Hoover City School District, south of Birmingham, Alabama, has a long history of using technology to enhance teaching and learning and to prepare students for the real world of higher education and work. The district is doing something right. Newsweek magazine named the two Hoover City high schools among the nation’s best in 2008, and Expansion Management placed Hoover City School District in the top 17 percent of all school districts nationally in 2007.

Keith Price, Chief Technology Officer for Hoover City School District, sets the technology vision for the district. He and one other IT colleague, Bryan Phillips, Network Administrator, care for the district’s 6,500 desktop, notebook, netbook, and Tablet PCs and 35 servers. “Because there are only two of us, we’re always on the lookout for technology that will help us do more with less,” Price says. “Mostly, though, we look for technology that helps our teachers engage students. The Windows 7 operating system fit both objectives.”

Longtime Technology Leader
The Hoover City School District was formed in 1987, just as the personal computer revolution was getting underway. The district was one of the first in the United States to outfit schools with computers and has stayed at the forefront of using technology to enhance learning. Hoover City Schools standardized on Microsoft software from the start, “because that’s what most students will see at the next level,” Price says. “Microsoft also has a rich suite of tools for managing its software, which helps us as IT professionals.”

We saw major performance enhancement by running Windows 7 on [Tablet PCs]. This eliminates time lags that can cause student attention to drift. Keith Price Chief Technology Officer, Hoover City School District

The district tries to keep current on the latest software and had deployed the Windows Vista operating system to two-thirds of its client computers between 2006 and 2008. With a growing number of netbook and Tablet PCs, the district was eager for a powerful yet streamlined operating system that would run the latest applications on small form-factor computers.

Teaming Up with Microsoft and Dell
When Microsoft announced the Windows 7 operating system, Price joined a Microsoft early adopter program, gained access to early releases of the operating system, and began testing it. Impressed by its performance on even the smallest computers, Price committed to upgrading all 6,500 district computers to Windows 7 Enterprise by June 2010.

Microsoft and Dell, the district’s longtime hardware vendor, worked together to help the district test its existing applications on Windows 7; 16 of the 20 mission-critical applications that were tested were fully compatible with the operating system. “Windows 7 was ready ‘out of the box’ to run most of our applications,” Price says. “I didn’t need to download or update drivers, which meant that we could get computers in students’ hands that much faster.”

High Performance to Enhance Education
One of the biggest benefits of moving to Windows 7 in the classroom is improved computer performance. “Startup time has gone from 60 or 90 seconds to 30 seconds,” Price says. “In the minute that it takes for students to get their computers running, the teacher could lose [the attention of] half the class. Faster computers limit distractions and disruptions in the classroom and provide more instructional time.”

Hoover City Schools has deployed about 1,000 Dell Tablet PCs, primarily at the elementary level, to introduce students early on to input devices, such as pen technology. “Teachers like Tablet PCs for young children especially, because they’re so approachable,” Price says. “We saw major performance enhancement by running Windows 7 on these computers. This eliminates time lags that can cause student attention to drift.” With similar performance increases on the Dell Latitude netbooks used mostly in the high schools, the district can now load up these computers with Microsoft Office Professional 2007 and other applications and enjoy top performance, making these computers more useful in more classrooms.

“Always Up and Always On”
Price has also seen an increase in reliability, which translates into more teaching time. “When students walk into a lab and five of the 25 computers are disabled for one reason or another, the kids have to double up or the teacher has to plan other activities for those kids,” Price says. “Computer problems become teacher problems. From the perspective of the IT staff, Windows 7 is always up and always on. It’s very stable, which reduces the loss of instructional time.”

From the perspective of the IT staff, Windows 7 is always up and always on. It’s very stable, which reduces the loss of instructional time. Keith Price Chief Technology Officer, Hoover City School District

Price must constantly outwit ingenious students who want to download the latest games, applications, and other software that may endanger the school network or, at the very least, consume precious computer and network resources. He can now more easily restrict student access to administrative areas of the computer and remove unauthorized applications that could lead to downtime. “We can give students the applications that they need and remove things that would degrade their experience and distract them,” Price says. If a computer does fail, Price and Phillips use troubleshooting tools in Windows 7 to more quickly return computers to service.

New power management features in Windows 7 extend computer battery life, which also minimizes teaching disruptions. “One-third of our computers are portable, so extending battery life is critical to us,” Price says. “Before, our portable computers would not last the entire eight-hour school day, and teachers had to plan around the fact that the computers would die during fifth period. With Windows 7, most computers last all day, which makes it much simpler for teachers to plan their lessons.”

Great “Wow” Factor
Students and teachers have all been comfortable with the improved Windows user interface, which they find intuitive and fun to use. “They notice the improved speed right away, and they like the ability to better control and view applications on their desktops,” Price says. “The interface elements also look cool, which increases the ‘wow’ factor.”

Teachers have another reason to be pleased. Those who want to access their school computers from home used to struggle to establish complicated connections to the school network. With the DirectAccess feature in Windows 7, they simply log on using the Internet. “Teachers can more easily connect to their school computer to work from home,” Price says. “That’s another way Windows 7 delivers innovation to everyone in the district—students, teachers, and IT staff.”

Technology Chief Gives Operating System High Marks for Performance and Compatibility
Keith Price, Chief Technology Officer for Hoover City School District, gives the Windows 7 operating system high marks not only for performance, but also for application compatibility, manageability, and security. To get up and running, Price received application testing and deployment assistance from Microsoft and Dell.

Keith Price, Chief Technology Officer, Hoover City School District

“We sent our 20 most mission-critical applications to the Dell Application Compatibility service, and Dell provided us with a detailed report as to which applications were fully compatible with Windows 7, which needed remediation work, and which would require the ISV [independent software vendor] to rework the application for Windows 7. All but four worked well with Windows 7,” Price says. “This compatibility testing saved us weeks if not months of test time that our staff would have had to invest.”

Automated Deployment and Troubleshooting
Price will use Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2007 to automatically install Windows 7 Enterprise on 6,500 district computers during the 2009–2010 school year. “With Windows 7, we’ll be able to consolidate five elementary-school operating system images to one and to maintain just two images each for our middle and high schools,” Price says. “Fewer images means less image maintenance work.”

If students or teachers do run into problems with their upgraded computers, they can use the Windows 7 Problem Steps Recorder and other troubleshooting tools to provide a recap of steps taken and reference those in their work orders so that Price can solve problems faster.

Security Enhancements
Using the improved Group Policy settings in Windows 7 and the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system, Price can better control the district’s PC environment. He can create different user profiles for each grade level and even for each teacher and student. “The enhanced Group Policy features enable us to target specific computers and apply filters based on the software that is running on those computers,” Price says. “We can better restrict the download and use of nonsanctioned applications.”

Price is deploying the BitLocker To Go data encryption feature of Windows 7 on portable computers that faculty members and administrators take home. “We really like the fact that Microsoft has extended BitLocker to peripheral devices so that we can secure information on portable drives and not put student information at risk,” Price says. He has also deployed the Windows Internet Explorer 8 browser, which further enhances security by blocking unauthorized sites.

“Windows 7 makes my job easier, even as the district brings in more computer form factors and more demanding software,” Price says. “I have more time to help teachers use technology more effectively.”

Business Results

• Application testing and deployment assistance from Microsoft and Dell

• Great application compatibility, which speeds rollout

• Consolidation of operating system images from five to one, reducing image maintenance work

• Faster problem resolution with Windows 7 troubleshooting tools

• Tighter security for better protection of students and district network

• More time to help teachers use technology more effectively

Latest Operating System Is Fast Enough to Keep Even Squirmy Eight-Year-Olds Focused
When Hoover City School District upgraded the Tablet PCs in Jann Montgomery’s third-grade classroom to the Windows 7 Enterprise operating system, her eight-year-old and nine-year-old students didn’t even pause. “They moved from Windows Vista to Windows 7 without any instruction from me,” Montgomery says. “It was like Windows 7 was supposed to be there the whole time.”

Jann Montgomery, Third-Grade Teacher, Hoover City School District

Keeping Pace with Students
A teacher at South Shades Crest Elementary School, Montgomery has found computers to be a real asset in teaching reading, writing, and mathematics, and in connecting students to the outside world through the Internet. Her classroom contains three desktop and two Tablet PCs.

“I use the Tablet PCs in math especially, and I have students think out loud as they solve problems, sometimes recording the session so their parents can hear their thought process,” Montgomery says. “When Tablet PCs were running the Windows Vista operating system, the computers often couldn’t keep up with those activities, and the students lost their train of thought waiting for the computer. Windows 7 runs much faster than Windows Vista, which helps students concentrate on the math problems.” Other programs, especially multimedia ones, also run much faster on Windows 7.

Speed also is important when students must switch user accounts on shared computers. They can do this without closing programs and files by using the Fast User Switching feature of Windows. “Eight- and nine-year-olds don’t have a lot of patience to wait for an operating system to load,” Montgomery says. “Because students share computers, we switch users a lot, and Windows 7 switches users a lot faster than Windows Vista.”

Longer Battery Life, Easier Remote Connectivity
Montgomery lets students take their portable computers outside the classroom to work in other areas of the school. With the energy-saving features in Windows 7, Tablet PC batteries last longer and require less-frequent recharges. “I don’t have to worry about students coming back into the classroom to plug in their computers,” Montgomery says. “Again, it’s less disruption for kids, so they get more work done and we get more use from our computers every day.”

Montgomery often takes a Tablet PC home with her to work on the next day’s lessons. Prior to Windows 7, connecting to the school network to retrieve needed files was a hassle and often unsuccessful. But connectivity with Windows 7 is much simpler, which enables her to work more fluidly between work and home. “I can connect to my desktop computer from home far more easily, which means I don’t have to remember to move needed files from my desktop computer to my Tablet PC before I leave,” Montgomery says. “With Windows 7, I’m saving time along with my students.”

Business Results

• No lost time in transition to Windows 7 from Windows Vista

• Faster performance of Tablet PCs

• Less opportunity for student attention to drift

• Longer battery life for more uptime

• Easier remote connection for productive work from home

Windows 7
Works the way you want: Windows 7 will help your organization use information technology to gain a competitive advantage in today’s new world of work. Your people will be able to be more productive anywhere. You will be able to support your mobile workforce with better access to shared data and collaboration tools. And your IT staff will have better tools and technologies for enhanced corporate IT security and data protection, and more efficient deployment and management.

For more information about Windows 7, go to:
www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7

For More Information
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www.microsoft.com

For more information about Dell products and services, visit the Web site at:
www.dell.com

For more information about Hoover City School District, visit the Web site at:
www.hoover.k12.al.us