State of Information and Educational Technology

1. State of Information and Educational Technology Plum Borough School District Dr. Chris Davis

2. Current Technology State of Educational Technology

3. New District Website • New 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 State of Educational Technology

4. State of Educational Technology

5. EPIC Communications • Works 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 State of Educational Technology

6. Updates on Current Educational Technology • Gmail 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 State of Educational Technology

7. Updates on Current Educational Technology • Microsoft 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 State of Educational Technology

8. Updates on Current Information Technology • IT 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 State of Educational Technology

9. Updates on Current Information Technology • Information 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 State of Educational Technology

10. 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 State of Educational Technology

11. Updates on Future Educational Technology • Microsoft 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 State of Educational Technology

12. Update on BYOD • The 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 State of Educational Technology

13. Updates on Future Information Technology • Core 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 State of Educational Technology

14. Thank You! Do you have any questions? State of Educational Technology