Tech Cabinet Standing Items Update/Minutes
for the 5/2/13 meeting
Please
add to this document as needed. Be sure to include any information you
have gleaned from all of your interactions around the district for the
last month. Issues should be strongly highlighted so we can deal with
them. Please include your name so everyone knows who contributed that
piece.
- Data Management - A follow up meeting is scheduled with Illluminate on May 7th at Magnolia Elementary 3:15 PM with 15 "power users."
- Multimedia Integration - Dr. Nye and Rick are working with Cisco to address our hardware and software needs to bring in more multimedia.
- Standards-Based Software - It is still a good idea to have a comprehensive standard across the district to save money. Rob will talk with Sharon more about possible district purchases of common programs that help advance Common Core.
- School Loop - District site to launch next school year.
- Naviance - Dropping middle school option as there aren't enough users to justify the cost.
- Destiny - Rob will follow up with Sharon and Lacy. Still moving forward.
- Infrastructure Items - Still on schedule for July 2013 upgrade
- MITI (Fiscal and HR system out of SDCOE) - Still in process. All districts in the county will participate. This is an 18 month process.
- Prop P Update (Sage Creek HS) - Getting closer to sign off on being done with vendors.
- Communication Items - Social media policy/guideline will be included at the beginning of next year in PD Place. A report mechanism is needed to provide a list/report of staff members who need to complete required forms.
- Aeries/ABI Items - Training on May 9 for trimester master scheduling building.
- School Messenger Items - Rick will continue to address administrative assistant needs for training. No specifics have been provided to Rick from Amy Lawton.
- Common Core Exam Items - Computer laboratory usage requires specific scheduling to accommodation all the grades necessary to test. This will be a priority for sites to determine.
- Exemplary Technology Use Items -
- Matt Taylor registered the district with Google Apps. The archiving fee is $8.50 per student account. We do not recommend a gmail account for each student at this time as we cannot support the volume of students across the district. SchoolLoop has the function already at a lower cost. Dr. Nye and Rick Lewis met with Cisco to investigate the requirements to integrate Unity and Google mail. Students would need a standard user name to follow them throughout their school career.
Dr.
Nye is reviewing online vendors for registration. Newport-Mesa used
the system and provided excellent feedback. May 9th is the
demonstration at 1 PM at the district office.
Tech cabinet approves the recommended changes to the tech plan
regarding the adjustment to the SchoolLoop expectations. The team
agrees the standards are different for primary teachers compared to
secondary teachers. The posting of homework is an important priority as
well as 100% of teachers connected to SchoolLoop for parent and student
communication.
Tech cabinet endores a repair contract for iPad/iPod devices to save
money. Team will based decision on the pricing points that Sharon
determines from visiting iRepair in Solana Beach and A+ Electronics in
Encinitas. Rick Konesky could also research this if further pricing
points are needed as he is in the purchasing department.
Lightspeed:
Google Apps does not cover virus protection for desktops and power
management. Malware is still a big challenge as staff open emails that
launch malware and infect their computers. There are other products
that provide protection we need and power management. Lightspeed is not
a very good product. Matt Taylor and Rick Lewis will research
additional products that meeting legal requirements and our contract
obligations with SDG&E (power management system).
We
do not have enough storage space to accommodate our growing digital
storing needs district-wide. Matt and Rick are researching storage
systems that are more cost effective, such as Google. Current email
users total 1,350, which would cost $11,475 per year with Google's
pricing guide. An exchange server costs $5000-$10000 with 500 GB of
storage. We currently use about half of this storage.
Challenges: Transitions need to be managed with easy beginning steps. Word processing might be better on MS Word. Training time to introduce new products with staff.
