Introduction
Welcome to this month’s technology report. We have a lot of information to share with you from the first month of school. This has been an extremely busy first month of school, but it has also been a very smooth one. As always, if you have any questions do not hesitate to contact us.
Testing Information
NWEA Testing
NWEA testing will begin on September 10th with Middle School. Here is how the schedule breaks down:
- 6th, 7th, and 8th grade start 8:15
- 6th, 7th, and 8th grade start 8:15
- 9th & 11th start time 8am
- 10th start time 9am
- Start time 8am
Naviance Issue
Over the past month we have been dealing with an issue affecting only a portion of our students taking College & Careers. The issue involves logging into the website Naviance, which is used for class. A good portion of students are able to login to the website without issue; however, many students are unable to login using their iPads.
Mr. Dupras and I have troubleshooted the issue. There seems to be no difference between the devices that work and the devices that do not work. All settings are the same including iOS Versions. We have tried deleting web browser data. We have tried using different web browsers. We have tried different devices. Some times it works and some times it does not. I have looked into how our web filter processes the data once a login is attempted and there is no issue with how this transfer of information takes place.
After much time has been put into resolving this issue, we reached out to Naviance support. Unfortunately, they have yet to provide us with any useful solutions and seem baffled by the problem.
Please be patient, once a solution is recommended, we will let everyone involved know. In the mean time, you may try logging in on your personal devices at home if you need to access the website.
Technology Updates
August was a busy month concerning updates to many of our technology systems:
Phone System
Our new phone server was installed towards the end of the month. The new server provides a much better user experience including higher quality sound and no interference. Previously we were experiencing issues with calls sounding like they were under water. This issue seems to be resolved with the installation of the new server. Additionally, the new phone server now has waiting music. All staff are encouraged to update their voicemail greetings. See my email from the beginning of the school year for more information.
Firewall
Our firewall is what keeps our school safe from hackers and outside threats to our network. We completed a major software update on August 30th. This software update enhances the protection our firewall provides.
Access Points
I completed updates to all our access points on August 30th to make sure our network has the latest firmware.
Servers
Servers were all updated with the latest MacOS security updates. Our FS2 server (2009 Xserve) was repurposed and upgraded to OSX El Capitan from OSX Snow Leopard. We will be deploying it as a caching server and backup for other servers.
Support Ticket Breakdown
August is always the busiest month for support tickets. Email and PowerSchool had the most issues this past month. Most of these tickets were password resets. We had a large number of “Other” tickets, ranging from Apple Pencil issues to trouble with initial configuration.
Insurance Claims
We only had 3 broken iPads last month. Hopefully that number stays low every month. Remember to take care of your devices.
Lost/Missing iPads
Seven iPads went missing in August. All were recovered. Please take care of your devices and pay attention to where you place them.
PowerSchool
Powerschool roll out for students has gone rather well with most students aware that they can get their log in information from their teachers. By the end of the month we have achieved a 100% student account sign in meaning that every student has logged into their account at least once. We are also averaging 130 parent log ins per day showing a need to increase encouragement of parent usage of Powerschool.
We had a delay on the release of Powerschool v12 at the end of Aug and has been rescheduled for mid September. The new version will allow greater data input options for student home and contact information.
Additional Information
- We will have iPad charging tails on sale for $6 a piece. More information will be provided in the coming days.
- Remember to fill out support tickets for all your tech support requests.
- Please use the proper categories when filling out a support ticket. Selecting “Other” when you have a phone issue does not help me keep track of these tickets.
- If you have a broken iPad, please ensure you make deductible payment or you will not receive a new iPad.