Technology in the School
Tech Dictionary
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The Technology Program

The school has a computer lab of 15 computers, 5 scanners, and laser printers where a formal computer literacy curriculum is taught to grades 1 thru 8. Students graduating from this school are expected to have basic skills in:

  • keyboarding
  • word processing
  • database
  • web design

  • spreadsheet
  • desktop publishing
  • multimedia presentation
  • digital camera
  • Internet search skills
  • Ethical use of the Internet
  • HTML
  • computer terminology
  • basic computer maintenance
Grades 5 thru 8 are equipped with classroom computers and printers at a 2:1 student-to-computer ratio. Grades 1 thru 4 are equipped with classroom computers and printers at a 3:1 student-to-computer ratio. All the computers are networked and have high-speed Internet connections.
Teachers are free to integrate technology into the curriculum seamlessly as the students have acquired the necessary technological skills in computer class.
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Teachers' Resource

Virus Alerts

Search Engines

Developing search techniques that return the desired web pages is a skill the 5th graders are currently working on. A not commonly know search aid is Yahoo search tools.

Selecting an appropriate search engine will also improve search results. Yahoolagans is a good subject directory engine for 7 thru 12 year olds. Kids Search Tools is site providing various links appropriate for students. Awsome Library offers 12,000 sites categorized by topic. Altavista offers a family filter and AskJeeves provides a number of search tools geared for the student.

 

Don't open it!

Beware of popups... A rootkit may be lurking.

The sharp rise in rootkit detections on Windows machines is a direct result of adware/spyware vendors using sophisticated techniques to hide processes and prevent uninstallation, according to anti-virus vendor F-Secure Corp.

The Finnish company, which ships an anti-rootkit scanner in its security suite, has identified ContextPlus, Inc., makers of the Apropos and PeopleOnPage adware programs, as the company responsible for a large number of stealth rootkit infections.
F-Secure chief incident officer Mikko Hypponen said the company's BlackLight technology <http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1774921,00.asp> has discovered the use of "very advanced rootkit technologies" in Apropos, a spyware program that collects users' browsing habits and system information and reports back to the ContextPlus servers.
Like the typical spyware application, Apropos uses the data to serve targeted pop-up advertisements while the user is surfing the Web.
Unlike the average worm or bot that use rootkit technologies to avoid detection, Hypponen said the rootkit features built into Apropos aren't being used to hide the existence of the program on the machine.
"They're using a very sophisticated kernel-mode rootkit that allows the program to hide files, directories, registry keys and processes," Hypponen explained in an interview.

This article is an excerpt from E-week. Visit: Eweek Magazine for further reading.

Visit Rootkits for the definitions and possible solutions available to the user for protecting personal data.
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