TP#7: Systems Protocol

Background: The core mission of any school is to promote powerful learning through effective teaching. As technology director, you are responsible for systems that are directly related to this core mission of teaching and learning such as Internet access, student reporting and curriculum systems. You are also responsible for systems that relate to student safety, finance and personnel that are fundamental to running the institution on a daily basis. You are told that network-related issues, perhaps virus-related, are interrupting the operation of all major systems.

Question: Which systems do you try to stabilize and restore to service first? Why? What systems might be your second priority? Which systems would have a lower priority.

Response:
There are a multitude of systems that are available and currently integrated into the infrastructure of the modern school. It is important for the technology director to first be aware of the systems and second to create an emergency plan incase the systems are compromised by network related issues or perhaps a virus. Although the director and his or her staff cant prepare or even envision every scenario that may arise they can make general plans for what to do incase there is a wide or small spread problem.

In my opinion the first step of the plan would have to do with assessment & protection. If there was a problem the first step the technology director would do is assess the damage with the help of her technology staff (they may need to re-establish the SNMP system in order to monitor the network). Directly following the assessment would be to further protect and stabilize any aspect of the systems which have not been compromised or that have personal data or money. It is important for the technology director to make sure these systems involving money and/or personal data are safeguarded but they may not be prioritized when it comes to restoring the systems for use. Once the network has been assessed and to the best degree protected the technology director should have a hierarchal plan for which systems should be restored first. The technology director must think outside the box and develop an innovative and communicated plan to the school district.

The hierarchy of which systems should be restored first should be based upon there necessity for securing the schools and then upon there necessity for supporting the day to day in fracture of teaching and learning. This begins with the systems that secure students in the schools and provide safety. Systems like building security, emergency services, and the build service (prioritized by energy, heating and if easily possible cooling, etc…).
These systems should be followed by the phone system and intercom. The phone system is a major support incase of emergency situations. In order to support the schools the next round of systems to be worked on should deal with the infrastructure and responsibilities the school has to its students. This involves basic transportation and food services.

Once these systems have been protected and restored to basic use the technology director and staff can begin working on fully bringing back up the personal information/data systems like student information systems, capital inventory, personnel records and the money/financial systems like accounts payable and receivable. Following these coming back online work should be done to bring up some systems that support the teaching and learning in the schools. This should start first (to bring up the moral of teachers and students) with restoring directory services, outgoing Internet, email systems, and content filtering systems. Followed by the library systems, any course management systems and administrative databases that did not contain personal data. Following would be systems on the lower end of the hierarchy like athletics, school websites, admissions/recruiting, TV, alumni, video conferencing.