Current Technology Environment

The South Knox School Corporation has made remarkable improvement in its technology endeavors since our first five-year plan was developed. We envisioned a common network shared by all of our schools on a single campus. With the construction of the new South Knox Elementary School, that dream was realized. Connected by fiber, the schools share a local area network with a fiber backbone in each building. Every classroom and office is wired for Internet access. All classrooms in grades K-12 currently have Internet access as well as Internet access in the computer labs in each of the two school buildings. Each school utilizes Harmony as the student management software. The administration building uses Komputrol as the payroll/administration management software. A full-time director of technology, a computer technician, a technical assistant, a web page manager, and four computer lab coordinators make up the technology team. The IT support team works closely with the director of technology to stay abreast of the fast moving pace of the computer world. These staff members attend workshops and seminars and help with the staff development of the faculty and staff. Both schools are equipped with video conferencing equipment. Many of our teachers have utilized such programs as CILC, Indiana State Museum, NASA, Brownsburg Challenger Space Center and SeaTrek-SeaMote videoconferencing to bring their students many instructional opportunities that would not have been possible without distance learning technology.

Network Management Infrastructure

During December 2007, the corporation migrated from Novell Network Operating System to Microsoft Windows Server network operating system software. The servers for the corporation are housed in the Network Center at the elementary school: a Microsoft Exchange server for in-house e-mail; two active directory servers; middle-high school server that houses high school and library data as well as the student management system; an elementary server that houses high school and library data as well as the student management system; a Linux Web Server to house the school's web pages; a Linux Moodle server for classroom management; a LightSpeed Total Traffic Control system that enables Internet content filtering, span service, email archiving and antivirus services for the school corporation. Outlook is the e-mail management software for the corporation.

South Knox Elementary School

At least two instructional computers with Internet access are located in each kindergarten through second grade classroom at the present time. A few of the kindergarten and first grade classrooms are still utilizing Macintosh computers that were purchased from a 4R's grant for student learning centers. Accelerated Reader is greatly utilized in all classrooms. The computer lab in the 1st-2nd grade wing houses 30 computers. Each third and fourth grade classroom has three Windows computers with Internet access. A Windows XP computer lab is located in the third/fourth grade wing of the building. All classrooms are a part of the Windows network, and Accelerated Reader is available to all students. The fifth and sixth grade classrooms each have four Windows computers with Internet access. The lab in the fifth/sixth grade wing is equipped with 30 Dell computers with Windows XP. All fifth and sixth grade computers in both lab and classrooms have access to the Internet and Accelerated Reader. The music room has two computers with Internet access. The art room has access to a scanner and a digital camera as well as numerous student workstations with Internet access. Art and music each have an LCD data projector housed in the classroom for instructional use. A digital cameral and projector are housed in each of the three labs in the building for lab and classroom use. Each computer lab accommodates a SmartBoard setup complete with computer and projector for instructional use. All classrooms are outfitted with laser printers and each has access to a color laser printer in the computer labs.

Remediation - Elementary

The school employs a Title I reading teacher and two instructional assistants in the reading lab. Several Windows computers with Internet Access are available to students who participated in the Title I services. The Title I lab services students in grades one through three. 

South Knox Middle-High School

In the summer of 1999, a local area network was installed as a part of a construction project of the new elementary school. Fiber was installed to link the three buildings on campus: the elementary, the administration office and the middle-high school. The middle-high school building was wired to accommodate the new network that was to be in place. A fiber backbone is distributed in the hallways. A main distribution room and two intermediate distribution closets serve the building with the necessary switches and hubs to link them with the rest of the corporation. Every classroom has a least one computer with Internet Access and a telephone in each instructional classroom. All teachers have access to attendance and grade book online. South Knox Middle-High School was a recipient of an e-Parent grant during the summer of 2004. Parents (and students) can access student's grades online at Harmony. An attendance module has been added as well. There are four computers labs in the middle-high school. Most commonly used is a 30-station Internet lab equipped with Windows XP computers. This lab is utilized by grades 7-12 and is in use most of the time. The middle-school computer lab has 27 new computers. We opted to continue with the Windows XP operating system. The lab is used for seventh and eighth grade keyboarding, computer classes, and research for grades seven through twelve. Each computer lab is outfitted with color laser jet printers. The business department hosts a third lab that houses 26 Windows XP computers and is used for accounting and business law classes. In the summer of 2007, Vincennes Lincoln and South Knox High School formed a collaborative partnership in order to be recipients of the Indiana/Federal inACCESS grant. With the monetary award from this grant, South Knox High School placed 30 Linux computers in each high school English classroom and five computers in the special education classroom for the purpose of collaborating with English students from Lincoln High School. The implementation of the Linux computers has been a successful endeavor. The teachers have received training and gained an effectual advantage with the utilization of the one-to-one computer access in their classrooms. Criterion, an evaluative writing program, Open Office, Scribus, and Internet research are a partial list of resources that have affectively added interest, motivation, hands-on learning and technology integration into the English curriculum. A mounted projector was added in summer, 2008 to each English classroom as an additional resource to enhance the learning atmosphere.

 Administration Building

The administration building was wired by the same project that connected the elementary and the middle-high school to the local area network. Each workstation is online and uses Komputrol in the Windows XP environment for school management and financial software. The office houses its own business server.