Cove school technology staff bring district into 2020 era

By WENDY SLEDD

Special to Leader-Press

Teachers clapped their hands and some even jumped up and down with broad smiles on their faces when they learned they would return to school this year with brand new computers. Teachers, campus administrators, counselors and librarians all received new computers as part of the district’s strategic plan.

Sept. 28 – Oct. 2 is Technology Employees Recognition Week. CCISD Director of Technology Earl Parcell said his employees have earned it this year implementing the plan’s goals which include using technological resources to enhance instruction and to improve efficiencies of all district services.

“The members of the department are committed to customer-service that is second to none and are solutions-oriented. They are centrally located and dispatched to areas of need that are generated from an online work order system or from a technology helpdesk phone line,” Parcell said.

Since August 3, the small but efficient staff of 16 has responded to and closed more than 2,200 technology work orders. In addition to responding to work orders on a daily basis, the department is continually upgrading the network, infrastructure, and security systems, refurbishing and reusing old computers as well as piloting new technologies for future uses in the district, Parcell said.

A major effort of the department that began last spring is the standardization of the classroom technological platform that is sustainable. This platform includes standardizing the teacher and student computers, providing mobile devices to grades PK-5, interactive projectors, classroom speakers, and the implementation of a Learning Management System. The standard platform is scheduled to be fully implemented by August 2017.

“This past summer, the department received, imaged, and delivered more than 600 new teacher computers. The department is on schedule to deliver more than 900 mobile devices to all PK-5 classrooms, five per class, by October 31,” Parcell said. “Currently, the department is providing support to twenty classrooms that are piloting new short-throw interactive projectors. These interactive projectors serve as typical projectors, but with the click of a button can function as an Interactive Whiteboard which encourages and supports ubiquitous student engagement with technology designed to enhance learning objectives and instructional activities.”

Lastly, the department is working, in concert with the curriculum department, to explore the new Learning Management System, Schoology, which the district recently purchased, Parcell said. This platform can be used to house instructional content that students, teachers, parents, and administration can easily access via the world-wide web.

CCISD Network Engineer Henry Blair has worked in the CCISD Technology Department since the late 1990’s and has watched the district’s use of technology expand exponentially. 

“I love interacting with the district's wonderful employees and students and finding creative ways to help them accomplish their work,” Blair said. “Solving frustrating problems for teachers and students is very rewarding to me.”