Wednesday, March 4, 2009

The Pain of a DOE WAN network.

I am currently frustrated at my Department of Education's WAN network blocking access to Shutterfly through our school computers. It claims that it is a social networking site and therefore should not be accessed at school. However, Scholastic.com offers Shutterfly as a free photo sharing service to showcase class photos through their Classroom Homepage Builder, which allows teachers to create free class webpages.

I've been using Shutterfly to share my class photos so families can see, print, and order from home since last school year and it was just recently that the DOE began blocking the site. I sent an e-mail to their help desk about two months ago but have not received a reply or explanation.

Today, I visited my school's technology coordinator to see if he has better connections with the DOE's network administration. He was able to send an inquiry e-mail to the man who is in charge of the network. Hopefully he will respond soon. I am also hopeful that they will allow access to Shutterfly once again.

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