Page 132 - Lakeland Catholic Technology Plan

It should be noted for comparison purposes, that the stage of development for the Lakeland R.C.C.S District is very similar to the snapshot for the 81 schools audited by The ALTIS Group. This comparison is comforting in that the District has made similar progress to a sample of 81 Brit- ish Columbia and Alberta schools. It also means that even after a number of years of District sup- port and a number of significant achievements, much is yet to be done.
2.2.7 The CEO Forum School Technology and Readiness Report (STAR)
Locating information of a large scale is difficult because assessment of stages of technology devel- opment are relatively new and where found different audits use slightly different stages and indica- tors. The ALTIS Group has located a large scale annual assessment of a somewhat similar nature. For comparison purposes, realizing the assessment is not identical, but sufficiently similar to be useful, the following graph, Summary of Year One (1997) and Year Two (1998) STAR Assess- ment, has been reproduced from the CEO Forum School Technology and Readiness Report, Feb- ruary 1999.
This report summarizes information collected from over 80, 000 U.S. schools selected from every state in the continental U.S. The ALTIS Group interprets this chart as indicating that the 81 schools audited by the ALTIS Group, including the Lakeland R.C.C.S. District, are significantly ahead of U.S. schools.
Summary of Year One (1997) and Year Two STAR Assessment
NOTE: For additional information on this study and for the 1999 assessment due in Summer 2000, go to the CEO Forum Web Site at http://ceoforum.org
2.3 Review of Hardware, Software and Network Infrastructure
The District is made up of six schools, a District Office, a Tech Shop, and a Maintenance Depart- ment. There is also a small sub-office in Cold Lake, and a Vendor Office in Cold Lake which serves as a central point for the Wide Area Network (WAN) in Cold Lake, and houses some District equip- ment. The latter two sites receive a partial mention in the ALTIS Group review, while the first nine sites are the primary focus.
Over the past number of years technology has been a District priority, and great strides have been made towards a first class technology infrastructure. For additional information see, Review of Hardware, Software and Network Infrastructure, October, 1999. Major District hardware, soft- ware and infrastructure achievements include:
• a full scale enterprise WAN, which is nearly complete;
• standard software for student records;
• standard software for Library automation;
• Local Area Networks (LANs) in every school site;
• standard file services in every site;
• a standard manufacturer for all printers in all sites;
• a standard manufacturer for all hubs and switches in all sites;
• a satellite Internet feed;
• proxy Servers in every site;
• a standard back up system for each Server;
• centralized technical support infrastructure;
• centralized technology purchasing and planning;
• Internet accessibility to all staff; and
• a District Director of Technology Services with a wide range of
experience and skill to help lead the District.
Finally, this review included a number of recommendations with respect to all areas of the physical technology, technical support and infrastructure, that will help in planning for the future. Recommendations were made in the following areas:
• Libraries
• Student Records
• Report Cards
• Software
• Loading of Software on Computers
• System Lockdowns and Administration
• Server and Services
• Technical Support
• Local Area Network (LAN)
• Hardware
• Printers
• Computers — Wintel Based
• Computers — Mac OS Based
• Servers
• Disaster Recovery
• Wide Area Network (WAN)
• Firewalls
• Proxy Servers
• DNS Servers
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