March Update #1

IT Notes

Upgrades 

Well, it's been a few months now since our upgraded connection that doubled our overall network speeds for the district. We've seen greatly improved experiences in classroom, labs, and on carts. We've got enough wiggle room to be able to support testing or other larger scale days with lots of people on, but it's important to keep things in perspective. We have a faster internet connection than many school districts in the area and in the state. There also are several school districts much larger than us that have same connection speeds. So, we should be grateful that we are out front and able to take advantage these higher speeds to provide our students with the best digital learning experiences. Yet, we still want to make sure that we're following best practices in maximizing our resources by not streaming in HD or in multiple instances if we don't have to.

Also, it is important to understand why "drops" are still occurring in some areas. Each wireless access point or "AP" is one of those little white boxes mounted on the ceiling. They provide wireless network access like your wireless router at home. Besides overall network speed, the other major factor in wireless experience is simply the number of devices connecting. Each AP can only handle certain number of devices connecting. If it goes over that amount, some devices won't be able to connect.

Three years ago when we transitioned from a very low number of wireless devices to several carts worth, we envisioned a "pod" type setup where one AP would provide service for a small area of a few classrooms. As we've continued to ramp-up our devices to our current 1:1.16 student:device ratio, we've learned that we need to transition to a more per-classroom approach for APs to ensure adequate coverage. That transition started this year with installation of additional APs at the HS in the fall and several at the ML this winter. You will continue to see additions over the next couple of years as the budget allows until each classroom has an AP in it. Additional common spaces, gyms and auditoriums will not see additional APs but will have replacements cycled through as we're already at our 3 year average lifespan for many of these.

PLEAT Program Wrapping Up

Today, our PLEAT program wraps up for this year. PLEAT provides students in grades 6, 9 and soon 12 the opportunity to get a dual-funded Chromebook. As we look forward to next year's program kicking off in August, we've learned some important lessons about things that worked well and changes that need to be made for next year's program. One important thing that I hope to get across to all stakeholders is the importance of the this program's success and how it impacts students in terms of access to technology.

We are at our device peak for district-owned student devices. In fact, with budget projections for the next few years, we will likely need to scale back the number of overall devices owned by the district by a few. Thus, the only way to see a net increase in devices in kids' hands is with the PLEAT program which allows for additional devices plus some redistribution of current device assignments to areas of need that aren't eligible for PLEAT like Eagle View. If we get larger numbers of parents taking advantage the PLEAT program in the future, we will be able to realize our district's vision of a 1:1 student device ratio in a financially sustainable way. Please do your part by encouraging participation whenever possible.

Using PLEAT Devices at School

After speaking with two parents, there was some confusion as to whether students were supposed to bring PLEAT devices at all or when. Students should start bringing their PLEAT devices to school as soon as they receive them. For internet access, students with PLEAT devices will use the 186Open WiFi network (as they do with their phones). The intention is that they will be able to access the same educational content as they do on school devices.

Teachers: If you find that something for your class is blocked or not working on the 186Open network for students with these devices, please put in a ticket immediately to tech support so that we can unblock it. We've had the open network locked down quite a bit this year so it is likely we'll miss something as we start to open it back up for use with PLEAT devices.

If you need a refresher on how to switch or get on the open network, please email me.

Google Apps Updates

GoogleDocs Dictation -

Google keeps adding more and more features to apps though they often get overlooked. This has happened recently with Docs which now supports integrated dictation. That means you click a button, the microphone turns on, captures your speech and types it out for you. It also has the ability to capture punctuation. So if you say "comma" it will type a "," for you.

This has huge implications for the classroom and in my opinion, this is the first time the speech recognition is good enough that it doesn't take longer to dictate than just type. One word of warning: it relies heavily on enunciation or speaking clearly, so in some cases, student success may vary until they get used to speaking louder and clearer than they normally would. If you would like to use it, open a gDoc and it will be under the tools menu.