Theme 3: Professional development for teachers needs to be continuous and offered in variety to allow for teachers to find a comfort with technology and also learn it is okay to not know everything. DDN-IT courses are so important to this theme. DDN-IT is professional development for the tech people. It is the undercarriage of the system. Without the knowledge in this course, the running of the network in the schools would not be smooth and the technology would not be easily ready for use by teachers and students.
CET 657, CET 692, CET 692(2016)I chose to take the DDN-IT summer programs as part of my electives for the MSET program. The DDN-IT courses are very beneficial to the K-12 technical facilitator. I sincerely hope that the state and DSU will continue to offer this program. The expertise in the room is beyond compare. Having the state departments come together and share information with the K-12 technicians is priceless. These course have taught me to put together a network, maintain my network, create virtual machines, image my computers, maintain my wireless system, utilize software tools to manage my network, provide filtering in my building, and more. It has been a great experience, and I have learned so much in the two years I have attended this program.
Reflections and Observations: Summer 2014CET 657 Network Operating Systems Topics
Instructor: John Hohn Reflections by Janelle Gregg Server Deployment: Going back to school and asking what we have for servers, I found out that we run a 2208R2 and an older Mac OS10 server at our site in New Effington Elementary Site. At our WS Elementary site we run 2 2012R2 servers and 3 older Mac OS10 servers. At our High School\Middle School site we run 6 2012R2 servers 8 2008R2 servers and 3 2003R2 servers. Some of these are virtual servers and some are hosts. I did not get the specifics yet. We do run 2008R2 for our DPM server (backup). So, what did I learn to take back and work with these servers? Well, the first thing I learned is that I would like to work with the new tech coordinator, since I am going to be the computer teacher\ tech facilitator in the high school, to update the 2003 server. I would like to see what is on it and see why we have left it at 2003. I will also need to ask questions to see why we are running different levels of servers. I would think it would be easier to run them all the same. The tools available on the 2012R2 servers seem to make running the network more smoothly. It seems it would be complicated to run the different servers on different software and not be able to perform the same tasks on all servers. Windows 8.1 Deployment: After working with the 8.1 system this past week. I like what I see and think it would be nice to have all the Windows machines running the 8.1 update1 software. However, I am not in charge, we will continue to run Windows 7. We have staff who will find the change hard to handle. I think 8.1 is easier to adapt to than 8 would have been. From what we discussed in class, I am okay with staying at Windows 7 for now. It seems to run most of the same things. All of our machines are Windows 7, so at least we don’t have different versions to deal with. I did like the idea of creating one image and then using the out-of-box driver feature to send the image to the different types of clients. Currently we make different images for all of our different clients and for some different classroom/lab situations. It would be nice to have one image and then use group policy to make the changes to the different classes/labs. Group Policy Configuration: Well, my reflection here is that I you gave us a great amount of information in this section and I will take that information back to my school and share it with the tech coordinator and see if we want to implement any of it. Upon talking with the new coordinator and the retiring coordinator, I found out that we do not use Goveran and we do not really set group policies. We have a couple things through Active Directory that restrict access for staff and students. As a newby and assisting the tech coordinator. The final decision will be his not mine. I will share what I have learned and see if we can move forward with this technology. I see many benefits. I liked the group policies for restricting Internet to kids that had been taken off of it. I see the idea of printer services. I especially liked learning about admx files and restricting or changing settings within programs for end user application. However, I have no report as asked for in the assignment because we do not currently do this. Culminating Reflection Final: Since I am not the tech coordinator and it will not be my decision, I will share what I would implement if I had the authority to do so. Please keep in mind that I am new to this and it may not be as easy of a change as what I would think it could be. In the first reflection, I listed out all the servers that we currently run. If I took over and changed things, I would think it would be best to run all servers on 2012R2. I obviously don’t know the previous versions, so I have nothing to compare it to yet, but it seems that this latest version has many applications that previous versions did not have and would make life more simplified if all the servers ran on this software. I don’t know what that would mean for updating them all or if we would have to replace the 2003 server with a new server. We currently run all of our windows machines on Windows 7. I am okay with that because they all run the same software. I would like to update to Windows 8.1 update1. Again, it seems that the thought process for update one made improvements that version 8 was missing. I was not in a hurry to change to 8, but with the changes in 8.1, I like the new features and I like what I have been exposed to in imaging those machines and pushing out the image. With group policy, I would like to explore that more and see what works best for our school. I like what I have seen with different permission settings. I get the different levels of computer and user policies. It seems that permission policies are making life easier than what I have heard that we do. I know we wrote script for all of our printers and that we then didn’t know how to make changes to the script to change settings. I will try to figure out what we are currently doing. No to make light of the situation, but if my schools burned down, it might be okay to start from scratch with the latest software and make everything the way I wanted it. It is sometimes easier to start from scratch than to figure out what someone else did and try to change and update. I guess I will see where this goes. I hope to share what I learned this past week with my new tech coordinator and make some changes to what we do. I especially want to add in Goverlan and start running group policies. I think he will like it and it will make life easier, in some aspects. I am sorry I do not have any structure to add to this reflection. I have yet to see it myself. I will be interested come July 1 when we officially start our new positions to see what happens. Reflections and Observations: Summer 2015
CET 692 Assignments Submission Instructor: John Hohn Reflections by Janelle Gregg Virtual Server Deployment: We currently run a 2208R2 and an older Mac OS10 server at our site in New Effington Elementary Site. At our WS Elementary site we run 2 2012R2 servers and 3 older Mac OS10 servers. At our High School\Middle School\District Administration we have a mess that Travis is going to come help fix the end of June. We have 11 physical servers. Of those, 6 are running 2008R2, 4 are 2012R2, and 1 is 2012. DHCP, DNS, and AD DS are on 2012R2 on a physical and a virtual server. WDS and GoverLan are on a 2012 physical server. Hyper V Manager is on a physical 2008R2 server and a virtual server. So, what did I learn to take back and work with these servers? First, I am not the tech coordinator. I am building level for the high school, but I have ideas I hope the new tech coordinator will listen too. We are running some virtual servers on 2003. Those need to go. Everything dealing with our district office is on a 2003 virtual server. That needs to change. I would prefer to have everything running 2012R2 if possible. We also have way to many servers not being utilized well. That is where Travis comes in. He has already been asked to come help rebuild our servers. We plan to use fewer servers more wisely. My hope is to have everything running 2012R2 and run the VMs within the servers as needed rather than having so many physical servers. Windows 8.1 Deployment: After working with the 8.1 system this past week, I like what I see and think it would be nice to have all the Windows machines running the 8.1 update1 software. My tech coordinator is still deciding if we go ahead with 8.1 or wait and just jump to 10. After this week, I am going to strongly suggest that we move from 7 to 8.1 this year and wait with 10 until more has been done with it and we see how it works with the networks and imaging. I am excited to get our servers redone and then have time this summer to work with WDS and create the image on the server as we did in the training. I have many types of laptop, so I am concerned about the drivers. If everything ran as expected, that would be great. We run 3 different Fujitsu, HP, Bytespeed Classmates, Bytespeed tablets. All of our desktops are a variety of different years of Bytespeeds. I know the Bytespeed people and they will work with us to get the drivers. I am more concerned about the HPs and Fujitsu. Oh yes, and the old Gateways, but I hope to get rid of those this year. I want to transfer everything to WDS for imaging. We currently image by physically going to each computer and booting the image from external hard drives. I think it will take time to get everything together this first time through, but after that, it should work very well. Group Policy Configuration: We have not used GoverLan or the group policy management to set group policies yet. This has been an area the neither my retired tech coordinator nor my current tech coordinator have felt comfortable with. Attending DDnit for the first time in 2014, I was lost. I was not about to come back and try to ask to make changes. After this year, I am ready to give it a shot. I felt more comfortable with what we learned and why we did the different group policy settings. I definitely will use it now that we move to Windows8.1. It will take some time this summer to get these things set up, but I think my new tech will allow me to do that. Also, I would like to update GoverLan. We didn’t use it but we have version 7. I would like to update to 8. Culminating Reflection Final: Since I am not the tech coordinator and it will not be my decision, I will share what I would implement if I had the authority to do so. In the first reflection, I listed out all the servers that we currently run. If I took over and changed things, I would think it would be best to run all servers on 2012R2. I don’t know the previous versions, so I have nothing to compare it to, but it seems that this latest version has many applications that previous versions did not have and would make life more simplified if all the servers ran on this software. Hopefully after Travis comes this summer. I will have fewer physical servers and using the virtual servers to my advantage. We currently run all of our windows machines on Windows 7. I am okay with that because they all run the same software. We will update to Windows 8.1 update1. This will require time to put the images into the servers and set the policies needed to manage the computers, especially for the student computers. With group policy, I would like to explore that more and see what works best for our school. I like what I have seen with different permission settings. I get the different levels of computer and user policies. It seems that permission policies are making life easier than what I have heard that we do. I know we wrote script for all of our printers and that we then didn’t know how to make changes to the script to change settings. I will try to figure out what we are currently doing and make a plan to update servers, imaging to 8.1 for our laptops. We are also moving to multifunction printers/copiers. That portion didn’t sound very great in training. I guess I will see where this goes. I hope to share what I learned this past week with my new tech coordinator and make some changes to what we do. I especially want to add in Goverlan and start running group policies. I think he will like it and it will make life easier, in some aspects. Active Directory View: Network Structure: Our network structure is messed up. According to our 2 different Hyper V Managers. Hyper v on SHS20 manages SHS01, SHS05, shs7, and WSUS. A second Hyper V Manager on shs10 manages ADMIN, admin2, admin3, shs02, shs06, shs8, VMM. It sort of seems like there is a little bit of everything everywhere. I don’t know what the new structure will look like until we make those changes the end of June. |
Reflections and Observations: Summer 2016
CET 692 Assignments Submission
Instructor: John Hohn
Reflections by Janelle Gregg
Virtual Server Deployment:
We currently run a 2208R2 and an older Mac OS10 server at our site in New Effington Elementary Site. This site is being closed down during the summer and all equipment will be taken down. At our WS Elementary site we run 2 2012R2 servers and 3 older Mac OS10 servers. During the summer we wil be shutting down the Mac servers and running just the windows servers. At our High School\Middle School\District Administration we have updated our system. Last summer Travis Graves helped to upgrade and shutdown unneeded physical servers. We now run 3 host servers in the high school that have multiple virtual servers. We do still have an old 2003 server running our time clock. DHCP, DNS, and AD DS are on 2012R2 on a physical and a virtual server. WDS and GoverLan are on a 2012 physical server. Hyper V Manager is on a physical 2008R2 server and a virtual server.
Attending DDN-IT this year, I would have to say that the take away for servers and VM servers is that I am content with what we are currently using. I am glad that we are mostly 2012R2 servers. I will say that in learning about the servers, my biggest concern is security issues that were discussed, and my goal is to go back and make sure we update our security.
Windows 10 Deployment:
After working with the Windows 10 system this past week, I like the aspects of the system, but I will stay with 8.1 this year. I spent hours getting things set up last year and am not ready to jump again this year. I do like the features; in another year, we will probably change.
We run 3 different Fujitsu, HP, Bytespeed Classmates, Bytespeed tablets. All of our desktops are a variety of different years of Bytespeeds. I have set up a basic image and have the drivers for 8.1 and like the ease of the VM image and setting up the rest of the machines. This year, I will take some of the steps we do after imaging and incorporate them into the image process or apply through group policy. The more I learn, the easier my job gets.
Cloud Services:
Office 365, the desktop version of Office, and mobile Office all combine and work together. If we utilize the k12 accounts available and save to our OneDrive for Business accounts, we can work anywhere. The issue is, do we leave this open and utilize it, or close down Microsoft accounts so personal accounts are not used. The issue is all or none right no. OneDrive and OneDrive for Business are two different accounts, but now with the Next Generation Sync client, both can be synced together. The sign in from the desktop Office, shows any OneDrive account you have. The cloud has great potential, but there are security concepts to consider and worry about. Google Apps and classroom are also available. Your k12 email will not be a part of this. Use the school issued services for school work. Use personal for personal. Keep it separate. The decision to use these features should be a district decision. That being said, at this point in time, we have activated the teacher accounts for both Office 365 and Google. Give the students the access so that teachers and students can work, is still in the works. The tools and communication aspects are great. The security is touchy.
Culminating Reflection Final:
Since I am not the tech coordinator and it will not be my decision, I will share what I would implement if I had the authority to do so.
In the first reflection, I listed out all the servers that we currently run. We will continue to upgrade computers to 2012R2 this year. We will also decommission some servers.
As previously stated, we are running Windows 8.1. We will continue with 8.1 this year. I will update the base image and push a new image out to 600+ staff and student computers. I am looking forward to being able to automate more of the after image installs to save myself steps in the process.
Our district has opened booth the Google Apps and Office 365 for our staff and students. We have not told them to use one or the other. We will continue to host a file server. We are asking staff to start using the cloud storage so they can access files at home and at school. We never did the offline access to files.
Group policies are where I want to focus this year. There are so many aspects to leverage, once I am comfortable enough to move to this.
Active Directory View:
Network Structure:
Our network structure was cleaned up last summer with the help of Travis Graves. The high school now have 3 physical hosts that operate multiple VM servers. We will upgrade the elementary this year and decommission the Mac servers. We will also add a security server and update our security system.
CET 692 Assignments Submission
Instructor: John Hohn
Reflections by Janelle Gregg
Virtual Server Deployment:
We currently run a 2208R2 and an older Mac OS10 server at our site in New Effington Elementary Site. This site is being closed down during the summer and all equipment will be taken down. At our WS Elementary site we run 2 2012R2 servers and 3 older Mac OS10 servers. During the summer we wil be shutting down the Mac servers and running just the windows servers. At our High School\Middle School\District Administration we have updated our system. Last summer Travis Graves helped to upgrade and shutdown unneeded physical servers. We now run 3 host servers in the high school that have multiple virtual servers. We do still have an old 2003 server running our time clock. DHCP, DNS, and AD DS are on 2012R2 on a physical and a virtual server. WDS and GoverLan are on a 2012 physical server. Hyper V Manager is on a physical 2008R2 server and a virtual server.
Attending DDN-IT this year, I would have to say that the take away for servers and VM servers is that I am content with what we are currently using. I am glad that we are mostly 2012R2 servers. I will say that in learning about the servers, my biggest concern is security issues that were discussed, and my goal is to go back and make sure we update our security.
Windows 10 Deployment:
After working with the Windows 10 system this past week, I like the aspects of the system, but I will stay with 8.1 this year. I spent hours getting things set up last year and am not ready to jump again this year. I do like the features; in another year, we will probably change.
We run 3 different Fujitsu, HP, Bytespeed Classmates, Bytespeed tablets. All of our desktops are a variety of different years of Bytespeeds. I have set up a basic image and have the drivers for 8.1 and like the ease of the VM image and setting up the rest of the machines. This year, I will take some of the steps we do after imaging and incorporate them into the image process or apply through group policy. The more I learn, the easier my job gets.
Cloud Services:
Office 365, the desktop version of Office, and mobile Office all combine and work together. If we utilize the k12 accounts available and save to our OneDrive for Business accounts, we can work anywhere. The issue is, do we leave this open and utilize it, or close down Microsoft accounts so personal accounts are not used. The issue is all or none right no. OneDrive and OneDrive for Business are two different accounts, but now with the Next Generation Sync client, both can be synced together. The sign in from the desktop Office, shows any OneDrive account you have. The cloud has great potential, but there are security concepts to consider and worry about. Google Apps and classroom are also available. Your k12 email will not be a part of this. Use the school issued services for school work. Use personal for personal. Keep it separate. The decision to use these features should be a district decision. That being said, at this point in time, we have activated the teacher accounts for both Office 365 and Google. Give the students the access so that teachers and students can work, is still in the works. The tools and communication aspects are great. The security is touchy.
Culminating Reflection Final:
Since I am not the tech coordinator and it will not be my decision, I will share what I would implement if I had the authority to do so.
In the first reflection, I listed out all the servers that we currently run. We will continue to upgrade computers to 2012R2 this year. We will also decommission some servers.
As previously stated, we are running Windows 8.1. We will continue with 8.1 this year. I will update the base image and push a new image out to 600+ staff and student computers. I am looking forward to being able to automate more of the after image installs to save myself steps in the process.
Our district has opened booth the Google Apps and Office 365 for our staff and students. We have not told them to use one or the other. We will continue to host a file server. We are asking staff to start using the cloud storage so they can access files at home and at school. We never did the offline access to files.
Group policies are where I want to focus this year. There are so many aspects to leverage, once I am comfortable enough to move to this.
Active Directory View:
Network Structure:
Our network structure was cleaned up last summer with the help of Travis Graves. The high school now have 3 physical hosts that operate multiple VM servers. We will upgrade the elementary this year and decommission the Mac servers. We will also add a security server and update our security system.
