Slow progress

Since school began, 758 helpdesk tickets have been submitted. Of those, 621 have been closed (and yes, I realize that not all closed tickets are really fixed- sometimes we fix a problem, but haven't actually solved the issue).

If you have a helpdesk ticket that has not been solved, I apologize. We have been working at less than full staffing for much of the last month for a variety of reasons, and we are also dealing with many "growing pains" associated with recreating our network operating system, authentication system, software distribution methods, print servers, and data servers. We are learning a whole new operating system, management tools, and methods of operation. The result is that we can't solve problems as quickly as we would like, since we are encountering many of them for the first time.

With such overwhelming demands, we have had to prioritize. I realize that every issue is important, so it feels frustrating to not have your issues resolved in a timely manner. We are taking all factors into account and dealing with many issues that are "behind the scenes" such as creating software installation packages, re-creating print server systems, helping get HVAC servers working again so that heat and AC can work properly, and getting the new website running correctly (which is the #1 request from parents).

We realize this is stressful for you, as it is for us. Thanks for patience and understanding as we try to get everything running as quickly as possible.

Can't find the program you need on your computer? Here's a solution!

Do you ever log in to your computer and look in the Zenworks Application menu, but can't find a program that you should have? Well, we know one reason this might happen, and have a solution.

ZENworks login window. Don't click cancel!

When you log in, if you see a Zenworks login window, DO NOT CLICK CANCEL! (Yes, we may have told you to click "cancel" before, but it turns out that this is a bad idea.) Instead, LOG IN, using your OSD username and password. It should either work, or you'll get an error message.

If it works, great! If you get an error message, you can either report the computer to the helpdesk, or you can fix it yourself by doing the following steps:

1. Open the E: drive on your computer.
2. Delete the file called "register.txt".
3. Reboot the computer. It will re-register with the Zenworks server, reboot once on its own, and then you can log in.
4. Log in.

Another tip- Once you find the application in the Zenworks Application window and double-click on it, you have to wait for it to install on your computer from the server. Unfortunately, it doesn't give you a progress bar (we're working on that), so it looks like it's doing nothing, which of course means you want to double-click on it again. Try to resist the impulse. Just like pressing the elevator button a bunch of times doesn't make the door close faster, double-clicking on the application icon doesn't make it load faster. In fact, it slows it down more, because then it tries to install it multiple times.

"Okay," you say, "but at least you can see the elevator doors, so you know when the elevator is actually doing something."

Here's a tip: If you want to see if Zenworks is actually installing the application on your computer, you can right-click on the Z icon in the toolbar and select "Show Progress." This will show you what it's doing.

You can also look very carefully at the application icon itself. While it's installing, it has some little green downward arrows on it, indicating "I'm downloading." When it's done, it has a little red Z on it, indicating, quite unintuitively, that it is installed. But really, that's so small, I don't expect anybody to pay much attention to it.

Don't let your teacher website disappear on Halloween!

Tech alert for all teachers who have a teacher website

Don't let your website disappear on Halloween! On October 31, 2010, the old public website at http://old.oregonsd.org will disappear. If your website is on it, and you want to keep it, you need to move it!

How? Glad you asked. Here are the four basic steps.

1. Choose a new place for your site. You basically have four options, which are explained here.
2. Decide if your old stuff is really worth saving, or if you would be better off just starting from scratch. (If you are starting from scratch, skip to step 4.)
   
3. If your old stuff is worth saving/transferring, download it from your old site at http://old.oregonsd.org and save it someplace memorable.
4. Upload your content to the new place you chose in step 1.

FAQ

Q: Why do we have to do this?
A: We got lots of complaints about our old website, it looked pretty shoddy compared to neighboring districts, and we had a long list of requested features. The old website was declared a "dead end" product by the maker- there was no way to upgrade it and maintain the content, including teacher web sites. We evaluated many options and chose SchoolWorld.

Q: Why did you wait until now to make the change?
A: Well, we had intended to roll out the new website in early July, but we ran into some technical and design issues, so it wasn't completed until early August. We told everybody how to move their content to the new website via email and blog post on August 11. Unfortunately, August is a really horrible time to ask anybody to change things, and we understand that. It wasn't what we intended, but it's how it ended up. To avoid mass panic of websites disappearing in August, we paid for an extension of our old site until October 31.

Q: Why will our old stuff disappear?
A: Our contract with Powercom/CMS4Schools/CESA6 was set to end in August. We purchased an extension to keep it live for another couple months to give everybody time to move their content.

Q: But we just did this a couple years ago- how do we know SchoolWorld won't go away in three years so we have to do this all over again?
A: The old website provider was a small Wisconsin company that changed ownership multiple times. It was selected under extremely short time constraints. SchoolWorld is a national company used by many districts. It constantly updates its services, adding new features, unlike the old website which was declared a "dead end" product by its maker. Therefore, the need to replace SchoolWorld is much less likely.

Q: What if I need help?
A: Our Information Technology Literacy Teachers are available to help!

Any other questions or concerns? Feel free to contact me.