Discuss the pros and cons of a "Single Sign-On" approach for a school district. Be sure to state your experiences/perspectives as a user and as an educational technology leader.
There are some pros and cons of a single sign-on or SSO for a school district. First of all, it would be very easy and quick for teachers who are busy with the many factors of the day. Signing on with one username and password would eliminate thinking about the other passwords that might have to exist to get onto other applications. Taking attendance, viewing schedules, grades, assignments and data collection could be accessed by one username and password. Information could be readily available so decisions could be made quicker and easier. Additionally, teachers could move through applications without re-introducing information. Once the data is inputed, it can be accessed from anywhere. This makes the process of operations much more accessible, especially for teachers that are not technologically savvy.
However, there are some issues that school districts would run into with SSO. Clearly the security of all the information that is held in the applications would drop immensely. There are reasons why systems are protected by different usernames and passwords; it adds a level of security. Additionally, there are risk of misuse. What if the username and password are leaked or a device is left open to students other non-qualified personal? These are risks that exist regardless of SSO, but are increased because all information would be connected together. Lastly, a con would be once a person signed out, they cannot access something without signing back into everything all over again. So there is no room to be selective; it is all inclusive.
There are some pros and cons of a single sign-on or SSO for a school district. First of all, it would be very easy and quick for teachers who are busy with the many factors of the day. Signing on with one username and password would eliminate thinking about the other passwords that might have to exist to get onto other applications. Taking attendance, viewing schedules, grades, assignments and data collection could be accessed by one username and password. Information could be readily available so decisions could be made quicker and easier. Additionally, teachers could move through applications without re-introducing information. Once the data is inputed, it can be accessed from anywhere. This makes the process of operations much more accessible, especially for teachers that are not technologically savvy.
However, there are some issues that school districts would run into with SSO. Clearly the security of all the information that is held in the applications would drop immensely. There are reasons why systems are protected by different usernames and passwords; it adds a level of security. Additionally, there are risk of misuse. What if the username and password are leaked or a device is left open to students other non-qualified personal? These are risks that exist regardless of SSO, but are increased because all information would be connected together. Lastly, a con would be once a person signed out, they cannot access something without signing back into everything all over again. So there is no room to be selective; it is all inclusive.