HelpDesk: 44 tickets opened. 33 tickets closed. 8 open tickets. 3 waiting tickets. Waiting tickets are those where I am waiting on a response from the person that entered the ticket.
To create a ticket, go to http://loganelm.org/helpdesk and fill out the form. If you are requesting new accounts or resetting passwords for students, please include their grade level and student number.
New Windows Domain: Forward Edge, the company that installed our new wired/wireless network, has created a new Windows domain for our Windows computers. I will start migrating computers to the domain very soon. To make the transition as smooth as possible, I have created calendar appointments through Calendly to collect domain passwords from high school/middle school teachers. Computers at other buildings use a generic logon, so I will not be sending the form to schools not on the main campus. This project is necessary due to the outdated operating systems on our servers, more storage, better analytics/security and an easy transition when we move into the new building.
Office 365 New Look for Outlook: Microsoft has updated the look of Outlook. If you want to change to the new look, click on the "Try the new Outlook" button in the upper right-hand corner. Personally, I like the new look. It gives you more options when you click on an email than the current look. If you don't like it, you can switch back.
Filtering: Securly is up and running on chromebooks. I will get it up and running on all Windows desktops and laptops by the end of the school year. BYOT devices will only be filtered on our network, not off-campus. If parents want filtering on their child's device(s), they should look into a service like OpenDNS, Circle or another solution from their wireless provider.
Windows 10: I am still in the process of upgrading desktop computers to Windows 10. My goal is to have every desktop on Windows 10 by the end of the school year. All laptops should be running Windows 10. If you know of a laptop that was missed (I found one over the winter break), please let me know. So far, 35 computers have been upgraded to Windows 10. I have 41 computers to go. There are some computers that will not be upgraded. They will be replaced over the summer.
Transfinder: In December of 2018, the board of education approved a new bus routing software package. Transfinder has many more feature than the outdated software (Edulog) we are currently using. At this time, I am setting up a server and Transfinder is importing our current routes. Our goal is to have the new software up and running before the start of 2019-2020 school year.
FMX: FMX is a facilities management program recently approved by the board of education. This program will be used for transportation requests, maintenance requests, planned maintenance, building schedule requests and technology requests. At the current time, I am working on an import file of all buildings, rooms, entrances and mechanical areas. Once everything is imported, we will begin to roll out services. We will start with transportation requests first. I will be moving the technology helpdesk to FMX and retire what we currently use. Even though Spiceworks is free, I want to make it easier on everyone by having one place to enter requests.
Twitter: I have created a Twitter account for the tech department. The URL is https://twitter.com/loganelmtech. I will post updates and use it to post outages, especially when email is not available.
