A New Year Arrives!

Welcome 2009!! Goodbye 2008!! It has been a good year with many learning experiences and lessons. I enjoyed many visits to schools last year, but I need to get around to see more of the school webmasters.
Let's review some of what happened in 2008:

• We had a very large turn-over in school webmasters. There were quite of few new webmasters who needed training to start off the school year. By the way, they are doing a great job!!
• Scores of hours in 2008 were spent in VNC. Sometimes I spend 3-4 hours with VNC to school webmasters in a single day. This made it very convenient for both me and the school webmasters.
• Many schools started using the ASP Web Calendar which dynamically works with a database. Of course, with any free resource, there are vulnerabilities. Some vulnerabilities were discovered early for which Brannon Carter (Bryson Middle) created a fix. Unfortunately, since our databases were out in the open and the passwords are housed in the database, this was hacking opportunity waiting to happen - and it did around Thanksgiving. Fortunately, we've now moved our databases to a nonpublic location on our server which vastly enhances our security.
• Several schools in 2008 converted to ASP so that the great majority of schools are now ASP. I plan to offer some classes on the Power of ASP to help those who need a better understanding. The few non-ASP school websites will hopefully move to ASP in 2009 to take advantage of the ease and convenience of managing your sites.
• Several schools in 2008 implemented a new flash menu system, replacing the DHTML menus which are still widespread in our schools.
• Some schools have taken advantage of data-driven capabilities that many other schools possess, such as a faculty directory, Announcements, News, and Events. This capability enables the webmaster to pass off responsibilities to other people at there school without the need to use FrontPage or FTP.

On a personal note, 2008 brought me a new grandson, (grandchild#5), a motorcycle (lovin' it!!), another child to complete high school, and 26 years married to the same wonderful woman.

Some of the goals I have for 2009 are as follows:

• All school websites converted to ASP - not mandating, just on my "wish list".
• All school websites using the benefits and conveniences of data-driven capabilities (ASP calendar, directories, annoucements, news, and events). Of course you can only do this if you actually use ASP at your site.
• More workshops and training offered as well as a face-to-face meetings.
• More individual school visits.
• Provide more online tutorials.
• Develop a better game of pool so that I can beat John Woggon. Last week I met John for lunch. We played at least 8 or so games and John completely demolished me!! He always asks about you guys and I sense that he misses you all.
• Blog more. This is obviously not yet a habit, but I'd like to incorporate tutorials into my blog.

Thanks to all school webmasters for the time and effort spent in making our school sites "top-notch". I often get comments that our schools sites are much better than other schools sites not only in other districts in SC, but also throughout the US. This is a testimony to all of your hard work over the years. Thanks for all you do.

Happy 2009!