Information Technology
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Open Campus PA Website Launched
As we start our second semester of online courses, I’m thrilled to announce the launch of the new Open Campus PA website: www.opencampuspa.net. Open Campus is the virtual course collaboration between Penn Manor and our two partner districts: Hempfield School District and Manheim Township School District. During the second half of the school year, students…
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Nexus and Open Source at PA Educational Technology Conference
I’m thrilled to be delivering two presentations at the 2013 PA Educational Technology Expo and Conference (PETE&C) in February. The first talk is titled, Android Tablets: Power Up Mobile Classrooms. We’ve had great success with Nexus 7 tablets in our classrooms and I can’t wait to share our experiences. Here is the session description: Android tablets offer…
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2012 Technology News Recap
With 2012 drawing to a close, it is time to reflect on Penn Manor technology accomplishments. Let’s recount major IT highlights from the past 12 months: Nine school buildings received a much needed communications upgrade during the spring. The new phone system, powered by open source sipXecs software, replaced our nearly decade-old, proprietary 3COM NBX…
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Let’s Build a Computer
The Penn Manor IT team recently spent the day building 40 new staff computers. Rather than purchasing more costly finished PCs from a traditional vendor, my staff assembled the systems from individual components. The computers will serve as upgrades to 7 year old systems currently in use by various district personnel. My team has hand-assembled…
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Nexus 7 Supports Multiple Student Accounts
The latest software update to Google’s Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablets introduces several minor updates as well as one huge feature for schools: Multi-user support. With the release of Android 4.2, any tablet can be set up to permit more than one unique user account profile. Each profile is an independent space, just like…