-cost interconnection of schools within a district—particularly for small schools where traditional wide area network (WAN) technologies are too expensive—and it can provide teaching staff with access to school networks from remote locations. In this article, we will discuss using network facilities called firewalls to address many of the security concerns associated with “merging” onto the Internet. 

In real life, a firewall blocks the spread of fire. In the virtual world, a firewall blocks the wrong people from accessing your network. A firewall builds an electronic barrier between your private network and the public Internet, allowing authorized users (students, teachers and staff)  access to common Internet services while preventing unauthorized users (hackers) from wreaking havoc with your internal systems. This electronic firewall usually consists of a network server running special firewall software, though other hardware platforms, such as routes, can also provide firewall capabilities. 

How Does a Firewall Work?
A firewall lets a security administrator set up rules for the types of permitted and prohibited connections. In addition, a firewall ensures that internal IP addresses remain invisible to the Internet.This separation of the two networks can allow the IP address range you use inside the firewall to be different from and larger than your school district’s registered IP address range. If all the schools in a district are already connected by a wide area network, then the simplest option is to implement a single central firewall. 

You can also use firewalls to control traffic between parts of your private network (for example, between student and administrative networks) or between different private networks (for example, between different school networks or between districts). Firewalls can provide a very powerful array of network management capabilities that give the network administrator control of the network to help manage its overall cost. 

There are two main methods for providing basic firewall services: packet filters and proxy systems.

Packet Filters

A packet filter is a device that controls traffic to and from your private network (that is, a route with traffic filtering capabilities). Every network and node has an address associated with it. A packet filter looks at where network traffic is coming from or going to based on these addresses. The address information is embedded in each and every piece of information that travels on the network (the network packet). The packet filter can be set up to allow access from your network (that is, addresses from your private network) to the Internet, or restrict access to only some Internet addresses. Similarly, you can deny access to your network from unknown or untested addresses on the Internet. This control can also be applied to the type of network data being exchanged, such as file downloads.

However, simple packet filters do not provide strong protection against hackers because they can’t establish whether the originating network source address is valid (a hacker can forge an address). Simple packet filters also can’t ensure that the source port for a particular network address will be used only for the service commonly associated with that port.

Basic packet filtering gives the network administrator some control over the network, but achieving meaningful security usually means severely limiting the value of the network to its users and is therefore not the best choice as a firewall.

Proxy Systems

Proxy systems are the next generation in network access services and control. A proxy system (sometimes called an application-level gateway) consists of a computer running both a proxy server program and a proxy client program (the server and client together are called a proxy service, or proxy), as shown in Figure 1. 

This host computer has two or more network adapter cards: one that communicates between the firewall server and an internal network, and another that communicates between the firewall and an external network, such as the Internet. The Internet cannot even see that there is a network behind the firewall—to the Internet, the proxy server appears like a single (albeit busy) machine running a Web browser.

For example, a student connecting to the Internet actually connects to the proxy server running on the firewall. Then on behalf of the real client (the Web browser on the student’s machine), the proxy client (running on the firewall) establishes a session with the destination host—in this case, the Web server (see Figure 1). Since the proxy system sits in the middle of every Internet connection, it is able to allow particular attempts and disallow others, thereby providing strong security specifically tailored to the particular Internet applications being controlled. 

Tightening Access Through User Name Security
In a school environment, where teachers probably have access to the same machines as students, permissions (such as access to FTP) need to be user-based rather than machine-based. This is easily accomplished in a Windows NT® domain environment using Microsoft Proxy Server because Proxy Server tightly integrates with the user authentication model of the Windows NT operating system. Administrators can restrict access by user name or group affiliation, and via Windows NT groups, they can easily restrict access to certain protocols, such as FTP, or from certain schools. In extreme situations, administrators can easily completely turn off student access to the Internet and make it available only to teachers. 

The main function of a proxy server when implemented as a firewall is to prevent unauthorized access to the district network. Like any firewall, Microsoft Proxy Server disallows communications that are not specifically permitted by the security administrator (which are usually any communication attempts originating from the Internet). 

Controlling Content
The central position of the proxy firewall also makes it a good place to control Internet use—an issue quite separate from the protection of internal networks. As any teacher will tell you, the potential for students to access inappropriate Web sites or newsgroups is the primary concern for schools connected to the Internet.

If Internet newsgroup (NNTP) access is required, this can be provided by means of an internal news server, fed by a single connection through the proxy firewall. Only appropriate newsgroups can then be made available. Given the flexibility of the administrative tools, newsgroup access can easily be done on an as-requested basis.

Controlling access to Web content, however, is a little more complicated. While several firewalls provide the ability to maintain lists of allowed and disallowed URLs, this is not really a practical solution. A better approach is to use Web-screening tools. Proxy Server has built-in support for third-party products that can serve specialized needs, such as controlling content. Microsoft calls this feature “virtual bundling.” These third-party products, such as SurfWatch, Cyber Patrol and WebSense for Microsoft Proxy Server, provide features like virus scanning, additional content filtering and more. For example, WebSense for Microsoft Proxy Server uses a database containing more than 85,000 Web sites. The database entries fall into one of 28 categories that you can selectively turn on or off. You decide which areas of the Internet are acceptable during school hours and which you want to screen. 

These third-party products also take advantage of the built-in logging capabilities of Microsoft Proxy Server, so you can determine how the Internet is being used.
 
The Beauty of Caching 
The proxy approach can be used to achieve purposes other than just tightening security or controlling content. For example, Microsoft Proxy Server caches popular Web pages so that when a student machine makes a request to Proxy Server, the proxy checks whether the page is already cached—if it is, the page is retrieved from the cache and the student sees the Web page without actually going out onto the Internet. In effect, a district network can handle a much higher demand for Internet access without increasing bandwidth.

Interestingly, this ability to cache pages can have a broader impact—it can simplify the setup and administration of Internet security within your school district. For reasons of both security and administrative efficiency, a centrally controlled Internet connection is the best solution. However, this solution means that Internet traffic first travels across the existing district WAN and then through the firewall to the Internet, consuming valuable bandwidth on your district network. How much bandwidth? Well, a typical Web page with graphics is between 50 and 90KB (Microsoft’s home page, on the day of writing was about 77KB). If there are 30 students online, each clicking on a new hot link twice a minute, then the Internet traffic is one Web page per second— or about 750KB/S. Most schools don’t have that amount of bandwidth to spare on their wide area networks (or that much bandwidth at all!). 

One way to improve performance on a network with limited bandwidth is to install Microsoft Proxy Server in multiple locations. This allows you to limit the traffic that must travel across the district WAN (since each page need only be retrieved once, regardless of how many students access it). 

In addition, since Microsoft Proxy Server runs on top of Internet Service Manager, you can restrict the total amount of Internet-related data transmission through the local proxy server machines. (To do this, select the Limit Network Use by All Internet Services on This Computer checkbox that appears on the Advanced tab under Services Properties, and then enter the maximum allowed kilobytes per second). This feature provides a simple but effective means of ensuring that Internet-related traffic never accounts for more than a predefined percentage of the total available WAN bandwidth. 

Remember, having one point of access to the Internet gives your district strong central control over Internet policy and security.

Resources: 

•	To read about how Microsoft Proxy Server helped a school district in Virginia get quick and economical Internet access, go to http://mscominternal/education/k12/articles/intmay97.asp

About the author: Philip Carden is a managing consultant in The Registry’s Network Systems Consulting Practice and a co-author of Internet Security With Windows NT. You can reach him at pcarden@tri.com.

© 1997. Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
4. Bringing It All Together 

By Jeff Zwier

Diane Doersch is a fifth-grade teacher at Taft School in Neenah, Wisconsin and a regional winner of the 1997 Technology & Learning Magazine Teacher of the Year award sponsored by Microsoft. 

Caroline McCullen teaches language arts at Ligon Middle School in Raleigh, North Carolina. She was the 1996 Technology & Learning Magazine National Teacher of the Year and is editor-in-chief of MidLink Magazine, Ligon Middle School’s award-winning World Wide Web site.

In this article, we’ll find out their answers to some common questions about integrating technology into curriculums and share their tips for “bringing it all together.”

How did you get started with curriculum integration at your school?

“We do a sneaky thing at our school,” says Caroline McCullen of Ligon Middle School. “We get the teachers involved through their students. One of the research assignments that we assign students [in the Internet safari class] gives extra points for having a subject area teacher sign off on their topics. What I tell students to do is to go out into their classrooms and ask their teacher, ‘What information could I get for you off the Internet that you might not be able to find in your usual sources?’ (library, textbook, etc.). 

After the teacher signs off and the student returns to class, they of course find all sorts of amazing things. It could be the latest NASA mission or the latest discovery at an archaeological dig or something else that’s just not available yet in the newspaper and certainly not in our textbooks, which are often out of date before they are in print.” The end result is a great motivator for teachers and students. Teachers get excited when they see the work of their students on the Web. We always put their e-mail address up on the Web, and they get ‘fan mail’—just like the kids—for their work from all over the world.”

What do you know now that you wish you had known when you first started integrating technology into your curriculum?

“I wasn’t really aware of how many people out there want to help but just don’t know what to do,” says McCullen. “I think a lot of teachers sit back in their classrooms and think, ‘I wish I had this [software or hardware] tool. If I did, I could do these wonderful things.’ Really, they already have what it takes to make things happen, and that’s the idea. Once a teacher has an idea of how to make technology happen in the classroom, the resources are out there.”

Diane Doersch’s perspective was on the technologies—and the knowledge—available to her then. Information on tools such as file server–based storage was available, but not easily accessible to teachers. “We had a lot of problems with data storage. I had kids who would work one or two hours on a word-processing document and then return the next day and get an I/O or other disk error.”

Tell us about one of your recent successes with curriculum integration.

Both teachers have found exceptionally creative ways to teach a number of skills using the classroom computer as a facilitator, rather than as a focus, for instruction. 

McCullen sponsors an extracurricular computer club that not only improves students’ computing skills, but reaches out to the community as well. “We’ve used computers to help enhance communication skills with senior citizens.” Once or twice a month, the computer club invites senior citizens into the lab for a lunch-hour session in word processing. The students work with the seniors to record their memories of the past, everything from schoolage memories to learning about holidays, customs and traditions.
 
The senior sessions, says McCullen, “teach our students some real lessons in grace when interacting with someone who is not their age. Many kids really don’t know how to act around older people, and they can feel a bit uncomfortable. This activity not only helps students practice communicating, but can also help them learn about the past and appreciate what they have today.” The students are also challenged to learn computing skills well so they can effectively reach out and help the seniors learn and record their memories.

McCullen shared an international success story: “One of the most exciting things we’ve done was to work with a school in Italy this year using Microsoft® NetMeeting. We had been doing an e-mail exchange with the school and got to talking about how they could be more involved with the magazine. They really wanted to contribute to MidLink, and so we edited the English language Word file together.

“It was such a wonderful experience because the kids were actually doing real work on a real document that would be published. They were also learning language skills, learning about another culture, even manners. All of these skills that we wanted them to learn anyway were just enhanced by the whole experience of using the technology.”

Integration Advice
Both teachers have similar advice for those integrating technology into their curriculum: Start small and simple, stay close to your objectives and make sure you’re comfortable with both the technology and the classroom management necessary to make your lesson a success.

Start small. “Look within your own classroom walls,” notes McCullen. “Decide what it is that gets your kids excited about learning. What is it that really turns them on—the library, computers, working together? What really works for you? Think about how you could use technology to make that even better. It might be using CD-ROMs such as Microsoft Bookshelf CD-ROM reference library to do the research. It might be focusing on how they can get all this information that they are excited about into an electronic format to share.”

Doersch also emphasizes letting your existing tools guide your first efforts. “It would be a dream come true to have software perfectly match a subject and be able to order whatever you need all the time, but that just doesn’t happen in most public schools. We work with the basics—software that comes with the computer—and go from there.” For example, Doersch has used an activity she calls “Skittle Pie” to teach counting, sorting and charting skills. Students sort the candies by color and learn to use spreadsheets to create simple charts that describe the candies that match examples from their textbooks.

Stay close to your objectives. Both Doersch and McCullen agree that a gradual approach to integrating technology is preferable to “force-fitting” a computing task into a lesson plan. For example, despite the highly visible MidLink Web site, teachers at Ligon Middle School do not feel compelled to develop Web content for the site’s sake. “All of our activities are based on what goes on in the real classroom,” says McCullen. “We don’t make up things to put on the Web. What we do is look at what the teachers in the school are doing and use the Web site to publicize those activities. It works very well.” (For examples of these applications, see the MidLink site at http://longwood.cs.ucf.edu/~MidLink).

Be comfortable. Investing in your own technology education is only part of what ensures success in the classroom. Your personal comfort level with technology is a function of both your computer savvy and classroom management expertise. Doersch cautions against jumping into complex technology projects before you are ready to see them through. “There are some basic classroom management things that you need to establish before you can make your lesson successful. How will you handle lots of students asking questions at the same time? How will you get the kids to stop working on the computers and listen to the teacher again?” Be prepared for the rough spots you may encounter from both computers and students.

Finally, seek out those who can join you as advocates of curriculum integration in your school, district and state. The more excited your faculty is about exploring new ways of integrating technology, the better. Your personal efforts at curriculum integration will benefit from their support, perspectives and varying levels of computing experience.

“Look at your unique situation,” advises McCullen. “Which faculty members are willing to be risk takers? Which ones are willing to take on something new and try to find a place to make the curriculum work better using technology?”

About the author: Jeff Zwier is a technology consultant with expertise in performance consulting, technical training, recruiting and networking with Windows NT® network operating system. He is currently a senior consultant with Interim Technology’s Technical Communications and Training Practice in Oak Brook, Illinois. You can reach him at jzwier@msn.com. 

Diane Doersch has had experience with integrating technology into curriculums for math, social sciences and other subjects. She also actively works to help other teachers in her school and district learn computing skills and is taking the lead in helping to establish an Internet presence for her school. She can be reached at didoe@athenet.net

Caroline McCullen: In addition to teaching at Ligon Middle School, McCullen is also an educator-on-loan for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction working with teachers across the state on issues of education and technology. McCullen is very active in statewide efforts to assist teachers with the effective use of computers in the classroom. Her e-mail address is caroline.mccullen@ncsu.edu. MidLink Magazine can be found at http://longwood.cs.ucf.edu/~MidLink.

© 1997. Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.