Stillwater+Meeting3_2_12

Stillwater Central Schools is in the process of setting up their own version of 1:1 computing throughout the district. They are currently in Phase II of this process (see full phase chart). This includes, getting a digital device in to the hands of as many students as possible in the district. In most cases, right now, students cannot take home their device yet. Especially at the Middle school level for fifth and sixth grade. One of the main limitations to this is that many students still do not have access to any technology at home. With Phase III, the technology department is currently working on parameters and protocol that will allow the students to take these devices home, accessing the server within the district and still having protections allowed to safeguarding the device. By the end of Phase III all students will have some sort of digital device to work with at school and grades 5- 12 can take these devices home. Part of 1:1 process was allowing students to access email for better communication with their teachers, other students and file management between devices. The service is actually uses intranet rather internet meaning students can only send or receive emails from other members of this private cloud. Parents also have access to this service as a parent portal feature. They have used this intranet email service for at least five years now and since the middle school wished to pilot a similar email protocol here at the Middle school; the BCMS technology committee asked that Tom Michalek meet with Clyde Lynch, their technology Director and discussed the various questions listed below:
 * Meeting at Stillwater w/ Chris Lynch and Tom Michalek 3/2/12 2-4 PM**
 * Background:**


 * 1. What was your original intent with offering this service? How did this all get started?**

//To create a platform of communication within the school between teachers and students//


 * 2. What platform/ protocols were you looking at? Which one did you end up using use?**

//Microsoft exchange is used for their current system. It is already part of the windows network. The current version they use is 2010 and a separate database or folder is set up for teachers and students. Each student gets 25MBs of space for their email and is closed to any outside email. Students can email other students and teachers. All data is stored on site.//


 * 3. Did you plan on offering to everyone at first? HS? Middle?**

//It was offered to high school and eventually access was granted to the middle level. In addition the fifth grade students who were assigned iPads. The amount of students who now use email is 800 grades 5-12 and the amount of students who use iPads is 120 6th and 90 5th for graders.//


 * 4. What was your role out strategy? Was it all at once? HS first?**

//HS first then to the rest of the students in the Middle school.//


 * 5. What is the monitoring structure?**

//It is monitored in district by the tech support and by teachers. If a teacher notices a student abusing the privilege then they lose access for a week to the entire network. This is means a lot more to a student when much of the teacher's class is digital; meaning when each student is one to one with an iPad there is no paper. If a kid loses this privilege they have to print everything out and is something that none of them want to experience.//


 * 6. Do you have an acceptable use policy? Is it separate for teachers and students?**

//Yes. Click on button //


 * 7. Can teachers opt out of using the email if they want or is it an all or nothing deal?**

//Yes. The Process is optional for teachers. If they do not want to use it in there class, they do not have to.//


 * 8. If you were to role this out somewhere else what would you do differently?**

//To invest in different pads other than the iPad. The iPad does not work well with Microsoft live@edu yet. Microsoft is supposedly working on fixing this issue. Stillwater has currently set up a WebDAV server using the iPads and now no longer has a need for Microsoft live. This server can be accessed on any iPad and can be set up much like are current file folders sharing system. What is great about WebDAV is that you can also have a word/pages converter built right in the service.//


 * 9. Any other advice you would like to share?**

//Yes! Go with Microsoft exchange over Google Apps mail. If ultimately as a district you are moving towards a single log in for all students this is the way to go. The space used for email is minimal and all data would be stored on site. The only other caveat is that we might want to think about testing Microsoft live@edu as a pilot, for this same reason.//

//Ironically, Stillwater does not use Microsoft live within the district because of the amount of iPads used by students. Apparently, the protocol for Microsoft live does not work well with iPads yet, much in the same way that there still is issues with Googledocs (i.e. size of the text, the presentation feature does not show up as an option. The mobile version of most browsers is the default on the iPad). The way that Stillwater has solved this in the meantime is they have set up a WebDAV protocol on the district server. It functions much in the same way as a student folder works here in the district. .//

//What is WebDAV?// //is a set of methods based on the// [|//Hypertext Transfer Protocol//] //(HTTP) that facilitates collaboration between users in editing and managing documents and files stored on// [|//World Wide Web//] //servers.//

//For// [|//Mac OS X//] //version 10.0 and following support WebDAV shares natively as a type of// [|//file system//]//. The system can mount WebDAV-enabled server directories to the file system using the traditional// [|//BSD//] //mounting mechanism or, more comfortably, through the 'Connect to Server' dialog found in the Finder. Mac OS X version 10.1.1 introduced support for// [|//HTTP Digest Access authentication//]//. Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) extended WebDAV interoperability to include support for the https scheme, proxies,... and additional methods of authentication//.

Summation and Recommendations?
 * Since we have the Google Apps mail protocol set up already, we should use this with the students now. Roll out being as soon as possible with and abridged version of the AUP to be created, and sent out with selected students. This would be brought back and signed by the end of 3rd quarter. This intra-office email option would be available to this select group of students for the 4th quarter. Maybe we could use it in the technology classes for 6th and 8th grade.
 * Pro – We have the service already set up with monitoring mechanisms in place
 * Pro—Students and teacher are already familiar with GoogleApps and this could potentially encourage more widespread use of this option within the building.
 * Con—Who has access to this data? It is still on the Google server.
 * Con –Bandwidth – We are noticing a more sluggish googledocs and GoogleApps access this year. Will this increase with the addition of GoogleApps. Mail?


 * We should look in to the protocols for Microsoft exchange since we already have it within district and it fits within our ultimate goal of moving towards a platform with one log in for all member of the district.
 * Pro -- we have access within district to this data and can retrieve it at any time
 * Con –storage of this data is in house and we would have a rough estimate of 2500 students using this email as compared to 800 in Stillwater
 * Pro – Single log in for students and can email teachers to their outlook email
 * Pro—Bandwidth will not be an issue because it is on the district server


 * We should also look into the possibilities of Microsoft Live.edu since it was mentioned at previous tech meetings that all students have free accounts and is incorporated into our current licensing agreement. This could start out as a pilot program in sixth grade, with ATM and Computer Literacy and tested in the fourth quarter of this year. The results of this pilot could be discussed at our final technology meeting in June.
 * Pro –One log in for all
 * Pro-- Familiarity with the windows office platform
 * Pro—Less compatibility issues
 * Con-- Does not work well with the iPad and OS platform? Would have to test…
 * Pro/Con? Bandwidth? Would the sluggishness be as much of an issue with Microsoft live? Again, would have to test through the pilot
 * Con—Asking teachers and staff to look again at something new…

Phases for Implementation of 1:1

• Year 7 all students (5-12) have a device (1-3yrs old). Incoming 5th and 9th get new device.
This taken from the full Stillwater Technology Report---