Report highlights current and future technology needs and challenges for Chinook School Division
The technology coordinator for the Chinook School Division got a good sense of technology needs when he visited every public school during the fall.
Dwight Booth has been the coordinator of technology for about eight months,
He presented his first technology status report to trustees during a regular Chinook Board of Education meeting on Jan. 8 and he spoke to this newspaper about the report details the following day.
The school visits offered an opportunity to meet with school administrators about their current technology situation and future needs.
“It went really well,” he said. “I think it was beneficial for both sides. I know I got a lot out of it.”
Video surveillance was the number one request from school administrators during his visits. Installation of such equipment will therefore continue, whether it is a new installation at a school or replacing old equipment. According to Booth the perception about such equipment might have been changing.
“Some schools probably have been traditionally reluctant to consider it, because it probably feels a little bit intrusive,” he said. “I think there’s been a shift maybe in thinking to where it’s more of a protective measure now.”
The installation of video surveillance equipment will be based on the needs of each school. It can be used at locations inside the building or on the exterior premises.
“Basically, any areas we deem that would benefit from it,” he said. “For example, there’s certain hallways that are either blind to supervision or maybe there’s fewer adults in the area. For whatever reason, whether it’s a large school or just a layout of some of our schools. There’s a lot of corners and a lot of hallways. So it’s difficult to supervise with limited staff.”
Past experiences at a school might play a role in a decision to install video surveillance equipment in a certain area.
“Some of it is just essentially as a deterrent or providing insight if there’s ever an incident,” he said. “Some of it is we’ve had incidents in our parking lots, on our tracks, on our playgrounds, whereby we could benefit from knowing who is in the area at those times.”
The installation cost can vary, depending on the number of cameras and the additional cost that might come with external locations. Video surveillance is already used at a significant number of schools in the division.
“I would say uptake is around 50 per cent so far, and then probably another 25 per cent left as far as requests for installation,” he said.
Booth’s reference to video surveillance equipment in his report was part of a broader discussion of technology hardware used by the school division.
The replacement of student Chromebooks is an ongoing process as these devices reach the end of their life. They generally last about eight years and around 15 per cent are replaced each year. Some staff laptops and desktops need to be replaced, because Microsoft is ending support for the Windows 10 operating system.
The replacement of smart boards in schools are continuing. The Chinook Board of Education previously approved a subsidy arrangement through which a school needs to contribute $2,800 towards the replacement cost of a smart board and the school division pays $1,500. The response from schools outpaced available resources and smart board replacements are therefore taking place according to a three-year plan.
“Those are very popular in the schools,” he said. “It’s a very useful way of presenting, particularly in the younger grades, for that interactive component where students can come to the board and either use their finger or of course there’s different coloured pens that they can use. So it sort of engages them in the lesson. t’s more interactive and teachers certainly see the value there.”
The Chinook School Division is working with the provincial network service desk on a provincially funded rollout of LTE devices that will allow Hutterian school administrators to remain network connected. This is done in consultation with Hutterian leadership.
“There are limitations to the wiring and the things that we’re able to put in, because those aren’t our buildings and our properties,” he explained. “So to date, teachers have not been connected while they’re instructing. This provides them a way to remain connected. It’s also a benefit to us in the information systems department, because now we’re able to support them in real time as well.”
Booth provided details about cyber security and the protection of the school division’s information technology systems. Chinook has been implementing the recommendations of a security vulnerability assessment done by IBM in 2022.
The school division will be moving away from on-premises technology in the future and IBM was contracted to do a security audit of Chinook’s cloud storage and authentication environment.
Another cyber security company is carrying out work to ensure a secure network environment for servers and workstations. The results from an evaluation of e-mail security by a different partner will soon be available, which will assist the school division with decisions on future e-mail protection measures.
The school division carries out educational campaigns to increase the cyber security awareness of staff.
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