The intentions of the cyber-security system called iBoss were good, but the initial roll out caused some frustration for students and staff. 

“Their servers just did not have the capacity to handle a district as big as ours,” said Assistant Principal Brian Harlan when describing why iBoss was not successful in its implementation.

iBoss is a system that detects malware and prevents it from taking over a network. It also has the capability of censoring and monitoring all the activity that happens on the network. In the case of Hoffman Estates High School and District 211, its purpose was to “help students receive a better form of education through the implementation of technology and getting rid of distractions that could disrupt any success, all at the same time,” said Harlan.

To students, however, it was a system that brought lots of sorrow and frustration. “It was a pain in trying to be productive as well as preventing students from learning the most valuable lessons possible for the time that it was up,” said Jonathan Kim, senior. “iBoss would just not connect to my network, and as much as I wanted to complete my homework the day it was implemented, I just couldn’t.”

iBoss also had an impact on students because there seemed to be less freedom when using their apps in school than after school.

“This made no sense,” said Kim. “At home I make sure to get all my assignments completed and study for any test before I start to do other things on my iPad. Why would it matter for me to do other things like play chess, which happens to be blocked by iBoss, on my iPad after I completed my assignments?”

A question that almost every senior has wondered since the day the district sent out emails about this system was why the district waited this long to implement a system like this. “It was because all this technology is still fairly new,” said Harlan. “iPads just entered the education sector a few years ago and apps are still being developed. [Three years ago,] applications like iBoss were simply not available.”