mrharvey.ypics.orgMr. Harvey's Technology Connections

Skip to content Menu changelog IlluminateISI Tips Resources training Scroll down to content Posts Posted on February 5, 2018 December 23, 2019 February Update Over the last month, the tech team has been working on building a resource site for WordPress tutorials and how-to documentation. We expect to release this site as a resource for students and staff in a couple of weeks. We have also been working on developing a replacement directory service to address the student profile permissions issue that is forcing us to clear the /Users/Shared folder so students can log in, as well as deploy Mac Store software to student machines. At present we have to perform a time intensive work around to deploy standard Apple apps like iMovie and GarageBand. Over the course of the next month, we will be working on converting as much of our AWS infrastructure to scripts that will allow us to treat them as code stacks, which will enable us to hastily redeploy our infrastructure to a new region if that becomes necessary. We are also developing ISI reports using the business intelligence tool, which will allow us greater flexibility in extracting student grade data that what is currently available in the reports feature. We continue to support teachers who wish to implement student portfolios via WordPress grade level sites, and are working on improvements to the student web server for better responsiveness. We are also exploring replacements for our help desk application in an effort to improve reporting and streamline the ticketing and feedback process. As always, thank your for your support! Posted on November 30, 2017 December 4, 2017 BCCHS PD Session 12/4 Introduction: Technology integrated, project based, service learning Critical / Computational Thinking Creativity Collaboration Communication Freedom vs Privacy COPPA CIPA SOPIPA Learning Objectives: Discover and analyze the tools available for student portfolio creation, and the pros and cons of each Discuss the use of collaborative planning tools in project based learning Timer Google Keep Demo: collaborative notes, share with me Activity #1: Pair up, discuss and record your answers in a Keep note: What tools can students use to create learning artifacts? Activity #2: Review tools, add at least two pros and two cons to at least one of the tools on this document: Group Document Current Available Tools Activity #3: What tools can teachers and students use to guide the creation of a learning artifact? Use Google Keep and share with me. Waterfall Method : Define objective, features, tasks, resources, deadlines The Kanban Method : Cards, To Do, Doing, Done The Agile Method : Iterative Improvement Agile for Education Article: Agile Based Learning Article: The Agile Classroom Asana Trello Q&A Posted on November 28, 2017 December 23, 2019 December Update The technology team continues to check the fine details of our hardware deployments, making sure all of the machines are identified and properly configured. New issue: We are seeing a problem where when a student logs in onto a station, the login is stalled and the machine becomes unusable. This has something to do with the way our LDAP service is structured and how the Mac handles initializing an account and setting permissions on the folders in the /Users/Shared account. The immediate solution is to clear the /Users/Shared folder, which has the potential of causing other students to lose work saved in their accounts on that specific computer. This issue is being researched and we hope to have a solution soon. New issue: The Ripple Effects software not working with student accounts, but does work with a specific ldap account or a local account. The culture and client team has implemented a workaround where students can log into that specific account and use the software, instead of their student account. We are exploring alternatives with the vendor and will let you know if we find a better solution. New issue: The BCCS site techs will begin working on cleaning up the power and network cabling to the workstations in each class. Follow ups: The classroom speakers at BCCS have been received and are being distributed to those who need them. The CAASPP browser works with our new individual student account system, however we are not yet able to disable the keyboard shortcuts that cause the browser to throw a security warning. We are researching the problem and expect to have a solution by the end of January.All other tasks have been completed. I wish you all Happy Holidays and hope you enjoy your winter break. Posted on October 9, 2017 December 23, 2019 October Update The technology team had a rough start to the year. We received and deployed more than 200 MacAirs and 16 refurbished MacBook Pros for student use, as well as 21 new MacBook Pros for staff use. We also implemented a new wifi authentication protocol for the staff network, and reimaged all 1100 student machines to work with the directory service, which required all students to set a password and log in with their student accounts, retiring the generic bccs & morcs local accounts. We also deployed new Chromebooks for incoming high school students. Personnel changes at BCCS interrupted this process, as well as delays in receiving the new equipment, so all school sites started the year playing catch up. In addition, all iMacs and MacBookPros with less than 4GBs of memory were physically upgraded to support the modern Mac operating systems. Unfortunately, this process took several weeks and we were playing catch up once instruction started, which led to a lack of confidence in student hardware readiness. At this point, the technicians are in the process of verifying that all 1100 student machines are individually correctly configured. They have completed about 75% of this process and expect to complete the project by the end of October. We also had a network configuration issue that caused significant latency at MORCS and BCCHS, which was resolved. Finally, during the reimaging of all student machines we missed the reinstallation of certain software such as Chrome and Flash, which we are in the process of redeploying. The technicians will continue to leverage slack to confirm that each user that their help desk tickets have resolved to the user’s satisfaction. If you submit a ticket and it is resolved without the technician contacting you directly, or the solution did not solve the problem, please send me a slack direct message at @charvey and I will follow up. In October we will focus on the following: purchasing sundry supplies such as projector bulbs and laptop chargers. piloting a solution for classroom sound systems using bluetooth speakers. testing the new CAASPP browser for deployment LanSchool deployment for all teachers for the OS X 10.x machines (not for iPads or Chromebooks) onboarding process and training for the new site technicians mobile device management training Amazon web services disaster recovery and management training iPad project for student home use at MORCS ensuring all lab rooms are configured with the correct design software. I apologize for the delay in getting the classrooms ready for instruction; we simply bit off more than we could chew, and have had to scramble to catch up. We will work to make sure that we are better prepared for next year’s first day of school. I appreciate all the hard work and patience that you have displayed and I am proud to be a part of the YPICS team. Your dedication to our students is appreciated. I am also proud of the hard work and resilience that the site technicians have shown in trying to get the classrooms ready for instruction. We will do better. Posted on June 6, 2017 December 23, 2019 End of Illuminate Year One, on to Year Two! As the school year draws to a close, I would like to take a moment to appreciate everyone who participated in the successful transition from Powerschool to the Illuminate ISI system. We have had to adapt our student / ...