Admission Office Remodel

A set of rooms in the admission office is being renovated this summer.  All furniture and equipment  from the rooms has been removed, including the phones and computers.  Once the work is finished, the technology team will  reprogram the phones and reconnect the computers.  Some renovation plans include changing the location of phones, computers, or wireless access points and the technology team coordinates the rewiring of jacks and reprogramming of phone lines.

CIC Makerspace Equipment Preview

In preparation for this fall's opening of the Center for Innovation and Collaboration (CIC), the technology office has obtained the electronic fabrication equipment that will be in the makerspace in the new building.  We are currently setting up and testing this equipment in the robotics classroom, Timken 003 and encourage members of the Blair community who will be on campus this summer to stop by.  The equipment includes:

1)     Four 3D printers, including a new model which we are piloting for the first time.

2)     A 3D scanner, which renders a real object into a 3D model on the computer for editing or printing.

3)     A wide area color laser printer, capable of printing poster-sized images

4)     A special printer and thermal press, used for printing custom t-shirts or other types of fabric and materials

5)     A vinyl cutter, used for making stencils, labels, magnets, and a variety of art applications

6)     A very large laser cutter, capable of cutting most flat pieces of material, including sheet metal.  Also capable of etching pictures & words on materials. 

7)     A set of dedicated electronics equipment, used for making and testing electronic circuits.

Photography Class Portfolio Website

As part of their final project, Mr. Trish's students in Advanced Digital Photography launched a website in which students shared their photography portfolios online. On Wednesday, May 24, the class welcomed members of the Blair community to the A-Block class for the official launch of the website.  Every student has a portfolio that showcases their digital work.  View the site here:  https://www.blairacademyphoto.com/

Nursing Staff Training

A new health care management system replaced paper-based record keeping processes in Blair's health center.  This not only increased the security of student health information but also made it easier for parents to submit student information required for registration.  Barbara Angiolelli, instructional technologist, provided initial training for the nurses on the use of the new software.  The training is part of an annual process of keeping staff up to date on the use of new software and information systems.

Library Circulation Desk Computer

Sean Lex, Assistant Director of Technology, upgraded the computer used at the Timken Library circulation desk in May.  Although Blair has supported electronic scanning of books and materials checked out of the library for many years, keeping the computer at the circulation desk up-to-date ensures a quick check-out experience for our library patrons.  The older desktop computer was replaced with an new all-in-one computer that runs faster and more reliably.  Keeping computers up to date is an important part of providing a consistently good user experience.  All school computers are replaced no less frequently than once every four years.

Golf Pro Shop

A point-of-sale software system runs on a computer in the Golf Pro Shop and tracks the sales and rentals related to the running of Blair's golf course.  Since the 9-hole course is open to the public, keeping records is vital to the operations of the pro shop.  Recently, an anti-virus scan ran concurrently with a Widows update on the point of sale computer and caused an issue entering sales.  Hal Kay, database administrator, was able to troubleshoot the issue and return operations of the pro shop to normal.  This level of debugging and support happens on a daily basis throughout the offices at the school.

Insley Hall Network Upgrades

Over time, Blair's Wi-Fi network must be upgraded periodically in order to provide a good user experience.  Students are often most concerned about the quality of internet in the dormitories.  The technology office frequently works on such upgrades when the students and faculty are away on break.  This year during Christmas vacation the technology office staff upgraded all of the existing wireless access points in Insley Hall and installed several additional ones.  This allowed more devices to connect at one time to the internet from a particular area of the building, and greatly improved smartphone connectivity.