School Technology Upgrades

The St Matthew’s Technology committee would like to thank the 2007 auction committee for the opportunity to enhance our children’s education through technology.  We have worked hard to provide a detailed plan that efficiently utilizes the funds provided by the 2007 auction.   I would like to thank the technology committee members who have provided continued time and talent to the school and parish. Special thanks to the committee this summer for putting forth an incredible effort which was needed to ensure everything was done by the start of the school year. 
The goal of the Technology Committee are to provide the best education technology solutions to the students and teachers while providing efficient and effective technology tools to the administrative staff.
The following web page will outline all of the additions and changes to our computer installation and a brief history of computers and technology at St Matthew’s.

Future Plans

  • Summer 2008 – The addition of Electronic Grade Reporting (Web grader or another).  This was budgeted from the 2007 Auction proceeds, but delayed because of the overwhelming amount of activities taking place in the summer of 2007.

Summer 2007 Activities:

  • New classroom PC’s all running Windows XP with the Office 2003 Suite in grades K4 – 8th, in all 30+ machines.
  • All Tube type CRT monitors have been replaced with 19”wide screen LCD Monitors in the classrooms and the Lab, roughly 60+ in all.
  • All new computers are equipped with DVD Burners
  • A single color LaserJet Printer in the Lab replaces the 3 inkjet machines.  This printer is prints faster and needs less changing of toner.  The speed of this printer should eliminate bottlenecks at the end of classes when students print.
  • New versions of the Jumpstart Series were purchased and installed on the new equipment.  This software serves grades K4-2nd. Also this version is a network version so there is no need to have CDs for each PC.  http://shop.knowledgeadventure.com/Departments/JumpStart-Series.aspx
  • New versions of the MathBlaster software were purchased and installed on the new equipment and this software serves grades K4-2nd. http://shop.knowledgeadventure.com/Departments/Math-Blaster-Series.aspx
  • The Type to Learn Series was purchased and installed on the new equipment.  This series contains 4 different programs that server grades K4-8th. http://store.sunburst.com/Default.aspx?tabid=239
  • Inspiration Software was purchased which is software used 6th-8th grade for diagramming, outlining etc.  http://www.inspiration.com/productinfo/inspiration/index.cfm
  • A subscription to United Streaming was purchased and will be used in grades K4-8th.  United Streaming is a library of educational videos. http://www.unitedstreaming.com/home/aboutus.cfm
  • St Matthew’s currently uses an operational software package called PDS (Parish Data Solutions) that administers Office Management, Financials Christian Formation and Facility Scheduling.  We have purchased and installed the PDS School Office Module that will help the school office in the same way and integrate easily with the current PDS software.  http://www.parishdata.com/schools
  • Because of higher Internet use, the need for filtering and controlling software has become imperative. We have purchased and installed bt-Webfilter by Burstek which integrates easily with our current server software and is easy to manage and administer.  http://www.burstek.com/products/btwebfilter.htm
  • A new donated server was built for the purposes of housing our ISA and Burstek Server Software.  This is the Server and Software that acts as a gatekeeper between our network and the Internet.

School Year 2006-2007

  • A new Server rack and blade type servers were donated.  This allowed us to build out a portion of the utility room in the basement of the gathering space to move all of our servers to. This helps us with air-conditioning costs and more effectively use our space in the computer lab.
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Summer 2006

  • All 32 of the old Compaq computers in the computer Lab were replaced with new machines that were built by technology committee members.  Building these machines from components allows us to be cost effective in what we buy and what we do not buy.  These PCs were built with standard components so they are easily replaced if and when they break without having to replace the entire machine.
  • Newer donated machines from the closing 440th Airlift Wing division were used to replace the aging Compaq machines in the grades 3rd through 8th. Technology Committee members ensured that all classroom documents and teachers documents were moved from the old PCs to the new PCs

Summer 2005

  • A new server was purchased to replace the old school file server.  The old server was running on a dated machine, and running a non-supported operating system, Windows NT 4.0.  The Technology Committee built the new server using Windows Server 2003 with Active Directory.  Active Directory is the most current security model from Microsoft. It will allow us to provide stronger security while being flexible enough to administer very easily.

2000-2002

  • Another donation from Harley-Davidson gave us Pentium 3 – 700MHz machines and again the lab was replaced and some in classrooms and the older, slower ones cycled out.

1998-2000

  • A welcomed donation from Harley-Davidson gave us enough Pentium 3 – 400 MHz machines to replace all the machines in the Lab and many in the classrooms.  The best of the older machines were put into service where there were no machines before, and the oldest and slowest retired.

1995-1998      

  • With funds from Home and School, the lab machines were upgraded to Pentium 2 machines and upgraded to Windows 98.  The older Pentium 1 machines were moved to the classrooms and the older 486 machines were retired.

1994-1995

  • Some more donations and Home & School money saw the procurement of Pentium 1 – 90Mhz machines expanding the lab to 30 machines.  Machines were moved to Windows 95, network cards were installed and the school wired with CAT-5 network cable, 1 computer was outfitted with a modem to allow a connection to the Internet.

1993

  • Home and School Money was budgeted to purchase 6 new 486-80MHz machines and a used HP Laserjet 4 plus printer.  All machines at the time ran DOS + Windows 3.11

1992

  • Mark Shawver and Gary Hay establish the first Technology Committee at St Matthew’s.  A donation of nine 486-25MHz machines, 3 new tables, 3 printers and a few Apple machines in the 5th grade class started the technology revolution