Fremont High School
Technology Assessment Walk Through
February 12, 2008

Fremont High School Technology Assessment

On Tuesday February 12^th of 2008 Larry Ivens and Will Zuwerink of Newaygo County Advanced Technology Services (NCATS), met with Rick Webb and Dianna Dakin to informally tour the Fremont High School and to assess the buildings current and future technology needs. Dianna and Rick’s experience and expertise were invaluable during this assessment.

For the sake of brevity, we will limit our focus for this assessment to key technology elements that are now common concern for our public school districts and will do so in order of importance. These are: Network infrastructure, network systems, end user workstations, lecture systems and wireless.

Network Infrastructure:

Of primary concern for any healthy technology system is the network infrastructure; the backbone or foundation of all computer technology for the district. This infrastructure consists or network switches, routers, fiber and transceivers to bridge communication between all network systems and end user devices. Your current FHS network infrastructure is in no question obsolete or at least partially so. I would estimate that these systems are 10 years out of date. Fortunately, you have an adequate core switch, which was installed only a few years ago and existing fiber to facilitate a strait forward upgrade. I recommend a minimum gigabit connection to any IDF (wiring closet) in the districts and a minimum of 100mb to each network terminal/workstation. Such a change would require an additional module for your core switch, fiber capable switches for each IDF and a number of low cost 100Mb or 1000Mb switches to support your workstations. This change is absolutely necessary to provide for emerging and existing technologies such as tape-less backup, terminal services, video and management.

Network Systems:

Your technology department has always provided a solid working and well maintained set of network systems. There is little to assess in this department and we are pleased that such focus has been put into designing and maintaining these systems. Rick and Dianna expressed to us the coming need for upgrades to file and mail services and their wish to consolidate three servers responsible for this. Consolidating these servers is now possible with the advent of large disk drives and increased processor power. Their plans are quite possible, cost efficient and come recommended.

End User Workstations:

If anything shows the age of a districts technology, it would be the end user workstation. This is primarily a financial concern for any district. Your technology department has done an excellent job of maintaining your new and aging systems. Though we feel no need to suggest changes to your workstations, we can offer some cost saving ideas that are now becoming possible for our schools. We are currently recommending that districts begin centralizing student applications. Our goal would be eliminating the need for local installations of widely used student software such as accelerated reader/math and credit recovery software. Centralizing these applications saves much time and expense that would otherwise be consumed by maintenance on the end user workstations. Once this is accomplished, the district could possibly further this trend by implementing terminal services. Terminal services is a way to use aging systems that no longer function with acceptable speed and use them as diskless terminals that connect their screen, keyboard and mouse to a powerful server that does its processing for it. To imagine the cost benefit of such a system one need only recount the number of workstations that are replaced every five years. Terminal services allow you to keep five year old workstation in service for additional years, drastically reducing maintenance and upgrade costs and allowing you to concentrate on workstation technology in more specific areas.

Lecture Systems:

Lecture systems consist of many tools for the instructor. These include a media player, be it DVD or VHS, a possible document camera and a large TV or projector. Your FHS facility makes use of all these devices for classroom activities. Considering the limitations of the building, they are well maintained and used frequently. Several observed departments are required to share one mobile unit. This sharing of equipment is limiting an individual teacher’s use. Many districts deploy projectors and lecture systems in select classrooms, doing so conservatively with cost of ownership in mind. Such a deployment will vary according to budget, but if we are to consider the classroom of the future these systems would surely be in every lecture room.

Wireless:

FHS has a number of wireless access points, which we have been told are accessible by both students and teachers. The current state of your wireless may be adequate to meet the current limited needs of the building, understandably makeshift in their implementation. Each of the classrooms has an extra network port available to accommodate a wireless device. In a new installation, these devices would be placed in the ceiling in carefully planned manner to assure coverage. Wireless in the classroom has not been a large concern for most districts, but there is a growing wish to provide service to students carrying wireless devices and mobile teachers and administrators that use laptops. A likely and simple place to provide these services would be in student halls, meeting areas and lobbies. A full scale building wide wireless deployment for FHS is possible without considerable cost. The system would require network wiring and select hardware. The system would have no industrial power requirements. What would be lacking would be available locations for students to plug-in laptops. As most laptops have a 2-4 hour capacity, students, or mobile staff will need additional areas for battery charging.

Additional Notes:

This facility does not have a backup power source. We would recommend a determination be made of the critical systems in the building and the total power requirements needed to supply those needs. A back up system (generator) with automatic transfer switches will require some extensive electrical work.

Mobile labs and fixed computer labs are in short supply. These resources need to be expanded. With some classes having more than 30 students, a mobile lab may not offer enough workstations for each student in a class.

Most classrooms need to have VHS machines replaced with units that also play DVD’s

Space is at a premium, and therefore most wiring and equipment closets are shared. This leaves little room to maneuver when repair or trouble shooting is needed.

The clock systems don’t seem to be functioning correctly. Wall clocks were largely ignored. Currently the internal cable system is being used to provide the time. This is quite a waste of resources and energy. Large scale TV’s are on 24 hours a day with just a small line at the bottom of the screen for the time. We would recommend replacing the old analog wall clocks with a new digital system.

The current video security system (Vision Technologies) Needs to be vastly upgraded and expanded. With the size of the current building, I would estimate for internal surveillance alone you will need at least 4 times as many cameras.

The intercom speaker systems seem to emit a large buzz noise when not in use. This is quite distractive and was present in several classrooms.

The cooling of electronic hardware is important. Providing adequate air conditioning is essential. I would suggest a follow up discussion with your technology employees to determine if the current cooling capacity is sufficient particularly in the second floor media center.

If approved, The Fremont Area Community Foundation will make funds available for a second year of support for technology in schools. I am sure you local technology committee will have a difficult time in setting the priorities for the grant dollars. Fremont Public has a large amount of technology that needs to be updated. The dollars available from this grant will only cover a small portion of the needs. I would like to encourage you to make the hardware improvements to your fiber backbone. I know your technology department can provide additional commentary on this need.

Larry Ivens and Will Zuwerink
Newaygo County Advanced Technology Services
Newaygo County Regional Educational Service Agency