Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board
Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board Awards Top Marks to Windows ServerTM 2000 After Selecting It to Deliver New Learning Tools to Students and Staff
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Company Overview
Covering a 2,667 sq. km area, from Orangeville Ontario, in the north to Mississauga and Lake Ontario in the south; the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board (DPCDSB) governs 113 elementary schools and 21 secondary schools. Its 8,000 employees oversee the education of approximately 87,000 students. The system is experiencing significant growth with an average annual student population increase of more than three per cent.
Business Challenge
The school board delegates the setting of its technology strategies, both administrative and instructional, to its Mississauga-based Information and Communication Technology (ICT) department. By early 2000, the school board's complex and aging IT infrastructure was requiring increasing levels of support, driving up IT costs and straining its limited resources. No major IT upgrade initiatives had been carried out at the organization for more than ten years, creating a patchwork of different and often incompatible technologies throughout its schools. Malfunctioning programs, software incompatibility and server performance were forcing ICT's field technicians to travel from school to school to address technology issues.
To address these problems, the school board decided to centralize the acquisition, deployment, redeployment and management of all of its ICT initiatives and introduce standard technologies throughout the organization. The centralized ICT strategy was meant to address issues such as software performance, and the provision of technological tools to enhance the teaching and learning opportunities for teachers and students in the classroom.
In fact, close to 97 per cent of the school board's technology was located in the classroom, but it simply wasn't being used as much as the Program Department, which oversees curriculum development and implementation, would have liked. Many teachers were still wary of using computers as teaching aids, and ICT staff felt the hesitation was largely due to the poor performance of existing older and proprietary technologies.
"Hardworking and enthusiastic teachers who try to use technology in the classroom and have it fail are not likely to try it again, so introducing a stable back-end solution was a critical issue for us," says John Steele, CIO for the school board. "We made a decision to embark on a technology renewal strategy. Our goal was to successfully integrate technology into the curriculum with the hope that the resulting learning experience would have a positive impact on student achievement."
The organization runs in mixed mode of a 65 per cent thin client and 35 per cent traditional desktops. In 2001, the school board decided to expand its use of Citrix technology through the use of Linux-based thin clients and Windows Server™ 2000. The Linux-based terminals were causing significant performance issues and as a result, the organization switched exclusively to thin clients running Windows® CE operating system.
"There were a number of issues with the Linux thin client technology that were simply insurmountable," Steele says. "The size and frequency of the patches, the poor reliability of the systems, and the inadequate remote management tools resulted in us returning all 308 units to the vendor and replacing them with Windows CE devices."
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Solution
In 2001 the school board began its IT infrastructure upgrade, building out a fibre network between its schools and replacing approximately 55 per cent of the technology throughout the organization. The board worked closely with Microsoft Consulting Services, Microsoft Certified Partner Metafore Corp. and other private sector solution providers on the overhaul. They chose Windows Server 2000 as its standard operating system and Active Directory® directory service in a single domain architecture throughout its administrative offices and schools.
Business Benefits
The reliability of Windows Server 2000 helps the school board to address issues of technology performance throughout its organization. The server technology provides system architecture improvements for higher server uptime, fault tolerant and redundant systems for increased availability, and online configuration and maintenance capabilities.
The server's Distributed File System (DFS) replication and File Replication Service (FRS) synchronization helps to keep data available to the school board, even if a server or disk drive fails, or a shared folder or file becomes corrupted. Its dynamic volumes formatted with NTFS 5 require fewer reboots when adding disks and creating, extending, or mirroring a volume.
"Stability, security, performance, and ease of management were key considerations for us when selecting Windows Server 2000," Steele says. "Most of the work our teachers, students and central office board staff do is time sensitive."
The solution is also easy to manage, with its improved New Technology File System (NTFS), Distributed File System (DFS), and an Indexing Service which make it easier to find and access files across expanding networks. The server's interfaces also make operating system services easier to manage; for example, the new printer interface makes it simpler for both administrators and end-users to configure and manage their printing needs.
A Growing Solution for Growing Minds
The school board's ICT staff was able to address the organization's need for a robust server solution with Windows Server 2000. Microsoft software also provides the school board with optimal performance, delivering a NTFS version 5 file system and Windows 2000 storage subsystems, which let users efficiently store and retrieve ever-larger quantities of data.
The scalability of Active Directory enables users to consolidate multiple domains into fewer and larger domains, further simplifying management. The server solution also delivers the flexibility to implement centralized and remote management through terminal services, or distributed management through administrative delegation. Directory-enabled applications and networking also deliver rich and efficient solutions on which the school board can now base its learning environment.
"Although we are still in the rollout stage of our Windows Server 2000 and Active Directory-based solution, we have been very pleased with all aspects of this initiative so far," says Steele. "Summer school programs mean that classes go on virtually all year in our schools and our IT staff is always busy addressing teacher and student needs. Thanks to the Microsoft-based solution offering optimal performance, ICT and Program Department staff are starting to focus on developing new technology strategies to engage students in learning, instead of having to focus primarily on implementation issues."
Benefits
Since starting the implementation of Windows Server 2000, school board staff has seen financial savings due to an easier to manage infrastructure. The centrally managed IT system allows the team to concentrate on planning innovative ways for technology to make a difference to students and teachers.
Freeing Up Resources
The introduction of Windows Server 2000 to DPCDSB's schools and administrative offices has helped create a more stable environment throughout the organization, cutting support costs and reducing the time required to resolve technical issues.
A Linux thin client solution would have required the payment of client access fees for each registered user, whereas the Windows Server 2000 does not, resulting in vast savings.
Taking advantage of the remote control features offered by Windows Server 2000 has allowed the school board's ICT support staff to answer users' queries online. This will help significantly by reducing the travel time for field technicians.
"Being able to remotely address issues that inevitably arise in an organization as large as ours, and with users at varying levels of technology comfort and expertise, has been an immense benefit to us," Steele says. "We are now able to quickly deal with most of these issues from the central office, instead of having people bouncing from school to school."
Putting Students In Safe Hands
Microsoft software support for the latest security standards such as 56-bit and 128-bit SSL/TLS, IPSec, Server Gated Cryptography; Digest Authentication and Fortezza has helped the school board to create a more secure network environment for school-based personnel, where student and administrative data is protected. The secure environment has allowed Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board staff to create a centrally managed, locked-down environment. The organization is now able to move more student and staff services online, something security concerns did not previously permit.
"We have close to 87,000 students in our schools and many of them are technology enthusiasts. However, some are just a bit too enthusiastic about it," says Steele. "It's very important for us to know that our systems are secure, especially since they not only store our operational data, but also confidential teacher reports and student information. Staying with our aging infrastructure would have left that information too vulnerable. We have been able to begin addressing that issue thanks to security improvements delivered by Windows Server 2000."
Concentrating on the Future
A more secure and easy to manage network environment has finally allowed staff to concentrate on what is most important: developing technology tools which engage students and further develop their love of learning.
"We feel that our organization, and K-12 schools in general, have not yet come close to realizing the full potential of technology in the classroom," Steele says. "Whether it's providing opportunities for teachers and students to liaise with colleagues and peers around the world in real-time, access to Web-based teaching aides, or even computer games which make math and science easier to understand, technology can greatly enrich the learning experience. With the introduction of our new technology infrastructure we believe we're on our way to reaching that potential."
The school board is now working on an education portal proof of concept, based on Microsoft SharePoint™ Team Services, Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Portal Server 2003 and Microsoft Class Server, in which all stakeholders will be able to access dedicated online resources based on their role within the system. For example, students and parents would be able to find online activities to assist in the understanding of material presented in the classroom, an initiative the school board hopes will help in keeping parents an active and integral part of the education process. Teachers would be able to access training information online and exchange ideas with other faculty members on successful technology tools and innovative ways to engage students through technology.
"Deciding to go through an ambitious technology renewal process can, in our case, be likened to rebuilding an airplane while flying it. Our resources are very limited, but we are confident that this initiative will bring significant returns," Steele says. "Those returns are somewhat different for us than for most businesses. When I say that I'm confident Windows Server 2000 will enable us to realize significant benefits, I don't just mean financial savings and improved performance, but also the enhanced learning opportunities that we'll be able to deliver to our students. In the end, our greatest return on investment will be the difference we make in the lives of our students."
For More Information
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