By Chloe Frantzis
Managing Editor of Arts
UPDATE:
As of noon, Wednesday Mar 22, IT has removed Facebook and Twitter from their ban list; these sites are now accessible on NPS’ network.
ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
As of a decision made yesterday afternoon, many social media sites, such as Facebook, as well as some streaming services, such as Pandora and Spotify, will be discontinued on the school wifi starting tomorrow through the end of May.
Announced through email at around 3:50 PM yesterday, the Information Technologies Department informed the faculty that “The IT and Library Department is preparing for online testing which begins early next month. We’ve run trials at many schools to be sure that our network can handle the demand.” However, based on the trials they ran, they have “decided to block many social media websites to increase our bandwidth across the district K-12” .
After the initial ban included streaming video services, such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, Newton Public Schools’ IT Department excluded those sites from the ban following faculty feedback.
Although this ban is deemed necessary to run statewide online standardized tests, the real question is whether or not it should have undergone public discussion or been announced with more time before being put into effect. While disallowing Facebook may allow online-based testing to be effectively administered, it is also the main way sports teams, group projects, class office, student groups, and publications communicate.
The fact that no member of the student body was informed about the arrangement also creates more controversy.
Although this decision seems somewhat radical and may upset many people, as a community, we should seek first to understand before filing complaints, but if social media isn’t working tomorrow – don’t be shocked – you now know why.
Check back to https://nshsdenebola.com/ in the next couple of days for further information.
*Update added on 6:30pm, Mar 22.