FOUNDATIONS - Technology & Information Services Technological changes and improvements continue to challenge the district.  This past year has been no exception as demands for service and support increase.  The TIS (Technology & Information Services) Department is trying to satisfy the growing needs of the district with the same number of staff. Below is a brief summary of some (not all) of the projects and challenges that we have faced and will continue to face in the years to come. Projects Completed – January 2005 to January 2006 General Work Orders The TIS (Technology & Information Services) Department received 3,409 work orders over the course of the year and closed 3,513.  These work orders, however, do not reflect the project work that is described below.  The Help Desk handled 5,000 phone calls and e-mails over the course of the year as well.   As of January 5th, TIS had a backlog of 162 work orders. Network Infrastructure A new Firewall was installed at the Board Office to provide greater stability and flexibility in accessing outside secure resources.  General Currie, Anderson, Westwind, Whiteside, and Talmey elementary schools have been provided with school wide wireless capability.  Over the course of the next 18 months, we hope to extend this capability to all schools. Lab Rebuilds Over the Summer months, the technicians rebuilt 11 CAD labs (341 workstations and 11 servers) 11 Business Education labs (341 workstations and 11 servers), and 39 Elementary labs (1,209 workstations and 39 servers).  Over Christmas, we updated the IT image to increase functionality (341 workstations and 11 servers). IT Lab Replacement The replacement of the secondary school IT labs went quite smoothly even though the technicians had to spend considerable amounts of time dealing with the August virus in the PC domain.  There are still a few technical issues in the new IT labs, but teachers and technicians are working collaboratively to find solutions to the problems.  The IT teachers continue to meet on a regular basis for discussions, inservice, and problem solving. Software Sales and Training The Director of Instruction (Technology & Information Services), Stewart Lynch, and Glen Bussey, Teacher Consultant, have continued to develop in-house software solutions that are now offered for sale around the world.   Gross revenues from sales and training for 2005 exceeded $130,000. Current/Ongoing Projects and Future Considerations Technology Inservice The after school technology workshops continue to be well received, but there is also a need for sustained inservice training.  Several things have been done to facilitate this need.  Some workshops have been converted to multi sessions.  A Technology Study Group has been formed for elementary teachers which meets on a monthly basis to explore ways of integrating technology into learning and teaching.  As part of the secondary IT lab update, six days of inservice was organized for the IT teachers — four days last June and two days at the end of the Summer holidays.  Most of the IT teachers volunteered to present to the others, which made for a very successful series of workshops. There has been some success in supporting teachers in programs like TLITE and others are starting to form their own study groups to further their knowledge and skills.  The Technology & Information Services group of educators (Glen Bussey, Glen Priestley, Judith Kootte, and Stewart Lynch) will be working with Kathyrn D’Angelo, Wendy Lim, and the Learning Services Department to find ways to incorporate more technology into the support that is provided by that department. Media Arts Project (from Learning Through The Arts) By popular demand, the successful Media Arts Project has expanded to eight schools this year.  This is a project where professional media artists help teachers integrate technology into intermediate subject areas.  The media artists provide teachers with two training sessions on software and techniques they will use later with the students.  The media artists then make four classroom visits over several weeks to work with the students on well planned units that integrate technology and the curriculum.  The ongoing nature of these projects allows the students to learn in new ways and enables the teachers to use our existing technology more effectively. Special Needs Computers Additional Special Needs software has been purchased for the elementary schools and will be installed over the course of the year.  The district is also exploring the possibility of installing Special Needs software in multiple locations and managing licenses through a "key server." Station Stretch Station Stretch is currently going through a complete hardware and network refresh. Wireless Mobile Labs The two wireless mobile labs are in the process of being upgraded to 16 new iBooks in each cart.  As in the past, the mobile labs have been well received in schools where they have been used.  Currently, two mobile labs are being rotated through the different elementary schools that request them.  Richmond and MacNeill are also using mobile Mac labs with great success.  The possibility of expanding the number of mobile labs is currently under consideration. E-Learning We are exploring a number of different formats for using technology to facilitate learning.  We currently have the enriched mathematics program for elementary schools (Math CIRCLE) offered via RichNet.  Another elementary project called “Writers CIRCLE” is currently in the development stage.  All of these are offered through RichNet.   The Moodle course management software is proving to be successful in delivering most of the secondary ICT curriculum at Burnett and some of the ICT curriculum at McNair.  Other schools are also exploring the use of Moodle, which enables students to have access to the course content from both home and school. Also in the coming year, a new FirstClass (RichNet) module, FirstClass ED will also be explored as another way of helping teachers manage courses and deliver course content. BCeSIS All but two BC school districts have signed up for the new Student Information System (BCeSIS).  This is a centralized school administration system hosted by the province.  All schools in British Columbia will be connecting to a common database.  There are several benefits to this in that server management, backups, and connectivity issues will be transferred to the Ministry.  This will also facilitate the movement of students not only within the school district but within the province.  Data collection and management will be greatly simplified.  We have committed to move to this new system beginning with an intense planning stage to start January, 2007, with the first schools coming online in September, 2007.  There will be substantial increases in operating costs that must somehow be absorbed.  Project management, training, and implementation costs will be significant. Graduation Portfolios The Director of Instruction (Technology & Information Services) has partnered with School District No. 23 (Central Okanagan) and CompuPlan to develop an application for monitoring student progress and performance with respect to graduation portfolios.  This application runs on FirstClass (RichNet) and was piloted and tested at McRoberts Secondary School under the guidance of Gordon Powell.  All Grade 10 students at McRoberts were provided with a RichNet account and were being trained on using RichNet to store portfolio evidence and to submit evidence for marking.  All secondary schools are now on board and a "Portfolio Leader" has been designated and trained at each school.  The Graduation Portfolio Management System (GPMS) gives schools a vehicle for tracking student progress and generating reports over the three-year program. Technology Advisory Committee The goal of the Technology & Information Services (TIS) Department is to provide the best services possible to all members of the Richmond School District community.  A Technology Advisory Committee has been struck to advise TIS on how to achieve this goal.  The Committee has representation from the RTA, RASA, CUPE, and Excluded staff and has had two meetings to date.  A number of issues have been defined and the Committee is in the process of working through solutions that will meet the needs of the district and be supportable by TIS. District Resource Centre and Library Automation Destiny has become an important and essential district resource.  The program allows us to link to websites that support books and videos in school library and district collections. Textbook Manager will be implemented in four schools this year. This addition to Destiny allows individual schools and the district to inventory the entire textbook collection in the district.  In addition, schools would be able to see when individual titles were bought, their usage and condition, as well as the value of their textbook inventory.  In combination with the curriculum revision cycle, the district will be able to predict the replacement costs.  Schools will also be able to see which titles have Ministry recommended and local approval status.  When this program is fully implemented, there will be substantial savings to the district as schools will be able to share inventory for those years where there is an unusual number of students in one grade.  Textbooks will be checked out to individual students and the school where the textbooks belong will be able to see where the books are and how many they have bought.  The implementation timeline will be several years.  Richmond Secondary, General Currie, Homma, and Spul’u’kwuks are the pilot schools. There are a number of services being provided by LAC/DRC staff.  Inventory and cleanup of school libraries have become a focus of the LAC.  In addition, teacher-librarians requesting  assistance with weeding and office cleanup are receiving support.  Teachers are requesting assistance with videographies and websites to support curriculum,  LAC orders for schools,  and the Consultants and Coordinators requesting special resources and textbook purchases.  French Immersion resource support is also a service that is now part of the LAC mandate. District E-Library The Richmond School District now offers a wealth of online resources for teachers and students in our District E-Library.  These electronic resources may be accessed by any number of people, at any time, from school or at home. Resources may include: • websites from government or non-profit organizations • commercial sites if content is judged to be relevant and the commercial aspects not overpowering or compelling • downloadable teacher resources, including book reviews and project ideas • interactive educational games for students • electronic books • video clips that might be “streamed” to provide instruction or previews Currently, the District E-Library contains three types of online resources: • resources selected and catalogued by DRC staff • resources selected and provided by Follett (Web Path Express) • resources selected and provided by subscription service Thompson-Gale (Web Feet) <<Prev -- Table of Contents -- Next>>