Neil Manders, Technology Coordinator Windham Central Supervisory Union

1. Neil Manders, Technology Coordinator Windham Central Supervisory Union FINALLY, A First Class, A-1 Solution • A tour of how a project called the Virtual School Network has helped bring technology off the shelf and move it forward in the district.

2. Quick Overview of District April, 2004 • The district: • 10 schools: 2 admin offices; Covering 365 sq. Miles • Most schools single grade or grade clusters • Student population approx 1100 • Teaching, support staff and admin approx 225 • The technology:

3. NES BES Verizon’s Frame Cloud TES JES Sover Net ISP WIN ES Ward ES DES MES WCSU WCSU Technology High school centric Modem Bank Pop Mail accounts Apache Server LGUHS

4. The Technology (Continued) • Lack of technology staff to provide local assistance and motivation • No centralization all under local control • Varied use of technology from school to school • A few individual initiatives but no broad initiatives

5. What Were the Issues Tech-lethargy No district-wide initiatives Lack of local support Other interests on plates Technology thought of as add-on Need for collaboration across the district (teachers, administrators & students) Very limited Dollars for Technology Small schools; small dollars

6. Sover Net ISP So. Vt. Cable Newfane Jamaica Harmonyville office Central Office Verizon Frame Cloud Wardsboro Windham SDSL Brookline Duncan Cable Townshend LGUHS Marlboro Dover The Match that Ignited Change

7. More Matches • NCLB awareness and requirements • Technology GLEs • Reduction of District Technology Position • Desire to get more out of the districts investment in FirstClass • SVTC First Class Project • Admin Use of First Class out of the box • The Superintendent • Is that all there is?

8. The Two Yarmouths Yarmouth School District Yarmouth Maine Dennis-Yarmouth District Cape Cod, Mass.

10. What Did We Want • Increase the use of technology in the schools • Keep system costs ALAP (as low as possible) • Use the limited tech coordinator time to supporting teaching and learning not infrastructure • Get/nudge/pressure local involvement • Maintain some school identity but create district unity • Small learning curve in order to get up and running • Flexible system to grow with use and need • Cross Platform use • New and useable web sites for all schools • Easy publishing of school information • Non-techie management and content loading • Lots of people able to contribute directly • all sites reach out and include their respective communities • All teachers to have easy web publishing for their classes

11. What Did We Get • Professional accounts for all teachers and staff • Heightened awareness and participation by school personnel • Workshops, discussions, and trainings at all schools • School board attention, training and involvement • AND

12. Intranet/In-house communications User Desktops

13. Customized User Desktops

14. Internet/ Web Communications School Web Pages

15. Brookline elementary

16. WCSU District

17. Dover Elementary

18. Jamaica elementary

19. Marlboro elementary

20. Wardsboro elementary

21. Newfane elementary

22. Windham elementary

23. Leland and Gray HS

24. What next • Increase participants involved with sites • Build up all school sites with CONTENT • Work with teachers • Create new templates • Expand use of forms, form tracking and paper reduction • Create on-line learning environments for PD and student use • Integrate local SIS actively into the system

25. Cost • Design and Set up fee • Hosting fee • Example (a): 1 district + 1 HS + 7 elem • Design/setup = $9300 • Hosting = $5000 • Year one = $14,300 • Year two + = $5000 • Example (b): 1 elem. school with VSN Lite • (web site only) • Design/setup = $400 • Hosting = $400 • Year one = $ 800; Yr. 2 = $400