C & I 335 Summer 1998
Brian Abeling
Pekin District
108
Pekin, Illinois
Due to the size of our school district and the amount of technology that we have, I won't be able to list all of our resources. Instead, I am listing the specific resources that are available to me that relate to my role as webmaster for the district. In addition, I have recently updated our district's media resources database as well as a statistical overview of the technology in our school district.
This assignment contains:
- Technology Resources in my office [Computers] [Peripherals] [Software]
- Recommendations for new resources
- District Media Database
- District Technology Statistics
Technology Resources in my office
- IBM 760XL Thinkpad Laptop 166MHz, 80MB Ram, 2Gig drive
- PowerMac 8500/120, 120Mb RAM, 6 Gig Drive, running Sys 7.5.5
- Gateway G6-266, 160 Mb RAM, 9 Gig,
- Video Access Node – This computer system is used for two purposes. Video conferencing and for capturing Mpeg2 quality video to the network. It records Mpeg2 quality video in real time, accepting data from either the current computer screen, the video camera attached to the system or the camera attached to a remote VAN located somewhere else.
- V-Cache – The cache machine really isn't a computer workstation, but instead a large networked storage device that can hold up to 200 hours of digital video for playback through the network. It can also playback simultaneous streams of video at the same time to 75 different users on the network.
- HP Scanjet 5 with document feeder, used to scan photos into Photoshop or scan documents into pdf format
- Sony Mavica FD-7 digital camera
- Iomega Zip Drives (one for each computer workstation), used for extras storage as well as transfering large data files (such as videos) between the different platforms.
- HP SmartCD-RW for producing either CD-R's or CD-RW's for either backup or presentations.
- HP 690C Color Jet for color printing and a networked HP LaserJet 5L for faster black/white productions.
- Microsoft Office '97: This is a general productivity software package that contains software for word processing (Word), spreadsheets (Excel), presentations (PowerPoint), and databases (Access)
- Netscape Communicator 4.03: Web browser that also comes with Netscape Composer which is a simple HTML editor that can be used for producing web pages.
- Adobe Illustrator 7: Software for producing and editing raster-based art work for web sites, presentations, or print material.
- Adobe Photoshop 5: Software for producing and editing bitmap images for web sites or other presentations.
- Adobe ImageReady 1.0: Software for optimizing web graphics for faster download times
- Adobe Premiere 4.2: Software for editing and producing digital video clips that can either be stored on CD-Rom, the web server, or the video network's cache machine.
- Adobe Acrobat and Capture 2.0: Software for translating documents into Adobe's Portable Document File format.
- Adobe PageMaker 6.5: Desktop publishing software for creating documents.
- WebTrends 4.0: Software for analyzing web server log files to find the number of visitors and other statistics on a web site.
- ThumbsPlus: A shareware program that can view, edit, and modify entire directories of images. It can also produced an HTML document that shows thumbnails and links to all the individual image files.
The following is a list of resources that I have researched that would be beneficial for my proposed project for C&I 335 . I have already submitted and received approval from the district tech staff for the purchase for the following.
- MiroVIDEO DC30+ video capture board
- Quantum Atlas III 9Gb wide SCSI drive
- Lotus ScreenCam software
- High school student (as part-time worker)
In order to produce videos for the Internet web site,
I will need a quality video capture card (microVIDEO DC30+) and an AV Harddrive
with a fast enough throughput for digital video (Quantum Atlas III).
The Lotus ScreenCam software will enable me to capture movies directly
from a computer screen for producing the instructional videos. I
have also requested the assistance of a part-time high school student for
two reasons: 1) Someone will need to take over parts of my current job
so that I dedicate more time to this project 2) He/she can be used
to help digitize the final productions of the instructional videos since
they are rather time consuming.
This database contains a listing of various multi-media
resources located in each of our buildings. The database has recently
been updated with new CD-Roms that have been purchased this past year,
but we have not received the latest listings of new software from each
building. The database can be downloaded
in Excel '97 format.
District
Technology Statistics
Here are some general statistics about technology
and our school district:
Human & Fiscal Resources
Student enrollment: 4100
Certified staff: 275
Support staff 150
Annual Budget: $25 million, of which 8% is allocated
towards technology
Computers
Total # of computers: 1,200 (we are also purchasing 350
additional workstations this summer)
Computers with Internet access: 700
% of certified staff with a laptop/docking stations:
75% (by August '98 this will be 100%)
Peripherals
130 printers
100 Large screen VGA monitors
20 scanners
35 digital cameras
Infrastructure
Type of Internet Access: T-1 from CICnet and OC-3 from
ISBE (actually being installed now). Both connections are run to
our central hub and fiber optics carry it out to each individual school
site.
Type of network: ATM backbone with about 650 workstations with ATM to the desktop, 65 Token Ring stations, 200 10Base-T stations, and 285 baseband networked machines.
Tech Staff
1 Secretary
3 Tech Coordinators
2 Full-Time technicians
4 Part-time student technicians (both college interns
and high school students)