Professional Project:
Technology infrastructure support and assistance for the new STEM+M (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math + Medicine) Biomedical Science Academy housed at NEOMED, http://biomedscienceacademy.org/about/
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During the 2012 summer there were three classrooms constructed on the NEOMED campus to house seventy 9th grade students from community school districts enrolling in the new STEM+M Biomedical Science Academy. The high school opened in the fall of 2012. This STEM school was unique in it's additional emphasis on Medicine.
The Information Technology department was responsible to prepare the technology needed in each classroom and add them to the NEOMED domain. Additionally IT was tasked with adding new wireless access points, setting up the network connections in each of the new classrooms, ordering and setup of laptop computers with docking stations for the teachers and provide laptop software installation and assistance for students when they arrived. My assigned responsibility as part of this project was to assist with cable installations and investigate the teacher’s software and hardware needs, order their laptop computers and docking stations. This included setup, installation and basic training for each of the teachers. I researched their needs, which included specs for extra memory and video cards since they would be accessing a virtual online classroom (system resource intensive) and also connecting with other schools online for a mandarin Chinese language course. I placed the order for new laptops and was responsible for imaging the laptops from a server image I had created with all necessary software along with creating mappings to the STEM+M network drives located on the campus network.
Creating and saving images of the desktop software applications and configurations serves to save time when a laptop might become corrupted or is damaged and needs restored to the default settings. There are distinct server desktop images for faculty, staff and students along with some special groups, as in this instance with STEM+M instructors. I also installed the virtual private network (VPN) access on each instructor’s laptop and added their accounts to the network domain. After this was complete, I installed each of the laptop docking stations and monitors in the teacher’s offices and setup and installed one networked printer that they connect to and share. I trained each of them on the basics of the laptop docking station, saving files to the network and connecting by VPN for off campus access.
VPN access provides them with remote access to the servers and network drives. Instructors are encouraged to save their working files and materials on the campus network drives which are backed up nightly and can easily be restored should their laptop become corrupted and to aid in sharing of departmental files. Many of the instructors in the biomedical science academy came from a K-12 environment and were unfamiliar with VPN access and accessing the network remotely. In addition to setting up the teachers laptop computers, I assisted in running network cables in the STEM+M classrooms and adding them to the patch panel and switch.
When students arrived on campus I assisted Infrastructure Support and Client Services staff in inspecting student laptop computers and installing standard antivirus software. I also helped train students in how to access the learning management system (Sakai), their high school Google domain and change their initial password. Additional client service support was provided, as needed, for any other basic technical issues students were experiencing with their laptops.
The Information Technology department was responsible to prepare the technology needed in each classroom and add them to the NEOMED domain. Additionally IT was tasked with adding new wireless access points, setting up the network connections in each of the new classrooms, ordering and setup of laptop computers with docking stations for the teachers and provide laptop software installation and assistance for students when they arrived. My assigned responsibility as part of this project was to assist with cable installations and investigate the teacher’s software and hardware needs, order their laptop computers and docking stations. This included setup, installation and basic training for each of the teachers. I researched their needs, which included specs for extra memory and video cards since they would be accessing a virtual online classroom (system resource intensive) and also connecting with other schools online for a mandarin Chinese language course. I placed the order for new laptops and was responsible for imaging the laptops from a server image I had created with all necessary software along with creating mappings to the STEM+M network drives located on the campus network.
Creating and saving images of the desktop software applications and configurations serves to save time when a laptop might become corrupted or is damaged and needs restored to the default settings. There are distinct server desktop images for faculty, staff and students along with some special groups, as in this instance with STEM+M instructors. I also installed the virtual private network (VPN) access on each instructor’s laptop and added their accounts to the network domain. After this was complete, I installed each of the laptop docking stations and monitors in the teacher’s offices and setup and installed one networked printer that they connect to and share. I trained each of them on the basics of the laptop docking station, saving files to the network and connecting by VPN for off campus access.
VPN access provides them with remote access to the servers and network drives. Instructors are encouraged to save their working files and materials on the campus network drives which are backed up nightly and can easily be restored should their laptop become corrupted and to aid in sharing of departmental files. Many of the instructors in the biomedical science academy came from a K-12 environment and were unfamiliar with VPN access and accessing the network remotely. In addition to setting up the teachers laptop computers, I assisted in running network cables in the STEM+M classrooms and adding them to the patch panel and switch.
When students arrived on campus I assisted Infrastructure Support and Client Services staff in inspecting student laptop computers and installing standard antivirus software. I also helped train students in how to access the learning management system (Sakai), their high school Google domain and change their initial password. Additional client service support was provided, as needed, for any other basic technical issues students were experiencing with their laptops.