Update: Aug 24 at 1:00 p.m.

We are working hard to collect information on user experience to optimize learning for our students. Based on current network utilization, we are delaying our decision to block YouTube. Thank you to our #1LISD community for their continued patience and flexibility.

TO IMPROVE CONNECTIVITY, DISTRICT TEMPORARILY BLOCKS YOUTUBE DURING SCHOOL HOURS

Update: Aug. 20 at 12 p.m.

We know resources like YouTube can be excellent tools for independent learning and creative instruction. Our bandwidth data show that we can noticeably improve connectivity by blocking the video streaming platform by temporarily blocking it during school hours. 

Starting Monday, Aug. 24, we will block YouTube on district-issued, Lenovo laptops used by middle and high school students in the mLISD program. Our technology team will reopen YouTube after school hours, allowing students to access videos on their laptops. We will monitor our bandwidth performance and continue to work with our internet service provider (ISP) to add bandwidth. Our goal is to double our bandwidth with our ISP in the next two weeks, allowing us to reopen YouTube for instructional use.

We apologize for the stress and complications caused by technical issues. To give some context, YouTube accounts for more than 4.5 times the bandwidth taken up by Zoom. 

Tips for teachers who use YouTube

We know many of our teachers create instructional content on YouTube or utilize instructional materials from the video platform. We are encouraging those teachers who share original videos to either:

  • upload and share directly in Google Classroom in Google Drive or 
  • use other platforms like FlipGrid, Screencastify, or Loom to share videos.

Tips for students, families experiencing technology difficulties

As a reminder, the rules for taking attendance during the start of the school year give students, families, and schools grace. Please do not worry if you or your students could not connect for live, synchronous instruction. 

Connectivity issues are limited to our district-provided, Lenovo laptops students use through our mLISD program. Some staff may be experiencing connectivity issues if they use Content Keeper as their VPN solution to access their email, shared servers, or business software. 

Families, students, and staff can continue to submit individual support issues through our Help Desk or Let’s Talk. We are experiencing a high volume of concerns. Please be patient as we respond as quickly as possible. 

TECH TEAM ACQUIRES ADDITIONAL BANDWIDTH TO SUPPORT VIRTUAL LEARNING

Update: Aug. 18, 2020

We know technical issues regarding connectivity and access to live, face-to-face virtual learning has caused stress to our students and teachers. Our tech team achieved a significant breakthrough today, doubling our bandwidth. 

As of Tuesday afternoon, our tech  team has completed the following steps to improve connectivity: 

  • installed five additional servers (totaling 17) for content filtering in our data center, 
  • added 10 cloud servers to increase capacity through our content filtering system, and
  • doubled our bandwidth from 10 GB to 20 GB. 

We are still asking students to complete these instructions on all district-issued, mLISD Lenovo laptops with the 7.31 version of its student VPN software.

Families, students, and staff can continue to submit individual support issues through our Help Desk or Let’s Talk. We are experiencing a high volume of concerns. Please be patient as we respond as quickly as possible. 

WORKING TO INCREASE BANDWIDTH, CAPACITY FOR ALL STUDENTS AND STAFF

Update: Aug. 17 at 5:00 p.m.

Read the Aug. 17 5 p.m. update in English | Aug. 17 5 p.m. Update en español

We apologize for the stress and complications caused by technical issues. Our technology teams continue to improve connectivity and accessibility to virtual learning tools. Students and teachers can anticipate continued improvement as our teams continue to work. 

Our technology teams are working with our internet service provider (ISP) and our web filtering tool vendor to increase speed. These solutions should address issues in many of our systems, including email, Zoom, Google Classroom, Teacher Access Center (TAC), and Home Access Center (HAC). 

The rules for taking attendance during the start of the school year give grace to students, families, and schools. Please do not worry if you or your students could not connect for live, synchronous instruction. 

Connectivity issues are limited to our district-provided, Lenovo laptops students use through our mLISD program. Some staff may be experiencing connectivity issues if they use Content Keeper as their VPN solution to access their email, our shared servers, or business software. 

For tomorrow, we ask that you please:

Families, students, and staff can continue to submit individual support issues through our Help Desk or Let’s Talk. We are experiencing a high volume of concerns. Please be patient as we respond as quickly as possible. 

Technology team takes steps to improve quality

We have completed the following steps to improve connectivity: 

  • installed five additional servers (totaling 17) for content filtering in our data center, and 
  • added 10 cloud servers to increase capacity through our content filtering system.

We are continuing to take the following actions to improve our quality:

  • remotely update all district-issued, mLISD Lenovo laptops with the 7.31 version of its student VPN software, and
  • working to double our bandwidth from 10 GB to 20 GB. 

LEANDER ISD CONTINUES ADDRESSING TECHNOLOGY ISSUES, BEING FLEXIBLE WITH STUDENTS EXPERIENCING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES

Update: Aug. 17 at 11:00 am

Read the Aug. 17 11 a.m. update in English or Español

Our technology team is continuing to work through connectivity issues across Leander ISD. Please know this is not your fault, and we are continuing to troubleshoot problems as they arise. 

All teachers and schools will continue to be flexible and show grace. We hope our families and students can continue to be patient and understanding as we work through these issues, including connectivity, Zoom, e-mail, and the backlog in our Help Desk. 

Please do your best and don’t worry about attendance taking or being counted absent. We have the flexibility to work with schools to determine what’s kind, fair, and possible. We are actively monitoring and working with our Help Desk (call 512-570-0566). Please know we are experiencing a high volume of calls and tickets in Help Desk, and we are trying to respond as quickly as possible.

We will share more details at the end of the day. 

CHECK YOUR UPDATE STATUS FOR MLISD LAPTOP IN SOFTWARE CENTER

Update: Aug. 16 at 2:00 p.m.

Read the Aug. 16 update in English or Español

Our technology team has been working all weekend to get as many Leander ISD issued, mLISD Lenovo laptops upgraded before Monday. If you have not updated already, you can help now with the manual installation of the upgrade.

Middle and high school students can click the Software Center icon on your desktop, in the search bar type “student” in the applications tab, and find “Student VPN Upgrade.”

  • If the icon is there, click it to install the update.
  • If icon is not there OR if when you click the icon you don’t have the option to install, your computer already updated.

You can still get the update automatically by turning your laptop on, connect it to the internet, and keeping it on for an extended time. If you manually restart the computer after letting it be “on” and “connected” for several hours, you can help the automatic update load to your laptop.

If you are getting an error message when you look for the update, please try restarting your computer and searching again.

Students and families may be experiencing other unrelated, general technology issues today, causing anxiety before the first day of school for high school students and the continued school year for elementary and middle schools. Please know our teachers and school staff are kind and flexible. We know these are challenging times for everyone and we will continue to be graceful and accommodating during technical difficulties.

We will be open and ready to support student issues at 7 a.m. You can submit an email to the Help Desk. When the Help Desk opens, you can reach our team at (512) 570-0566.

Thank you for your continued patience and support. We’re excited to bring back all high school students to start the 2020-21 school year on Monday with our elementary and middle school students.

STEPS TO IMPROVE CONNECTIVITY ON YOUR STUDENT MLISD LAPTOP

Update: Aug. 14 at 5:00 p.m.

Read the Aug. 14 announcement in English and Español

As we welcome our high school students to the school year on Monday, we need all middle and high school students to improve connectivity for Virtual Empowered Learning by: 

  • turning on your district-issued Lenovo, mLISD laptop over the weekend, 
  • keeping it connected to the Internet (use the device if you’d like), and
  • restarting it manually once or twice on Saturday or Sunday. 

Our technology team has been busy working to improve connectivity and to welcome our high school students to the 2020-21 school year on Monday, Aug. 17. We have installed the new, additional servers and remotely pushed a software update to 8,000 laptops over the past 24 hours. 

Thank you, middle school students and families, for a remarkable first two days to the 2020-21 school year. We look forward to seeing all students on Monday morning. Together, we’re better, even when we’re virtual!

TECH TO REMOTE UPDATE STUDENT MLISD LAPTOPS TO IMPROVE CONNECTIVITY

Read the announcement in English and Español

We are working to improve connectivity and quality for our middle school students by remotely updating all mLISD devices, the Lenovo laptops used by students grades 6 – 12.

Starting this afternoon, our tech team will force mLISD devices to restart to update the web content filtering software on those devices. The updates will occur in waves (not all at once for all students). We will start updating devices this afternoon, and we will continue throughout the evening and early morning. The computer will automatically restart their devices two times.

Students may not experience immediate improvement to connectivity after they receive the update. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience.