During the past few weeks, the district’s technology department completed several tasks that will aid the work of our faculty and staff and support the education of our students. These tasks included:
- Deploying devices to all third through eighth grade students in conjunction with our iLearn 97 initiative.
- Configuring our devices and network to help ensure that our students have consistent access to critical learning tools and resources both in and out the classroom.
- Strengthening our security settings to enhance student safety and improve our ability to address issues in a timely manner.
- Updating our existing applications and setting up our system so that these applications can be updated automatically in the future.
We also successfully transitioned to a Voice Over IP phone system. This new system features several highlights, including:
- Each building having access to a call manager function that will reduce the amount of front office call through traffic and make it easier for parents/guardians to call in absences, leave messages for teachers, etc.
- Staff members having the ability to make or receive secure calls from their classrooms (no more “party lines” or the need to find another room to make calls).
- Staff members being able to listen to voicemail messages via their phone or audio files that are sent to their district email accounts.
- The district saving time and money that were spent repairing the old system on a regular basis and maintaining a separate server to manage our voicemail system.
- Staff members having access to features and functions that will improve day-to-day operations (e.g., teacher phones forwarded directly to voicemail so calls do not disrupt instruction, on the fly conference calling, sleep mode when phones are not in use, etc.).
In addition to sharing information about the department’s recent activities, I want to update you on our continued efforts to preserve and protect the privacy of our students. During the first week of school, we disseminated our Acceptable Use Policy. Along with this policy, we provided lists of the programs and applications that may be used in our classrooms during the year. These lists feature the following information:
- The name of the program or application.
- A link to the program or application.
- The purpose of the program or application.
- A link to the program or application’s privacy policy.
- Resource information.
- Details about parent permission.
We will continue to keep families apprised of any changes that are made to these lists. We will also utilize our newly implemented data services process, which can be accessed by clicking here, to review, assess and evaluate any and all requests we receive from teachers to add account-based programs or applications.
Lastly, Apple released iOS 9 for its mobile devices this week. These devices include the various ones we use in our schools (iPad 2, iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad Air and iPad Minis). We are requesting that all of our students and staff members wait to perform this upgrade until after the technology department has had the chance to test the new operating system and determine how it will work on our network. For example, our initial research has uncovered that the move to iOS 9 may impact the functionality of some of the apps we currently use in our classrooms.
We plan to complete the testing process during the next 10 days, and will keep you updated on the status of these efforts. In the meantime, please contact [email protected] if you have questions about any of the items above.