June 22, 2011

Wednesday found me running all over the place, literally.  Got to the office and helped set up the programs I could at 730am.  Most presenters do not show up until 830a or 845a, and on Wednesday, I was long gone by then.

Trish and I drove separate cars to Historic Washington State Park in Washington, AR.  The site was presenting a 3-hour multi-faceted program to various sites around the state.  I have to say, this is one of the coolest things I've seen.  A couple presenters dressed in character and presented their program in Civil War era costume, speech, and props.  They showed the teachers around the state how to spin yarn, make thread, and more!  We did hit a few snags and I spent most of time there troubleshooting and getting the programs up and running. 

One issue: the mic was not plugged in completely.  We also had to adjust lighting.  The other sites could see and hear us, but we could only hear them.  This was okay since we were presenting. ("we" is actually the Washington staff, not me and Trish!)

After several calls to AT&T, though, we did manage to get the remote sites to show up. Just as that was getting under control, I got a call from the co-op that one presenter was having trouble with her Mac.  She did not know how to move the DVD player to the extended desktop because her projector is set up to mirror her desktop.  I walked them through that, but by the time I got to the co-op, they had to swap computers anyway.  Not sure what was going on there.

I worked on the grant for DL equipment - gathered invoices and copies of checks - then took the info to the UACCH offices.  One conference room was warm according to the participants, so I grabbed a ladder and checked the vents to make sure cold air was blowing - it was.

I checked on the distance learning program we were hosting to make sure everyone was doing well. They were.

I ordered new switches for the network core in the building.  This was a project I had wanted to start back when we moved in, but we were watching dollars to make sure we had enough for emergency building fixes, etc.  I felt very fortunate that I had money in my budget to upgrade the core (I had just brought the equipment from the old building), adding management to our central network.  This will provide major flexibility!  Layer 2/3 switching will let me plug a compressed video system into any live jack and with a few clicks, I can have that system live on the "video network."

As it turns out, the switch upgrade was also part of our grant matching, so I kicked out a copy of the invoice and carried over to UACCH.

I managed to get a Server 2008 training set up with DIS, too!  Wahoo! That is a HUGE plus.  I also held multiple email conversations regarding cell phones, erate, grant evaluations, budgets, etc.

Whew! BUSY day!