Week Four (Chapter Three & Four)
1.What is a computer virus and how is it transmitted? What can you do to protect your computer?
Computer viruses are malicious programs written solely to disrupt computer functions and/or destroy data. Viruses are spread usually by attaching themselves to a file or by posing as another file type. Computer viruses can find access to your computer by means of the internet or through a data disk (cd, floppy, flash drive) that contains infected files from another computer. The latter is the real threat when using computers in the classroom since students are bringing data on disks from their home computers which may be infected. Infecting your classroom machine can destroy important data you may have stored on it or in some cases, render the computer entirely useless.
A wise teacher can protect their computer by means of anti-virus software. This is software that is programed with the intention of finding, identifying and eliminating hazardous malware from your computer. It is important to get your system set up with a good, well-maintained anti-virus software. While you may be able to encourage your students to set their home computers up with anti-virus software as well, having an updated program on your classroom and home computer is your only real safe-guard. It is important to scan every foreign data disk that you put into your computer for any kind of malicious or suspicious files. Also, having the software isn't a one time solution. It is paramount to keep your anti-virus software updated. Much like bacteria and biological viruses that attack human beings evolving against antibiotics and medicines we use against them, computer viruses are constantly being reprogrammed to get around anti-virus programs. Most of the recommended anti-virus programs require a subscription fee for the updates they provide. It is wise to subscribe to these in order to maintain an updated anti-virus software and a clean, functioning computer. Also, it would also be wise to keep backup files of all your important data on a separate machine or disk in the event that your computer does get infected.
Blog Reflection Week Ten (Website)
14 years ago
Great Post. It was concise, to the point, and very informative. While technology is very beneficial to the classroom, it must also be constantly monitored in order that infectous viruses do not corrupt the computers. We do this through a number of ways. As you said viruses can come from any number of places. Most common is the transportation of saved files from one computer to another. Also teachers must constantly monitor what websites our students are visiting. While most school districts have a number of firewalls to block against websites which may carry corruptive viruses, students still have the capability to stumble upon the wrong website or download a dangerous file. Teachers must have constant awareness of the information which our students are viewing and the files which they are downloading.
ReplyDeleteVirus protection is an essential part of computing, and I fully agree with Michael and Reed. A review of the topic indicates the New York City School District cut its annual cost of a district wide firewall with virus protection from 15,000.00 dollars per year to 2500.00 dollars per year. The actual cost of the wireless network for the school district, and WAN system was not reported. Few school districts in Mississippi have the capital to invest in wireless system like the New York School District’s. The upgrade was part of a 30 million dollar capital investment project. In smaller school districts, the responsibility for virus protection upgrades falls on a small IT staff, who we will probably know by first name. It is up to the individual teacher to maintain open communication with the IT staff to ensure the firewall and virus protection is upgraded and maintained, especially if upgrades are not periodically pushed to individual workstations by the IT Department. The teacher should maintain current knowledge of the most recently discovered computer viruses, and ensure workstations are virus free by checking periodic pushes to the workstations. Furthermore, along with educating students in computer virus protection, the teacher should warn students about phishing, internet fraud, and other techniques utilized by internet pirates to gain private information about our youth. As teachers, we have the responsibility to protect the school’s computers from viruses, and the students from internet crimes. Large school district or small, computer security is a fundamental lesson teachers must discuss with students.
ReplyDeleteGreat job in reflecting and commenting.
ReplyDelete