ZArchive+3-5-09+notes

March 2009 ** Carroll High School 3701 Carroll Road Fort Wayne, IN 46818 March 5, 2009 [|Google Map]  __“Thin Client Solutions” __ I. Morning Refreshments ..................................................... 8:30 – 9:00 a.m. II. Greetings and Introductions .......................................... 9:00 – 9:10 a.m. Host: Adela Dickey Carroll High School – 260.338.5324 III. Roundtable Discussion .................................................. 9:10 – 10:00 a.m. Anything new you are putting in place with 2009 funds? Conducting any vendor comparisons of resources? IV. Break ............................................................................... 10:00 – 10:15 a.m. V. Thin Client Discussion .................................................... 10:15 – 11:30 a.m. NComputing installations? Citrix installations? Linux installations? Dell, DevonIT, HP installations? VI. Lunch .............................................................................. 11:45 a.m. – ? Is there anyplace better than [|Casa] on East Dupont Road?   South Adams – Cindy Cash, Myra Moore > Wawasee – Dave VanLue Concord Community Schools – Dick Pyle Tippecanoe Valley – Brad Hagg West Noble – Jan Lehman, Tony Smoker Region 8 ESC – Phil Germann Huntington – Tom Ashley Warsaw – Scott Sibert, Jim LeMasters Middlebury – Susan Parker, Chris Kratzer > Southwest Allen – Don Chase Goshen – Dave Snyder, Diane Woodworth East Allen – Michael Phommachanh, Ken Sorg Whitley County – Anne Plunkett Central Noble - James Swihart MSD Steuben County – Mike Wenzel Four County Area Vocational Cooperative – Kyle Smith Northwest Allen – Adela Dickey Warsaw SACS EACS Goshen Huntington
 * NEISSC Study Council ****
 * __ Roundtable Discussion __**
 * Building project 3 weeks ahead of schedule – moving in for fall
 * Technology has been up and down – money yes, money no, money yes…
 * Looking at PSPs, portable devices
 * Started with Level Data yesterday (similar to SIF) connecting Ren Learning, BusBoss, PowerSchool, MealTime, Destiny student information together
 * Cindy and Myra may be teaching part-time next year, depending on budgets
 * Considering $462 Planar projectors with 2300 lumens through Zones. Testing projection onto a white board so they don’t have to buy screens. $500 for model with RS232 for management.
 * Shoretel VOIP system in October. Smoothest transition of any project. Dealing with the phone company was the only frustrating part. Classrooms have phone with speaker capability, call histories, voice mail.
 * Looking at N-computing; experimenting with the set won at HECC Conference. Trouble getting the one on a Windows 2003 server to fire up.
 * Dropping Plato from K-8 and going to Study Island; less expensive, friendlier, teachers like it.
 * Looking at Symphonics for network management and content filtering
 * Purchased Vexira licenses for staff and servers
 * Looking at PolyVision ENO boards.
 * Installing EduStructures ZIS; company has been very reliable, good to work with; program less so. Tying to Destiny and STI for now but having duplicate IDs problems. Once this is working well, they’ll add other programs gradually.
 * Building new Jr Hi to open in 2010-11. Old building will become gr 5-6. Another Title I school will have 51% of its staff changed for 2009-10. Staff shuffles over the next two years will be a challenge. To help manage this, they’ve designed an online survey for teachers to enter information on themselves; administrators will use this to help decide where to place staff. The tool is really helping to organize the information.
 * Looking at summer projects – projectors into an elementary school, which completes rollout through entire district. This one will use short throw projectors and have interactive whiteboards. Having demos from several vendors to decide which board to choose. Discussion followed about various vendors, boards versus tablets, mounting options. Brad would like e-mails on successes in this area.
 * Using SchoolMessenger for delays/cancellations for staff notifications. Now ready to roll out calls to all students for these messages. Can also do surveys.
 * Rolling out new datawarehouse from Q3 Solutions.
 * New weather station with hi-def; currently only showing neighboring house, but the quality is great!
 * Looking for ideas from those who have converted from Linux to Windows XP. Having trouble getting license information.
 * Construction was declared done, due to exhaustion of West Noble staff
 * New security camera system, antivirus, VOIP, server virtualization
 * Using newly untethered 1:1 tech plan grant, they’ll create a writing studio and another lab without having to touch 2009 funds yet.
 * Vendor comparisons for the phone systems took two years. Ended with Samsung system from Applied Technology Group from Fort Wayne. Order just now placed.
 * Looking at disaster recovery/backup options. All ESCs looking to offer this type of service to schools, providing offsite backups.
 * Working with Learn360 to offer statewide pricing.
 * Anyone willing to send Phil a copy of their tech plan, as they are working to rewrite theirs and want to incorporate what we’re doing into theirs.
 * Creating dashboards for all schools and district, related to district goals. Helps to more clearly show how all departments, even technology, have a role in meeting district goals. All information is data driven.
 * Moving forward with INAccess. Moving their resources into areas other than just language arts. Piloting at middle schools and elementary using Moodle. Received a 2nd grade laptop grant.
 * Considering how new textbook fees rules can fund technology to replace some traditional textbooks.
 * Wireless infrastructure – looking for advice on a comprehensive, managed system. Goshen has some Meru and Cisco. Meru is somewhat nonstandard in their range.which has pros/cons, but it’s worked well for Goshen so far. Whitley has Trapeze and is pleased (Lear Associates did install).
 * Removing leased lines between buildings and replacing with wireless and fiber connections for WAN.
 * Who has a good inventory and help desk system? (Everyone denies having one and would like to see how Warsaw solves this.) SACS is hoping to have Zen and GroupLink fill this need for them. EACS is using LiveTime; works pretty well.
 * District is sorely in need an end to their superintendent search.
 * Board is now requiring approving all purchases over $25,000 and needs justification for purchases over $2000.
 * Phase 2 of high school project is wrapping up; Intermediate school was created in old middle school building, so technology finishes are still being done there now that high school is winding down.
 * N-computing lab went in last year. 30 computers and a terminal server. Software then did not have individual IPs, which doesn’t play well with content filter. Coming updates are supposed to fix that. Most of it is still in boxes.
 * Auditors are in the building, asking many technology questions about financial program procedures. Do you have a written disaster recovery plan?
 * Looking at RTI and a tie into PowerSchool to track that information.
 * In the midst of bids to replace their Nortel system. They were trying to get it upgraded when Nortel filed for bankruptcy, so they’re looking for a new solution. Eighteen vendors were at the pre-bid meeting and have specs. Opening bids Tuesday 3/10.
 * Left Hand SAN solution in, second unit being added for space, another for redundancy in another building. Not expanding virtualization now beyond a few non-critical applications.
 * Compass Learning server installed; training later this month. Will help with RTI level 2-3. Can import NWEA RIT score and make recommendation for course of study. (License programs to district instead of individual schools to promote sharing and cut costs.
 * Moving to Novel OES2 this summer on at least some servers.
 * What Web2.0 tools are you using? What blogs, forums, wikis are open for staff? (7 said they do) Students?  (1 opens Blogmeister, 1 only if planned in advance, others use Moodle)
 * Looking at reductions in 2009 funds, hoping for stimulus money! Applied for common school loan to help with technology.
 * 12 thin client labs in HS.
 * 2nd grade laptop program going well; students/teachers engaged; laptops going home with kids. Students asked not to surf at home.
 * Working with RTI; considering Study Island, Compass Learning
 * Looking at virtualization, SAN solutions
 * New superintendent chosen; deciding if high school consolidation will happen
 * Replacing teacher computers in 11 elementary schools with Dells
 * Implementing LightSpeed; like the features but not quite tweaked perfectly yet
 * Going with 3M projectors instead of Dukane
 * In phase 2 of a technology audit, to finish this month. Done by Roeing Corporation.
 * Integrating RTI process into Harmony. Teachers have been trained and are starting to use. It’s linked to ISTEP data. Tier 1 only right now, moving to Tiers 2-3.
 * Using Plato for credit recovery but exploring alternative learning options. Considering NovaNet, Apex, Plato, Novel Stars. (Goshen likes Apex; SAdams does not like NovaNet)
 * Working on fiber to 4 of the 6 buildings. Hoping to start install of 2 yet this year, other 2 next year.
 * SIF currently installed, migrating from Novell to AD, abandoning Novell completely in another year. Novell’s Identity Manager not working well drove much of this.
 * Next year students will not have personal network storage. High school students will be charged a fee to get a flash drive. Collaborative storage does exist for class work.
 * Moodle being used at high school.
 * Alternative school opened across from central office.
 * Experimenting with Barracuda for e-mail archiving.
 * Server virtualization only in very small projects.
 * Have 2nd grade laptop program also. Student internet use at home isn’t a factor since only one of the students has access.
 * Looking for refurbished computers to replace some outdated equipment.
 * Was planning to upgrade their Nortel system for VOIP until Nortel’s bankruptcy, now working on specs to replace it.
 * Working on dark fiber to connect the buildings, using some storm drains to route fiber
 * Updated some Cisco gear, using CXtec for much of it. Using VLANs
 * CHS expansion moving along, this summer to be the biggest push for technology. Main offices and district tech offices were finished in January. Final finish is in May, 2010. New elementary opening this fall but the magnitude of the HS project makes the elementary seem simple.
 * Love their Virtualization project, running even mission critical servers
 * Getting ready to install LCDs, video distribution, and wireless into the new schools
 * Adding LightSpeed e-mail archiving. SAdams didn’t like that solution and went with Tangent DataCove.
 * __ Thin Client Discussion __**
 * One lab 30 Citrix clients. Citrix is a resource hog, but it’s running on their VMware server so handing it more resources is easy. Citrix requires Microsoft and terminal services licenses.
 * Deployment is okay; have found that teacher needs to be open minded about expectations.
 * Looking to go to VMware View instead, then plan to expand considerably. Does not require as many licenses as Citrix does.
 * Anyone using virtualization so allow students to access programs from home, such as Office, Adobe, CAD? HP ClassLink software will allow this; SACS is looking to try. There is a $200 per connection license fee.
 * Installing N-Computing terminals at nearby Wal-Mart and groceries, with Internet access only to area school district and unemployment services for patrons to use. WorkOne is providing the carrels, Comcast the bandwidth, SACS the computers and printer. Heading toward the day no report cards are printed, parents must look up online. WorkOne has remote capability, Wal-Mart will reboot when needed.
 * Have lab of N-Computing. Not currently using separate user profiles which is probably causing a lot of their issues. Some computers are shutting down and they’re having trouble determining why. Advanced apps can’t run on these machines. Another location which just runs basics programs is having no problems. Teachers don’t yet understand that if the main machine is down, the others won’t work either.
 * 12 labs with 300+ clients, 6 servers, running Linux terminal services. Linux was forced upon them after an INAccess and then federal grants, but the result has been very positive. Moodle went in at the same time which helped the buy in from students and teachers. Paid a consultant to help install while the techs learned Linux. Dual, quad core servers with 16G RAM. Other HS teachers are now asking for the same thing. Client costs $130 - 230 each.
 * Discussion – What are the advantages of thin clients over the small laptops? Depends on use, intent, location of use, …