Tech eNews 6-16-2011

Topics

1. Special Thank You

2. Equipment Checkout for End of Year

3. Reporting SPAM email

4. Phishing? But I'm a vegetarian!

5. Back up Important Files Before You Leave for the Summer

6. How does Using SchoolDude Help You?

1. Special thank you

WSD Tech staff would like to offer a very big thank you to Rebecca Miner for her work support of our department during the past three years. Rebecca’s support was instrumental in making the Technology Professional Development successful as we ramped up both the number of classes we offered and the topics we covered. Rebecca’s eye for details, her ability to see applications for technology in almost all subject and grade level areas, and her collaborative energy are amazing. Those of us who worked to develop and teach classes with Rebecca know that she’ll be an amazing superintendent, and that she’ll have an incredible impact on the White Pass School District. Rebecca’s stewardship of the technology department, her constructive feedback, her appreciative attitude, and her ability to make things happen will be missed.

2. Equipment Checkout for End of Year

Reminder: You may not remove equipment from your classroom without getting permission from your principal, and signing a check-out sheet first. Please make sure to have this paperwork filled out if you’re taking a laptop home over the summer, for example. The checkout form is on the WSD Technology page, under Inventory/Surplus.

This is an important internal control for inventory. The district must have a written record that equipment has been removed from the building.

3. Reporting SPAM email

If you get an unwanted commercial e-mail (SPAM), please don’t forward it to Les Brown. Simply forward it to SPAM@Barracuda.com and the company which filters our e-mail will analyze the message and change the filter to better catch that type of message in the future. Important Note: please do not do this with legitimate e-mail, as this type of change affects all users within the district. (for example, if you signed up for a eNewsletter from OSPI, and no longer want it, you shouldn’t forward it as SPAM since OSPI is not a SPAM sender, and doing this could start flagging all of their messages as junk mail for all users within the district).

4. Phishing? But I’m a vegetarian!

A recent e-mail with the subject line "Mailbox is Full" went out to some district staff. This is a good example of a "phishing" (pronounced fishing) e-mail. Phishing is a social engineering technique that computer hackers and spammers use to try to get your personal information. While the link in this particular e-mail was blocked, which kept our users from accidentally divulging their username and password, it's worth being aware that these types of scams are going around. To help spot these type of phishing attempts, be a cautious end-user: look at the sender name and e-mail address the message came from. Watch for obvious spelling or other grammatical errors that indicate the message wasn't written by a district staff person. After you click a link in an e-mail, look at the web address it takes you to, in the address bar at the top of the Internet browser, it should exactly match the name of the site you're supposed to be using. When in doubt, close it out, and type in the address yourself.

5. Back up important files before you leave for the summer!

One last reminder: Before you leave for the summer, consider burning a CD with your important files on it, and take it home with you. Anthony and Sean can help with the process of burning files to removable media.

6. How does using School Dude help you?

Besides keeping your tech staff happy (and who doesn’t want that?), using SchoolDude to report problems with your technology helps you! Once you’ve put in a request, you’ll get an automatic e-mail response letting you know it’s been entered. The system will update you whenever Les, Sean, or Anthony makes any changes to the work order. You can log back into the SchoolDude system to view the status of all of your tickets, which can be helpful if we’ve given you steps on how to resolve something. The SchoolDude system helps the district track time spent on problem machines. Also, if you’ve been having a problem with a computer, make sure you’re keeping track of it in School Dude. Problem machines are identified by the number of tickets assigned to them, and get replaced when we have the opportunity.

To get started, visit the “For District Employees” page on the WSD Site, then click “Technology/Maintenance Requests” in the sidebar. If you need the password, contact Sean, Anthony or Les, and they’ll share it with you.