Posted by Stephen Woicik on November 20, 2020

The Technology Department has a few updates for everyone before heading into the holiday season.

G Suite Enterprise for Education

The district has purchased the upgraded version of G Suite. This version has many of the most requested features with Google Meet. Including:

• Breakout Rooms
• Meet Attendenance
• Better Integration with Google Classroom
• In Meeting Polling
• In Meeting Questions

The Technology Staff is working hard to get all of these new features set up. We will have these features ready for staff before Thanksgiving break. The features will be active for students when they return from Thanksgiving break.

Please be aware that this will be new for everyone in the district. In an effort to get this technology to staff as quickly as possible, the support staff will be learning along side everyone else in using these new features.

Additional Document Cameras

More document cameras are scheduled to arrive in December. They may arrive during the December break. If this is the case, they will be distributed in January.

Anyone that has notified the support desk that they still need a camera are on the distribution list. If you still need a document camera, but have not submitted a support ticket, please do so.

Portable Displays

The District has purchased portable displays to be used with the Chromebooks. These displays can be transported to and from school to be used on remote days or during extended remote teaching times. They can also be used in the classroom with Chromebooks.

A number of staff have asked for a way to have dual monitor set ups with the Chromebooks.

There is a limited supply of these displays. If you would benefit from having one, please let your building principal know. They will provide a school list to IT to distribute.

Additional Chromebooks

Chromebook that have been on backorder since the summer started arriving this week. These Chromebooks are being set up and will be distributed to elementary schools to replace the aged out Acer Chromebooks. Distribution will begin in January.

Support Ticket Escalation

The Technology Support desk is very active. With the volume of requests now being received, we have added additional people to answer and solve issues.

Staying organized is the biggest factor in replying to tickets correctly and timely. If you sent in a ticket, and have not received a timely response. Please do not send an additional ticket. This makes things more difficult to track.

Please respond directly to your original ticket, or bring the information to your principal who can escalte the issue.

Student Information System Evaluation Committee

The Technology Committee has spent that past two meeting discussing the current Student Information System, Rediker. We have decided to form a new committee to evaluate other SIS options for our district. Since the SIS impacts everything in the district, this committee should have a wide variety of staff and roles from the district.

This committee will be tasked with researching options, participating in demos and discussions with vendors, and devekop timelines and requirements for the district.

If you would like to be considered for this committee, please send an email to Stephen Woicik, swoicik@agawamed.org. Include your name, role, and building.

If you have any questions or concerns about any of these updates, please submit a support ticket.