From the Director - David Fernandez

Great To Be Back!

As you know, Tech Talk has been absent for sometime.  As a cost saving measure we decided to look for an alternative to the printed version of Tech Talk.  With the efforts of Peggy Steffens and Debbie Anthony, Tech Talk will be offered as an on-line service.  This will not only help us to reduce cost, but we hope to reach out to more people at the same time.  We hope you enjoy our newest version of Tech Talk.  Please provide us with suggestions for improving this newsletter. You may e-mail information to us by clicking on the feedback link on the right side of the page

This school year, the Technology Department converted Nash, Rio Vista, Coronado, and Holaway to Microsoft Windows 2003 Server.  Overall the process went smoothly, but with any change there are always issues that come up and must be resolved.  As we continue this migration, we are learning and improving our process.  One notable thing that we do differently is we not only meet with school administration, but also meet with the entire staff at each site before the migration is started.  This is done to share information on what to expect and to answer any questions.  A positive result that has come from this conversion is that the network staff has the ability to better manage the school networks remotely from Wetmore.  The Network Techs can now respond in a more timely fashion to most networking issues at schools. 

Currently the Technology Department is working on a Technology Plan that will be submitted to the Arizona State Department of Education.  The current plan expires this June, 2006.  With the assistance of department staff, District administrators, teachers, students, community members, and parents, a plan will be drafted. 

A kickoff meeting was held on March 22^nd to bring the committee members together.  Introductions were made and a notebook was handed out to each person.  The notebook contained the current technology plan, a template for the new plan, and reference documents.  A second meeting is scheduled for April 14^th.  This will be an all day meeting where the committee will divide into groups.  Each group will work on a specific section of the new template.  After the all day meeting, the results from each group will be aggregated.  A draft of the new plan will be sent to each committee member for their approval.  The plan will be presented at the May 9^th Governing Board meeting. 

The Technology Plan is important to the District.  Some sources of federal funding that Amphitheater Public Schools receives is dependent upon the District having an approved plan filed with Arizona State Department of Education.  I understand that this process does take away time from each committee member’s day, but it is important.  I do appreciate the time and effort given by everyone involved in this. 

Technology Plan – Part 2

As mentioned above, we are working on a technology plan that will be submitted to the state.  The next step will be to draft a more comprehensive plan for future Technology needs.  This plan will identify specific areas for improvement as well as recommend new technologies for the District.  These new technologies may include such items as wireless in our schools and IP Telephony.

In the upcoming weeks, Technology staff will be visiting your school site to survey the network infrastructure.  The group will include Will McCullen, Tom Gill, Matt Weber, and Raul Bejarano.  This information will be shared with other departments to get their feedback.  We will also use the information from the surveys to prioritize future upgrades for schools.