A New Direction

In April 2008, I resigned my position at Maricopa Unified. My decision was largely based on a personal desire to experience something new in my life and focus more time on Training and less on IT.

A New Year

It is a new year, and the technology department is as busy as ever. We are working on a number of exciting things:

1. Video Conferencing - Amy is busy setting up and conducting events. See her blog for more information.

2. The IN Group is helping us pilot Moodle (an online training tool). We have also been training administrators in the hope that they will find use for Moodle for their site or department.

3. Construction - Construction - Construction - we are now busy with five projects. It is our role to manage all the special systems (intercom, phones, bells, clocks, WAN, LAN, computers, printers, etc.) within the sites - so we are busy with construction meetings and planning.

4. District WAN - we have an RFP posted to upgrade our district wide area network to higher bandwidth.

5. ERate - the tech department manages the ERate process. ERate is a federal grant, which provides funding for telecommunications and Internet.

6. We just recently added three new servers, and are still completing configuration issues.

7. New Staff /Students- we have new staff or students almost everyday, which require ongoing setup.

The Department will provide an update to the board at the January 23rd meeting. A copy of the presentation will be posted on the Tech Website for anyone interested.

Technology Rich Schools

Amy and I had the opportunity last week to join a group of Arizona Educators in viewing two schools with one-on-one initiatives. The first site we visited was Brichta Elementary, a K-5 school in the Tucson district. While the building is pretty unimpressive - what goes on inside was remarkable. Each classroom is equipment with a projector and some type of smartboard; each teacher has a laptop; K-2 classrooms has 3-5 workstations; 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students all have assigned laptops. These young students are learning to be responsible for and utilize technology as a tool within their work environments. The entire campus is wireless so access to available everywhere. Planning for this technology focus began years before any equipment was purchased. In fact, staff development began a year before the students received their equipment.

The second site we visited was Empire High School in the Vail district (near Tucson). At this 9-12 campus, every student is assigned a laptop. Prior to opening, the administration and teachers decided to divert all textbook funds to laptops. Teachers are responsible to locate their own curriculum from available resources - primarily web resources. Students seemed to have more involvement in their learning and the principal reported very little classroom management issues. In the classrooms we visited, students seems very engaged.

At the end of the day, I really felt both of these sites had much more focus on the change of teaching style from "sage on the stage" to facilitator - rather than the technology itself. The technology was rather "invisible" - merely a tool used by staff and students. The really impressive thing was the way in which staff seemed to be truly preparing students for work and life in the 21st Century.

More ITV at MUSD

Last week, Amy and John installed our second ITV system. We received this system at no cost to MUSD due to our involvement in video conferencing last year. John was able to secure a dedicated high-speed line at no cost to the district - so we are now set to begin conferencing. Please see Amy's blog for photos and additional information http://learningcommunity.weblog.com/

We also received some nice "press" in the Communicator last week. If you haven't seen the article, please check it out or access online at copa news. I am always proud of the work the tech department handles. Gina

Keeping Connected

In an effort to stay "connected" with all the staff at the school sites - the tech department has recently implement "Talk to Tech" where one or more staff members come on campus during lunch and just "hang out" in the lounge to answer questions and address needs. Amy is leading this effort - read more about it in her blog

We are also beginning a series of on-site classes on Gradepro and creating classroom webpages. In addition, we are holding a class on ASSET resources this week. It is our hope that teachers will truly find this information useful.

Gina

New School Year Well Underway!

The 2007/2008 school year is moving forward, and the technology department has been especially busy assisting over 120 new teachers and getting all equipment at our new Santa Cruz campus operational.

To assist staff members, we held two orientation sessions and walked campuses stopped by all classrooms. We are now beginning "Talk to Tech" sessions during lunch time on each campus. This will be a time for staff to informally relate to members of the technology team. This is one component of our goal to maintain open communication between out district level department and the classrooms.

This next week, we will welcome a new member to our team after losing a team member earlier in August. While this does not add additional staff to our department - it will bring us back to four members. It is our sincere goal to add additional staff in the near future so we can maintain the prompt customer service our stakeholders have come to appreciate.

We have established four department goals for 2007/2007:

Goal 1: Increase communication with stakeholders

• Add video tutorials and other components to the technology department website
• Hold "Tech Talk" sessions periodically at each campus
• Implement an online helpdesk support system
• Implement a manned "help desk" - if staffing allows

Goal 2: Develop a list of special systems specifications for new construction projects

Goal 3: Develop comprehensive Video Conferencing training

• Hold group training sessions prior to large video conferencing events
• Work one-on-one with teachers new to video conferencing prior to events

Goal 4: Utilize additional tools/equipment to provide efficient support to users

• Utilize VB scripting to map network drives
• Implement SPAM filtering system
• Utilize Deep Freeze enterprise to protect lab workstations
• Evaluate and redistribute server workload to accomodate growth and protect data

New Website

In May, we launched the new version of the district website. This change came after I spent the last semester learning Dreamweaver through a distance class. So far the reviews have been positive, and we are continuing to update and review the site. We are also working to learn Contribute - so we can assign "editing" roles to users outside of the department. Isn't learning fun!

Our last school will finish the end of this week, but since other sites are already out - we are busy with summer projects. Our biggest "opportunities" this summer will be classroom moves on the main campus, upgrading network equipment, purchasing all equipment and opening the new Santa Cruz campus, updating network accounts to reflect resignations and new hires, reimaging the elementary labs, installation of new software, etc. We will not be bored!

Our department received some good press recently from the Maricopa Monitor in an article entitled "Tech staff keeps MUSD online". Thanks to Gloria for the nice press.

Several months ago, I volunteered to head a committee to review all district policies. I was motivated because I knew this work really needed to happen, and I was personally interested in learning more about district policies. I am so happy to write that after many meetings - the committee has finished their review. Now...all polices must go to the board for 1st and 2nd readings - and adoption. Reading all the policies was not the most exciting information I have ever read - but it was a very worthwhile project.

More about the summer later...