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<\/p>\nBy Ryan Pike and Griffin Johnson<\/p>\n
Managing Editor for Writing and Reporting and Editor-in-chief<\/p>\n
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Jamesville-DeWitt High School is by far one of the best school districts in the country, according to Newsweek\u2019s 2013 list of the top 2,000 high schools in the country. However, despite how good J-DHS may be overall, it still has some weaknesses. One such issue is technology. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say that we\u2019re years ahead of others schools or years behind other schools,\u201d said Phil Luckette, district technology coordinator; \u201cWe\u2019re in the middle of the pack.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the increasing necessity of technology in the modern academic world, J-D only upped its \u201cComputer Assisted Instruction\u201d budget by a paltry $2,374 from the 2012-13 year to 2013-14. That means that, of the $1,789,481 the budget increased, just .1 percent was used to bulk up the increasingly essential technology budget. \u201cIt\u2019s been a real challenge just to stay treading water with technology,\u201d said J-DHS Principal Paul Gasparini; \u201cWe have some real work to do to try to overcome a lot of obsolete machines.\u201d<\/p>\n
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As a result of this small increase in technology funding, J-D is beginning to see some issues. Teachers universally appreciate the technology they\u2019ve been afforded, but some wish for more training, more computers and updated resources.<\/p>\n
Additionally, J-DHS runs at least eight different operating systems between various versions of Windows, Windows XP and Mac OS. \u201cStudents and teachers are continually running into compatibility issues,\u201d said Mr. Luckette. Mr. Gasparini also pointed out that older technology does not allow for the use of newer software used in the \u201c21st century learning environment,\u201d such as Prezi.<\/p>\n
The school is not unaware of these issues. \u201cWith the budgets the way they\u2019ve been, we\u2019ve had a hard time overcoming obsolescence,\u201d Mr. Gasparini admitted. An internal \u201cState of High School Instructional Technology Equipment\u201d notes that circuit boards are beginning to fall off of six computers and a handful, like the Macs in the Mac Lab, have reached their ceiling in terms of operating system software upgrades, making it impossible for them to be guaranteed as compatible with all the other models in the building.<\/p>\n
The most grossly antiquated pieces of technology at J-DHS lie in the Green Hall\u2019s PC Lab, which contains 24 10-year-old PCs. \u201cWe always have to make old work with new,\u201d remarked District Network Administrator Kelly Nye; \u201cIt would be great if everything was all the same, but it\u2019s not going to happen.\u201d The PC Lab is likely on its way out, with the administration planning to replace the computers with Mac Minis in the near future.<\/p>\n
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That makes the oldest computers now <\/span>just <\/em>eight years old. Mr. Luckette said that, in an ideal world, the technology at J-DHS wouldn\u2019t be kept past five years. However, in 2014-15, nine out of the 12 different groups of computers in the building will be that old. As of now, 118 out of 195 computers (60.5 percent) are older than five; next school year, that figure jumps to 165 out of 195 (84.6 percent).<\/p>\n While some of J-D\u2019s technology may be a little lacking, its \u201clogical\u201d technology -the behind-the-scenes bits that make it all work- is top-notch. The network, which is district-wide and encapsulates the elementary schools, middle school, high school and bus garage, was replaced in summer 2013 and is now top of the line. Mrs. Nye termed it as the \u201cmost used and most current\u201d offerings in the tech world.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also a new public WiFi network that is in a sort of beta testing phase. \u201cWe haven\u2019t published it because we\u2019re just letting people try it,\u201d Mr. Luckette explained; \u201c[We\u2019re] keeping our ear to the ground about problems or issues and just trying to tweak it as we go.\u201d The public can access the network by joining the \u201cJDGuest\u201d server from any device. The goal of this endeavor is to streamline the use of personal devices for positive, educational uses.<\/p>\n In the future, it is imperative that J-D focus more on technology in order to stay up with the times and adequately prepare students for their futures. \u201cIt\u2019s important for Jamesville-DeWitt to stay ahead of the curve; or at least, on top of the curve,\u201d Mr. Gasparini said; \u201cWe have to find some creative ways to increase our technology budget. I haven\u2019t been shy about articulating that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI wish the state would fund us a little better,\u201d Mrs. Nye admitted; \u201cAll the districts in the state are just struggling tremendously.\u201d The J-D community will have an opportunity to articulate that themselves at the Board Meeting on March 17 at 7 pm.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Ryan Pike and Griffin Johnson Managing Editor for Writing and Reporting and Editor-in-chief Jamesville-DeWitt High School is by far one of the best school districts in the country, according to Newsweek\u2019s 2013 list of the top 2,000 high schools in the country. However, despite how good J-DHS may be overall, it still has some weaknesses. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jdrampage.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3596"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jdrampage.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jdrampage.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jdrampage.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jdrampage.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jdrampage.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3596\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jdrampage.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jdrampage.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jdrampage.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}