Dial-Up Only Access

Believe it or not, a significant portion of our school community accesses the Internet through dial-up. This includes our house and it’s not necessarily through choice but through a total lack of options. We can’t even get cable where I live and when I call the company to ask “when”, they’ve gone from laughing when I asked the question in 1989 to vague answers about rural areas today.

This dial-up only access isn’t only annoying because of speed, or lack thereof, but it limits options for our families. We plan to go live with the parent portal of our gradebook/attendance product  in September.

As I understand it now, families who live in Dayton, Cottage, Perrysburg, the Cattaraugus Territory, and other rural areas of our district will be excluded from access. I figured that just meant it would be extremely slow for me at home, like many sites, but then I learned that we won’t even be able to open it. This means that families in those areas will have to access our parent portal through their work sites or the public library or our school computer labs.

It’s frustrating and it’s an inhibitor to stronger communication with our parents. I know, I know, they can still get the information through our guidance department, teacher email, progress reports, report cards, etc.–the “old fashioned” way. But I’ve been looking forward to September, 2008 when we take it a giant step forward and allow parents and students to see where they stand with grades and daily attendance, well, daily.

This dial up only access affected the decision for my new presentation on this blog. Through the design of our school website, I was reminded of download times for everyone at home when we add lots of pictures and graphics. So while they’re cool, the pictures and graphics found on other presentations/blogs are not necessary for G-Town Talks, not if they prevent some community members from accessing the information.

 I’ll keep it as simple as possible until we’re all “up to speed”.

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4 Comments
  1. I live in Collins but on a road that cable access and high speed is not available. It is very tough for my daughter when she is trying to look up information for a class project. She loves doing research and dial-up is very frustrating to her. Not to mention when we were trying to do all the financial aid “stuff” needed for our older sons for college! We had to go the library to accomplish anything! I’m not looking forward to that again! Maybe some day…….

  2. I receive info in the mail weekly about connecting to high speed etc. And I call. One salesperson said of course I could get the service for only $19.99 per month. I suggested she double check and she came back on the line saying “you not only can’t get it, you never will get it !!! Where do you live?” I responded “heaven”. No high speed is the price we must pay to live in heaven. Although I anger easily when I can’t download something, I then put things in perspective and prefer peace, quiet and tranquility in my environment. You modern folks will just have to tolerate my inability to be “up to speed”.

  3. I enjoy your blog even without all the pictures and graphics! At least people have internet access! Up until a couple of years ago, I had dial up too!

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