Technology Goal: Students and Staff To Have Wi-Fi Access By Feb. 12

Earlier this month, Framingham Public Schools made the swift decision to terminate wi-fi access, to anyone in the schools who did not have a district-issued device.

The timing came when Framingham High students were preparing for and taking mid term examinations.

Neither staff, students nor parents were informed of the decision to cut wi-fi access on January 14.

However, teachers and students have been experiencing wi-fi outages and connection issues for a week prior to the termination.

The public school district said it was under a “Denial of Service” attacks to its system since January 7.

Framingham Patch was the first media outlet to report about the termination of the public wi-fi access and the additional wi-fi problems.

Yesterday, the district created wi-fi hot spots in the library and the cafeteria for high school students and staff to use, with password logins.

The goal is to have a new level of access to wi-fi created by Friday, Feb. 12, which would allow all students and staff, bringing their own devices to class, to use wi-fi again.

(Note: School vacation begins on the 12th and students return back to the classroom on Monday, Feb. 22.)

Last night, the Framingham School Committee’s Technology Subcommittee held a meeting to hear from Superintendent Stacy Scott and George Carpenter, the district’s director of technology, on what happened to the wi-fi, and what is being done to return access.

Without public wi-fi access several students on individual education plans (IEPs) were denied access to lessons and other educational work.

Some students have it written into their IEPs that they are given a district-issued device. Those students never lost access to wi-fi.

But other students, have it written into their IEPs, that they can bring their own device to use in class, and those students have not been able to log into wi-fi.

Scott and Carpenter informed members of the School Committee last night that issue is being fixed.

Students on an IEP, who are allowed to bring in a device, now are being issued a security code to access the school system’s wi-fi, said Carpenter last night.

When asked how parents are being notified of the change, Scott said perhaps the media can help with that.

Scott said the “threats to the wi-fi” created the possibility of “crashing the system,” so a ”quick response was needed to ensure no further damage.”

Scott apologized that there was a “disruption in student learning,” as he “knows students use the devices prepping for and during exam time.”

Several teachers told Framingham Patch they could not do their mid-term exam reviews for students as the wi-fi kept crashing. Some students said they could not access material for study groups as wi-fi access was denied. And other students said in order to complete assignments, they had to use their own personal wi-fi data plan to access wi-fi not only during mid-term prep, but during the actual exams last week.

“We are changing the way we teach, so we need to create the system that will entertain that traffic,” said Scott.

“We want teachers to have wi-fi as part of their plan and we want students effectively use technology in the classroom,” said Scott, who added Framingham is on schedule to eventually become a “BYOD” - a bring your your device district.

Carpenter, said the first warning sign of an issue came on the afternoon of January 7, when the district saw a spike in “anonymous users” on the system between noon and 2 p.m.

He said normally, there are 4,600 district-issued devices, but the Framingham Public Schools were seeing 10,000 clients on any given day, after the winter break.

The school system’s technology director said that after several days of the network ”completely consuming all the bandwidth,” the district’s ISP said either redirect traffic or ”you will be shut down in 10 minutes.”

Carpenter said the decision was made to close the public wi-fi access.

He said for privacy reasons, the district could see the 5,000-plus anonymous users but could not identify them or the any that were causing the “denial of service.”

The denial of service could have been caused by a virus, and for that reason all new users to the district’s wi-fi will need to install software to prevent issues, explained Carpenter.

During the next couple of weeks, the technology department will be creating an additional wi-fi network in which students and staff will be able to log on, but the school system will be able to identify the users.

Carpenter said when “denial of service” attacks happen, the goal is not to alert the public, so that the system does not experience more attacks.

When asked why teachers and staff were not informed of the wi-fi shut down, so they could adjust their lesson plans and exam use of technology for students, Carpenter replied “they are members of the public too.”

There were only two members of the public, besides Framingham Patch, at last night’s subcommittee meeting. They were Framingham High PTO President Marcy Rosch and Framingham School Committee candidate Rick Finlay.

Finlay wanted to discuss the lack of communication on the public wf-fi termination to staff, parents, and students, at the meeting, but the technology sub committee chair Eric Silverman said that was for the School Committee’s subcommittee on communications.

The Framingham School Committee sub-committee on Technology held its first meeting of the 2015-16 school year last night. Members of the subcommittee are Silverman, and Connolly, who could not attend for family reasons. The other subcommittee’s of the School Committee all have 3 members each but this subcommittee only has two members.

School Committee members Beverly Hugo, Jim Stockless and Michelle Brosnahan also attended last night’s meeting.

Also in attendance was Framingham School’s Chief, Operating Officer Ed Gotgart, Assistant Superintendent Frank Tiano, and special assistant to the superintendent Kevin King, who is also a doctorate student at Harvard University.