TECHNOLOGY: Tech Talk for February 2006
Instructional Technology Staff Development Grant Awards
Thank
you to everyone who applied for one of the Instructional
Technology Staff Development Grants. This year saw a measurable
increase in requests over last year. Almost $30,000 of grant
awards were given out to very worthwhile and exciting staff
development opportunities, including:
- A digital filmmaking workshop
- Dreamweaver and webpage
creation training
- Release time to learn technology tools
and develop lesson plans
- Pasco Probeware onsite training
While this year’s opportunities have been filled, I will
be continuing and expanding this next year. Look for similar
opportunities in the Fall. I believe that this kind of targeted
staff development will prove to be very useful for our staff,
as each staff member can identify areas in which they wish
to receive more technology training, or time to figure out
how technology can be integrated into their classroom.
SIS Update
Most of you are aware that we are currently in
the process of reviewing student information systems. This
is a process designed to determine if an alternate system
would meet our needs better than PowerSchool currently does.
The committee, whose membership is listed below, has viewed
two demonstrations, with a third one scheduled for the afternoon
of Thursday, February 16th. eSchoolPlus (www.eschoolplus.com)
was the first demonstration. This was followed by Aeries
(www.aeries.com). The demonstration on the 16th is with Zangle
(www.cinnovations.net). We will have a demonstration by PowerSchool
on March 7th (to demonstrate the new version of their software),
and finally a demonstration by Chancery Software.
After these demonstrations, we will determine which, if
any, alternate systems are best suited for our district.
At that point, we will ask the presenters to come back for
a more thorough demonstration of the software, which may
include the ability for general staff members to see how
the software works. Some of these details are still being
worked out. If, at that point, we still feel strongly about
a system other than PowerSchool, we will form groups to go
and do some site visits with similar District running the
software. After this, we will be able to make a recommendation
to the Board regarding where we believe we should be going
with this software.
The committee members are: Donna Alexander, Fran Bozdech,
Steve Butler, Barton Clark, Terrie Crotti, Cory DeMars, Connie
Ducey, Carol Eber, Chris Erlin, Joel Hames, Vickie Loustalot,
Jackie Lucero, Rod Milstead, Nancy Neu, Dorothy Ruppanner
and Charlie Uhl. If you have any concerns or questions, feel
free to contact me or any one of these group members. We
would be happy to share with you what we have seen so far.
Online Tools from Intel
From CTAP:
Intel Innovation in Education has three free,
interactive, online tools designed to promote higher-order
thinking in any subject. Each tool features an online workspace
where students create and save visual representations of
their thinking. Students and teachers can access these tools
and related resources from any Internet connected computer
at www.intel.com/education/tools/.
The three tools are:
- Visual Ranking Tool --
Students show their reasoning and discuss differences in
their conclusions as they use the Visual Ranking Tool to
prioritize and compare items in lists.
- Seeing Reason Tool -- Seeing
Reason Tool prompts students to investigate cause-and-effect
relationships in complex systems. Students use an interactive
causal mapping tool to create maps that communicate their
understanding.
- Showing Evidence Tool --
Students use the Showing Evidence Tool to construct a well-reasoned
argument and defend it with credible evidence. The interactive
workspace prompts students to assess sources and analyze
evidence.
Dell Battery Recall
Dell has recently issued a recall on
some of the batteries that it shipped with laptop computers.
If you have a laptop in your classroom, or at home, you will
want to investigate to see if you are affected. The recall
affects the following models:
* Latitude D410, D505, D510, D600,
D610, D800 and D810
* Inspiron 510M, 600M, 6000, 8600, 9200, 9300, and XPS Gen 2
* Dell Precision M20, M70
If you happen to have one of these models, please visit: http://www.dellbatteryprogram.com for
more information about replacing a potentially problematic battery.
Email Archiving
Recently a staff member asked about an email
that was sent a year ago. He was looking for that email so
that some important information could be retrieved from it.
Unfortunately, we found out that a computer he used was “archiving”
his email, specifically the “Sent Items” folder.
Because we couldn’t identify where this had been occurring,
we were unable to retrieve the message.
What is important here is that when you use Microsoft Outlook,
it may pop up with a message about “Auto archiving” your
old messages. You can tell it to do this, or not to do it.
You can also choose to have it do this automatically in the
future. While there are many situations where this is useful,
our environment does not require that archiving be done separately
from the server. The recommendation when the system asks
you this is to click “No.” That way your messages
stay on the server and are not downloaded, deleted from the
server and “archived.” With this strategy, the
only location in your mailbox that is vulnerable to deletion
is your “Deleted Items” folder, which each week
clears out any messages older than 30 days.
If you are unsure if your system is archiving messages,
you can do the following:
- Open Microsoft Outlook
- Click on TOOLS, then OPTIONS,
then OTHER (although this may be different depending on
your version of Outlook)
- Check the screen for the “Auto
Archive” section.
Click on this if you see it.
- Look for the option to auto
archive every “X” number
of days. If this is checked, uncheck it (assuming you would
like to avoid archiving the email).
Sophos Antivirus
This month we are beginning a transition
to a new antivirus platform. For the past few years, we have
used Symantec's antivirus suite to protect our computers
and email from viruses. Because of price, flexibility, features
and support, we are moving to the Sophos Antivirus suite.
Not only will we get antivirus protection on our desktops
and email, this Spring they will also provide spyware detection
and removal, which will work well for our computers that
are affected by these nuisances.
The first impact of this transition is a new set of messages
that you may see in your email inbox. The first is the nightly
“PureMessage Digest.” This is sent any day that
you receive spam. Because it is mostly a list of spam messages,
it is generally avoidable. However, there is a small possibility
that a message was blocked that was legitimate. This digest
allows you to identify those messages and forward them to
your inbox. If you repeatedly have email from a particular
person blocked, you can inform me and I will add them to
the “whitelist.”
One problem exists, though — there is a slight issue where
some computers are unable to display the contents of this
digest. You will see an error message when you try to click
on the link in this email, informing you that you do not
have permission to access the digest. I am aware of this
problem and hope to have it solved soon.
Another impact of the antivirus transition is the changeover
on your computer itself. Most of us already have Symantec’s
antivirus program installed. This will need to be uninstalled
and replaced with Sophos antivirus. Over the mid-Winter break,
Sophos engineers will be here to help us craft an automated
installation routine. This will allow us to roll out the
new antivirus program automatically, and on a schedule that
works well for us. When you arrive back after break, you
may see a little activity on your computer, or a notification
that the new antivirus is being installed. This is perfectly
normal. I am going to work with Sophos to ensure that this
isn’t a process that affects our ability to use our computers.
Your site Ed Techs will be involved in this and will be able
to answer any questions you have after the break.
CDW-G and Discovery Education Grant Opportunity
CDW-G
and Discovery Education are holding their fourth annual “Win
a Wireless Lab Sweepstakes” to give schools the chance
to win technology for their classrooms. Two wireless computer
labs, each worth more than $40,000, will be awarded as grand
prizes. Each grand prize includes 20 HP or Lenovo Tablet
PCs, a PolyVision Lightening RM Easiteach calibration-free
interactive whiteboard, an HP or InFocus LCD projector, and
an HP LaserJet printer. The wireless labs are installed on
a Bretford wireless cart with three Netgear access points,
enabling educators to transport the labs easily from one
classroom to another. Additional prizes include Toshiba projectors,
Lexmark printers, Adobe software, Brother printers, and $500
worth of multimedia resources from Discovery Education. Public
and private school teachers, administrators, and technology
specialists can enter by filling out an online form. Winners
will be chosen at random and will be announced in July.
—
Contact: http://www.discoveryschool.com/cdwg
Helpful tips for your computer at home
I get asked a lot of questions about software and hardware
for home computers. Here are a few tips that I generally
give:
- If you are buying a PC, check out www.gotapex.com.
They have the latest bargains and coupons for Dell, and
have often been able to save people in the District up
to $500 on both desktops and laptops. Additionally, when
you shop at Apple, remember that we get an Educator Discount.
On the website, just choose the Education store and choose
our District. If you go into an Apple Store, be sure to
mention that you work for the District.
- A quick reminder -- we had an Employee Computer Purchase
Program. I have seen many people take advantage of this,
and it is an easy way to get a new computer.
- When you purchase a new computer, don’t always
buy all the software they offer. Remember that, as an employee
of the District, you get to install Microsoft Office on
one computer at home. This should save you several hundred
dollars when purchasing the computer. You could also install
OpenOffice (www.openoffice.org),
a free alternative to Microsoft Office. Some other free
programs you have access to include:
- Antivirus -- Employees get
to install Sophos antivirus on a home computer as a
result of our recent purchase. Instructions will be coming
out soon. You can also install Avast antivirus (www.avast.com) another
free antivirus program.
- File compression --
Many people like WinZip. WinZip, however, is
a shareware program that you must purchase after 30
days in order to legally continuing to use it. You
could use 7Zip (www.7-zip.org)
instead, which provides many of the same features
in a free, open-source, package.
- More -- For more advanced users,
you can find a fantastic wealth of free and open-source
software at http://osswin.sourceforge.net/.
Many of the traditionally expensive application
packages can be substituted with one of these free
programs.
- If you are on broadband Internet at home (cable modem,
DSL, etc), you will want to consider installing a “firewall.”
This is a device that keeps hackers from gaining access to
computers and other devices on your home network. Even if
you have just one computer hooked up to the Internet connection,
a firewall ensures that you are protected from many of the
threats on the Internet. You can find a firewall (sometimes
also called a “router”) at Best Buy, CompUSA,
Amazon.com or most computer stores. I use the Linksys WRT54G
personally, but any broadband router/firewall should provide
you protection. If you have more questions about this,
visit: http://www.ctomentor.com/BasicHomeNetworkingSecurity.htm
Atomic Learning
This is just a quick reminder about this
service. Please don’t forget that this can be a great resource
when you are using an application and just can’t quite
figure out how to do something. This is freely available
to all of our employees, students and student families. From
within the District, just go to www.atomiclearning.com and you will
be automatically logged-in.
Joel Hames
Director of Technology
Tamalpais Union High School District
jhames@tamdistrict.org
(415) 945-3798
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IN THIS ISSUE:
• Instructional Technology Staff Development
Grant Awards
• SIS Review Update
• Online Tools from Intel
• Dell Battery Recall
• Email Archiving
• Sophos Antivirus
• CDW-G and Discovery Education Grant Opportunity
• Helpful tips for your computer at home
• Atomic Learning
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