Several Tulsa Schools Lose Web Service

By Tara Vreeland, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- Internet service is back up for customers across the area, including Tulsa Public Schools. But the district was without the World Wide Web for a day and a half, forcing students to take a virtual time out from technology.

Most of the schools use the Internet throughout the day, but the Tulsa Learning Academy inside the Promenade Mall is entirely Internet dependent.

There wasn't much typing going on in the Tulsa Learning Academy Friday. The Internet has been down, and the Internet-dependent classroom was practically paralyzed.

"They get their reading; they get their tests online. They get lectures online - everything is done online," said Tulsa Learning Academy teacher Peter Rugiri.

Since there wasn't Internet access, teachers weren't left much choice but to cancel classes.

"It's definitely an inconvenience, and it definitely has an impact," said Todd Lee, Tulsa Public Schools chief information officer.

The outage happened early Thursday morning. Cox Communications in Tulsa worked to restore phone service to customers impacted by the outage. Cox says 200 customers were impacted, but some of those customers include Tulsa Public Schools, Union Schools, Oral Roberts University and Rogers State.

"It's just like electricity. If something happens, we don't think much about how useful it is, but if we don't have it - that's when we know we are missing something," said teacher Peter Rugiri.

Tulsa Public Schools officials say they are lucky the outage didn't happen during state testing which is all done online. But it's still a burden.

"Any e-mail traffic from the outside into TPS or from TPS to the outside, we've not seen any movement on it in a day and a half," said Todd Lee, chief information officer.

Back at the Tulsa Learning Academy, one student's success wasn't down with the Internet.

"Actually I just finished today," said Bryan Ray, a student at Tulsa Learning Academy. "I finished high school today. Took my test. Did my essay. I finished."

Bryan Ray took his final test the old fashioned way.

"It's actually hand written: fill in the bubbles; multiple choice," Ray said.

Internet service was back up for Tulsa public schools at 11 a.m. Cox says they are still trying to determine what caused the outage.