March 20, 2012 Tech Coordinator Meeting

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Comment by Brian Norman on March 26, 2012 at 10:10am

Meeting Minutes

9:30 – Enterasys – Ryan Schmotter – Enterasys sells network infrastructure products including switches and wireless hardware.  With Enterasys integrated wired/wireless solutions, customers get the most out of their networking infrastructure investment by extending network connectivity throughout the school while minimizing cabling needs. By leveraging the role-based configuration capabilities along with the alerts, notifications and compliant event logs provided by the Enterasys management solution, customers can create an efficient, proactive network operations model.  For more information contact Ryan at rschmott@enterasys.com

 

10:45 – NWSC Summer Workshops – Alice Hofstad asked for input on what to offer for summer workshops –

 

• Moodle
• Google Apps for Education
• SMART
• Not so much iMovie
• iPads

 

11:00 – EduTone – EduTone offers a single sign-on solution for school districts that are using multiple web based service providers.  For instance, say you have Google Apps for Education, a Student Information System, Study Island and Renaissance Place, students could log into their portal and access the other sites without logging in a second time.  However it was expensive, an initial set up fee and a monthly reoccurring charge ($600 minimum).

 

12:00 – Lunch

 

1:00 – Open Discussion

• MCA Testing – Math seems to be going fine.  No issues reported from those present.
• Bandwidth Update – Brian Norman had talked with Bob Wheeler – Bob said there will be increased bandwidth with little or no price increase in the upcoming contract.  More information will be coming soon.
• Back – Up Strategies – The group shared what each district was doing as far as backing up.  Some do offsite backups, some back up to other servers on site.  It was agreed that backups are very important and will go back and review their back up strategies.
• Apple’s new configuration Utility.  The new one counts licenses.  Does not sync books.  http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/enterprise/
• Brian shared the apple list serve address.  https://lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/mn-edu  Tons of information is at this link.  Answers many questions by apple techs.
• Apple’s new textbook design software, iBook Author. -  http://www.apple.com/ibooks-author/ Waubun’s Technology integrationist has been creating a book for their Driver’s Education Course.  The software is very user friendly, however it only works on Macs.  The software is free. 
• April Mini Tech Show – Will be held at the Northwest Service Cooperative.  Apple will be presenting in the morning and SMART will be presenting in the afternoon.
• Moodle Upgrades – version 2.2 is supposed to be more mobile friendly.
• Summer Plans and Budgets.  The group shared their summer upgrade plan.
• Brian reminded the group to get their tech plans done.