Category: Educational Technology
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2018 Recap and New Horizons
On New Years Day, the New Horizons spacecraft completed a historic close encounter with Ultima Thule, a small minor planet a billion miles beyond the orbit of Pluto. The spacecraft left Earth in January 2006, the same year our current high school seniors started kindergarten! Back then, we could rent a movie from Blockbuster, but…
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Summer 2018 Behind the Scenes
We look forward to another successful start to the new academic year. Here’s a snapshot of the Technology Team’s summer non-vacation!
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2017 Retrospective
With the clock ticking toward 2018, it’s once again time to reflect on another year of technology projects and programs at Penn Manor School District. Here are highlights from an incredible 12 months: The tech department undoubtedly transformed this year. A cascade of staff departures, reassignments, and promotions spurred the most substantial team reorganization in…
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Open School Leadership
Free and open source software is the catalyst for Penn Manor School District’s award-winning student learning programs. For one, they save the school district more than a million dollars on its technology budget. Besides fiscal savings are the open leadership principles that foster innovation among teachers and students, help to better engage the community, and create a more vibrant…
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2016 Technology Rewind
With 2016 slipping into the history books it is time to reflect on an exciting year of technology projects at Penn Manor School District. Here are a few highlights: The year started with a ring. In January, we unveiled a new automated attendance call notification system. When a student is marked absent, their parent or…
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Mattermost – An Open Source Slack Alternative
The Penn Manor IT Team relied on a self-hosted IRC messaging server for many years. IRC is great for a technical crowd, but the old-school feel and cryptic conventions never resonated with students and teachers. We’ve experimented with IRC alternatives, but an affordable, school-friendly platform has been elusive. Slack was a promising option–and a few…