The First Eight Weeks In Review

Sometimes it is hard to recognize our collective progress unless we take a step back and reflect on where we started and where we are. Bear with me for a few minutes as I take a look back at the first eight weeks of school.

Everyone at Metcalf and a lot of teachers at Wawaloam saw this message every time they tried to project their computer to a screen or whiteboard:

Teacher's at the senior high had no projection options at all! Remember that mess, the aggravation, and the frustration that went along with it? A bulk purchase of dongles and wires fixed the vast majority of projection issues. At this point, teachers are projecting seamlessly, reliably, and with ease. If you're not, please contact me.

No look back would be complete without mentioning wireless. Wireless connectivity certainly caused its share of pain during the early weeks. And while no wireless system is perfect, and even the best wireless systems will experience interruptions and sporadic drops, EWG started off the year in pretty rough shape primarily because the vast majority of devices were trying to connect to the old wireless network. In an earlier post, I provided some directions on how to make sure you were connecting to the right network. Faculty and staff should be connecting to EWG_Staff. EWG_Secure is an older network which, at this point, has more aggressive filtering restrictions in place. You should avoid EWG_Secure at all cost! Use it as a fallback network for when all else fails only. If your MacBook, iPad, or other device is still connecting to EWG_Secure, (or if you're not sure how to tell), please contact me.

The third and final leg in my commentary on improvements is about printing. 

Hold on. Before you skewer this messenger, hear me out. Cloud Printing is not everyone's favorite, and perhaps it's no one's favorite. But in replacing the aged, monolithic system of previous years, Cloud Printing provides a solution for many devices; Macs, PCs, Chromebooks, iPads, iPhones, and the Android family of tablets and mobile devices. Is Cloud Printing perfect? No chance. Is Cloud Printing the most elegant printing system? Nope. Does Cloud Printing solve all of your printing needs or whim? Probably not. Is Cloud Printing a step toward an open, easily supported printing for all devices? You bet. If you are having issues printing with your device, contact me. I like an easy challenge.