This post is intended to provide a summary update of the state of technology in the Manheim Central School District in regards to infrastructure.

Infrastructure:  The district’s technology infrastructure is in excellent shape.  The network is built utilizing over 100 Cisco enterprise-class switches and routers, and all buildings are interconnected utilizing multiple gigabit ethernet links over fiber.  The district is also connected to the IU13 wide-area network providing private access to other participating school districts in the area and across the state.  Highlights of the district infrastructure are as follows:

• 100% WiFi coverage throughout all district buildings.
• Virtualized data center built upon blade servers and storage area network.  Over 100 virtual servers utilized for all district services.
• Business continuity plan built upon co-location with core data replication every 5 minutes.
• Integrated VoIP phone system throughout district with exception of HCB (summer 2011 installation scheduled).
• Video-over-IP system provides broadcast TV distribution including video recording and on-demand services for entire district.
• IP-based security cameras provide coverage of all public areas in all school buildings.

Challenges moving forward:   The technology infrastructure in the district is solid.  There are currently no pending issues or anticipated needs for improvement in the near future.

This post is intended to provide a summary update of the state of technology in the Manheim Central School District High School, and to outline several areas of opportunity moving forward. First, a discussion of where we are with technology resources within the high school:

High School: This building was the benefactor of over $650,000 in State grant funds via the Classrooms For The Future program.  The current status of equipment in the building is as follows:

• 18 mobile carts with 25 laptops in each for general building use (acquired via CFF).
• 2 computer labs equipped with 30 desktop computers each (business dept).
• 2 computer labs equipped with 30 laptops each (business dept).
• 1 mobile cart with 30 Mac laptops (art dept).
• 1 mobile cart with 30 laptops (art dept).
• 1 mobile cart with 30 laptops (FCS dept).
• 1 mobile cart with 30 laptops (world languages).
• 2 labs with 30 laptops each (tech ed dept).
• 1 lab with 20 Macintosh iMac computers (tech ed dept).
• 75 laptops for general use in the media center.
• 25 laptops distributed between special education classrooms
• Every classroom in the building is outfitted with a Promethean board, projector, and sound system.  Teacher laptops due for replacement FY 2011-2012.
• 25 sets of Activevotes clicker systems are shared throughout the building.
• 50 document cameras are shared throughout the building.
• MCTV – Broadcast television is available via any computer with video-on-demand services for recording and playback of content.

Challenges moving forward: The High School faces very different challenges from the rest of the district buildings.  As the fleet of equipment approaches end-of-life, the challenge will be the continuation of existing levels of computing capabilities while exploring the need to provide 1:1 access for all students.  Evolving online standardized testing (Keystones, CDT’s, etc) will also create demands for more computers to be available.

• Option 1:  Netbook/laptop hybrid machines offer excellent price point with sufficient performance capabilities for student use.  Estimate $600 per unit, equip to current levels utilizing mobile carts for management and sharing.
• Option 2:  1:1 computing initiative to provide district-supplied laptop to every student entering the 9th grade to keep for HS career.   Estimate yearly outlay of  $120,000 for laptop acquisition.   Many other costs involved, need to thoroughly evaluate.
• Option 3:  Student-owned equipment.  Students permitted to bring their own laptops to school and connect to a student network.  Many issues would need to be worked out, but offers a low-cost alternative to district-purchased equipment.
• Curriculum and delivery will need to drive above decision points moving forward. 
• Current laptops provided via CFF are not able to be upgraded as recommended at MS.

District Technology Survey

Student Technology Survey

This post is intended to provide a summary update of the state of technology in the Manheim Central School District Middle School, and to outline several areas of opportunity moving forward. First, a discussion of where we are with technology resources within the middle school:

Middle School: This building was completely outfitted with technology systems during its construction in 2007.  The following are highlights of the resources currently available:

• 10 mobile laptop carts with 15 laptops in each cart for general building use.
• 2 stationary computer labs with 30 computers in each; one lab equipped with Dell desktops, the other with Macintosh iMacs.
• 2 mobile carts with 30 laptops in each for the Tech Ed and FCS departments.
• 1 mobile cart with 30 Mac laptops for the Art department.
• 10 Macintosh iMacs for the music department.
• 200+ thin client computers spread 3-4 per classroom throughout the building.  These are appropriate for basic web and office productivity applications.
• Every classroom in the building is outfitted with a Promethean board, projector, and sound system.  Teacher laptops replaced FY 2010-2011.
• 20 sets of Activevotes clicker systems are shared throughout the building.
• 30 document cameras are shared throughout the building.
• MCTV – Broadcast television is available via any computer with video-on-demand services for recording and playback of content.

 Challenges moving forward:  The Middle School faces similar challenges as the elementary schools in terms of expanding utilization.  While technology use in standard classroom lesson conten continues to increase, new uses are being identified related to interventions, standardized testing, remediation, etc.

• The Middle School technology needs will also be impacted by potential changes to a K-12 Technology curriculum.
• Current intervention strategies are limited by availability of laptops.
• Most 5-8 classroom teachers report technology integration is being limited due to availability of computers.
• Recommend we provide 4 more carts of laptops with 30 laptops per cart.  Recommend medium-capacity computer with capabilities that meet/exceed standard use requirements for laptops. 
• Existing fleet of Dell D620 laptops in Middle School are at the end of year 4.  Recommend we invest $250 per unit to replace battery, install solid-state hard drive, increase RAM, and install Windows 7.  Estimate 3-4 more years’ life via this investment.  Funds for this project are included in 2011-2012 technology budget.

Expenditures are required to meet the immediate technology needs of this buiding.  Evolving curricular and instructional software requirements must be clearly defined to delineate future technology needs.  Recommend approval of budgeted amount to refurbish existing laptops to extend their life, and reallocate laptops replaced for teaching staff to MS for student use to provide additional needed resources.

This post is intended to provide a summary update of the state of technology in the Manheim Central School District elementary schools, and to outline several areas of opportunity moving forward. First, a discussion of where we are with technology resources within the three elmentary schools:

Elementary Schools:   Traditionally, these buildings have had low computing requirements.

• HCB:  60 student laptops distributed between 1 lab and 1 mobile lab, 20 laptops spread throughout classrooms.
• ST: 60 student laptops distributed between 2 mobile labs, 20 laptops spread throughout classrooms.
• DR: 60 student laptops distributed between 1 stationary lab and one mobile lab, 20 laptops spread throughout classrooms.
• Each of the above buildings also has every classroom in grades 3-4 equipped with a Promethean board, projector, and sound system. We are finished with approximately 70% of the remaining classrooms grades K-2 and will have all classrooms so equipped by January 2012.
• During summer 2010, all student computers were replaced in both HCB and DR computer labs with laptop computers. Each lab received 26 computers to accomodate maximum class sizes within the building. Lenovo 13″ Thinkpad Edge laptops were provided in one lab at each of these buildings, and Acer eePC 12″ laptops were provided for the other lab in each building. These laptops were selected due to a combination of low price point and adequate computing capabilities for web-based activities typical at this level.
• The laptops at Stiegel Elementary are Dell Latitude D620′s and are in their third year of use.
• Teacher laptops due for replacement FY 2012-2013.

Challenges moving forward:  Elementary schools, while traditionally not requiring a lot in terms of technology, are evolving due to changing curricular needs and evolving intervention and differentiated instructional strategies.

• There is a need to redefine a K-12 Technology curriculum since it has not been looked at since 2002.  Many basic technology skills and topics have become identified as “elementary”.  Technology standards will dictate much of this.
• Educational software – Odyssey.  Piloted during summer school 2010, this product produced measurable growth in students and is desired for both interventions and differentiated delivery methods. 

Clear definition of the above two needs will provide scope of additional computing needs for the elementary schools.  More will follow as these initiatives are further developed, but it is expected that more laptops will be needed to support centers-based computing in each classroom.  Estimation is an additional 30-40 computers will be needed per building.

Cloud computing, heard of it? It’s definately the buzz phrase these days in IT circles, no doubt you’ve seen a commercial mentioning it. So what is cloud computing, and why would MCSD consider it? Ask a gaggle of IT managers what cloud computing is, and you would likely get a gaggle of answers, all of which would have some valid points. But what does it mean for public education settings? The following is my 2 cents:

Cloud computing represents the transition of technology systems from tangible, internal resources to services provided via the Internet. We’ve already seen evidence of this via the many services provided by Web 2.0 applications such as Google Apps; do we really need Microsoft Office anymore? Wikis provide collaborative environments that short circuit Microsoft Sharepoint. Blogs provide easy publishing capabilites. Multimedia content can be managed by a host of sites for pictures, videos, music, etc. The list will only continue to grow. But, there is a downside, and it involves management of all these resources.

You might ask, are IT organizations really necessary if the majority of services are provided via Internet Cloud offerings? Whew, as an IT professional, that is a scary question. I’d answer YES, but our role changes a bit. Consider management of all district accounts and content that is now distributed throughout the cloud. What happens when a teacher with content in Google Docs leaves the district. What happens to that intellectual property; how does it get transferred to that teacher’s successor? How many usernames and passwords do students need to manage to connect to all the web-enabled resources at their disposal. Who wants to log into so many disparate systems to perform rudimentary tasks.

The answer to all of these questions comes in the form of new software services that aggregate all of these resources, whether internal or external, via a common web browser with single sign-on capabilities. So what does that mean? Imagine opening Internet Explorer or Firefox, hitting a URL, and receiving a virtual desktop that includes all of your applications provided either internally or via the Internet with single sign-on. Client computers, and more importantly, client OPERATING SYSTEMS, become less significant as most all computing capabilities required are delivered via a browser. Just wait for Chromium to come from Google, it is an example of a bare-bones operating system utilizing web resources for most functions.

The crystal ball tells me that we will be buying inexpensive Netbook-like computers in the future, maybe running a Linux OS such as Ubuntu, with a “cloud aggregation” desktop that provides easy access to all Internet-provided resources with cached login credentials for each of the sites. The desktop will also provide access to internal applications that are made available via a private-cloud via virtual desktop technologies.

Pay no attention to the program behind the scenes.      :-)
One of the biggest challenges facing our school district and others is the vast amount of data (information) we collect about our students. Not just the basic contacts; addresses and phone numbers, but more and more data to measure a student’s progress through testing.  We have been using several testing programs; 4Sight, DIBELS & others, and the new evaluation tool PerformancePLUS (formally Performance Tracker).  The trick has been how to get the testing results into an evaluation tool that allows districts to use the information to the best advantage for our students.  Back in the dark ages (about 3 or 4 years ago) the completed answer sheets were put in an envelope and mailed to the testing company.  They would score the test and send a paper report, or if we were lucky they would send a spreadsheet to the district.  Now we are printing the blank answer sheets and uploading the scanned answers directly to PerformancePLUS.  This is better but still has some cumbersome steps to the process.  A big issue is getting our student’s basic demographic and classroom data into PerformancePLUS in a timely way.

There are several ways to transfer data between different or related programs.  eSchoolPLUS and IEPPlus are using the same core database program.  Sungard is using a built-in utility to transfers data back and forth between eSchoolPlus and IEPPlus automatically at 2:00 in the morning.  eSchoolPlus and PerformancePLUS do not use the same core database program.  We were very pleased to hear that Sungard had purchased Performance Tracker last year.  This time when I say WE were pleased, I mean me…  I suspected that Sungard would be working on a way to transfer data from eSchoolPLUS to PerformancePLUS without me manually sending the data.   Now here’s where SIF comes in. 

SIF is a set of basic rules that allow unrelated programs to have an agreed standard format for data movement between applications – efficiently, accurately and automatically.  We are one of two districts in PA and one of ten nationwide that are working with Sungard to test using the SIF rules to upload our students’ information.  The first sets of successful transfers of data were completed just last week with the Parkland School District in Allentown PA.  In the next couple of weeks it will be our turn.  Progress updates to follow…
Credit to Francis Nevill, District Data Coordinator for the content of this post

There have been many questions recently about technology equipment replacement and funding with the chatter about curriculum review cycles changing (ie, Task Force). Over the past five years, Task Force projects have provided a funding source for new technology infusion into the curriculum.

The technology budget is in place to maintain our CURRENT equipment which includes over 2200 computers, a network infrastructure of over 100 Cisco routers and switches, our server infrastructure, over 150 Laser printers, 250 classrooms with Promethean boards/projectors/sound systems, software applications, … When you add it all up, it truly is a duanting fleet of equipment that is RELIED UPON every day by our teaching staff and district business operations.

In the near future, I will be publishing a replacement roadmap that outlines projected timeframes for major equipment renewals. As a general rule of thumb, previously established guidelines dictated a five-year replacement cycle for computers. So, project five years out from the time your received your equipment, and that is the TENTATIVE timeframe for replacement. Many other factors will be included such as the overall condition of the equipment, changes in curricular needs, new technologies available, … In short, the Technology Services Organization will continue to work with you to support your curricular technology needs as we progress forward.

The Manheim Central School District is joining the IU13 Wide Area Network. This WAN is built using leased circuits from various telecommunications companies and provides private, high-bandwidth connections between all local school districts and IU13. For the past eight years, MCSD has not been a part of the IU13 WAN and has relied upon our Internet connection via Penteledata for connections to other school districts and the intermediate unit. While this has served us well, changing curricular needs relying on high-bandwidth applications such as videoconferencing have driven the decision to join the WAN.

This new connection to IU13 will also provide connectivity for the district to the state-wide intermediate unit network know as PAIUNet. With almost all of PA school districts connected to their local intermediate unit with private connections, and all intermediate units connected via PAIUNet, MCSD will have access to virtually all school districts in PA via a high-bandwidth, private network. The uses for this type of connectivity will be numerous.

A grant written by IU13 (recently approved) is providing the funding for the build costs associated with the connection from MCSD to IU13. Completion is expected prior to the start of the 2010-2011 school year.

Wikis and podcasts and blogs, Oh My! The proliferation of Web 2.0 tools has changed the landscape for building a web presence for the school district.

Currently, we utilize a web content management system called SchoolWires to “build” our website. We instituted this current approach back in 2005 during a complete overhaul of our website. The benefits of a web content management system are that many people can easily have responsibility for updating web content without requiring extensive website authoring skills. In short, “no webmaster required” has been our method of operation over the past several years. This has served us well as the district has won the PASBO award for best website three years in a row (2006 – 2009).

Web 2.0 tools include items such as wikis, blogs, twitter, and other social networking sites. Our plan moving forward is to utilize these toolsets to adapt our website to emerging internet communications trends. Blogging will become the mainstay of web presence for all staff members, extra-curricular activities, and other classroom communications. Wikis will be used for collaborative classroom activities, and Google Applications will become the productivity suite of choice.

So the biggest question being asked is “When will SchoolWires go away?” Answer: This project is an intensive one that will require time. We are planning to maintain our subscription with Schoolwires at least until the end of the 2010-2011 school year. At that point, we will have had time to train all users on blogging and given sufficient time to transition content to Baron Blogs. For those of you who are heavily invested in your Schoolwires site, please do not panic. We will work with you to provide all the functionality you currently use, and will help you to migrate your content. The district and building level websites will still be managed using a web content management system (remember, no webmaster required), but the CMS (content management system) will most likely be an open-source (free) solution.

We assure you that the justification for this project is not to create more work for everyone. The goal is to provide the best web presence that we can for the District using the simplest of tools while being fiscally responsible.

A quick trip into each of the computer labs at Doe Run Elementary School and H.C. Burgard Elementary School reveal the same image; aging Apple eMacs in various states of operability with aging software. Clearly it is time for an upgrade to these labs with a focus in design on the reconfigured grades levels in the buildings (K-4).

The Technology Services Organization is currently evaluating all options for computing workstations including netbooks, traditional laptops, desktops, and thin clients. A solution is expected prior to June with installation completed prior to July 1, 2010.