Technology Fall Update

By -


Technophiles at MassCUE19!
Tips & Tricks

Many people are confused by the Shared with Me in google. Check out this blog post from Ms. Drasby - 5 Secrets about Google Drive Shared with Me. An oldie but Goodie!

Did you know that you can type doc.new in the address bar of Google Chrome and open a new Google doc? You can also do it for the other Google products. Form.new, slides.new, sheet.new!
Try it next time you need to create something on the fly!

1st Tech Wednesday: November 13, 2019 at SHS in B132 from 2:45-3:45

Everyone is invited to learn about or review the Basics of Gmail. We will talk about inbox look, filter & label, how to stay organized, and much more. This is a great time for those who know a lot to also come and do a refresh on settings and themes and hear about different options for inbox look and settings. Please take our survey here so we can decide what to offer!

Don’t forget to update your Macbook Air and activate the new projector software! Follow the instructions here.

Training videos: If you want to learn something, you can always put it in the portal. Anyone of the digital learning specialists can create a short video to email you about how to do something. We love sending screencasts! That means we have a shareable resource for years to come. Let us create you a video- just tell us what you need in incident IQ.

MassCUE

Over the course of two days, the tech team and teachers from SPS presented and learned at MassCUE. One of the helpful takeaways was a software extension for Google Chrome called Read Write. It allows you to highlight words in any document you are using and generate a vocabulary list, have the words read aloud, collect the highlights, and so much more. Check it out here! Free for teachers!

MassCUE also shared out the big presentation link board with TONS of resources. Please check them out here when you are looking for a presentation on something new. It is made with Awesome Table, an add on for Google Sheets.

Projects happening in Tech for SPS currently
  • The network closets at SHS are getting an upgrade to match the speed and performance of SMS & the elementary schools who had closet upgrades two years ago. This work will be done during the holiday break.
  • Access points have been purchased through E-rate. These allow wifi signals to go to the network. We currently have 1 in every other room and our goal is for every room to have their own signal.
  • The facilities department and tech are pleased to announce that all schools will have door access swipe cards. SHS and SMS will be deployed on the new system before December.
MCAS IS COMING


Passwords for PearsonAccess Next (PAN), the online test management system, expire every 180 days. If a user’s password expires, they will receive an email with a link to reset their password, or they can select the “Forgot Password” link on the PAN Sign In page. Please do not ignore the email!

Summer Recap
So much happened this summer! The Tech Ninjas continued to help us prepare for the school year. Maybe you saw they were recently featured in the newspaper? See below for a small sampling of the projects that were started to prepare for the school year.

Capital projects generously funded by the town
  • All classrooms K-12 have brand new projectors over the past 3-4 years. We were able to finish the project this summer with generous funding from the town.
  • SMS Mac lab has been updated with brand new Apple desktops
  • SHS language lab updated with new Dell desktops, monitors, and keyboards
  • We are in the process of replacing 30 admin assistant and admin desktops that are ten years and older. 
  • SHS business classes have two new laptop carts of Dell Latitude 3400.
  • During the 2019-2020 school year we will be refreshing Smartboards
Other projects funded from technology budget and careful planning
  • Incident IQ
  • Teachpoint PD module instead of SmartEDU.
  • We have added one cart of chromebooks to SHS and 3 to SMS.
  • In the spring of 2019 we added a new cart to Hadley.
  • We have upgraded our internet bandwidth from 500mb to 1 gb.
  • We are working on a project to add access points into every classroom in the elementary, middle, and high schools so that there is no competition for devices to get online. This is an e-rate project so we get a rebate back from the Government.
  • We applied for a grant for digital card keys and electromagnetic locks. We received this 54k grant and are working on a schedule to get these systems installed at SMS & SHS with additional doors added to the elementary schools.
  • We used older Mac desktops from the SMS lab upgrade to create a music studio lab at SHS.
  • The technology students (affectionately called the Tech Ninjas) worked hard cleaning every chromebook cart, updating the ipads and Macbook air carts, and upgrading memory in computers. They also have assisted with the projects above and have dismantled and set up more labs then they care to remember. They have also worked on cleaning and organizing technology closets and tracking inventory and equipment.

Popular posts from this blog

Tech Tip Tuesday: Twitter 101, Google Gurus on Twitter, and helpful tip from Sandy Moltz

By -
Image
Twitter is an amazing resource for educators and administrators.  Basically you have limited characters to share out a message. The messages can have #hashtags on them. You can click on a # and see all the things people have posted about this topic. You can also follow people that inspire you. You can use an app on your computer called Tweet Deck to view multiple #hashtags or people into columns. There are things called Twitter Chats that happen on every subject everyday. For example, I follow a chat called #mssachat the second Tuesday of every month at 8PM. Anyone can join. This is a group of Massachusetts school administrators who tweet with the same hashtag and answer questions. For example, one question might be "What are the best practices for the first few days of school?". Principals and schools leaders will chime in and you can see what they are sharing out and learn what is happening in other schools. It takes no time at all to join, to watch, and to learn. Often
Read more

Tech Tip Tuesday: Scheduling your time for productivity

By -
How to stay productive and make the best use of your time using Technology (but not email!) 1. Using Google Forms to collect data Too often you are immersed in a project and people are constantly emailing you about things that need to get done. When you create either a google form to collect data or a google sheet that people edit, you can channel all of those concerns into one file that you can check and work on daily, when you schedule time for the project. The beauty of the Google Form is that you can have people take surveys and the data is translated automatically with the click of a button to a sheet. On the other hand, the sheet allows users to edit it and see which concerns or issues have been addressed already and lends some transparency. In Google Forms you can show your respondents the results, but the spreadsheet allows you to see everything at once. You can also insert comments & tag a person so they see a response or that you asked a question. It cuts down on emai
Read more

Tech Tip Tuesday: Internet Browser Features: The Omnibox & Pinning Tabs

By -
Image
Get More Out of Your Browser Recently I held a training and everyone said the same thing - PINNING TABS IS AWESOME! It seems like such a small feature, but because it is very popular, I wanted to share it out.  The other topic is the Omnibox, a rarely understood but very cool feature of Google Chrome.  This led me to think about how underutilized the actual Web Browser is in our life. We are so excited to get to the content online that we do not pay attention to the tool that gets us there. These two features will allow you to work smarter, not harder! Pin your tabs! The nice thing about Google Chrome is that you can customize it to do many things. My favorite feature is that if I go to the waffle to choose a new GSuite App to use, they open in a new tab. I often have 7-10 tabs open. However, that means that I sometimes close a tab by accident! 😱😬 Have no fear, Pin Tabs is here! Go up to the tab and hover over it with your mouse. Right click. A world of options opens up!
Read more