Great IT-project

It was quite a complicated job, but I've just rounded it up: the ordering of computers for the school IT-project. All hardware companies and stores that I contacted did what they could. Prices were very sharp. But the decision is made. Every teacher in our secondary school will be provided with a Dell Latitude D820 by mid 2008. A Port Replicator will connect these computers in each class with a Dell Projector 2400MP with 3000 ANSI lumen light intensity.
Classes in primary school will use Dell Optiplex 745 computers.
So this will be my job for the rest of the school year: installing computers, beamers, printers, study and test the wireless and wired networks of the school, training the colleagues in the use of the learning environment Blackboard.
Schools can't go back. ICT has become a part of our modern culture, and education, being a part of that culture, has the task of showing young people how to use this modern technology in a positive way. We have to show our kids how to find information, how to evaluate it and how to use it to get to the heart of the matter and to be creative. The pre-computer generation can help here since content is still more important than the means, just as drill is important for memory training and concentration is important for success. If teachers feel surpassed by the technological (r)evolution, I want to be there to help, because I know that their knowledge and experience can help in keeping the balance. Their input must make students realise that there is more than chat and mail and games and second, third and fourth worlds... How about developing this one? ;-)

How Wireless is Wireless?

Just a picture to show you the state of my working space at school. The blue spaghetti is the incoming cable system which in the coming weeks will connect the server to 36 access points all over the school. From that moment on the whole school will be one big hotspot, and all the teacher's laptops will be connected to the network through it.
The joke of the week was: someone coming in, saying "what are all the cables for?" and me answering "For the wireless network...". ;-)

Desktop or portables?

That was the question... the answer was: portables!
The digitisation-project of our school is developing. The wireless network should be active by the end of the Easter holidays, but I hope the electrician will start working on the cables... Yes, cables because there needs to be one cable between each access point and the controller. And there being some 35 access point all over the school this is quite a job.
Then there was the question of one desktop and one projector in each classroom...
Finally the verdict was: let's lend each teacher one portable. There are a number of advantages:

• Personal responsibility is better for the survival of the hardware.
• Teacher can prepare everything at home and be sure the software works when use it at school.
• For parallel lessons this is a good solution: the teacher is sure the computer in the next class will work: it's his/her portable!
• Teachers can use it for their school mail.
• The school is responsible for the licences of the software they have installed. From then onward the teacher is responsible for the other software.
• Security: teachers take the computers home during evenings, weekends and holidays. The risk of theft is divided.

There are also some disadvantages:

• IT-responsible can't control the state of the computer at all times.
• The local and server profiles might be a bit confusing for the user. I'm looking for a solution for that. Help is welcome.

Of course there is also the cost, but I will do some work scanning the market to get the best deal!

In all this means that the school will invest in some 75 portables in 2 years time...

The Best, the Better, and ... the Ugly!

Wireless network. That is the aspect I have been working on for some time. We already have two access points in our school (Belkin Pre-N system) but since the board wants the network to cover nearly the whole school, a more professional approach via outsourcing was necessary.
So I contacted three firms, let's call them B, D and F, completely independent from each other, but with the same question: we want a wireless network to cover the whole school. It should be built in two to three years time and in different steps. The system should be flexible so that in the future more computers can log in, and that speed is optimal.
I first contacted firm B who claimed it was necessary to do a "site survey" to be sure how many access points should be necessary. The site survey would cost 75€. In good faith I said that this site survey could be done.
The CEO of firm D appeared to be a former student of mine. It was very nice to meet him again after all these years. We talked about the network and in no time at all, he detected a few weaknesses in the system. Things that firm B hadn't noticed at all...
Finally I had an appointment with two people from firm F, a commercial and a technical representative. I immediately felt the professionality in both sales and technical aspects. The optional offer of Cisco controllers that make V-lans possible and the physical detection of portables on the system was very tempting...
In the end I waited for the offers. B was the last one - I even had to mail them to get the offer in time before I was going to Vietnam for the English and ICT workshop.

During my stay in Vietnam, the school board took the brave decision to invest in the best!

Back in school, I mailed firms D and B that we had decided to take the offer of firm F.
D was a good sport. He sent me a nice mail, hoping we had made a good choice and that we might meet and do business again. I'm sure we will!
B, however, was utterly frustrated and accused me blindly of transferring the results of their site survey to firm F!!! He also claimed more costs for the site survey!!
I have never seen such unprofessional reaction in my life! Apart from the fact that I received the results of the site survey days after I had received the offers of firms D and F, these other firms did not need a site survey of 75€ to get to more or less the same results!!! All they needed was their professional experience...

This was really a case of the Best, the Better, and the Ugly! ;-)

T - 3 and counting

In three days, I will be flying to Saigon...
The preparation is in overdrive. I have prepared a Blackboard course on EloV. I have received 30 free accounts for 30 days... I'll try to find a solution to make the content available for the workshop attendants for a longer period... I'll probably give them a CD which I will prepare in HCMC.
I will go into detail when I'm over there. I'll probably have to change quite a lot on the spot... Important is to take as much material as I can, so I can improvise if necessary...
Tomorrow, late in the evening, I'll be checking my photo equipment. Charge the batteries, clean the lenses, check the memory... In the second half of my trip I will be concentrating on that... photography in Mui Ne and Phu Quoc. Although that's in 10 days, it seems like an eternity...
By the way: do you know what the weather is like over there?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/5day.shtml?world=0157
Just check this out!!
During daytime, my energy goes to school business! Busy, quite busy with wireless audit! But I'm also upgrading the two computer classes with about 10 programs and upgrades. Geography pushes its ambition to 4 programs! Google Earth, OrbitGis, and two programs on "water in our environment". Hope the other subjects will follow...
Tomorrow I'll be programming another 14 computers, upgrade one from Win2000 to Win XP pro, secure a data projector and have a meeting on network-matters...
Had some very sympathetic reactions on my coming Saigon-trip today. My old friend EM embraced me and wished me good luck, three other colleagues tapped me on the shoulder. Some even wanted to know what I was going to do there! Of course there are the sceptic ones... I don't comment on them. Suppose they still have a long way to go. If they want some help: I'll be there. You know what a push from me can do... ;-)
Anyway: life is short and if you can add to the evolution of man - just a little bit - on your own level... just go for it! ;-)

International visit!

On Friday November 17th we received a group of people involved in the development of IT in education. They were invited by VVOB (Vlaamse Vereniging voor Ontwikkelingssamenwerking en Technische Bijstand) who develop education and environment projects. The group consisted of people from Belgium, Vietnam, Cambodia and Kenya.
Here is the program I worked out:

Welcome to Xaco (Xaveriuscollege – Borgerhout)
Schedule:
13.30-14.15: welcome-speech by the headmaster, Johan Verschueren, and school visit.
14.30-15.05: attending 3 lessons in smaller groups. Switching classrooms after 15 minutes.

• R02: Ilse Heughebaert : Informatics
• M07: Ann Onraedt : History
• M04: Dré De Laet : Aesthetics

15.05-15.30: Drinks at the Polyhall
15.30-16.00: Presentation of the ICT-project at Xaco (Polyhall)
16.00-16.30: questions, ideas, opinions,…
16.30: end

Current project: ICT in the first form of secondary school

Since the Flemish ministry of Education has asked to integrate ICT in education in an active way (meaning that the students work on the computers in non-informatics lessons) we have tried to integrate ICT in the all subjects. However, the results depend a lot on the skills and motivation of the teachers, resulting in a very heterogeneous situation. To see to it that all students that start in our first form, have an equal ICT-skill, we set up an ICT-project in October '06.
All students got a 9-hour course in two weeks on the following subjects:

• Hardware - the school network
• The operating system (Windows XP)
• Text processing (Word 2003)
• Internet (browsing, searching and mailing)
• Ergonomics

A group of brave volunteers invested their free time to get all the students on the same level. All aspects of the program were covered, but the use of hotmail seemed to haunt the network... the site blocked and their were a number of time-outs. Probably the server processor wasn't fast enough to tackle the problem. If anyone can give tips, feel free to comment.
We also tried to integrate the subjects as much in the ICT-course as possible so as to motivate the rest of the attending teaching corps as much as possible.

The idea for this initiative came from a visit in September 2005 to St.-Barbaracollege in Gent, where they had been dealing with this problem before. This school is, as ours, one of the seven Jesuit schools in Flanders. Thanks to my colleagues there for the inspiration!