Frustrated. Annoyed. Determined. Stressed.

Nearly all students have experienced these feelings when trying to log onto the internet.

All everyone wants to be able to do is finish homework in class without being interrupted. Class is a time that students should efficiently finish their homework so it isn’t something they have to worry about at home.

Internet usages was discussed with the leader of the department and this is what she has to say.   

“The computers sometimes, as they connect to the internet or connect to our wireless access points, if you are moving around the building, you are moving from access point to access point,” Mrs. Adela Dickey, director of technology, said. 

Dickey elaborated on how and why it might disconnect and she let us know a little bit more insight about the internet used throughout the whole school.

“We have access points in pretty much every classroom and in a lot of the hallways so, as you move in the building it will generally keep your connection live although, there will be times where you have to reconnect because you have moved so many times,” said Dickey.

Students had different points of views to focus on. Katelyn Slusser talks about her frustrations, when the internet doesn’t want to work properly.

Katelyn states, “I get annoyed because I just want to get my stuff done and I don’t want to have to do it at home.”

Of course, all students at one point have been disappointed about not being able to finish their assignments.

“I get irritated and annoyed,” Camryn Buck said. 

These are the thoughts the situation entails and as people can see, the perspectives of these two students are pretty close together.

When pages get blocked on the computer at school, doesn’t it bring up frustrations?  The big question asked by multiple students is why this happens.

“Largely it does not. Any filter is going to find sites that are maybe not categorized correctly. We contract with a company who keeps track of that for us and will keep things in the right categories,” said Dickey.

Categories are how the tech department keeps things in track. To make sure the stuff students are researching are school appropriate.  

“Of course, we have the education categories as one that we have open. As new pages come up, they may not be categorized yet and there may be something else on that page that is objectionable we have to block,” Dickey said. 

We discussed what triggers the internet to automatically block the page, even if nothing on the page seems appropriate.

“It may have some good content on it but, it may also have a section that we are required to block by law. It kind of varies. I would need specifics, to be able to say okay this is why this page is being blocked and if the student is right about the page, we will make a change,” said Dickey.

When in the middle of a project, the computer decides all of a sudden to shut off. It pops up with a message that says word or Powerpoint isn’t responding. How does that reflect on others capability to finish the work?

“It makes me mad because, I put a lot of hard work into it and even if it does save it is wasting so much time, to try to get it fixed,” said Slusser.

With the internet malfunctioning, that frustrates a lot of people especially if they were close to the end of their project or had a big chunk of it done.

“I’d probably throw my computer,” Buck said. 

Some students have a specific class period that the internet never seems to fully connect, and this could have a wide variety of reasons.

“We would have to know where that class period is, if we have a issue going on with a specific access point. We did change the entire wireless throughout all the buildings this year over the summer. It could be that we have a bad access point but, if you are able to reconnect refer back to the instructions gave,” said Dickey.

Advanced search is used mostly in English class and this makes it so you don’t have to cite every picture that is used.

“There’s pros and cons to that. The pros it that, it doesn’t need to be cited in your article or Powerpoint etc. The cons are, you don’t always find what you are looking for but, you can find your middle ground and make it work,” Slusser said.

Advanced search helps with limiting the time dedicated on the project when, it is already required to site every website used in MLA format.

“That is very inconvenient when were doing projects and other things that involve research,” said Buck.