Stephanie Hoban, director of educational technology at Lynnfield High School, was at the School Committee meeting recently to give an annual technology presentation. She divided the presentation into the software and hardware parts to conclude the update.
The software update was mostly about explaining PowerSchool, which is an innovative K-12 software that provides a cloud-based student information system to improve educational outcomes and help school operations.
PowerSchool empowers teachers to have a better understanding of students’ performance in their own classes and also how those same students are performing in other classes.
“Shout out to the parents who have not yet logged into their parent portal. It is essential that all parents both log into their parent portal and update their contact information, especially emergency contacts other than themselves,” said Hoban.
PowerSchool also provides parents with access to in-depth information about their student’s grades, such as weekly results and quiz grades, according to Chair Richard Sjoberg. It also generates the means for parents to check up on their children’s absences.
Hoban said that Lynnfield has been able to stay aligned to the district strategy through its digital learning subscription.
In terms of the hardware side, the school has adopted infrastructure protection and increased the district’s network security.
Hoban said the Cisco Umbrella web filter supervises school-issued devices and can protect students and staff from unwanted intrusions and track IP addresses.
SentinelOne is a very robust antivirus software that protects students and teachers from ransomware attacks.
All Lynnfield students in grades five through nine receive Chromebooks. However, next year the middle school grades will no longer be able to use their Chromebooks for the MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System) tests due to the fact that Google is no longer supporting those machines.
Hoban said that the district is working towards a plan to address MCAS’s hardware problem.
