New Sapphire Parent Portal, Goodbye Paper Report Cards

I am thrilled to announce the release of a new version of Penn Manor’s Sapphire Parent Portal. The new site, now called the Community Web Portal, will be available the evening of May 9th. Existing parent/student usernames, passwords, and PIN numbers will not change as we migrate to the new Web Portal.

During the 2012-2013 school year, the new Community Web Portal will allow the district to deliver report cards, progress reports, and other letters electronically. Digital report delivery will ultimately save printing costs and associated staff processing time.

For the remainder of the current school year, progress reports and report cards will be delivered via postal mail and posted to the Sapphire Community Web Portal. Beginning with the 2012-2013 school year, all high school report cards and progress reports will be posted to the new Community Web Portal. Paper copies will only be sent home at the specific request of a parent or guardian. Parents who require a physical report card or progress report will receive instructions on how to opt-in to the paper versions as part of the summer Penn Manor High School information mailing.

Posted on May 8, 2012 by , Reply

PM School News on Android

I’m pleased to announce the availability of our brand new Comet News app for Android phones. The app makes it easy to follow district and building website news feeds. Android phone owners will find the free app in the Google Play store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pmsd.cometnews. Penn Points and PM Techblog news is included as well.

A big thank you to Tom Swartz, Technology Specialist, for developing the custom app!

Posted on May 1, 2012 by , Reply

Central Manor’s Digital Learning Island

Penn Manor recently hosted the annual IU13 Partnership Convention. District board members and school leaders converged on our school to celebrate and tour our latest school building renovation project, Central Manor Elementary School. The school features several new facility and technology updates. However, the key showcase zone is the new digital learning island located in Central Manor’s primary wing.

During construction, workers uncovered a large section of beautiful hardwood flooring dating back to the original school building, circa 1930. The original hardwood floor area was preserved and has became a distinctive artifact of the renovation. For about a year, this section of the building had affectionately become known as the “bowling alley.” Our mission was to amplify this unique location and build a fun, interactive and creative learning space suitable for digital presentations and small group collaborative work.

The large space and beautiful flooring lends itself to special treatment and a unique ambiance. Individual breakout spaces are technology-rich. However, the technology is designed so that it may be stowed away when not needed. Flexibility is key; the open classroom provides active, passive and collaborative learning spaces. Students may deliver a group presentation or cluster into small teams for project work.

Five large LCD monitors are powered by lightweight Nettop PCs running Ubuntu, the free Linux based operating system. Each PC is connected to the building WiFi network and features a wireless keyboard with an integrated mouse. The PCs are loaded with our standard suite of learning software, which enables our students to research, write, program and design. Finally, building laptops may also be connected to the LCD monitors, if needed.

Denny Coleman, Penn Manor’s Director of Building and Grounds, deserves special recognition for making the unique learning environment a reality. Denny and his team fabricated a stage and hanging fixtures, installed the monitors and electrical infrastructure and provided the furniture. Denny’s creative touch really brought the space to life.

A big thank you to Mr. John Matusek and his 6th grade students for demonstrate how classrooms might use the new learning space.  Mr. Matusek was an early adopter of the digital island and helped us work out the bugs. Below, Central Manor student, Zach Schucker, demonstrates that three computers are better than one as he prepares student presentations for the learning island debut. One laptop was running a video loop, one was used to aggregate student work from Google Docs, and one was used to create the slideshow to be shown during the IU13 Partnership Convention on Wednesday April 11, 2012.

 

Posted on April 15, 2012 by , Reply

Free Classroom Clickers – Socrative

If you are a fan of student response systems (clickers), you might fall in love with Socrative: http://www.socrative.com.

Socrative is a free web application that turns any laptop, iOS or Android device into a clicker response system. Teachers can build a virtual response room online, create a variety of assessment questions, and then have students respond to questions from any wireless gadget. Socrative will even score the responses and prepare a grade report automagically.

Paired with district laptops or student owned tech devices, we now have access to a simple and useful classroom clicker system, for free.

Check out a demo video: http://www.socrative.com/how-it-works.php

Posted on March 26, 2012 by , Reply

Goodbye White Macbook

Visit any Penn Manor school building and you can’t help but notice Apple Macbook laptops in the hands of teachers and in scores of classrooms. As part of the PA Classrooms For the Future grant, Penn Manor has purchased nearly a thousand of these workhorse laptops. During the summer of 2011, Apple ceased offering the white 13″ Macbook to the public. For the past several months, the white Macbook has still been available for schools to purchase at a price of approximately $899.

Recently, our Apple sales rep informed us that the Macbook laptop has been discontinued altogether. Apple’s proposed replacement is a more expensive, schools-only MacBook Air for $1000. The “special” school Macbook Air includes a mere 64GB hard drive, 2GB of non-upgradeable RAM, lacks an ethernet network port, and contains no DVD drive. With paltry specs for a thousand dollar laptop, the replacement Air is not a satisfactory long-term solution for our students and teachers.

With no other affordable laptop in Apple’s lineup, schools are now forced to pay more for less of a computer. We could certainly roll over and cough up even more cash for the Air or the Macbook Pros to gain the features our teachers need. However, that is simply not a responsible use of public money. During a time when Pennsylvania schools are facing an unimaginable financial storm, Apple’s corporate move runs counter to common perceptions that the company is education-friendly. As a long time Apple enthusiast, I am immensely disappointed by the company’s disregard for affordable education laptops.

To put the pricing issue in perspective, let’s compare an alternative laptop offering: Lenovo’s ThinkPad Edge E420. The E420 sports a faster i5 processor than the Macbook, double the RAM, a 500GB hard drive, DVD player, ethernet port and a larger 14″ screen. The price: $699.00*.

Given a 250 unit fleet replacement project for district teachers, Apple’s Macbook Air would cost us $75,000 more than better-featured Lenovo PC laptops. When the time comes to consider replacing 750 CFF Macbooks, the Apple premium will cost another $225,000. In terms of value for the money, there is no comparison between the PC laptop and Apple’s MacBook Air.

Lenovo’s ThinkPad Edge is one of many alternatives we could consider. HP, Dell, Acer, Samsung and others have low-cost, high-quality laptops worth review. PC laptops would offer dual boot options for Linux and Windows, giving our teachers even more computing platform choices without compromising on software selections. Paired with free and low-cost open source software, PC laptops running Linux represent a viable, affordable option for student classroom technology needs. Plus, laptop hardware cost savings can be applied to other critical student instructional programs and initiatives.

With a partial teacher laptop fleet upgrade due in 2013, we have time to explore future computing options. However, unless something changes, the purchase of Apple’s premium priced laptops will be increasingly difficult to justify when compared against affordable alternatives. Fundamentally, it is not worth the expense just to have a brand name on the devices used in the district. Education is about the student–not the logo.

*ThinkPad Edge E420 configured via Lenovo website on 3/4/2012. Note that the cost is consumer pricing for a single unit–bulk educational pricing would likely be lower.

 

 

 

Posted on March 4, 2012 by , 2 comments

Open Campus Meeting for High School Students

Current sophomores, juniors and their parents are invited to attend a special meeting on Thursday March 1 at 7:15 p.m. in the Penn Manor High School Library to learn about the new Open Campus online course offerings. The Open Campus initiative provides students with opportunities to take online classes during the 2012-13 school year. Penn Manor High School teachers have been busy collaborating with teams from Hempfield and Manheim Township to develop the new virtual courses. Join us to discover more about this exciting new program!

Posted on February 26, 2012 by , Reply

Linux Laptops at PETE&C

Tuesday afternoon, Chad, Shawn and I will be presenting an overview of the district Ubuntu Linux project at the PA Educational Technology Expo and Conference (PETE&C) in Hershey. Our talk is titled, Linux Laptops: An open road to costs savings. We are looking forward to sharing our success story and having great conversations with colleagues both old and new. Here is our session description:

“Linux offers a high-quality, free option for schools considering 1-to-1 or large-scale laptop projects. Learn about the open source journey our district took to reduce IT costs and provide outstanding classroom technology. Desktop customization, management and software selections will be discussed as we detail our K-12 Linux laptop fleet project.”

Posted on February 11, 2012 by , Reply

Raspberry Pi: An affordable treat for students?

Technology affordability and sustainability are key concerns for educational leaders. Schools need seriously low-cost and capable options to inspire the next generation of programmers, computer scientists and technologists. Enter the Raspberry Pi, a forthcoming $35.00 mini computer running Linux.

About the size of a credit card, the Raspberry Pi connects to a USB keyboard and monitor or TV via HDMI. Powered by a 700Mhz ARM processor and 256M of RAM, the device runs Debian Linux and sports high-definition video playback. Two USB ports and an Ethernet jack are included. A less expensive model, sans Ethernet and with half the RAM, will also be available for $25.00. Overall, the Raspberry Pi is somewhat similar in power to a first generation XBOX; rather impressive for a device costing less than the price of dinner and a movie.

There are a few trade-offs to achieving a low-cost balance of power and capability. Current models do not include a wireless card. Additionally, the first production run is lacking a case, although the foundation has indicated that future models will address this limitation.

A UK registered non-profit, the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s social mission is to “see cheap, accessible, programmable computers everywhere.” After several years of development, the foundation plans to begin selling the Raspberry Pi in the next few weeks. Read more about the project at: http://www.raspberrypi.org/.

Check out the Raspberry PI demo below–note that they showcase Blu-ray quality video from the mini computer:

Posted on January 21, 2012 by , Reply

Winter 2012 Technology News Roundup

Happy New Year to PM Technology Blog readers! I recently emailed district staff a summary of recent technology happenings and news articles. Here are the highlights:Penn Manor School District was named a 2011 School of Excellence in Technology by the PA School Boards Association. The award recognizes the collective work of our teachers, staff, students and IT initiatives over the past decade. We were featured in the December 2011 issue of the PSBA Bulletin magazine. PSBA has graciously permitted us to post the feature article. Download the PDF article.

Our open source netbook initiative was recently featured in Lancaster Online. Note: Partial paywall. The article presented a nice overview of our Ubuntu student laptop projectbut somewhat missed a key point: There are no immediate plans to replace all teacher Macbooks with the netbooks noted in the article. Most staff machines are many years out from replacement, and no decisions have been made regarding replacement laptops.Penn Manor has partnered with Hempfield and Manheim Township to develop a unique Open Campus cyber education program. Dr. Leichliter and the partner district superintendents discussed the project with LancasterOnline. Additional information is posted in a previous PM Techblog article.

Moodle 2 is coming this spring! Moodle version 2 is a significant upgrade to our course management system. We have begun to test Moodle 2 with the Open Campus teachers and expect to begin converting courses to the new system soon. In an effort to clean up abandoned Moodle sites, only active courses will be converted to the new Moodle 2 system. In the next few weeks, watch for instructions on how to sign up to have your courses added to the conversion list.

We are progressing with our district-wide installation of the Google Chrome web browser. While Firefox will continue to be supported alongside Chrome, the IT Team suggests making Chrome your main web browser of choice.

Finally, keep up with the latest district website and blog posts on our PlanetPM news site: http://www.pennmanor.net/planet.

Posted on January 8, 2012 by , Reply
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