EdTech Avenue

At Blessed Trinity, I’ve given teachers and staff numerous methods for reporting issues, including the recent implementation of Windows Messenger and the Windows XP Remote Assistance application.  It was a huge surprise to me that teachers did not quickly embrace these instant-help options.  Teachers currently use email, phone or in-person methods to report problems with their computers or the labs.  I suppose they are not using their computers as often as I, but the thought that I could immediately see that someone is there and can answer my question without having to send email or make a phone call (or worse yet climb three flights of stairs) would be preferable to me personally.

And with all of these avenues available to them, some problems still don’t get reported to me.  For example:  We are at two campus locations.  I spend most of my time at the campus where the servers and majority of the computers are.  I have asked the teachers at the other campus many times that when something comes up in the computer lab there to record the error in the log I have provided AND email me about it so I know it’s there.  I don’t check that log regularly - it is not a reporting method, simply a log for my reference.  And yet I will hear later, sometimes weeks after the initial problem arose, that something needs to be fixed.  I try to explain that if they don’t email me (whether or not they’ve recorded anything in the log), I won’t know about it.  Unfortunately things have not changed in the four years I’ve been using the logs, so do I need to change something in my methods?  I want to find the best way to service my users.  They become frustrated when I don’t address issues quickly enough but will not follow the methods I’ve given them to get the best response.

What is the best reporting method for your school?  Why does it work for you?

As I was researching some Open Source applications, I came across a great tool in OpenOffice 2.1: PDF Export!  The program will export any document as a PDF.  This is just what we need to create forms for our website.  We had been using Adobe Acrobat to perform this task, but now the OpenOffice tool can be installed for free on any workstation, saving over $80 per user!  I still need to have one copy of Adobe Acrobat installed to convert our Microsoft Publisher documents, but it is still a huge savings for us.

Do you have other tools that export or print to a PDF file without the use of Adobe Acrobat?  Please share them with us!

We installed a new Windows 2003 Server this week to update and streamline our network.  We had some issues with the initial install (I should say Rich had some issues with it, I didn’t really touch that part), and the software had to be reinstalled after we had moved all the data over… so the 49 hours spent on the project overall probably could have been 45, but oh well.  I am excited to have more control over the network in terms of administering rather than having much of the security on the workstations.

We decided to stick with hosting our own email for now.  My biggest complaint has been the spam administration (Symantec Mail Security is not worth the media it is printed on), but we didn’t want to give up the functionality of shared calendars and administration.  We updated Microsoft Exchange Server, migrated the mailboxes, and are using an outside service for security and spam.  MX Logic now hosts our MX records and provides spam and virus filtering, sending only the “safe” items to our server.  That transition went fairly smoothly.

As I mentioned, the whole project took 49 hours.  25 hours (times 2 people) was for the install of the main server, moving data, Exchange migration, and setup.  Another 12 (times 2 people) was setting up workstations at one campus, and 10 more setting up the other campus myself today.  All in all, it could have been much worse, but I’m glad it’s over.  I am extremely grateful for those who helped: Rich Whitney, a parent who is a network consultant (I couldn’t have done any of this without his help), my husband who gave up his Saturday, and a couple of hours by my nephew too.  Without all of their help I would no doubt still be at work now instead of having finished a little while ago and ready for a good night’s sleep!  There is still more work to do, but the essentials are done and ready for everyone to return from spring break!