Computers at Lake George
Elementary School
Chairman of the Elementary Computer Committee -
Mr. Rich Strauss straussr@lkgeorge.org
District Technology Coordinator - Mr. Brian
Clements clementsb@lkgeorge.org
Revised 2.14.07
What kind of computers are used at Lake
George Elementary School?
- We started with Apple IIE computers about 15 years ago
and have stayed with Apple ever since. We have phased all
Apple IIE and GS computers out of the system. Each year we pull the oldest
computers out of the network and replace them with newer computers. We loan
our older computers out to students and district
residents whenever possible. Contact Mr. Strauss if interested.
- We now have about 200 networked Macintosh computers. The majority of our
computers are Apple iMacs, in one form or another. Each cluster has about 25
desktop computers available to students and staff. There are 16 new Intel
based iMacs in the Library Media Center. The Intel chip in these computers
allow the Macs to run Windows operating systems if needed.
Three Mobile Laptop Labs in use at the
Elementary School!
- With the addition of a third laptop lab, we now have 67
iBook computers available for our students. The computers
are housed in one of three rolling carts that can be brought anywhere in
the school. The laptops can go on
the internet, connect to our servers, and send jobs to any of our
printers wirelessly. The newest cart, put into service in 2005 has 25
state-of the-art iBooks running the latest Macintosh operating
system. All our laptops are running Microsoft Office - a district-wide standardized program.
How are the computers networked?
- All Macintosh computers are networked through either a
10BaseT Ethernet network or a wireless network
connection. Since our school doesn't have a lab, all
computers are located in the classroom. Classroom
teachers work in teams of 2 or 3 teachers and share
several rooms. Because of this arrangement, we have
clustered computers in groups of 6 and 12. Each
cluster teaching area has a "mini-lab" station
with computers directly connect to the network through a
series of Cisco switches. Each cluster has a Hewlett
Packard network laser printer that all computers in the
cluster share. The HP is very fast and is a big money
saver over previous inkjet printers. There are multiple computers located in each special
area such as our Reading Lab, Resource Room,
and Special Education classrooms. Our library media
center has 16 new iMacs available to students any time of
the day.
What do we use for fileservers?
- We currently deploy 2 Apple Xserve servers and one HP Windows server.
The Apple servers run everything from student and teacher file storage
services to our progress report and curriculum template data bases. The
Windows server runs our library catalog and circulation files. Students as
young as the Intermediate I level are taught how to use the fileserver
accounts.
Internet Information
- You are obviously on the internet or you wouldn't be looking at this
page. Our school has a wireless connection that goes from our school to the
Million Dollar Beach building and then to the high school which houses a
Windows server. This server is connected, via a T1 transmission line to Tech
Valley in Albany. Our server holds our web pages and runs our e-mail
program.
- We connect to the WWW using Apple's Safari browser on our newest
computers and Internet Explorer 5.1 for Macintoshes in our older computers.
We continue to use Front Page and now Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer to manage our web site
and to create new web pages. We are starting to use iWeb, a Macintosh
web creation tool, to create some web pages.
- All district computers connected to the internet use a
filtering program called Web Inspector that protects the
children from inappropriate web sites. This helps protect
our younger web surfers from objectionable and
inappropriate materials. Of course, all students using
the internet must have an acceptable use agreement on
file.
PodCasts
Curriculum Information
Report Card and Math Reporting System
- All of our classroom teachers now use a report card and
math report that is completely computer-generated. The
report card remains a student-centered card that has
expanded room for teacher comments and observation. The
card was produced in-house using FileMaker Pro 7. The
data files that contain the new report card are shared
from the file server. Our math reporting system was also
created by Mr. Strauss and put into use in September
1999. It uses Filemaker Pro as the data base engine to
organize information and generate reports. We hope our
parents find the information easy to read and useful.
- Art, Music, Foreign Language, and Physical
Education classes use a similar electronic report card to report
on student progress.
Curriculum Templates and Curriculum Maps
- We are working to document all units
taught in the Lake George Central School. These are
called curriculum templates and are aligned to the NYS
Learning Standards. Teachers have access to the templates
in school and at home.
Staff Training
- We have spent a great deal of time and effort to
in-service our staff. We have professional growth funds
available for teachers to get additional training and
have used faculty meetings and Superintendent's days.
Each staff member is expected to become competent enough
with computers, software, and the internet, to help their
students meet curriculum objectives.
Acceptable Use Policy
- Each student from the Intermediate I level up (9, 10, 11
year olds) must have a signed use policy on file with the
school district to be able to use the internet and
receive an e-mail account. A copy of our Acceptable Use
Policy is available upon request.
For more information on the Elementary computer system,
contact Mr. Rich Strauss at: straussr@lkgeorge.org
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