Chapter 5 Forum

Hi Javier,

I appreciate all you are doing to make sure the infrastructure that we need is in place. We have had some difficulty with teacher laptops and student laptops. This past Friday my staff was working on PD 360 and had a tough time connecting because we had many teachers on the system. I have had minimal issues with connectivity for my laptop. The problem is any amount of time lost due to connectivity issues is time that could have been spent productively elsewhere. I am confident you can fix the problem. Thanks, Lily

As a teacher, I haven't had any difficulties using my notebook.  I have had the opportunity to observe a group of 5th graders who were extremely excited about taking their laptops home after school a couple of days in a row.  They were so excited they found a comfortable place to sit and use their laptops while waiting for the bus.  Unfortunately, none of them were able to access the internet and they became very frustrated.  I hated to see that...

Although not a classroom teacher, I have spent a good deal of time in 5th grade One to One classrooms and the reliability issue is huge.  Vision, the software that can assist teachers in classroom management, is a tool that essentially can not be used right now due to infrastructure challenges.  Such tools that are announced and then don't function add teacher frustration and cynicism.  I have heard teachers say Vision is another technical tool that doesn't work.

We have had some reliablility issues within our school.

1.  For me personally, my laptop connects well in some areas of the school and not at all in other areas.  For example, I was at a moodle meeting in our technology lab and my computer would connect and then immediately disconnect.  However, when I went back to my office to reconnect my computer--it happened immediately.  Unfortunately, the connection was broken within 5 minutes after I returned to the computer lab.  So, this was a bit discouraging for me.

2.  We do have a connectivity issue when all of the teachers are in the library for a meeting.  We had to use one computer when we were conducting the PD 360.  We are hopeful that somebody bolster the infrastructure within our school. There is a great deal of frustration when this occurs.

3.  I have observed some 5th grade lessons, where all of the students are unable to connect to the internet or they have sent their computers to be repaired and were not given a temporary one to use.  Some teachers have started to have their students log onto the network as soon as they enter the classroom and then do bellwork off the board.  In addition, if students are unable to connect to a certain website, the teachers have started creating hard copies for them to work with while they are waiting.  I think the biggest frustration for both the teachers and students was losing instructional time due to connectivity issues.

Overall the network reliability has been very good for the teacher laptops and student netbooks. Every once in a bliue moon I will have trouble connecting with my teacher laptop, but a simple disconnect and re-connect seem to solve the issue.

As far as the student laptops are concerned I have rarely experienced issues with connectivity. When I have had a few issues I simply have the students plug into the network and they are solved. I am also part of the second phase so I think that you may have better prepared the schools the second time around.

I have never had a problem with my teach laptop connecting to the network.  As a phase one school, I have been able to see the growth of this program and I notice a significant different in the connectivity for my student's laptops.  While it is not perfect (nothing is ever truly perfect) my students are able to connect more often then before and if they live close enough to the school they are able to connect at home.  I see some wonderful changes and I am looking forward to thing getting even better.

As another teacher from my site has already mentioned, we have probably benefited from being part of the second wave.  Overall, I have experienced very few difficulties.  Occasionally there are a handful of students who are delayed trying to log on, so we temporarily partner them up with a neighbor and within 5-10 minutes, his/her computer is ready to go.  Before we started, I was concerned about our infrastructure... but everything has been great.  I was also relieved that the charging station/cart isn't huge, it doesn't take up nearly as much space in my classroom as I was concerned it might.

As for my teacher laptop, I haven't had any problems whatsoever.  It is extremely reliable, regardless of day or time.  However, my desktop (the one I've used for years) has had issues lately.  Not sure if my desktop issues are connected in any way, but I've definitely experienced some frustration with that in recent months.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the way everything has worked out with the 1 to 1.  I also appreciate the way that the key staff and contact people have been introduced to us, although I haven't had any reason to ask for assistance so far.  If that time does come, it's nice to know they are available and all seem very friendly. 

The difference in reliability between teacher notebooks and student notebooks is mainly in the connection to the internet. Teacher connection is just about 100% while students depends on location, day,  and number of students trying to connect.

I think we have been very lucky with our connectivity.  we have had minimal problems when all the students have been logged on. Some still have to connect to a blue wire but for the most part it has been great.  I hope it will be the same next year.

I have had no problems with accessing technology in our district. I conitinue to learn and grown my technology skills. I feel that I have the support of the IT department and Helpdesk to deal with issues as they arise.

An appropriate use policy needs to be created and adopted by the board in anticipation of increased cell phone usage so that some direction/guidance can be in place. The genie is already out of the bottle regarding cell phones and learning. Most kids in Middle and High school have them and they are using them without our direction and inspite of our efforts to reign them in. Even lower level cells have the capacity to be used effectively to learn.

Connectivity for teachers has been pretty good at our  school, but student access is another story.  Luckily we have a TTF that can problem solve and troubleshoot different ways to connect our fifth graders and work collaboratively with the IT department.  When you have 28+ students in a class and the access points only allow for 22 connects, we have to be creative in our solutions.

I do, however, appreciate what our IT department is doing for our  schools.  In spite of all the snags along the way, I am very excited about our technology initiative for our students.  There is never a perfect plan, but I do know that as long as we have a department that is willing to acknowledge the shortcomings and is accessible to work with each site to support the initiative, then we will make it.  Thanks to Javier, Mary and the department for supporting each site.

My computer is very reliable.  Once i understood how it worked with my desktop and what I could save and take home I have been very happy with it.  As far as my students laptops the reliability is not as good.  My students laptops sometimes do not connect to the internet.  I am told that they shut down while they are working and they stop working and I have to take out the battery to reset them.  I have really learned alot out how to trouble shoot them so that my students can use them. 

I have had very little difficulty with connectivity with my teacher laptop. However, the teacher in the next room has a great deal of difficulty.  It is very frustrating for both teacher and students when there are connectivity issues with the student netbooks.  We are working on trouble shooting strategies - which we have had to do by trial and error.  When you plan an activity with the laptops, you have to be ready for everything to come to a screeching halt when there are connectivity issues.  I too have had to come up with alternative activities if students are unable to participate due to connectivity problems.  There are some students who never have connectivity issues, while others always have problems.  For the majority of the students it is hit and miss.

I have had to make many modifications to lessons due to poor internet connectivity. In my classroom, about half of my students are able to get on the internet at any one time. This has caused great frustration for my fifth-graders. As a result, I use the MS Office programs more often, buddy students up on laptops, or use internet activities as center work.

I am really glad to hear that the IT department is working on the connectivity issues.  I have had a pretty good experience with my computer and have been able to troubleshoot.  Though not a classroom teacher, I know that the fifth grade teachers spend a good deal of time (especially during the first semester) trying to get kids onto the network.  The other issue was that some programs were not available (or easily accessible) on their netbooks.  For example, when I tried to test students on the SRI many of the students didn't have it available in their programs menu.  Instead one of the fifth grade teachers had to work with each class to "find" the Scholastic program on a certain drive.  This took a great deal of time.  I will try testing the SRI again on the netbooks in fifth grade this spring and hopefully things will be easier.  I think that many of these issues are just things that need to be worked out and how can anyone address an issue they don't know about?  I applaud your department for working diligently and asking for feedback in this huge endeavor. 

I have had no problems with the teacher laptop wireless network reliability. The school I'm at is a phase 2 school and connectivity hasn't been a problem in the fifth grade classes. Initially, we had a problem with missing common drive but it was quickly resolved. The I.T. department has been wonderful and have addressed problems quickly.

To my knowledge, the delays of initiating Phase 2 of laptop distribution was to include prevention measures so that the network would never be unavailable or that the major problems of Phase 1 wouldn't bother us.

I, myself, can probably only think of one or two times where the network failed. My students, also, have only encountered a certain number of times where they couldn't access it. Overall, I am happy with the network setup.

Javier I have not had any issues with my laptop but have had several teachers who have had problems. Now these have been fixed as quickly as they took them into IT. When I have used 360 for training it is slow, but attainable.

I haven't really had any major issues with connectivity and my teacher laptop. If I did, connecting it to the ethernet usually fixed the problem.

During collaboration or 5th grade classes, connectivity is a huge issue. Only about 10 people can get on at once. It's quite the juggling act.

The laptop connectivity at our school is decent. It is not so much of a problem that it completely takes away from the learning, but it could be much improved.  I have had times where I only have 6 students in my classroom trying to connect to the wifi and yet I will still have a student or two that will not be able to connect to the wifi and will have to "plug in."  As far as my teacher computer goes, I have never had any problems connecting to the network, even when all my students are using their laptops.  I wonder if this may be because my students are connecting to the lesswires network and my teacher laptop is connecting to a different SUSD network.  The main thing I would like to see resolved with our laptops is the ability to see 100% of our students in the Vision software.  This program has so much potential and would be a wonderful tool for our classrooms if it worked correctly.

Hello Javier,

I believe you can judge my level of frustration by the number of emails I send you. Since you haven't heard from me in awhile, you can rely on the fact that things are improving greatly! My laptop has been an excellent resource for my teaching. I rarely have problems and use it almost every day.

We do have some difficulties when everyone is using the network at the same time. The fifth graders are using their computers in class and visit me once a week for library and again to use library desktops for 40 minutes.

It is really important in elementary school to keep the labs going for the benefit of k-4 students as well as a back-up for fifth grade. Without the labs, how will students in the lower grades gain the experience they need to utilize the netbooks in 5th grade?

Thank you for your patience over the last 2 years as I continue to learn and develop new skills. Even old dogs can learn new tricks, as they say.

As a classroom teacher, not 5th grade, access to the network has been somewhat unreliable. There are times of the the day that I do not have access to the network and have to connect directly through the blue wire. Although an inconvenience at times, it has not been an issue in which it has interrupted work.

As a TTF I have spent a lot of time in the classroom and with the 5th grade teachers. Access is definitely a major concern. While some classrooms are around 90% others are closer to 30%. This is frustrating when you want the students to go to a particular website and you don't have a projector as a backup. Our teachers want to use Vision but once again if you cannot get all computers on at the same it is really useless and not worth the time of trying it. I would say that access to the internet is crucial for success.

I agree with the statements that technology ought to be timely and efficient, but it is only one more tool.  A very useful tool indeed, but as teachers we always come up with creative ways to continue the learning process.

Haven't had any huge complications that wasn't able to fix with the blue ethernet cord.  As far as my student computers connectivity has become less of an issue now that we have extra thernet cables for students who are unable to connect.  It may be a little nusiance to them but it is what it is.  We deal with it.  I have noticed most of our connection issues occur when my neighbor and i are both using the students laptops.  Which is often because we're on the same schedule. 

We are excited to hear this as Vision is a tool we would like to utlize  in the classrooms. With the necessity for such a large bandwidth to use this program it is good to hear that fixes will be in place. Ironically one of the hardest times I have getting online is in my own office in the library which is where the hub is. However techs have been very good about getting out to put in switches in order to increase the reliability. We have been effected, unfortunately, by the lack of consistent internet connection and it was discouraging. We hope to have a more encouraging year next year after all the hard work.

I am a 5th grade teacher, and I can access the internet each time with my laptop but I have a couple students each time that can't access the internet and need to be plugged in with an ethernet cable. I have co-workers who have very big connectivity issues in thier classrooms, but I don't generally have many. I agree that 1:1 will be increasingly difficult if the connectivity is not fantastic. There have been times at our school where the network is down for more than a few seconds in some classrooms.

My teacher laptop has great connectivity and I have rarely had issues getting connected. My student laptops have gotten much better as the year has gone by. The student laptops can be unreliable and we have to build in time to troubleshoot laptops that are not connecting to the network. The students are pretty good at troubleshooting on their own and following the necessary steps to get connected. They have become independent problem solvers, and only come to me once they have explored other options. Ultimately, when students are unable to connect they plug their laptop to a blue cord and that gets them connected almost 100% of the time. I would like to have more blue cords available in my classroom so students can get connected and to work as quickly as possible. Although this can be time consuming and can be frustrating it is worth the positives that the laptops bring.

I recently did a survey of access boxes in my school and found that four of them were not working.  I have placed a work order and IT says that they will get to it but right now their priority is 5th grade (I'm at a middle school).  I am hopeful that its coming. My concern is having to convince teachers that are already frustrated that help is on the way.  Many of them had worked with the COW and obviously had problems with them not knowing that their access points were not working. We'll see.. I am encourage with the increase that is coming this summer.

Well, the kids are super excited to have their netbooks. They love to work on them, but unfortunately, it's been more like, lets put them away because we can't access the network. Using the netbooks takes quite a bit of our instructional time, from rolling out the cart, to calling the tables to their cases, line up to take out their netbook and unplug it from the charger wire, to sitting down, turning it on, letting it boot up.......... then to come to the realization that they can't access the Internet because there are other hundred children using it in the district and there aren't enough certificates to access the web OR some kids not being able to access wireless, then having to move to the back table to connect the land wire. Wow! frustrating and a great waste of time, and a lot of whining from the kids. I rather continue with traditional teaching, than  having to  encounter these problems.

Another problem is that we were told that our class would be added to VISION, but now I was told that it won't be possible. Well, forget that because I don't know how to input the kids' names (another PD for that).

I think, we are pressured right now to get the kids ready for AIMS and to be  dealing with these problems is not worth it.

Once all these glitches get solved, then it will be worth rolling out the cart.

Our site received the 5th grade laptops about a month ago and we are having problems with our connectivity. Our tech site coordinator was looking for blue cords to alleviate the connectivity problem but we never got more than 1 or 2. Another problem that was brought up was the issue with saving and getting files to open again. Although we have many problems, the staff and especially the kids are willing to work through them all and work with what we have to integrate it into the curriculum and we are not giving up anytime soon.

KEY: if teachers become frustrated by unreliable access there is a tendency to stop using the network. The famous words " I can't get on" is an obstacle for going forth.

I have 9 usable PCs in my classroom because I also teach Read 180 so 7 are new and 2 are old but they work for the most part. Because of this I have not borrowed the computer cart. One main reason is that I am afraid that one of my students will drop or otherwise damage one of these little computers and then I would be responsible or the parents who don't have any money might be responsible. Another reason I have not used them yet is that I have been in classrooms where they are being used and there is a connectivity issue many times and if that happened to me I would be very anxious. Another reason that I don't like them is because you have to move them from another building all the way to your classroom and it is really difficult to get them over the door frames. I had thought that they were going to be kept in our pods and we would have a sign out sheet and that would be so much more convenient. With the students all having their own laptops next year, this won't be an issue. (Except of course if they loose them or break them.)

My laptop is my only computer now after a move.  I am totally dependent on it.  I have had few issues with connectivity. Because of the new software, I use  A handful of problems have been handled in quickly by your department who are patient and responsive to all concerns and questions.

My hope is all the work this summer goes as planned.  Good luck and thank you and your department for all you do.

Network reliability is often a problem.  I have a large classroom, so I tell my students to move around the room until they find a hot spot.  Usually this works; however, there are times when I have to ask them to double up on a computer or to use a desktop computer in the library.  If they have cell phones, I allow them to use those to do their assignments, too.

After talking with Phase 1 teachers, I do feel many of the kinks have been worked out for us Phase 2ers.  At my site, the student laptop problems were slow connectivity when they are first turned on for the day and the common drive problem.  When the 5th graders bring their laptops to the library (I'm the librarian) already on, we can jump right into our 45 minute slot - so that problem has been solved with help from my 5th grade teachers.  IT seems to have fixed the common drive problem so now there are very few students who don't have access to an I or H drive.  I've been doing mostly MWord lessons with my 5th graders.  I'll be anxious to see if we have problems connecting 27+ kids to the internet at one time in the library... No problems with my teacher laptop.

Hi Javier,

In the 25 years I've been in SUSD you and your team are by far the best and fastest to respond to our technology needs.  You and your team rock!  Seriously, my laptop has been a jewel.  I have used it non-stop since getting it.  Both at home and around the district.  I do have some connectivity issues at Apollo depending on which building I am in and if the doors are closed or not.  I am sure once you and your team get to the middle schools to increase our access issues we will see this change.Thank you again for all you and your team do for us.

Being at an older site, getting the technology pieces up and rolling has been a challenge.  We greatly appreciate all of the efforts by various departments to make this happen.  I have learned from trying to use my laptop at home, that I do not have wireless access.  I am learning terms and what they mean at a rapid rate, yet I am still far behind the younger groups of professionals.  I appreciate all the trainings being offered it will just be a challenge to find the energy and time during the school year to take advantage of them.

It seems like everything has been pretty much been said.  I have not had any problems with my laptop when connecting to internet.  I am very happy to see so many positve postings and feel proud that we are all being patient and are being creative as we work with what we have available so far.  I'm a not a classroom teacher; but have seen how happy the fifth graders are when working on their computers.  I can't wait to see how productive and effective our teachers and students will be once our infastructure problems start to get solved.  Thank you ID department for all you do.

Connectivity remains a problem with fifth graders in the library at Drexel. If I have an entire class that does remember to bring their laptops. I can only get about 20 on at one time and there are 25 or more in complete classes. But since they come first period and some are not charged or working for other reasons, we usually manage. We are working on the PowerPoint lesson right now, so if they can't get on, or there is another problem with their computer, I have them follow along anyway and then write their text for the slide on folded white paper. Then when they get back to class, or the next time they come they can finish the slide. One student remarked, " I think I will make sure I bring mine next time!." But sometimes it isn't their fault and I do feel for them.  It has helped greatly to have our TTF available to help them while I am teaching.

I haven't had many problems with my teacher laptop except the day I went to a meeting with it and wanted to use the Internet (at about 1:00) and was suddenly told that our subscription had expired. But I emailed Adam Foster and somehow it came back on again!

It is true that the learning curve has been steep this year for all of us at Drexel. I am happy to hear about the upgrades planned for the summer. That should really help!

Thanks to the IT department for your tireless and sometimes unappreciated work. I know we complain frequently, but the bottom line is that we want this to work for all of us, especially for our students!

Echoing most of the comments- reliable access has been a concern among our teachers as well. They will appreciate the news regarding the changes and improvements on the way. The change we are going through is a process, and it is significant to keep in mind these structural issues present as much of a challenge as the curricular challenges.