Sean C. Morgan
The Sweet Home School District recently moved all of its email to Gmail and provided Google accounts to staff members in an effort to take advantage of the variety of applications provided by Google.
The move is part of ongoing efforts to improve and take advantage of technology throughout the district. Every building and nearly every classroom and facility in the district now has wi-fi service – even Husky field. Former Supt. Don Schrader began the effort to put wi-fi service everywhere in the district, and it’s nearly accomplished now. The varsity baseball field is on the list to get wi-fi service this year.
Nancy Brocard and Sharon Conner presented a report on their activities over the past couple of years to the School Board during its regular meeting Feb. 13.
Supt. Tom Yahraes said he asked the technology staff, which also includes Andy Busek, to look at Sweet Home School District’s email, calendars and similar services and find a way to enhance it.
“They did it in short order,” Yahraes told the board. He told them to start preparing to switch the district over next year, but they told him they could have it done in a couple of weeks.
“We’re in our third week using Gmail,” Brocard told the board. “Everything has been going surprisingly smooth.”
There have been a few hiccups here and there as district staff are learning their way around and figuring out how to do different things with it, Brocard said.
She said the move will save the district money on hardware as it replaces the email server stored in the district. The Linn-Benton-Lincoln Education Service District provided and continues to provide Internet service to the district, but the district’s emails are stored in Google’s cloud. District email addresses did not change with the move.
The district has had its own Google domain, and students have had Google accounts for some time, Brocard said. With this change, staff and students can all use Google Docs, the Google Calendar, Google Slides and other services.
With Yahraes’ calendar in Google Calendar, which is typically maintained by his administrative assistant, he can access his schedule with one click instead of multiple clicks to log into the old service.
One of the advantages of Google Docs is that it allows documents to be edited by multiple people.
If a student is creating work in Google Docs, a teacher can offer comments and direction immediately, Yahraes told The New Era.
Previous to the adoption of Google Docs, a teacher issues an essay assignment and students create the work, print a hard copy and then turn it in.
“It’s sluggish, and we know that feedback is important to learning,” Yahraes said. Integrating Google Docs into the classroom, a student can write a paper, and a teacher can immediately read it and make real-time suggestions.
“That’s using technology to enhance learning. What we just did, we took our first step to help our communication efficiencies, moving from an older platform with the ESD to a platform that’s forward thinking, getting everybody on the same page using the same Gmail and Google functions.”
Those features are now seamlessly connected, Yahraes said.
The next phase is for staff to interact more with the features Google provides, from the Docs app to Slide, which functions similarly to Microsoft PowerPoint in presentations.
“We want to become literate and fluent within the district,” Yahraes said. “That, I believe, is going to be happening next year.”
In a third phase, he would like to see these apps and other learning apps integrated into the classrooms, he said.
The district has 420 Chromebooks, which use Google’s Chrome operating system, Brocard said.
In the past, district schools would set up carts full of laptops. The carts would carry a wireless router. Although Macintosh and PC labs are still common around the district, in recent years, the district has resorted to Chromebooks and sometimes iPads and other tablets.
“The ease of management with the Chromebooks is a lot nicer,” Busek said, and they have keyboards, something students still need.
They turn on and are ready to go more quickly, Conner said.
“Oak Heights just bought a new cart,” she said. The district also has a large collection of iPads. All are used by students.
And they’re a lot quicker with websites like IXL, which helps students practice math, Brocard said.
These changes are a part of an ongoing effort that keeps Brocard, Conner and Busek busy.
This year, the district has increased its bandwidth between the district and the ESD to address a growing number of devices connected to the Internet, Brocard said.
Busek said the district’s Internet usage is “pretty much doubling” every year.
Coming up, IT staff are planning to replace fiber throughout the district to achieve higher capacity and speed, increasing the number of telephones at the high school and improving security cameras throughout the district.
Over the past two years, the team has replaced phones throughout the district with “IP phones,” which connect through the district’s computer network to the analog landline phone system in the rest of the world.
That change provides voicemail to every phone, Brocard said. Previously, each school had just one voicemail service available. Each building still has a regular line available in case of emergency.
Other projects have included upgrading Windows servers, replacing four elementary computer labs, adding a new network cabinet and cabling in the Oak Heights lab, new cabling at the Foster Lab, upgrading and replacing computers in the high school business lab, and new security cameras and upgraded camera servers.
The team also has increased available bandwidth from the District Office to elementary schools, replaced wooden network enclosures with racks and metal network cabinets, replaced switches to achieve higher network bandwidth and added uninterrupted power supplies to network closets and mission critical areas.
These projects are paid for by district funds dedicated to technology, grants and “E-rate” money, federal funds dedicated to improving school and library technology and equipment.
Conner started working for the district in 1982 in the audio-visual department at Sweet Home High School. She remembers the district’s first computer, an IBM. Then the district started getting Apple IIe computers.
Brocard previously worked in the superintendent’s office and worked in technology part time before eventually moving full time to technology.
Busek worked for the ESD for 20 years and often worked on Sweet Home computers and networks. After leaving the ESD, he agreed to work part time for the district.
For technology problems, each building’s media assistants serve as a front line for technical support, installing drivers, or explaining how an application works, for example, Brocard said.