Summer changes are in the air

I hope this issue finds each of you doing well and ready to start a new year in the noblest of professions- education. During the summer, there were several notable updates in the area of technology. Much of this issue of Bits and Bytes will focus on those updates.

Many of the updates are behind the scenes and are not directly visible. However, one major change that everyone on campus will notice is the campus-wide upgrade to Microsoft Office 2007. This upgrade represents a significant change in the way the programs look and how you interact with them. In an earlier issue of Bits and Bytes, I provided a brief look at these changes. Now you will have the opportunity to work with this wonderful software package. The changes make it easier to do many of the things that were in the older versions of Office while providing robust new features.

Throughout the rest of the summer and through all of orientation week, I will be offering Office 2007 Orientation sessions in the upper school lab 2. I would encourage everyone to attend at least one of these sessions. However, if you would rather explore on your own, you can access some training and orientation materials in this issue of Bits and Bytes, which might be helpful. I have provided a series of short videos that will walk you through key aspects of the orientation session as well as links to additional training materials. If you have gone through all of the training materials provided in this issue and you are still having difficulties finding your way around Office 2007, take one of the “live” sessions.

These sessions are designed as “orientation” and not training. The goal is to “quickly orient” the community to the new working environment allowing everyone to effectively perform their regular tasks. Additional training sessions, which will develop new skills, will be offered throughout the year.

Another significant change was in the size of our Internet connection- often referred to as “the pipe”. Think about the wires that connect the school to the rest of the world as pipes- the larger the pipe, the greater the volume of information that can pass from the school to the rest of the and back again. What does this translate to, one word- SPEED! You should notice a significant increase in speed across the internet when you are downloading files, streaming media and surfing the net. The school effectively moved from a half inch garden hose to a 4-inch pipe. That means a lot more data can flow to the school.

The last big change I want to highlight is the addition of many more Smartboards and projectors. We now have Smartboards in every division. This makes this unique and powerful technology accessible to just about every teacher at Greenhill. Effective and creative use of this technology can greatly enhance the learning experience of our students. There will be many learning opportunities for our faculty as they seek the best ways to implement this technology in their classrooms.

As you move around campus, you might see other changes as well. There are more flat screen monitors in the labs and some computers have the latest Microsoft operating system- Vista. You will also want to take a walk over to the middle school to check out the latest upgrade in computer labs. Overall, it has been a wonderful summer and one that should have us in great shape as we kick off this new-year on the Hill.