The beauty of Big Universe is that it’s not teacher-driven, but student-driven. Once in the site, students are free to explore. … Students are put on the same playing field in that they can read what they’re comfortable with. There’s no embarrassment. They are in front of a computer, engaging with the book, without other students as audience to judge. It’s easy and it’s safe.”
“I always appreciate the superb support that the CTAC gives us. ENA always responds to our problems promptly and resolves them to our complete satisfaction. If only all vendors did the same.”
Cheri Bills, Technology Coordinator, Western Wayne Schools, IN
“On behalf of TETA Board, I want to say a HUGE ‘thank you’ to ENA for allowing us to use your ENA Video Connect video conferencing solution last week for our 4.5 hour Board meeting. The technology worked great. I think it is so important for us, as a board, to model appropriate usage of technology—and this was a wonderful way to do that. Thanks!”
Beverly W. Miller, Chief Technology Officer, Greeneville City Schools, TN
My ENA Video Connect account works on a laptop and is twenty bucks a month. I can afford that all day long.”
Jana Crites, Technology Director, Rockville Community School Corporation, Indiana
As soon as I heard about ENA Video Connect from my ENA account service manager, I knew it was the perfect fit. The teachers and the students can stay in their own rooms and don’t need any special equipment … It’s a no-brainer. It’s an extremely inexpensive, effective resource that helps my principal. It helps my teachers. It helps our students. I’ve been telling my peers in the region, ‘If you aren’t looking into this, you’d better.’”
Dianne Anderson, Technology Coordinator, McKenzie Special School District, Tennessee
ENA Video Connect is so economical. It runs on the connectivity we already have. We only had to purchase minimal equipment—a camera and microphone-speaker.”
Rebecca Cory, Technology Director, Turkey Run Community School Corporation, Indiana
Education doesn’t just happen in the classroom between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. It happens around the
clock. ENA is a critical partner that makes it possible for the IEN to seamlessly deliver content
and curriculum around the clock from around the globe. In today’s learning environment, schools
need to leverage the best in education technology if we are to compete in today’s global economy.
ENA delivers for Idaho’s rural and urban schools when it matters most.”
Garry Lough, Communications Director, Idaho Education Network
IPS had been searching for a better way to collaborate, share and present in a problem-based learning setting, and MyVRSpot has given us a successful solution. All the content is filtered and monitored, plus everything is constrained to stay within a group of users that we determine. And there’s no training necessary for the students because they already know how to use social media tools. It’s so intuitive for them. … I’d love to have this for every high school student in the district.”
Jeff McMahon, Academic Technology Director, Indianapolis Public Schools, Indiana
ENA Video Connect is very affordable and scalable compared to large VTC systems. Staff development is our district’s target right now. But next we’re going to be looking for classroom applications. … IP-based video teleconferencing with good management tools is something every school district should be using.”
Tom Bauer, Technology Director, Nineveh-Hinsley-Jackson United School Corporation, Indiana
The beauty of Big Universe is that it’s not teacher-driven, but student-driven. Once in the site, students are free to explore. … Students are put on the same playing field in that they can read what they’re comfortable with. There’s no embarrassment. They are in front of a computer, engaging with the book, without other students as audience to judge. It’s easy and it’s safe.”
Julie Bohnenkamp, Director of Technology, Center Grove Community School Corporation, Indiana
ENA Video Connect is helping us to do our jobs better. That’s what a good tool does. I am convinced this is a good product and ENA’s support is taking care of me like they’ve always done. ENA’s technical product manager has been very helpful and is always available.”
Gary Sharp, Director of Technology, Monroe County Schools, Tennessee
Gaggle works perfectly for allowing the teachers to monitor any inappropriate content that may be sent to a student. We really like the storage locker and the blog. Several teachers have implemented the use of these features into their class curriculum. This has been very beneficial for the students and the Tennessee School for the Blind.”
Steven E. Sanders, Director of Operations and Technology, Tennessee School for the Blind
ENA is a tremendous asset, not just on service but the knowledge ENA brings related to E-Rate and all the other valuable solutions ENA offers. I’ve had good experiences and bad experiences with vendors, so when you find one that you know you can count on and you know that they’ll do right by you, you tend to want to hold on to those.”
John Williams, Chief Technology Officer, Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, Tennessee
This past weekend we had a problem that interrupted connectivity to our WAN and Internet. Since it affected all buildings it was a serious issue. I contacted ENA for weekend support because this issue had to be resolved by 7:00 a.m. Monday morning. This week is report card week at Lake Station and WAN connectivity is crucial to generating report cards. I am happy to report that ENA support wasted no time in escalating this issue to the highest levels of engineering support. A network engineer contacted me at noon on Sunday and had the issue resolved by 2 that afternoon. As of this morning not a single user realized there was a problem. That is what I call customer support! ENA is an A+ service provider.”
Ralph Girgenti, Director of Technology, Lake Station Community School Corporation, Indiana
Thanks to the fiber WAN that ENA installed for us and the Quality of Service from ENA that makes sure our information highway runs right, we’ve had no glitches, no problems, with our distance learning program. Every morning for Algebra I class, we automatically connect at 8:05 a.m. We’ve never missed a single class because of technical difficulties.”
C. Michael Lay, Technology Coordinator, Scott County Schools, Tennessee
ENA Connect gives us all the features we have long needed but could never afford. The User Portal makes it very easy for our staff to manage all their account settings. ENA’s voice engineers and technicians are some of the very best. They are usually able to resolve the issue with just one phone call.”
Bobby Crane, Technology Coordinator, Clarksville Community Schools Corporation, Indiana
ENA’s voice implementation offers an economical solution to upgrading old telephony systems. The feature set and customer support are far superior to other voice providers. Maury County Public Schools is extremely satisfied with the ENA Connect product.”
Tommy Schuyler, Instructional Technology Manager/Network Administrator, Maury County Schools, Tennessee
[ENA’s] flat rate per phone is cheaper than purchasing a new system, the phones, all the boxes, PRI and the long distance minutes. Whatever the additional cost of having phones in the classroom, that’s more than offset by the value. I advocate this solution because it’s an easy way to get into IP-based telecommunications.”
Kenny Morrow, Technology Specialist and Assistant Network Administrator, Maury County Schools, Tennessee
Maury County Public Schools was looking for a VoIP solution that offered quality and flexibility. ENA Connect’s hosted services don’t require a big, expensive integration overhaul of your telephony system. The support the ENA staff offered throughout the transition was impressive. We are excited to have this new technology in our district.”
Suzanne Ingram, Instructional Technology Supervisor, Maury County Schools, Tennessee
Our ENA Connect service represents a leap forward for our organization’s telecommunications. Thanks to the powerful features, our office is more efficient, more available and therefore more responsive to our stakeholders. Reaching someone by telephone is now literally a click away—conferencing with several people across the state at once is only a drag and drop of the mouse away! The flat monthly rate and the fact that there was no equipment investment beyond the phones made ENA’s voice system an easy choice. Most importantly, we like the peace of mind and confidence that comes from knowing this solution is backed by the expertise and customer service excellence of a partner such as ENA that we know to be absolutely committed to technology-enabled education.”
Dr. Keith Brewer, Executive Director, Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents
With our new video teleconferencing system from the Idaho Education Network, we can literally reach out to anywhere, to any college, to anyone, for education, training and collaboration … We’re at the tip of an iceberg and now we’re about to find out how much more is waiting underneath us. There are tons of possibilities with this. We’re only limited by our imaginations.”
Alan Schwab, Bear Lake High School Principal, Bear Lake District, Idaho
The fiber broadband from the Idaho Education Network and ENA is wonderful. With our previous provider, we used to break down all the time. We’d lose connection frequently or the connection was very slow. Now everything is right there … We could never have afforded to do this on our own. It’s that simple.”
Joe Steele, Director of Technology, Salmon School District, Idaho
I’ve been in education for 18 years and have never seen an opportunity like [video teleconferencing over the Idaho Education Network]. This is an amazing opportunity for kids that want to challenge themselves academically and learn more and advance further in their careers and lives. Many urban students have had these kinds of opportunities for years, but rural students like mine haven’t.”
Dave Davies, Weiser High School Principal, Weiser School District, Idaho
Our video teleconferencing program is simple, seamless and effective. The Idaho Education Network has made a believer of me.”
Chris Gibson, Technology Coordinator, Jerome School District, Idaho
I’ve never seen such customer support as I’m getting from ENA. I used to go through several phone numbers trying to get help from our previous provider. These days ENA calls me to see if I need help.”
Chris Gibson, Technology Coordinator, Jerome School District, Idaho
Our S.M.A.R.T. telemedicine program [a partnership with Cherokee Health Systems and deployed over the ENA network] is truly groundbreaking. It’s keeping our kids in school and getting them through an illness a little quicker. In some cases, we are saving parents two or three hours of lost wages.”
Don Best, Coordinator of School Health, Sevier County Schools, Tennessee
If we didn’t have a state-of-the-art, big-bandwidth fiber network from ENA, we couldn’t make good use of the technology we’ve invested in like our new lab and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). Moreover, we use ENA’s content filtering service for our CIPA (Children’s Internet Protection Act) compliance, and that takes a lot of work and a lot of worry off of us. We just get great service from ENA, which gives us a lot confidence about deploying any of our network tools.”
Dr. Jane Whittaker, Technology Coordinator, Lenoir City Schools, Tennessee
To have a partner like ENA for Internet connectivity and network management is extremely important to a school corporation intent upon fully harnessing 21st century education. If we ever have a problem, we simply call ENA. They’re so friendly and committed to education. And being able to meet and share ideas with other schools in the network, what a great resource.”
Dan Tyree, Superintendent, Plymouth Community School Corporation, Indiana
Prior to ENA’s solution, e-mail truly was a useless tool for us because of the onerous burden of filtering and blocking spam. Now it is our main source of communication, all for a lower cost per month than paying for two hours of work from a network technician.”
Matt Bertasso, Technology Coordinator, Oregon-Davis School Corporation, Indiana
Thanks to the Idaho Education Network and the new distance-learning opportunities available to us, we’ve opened up a world to students and even local citizens that was not available to them a year ago.”
Jared Jenks, Sugar-Salem High School Principal, Sugar-Salem School District, Idaho
ENA’s expertise and amazing work ethic was truly a refreshing sight and sorely needed considering the situation of the school at that time [due to flood damage]. They were a pleasure to work alongside.”
Will Lockert, Technology Coach, Cheatham County Schools, Tennessee
Kingston Springs had many volunteers [to help us with flood repair] and each one was greatly appreciated, but the team from ENA brought a level of technical expertise unmatched by anyone else in the effort to restore the school. Their contribution put the school several weeks ahead of where they would have otherwise been. And in turn, their efforts freed our tech staff to address needs in the rest of the system. ENA helped us when we needed it most, and words can’t properly express our gratitude.”
Dale McCarver, Technology Supervisor, Cheatham County Schools, Tennessee
The ENA team is our greatest asset! We could have the best equipment and people in the world (and we do), but without a solid backbone it would not mean much. We would have a great deal of difficulty keeping our network running without ENA’s expertise, help and willingness to work with us to diagnose and repair problems.”
Larry Jones, Lead Technician/Network Administrator, Greeneville City Schools, Tennessee
The Internet has become mission-critical for us … ENA has done a lot of important things for us: installing fiber for high-speed connectivity, giving us suggestions for hardware and applications, all that. But the single most important thing that they do is constantly monitoring our network, making sure that we’re up and running all the time.”
Scott Borden, Technology Director, Scott County District 2, Indiana
A lot of times, when service providers approach educators, they’ll lay out a product created for the market at large and say, ‘Here, adopt this.’ With ENA, it’s the reverse of that. Theirs isn’t a basic service that’s been retro-adapted for education. ENA’s is a product that’s been developed expressly for education. We’re not a part of their market. We are their market.”
George Tachtiris, Director of Technology, Crown Point School Corporation, Indiana
With ENA, I get network expertise, responsiveness and a single point of contact, all in the same package. If I need something, I usually hear back from ENA that day. If the network goes down, ENA knows about it as soon as I do. I don’t know of another ISP that provides all of the services that ENA does.”
Brian Witherow, Technology Systems Supervisor, Marion Community Schools, Indiana
Those of us in the field, those working face to face with patrons, trying to aid them in their missions of learning, we get great comfort knowing that we’re working with … highly trained experts that see the big picture—our big picture. I can’t say enough about the account service managers and engineers at ENA. I can’t afford to bring employees onboard with ENA’s degree of expertise … I must outsource that expertise to fill the gap and with ENA we’ve hit gold.”
Beverly Martin, Library Director, Johnson County Public Library System, Indiana
[ENA’s] flat rate per phone is cheaper than purchasing a new system, the phones, all the boxes, PRI and the long distance minutes. Whatever the additional cost of having phones in the classroom, that’s more than offset by the value. I advocate this solution because it’s an easy way to get into IP-based telecommunications.”
Kenny Morrow, Technology Specialist and Assistant Network Administrator Maury County Schools, Tennessee
With ENA, I get network expertise, responsiveness and a single point of contact, all in the same package. If I need something, I usually hear back from ENA that day. If the network goes down, ENA knows about it as soon as I do. I don’t know of another ISP that provides all of the services that ENA does.”
Brian Witherow, Technology Systems Supervisor, Marion Community Schools, Indiana
For the last several years, McNairy County has worked with ENA as our Internet provider. Their service has been as “good as it gets.” They have responded to every request and problem that has occurred expediently. … I am 1,000% satisfied with ENA services and employees.”
Terry Burns, Technology Director, McNairy County Schools, Tennessee
ENA is one provider I can depend on to deliver services for our district at a level second to none.”
Joey Trent, Technology Coordinator, Elizabethton City Schools, Tennessee
All rights reserved - ENA, 2011
