Hello World

-
I'm going to start off saying that I've never tried to maintain a blog before.  So, this will be an interesting experiment to say the least.  Please consider the following my brief introduction.

My name is Mariah Sexton.  I was born, raised, and still live, in Fairbanks, Alaska.  This blog is going to be a scattered collection of thoughts about technology, career advancement in a remote location, and my future aspirations.

My first real "grown up job" was as a service writer at a car and truck repair facility.  After several years, I transitioned to FAA regulated records maintenance.  I went back to school, and quickly discovered that a single income and student loans was not a feasible way to support a household with two kids.  In 2009, I took a job as a manager at a small independent computer repair facility.  After passing some initial certifications, I worked as a bench technician combination manager.  From there I transferred to a Computer Technician position with our local school district.  A couple years later I transitioned to be an IT System Support Specialist for the Department of Teaching and Learning.

I enjoy my work, though I still look around occasionally and wonder exactly how I got here.  Here is a great place to be, don't get me wrong, but the roundabout journey sometimes makes me stop and think.  I'm certainly looking forward to the rest of the ride.

Comments

  1. ComputerITnetMarch 15, 2022 at 10:48 AM

    Nice info, I am very thankful to you for sharing this important knowledge. This information is helpful for everyone. Read more info about computer repair marylebone So please always share this kind of information. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. SKLADCO LLCMay 11, 2022 at 10:14 AM

    You wrote this post very carefully. A1707 Macbook Pro The amount of information is stunning and also a gainful article for us. Keep sharing this kind of articles, Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tech4service LtdMay 27, 2022 at 7:03 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Toledo SpringJanuary 27, 2023 at 1:27 AM

    You wrote this post very carefully. The amount of information is stunning and also a gainful article for us. Keep sharing this kind of articles for truck suspension shop near me, Thank you.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Synthetics monitoring with New Relic for PowerSchool products

-
Beginning August 2018, the school district I work for rolled out a new Learning Management System, PowerSchool Learning, for use by faculty, staff and students.   While our primary Student Information System (PowerSchool SIS) is housed on-premises, the learning management module is hosted by the vendor.   One of the concerns brought to my attention prior to the rollout was monitoring i.e. what kind of notice were we to expect during outages, and how could we most effectively communicate that to all effected parties.   So, to start with we needed an effective way to verify that a client could log in to the self-hosted SIS, then navigate through to the offsite-hosted LMS.   While there are many monitoring products out there, and many are very good at what they do, we eventually settled on using New Relic Synthetic Monitoring.   The primary considerations for that were as follows; the scripted browsers are easily configurable, the built-in tracking for Servic...
Read more

Software Request Review Considerations in a K-12 Environment

-
In a previous post , I discussed the need to slow down and breathe during tech adoption, especially while under stress.  Based on that post, I thought I would share some policies written in regards to software adoption in an educational environment. Several years ago, I was responsible for authoring my employer's Software Steering Review Committee policies and considerations for approval. In a time when the school district I work for was pushing hard on instituting personalized learning, it was difficult to maintain a balance between flexibility and appropriate review. The district already had the initial request process documented, so I was simply left with the review process documentation. Originally, there was a Software Steering Review Committee that met to evaluate requests. Unfortunately, that process was cumbersome and difficult to schedule, which resulted in many successful attempts to completely bypass review. (Please keep in mind, the purpose of this post is not to...
Read more

No, You Don't Need That Highlighter App (A discourse on Google for Education and FERPA)

-
As educators, parents and students around the world struggle to rapidly adapt to our changed environment, now seems like a good time for a reminder that it's ok (even necessary) to slow down and evaluate our technology adoptions.  As such, I'm taking this opportunity to review some points about Google Apps for Education (GAFE) and FERPA compliance. The G Suite Terms of Service for Education Agreement is not a terribly long document, it totals out at just over 12 pages.  When a school district signs up to use Google Apps for Education, someone authorizes this agreement.  In it, Google asserts that they will act as a "school official" with regards to the data they receive.  There are two very important things to remember about this agreement however: This agreement applies to Google's Core Services and does NOT apply to additional services (explicitly noted in the GAFE privacy policy .) It is still the responsibility of the district to configure the G Suite ...
Read more