East High NetDay
A NetDay is a grass-roots effort to provide the infrastructure necessary for a school's Internet accessibility. Local union members, who would normally be hired to install the equipment, grant one day for local community members to do the work. In addition to this very generous labor agreement, the Alaska Science and Technology Foundation has provided financial resources which can only be used to purchase the materials used during Net Day.
According to the National NetDay Headquarters, East High's was the LARGEST NetDay in the entire United States so far, and was the FIRST high school NetDay in the Anchorage School District!
Each room at EAHS was provided with connectivity to the Internet and email capability for each student. In addition, we have been working to move East toward a more paper-free work place by providing electronic attendance collection and intra- and inter- school email. Grades and student records are now available to administrators and counselors so that students needing support services can be identified quickly. A database exists at East that catalogs science lab equipment, text books, media equipment, computers, and library books. At a few key strokes, a teacher can find equipment she or he needs, wherever it might be at East.
Our immediate goal was to provide two Ethernet Category 5 cables (each cable into a room is a "drop") into each room at EAHS. This provides faster service, and redundancy in case of a problem with one cable. BP Exploration (Alaska) generously provided devices (FastPaths) which allowed our older Macintosh computers to communicate to the Ethernet network drops. All newer Macintosh computers have built-in Ethernet capability. Ethernet cable can only connect rooms which are no further apart than 100 meters. We divided East into five zones, which decreased the room-to-TC distance to that limit. Each of these zones will have a room (a telecommunications closet or TC) in which the computers in that zone connect to a collection device called a switch. Zone closets are connected to each other, and to the school's main cable closet, with fiber optic cable. Although much more expensive than copper wire, fiber will allow us to grow while using the same fiber backbone, and will allow a greater amount of data to flow to and from each room. Imagine sending real-time video of a school drama performance from the stage to each room!
On August 29 and 30, the East High community completed cabling the entire school. Our preparatory work was so successful that we were able to start pulling cable at 8:00 AM on Saturday morning. By 9:00 PM on Saturday evening, only a few runs of copper cable and one run of fiber optic cable remained to be completed. By 4:00 PM on Sunday, we were turning away incoming volunteers. Thank you, Anchorage! Your participation and support made this remarkable event possible.
The facts of the matter:
220 community volunteers participated
the volunteers were fed two hot lunches, two hot dinners, and two breakfasts. Multiple snacks and drinks were provided throughout the two days
ten miles of Category 5 cable were woven through the school
over 160 locations were connected throughout the school
115 of East's staff participated
over two hundred ladders were used
fifteen sections of scaffolding on wheels were used
A successful NetDay was not the end, but the beginning of our labor!
Our planning team consisted of:
Cynthia Davis-Jackson, East High principal at that time.
Thor Nicolaysen, representative from ASD Data Processing (now out of state)
Mark Newell, state coordinator for Net Day Alaska 2000 (now deceased)
MaryKay Fortie, East staff and Zone Leader (now out of state)
Tom Bronga, East staff and Zone Leader (now a tech coordinator at East)
Bob Humphrey, Community member and technology consultant.
Bill Ennis, East staff, Net Day coordinator, still at East
Last Updated on 4/2/08