Why hello, it's been awhile! The beginning of the school year has been great, a very busy time for all of us at Louisville Public Schools.
Last night we had our first (of two) parent meeting for the High School 1:1 Laptop Program. It was exciting to see the program starting off with great parental support! I encourage those of you who might have missed the meeting to attend our second meeting next Tuesday, October 12 at 7:00 P.M. in the commons. There is a lot of important information we need to pass along as well as some forms that students and parents need to sign. We are requiring a parent/guardian to attend for the student to be able to take the laptop out of the school building. We are excited for this program to begin and believe it will change education at Louisville.
Amidst preparing all of the policies and procedures, users guide and other information for the parent meeting and 1:1 program with Shureen, Matt and I have been very busy. We have many responsibilities outside of the 1:1 program preparation. Matt has been at ESU #3 for SMART Board training this week and the teachers will have development training on the boards. Our most recent purchase of SMART Boards will be making an impact in the Elementary. We have purchased Mimio systems for the Middle School, which are just like SMART Boards, except they use the existing marker board in the classroom. The High School has some SMART Boards along with the laptops the students will be getting in January which will make a huge impact for those students.
As we approach the 1:1 roll out in January, I plan to post to the blog more often. Thanks for reading and enjoy the fall weather!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
New Year
The beginning of the 2010-2011 school year is here! I have worked in public schools for the past 6 years of my rather young life and summers around schools always amaze me. I say this because so much happens during the summer months around schools that most people don't know about. There is a lot of work put into getting everything ready for a new year. This summer has been no exception.
It's neat to see all the hard work pay off at the end of the summer actually. The hallways are shiny, carpets are clean, there is new paint, clean windows and so much more. New equipment comes in, lots of paperwork is done. The summer crews don't always get the appreciation they deserve. It's not by magic that schools are cleaned, schedules are setup, and paperwork is done when everyone returns in the fall, it's by a lot of hard work. So, here's a big thanks to the crew and all they do!
I snapped this photo in earlier this month when all the floors were finished.
Alas, it is refreshing to see students in the hallways and classrooms again. The building has more life and energy when the students are in school.
As for Matt and myself, the end of the summer was busy and there's always a good list of to-dos when everyone returns with requests. But, there is nothing wrong with that. We're two days into the 2010-2011 school year and I can say that all the work over the summer has paid off. All of our to-dos are relatively minor things, it's not like we've had any servers crash or anything. So, the year is off to a great start. Here's off to a great year of new and exciting technology advances at Louisville Public Schools!
(The picture below is just a shot of the labs being imaged in early August. See "How it's done..." under this post for an explanation of imaging.)
It's neat to see all the hard work pay off at the end of the summer actually. The hallways are shiny, carpets are clean, there is new paint, clean windows and so much more. New equipment comes in, lots of paperwork is done. The summer crews don't always get the appreciation they deserve. It's not by magic that schools are cleaned, schedules are setup, and paperwork is done when everyone returns in the fall, it's by a lot of hard work. So, here's a big thanks to the crew and all they do!
I snapped this photo in earlier this month when all the floors were finished.
Alas, it is refreshing to see students in the hallways and classrooms again. The building has more life and energy when the students are in school.
As for Matt and myself, the end of the summer was busy and there's always a good list of to-dos when everyone returns with requests. But, there is nothing wrong with that. We're two days into the 2010-2011 school year and I can say that all the work over the summer has paid off. All of our to-dos are relatively minor things, it's not like we've had any servers crash or anything. So, the year is off to a great start. Here's off to a great year of new and exciting technology advances at Louisville Public Schools!
(The picture below is just a shot of the labs being imaged in early August. See "How it's done..." under this post for an explanation of imaging.)
Thursday, July 8, 2010
25+
We're well over halfway now with updating faculty laptops, we have completed over 25 of the laptops with only a few left to go next week. The red check marks in the photo below indicate the machines that are completed.
Since I have not posted in a few weeks, I'll post some more pictures of the laptops, the first one below is of the machines being imaged. This process 'clones' the machine from our master machine and loads all the software and other necessary settings onto it. The second picture is of the machines that were ready for transfer. We take the data from one machine, and transfer it to the next. It has really been a smooth process, I would say of all the times I have done this it was the best run of all. Now our teachers are enjoying self-learning about their laptops until August when we start some formal training on the new programs and features.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Teacher Laptops
Busy Times...
In the next month we will be extremely busy receiving all the teacher laptops. The staff all has scheduled times that work with their summer calendars to drop off their laptops. This allows them to keep them over the summer to use. Here are some pictures of the process we are going through preparing each teacher's laptop for the next year. A name decal and inventory sticker will be going on every laptop, this just happens to be one of the white MacBooks.
In the next month we will be extremely busy receiving all the teacher laptops. The staff all has scheduled times that work with their summer calendars to drop off their laptops. This allows them to keep them over the summer to use. Here are some pictures of the process we are going through preparing each teacher's laptop for the next year. A name decal and inventory sticker will be going on every laptop, this just happens to be one of the white MacBooks.
How it's done...
Some of you might know the process, but for those who don't I will explain briefly. You might be wondering, 'how do they install software on all those laptops?' Well, it is a process called imaging. This consists of several complicated pieces of network, software, and server setups. But, I'll give you the just of it. Basically we take one machine, install all the software on it we want to have on every machine in the building and make what we call a base image. This 'base' has the software we have licensed for the entire district. Then, we build on that 'base' for special image needs. For example, the middle and elementary school students will have Photoshop Elements on their lab. This is installed on a special Middle School or Elementary School Lab image, but saves us time by not completely building the entire image over again because we build off the base. These images are then deployed to the computers using special software, it wipes the machines and clones them to be exactly like the image or master machine. It makes our job much simpler, but can cause complications at the same time.
Some of you might know the process, but for those who don't I will explain briefly. You might be wondering, 'how do they install software on all those laptops?' Well, it is a process called imaging. This consists of several complicated pieces of network, software, and server setups. But, I'll give you the just of it. Basically we take one machine, install all the software on it we want to have on every machine in the building and make what we call a base image. This 'base' has the software we have licensed for the entire district. Then, we build on that 'base' for special image needs. For example, the middle and elementary school students will have Photoshop Elements on their lab. This is installed on a special Middle School or Elementary School Lab image, but saves us time by not completely building the entire image over again because we build off the base. These images are then deployed to the computers using special software, it wipes the machines and clones them to be exactly like the image or master machine. It makes our job much simpler, but can cause complications at the same time.
For example, today I had the base image ready to go. Tested all the software, made sure all the updates were ran, and a host of other things that you have to remember before making the image. Well, Apple released an update at about 1pm, so I had to stop and update it before finalizing the image.
We just like to have our images be as up-to-date as possible. Of course, by the time the year starts there will be more.
Of course, installing all of this software and setting up the base image takes time too. You have to make sure everything is in working order. After all, this will be on hundreds of computers. Here is a picture of the installation of Adobe Design Premium CS5.
Of course, installing all of this software and setting up the base image takes time too. You have to make sure everything is in working order. After all, this will be on hundreds of computers. Here is a picture of the installation of Adobe Design Premium CS5.
The base image has been in the workings for the last week or so. It's best not to rush when making one, that way you can be sure to include everything and think of all the little settings that need to be changed for things to work correctly.
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Delivery
The computers are here, along with most of the software we will be using. Now, on to getting them ready!
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Summer TAT Training
Matt and I have decided to blog about our experiences and progress with implementing the 1:1 laptop program at Louisville Public Schools in Louisville, NE. We want to keep our staff updated over the summer months as well as outside colleagues, friends and family.
This is an informal information source, so just as a personal disclaimer, anything we post might not always be set in stone. Also, I will probably go into detail on some things that folks outside the district might not understand or be in the loop on. For example, explaining our TAT team in the next paragraph.
Topics we covered include: machine basics, home sync procedures and rules, printing/PaperCut, Mac Mail and Address Book, iCal, iChat, iWork and Open Office, and Moodle.
This is an informal information source, so just as a personal disclaimer, anything we post might not always be set in stone. Also, I will probably go into detail on some things that folks outside the district might not understand or be in the loop on. For example, explaining our TAT team in the next paragraph.Yesterday, we had our trai
ning for the TAT team. The team consists of 10 members from various teaching areas and grade levels. These teachers will be assigned several staff members to train and take under their wings. They will be a first line of help for teachers who have questions or need help, we are giving them lots of tools to be able to accomplish this task.
ning for the TAT team. The team consists of 10 members from various teaching areas and grade levels. These teachers will be assigned several staff members to train and take under their wings. They will be a first line of help for teachers who have questions or need help, we are giving them lots of tools to be able to accomplish this task.
Topics we covered include: machine basics, home sync procedures and rules, printing/PaperCut, Mac Mail and Address Book, iCal, iChat, iWork and Open Office, and Moodle.
The team had a mock environment where they could explore and play with the new operating system and software. We demonstrated how we are going to be using programs like iCal and iChat and wrote down lots of questions, suggestions and issues we will need to work out. It was a great time to initiate the discussion and training for our 1:1 environment!
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