Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We literally had to execute a new contract with Blackboard Inc. today to allow the Collaborate tool to be deployed through Blackboard rather than separately. SBTS and teachers have been raising concerns about security issues on Collaborate since Day 1 this lousy tool from this overpriced, unreliable vendor was introduced to us weeks ago. Our ES deployment was very smooth today but any of us could see how easy it would be for one bad actor to completely ruin a Class.

It will all be done through Blackboard logins now which could have been the case from the get-go. Given how long FCPS has overpaid for this mostly obsolete platform that almost no one uses anymore, it’s highway robbery that we have now had to pay them even more for what should be considered very basic core functionality.

This is what happens when the decision-makers haven't been in a classroom in years (or ever) but also "know better" than teachers and tech folks on the front lines. Every teacher I know assumed we were using BBCollab because it could be automatically deployed from the SIS and require BB logins. When that turned out not to be the case it was confusing, and when we realized that the classroom links were essentially public, it was clear that FCPS admin really is clueless. Redoing the classroom links isn't really that big of a deal to me, but this is not an unknown issue and we should have had the last few WEEKS to work on this, rather than cramming it into a few hours at the last minute.

Someone (or lots of someones) at Gatehouse & Sprague should lose their job(s) over this, but instead it will be teachers who bear the brunt of the community frustration, as usual.

This is a top down issue from the school board.

Anonymous wrote:What happened? What did students do online?

Seriously?

What happened? What did students do online?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone having issues logging in to blackboard even with 2 hour delay?

Yep. But I don’t know if it’s because it’s still being upgraded right now or because too many people are trying to get on.

2hr delay means classes start at 11am. Teachers are still in meetings learning and updating the new security system. Links no longer work.

Maybe try Google Classroom?

Our meeting is at 0830 which means 10:30

This teacher is so frustrated I could cry. Blackboard's down. Google classroom isn't loading for me. I emailed every student 3 different sets of instructions this morning because the plan has changed 3 times since 9:30, and the latest plan is literally "keep refreshing blackboard and hope that it works".

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did your kids really just start online learning?!

I know, right? We're in western VA and my kids are almost done with all their spring quarter homework online. They've been working hard for the last month. The teachers just uploaded all the assignments to a portal and it's been fine. Zero problems. My oldest (HS) has been going to class online for one of her classes and the kids are all well-behaved, no problems. She is prepping for her AP exams that she'll take over her school-issued laptop next month. FCPS has big problems.

Don't know how many students your school system has in West VA but FCPS alone has 190,000 students plus 16,000 teachers!

Just like your smart daughter, AP kids are not having problems either. We're a big county that's alll!

Not enough of a reason for moving to "West VA"....Thanks though!

Why did it take the decision makers in FCPS over a month to figure out that behavior would be a problem. Idiots. Should have consulted the teachers rather than giving them two weeks off.

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here- this morning is a complete nightmare. Now we setup our blackboard collaborate ultra through blackboard for students to login. As every teacher is trying to do this within 30 min of school starting while also having to communicate changes to parents, blackboard is down. This will continue to happen.

This is the best FCPS has to offer after FOUR weeks of preparation. My kid's middle school cancelled synchronous sessions for the week due to tech issues, so that's five weeks of no interaction with teachers. Maybe the first two weeks of leave should have been used to sort out tech issues? SMH.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do they not know who was spamming the porn and racist comments?

They don't know in the moment, but if they wanted to, they could find out.

Please, who’s going to take the time to figure this out? Do you really think the police don’t have better things to do? I guess FCPS could hire a few people to get on it but then what? Do you really think a lot of parents are going to care? Admins don’t care who is doing it bc so many kids are being disruptive. It is easier to try to find security features to prevent the issue than find the kids and try to make them stop. Also, why should a teacher have to deal with this? This is a parent problem, not a school problem.

All schools have police officers who are probably itching for something to do.

And with most people staying in their homes, no I really don’t think police officers have better things to do.

I saw more police officers sitting on the sides of near-empty highways yesterday than ever before. I guess traffic duty is better than picking the link out of your navel but let’s face it, insurance companies are refunding customers because no one’s driving these days.

We actually don't right now. The SROs are no longer assigned to the schools during this. We were told to contact our administrators and they could reach out to the non emergency line for FCPD as needed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We literally had to execute a new contract with Blackboard Inc. today to allow the Collaborate tool to be deployed through Blackboard rather than separately. SBTS and teachers have been raising concerns about security issues on Collaborate since Day 1 this lousy tool from this overpriced, unreliable vendor was introduced to us weeks ago. Our ES deployment was very smooth today but any of us could see how easy it would be for one bad actor to completely ruin a Class.

It will all be done through Blackboard logins now which could have been the case from the get-go. Given how long FCPS has overpaid for this mostly obsolete platform that almost no one uses anymore, it’s highway robbery that we have now had to pay them even more for what should be considered very basic core functionality.

This is what happens when the decision-makers haven't been in a classroom in years (or ever) but also "know better" than teachers and tech folks on the front lines. Every teacher I know assumed we were using BBCollab because it could be automatically deployed from the SIS and require BB logins. When that turned out not to be the case it was confusing, and when we realized that the classroom links were essentially public, it was clear that FCPS admin really is clueless. Redoing the classroom links isn't really that big of a deal to me, but this is not an unknown issue and we should have had the last few WEEKS to work on this, rather than cramming it into a few hours at the last minute.

Someone (or lots of someones) at Gatehouse & Sprague should lose their job(s) over this, but instead it will be teachers who bear the brunt of the community frustration, as usual.

"Security issues" happened inside the classroom while at school....why, why did they think it wouldn't happened as well on Distance Learning????

I feel for those teachers...

And these same exact things happened for the last month in other districts on Zoom, Google- any platform that did not require a login. It's willful ignorance that they didn't anticipate this happening weeks ago.

^^My oldest (HS) has been going to Zoom class online for one of her classes and the kids are all well-behaved, no problems.^^

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We literally had to execute a new contract with Blackboard Inc. today to allow the Collaborate tool to be deployed through Blackboard rather than separately. SBTS and teachers have been raising concerns about security issues on Collaborate since Day 1 this lousy tool from this overpriced, unreliable vendor was introduced to us weeks ago. Our ES deployment was very smooth today but any of us could see how easy it would be for one bad actor to completely ruin a Class.

It will all be done through Blackboard logins now which could have been the case from the get-go. Given how long FCPS has overpaid for this mostly obsolete platform that almost no one uses anymore, it’s highway robbery that we have now had to pay them even more for what should be considered very basic core functionality.

This is what happens when the decision-makers haven't been in a classroom in years (or ever) but also "know better" than teachers and tech folks on the front lines. Every teacher I know assumed we were using BBCollab because it could be automatically deployed from the SIS and require BB logins. When that turned out not to be the case it was confusing, and when we realized that the classroom links were essentially public, it was clear that FCPS admin really is clueless. Redoing the classroom links isn't really that big of a deal to me, but this is not an unknown issue and we should have had the last few WEEKS to work on this, rather than cramming it into a few hours at the last minute.

Someone (or lots of someones) at Gatehouse & Sprague should lose their job(s) over this, but instead it will be teachers who bear the brunt of the community frustration, as usual.

"Security issues" happened inside the classroom while at school....why, why did they think it wouldn't happened as well on Distance Learning????

I feel for those teachers...

Anonymous wrote:Did your kids really just start online learning?!

I know, right? We're in western VA and my kids are almost done with all their spring quarter homework online. They've been working hard for the last month. The teachers just uploaded all the assignments to a portal and it's been fine. Zero problems. My oldest (HS) has been going to class online for one of her classes and the kids are all well-behaved, no problems. She is prepping for her AP exams that she'll take over her school-issued laptop next month. FCPS has big problems.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:which school was this, in our school (Great Schools Rating of 9) they suspended elementary school kids who tried to mis-use technology.

In our school a student was suspended - out of school, at home suspended - for misuse of technology. (Great Schools 4) and in case you are worried about unequal consequences - NOT a student of color.

My students who attends a great schools 3 rated school said there were no issues in virtual classes yesterday. I'm not sure why the pp thought great schools ratings mattered in this situation

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is not a FFX issue. This is a "your kids are assholes" issue.

+1
Yesssss

This is an FCPS issue because they are requiring students to use a specific platform for education and as parents we can't put safety features on their platform. At home I have safety feature where my kids can't access porn. By failing to safeguard its chosen platform, FCPS allowed kids and teachers to be subjected to racial slurs and porn. They specifically said teachers can't use zoom because there aren't enough safeguards, took four weeks to make their chosen platform available and didn't safeguard it against the things they used to say zoom was off limits. Makes no sense. This is not just about high schoolers and teachers being exposed to this stuff. Even with the elementary school link, anyone with access to the link could get on the lesson without having to log in. A delinquent older sibling could easily expose elementary kids to porn or whatever. I'm glad FCPS quickly addressed the issue, but this was definitely an FCPS issue for not ensuring that all kids are protected from this stuff. They have sole control over the security features, parents have no control of appropriate safeguards. Yes, the parents of the "bad actors" need to do a better job, but that's a completely different issue.