Monthly (sorta) review

Since the first day of school, the IT Department has closed an amazing 740 helpdesk tickets. That's roughly 25 per work day, which is really high. This week, the backlog finally went under 100.

This might be normal- this is the first year we've had the GLPI helpdesk to track our work at the beginning of the school year. Even if it has always been this much work at the beginning of the year, it still seems like a ton.

Some projects got postponed due to an overload of summer projects. Destiny upgrades, SmartBoard installation, sound system installation, parent newsletter email system, ITIL databases, Groupwise migrations, disk-to-disk backup systems, virtualization projects, and Internet connection upgrades all had to be put off. We are finally catching up now and able to look ahead at these projects for the coming year.

Thanks for everyone who waited patiently (and even not so patiently) for us to resolve your issues and work on your systems.

Monthly review, July 2008

IT Monthly Review
July 21, 2008

The past month in IT:

• The IT department has closed 95 helpdesk tickets.
• Implemented VPN services on the PIX (still in testing mode)
• Migrated four servers to virtualized instances on new hardware
• Successfully migrated email from a GroupWise account to a Gmail account under Google Apps.
• Implemented bandwidth management on the Lightspeed system.
• Began planning district-wide 802.11n wireless implementation.
• Kept working on replacing the 375 old computers, mainly at OHS and RCI.
• Performed setup for summer school and Oregon Summer Series courses.
• Completed PowerSchool rollover for end-of-year processes. 
• Migrated public website to new hosting facility operated by CESA 6.
  

The past month of the Information and Technology Literacy Team:

• Sent three teachers to the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC).
• Experimented with various Web2.0 social networking applications.
• Taught a variety of professional development classes for teachers from Oregon and neighboring districts.
• Developed curricula for new courses in the fall.
• Began physical relocation of Tech Resource Teacher offices
• Assessed benefits of Destiny upgrade for circulation management.
• Contributed to summer school operations.

In the past month, Jon:

• Got a trap door installed in his office.
  
• Participated in administrative retreat.
  
• Facilitated the "Technology Standards for Administrators" course on administrative retreat.
• Contributed to A-team meetings.
• Began developing a PDP assistance packet for staff to incorporate NETS*T.

Monthly review

IT Monthly Review

June 20, 2008

The past month in IT:

• The IT department has closed 307 helpdesk tickets.
• Received, unloaded, and began configuring 375 new computers.
• Moved NKE labs for asbestos abatement.
• Set up for summer school.
• Checked out summer use notebooks to many staff.
• Started summer maintenance cycle on hardware.
  

The past month of the Information and Technology Literacy Team:

• Revised job descriptions of Tech and Library EAs to make sure schools have adequate support next year.
  
• Finalized participant rosters for next year's Technology Integration Project.
• Had a video editing workshop.
• Attended SmartBoard training.
  

In the past month, Jon:

• Communicated with other ASUS EeePC pilot projects in Colorado and Maine.
  
• Participated in A-Team meetings regarding staffing and program changes.
• Implemented and facilitated Moodle course: NETS for Administrators.
  
• Hired summer help.
• Hired final Tech Resource Teacher position for 2008-2009.
  
• Assisted with coordination of keyboarding teaching schedule at elementary buildings.
  
• Coordinated installation of multiple projector and SmartBoards purchase with building and grant funds.
  

Monthly review, May 22, 2008

IT Monthly Review

May 22, 2008

The past month in IT:

• The IT department has closed 349 helpdesk tickets.
• Investigated a major security breach, and performed a wholesale password policy revision as a result.
  
• Investigated network management solutions for Linux computers.
• Began preliminary planning for Alternative High School phone, computer, and data needs.
  
• Troubleshot several cases of unexpected server performance degradation.
• Developed plan for elimination of roaming profiles on user accounts to decrease login times.
  
• Finalized hardware replacement plans for summer 2008.
• Resolved issue of fiber optic cabling being in path of ice rink- the rink will move 4' to accommodate the easement.
• Processed and uploaded MAP and WKCE test scores to Eclipse.
• Processed summer course registration for teachers.
• Created furniture plans for new Tech Resource offices in DSO tech area.
• Began work on a regular student data import into Naviance system for OHS guidance.
  

The past month of the Information and Technology Literacy Team:

• Discussed staff changes for next year.
• Identified ways to improve the summer series registration process in coming years.
• Began revising job descriptions of Tech and Library EAs to make sure schools have adequate support next year.
  
• Identified concerns with the new elementary schedule and began communicating those to principals.
  
• Designed three new versions of the TIP class to allow increased participation by staff.
• Facilitated the TIP showcase for the Board.
  

In the past month, Jon:

• Observed several high school classes using the ASUS EeePCs.
  
• Participated in A-Team meetings regarding staffing and program changes.
• Began planning summer NETS training for administrators.
  
• Presented report to the Board regarding the Technology Integration Project.
• Reached a tentative agreement for purchase of our surplus computers this summer.
• Attended the WiscNet Future Technologies Conference.
• Participated in labor management meeting.
• Tested PHPlist mailing list system.
• Coordinated installation of multiple projector and SmartBoards purchase with building and grant funds.
  

Monthly review, April 22, 2008

IT Monthly Review

April 22, 2008

The past month in IT:

• The IT department has closed 265 helpdesk tickets.
• Got MAP testing working reasonably well, thanks to a week's worth of work by Doug and Zach.
  
• Deployed a new SPAM filter system that allows users to see the spam that got blocked and whitelist senders who should not have been blocked.
  
• Launched a pilot program of the EeePC at OHS that has attracted interest in several states. (Read description here.)
  
• Created a Datacast web-publishing wiki to share resources with other Wisconsin school districts.
• Developed a Linux-based live CD to install the datacast software onto any PC, and made it available publicly.
• Worked with the Educational Communications Board to educate other districts about the advantages of datacasting and the open-source software available to deploy it easily.
  
• Evaluated several computers for the 2008-2009 school year replacement cycle.
• Panicked about the new ice rink construction threatening to dig up our fiber optic cable feeding OMS and BKE.
• Prepared and submitted MAP test rosters.
• Developed online registration for summer series courses for teachers.
• Set up new parent liaison employees in the increasingly crowded DSO.
  

The past month of the Information and Technology Literacy Team:

• Coped with reorganization plan for next year.
• Coordinated our involvement with the SACs to incorporate ITL outcomes into curriculum.
• Reviewed summer course offerings.
• Assisted TIP participants with using new equipment.
• Helped with a little bit of MAP testing logistics.
  

In the past month, Jon:

• Developed recommendations for the board regarding Tech Resource, computer apps, and keyboarding staffing.
• Assisted principals with job change meetings with teachers.
• Co-presented OSD's Datacast web-publishing model with Zach at the WEMTA conference.
• Assisted with interviews for a Tech EA position.
• Developed 2008-2009 budget priorities and created a preliminary budget.
  

Monthly review- March 22, 2008

IT Monthly Review

March 22, 2008

The past month in IT:

• The IT department has closed 295 helpdesk tickets.
• Received word that NWEA has released TestTaker 6 for MAP testing. In related news, Verona started their annual testing and had the same problems we did last year. This does not bode well for our tests, but perhaps the new version of TestTaker will help.
• Installed the demo version of Lightspeed Total Traffic Control to test for deployment.
• Re-refined the parent mass-mailer system for approvers to make it smoother. Still have a few bugs to work out, though.
• Revised PowerSchool backup scheme to give us monthly historical archives in addition to disaster recovery restoration points.
• Test implemented a Groupwise-based calendar for reserving the DSO North Conference Room.
• Ordered equipment for the Technology Integration Program (TIP) requests.
• Drafted 2008-09 budget for IT department.
• Chose specs for standard desktop to be ordered this summer.
• Performed troubleshooting on the OMS server to solve poor performance.
• Migrated all printers to a new server to reduce the dependencies between email and print queues.
• Dealt with a slight increase in spam received by users due to expiration of "Energize Updates" on our current anti-spam system. We are hoping to implement the new system within weeks, and therefore don't want to pay the annual subscription renewal. Actual percentage of spam increase has been negligible, but some users are getting 5-10 per day instead of only one per day. We still block most spam. Our ratio of spam blocked to email allowed is 10:1. You can see in the graph below that the amount of spam (red) is still being blocked, and is much greater than the number of messages being allowed (in green).
• Dealt with systems that are still not compliant with the new DST change schedule.
• Implemented SAML single sign-on for Google Apps domains.

The past month of the Information and Technology Literacy Team:

• Developed budget for 2008-09.
• Started planning for the logistics of actually implementing the ITLT Professional Development Plan.
• Did some on-the-fly keyboarding research to recommend to administration.
• Brainstormed possible ways to proactively deal with the migration to digital TV signals, which is resulting in scarcity of analog AV equipment we use.
• Coordinated our involvement with the SACs to incorporate ITL outcomes into curriculum.
• Reviewed summer course offerings.
  

In the past month, Jon:

• Was principal for a day at OMS. Twice.
• Assisted with the A-team Tier 1 Indicator culture subcommittee
• Participated in planning the WiscNet Future Technologies Conference
• Researched keyboarding best practice and made recommendations to the administrative team
  
• Created an A-Team wiki
• Presented the ITLT Professional Development Plan to the board
• Assisted with the transition of a long term sub TRT at RCI.