Neil Manders, Technology Coordinator Windham Central Supervisory Union

FINALLY, A First Class, A-1 Solution

A tour of how a project called the Virtual School Network has helped bring technology off the shelf and move it forward in the district.

Quick Overview of District April, 2004

The district:– 10 schools: 2 admin offices; Covering 365 sq.

Miles– Most schools single grade or grade clusters– Student population approx 1100– Teaching, support staff and admin approx 225

The technology:

NES

BES

TES

JES

WIN ES

Ward ES

DES

MES

WCSU

LGUHS

Verizon’s Frame Cloud

Sover Net

ISP

WCSU Technology

High school centric

Modem Bank

Pop Mail accounts

Apache Server

The Technology (Continued)

Lack of technology staff to provide local assistance and motivation

No centralization all under local control Varied use of technology from school to school A few individual initiatives but no broad

initiatives

What Were the Issues

Tech-lethargy– No district-wide initiatives– Lack of local support– Other interests on plates– Technology thought of as add-on

Need for collaboration across the district (teachers, administrators & students)

Very limited Dollars for Technology– Small schools; small dollars

Newfane

Brookline

Townshend

Windham

Wardsboro

Dover

Marlboro

Central Office

LGUHS

Sover Net

ISP

Jamaica

Harmonyville office

Verizon Frame Cloud

Duncan CableSDSL

So. Vt. Cable

The Match that Ignited Change

More Matches

NCLB awareness and requirements Technology GLEs Reduction of District Technology Position Desire to get more out of the districts investment

in FirstClass– SVTC First Class Project– Admin Use of First Class out of the box

The Superintendent Is that all there is?

Dennis-Yarmouth District

Cape Cod, Mass.

Yarmouth School District

Yarmouth Maine

The Two Yarmouths

What Did We Want Increase the use of technology in the schools Keep system costs ALAP (as low as possible) Use the limited tech coordinator time to supporting teaching and learning not

infrastructure Get/nudge/pressure local involvement Maintain some school identity but create district unity Small learning curve in order to get up and running Flexible system to grow with use and need Cross Platform use New and useable web sites for all schools

– Easy publishing of school information– Non-techie management and content loading– Lots of people able to contribute directly– all sites reach out and include their respective communities– All teachers to have easy web publishing for their classes

What Did We Get

Professional accounts for all teachers and staff Heightened awareness and participation by

school personnel Workshops, discussions, and trainings at all

schools School board attention, training and involvement AND

Customized User Desktops

Intranet/In-house communications

Internet/ Web CommunicationsSchool Web Pages

Brookline elementary

Dover Elementary

Jamaica elementary

Marlboro elementary

Wardsboro elementary

Newfane elementary

Windham elementary

Leland and Gray HS

Lets take a First Hand Look

                       

What next

Increase participants involved with sites Build up all school sites with CONTENT Work with teachers Create new templates Expand use of forms, form tracking and paper

reduction Create on-line learning environments for PD and

student use Integrate local SIS actively into the system

Cost Design and Set up fee Hosting fee

– Example (a): 1 district + 1 HS + 7 elem• Design/setup = $9300• Hosting = $5000• Year one = $14,300• Year two + = $5000

– Example (b): 1 elem. school with VSN Lite• (web site only)• Design/setup = $400• Hosting = $400• Year one = $ 800; Yr. 2 = $400