Tech Meeting Notes January 2009

Bresnan—all schools are switched over now. You can go ahead and try some video streaming and please let me know how/if it works or if you have issues. I want to hear some success stories tooJ

Projector project is on schedule. We should be through East this summer. Jeff is aware of the positioning issues several of you are having. Due to wiring restrictions, there may not be much we can do, but we are looking into it.

Refresh: We will be starting with CMR –monitors have been delivered and the machines will be deployed starting around Feb. 2. We will keep you informed as we head to the next school, GFH and beyond. Please get me any changes by end of January including any software needs beyond this list.

RAM and Office 07

Many teachers are struggling with slowness issues now that Kaspersky has been deployed. Please fill out the form for anyone needing RAM (only if they report their computer is slow). We will be adding to increase to ¾ or 1 gig, depending on how much they already have. Also, some teachers might like Office 2007. Again if you hear of those who really want and will use Office 07, you can add them to the list.The models we will be upgrading are Optiplex 200 series, except 240s, and the 300 series. We will not be adding RAM to laptops. Schools will have to furnish funds to upgrade the laptops. They can put in a work ticket for a quote and approach their supervisor to purchase it.

Please turn in lists by the end of January.

Kaspersky

If computers did not get Kaspersky as we went school by school, they will be when they hit the network when we open it up to go to any computer on our network. We will let you know and try to do this after school but even if staff members do not leave on their machines, they will still get the program the next time they log onto the computer. Expect computers to be very, very slow when Kaspersky loads. Labs with Driveshield, etc., will have to be done separately. Techs are aware of this and will get to labs as they can.

Computer Rights

Discussion on how to and who to assign elevated computer rights to. Discussion was around three differing levels: 1. Single user with rights to one machine 2. Lab teacher who needs rights to all machines in one lab 3. Teacher Tech who needs rights to an entire building’s machines.

Further discussion of how to determine proficiency before rights should be elevated. This summer will have a solution in place with the Technology Team being the guinea pigs this spring.

Required skills for tech proficiency were discussed: Creating folders, changing passwords, knowing what is a relatively safe link on the internet, finding program folder and other items on the computer, using Tools, refreshing, setting restore points, defrag, etc; put My Computer, other icons on the desktop, change resolution, trouble shoot network problems, map a drive, add a printer, find IP address, how much RAM is on a computer, add/remove program, network vs local machine, control panel, z-drive issues, searching the computer for a type of file, drop box location, finding items without shortcuts, pinning a program to the start menu, switch users, basic application usage, make a program a default for a file type, licensing issues.

Leslie Fisher will be here April 22 presenting on Web 2.0 and possibly video editing too. She will also be presenting during the Summer Institute August 19.

I will be visiting buildings these next two months. When I visit, I would be happy to do a presentation before or after school for your staff on whatever topics of need you have. I have already visited East, Longfellow and North on various topics.

Remember that the Flip video, digital camera labs are available for checkout.