In the past years, our school district has become more technologically advanced with the presence of unfamiliar tools, outside guidance could be helpful. As of the 2014-2015 school year,

Freedom welcomed Consensus I.T. Specialists Dan Brent and Tony Colangeli. Founded in 2006, Consensus helps address issues and concerns with new technology solutions.

“We do a lot of things in the background that people don’t really see,” Brent said.

One of the biggest changes that had occurred in Freedom High School, with the installation of the new technology group, was the way in which issues are fixed. From the administration to the student body, everyone had to make changes.

For students, Consensus Technologies provides a help desk in the high school faculty lounge.

“We are here Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7:30,7:45 to 9:30 a.m., sometimes longer depending on what sort of issues we get,” Brent said.
However, these help desk time slots have left a lot of students wondering what they should do if their laptop malfunctions outside of that time frame.

“Find [Mr. Tom Hickey] and see if he can do anything for you,” Brent said. “I’m actually, for at least the foreseeable future, going to be in the district five days a week, so I’ll be here Monday through Friday. If it’s something that’s really bad that he can’t handle, I’ll be around; he can contact me,” Brent said.

For the teachers, the process of having something fixed or done for them is much different. They go through the website and use what is known as the ticket system or the I.T. direct work page. Using this system, teachers are able to log what they need done, and the specialists can see all of the requests they need to process.

“It’s a lot easier to know what you have to work on when you have 100 things listed in front of you, as opposed to ‘Oh, what did that person say to me yesterday that I had to do?’ I do think people are coming around to using it, it’s a lot more organized and it’s going to be a lot more effective in the long run,” Brent said.

Another big change that FHS students have had to adapt to this year has to do with some of the software.

“There’s licensing that goes along with software, and basically if you don’t have the licensing for it then we don’t feel comfortable putting it on the machine because there are a lot of issues ethically with doing that,” Brent said.

“The software that is on the machines is what was determined was needed and was licensed. And everything that was not licensed is in the process of trying to get licensed,” Brent said.

The biggest software loss concerning most students was Sony Vegas. With many teachers assigning video projects, this loss of software definitely hasn’t gone unnoticed.

“With Vegas in particular, it was a matter of this wasn’t licensed anymore, and we couldn’t even find where to get it re-licensed so it’s been an ongoing thing of trying to figure out who we need to contact to get that licensed and how to get it. So it’s been a struggle,” Brent said.