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Spring 2011 • DataBus 5

Spring 2011 | Volume 2011 | Issue 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PublisherCalifornia Educational Technology Professionals Association

Managing EditorTim Goreetimg@fsusd.k12.ca.us

Assistant EditorDiane Foulksdfoulks@fldusd.k12.ca.us

Advertising ManagerCici TrinoAssociation Outsource Services(916) 990-9999Fax: (916) 990-9991cicit@aosinc.biz

EditorLisa Kopochinski(916) 481-0265lisakop@sbcglobal.net

Layout and DesignLori Mattas

Printing and MailingCopeland Printing

Databus is the official publication of the California Educational Technology Professionals Association (CETPA). Databus is published four times a year as a service to our members and information technology managers for California’s K-12 school system.

The CETPA and the Databus assume no responsibility for the statements or opinions appearing in articles under an author’s name. The services of an attorney or accountant should be sought in legal and tax matters.

All copyrights and trademarks are proper ty of their respective owners. Except where otherwise noted, content in Databus is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

California Educational Technology Professionals Association

ARTICLES

6 President’s MessageBy Steve Carr

8 Best PracticesBy Phil Scrivano

10 The Lone Ranger Has a PosseBy Ryan Quesenberry

12 Small School, Big TechBy Andrew Schwab

14 Doing More with LessBy Sean Colt

18 Doing More With What You’ve Got: Standardizing the User ExperienceBy David Billett

20 Lone Rangers 2011

By Mark Heydon

24 Member ProfileDataBus Talks with Mick Shatswell

26 Resource Guide and Ad Index

In-depth Online for Members Only E-Rate Update

By Fred Brakemanhttp://cetpa-k12.org/pub/db_art/369

Persistence: A Holistic Approach at Digital SchoolsBy Warren Williamshttp://cetpa-k12.org/pub/db_art/370

This issue of the DataBus will focus on the unique and often daunting challenges of small districts and their technology staff, leadership, tools and methods. Having worked in a small- to medium-sized

district (under 8,000 students) for 23 years, I was able to see the evolu-tion of technology in the district and watch as the technology needs began to grow organically. While the Hueneme District and, specifically Blackstock Middle School, was known for cutting-edge technology in “smart classrooms” during the 1980s and 90s, the rest of district schools lagged far behind. It was not until the district decided to create a technology position at the cabinet level that technology began to be

addressed at each of the 11 schools. I was able to hire a staff of three to support 11 schools and 3,000 computers. I think we were successful with technology in Hueneme because it was easy for me to admit that I did not know all the answers, but was willing to learn and find resources both among staff and with our county office as well as some great vendor partners. We built a team of teachers at each site who provided professional development and some triage support at the sites. They became our conduit to manage communication. We implemented a host of monitoring and reporting tools to manage our network. Most importantly, we made ourselves as visible as possible and tried to exhibit passion for the job.

In 2010, California had 684 school districts with populations under 5,000 students. While we may not have current statistics on the number of technology-related staff in these districts, my hunch is that there are most likely one to three technology staff in a district of this size.

The challenge is, that even though the ADA may be small, the district needs infrastructure, connectivity, an SIS for scheduling, grades and attendance, an assessment tool, file and print ser-vices, an e-mail system, food services, finance and HR systems, E-Rate applications, instructional technology, and professional development to name a few. Just because the district is small does not mean that the requirements, expectations, and needs are not there. You will read in the articles submitted (many of them by the “Lone Technology Rangers”) about some of the challenges they face and the tools and methods they use to handle the demands of their districts.

If I were to offer advice to small school districts facing technology challenges, the fact that you are reading the DataBus is a good first step. CETPA is one organization you can look to to find a community of support. Attending the annual conference, becoming a member, subscribing to listserv@cetpa-k12.org, enrolling in the CTO Mentor program, and enrolling in the new Nimbus Online training site (http://cetpa-k12.org/pub/htdocs/nimbus.html) are just a few ways to become connected to receive support and advice. Just reviewing the threads on the list will make it apparent that you are not alone and answers are out there.

I also suggest that you engage with regional or county consortium groups. In Ventura County, 12 of the 20 districts are less than 5,000 ADA, and this does not include the 11 charter schools. VCOE holds monthly job alike meetings for technology directors and staff to provide a venue to share best practices, announce new solutions, review new tools being applied, creating economy of scale purchasing models, and simply sharing war stories with each other. Many of the services VCOE provides to our districts have come from feedback from our small district technology leaders.

For a small district, infrastructure is a key ingredient. Invest in your network connectivity, cabling, wireless, switch fabric and all of the monitoring and reporting tools to manage your LAN and WAN. This will enable you to not only remotely support and deliver applications, but it will also enable to you to consider looking at public and private cloud solutions as well as other hosting options. Explore local models for reciprocal backup and data-recovery solutions. While some of these options may allow you to lessen the load, you are still the person the district will look toward to provide a vision for where technology can serve your students and staff.

Enjoy this issue, and remember to reach out to your CETPA community.

Small SchoolsBy Steve Carr, CETPA President

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

PRESIDENT

Stephen Carr, Chief Technology OfficerVentura County Office of Education5189 Verdugo WayCamarillo, CA 93012

PRESIDENT ELECT

J. Todd Finnell, Vice President of TechnologyImperial Community College District380 E. Aten RoadImperial, CA 92251

PAST PRESIDENT

Dr. Kelly Calhoun, Chief Technology OfficerSanta Clara County Office of Education1290 Ridder Park DriveSan Jose, CA 95131

TREASURER

Gregory W. Lindner, Technology Services DirectorElk Grove Unified School District9510 Elk Grove-Florin RoadElk Grove, CA 95624

SECRETARY

Steve Thornton, Director of TechnologyMenifee Union School District30205 Menifee RoadMenifee, CA 92584

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Andrea Bennett915 L Street #C424Sacramento, CA 95354

DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS

Tim Goree, Director of Technology Support ServicesFairfield-Suisun Unified School District2490 Hilborn RoadFairfield, CA 94534

DIRECTORS AT LARGE

Aaron Barnett, Information Systems DirectorMoreno Valley Unified School District25634 Alessandro BoulevardMoreno Valley, CA 92553

Sandra Ching, Director of Information ServicesPlacentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District1301 Orangethorpe AvenuePlacentia, CA 92870

Julie Judd, Director of TechnologyMoorpark Unified School District5297 Maureen LaneMoorpark, CA 93021

Brianne Meyer, Chief Technology OfficerIrvine Unified School District5050 Barranca ParkwayIrvine, CA 92604

Peter Skibitzki, Director of Administrative OperationsPlacer County Office of Education360 Nevada StreetAuburn, CA 95603

Wade Williams, Director of Network ServicesStanislaus County Office of Education1100 H StreetModesto, CA 95354

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

6 DataBus • Spring 2011

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BEST PRACTICES

By Phil Scrivano

Working at Lightspeed Systems for four years gave me real time insight into the value of K-12 education working with small

companies. I was the 53rd employee and, when I left, the numbers were approaching 120. There is a difference between small, medium and large com-panies that each school district needs to consider when conducting business with public money. I do not believe any one company can be all things to all customers.

The first—and perhaps most important thing to consider when working with a small company—is the value of being able to impact what the company produces in order to meet your needs. Smaller com-panies, like Lightspeed, have chosen to focus on a single segment of the market, namely K-12, and by doing so they survive by closely listening to the needs of each district. Small companies and small districts can specialize in a rapid change cycle.

The cost of rapid change and innovation is often the documentation and the ability for the district to self-guide using the product. If your staff has some highly skilled individuals, working with the technical challenges of new software is exciting and always a learning experience. If, on the other hand, your district outsources for support, then it may be in your best interest to stick with larger, more polished companies who do not change as fast and are not as reliant on support.

On the extreme side of small companies and innovations are those companies that are seemingly on a mission with a great idea. A keynote speaker at the CETPA conference in Santa Barbara a few years ago introduced the value of a better keyboard layout called DVORAK. A little research led me to discover Typmatrix ergonomic keyboards. This small com-pany has the vision that every student should have a personal keyboard with the keys in straight rows and be able to choose the key layout that is most efficient for the user. If you are not familiar with the DVORAK keyboard layout, the most common consonants and vowels are on the center row. Using these keyboards, our students will be less likely to experience carpal tunnel issues in life. I hope this

small company has a great future in K-12 education because young children can learn a new keyboard layout much easier than adults and, most likely, our children of today will exponentially use a keyboard more than we can imagine.

The downside and risk of going with a small company can be getting caught up in a nonstandard equipment or software situation. Recently, I discov-ered a group of servers in our district manufactured by a small company. I am sure at the time of pur-chase the prices were cheaper than the majors. When teachers and students continually complained about speed and reliability issues of these servers, we took a closer look under the cover. We discovered that the motherboards and Ethernet cards were desktop class and there were stickers on the side stating the servers were recommended for small home offices of less than five users. The lesson here is not that small businesses are bad; it is that if you use a business that does not have the reputation of a major, it is up to the buyer to do as much research as needed to make the case for using public funds to invest in a smaller company.

As a K-12 technologist, it is important to assess the size of the company you will work with and how to manage your time with companies all competing for your attention. When companies are small, you often have the opportunity to talk with developers, owners and live U.S.-based technical support. A sign that a company is moving into the medium-sized business sector is when you find your interaction with the company being managed by a sales per-son. Sales people at all levels are often the conduit to discover what a company has to offer, but the relationship always needs to have the understand-ing that the company is in business to make money and the sales person has a singular goal of making this money.

Phil Scrivano is the Chief Instructional Technol-ogy Officer for the Las Virgenes Unified School District in Calabasas, Calif. He can be reached at pscrivano@lvusd.org.

As a K-12

technologist, it

is important to

assess the size

of the company

you will work

with and how

to manage

your time with

companies all

competing for

your attention.

8 DataBus • Spring 2011

Small Companies and K-12 Education

http://www.advtoolware.com

E leven years ago, I made the transition from the tumultuous world of a large dot-com to “go it alone” at a small school district. For the next five

years, that is exactly what I did. If there was a technol-ogy problem that needed addressing, I worked it out myself and, in most cases, deployed a new server to deal with the need. As is often the case with technology, the more computers, tools and services I provided for my district, the more they wanted. Technology needs were increasing, my technology budget was shrink-ing, and my available time to support new services was dwindling. It was only at this point that I began to do what seems so obvious in retrospect; I turned to the Internet to find out what other school districts in California were doing. My search turned up a wealth of resources that I and my district are now using. The following are just a few of the resources I could no longer live without.

CETPA-K12 List-Servhttp://cetpa-k12.org/

One of the first, and still most valuable tools I discovered, is the CETPA-K12 list serv. On this list, hundreds of K12 technologists discuss K12 technology,

problems and solutions. No problem is too technical or easy for the list. If you find yourself wanting to virtu-alize an obscure piece of student evaluation software that will only run on Windows 3.1, you are practically guaranteed to find a few people here who have already tried it and can warn you of any potential pitfalls.

Calaxyhttp://www.k12hsn.org/edzone/

Calaxy is a collection of web-based tools provided by the K12 High Speed Network (http://www.k12hsn.org/). These services are available for free to K-12 schools in the state of California. The tools offered include tools for video conferencing, photo hosting, blogs, asset management and wikis. The following are services I no longer have to worry about hosting in house thanks to the Calaxy provided services.

MyTechDeskhttp://www.mytechdesk.org/

MyTechDesk is a flexible, work-order tracking sys-tem that my district recently migrated to after years of running RT (Request Rracker) hosted in house. Unlike Request Tracker, MyTechDesk is designed

By Ryan Quesenberry

The Lone Ranger Has a Posse

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10 DataBus • Spring 2011

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with schools in mind. The system has a simple web interface for users to make their service requests.

Moodlehttp://www.k12hsn.org/calaxy/moodle/

Moodle is an extremely popular open-source server used for classroom management. Specifically, it allows for the creation of virtual classrooms in which students can access their coursework.

Small School Big Tech http://smallschoolbigtech.com/

While composing this article for the DataBus, I attended the IT Lone Ranger Conference in O’Neals, Calif. While there, I had the pleasure of meeting Danny Silva and Andrew Schwab of the Small School, Big Tech Podcast. These are two education technologists who are doing big things with technology within their respective small school, and they share their experiences monthly (sometimes even more frequently) in these highly informative podcasts.

Your County Office of EducationAn often overlooked source of support

is your local county office of education. Though specific services may vary from county to county, chances are your county office offers many services that you might not even be aware of. I highly recommend contacting your county office to find out what services they provide.

California Technology Assistance Project (CTAP)http://www.myctap.org/

The California Technology Assistance Project (CTAP) is a statewide technical assistance program, funded by the Cali-fornia Department of Education (CDE). Intended to promote the effective use of technology in teaching, learning and school administration, CTAP provides assistance to schools and districts based upon local needs in each of 11 regions in California.* CTAP provides a wealth of information on technology planning, grants, funding, news, as well as instruc-tional and professional development resources.

The above are just a few of the resources I discovered once I began searching out-side the confines of my district. But the most valuable lesson I learned is that even though you may be alone within the

technology department of your district, you are not the first person to travel down this particular road. And, with a little bit of looking, you will find there is a small army of technologists just waiting to help you succeed.

Ryan Quesenberry is a CETPA-cer-tified CTO and is the Technology Lead for the East San Gabriel Valley Regional Occupational Program. He can be con-tacted at rquesenberry@esgvrop.org.

Spring 2011 • DataBus 11

SMALL SCHOOLS

I am an IT Lone Ranger. I wear many hats. I teach kids about computers. I go to CALPADS trainings. I sit in on management meetings. I

keep ten-year-old desktops running and I plan for E-Rate. I’m pretty much IT. Well, except for Danny Silva, one of those tech-savvy teachers that can run interference with users, train teachers and make the PA system and projectors work. Every Lone Ranger needs a Tonto, and together Danny and I have done our best to bring big tech to our small school. We’ve been fortunate to have the support of our administra-tion along the way.

Some of the challenges we face as a small rural district of 550 students are likely all too familiar. They include funding for technology, a plan, tech-nical skills, time, student access to computers and the Internet, network security, centralized storage, bandwidth, and, oh, did I mention bandwidth? Over the past seven years, we’ve managed to address most of these challenges in some cost saving and creative ways.

We increased student access to technology through the use of Windows Server 2003 terminal services and the repurposing of old (and obsolete) hardware as classroom student computers. We tried several thin client configurations before finally set-

tling on a free solution from 2X.com that allowed us to run one thin client operating system across a diverse set of desktop hardware.

We built a gigabit network backbone on HP Pro-curve, eliminating annual hardware and software support costs. I wanted to build services on top of a solid network foundation that would not be at the mercy of fickle budgetary cycles. HP’s free lifetime hardware and software support fit the bill. Not to mention that Procurves were cheaper than Cisco products. That meant we could deploy more PoE and gigabit ports with the same budget than had we stayed with Cisco. I let my CCNA expire and haven’t looked back.

When it came to security, we fell into our current solution while looking for a web filter. We were having issues with our county-provided web-filter solution and had no local control of the settings. Web 2.0 sites that worked one day would be blocked the next, and we got tired of having to ask nicely to have them unblocked. I did a Google search, found a product called Untangle, downloaded it, installed it on an old desktop and was filtering the Internet in a few hours. It was easy to configure and included additional features like intrusion detection, protocol control, Quality of Service, VPN access, anti-virus

Small School, Big Tech

By Andrew Schwab

12 DataBus • Spring 2011

and spam filtering. All these features in one GUI console, running on one box. Needless to say, we dropped the county web-filter service soon after.

When we upgraded our Internet connec-tion to a 100Mbps Opt-e-man circuit last year (bandwidth!), we needed a firewall. Not having a Cisco security appliance laying around, I flipped the Untangle server (now running on a Dell PowerEdge 1850) into firewall mode, and it’s been running like a champ ever since. We ended up purchasing support from Untangle, but, the free features out of the box were a great place to start.

On the storage front we started out with a Dell 745n NAS server. When that filled up, we attached a Drobo with four 500Gb drives and moved noncritical files over to it. The Drobo is a nice little device, but it’s not very fast. The next evolution of storage for us was in backups. My computer class built a sys-tem using Intel desktop parts. We installed six 1Tb hard drives and used the FreeNAS operating system to turn the box into an iSCSI server. We put the FreeNAS box in a building far away from the server room and

then mounted it over the network on the backup server. It’s basically a poor man’s SAN. Having managed an HP SAN before, this is easier. We’ll be retiring the eight-year-old 745n over summer once we build in some redundancy with two FreeNAS boxes front ended by a pair of virtualized Windows File Servers running DFS.

Most recently, we migrated off of Exchange 2007 and onto Google Apps for Education. Having administered Exchange going back to the version 5.5 days, I did not make this decision lightly. But in the end I had to ask myself, was my time best spent worrying about an Exchange server or should I be more focused on integrating technology into the classroom? I like that Google Apps for Education is so easy to administer that even Danny can do it. It also comes with collaboration and communica-tion built in, is fairly intuitive, and requires no client. No more Outlook!

By far, our biggest challenge moving forward is our student classroom comput-ers. Software, we can get for free; but no matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to find

free hardware. Thin clients were going to be our salvation as we trickled down computers into the classrooms. Unfortunately, the web has changed. Where a thin client was fine for doing Internet research and writing reports in Office five years ago, the multi-media rich interactive web of today does not work in the thin client environment. What’s a small school to do?

Well, our small school is going netbooks. Yes, iPads are hot right now and everyone is buying them. We’ll pilot some as well, I’m sure. But iPads are all about apps, and apps cost money. We’ve spent years moving away from apps and to the Web. Netbooks have the full Internet. We can buy almost two net-books for every one iPad. Our netbooks run Jim Klein’s ubermix. It’s free and comes with thousands of free apps. Ubermix netbooks are so easy to manage, teachers can do it. As Lone Rangers, Danny and I deployed 80 netbooks to two classrooms in a day and a half. Most of that time was spent unbox-ing and setting up the carts. I haven’t had a netbook-related call yet. They just work; and if for some reason they don’t, the teacher can reset them in five minutes. They don’t have to be locked down and controlled. Kids can explore and learn on them. They have keyboards. They can print. At $284, they are affordable. If you’re a small school and are thinking about a one-to-one program, check out the ubermix at goo.gl/Kqtlq.

Hopefully, I’ve given you some ideas of what is possible for small schools to achieve with limited resources and a little outside the box thinking. If you would like to fol-low along with Danny and I as we continue to bring big tech to our small school, please checkout our Small School Big Tech Podcast at http://smallschoolbigtech.com/.

Andrew Schwab is the IT Director for the Le Grand Union High School District. He has worked with the district since 2003 and has been known to consult from time to time. He is currently finishing up the Administrative Services Credential program at CSU Stanislaus and was recently accepted into the CETPA CCTO Mentor Program. In his spare time, he co-hosts a podcast about schools and tech. He can be reached at aschwab@lghs.k12.ca.us.

Spring 2011 • DataBus 13

How do you do more with less? It seems a bit counter intuitive to think that you truly could do more when you have less. Shrink-

ing budgets, lay offs and pools of funding drying up lead to some fundamental daily challenges that need real solutions. In smaller districts, that challenge is even more of reality when you have “less” to start with! Challenging would be a good way to describe the situation and a better term to choose than “impossible.” Our district, Belmont Redwood Shores, is located in the Belmont Hills in South San Francisco right near the 92 and 280 intersections in Northern California. It is a district of approximately 3,300 (ADA) and is made up of seven school sites and a district office. We are a basic aid district and do not benefit from a lot of funding from the state or E-Rate. Fortunately, our district benefits from a very supportive community and involvement of both PTA and a foundation called School Force. These two organizations have been instrumental in supporting the district in a general sense; but specifically, they have helped build and maintain the financial foundation of information technology within the district.

The IT staff at Belmont Redwood Shores School District is made up of two individuals— Jerome Simon (computer technician) and myself (director of IT). Previously, I had worked for MUSD in Manteca, Calif. and Jerome had worked for the NUSD in Newark, Calif. Upon arriving at BRSSD, we were immediately faced with numerous chal-lenges: limited budget, out-of-warranty equipment,

wiring issues, failing computers, and a host of other technical and logistical challenges. Jerome and I both came to BRSSD in 2008 and quickly became known as the “Dynamic Duo” (a.k.a Batman and Robin). How did this duo succeed? The answer was simple: simplification, standardization, and structure.

Simplification is just what it sounds like: Keep it simple! It boils down to identifying the challenges that you are faced with and coming up with practi-cal and realistic solutions. It is very important to convey where you are to administration, sites and staff. Essentially, it is a reality check where you translate the realities into a picture. In the begin-ning, the picture that was conveyed was not very pretty. In assessing the IT landscape, some glaring issues were apparent: slow T1 connections to each site, servers and network equipment failing, mul-tiple different hardware standards and diminished confidence in IT from the end-user population. Jerome and I had to identify the core issues and problems and quickly come up with solutions. The early wins were upgrading the e-mail system to new hardware, installing all new network equip-ment, implementing a new SIS system, and doing a district wide upgrade to fiber connections district wide by upgrading from AT&T to Comcast. These four major projects, along with putting processes in place, built a solid foundation from which to build upon. Now users could be more effective in access-ing their e-mails, utilizing the SIS system, and the Internet upgrade eliminated the bandwidth issues

By Sean Colt

Doing More with Less

continued on page 16

SMALL SCHOOLS

With Jerome Simon

14 DataBus • Spring 2011

www.cetpa-k12.org

for students and teachers. Another big win was virtualization and the ability to go virtual with the entire enterprise has been a saving grace in regards to server sprawl, day-to-day management, and future growth. Consolidating all our servers to three and still having room to expand at minimal cost is always a wining solu-tion. We were able to replace a rack full of aging power hungry hardware with three Dell R710’s connected to a SAN. We are realizing a cost savings on both hardware acquisition and annual power and cooling savings. Integrating enterprise tools such as Dell Open Manage with free tools like Nagios have given us the ability to proactively monitor our systems for free, which allows us to focus on more important day to day support issues that teachers and students have.

Next up on the list was standardization! Publishing standards and negotiating with vendors for significant discounts by stan-dardizing on hardware and software platforms was the next big hurdle to jump over. Why is it a hurdle? You may be surprised, but educating your users as to why we standardize is half the battle. Conveying the rationale that it is easier to support a standardized list of equipment and products is the key! Across the board, we standardized on everything from flash drives to servers! We chose to standardize on Dell because a majority of our computers and servers already were Dell. Utilizing a process called CFI (custom

factory integration), we were able to build a custom image and infuse the drivers of our models into a common build image. Now all of our computers show up with our image on them and if we have to re-image any computers it is about a five-minute process. We are fairly agnostic about vendors, but having the same hard-ware “standard” platform is paramount to sustainability. This implementation has helped efficiency in our small organization by streamlining the purchasing process and having equipment shipped directly to sites. The process minimizes support costs and implementation timelines.

The last feature to implement was structure, but could also be compared to process! Once again, there was a component of educating end users as how to engage limited IT resources. We had to work on how we do things and why. In analyzing reoccur-ring problems and how we approached solutions, we were able to improve our level of service to end users by implementing IT systems at no cost. We put in place systems for proactive monitor-ing and management of systems (www.nagios.org) and a help desk system (www.mytechdesk.org) at no cost. As mentioned above, we have a custom image for all of our systems and utilize a free tool called Clonezilla to roll out our images (www.clonezilla.org). In previous districts, we both have had the luxury of enterprise management systems such as Altiris, LAN-desk, and SMS; but with no budget or staff, you have to be creative. It is a constant battle to make things run smoothly with little or no budget and staff. We are also looking at converting our older computers into Edbuntu workstations (www.edbuntu.org) or utilizing some Microsoft software donations to run them as Win7 terminal clients connecting to a Server2008R2 terminal server. When you don’t have the budget to replace machines, you have to repurpose them. The one reality that Jerome and I have come to face is that we have to think out all of our ideas thoroughly because ultimately we have to support everything we build. One of the main challenges we have faced is curbing our enthusiasm to roll new technologies because we have to be realistic as to how much we can really sup-port between the two of us.

Overall, it has been an adventure at our district. In the past few years, we have been able to address many challenges with a combination of hard work and putting our collective heads together to come up with the best plan. It has been frustrating, challenging and rewarding all at the same time. We have found that through creativity, hard work and reverse engineering most problems, we have been able to deliver solid IT solutions at little or no cost. In analyzing how we did things, we often found that we could do them better if we did them differently. Working in a small district, you have limited resources so you have to make sure the resources you do have are used efficiently. The daily challenges we face are similar to those that many IT departments face throughout the state. We are both motivated to make things better. With the support of our administration and PTA/School Force, and interacting with our peers from CETPA, we have been able to do what seemed impossible.

Sean Colt is the Director of IT for the Belmont Redwood Shores School District and can be reached at scolt@belmont.k12.ca.us.

Doing More with Less:continued from page 14

16 DataBus • Spring 2011

http://www.ivsct.net

Efficient and economical technology coordination is sound practice. These are lean times for tech-nology funding, so now—more than ever—we

need to look at what we do with our instructional technology and make informed decisions about what we need, what we don’t, and how to make the most of what we’ve got. Even in the best of times there is never enough tech support, so equipment and hardware that can take care of itself lets us focus on what we need to do with our technology. A reliable, familiar and stable user environment lifts barriers to technol-ogy integration and is a cost-effective way to reign in troubleshooting and repairs. Reimaging desktop and laptop computers with an image suited to local needs is a solution to instructional, support, and financial problems. (An image is simply an exact replica of the contents of a hard drive that can be copied onto other computers.)

Easier Than You ThinkAs with any instructionally related innovation, start

small, build on successes and expand accordingly. My first year as technology resource teacher was a walk on the dark side of instructional technology management. While on an all-Apple campus, there was no consis-tency in hardware purchases, operating system and software installations, or user environments. Few com-puters were connected to printers or any type of local network. No desktop security meant wildly different user environments from computer to computer. This all changed when I discovered a still shrink-wrapped copy of Apple Network Assistant. With existing hard-ware and some extra hours, I was able to assemble a local network and automate much of the maintenance that had formerly been done machine by machine on an “only-when-critically-necessary”schedule.

Apple had provided us with software to restore media configured to our district specifications, but restoring computers one by one was still more time consuming than possible in practice, and much remained to configure each one to local needs. Net-working with my counterparts at our feeder high

school introduced me to disk imaging and creating our own restore media. Soon afterwards, GageNet 1.0 was born. A single pass of a CD-ROM was able to restore our computers and standardize the user experience. No more troubleshooting—reimaging takes less time and is more effective.

Reimaging computers is an established and well-documented process. Help is readily available online and through user groups. You may very well know a counterpart at a nearby school who already has an imaging plan in place. If you’re running Apple hard-ware and software, the basic tools are included with the operating system. Having experience installing and troubleshooting software will help, but imaging is a straightforward process with a gradual learning curve.

What is the Standard User Environment?A standardized user environment is an identical or

mostly similar configuration for all the computers in an organization. The standard and predictable user environment reduces troubleshooting calls. With a predicable interface, end users become familiar with the features they need most on your campus and where they can find them. Desktop preferences, network settings, browser bookmarks and printers are just a few of the settings that can be configured, freeing the end user to concentrate on the task at hand. The standard user environment lets administrators set access permissions for different user groups and keep the desktops secure.

When users become familiar and comfortable with the desktop environment, they become more proficient and begin to customize the environment to their needs. Local and network user accounts make this possible. The more familiar and comfortable users become with their computing environments, the more likely they are to seek their own solutions to computing problems, involve others in the process, and share what they know. More local experts emerge, freeing technology resource teachers such as myself from routine trouble calls, to focus more on curriculum and instruction. Local experts informally train oth-

Doing More With What You’ve Got: Standardizing the User Experience

CUE VIEW

18 DataBus • Spring 2011

By David Billett

School solutions thatthink like you do.

It’s solutions that empower. It’s service that excels. It’s a team that understands

every K-12 education professional has a job to do. And it’s a commitment to

making that job easier. Maybe that’s why Tyler’s financial, SIS, transportation,

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more and more school districts everyday. Want school solutions that think

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ers, raising the general level of instructional technology competency and proficiency for the organization.

Straight TalkDeploying your image is the easy part,

once you have taken care of the ground-work. Start with an inventory of your most common hardware and determine what its capabilities and limitations are. Meticu-lously make sure that your operating systems and applications are properly licensed. Sur-vey your teacher, student, and staff users and decide which applications and features they can’t live without. Use your most recent and best performing hardware and begin building your image. Pilot this image thoroughly—bench test it with all applica-tions, users, and combinations thereof. This is the time to nip any incompatibilities and security holes in the bud. Install the latest operating system and application updates. Deploy gradually—once your latest image is in the hands of the end users, be alert to any anomalies that can be remedied before a larger scale deployment. Let the image cre-ation and piloting processes take their time.

Instructional ImplicationsFrazier and Bailey cited national edu-

cation statistics when they wrote in the formative The Technology Coordinator’s Handbook that most teachers claim a lack of technical support as a significant barrier to using technology. The standardized user environment lowers the barriers to full-on technology integration by removing the guesswork and unpredictable aspects of school computers. Desktop security and user-specific privileges keep hardware and software running the way they are intended to run while still giving users access to the applications and services they use the most. Teachers can have students use computers with confidence knowing that what’s been taught on one computer can be seamlessly transferred to any other on campus. On our latest image, we’ve even included an icon in the dock that opens a QuickTime movie showing how to remotely log in to our user data servers. Each image version makes the computer a more transparent tool for learning and engagement and less of a tem-peramental machine standing in the way of technology integration.

This article first appeared in the fall 2009 issue of OnCUE. David Billett is the Technology Resource Teacher at Henry T. Gage Middle School in Hun-tington Park, Calif,. (www.gatems.org). He can be reached at dbillett@lausd.net. The venerable NetRestore has retired, but is still available and useful. Visit Mike Bombich’s site (bombich.com) for the full story and links to NetRestore’s robust descendant, DeployStudio.

ResourcesBailey, Gerald and Frazier, Max. The

Technology Coordinator’s Handbook, ISTE, www.iste.org/source/orders/isteproductde-tail.cfm?product_code=tchand.

20 DataBus • Spring 2011

I arrived anxious recently at the Lone Ranger Confer-ence:

• I do not know what “small and rural and both” means, but it seems to be the core of the “Lone Ranger” apple—along with the obvious seed of one- or two-person shops.

• I do not know why Linux seems to be so attractive to Lone Rangers, a group that should be embracing the efficiency of proprietary software.

• I do not know what I was doing hanging out on a free Saturday 200 miles away from home. I had several month’s worth of reading and tweaking to do back at the shop—a sharp reminder that when it comes the tech tsunami, small shop techies surf alone, and that most of the time it seems we’re deep under the wave.I was far from a Lone, though. Twenty-five other LRs

found themselves at Minarets High School in O’Neil, Calif., just minutes away from the front entrance to Yosemite National Park. I, however, was there on a mission and I had an obvious agenda. What was I doing there?

Who are we?

Who are Lone Rangers and why do we think we’re different? Our answer is that Lone Rangers mostly work in one- or two-person shops, often with the nearest tech cohort 20 miles away. We’re the “go-to guy” for everything electrical made after 1984 and must rely on heavily-accented support lines thousands of miles away. Say, Atlanta. (“How yahawl duing tanite?”). We take consolation in that Lone Ranger shops are not bureaucratic. One vote wins office disputes. Yet, we’re special in our own minds. Hence, LR2011.

Jim Klein, Director of Information Services and Technology for the Saugus Union School District started us off. His keynote, “Life 2.0: A Vision for Education in the 21st Century,” centered us with his insights into “What’s it like to be educated in the 21st century?” Klein gave us a list of literacies that the 21st-century student will need to survive in the world:

Abundance. Students now wallow in information and opportunity. (Ironically, our CIPA filters are keeping our students from developing necessary coping skills. “Teach the kids to filter. It’s what they are going to

need to do anyway.”)• Freedom. Freedom means liberty, software, and use.

Open Source software is free. The Creative Com-mons is an opportunity for students to investigate learning without copyright and purchase-this-first obstacles. Information is for using, not for fighting over.

• Managing choice. Freedom and abundance come with a sense of dread. Klein noted that, if Wal-Mart with its rows and rows of merchandise intimidates us and it’s a tiny speck in our universe of choice, how will our kids cope with the near infinity of the future? Managing choice is going to be the way of life for them.

• Hyper connected. Every friend. Every day. Every minute. The right of privacy is being replaced by the right of socialization.

• Embracing Failure. The liberating nature of failure along with the educational value of failure is found in the open nature of a place where we can commu-nicate, create and collaborate.Twenty-first century aside, these are the raw materi-

als of any great student. Technology puts them in their hands. LRs, we’ve got a swell job ahead of us.

Linux Is Not In A BoxAs Lone Rangers, we think we’re generalists. But

we’re not. We think, because we’re the only person standing, we must know a little about everything and not a lot about specialty stuff. We ask ourselves, do we need all that specialty stuff that big districts have? Don’t we often offload protection and production such as payroll on county offices and free vendors (“Free” vendors? Think Google.) and good luck and a prayer?

Andrew Schwab, IT Director at Le Grand Union High School District, and Danny Silva, Google Certi-fied Teacher/Google Apps Certified Trainer and an agriculture teacher at Le Grand, drawing on Jim Klein’s work at Saugus, showed us how—in practice—we have created our own specialty stuff for “small and rural and both.” We need the stuff. The difference is not scale or complexity. It is our needing to specialize “small and rural and both.” Open Source solutions are a handy way of saving money while being able to tweak software to our specific needs.

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22 DataBus • Spring 2011

Why is Open Source so popular among Lone Rangers? Andrew and Danny answered: It’s free, it’s educationally oriented (doesn’t have to answer to share-holders or corporate proprietary rules), and it’s adaptable. We LRs like to tweak to our own logos and Andrew and Danny walked us towards the light of Vmware...Citrix...FOG...BackupPC...Untangle....

What Are They Doing While We’re Doing Our Stuff?

Jon Corippo, tech teacher and everything else at Minarets HS, led us to realize that, unlike many of our brethren of Colos-sus Unified, LRs are down, dirty and so close to our students that we can feel their heartbeats.

He also reminded us that the Internet is evolving in our favor. Internet users are looking for personal discovery, learning, communication and growth. Not coin-cidentally: a) the tools of education are available and multiplying; b) much of the training of our students is taken care of by their own curiosity; and c) our responsibil-ity is to facilitate this awakening.

Of course, be warned: Jon is obsessed. And through a technical cornucopia of web-based tools, he showed us how the tools could be used and how to get those tools into the classroom. “Get in their [teachers’] lives, not their faces.” Show up. Bring them into your tech meetings. Attend their meetings. Offer shows of what is avail-able and how to use it. Offer to set up what is available. Use opportunities for showing instruction. The “Lone” in LRs may be fine for the tech side, but “Arranger” should be on the side of academics. (Okay, he didn’t say that, but it fits.)

Martha The MagnificentThere was one great hero of the confer-

ence: Martha Robrahn. It was Martha who brought us all together, who invited us unwashed and needy into her school, who arranged a great lunch and great speakers and even arranged our chairs (circular) so that we could not just meet but talk and exchange thoughts.

And, it was Martha who gave the most technical of the presentations in her dis-cussion of WiFi choices for small schools.

She reminded us that our lives can be as complex as a high grade jigsaw puzzle if we choose, but we need to keep a practical perspective. The choice of a WiFi system is a mishmash of assessing need, research, choice, application and adjustment, but most often the needs of small, rural schools are unique given distance. (It’s not unusual for a small school district to stretch over 20 or 30 miles of rolling hills, water, and lud-dite cattle and arrive at a building designed without practical consideration of the 21st century), lack of resources (superintendents who think Blackberries grow on bushes), or consultants whose engineers seemed trained in hotel management. It was a refreshing reminder that we don’t need gadgets built for Lockheed. We seek gadgets that are built for us.

Which, in a way...So, LRs are not plug and play. We listen

and adapt. Invent and adjust. Create and find. We’re, “Hand us the duct tape, Char-lie—we’re going in!”

Which, in a way, was the theme of the conference. We’re here. We’re small. We’re proud. We know what we have to do. There wasn’t much intensive tech talk. No heavy duty talk about wires or packets or Form 470s. This was a conference centered entirely on small and rural and both, on students and technology and us. It was a conference that was, of course, totally cool (I woke up Saturday morning to snow outside my hotel window), and I knew why I was there.

Mark Heydon is an English teacher and Technology Coordinator at Shoreline Uni-fied School District in Marin. You can reach him at mheydon@marin.k12.ca.us.

Resources:Jim Klein’s Blog: http://community.

saugususd.org/jklein/weblog/Andrew Schwab and Danny Silva:

https://sites.google.com/a/smallschoolbig-tech.com/www/

Jon Corippo’s Presentations: http://www.slideshare.net/jcorippo

Martha Robrahn and Minarets HS: http://minaretsmustangs.wikispaces.com/

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What is your title at Wheatland Union High School District and responsibilities?

As the director of technology for almost 11 years now, I oversee most everything technology for our district. I like to say, if it plugs into an outlet or runs on AA bat-teries, it is my job to plan, order, set up, maintain, repair and educate myself and everyone around me on how best to utilize all the technology in our district. However, I’m more than “just your average nerd” in that I assist in the development of district technology plans and technology-infused curriculum, create professional development for staff and offer end-user technical support to staff, students and parents alike. I also help the yearbook teacher show the kids how to take better photos, work with the multi-media class on learning new technologies together, and I even serve as the advisor to the Anime club! No one day is like another and I like it that way.

At the 2009 CETPA conference, I joined the self-proclaimed “I.T. Lone Ranger” group and find it as good as any a character-ization of my job, although I often wonder where Tonto went. I could use his help!

How long have you been in the computer industry? You could say I grew up in EdTech! My

father was the head of the special education department in our local school district. Being his son brought me instant—often unwelcomed—notoriety from my teachers. I quickly became the nerdy “teacher’s pet” that learned all the various jobs that children were allowed to do in school. I was a “ditto master” before I left elementary school and I graduated high school with honors in copier machine wizardry and AppleWorks database cross referencing. All the while, I also learned about how technology could assist a person with a disability.

Professionally, my first job (albeit volun-teer) was back in the early 1980s while still in high school setting up Apple //e computers at some of the local schools and showing teachers how to use them to help create documents, track grades even play games. My first real job in technology was as the nightwatch “computer operator” on an old HP3000 system for a local meat packing

facility while I attended Yuba College during the day. Upon transferring to CSU, Chico, my “first career” started when I interned for Disabled Student Services to set up its very first adaptive technology lab. From Braille printers to augmentative communication devices, CSUC had all the latest technol-ogy at the time to assist any student with a disability.

That internship led to adaptive technol-ogy jobs in both education and nonprofits. I worked in the special education transi-tion department for the Richmond Unified School District during the time it changed its name to the West Contra Costa Uni-fied School District. I also served as the north-state director of a nonprofit adaptive technology center in Nevada for a few years.

I started my “second career” when the Yuba County Office of Education offered me the opportunity to teach many of my former teachers how to use all that technology found in classroom—circa the late 1990s—includ-ing that new thing…the Internet.

In July 2000, my “third career” started the day I boarded this ship called Wheatland Union High School District to implement their digital high school plan. I have been here ever since.

What drew you to the industry? What do you like most about it and why?

I like knowing that my efforts somehow help the next generation. Besides, schools offer an amazing mixture of technology. There are Fortune 500 companies that would be in awe of the sheer scope and depth found in most school computer networks. Where else could I possibly work that would allow me to “play” with so many cool “toys” and get to see what kids do with it?!

When did you join CETPA and why? While I don’t recall the exact date, I

remember the very first time I attended a CETPA event. Just being in the same room with like-minded people in similar situa-tions was for me as much of a stress relief as anything I may have learned. CETPA is very much like a support group. “Hi, I’m Mick. I’m a nerd and I work at a school.”

CETPA has proven the best way to keep

abreast of the latest news, trends and poli-tics in the EdTech profession. The diversity amongst CETPA members with respects to our combined knowledge is nothing short of amazing.

Where does CETPA need to grow? I am actually one of those people who

hope CETPA doesn’t grow too much in some over-eager attempt to remain relevant. While I will be the first to admit benefiting from the recent surge in how to support Lone Rang-ers in smaller districts, I do not want that to become CETPA’s only focus.

CETPA has the power to bring together resources and people within a rather unique framework: what is the best that technology has to offer and how can it best be used in California’s classrooms given the cacophony of issues we face. My suggestion would be to harness this power and either offer more regional workshops or utilize current tech-nology to offer video-conference workshops where we can all learn from each other without ever leaving campus.

How is the state’s deficit affecting you? While necessity may be the mother

of invention, poverty must be the father. Without money, maintaining a functioning level of technology commensurate to the ever-changing needs of users is exceedingly hard. And, it’s not just the lack of purchasing technology that is suffering. I cannot imple-ment a technology nor expect users to fully benefit from its availability unless adequate training is made available to everyone.

What do you like to do in your spare time?I seem to spend an inordinate amount

of time at Anime conventions with many members of WHACK (Wheatland High Anime Club Kids) dressed up to look like my favorite character from yet another series the club watched at one of our last parties. It’s a combination for my love of weekend getaways, costume design and staying young. I also have a passion for cooking.

DataBus Chats with Mick ShatswellBy Lisa Kopochinski, DataBus Editor

MEMBER PROFILE

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Resource Guide & Advertiser’s IndexCOMPUTER HARDWARE

TKO Education (877) 219-6228www.tkoeducation.comPlease see our ad on page .............................11

CONTROLLER LESS WI-FI, LESS HARDWAREMORE VALUE

Aerohive(866) 918-9918www.aerohive.comPlease see our ad on page .............................21

ERATE/CTF CONSULTANT -TECHNOLOGY DESIGN SERVICES

Infinity Communications & Consulting(661) 716-1840www.infinitycomm.comPlease see our ad on page .............................26

FINANCIAL & HUMAN RESOURCES SOFTWARE

Infinite Visions/Windsor Management Group(888) 654-3293www.InfiniteVisions.com/CETPAPlease see our ad on page ...............................3

FINANCIAL/HUMAN RESOURCES

Sungard Public Sector(866) 965-7732www.sungardps.com/plus360Please see our ad on page .............................15

Tyler Technologies(800) 431-5776www.tylertech.comPlease see our ad on page .............................19

FREE SIS AND LMS

Novachi, Inc.(888) 815-1858www.novachi.comPlease see our ad on page .............................16

SOLUTIONS PROVIDER

Decotech(800) 597-0757www.decotech.comPlease see our ad on page ................ Back Cover

NWN (formerly Western Blue)(800) 660-0430www.westernblue.comPlease see our ad on page .............................25

STUDENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Eagle Software(888) 487-7555www.aeries.comPlease see our ad on page ...............................2

Edupoint Educational Systems(800) 338-7646www.edupoint.comPlease see our ad on page ...............................4

Infinite Campus, Inc.(800) 850-2335www.infinitecampus.com/californiaPlease see our ad on page ...............................7

Pearson School Systems(877) 873-1550www.pearsonschoolsystems.comPlease see our ad on page .............................27

Sungard Public Sector(866) 965-7732www.sungardps.com/plus360Please see our ad on page .............................15

Tyler Technologies(800) 431-5776www.tylertech.comPlease see our ad on page .............................19

TRAINING RESOURCES

Nimbus(916) 641-0638www.nimbusonline.orgPlease see our ad on page .............................23

TURNKEY TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS AND CURRICULUM INTEGRATION

IVS Computer Technology(877) 945-3900 or (661) 831-3900www.ivsct.netPlease see our ad on page .............................17

USER ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT

Advanced Toolware(888) 770-4242www.advtoolware.comPlease see our ad on page ...............................9

AD INDEX

Advanced Toolware ...................................... 9

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Decotech ......................................Back Cover

Eagle Software .............................................. 2

Edupoint Educational Systems ...................... 4

Infinite Campus, Inc. ..................................... 7

Infinite Visions/ Windsor Management Group ....................... 3

Infinity Communications & Consulting ....... 26

IVS Computer Technology .......................... 17

Nimbus ....................................................... 23

Novachi, Inc. ............................................... 16

NWN (formerly Western Blue) .................. 25

Pearson School Systems ............................. 27

Sungard Public Sector ................................. 15

TKO Education ........................................... 11

Tyler Technologies ...................................... 19

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