Teachers and students face online school struggles with VPN and email

Online school began for SMSD on March 30, and there have been tech issues regarding emails not sending and VPN connection problems.

Most of the day, emails have not been able to be sent or received, as well as issues with using Skyward to communicate.  

Digital design teacher Jennifer Hair hasn’t personally had any technological issues, but she has noticed her colleagues running into issues with email.  According to Hair, using platforms outside of district VPN structure, such as FaceTime and Zoom generally help her avoid the tech issues.

On the other hand, business teacher Amanda Doane has had a few issues with the internet — she’s mainly had trouble with her emails not sending. However, the current tech issues are mostly impacting the elementary level students opposed to those at East.

Most SMSD elementary schools have run into errors regarding iPad usage as well. According to Doane, who has two kids at Prairie Elementary, they are mainly using an application called Seesaw on their iPads, which is the way teachers are communicating with them. When VPN doesn’t work, the application goes down — leaving no other option to communicate.

An email was sent out to the teachers this afternoon saying that there were issues and that they are investigating the problems.