FCPS School board mtg at 10:00 Thurs...live stream

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is now saying they failed to tell teachers how to properly set up sessions to not allow crashers. There was a way to prevent it, but they didn't communicate it well to teachers.

So now they're passing blame to the teachers. Nice.

Why didnt they just have BB put in those security features from the beginning instead of burdening the teachers with yet one more thing to haggle with?

[Anonymous]

I talked to a few teacher friends and they have been in tears this whole time. It has been a roller coaster for them, some learning how to use Google Classroom (waiting for BB) and others taking classes and how to use Blackboard. I feel terrible for the seasoned/older teachers who having a terrible time learning all these "new" technology.

The stress level is ridiculous. All they do is wait to be told what to do with zero input.

These people talking have never put a foot in a classroom!

[Anonymous]

Problem is that FCPS relied on the vendor and did not question or check anything. That lies with Gatehouse. Vendor isn't guiltless, but it's up to Gatehouse to supervise the vendor.

[Anonymous]

I teach MS. We brought these security issues up multiple times, and we received no training. Our Principals and SBTS also hadn't, so the Head of IT is full of shit.

THAAAAAT being said, School Board is BOLD as hell right now. They tweeted these things out before they were shared with the general public. I have attended every meeting and they were the ones pushing for live instruction to mitigate student's trauma, but also didn't want to do "too much" that would stress them. They also made it clear there was no more money, so FCPS needed to find something free or figure it out.

[Anonymous]

It's revealed now that teachers were TOLD they could use guest links.

And FCPS lady is saying no one warned them what could happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've said for years that the problems in FCPS are with Gatehouse and the SB. Some SB members are asking right questions, but their support of Gatehouse needs to be more skeptical. It's time for the rubber to meet the road.
Clearly, they did not listen to teachers. From the WAPO article, teachers knew the security could be a problem.

It is beyond idiotic to say that the security problems were impossible to predict. Its an OPEN link that teachers were given to send out. Red flags were raised left and right teachers were ignored. Brabrand said last night "

"FCPS had worked closely with Blackboard’s technical team for several weeks prior to the launch of distance learning and there was no indication that the system would be unable to handle the volume of participating users or would be susceptible to the security issues that many of our schools encountered"

[Anonymous]

Go Karl Firsch!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's revealed now that teachers were TOLD they could use guest links.

And FCPS lady is saying no one warned them what could happen.

Well obviously teachers were told to use guest links. Our school made a good how-to video showing all of the features and how to use Collaborate and my kids watched it and were comfortable with the platform. The video was using a guest link and it was the same as the guest accounts that my kids used to log on.

The problem with using unsecured logins weren't unforeseeable. Similarly the problem with all the logins crashing the system. This is all BB's fault, letting the client proceed without enough help and oversight.

There was a lot of finger-crossing and hope happening, and as we all saw, more actual planning and implementation was needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So 50% of the teachers could have used the last 3-4 weeks to set up Google classroom sites. They had time. But, I guess they thought BB would work, so they didn't move down the path of using Google classrooms.

The teachers are posting assignments on google classroom.

This is not a teacher issue.

It is not a teacher issue. It’s and FCPS leadership issue. According to the people speaking at the meeting, less than 50% of teachers use google classroom and they can’t be asked to set up google classroom sites now because they aren’t trained on it. So it’s perfectly legitimate to ask why only half the teachers in the county have received training on google classroom and why they didn’t try and train the other half over the past month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Go Karl Firsch!

Karl is actually one of the few members who legit brought some of these issues up to begin with and fought for transparency. That being said, some of what he is saying is conflagrated. His issues brought up is former meetings were about access to technology and equity not capacity or behavior. I don't think anyone they thought these behavior issues would occur.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's revealed now that teachers were TOLD they could use guest links.

And FCPS lady is saying no one warned them what could happen.

IT woman said that it was just word of mouth among teachers to set things up via guest links. It wasn't the IT dept who caused this, according to her, it was other teachers giving bad info to their fellow teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's revealed now that teachers were TOLD they could use guest links.

And FCPS lady is saying no one warned them what could happen.

Well obviously teachers were told to use guest links. Our school made a good how-to video showing all of the features and how to use Collaborate and my kids watched it and were comfortable with the platform. The video was using a guest link and it was the same as the guest accounts that my kids used to log on.

The problem with using unsecured logins weren't unforeseeable. Similarly the problem with all the logins crashing the system. This is all BB's fault, letting the client proceed without enough help and oversight.

There was a lot of finger-crossing and hope happening, and as we all saw, more actual planning and implementation was needed.

Anytime you have an unsecured login, there is a problem. This is not rocket science

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've said for years that the problems in FCPS are with Gatehouse and the SB. Some SB members are asking right questions, but their support of Gatehouse needs to be more skeptical. It's time for the rubber to meet the road.
Clearly, they did not listen to teachers. From the WAPO article, teachers knew the security could be a problem.

It is beyond idiotic to say that the security problems were impossible to predict. Its an OPEN link that teachers were given to send out. Red flags were raised left and right teachers were ignored. Brabrand said last night "

"FCPS had worked closely with Blackboard’s technical team for several weeks prior to the launch of distance learning and there was no indication that the system would be unable to handle the volume of participating users or would be susceptible to the security issues that many of our schools encountered"

IT's been 5 weeks gentlemen and now you realize the problem!!!!!! It's LIE.

By the way, teachers just like parents are hearing this for the first time.

[Anonymous]

All these people need to go.

To wait all these weeks before doing anything was a mistake from the beginning.

[Anonymous]

Laura is defending FCPS and blaming Blackboard. I think they are both to blame. Laura is going after Blackboard.

Problem is: FCPS hired Blackboard. This is FCPS responsibility. Laura does not understand that. Blackboard should be cut, but so should FCPS staff.