1. Upcoming Tech PD classes - Research Strategies 11-29-2012
2. Userbox on the Konica copiers
3. Steps to disable "re-open at login" setting on 10.7 Mac computers
4. Inventory reminder - moving equipment
5. Printing timecards - please ask for help if needed
6. Getting rid of old equipment
7. iPad Pilot in 5th Grade Classrooms update
8. K-5 Report Card Window
9. Flickering Monitors Make you Crazy
10. Using SchoolDude Helps Us Help You
11. Update Notice Never Goes Away
1. Tech Professional Development Classes Starting November 29, 2012
The first Technology Professional Development Class will be Thursday, November 29th, in the WHS Library from 4-7 PM. Kim Dillon and Les Brown will be presenting the Research Database & Strategies Class. This 3 hour class (clock hours approved through ESD) will cover both free and paid online research databases that are available to you and your students. Some are provided through the Fort Vancouver Library system, which makes them available to residents and teachers in Washougal to use with students. Come explore these high quality sites, and find out about strategies to help you teach your students about how to discern worthwhile sources of information online. E-mail les@washougalsd.org to register. The complete list of Winter classes will be posted soon.
2. Userbox on the Konica Copiers
Tech support person Sean Elkinton provides these instructions on how to use the "Userbox" on the Konica Copiers.
The UserBox is a folder on the copier that stores your documents that you want to print. It can hold
all your print jobs you send there until you are ready to print them. Once the UserBox is setup on your
computer then it functions the same way as a printer so when you print to the copier it is automatically
copied to your UserBox.
To use it:
1) login with your code
2) push user box button
3) push 2nd item in menu "Use Document"
4) push "Search UserBox"
5) select your UserBox icon and select OK
6) select document and push Print
7) push start button
If you don't know your code, please contact your building's Tech support person, who can help you reset it.
3. Steps to disable "re-open at login" setting on 10.7 Mac computers
Does your Mac re-open about a billion windows each time you log in? Is it making you wait 10 minutes to be able to do anything productive while it drags out every file you've ever looked at? Tech support person Linda Henderson provided these instructions to disable the "re-open at login" option on the new Teacher Macs, running 10.7 or higher, which have this annoying (to some) feature turned on by default:
Open the System Preferences
Click "General"
Un-check the box at the bottom of the screen for "Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps"
Close System Preferences
To view the directions with screen shots, click here.
4. Inventory reminder - moving equipment
Help us keep the inventory up-to-date! When you move equipment from room to room, please contact your building's inventory designee to let them know you've moved it. They may ask you to fill out a transfer form. You'll need to know the room number of the new location, along with the tag number from the equipment. Click here for a list of Inventory Designees and a link to the forms.
5. Printing timecards - please ask for help if needed
The Tech Support Staff want you to know you can get help if you need it, when you need to print your timecard. If you don't regularly log into your user account, you may need help adding the printers to your account. Please ask them for help, and they'll get you "hooked up" to the copier nearest to you. If you can, please try to use the same computer each time you print your timecard. Once the printer is configured on that computer for your account, it will stay "set" from month to month!
6. Surplus that old unwanted/unused equipment
Do you have old, unwanted, or unused equipment in your classroom that you don’t want to keep? Ask your building's inventory person where to have it moved, and let your building administrator know you want to get rid of it. The deadline for identifying items as surplus is January 18, 2013.
7. iPad Pilot in 5th Grade Classrooms update
Three Fifth Grade Teachers and a Special Education Teacher are participating in a pilot of iPads in their classrooms. Erin Hayes from Hathaway, Erin Maier from Gause, and Chelsea Meats and Stephanie Closson at Cape are using iPads in a "one to one" pilot, helping the district Technology Team evaluate and collect data about how tablet devices can help students! This project is funded by the WSD Tech Fund, and will produce comparison data around test scores, attendance, behavior, and other metrics which will help the Tech Team decide whether to expand this into more classrooms next year. Stay tuned for more details as we gather data about how these devices impact learning.
The Pilot was featured in a great story written by Jodi Thomas, and published in the Camas Washougal Post Record. Click here to read a short excerpt from it, or look in this week's Post Record for the full version.
8. K-5 Report Card Window
The cut off date for entering grades into the K-5 report card system will be December 10th, 2012, at 12:00 Noon. Please contact your building support person if you are having problem logging in. The link for the report card site is on the For District Employees Page, in the left sidebar.
9. Flickering Monitors Make you Crazy
A number of the black cables that connect the new monitors at WHS to the PC computers have failed. This bad batch of cables has affected about 15 or more staff people. If your teacher computer at WHS is flickering, jumping around, or going black spontaneously, please put a work order into SchoolDudes, and Kenneth will get you a replacement cable.
10. Using SchoolDude Helps Us Help You
Speaking of SchoolDudes -- 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 Kenneth, Sean, Linda or Les 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. 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, please contact your building's tech support person. Note that the login uses your old e-mail address (with the k12.wa.us ending) unless you updated it using these directions.
11. Update Notice Never Goes Away
ADOBE FLASH NEEDS AN UPDATE! Windows has found critical updates for your computer. Your computer will burst into flames if you don't install this important update from company b! Many staff are complaining that they're getting almost constant reminders from just about every software application saying that they need updates. If you are experiencing this, please enter a work order into SchoolDude (directions above) and your Building's friendly tech support person will install the updates, buying you a reprieve from these dire update warnings.
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