This summer has been a busy one for the USD 331 Technology Department. It has been a summer of accomplishment and surprise. As all of you might agree, it went fast.
Surprise is what the summer started with as on the last day of school, the Norwich file server died of old age, five and a half years of service. This was unexpected and over the next few weeks it was replaced. During the first week of June, I attended an Intel Thinking with Technology course with four teachers in Chicago. My goal was to familiarize myself with the process and be able to assist the teachers during instruction.
During the spring new wireless systems were installed in Kingman High school and Kingman Elementary school. During the summer we completed the new wireless system at Norwich.
In order to streamline our food service program, we implemented the Infinite Campus point of sale system to automate breakfast and lunch checkout and provide a centralized management system for our food service director. To compliment the food service program we implemented the PaySchools interface. This interface allows parents to purchase meals and pay fees online by credit card or e-check.
We transitioned our online PDC system to MyLearningPLan in June and will be training on that in August.
In July we transitioned from the Twotrees webmail system to a new GroupWise email system that is host within the district. We also implemented a new instant messaging system throughout the district for staff. Also in July a new server was setup to host Moodle, USD 331 Wiki, and WordPress websites. These sites will be powerful web 2.0 tools for us.
In June, setup on the new KMS Tech Lab desktops and server was completed. At Norwich Elementary and Kingman Elementary, K-2 desktops were rotated out and newer computers were put in their place. These desktops were re-imaged and made ready for the school year. At Norwich, due to new server settings, all the desktops and laptops were re-imaged and made ready for the new school year.
We are still in the process of preparing over ninety teacher laptops and will have them completed before the beginning of teacher in-service. Also, unexpectedly, the KHS file server died in late July after five years of service. We are working to get that replaced and back up and running.
While we accomplished a great deal this summer, there will be some unfinished projects that will last into the fall. We did not re-image desktops and mobile lab laptops at KHS and KES due to lack of time. There are also a number of projectors that need to be mounted and additional security cameras at Kingman Elementary that we did not get to this summer.
Since I have been here at this district, this has been one of busiest summers for the Technology Department and one of the most productive. We are implementing many good and useful systems such as food service, PaySchools, MyLearningPlan, GroupWise email, GroupWise messenger, Moodle, USD 331 Wiki, and WordPress. Teachers will be working with laptops during the new school year as well. I look forward to having a busy and progress filled 2008-09 school year.