State of Information and Educational TechnologyPlum Borough School DistrictDr. Chris Davis
State of Educational Technology
Current Technology
Dr. Chris Davis
ASES CES HPES PES RPES AEO PHS Total
Computers 200 190 180 175 130 350 1,100 2,325
iPads 20 55 21 80 20 60 40 296
Printers 6 8 6 8 7 12 46 93
Telephones 40 40 40 45 30 65 170 430
Switches 4 8 5 20 3 7 30 77
White Boards 4 15 15 33 4 15 50 136
BYOD Devices 50 50 50 50 50 200 800 1,250
Servers 0 0 0 2 0 4 20 26
State of Educational Technology
New District WebsiteNew website implemented on January 7, 2013
New professionally designed logo
New color scheme – Royal Purple and Vegas Gold
Improved navigation system including Drop-Down menus
New standard font for web text – Georgia
Continue to add new and updated content each day
Dr. Chris Davis
State of Educational Technology Dr. Chris Davis
State of Educational Technology
EPIC CommunicationsWorks with the district to process all of the e-Rate
paperwork and filings for the federal government
Reviews all eligible contracts and agreements to find “e-Rateable” items that can save the district money
Eliminates countless hours spent by an administrator of the district to process paperwork
Last year the district recouped approximately $75,000 through e-Rate
Contract allows for 10% of e-Rate refund to be paid to EPIC
Dr. Chris Davis
State of Educational Technology
Updates on Current Educational TechnologyGmail Training
The technology department has conducted dozens of training in the new Gmail system for faculty and staff
Training will continue to be offered in specific Google applications via inservice and at the request of building principals
Classroom Technology Installed 600 new laptops in the high school carts during the
summer Replaced lab computers in all of the district buildings iPads continued to be utilized more and more
Online Learning Offered several classes in Moodle for teachers Supervised development of new online courses for high school
Dr. Chris Davis
State of Educational Technology
Updates on Current Educational TechnologyMicrosoft Home Use Program (HUP)
Available to all district employees with network accounts Enables employees to purchase the same version of Microsoft
Office (2011 for Mac or 2010 for PC) used by the district for $9.99
Dr. Chris Davis
State of Educational Technology
Updates on Current Information TechnologyIT Infrastructure
Core switches at the high school and failover switch at Oblock are well beyond “end of life”
Need to be replaced during the 2013-2014 school year Need to fill in holes in the wireless coverage in all of the district
buildings Teachers network storage drives currently being moved off the
district network and onto Google Drive Allows to anytime, anywhere access to district files Allows file sharing with students and other district staff
members
Power Conditioner Finishing installation in October Provided constant power during two recent outages with no
issues Dr. Chris Davis
State of Educational Technology
Updates on Current Information TechnologyInformation Security
State auditor suggested implementing a password change procedure for the district
Technology department forced a complex password change for all district employees on January 7th
Password must be at least 8 characters Password must contain three of the four:
Capital letters Lower case letters Numbers Special charaters
Dr. Chris Davis
State of Educational Technology
Updates on Future Educational Technology iPads will continue to be “hot” items in educational technology
A one-to-one deployment is not an unrealistic goal
Lab computers in the high school and junior high school will need to be replaced in 13-14
eBooks are a viable option for school districts Apple iBook Author is an easy to use tool that teachers can use to
create their own FREE textbooks More publishers will begin to offer textbooks in “e-format” Over 40,000 public domain titles are currently available at no cost
through Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org) Students could store all of their textbooks and all other required
readings on a iPad
Dr. Chris Davis
State of Educational Technology
Updates on Future Educational TechnologyMicrosoft Windows 8 and Office 2013
Currently have licensing and are testing it on several computers Will roll out to a select group of teachers in the coming weeks
Apple Computer Groups of teachers and administrators have asked for Apple
computers Will begin to consider roll-out of these devices on a case-by-case
basis next academic year
Dr. Chris Davis
State of Educational Technology
Update on BYODThe district is currently experiencing an influx of
approximately 1,000 BYOD devices per day
Most popular devices iOS devices – iPhone and iPad Android devices Personal laptops
Update in November seems to have alleviated stress on the network Tech department continues to monitor the wireless network on a
daily basis
Currently in talks with AIU3 concerning bandwidth PBSD may be able to triple bandwidth at the same or possible
lower cost Dr. Chris Davis
State of Educational Technology
Updates on Future Information TechnologyCore switches at the high school and junior high school
MUST be replaced Failure of the high school switch would knock out phone service
to the entire district without the possibility of recovery
New virtual servers will enable the district to process network traffic and requests at a much faster rate Slated for purchase in 2014-2015
New Mobile Device Management software will be deployed soon Allows easier administrator and management of mobile devices
Sophos Internet Filter Evaluating replacing the current Cymphonix filter with Sophos
Dr. Chris Davis
State of Educational Technology
Thank You!
Do you have any questions?
Dr. Chris Davis