Tech Team Track day plans

While you and the students are out testing your stamina at Track day, the tech team will be busy inside creating data backups of your computers. Every year we do a data backup before you head out for the summer, just incase something happens to your computers data.

The plan: Turn in your computer on Wednesday afternoon( if you can) so that the tech department can begin the backup process, if not then please turn your laptop in the morning of Track day. We will begin the backups in the order we receive them.

We will do as many backups as we can, in hopes of completing backups of all of them before you return in from the track day activities.

Once we have backed up your work materials from your computers we will return the computer back to your class. If we have not completed your backup before the end of the track day activities student computers will be available for use for the afternoon PD sessions. Please note that we will not be backing up personal files/images/music etc.

If you have any questions please feel free to ask any of the tech department members.

Modified Web Wednesday 2.0

Want to start a blog? Interested in social media? Want to create and use the various web based tools that you've been hearing about? Come to Web Wednesday next week and bring your questions, ideas, and laptop.

With the recent explosion of web tools available to us in the building such as: Glogster, Edmodo, Windows Live, etc. Web Wednesday (which will be held next Wednesday April 19, 2010) has been expanded to not just website work. Web Tools 2.0 can be a valuable tool to you and your students. Please let me know via the many outlets available if you will be interested in joining me in the media center to discuss and learn more about any Web 2.0 tools. Send your questions ahead of time if you have them.

On the subject of: Edmodo and Microsoft Live

After last Friday's  PD sessions I heard a lot of postive feedback but I also heard several people say

"I think I am going to use Edmodo instead of Live" and

"Why do we have to use all of these different things?"

I thought I would take a moment to explain a bit further. There is no choosing of one or the other,the tools are meant to be used collaboratively. They both have different purposes but they also have some commonalities.Though neither may be a tool you choose to use in your class you may find that there are great benefits from using one or both.  I created this Venn diagram to help explain the differences betweenthe two services and where they overlap:

The collaboration  that both of these resources offer is vast and as creative as you make it:

The main note I want you to take away from this message is this: Live is orignally deisgned to be another tool for the student to use for creation, file storage, and ease of  accessiblity (vs our server). Edmodo offers a user friendly interface that allows for the managment of files, live interactions in the class, and creates a space for you to allow your students to submit work as well as recieve digital feedback on the work.Though some of these options can be found it Live it may not be the tool for you to carry this out, so choose the tool that works best for you, ask loads of questions, and collaborate.

A SMART request

We currently have one SMART board on wheels available for classroom use. If ever you want a SMART board in your room here is the check out procedure:

 

Send in a Technology Request . Please be as specific as you can for the date you would like the SMART board in your classroom.

The SMART board will then be collected on the following Monday from what ever classroom it is residing in. Your request will guarantee that you have it in your classroom for one week. If no requests for the board come in, then it will stay in your classroom for another week. When the next request for the SMART board comes in we will notify the person who has the SMART board of the request and the date in which we will collect it. (This date will always be a Monday unless school is not in session on particular Monday.)

Before the Board is delivered a member of the Tech Team will install the SMART software on your computer (this can take upwards of 2 hours or more to fully install).

 

Requests for the SMART board are on a “first come first serve” basis.

 

Grant Season

As it seems we are coming up on the grant writing season of the year I would like to remind you that any grants for Technology (software or hardware) will need to go through the software evaluation process. Here is a link to the form that must be filled out and turned in to JoAnne. By doing this we will be able to ensure that the software or hardware is compatible with our equipment, that it is district supported, and confirm that we do not already have this equipment or software in the district already. Please do not delay in filling out the form and turning it in as it may have to be sent to district coordinators or committees before approval/confirmation/etc.

 

 

 

The Educational Video Library - Your access to You Tube

Thanks to the kind folks over at TLC, who do understand the educational merit and value that YouTube has to offer, we now have a way to access education YouTube videos. You will find now that if you open a browser while on campus and go to YouTube.com you will get an access denied page:

Upon closer inspection you might notice the new line of text at the bottom of the denied message that states: "If you feel this video should be allowed you may request that it be added to the Education Video Library"

 

If you click that message you will be taken to the EVL or Educational Video Library

Here you can search for videos or login and submit your own YouTube discoveries. To login and submit your own find search at the top right hand side of the website for the log in link, and click it.

Login using the same username and password you use to log in to your computer. You will then be taken back to the EVL main page where you will see that the options in the top right hand side of the page have changed:You can now choose "Submit a Video" and move on to submitting your own great YouTube finds.

The first step in entering in a YouTube url is to find the YouTube video while off campus or by using an app on your SMART phone. While off campus simply copy and paste the url of the video you have found in an email and send it to yourself. Doing this will make pasting the url easier in the next step. After you click "Submit video" you will be taken to the submittal page. Here is where you will want to copy and paste the url from your email into the space provided. Once you've done this, click Get Video

You will then be taken to a page where you should see a preview of the clip (not playable) and make changes to the category in which you feel the video should be labeled. Labeling the video correctly will allow other users to find the video by searching through categories/grade/titles/etc.

Make sure you enter in your email address at the bottom of this submit page and check the "Notify me when video is approved" That way you will get an email sent to you once the video is accessible in the EVL.

If you are interested in just viewing the straight forward directions on how to access and open a path to youtube minus the pictures and extra text click here to view my shared document on Live. (to view you must log in to Live.com)

The Educational Video Library - Your access to You Tube

Stored Print Jobs

It's 2011, the future! Get on board and start sending your prints to the copy machines as stored prints. Sending prints as stored prints insures that your job will be ready for you when you go to the copy machine to print it out.   Many of you have sent prints to the copy machine but when you send them as a non-stored print job it begins printing out your work over someone who is making copies, or while someone is printing. Watch these two

Retrieve the stored printSend a stored print