November 15, 2016 at 10:00 AM - Technology Committee Meeting

Discussion: 

Meeting called to order at 10:00 AM.

Staff:  David Ludwig, Scott Isaacson, Deb Hericks, Beth Kabes

Discussion:  Committee Chair reviewed the meeting with NITC.  Discussion regarding E-rate regarding students needing internet at home, etc. 

Discussion:  Technology Director gave updates on the ADVISER project.  Wednesday morning at 10:00 VST and EAP alternate weeks.  These committees are working to get organized on how to help schools progress.  VST is working on framework.  Good sequence of steps to bring a school onto single sign on.  Where schools get stuck is where we are working to improve the process. 

Discussion:  Regular bi-weekly online meetings for the Early Adopter Program (EAP) districts, production districts and Virtual Support Team (VST) are scheduled. EAP II districts have begun connecting to the ADVISER operational data store (ODS). The team has scheduled a face-to-face installation and training bootcamp for December 1st and 2nd in Lincoln at NDE. I would like to know more about what districts are doing after their data is available in ADVISER, such as rollout plans and experiences with end-users once the application is available to them. 42 districts have currently requested and received secrets and keys, which allow them to publish data into the ADVISER data store.

Discussion:  Fifty-three districts and ESUs are live in the production single sign-on framework and we are working through some discovered technical problems to roll out the production app launch portal. Andy Boell (NNNC), Craig Hicks (ESU 13), Adam Zheng and Ron Cone (ESU 10) are all working with us on rolling out and improving these systems. A proposal is on the agenda for today’s meeting to plan and distribute the role of the central identity provider system so that ESU VST members will manage the SSO connections for their districts.

Discussion:  Equipment has arrived and company will be onsite to install server end of the week. 

Discussion:  Equipment has arrived and Technology Director will work with company to install servers later this week.  This equipment is slated to have a five year plan. 

Discussion:  The group is developing strategy for grant proposal(s) for next phase funding and long-term strategy for self-sustainability. Alliances have been formed with the IMS Global standards organization and an agreement is in pending with another, Access4Learning.

Discussion:  Infrastructure and sustainability - technology has changed and within a few years will be looking at a new hosting solutions.  Virtualization technology has advanced - cloud hosting, virtual share, etc.  Technology Director will continue to analyze and research options.  Executive Director and Technology Director met with the NATA Group (large schools tech directors) last Friday.  NATA is interested in helping with policies and procedures.  Continue to work together to enhance relationships.  We continue to work with the five districts who still need to migrate off of ANGEL this year.  SRS conversion work will be completed by the end of November and begin testing in December.  During December the team will also work on user request.  Second semester the team will work on converting from Zend 1 to Zend 3.  Team will continue to move SRS off the .unl domain over to a Nebraska Could domain.  Tom Harvill had been a contractor with the SRS system to help with back-ups, etc.  He has been notified that by the end of December his services will no longer be needed. 

Discussion:  Committee Chair reviewed the NOC meeting and training agendas.  Both days of discussion were very good regarding responsibilities and expectations. 

Discussion:  Committee Chair reviewed the diagram for the NebraskaCloud SSO (single sign on) Hosting.  The NOC group realize that Technology Director has most knowledge but realize that they need to step in and help him by being more active in helping schools before they go to directly to the Technology Director.  The NOC groups does not have by-laws so they will begin to work through that process/responsibilities as well.  This will make the whole system work better over time especially when we are fully implemented.  This will be paral

Discussion:  The training modules have been ordered and each person should be receiving their account information. 

Discussion:  NOC will begin the process of creating by-laws for their affiliate.  This will help the ESUCC Board to support their needs. 

Discussion:  Technology Director reviewed the OCIO Contract Privity.  THE OCIO would bid the services and sign contracts and invoice the schools.  Cost of participation is a concern as most ESUs have staff that already help schools with E-Rate. 

Discussion:  Executive Director explained the process staff used to create project procedure manual.  The BlendEd/Distance Education is attached for review.  First reading in January with approval to follow. 

Discussion:  Technology Director report throughout meeting minutes. 

Discussion:  BlendEd/Technology director reviewed her report.  The Distance Learning Coordinators will be meeting this afternoon.  The BlendEd pilot - Director continues to do observations.  She works with ESU person to do these observations.  Director states that this process is three-fold - School Accountability, ESU accountability, ESUCC visibility. 

Discussion:  Resources report is attached for review.