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Technology Committee Meeting
August 8, 2001
Purpose of meeting Consider
educational requirements for upgraded computer labs.
Attendees Guillermo
Acevedo, Anna Bennett, Janet Brinkop, Al Coleman, Karen Reid, Judy Romines, Jim
Skeen, and Carolyn Wittman.
Meeting Summary
Our long-term vision is for
multiple computers to be available to students, placed in the following
locations:
·
Community
Lab
·
Instructional
Labs (with computers in at least room 25, and ultimately in rooms 22, 23, 27,
etc.)
The total number of computers for these labs could be as few
as 15-30 initially, and as many as 60 ultimately, phased appropriately
according to need, budget, and space
The computers will be used to advance the following
educational needs.
·
Computer-aided
ESL instruction
·
Computer/ESL
classes
·
Computers
for instruction (e.g., CDROM and other graphic resources)
·
Keyboarding
·
Job
preparation
The Community Lab will also be available (according to need
and schedule) for supervised community access, such as for email, web browsing,
and other needs relevant to the mission and scope of Sequoia Adult School.
The computers will replace the existing lab computers, which
lack sound cards, graphic cards, sufficient memory, sufficient computing power,
etc.
No computers are included in this plan for “remote” Sequoia
ESL sites (i.e., at the high school).
The Sequoia labs need video resources for the playing of VCR
videotapes, CDROM’s, etc. This use can
be coordinated with the Sequoia Video Lab.
The computers should have graphic cards, sound cards,
earphones, sufficient memory and hard drive space, etc, consistent with the
requirements of the various software programs we intend to run on the
computers.
We anticipate the need for a technical staff person to (1) initially
set up the labs (installation of h/w and s/w, design and execution of backups,
design and implementation of security/access policies, etc) and (2) carry out
routine technical functions. Function
(1) requires high-level technical skills.
Function (2) can be done by technical volunteers and/or technicians
shared with other adult schools.
It may be advantageous to use a client/server (AKA “thin
client” or “server-based computing”) model for most of the acquired computing
resources that we use in the labs, rather than the traditional “thick” client
model.
Action items
·
Carolyn & Jim will meet with Clint Walker, Network
Specialist, to explore these ideas further.
·
Carolyn & Jim will propose a draft phased plan for
discussion at the next meeting of this committee.
Our next meeting will be
scheduled after the meeting with Clint Walker.