Page 102 - Lakeland Catholic Technology Plan

This problem may not seem too be a problem at present, however, once a District- wide e-mail system is implemented, and users begin to exchange files on a regu- lar basis, it can become an insurmountable problem. The software that appears to be emerging as a District standard include:
• Microsoft Office 97/2000;
• Internet Explorer 5;
• Netscape Navigator 4.x;
• SASI XP;
• Integrade Pro;
• Outlook Express; and
• ZenWorks
Recommendations:
1. The District should standardize all of their software packages where appropriate. This standard should remain in place for a minimum of three years, to save excessive training, implementation, and support costs. There is room for two standards, one for staff and one for students, but there isn’t room for different software standards for staff in one school, and staff in other sites.
2. The District should decide whether to support Office 97 or 2000, not both.
7. Loading of Software on Computers.
In the District, the majority of classroom and Lab computers are WinTel based machines. In fact, most Labs have identical machines throughout the Lab. In addition, in the schools, most teacher workstations are identical. Thus, there should be a standard “image” that can be reloaded onto a workstation at any given time. Instead of going to each individual computer, loading a base image, and then custom installing any additional software, an image of the complete computer should be created which can restore the hard drive. There is no reason why a computer can’t be setup to a standard specification and loaded at once.
Recommendation:
1. The District should investigate disk imaging options like Norton Ghost, which allow for computers to be completely reloaded at any time, and these image loads are then complete, ready-to-go packages. Essentially, it should be setup so that a staff member in the schools can reload an image if required.
Gallery 9.3 Student Laptop Imaging
The school district supports over 1900 student laptops over 7 schools and 3 different communities.
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