| Work Detail |
Do you know how much of a pain it is to update your computer software? Imagine doing that 4,600 times. Henderson County Schools did just that this year by successfully completing the state''s largest Windows 10 update over the summer. Roughly 4,600 work stations were updated from Widows 8 to Windows 10 during the summer months, said Brian Bailey, the district''s director of technology. Microsoft has ended support to the defunct operating system and focused its efforts on the upgrade. As a district, we feel like we should stay on the cutting edge of technology and provide access to the latest and greatest technology for our staff and students, said Bailey. The school system has an annual volume licensing agreement with Microsoft for $33,152 that covers the cost of the new software. Bailey said they are always looking for cost-saving measures. Instead of just buying new hardware, we''ve done some minor upgrades to hardware to get more longevity out of it, he said. The district performed hardware upgrades on 1,150 workstations to extend the life of devices instead of replacing them. This saved an estimated $598,000. The team that upgraded the district''s software to Windows 10 was comprised of the district''s technology support center as well as nine high school students that were used for additional manpower. They were instrumental in deploying the operating system, he said. Students were paid an hourly wage of $7.25 an hour, working four days a week for six weeks. However, it was more of a work study program to allow students to become familiar with the enterprise operating a system deployment project. Teacher Zach Hamby, who leads the Information Technology program at HCHS, eyed students who had shown promise in computer class. Bailey then selected nine of those students for the summer crew. Senior Alex Carmen, 17, was one of the students who gained real world experience through the project. He''s part of the high school help desk, so he''s also been helping address lingering problems. We''ve had a lot of issues with the active directory that we had to get fixed, so I learned a little bit from that too, he said. Carmen wants to study telecommunications and network administration in college. Once he''s through, he wants to work in system administration, so this summer''s work provided a valuable foundation for him. Local area network technician Stephen Johnson said he and Bailey made sure everything was correctly installed once the Microsoft 10 upgrade project was complete. As with any new operating system, we''re working through some kinks right now, said Bailey. Nothing is perfect, but our staff have responded well to the change. The students are also responding well to the change. The technology department visits schools throughout the day to keep an eye on what issues are cropping up. The technology help desk center also fields calls throughout the day. The issues are either addressed remotely or a field technician is dispatched, he said. Becoming a technological innovator in the state, country and world is a district goal. We want to make sure our students are learning with the latest and greatest tools as much as budgets will allow, Bailey said. |
