Topics in this edition of WSD Tech eNews for February 16, 2011
1. Teacher PILOT Survey due by 2/28/2011
2. Mini-Grants for $2,000 for Tech pilots available
3. Need help? Please ask!
4. Professional Development Opportunity - Digital Collages 3-10-2011
5. Fiber Optic Project complete
6. Please shut down your computer at night
7. Can’t find the right menu in Office 2007?
8. Want to get on YouTube at work?
1. OSPI Required Teacher PILOT Survey (Response Due 2/28/11)
Thank you for the time during your staff meeting to introduce the new and updated version of the annual PILOT survey that teachers are required to take.
We appreciate the time you take to fill out the survey, and use this data to create Technology Classes that will meet teachers where they are at, and help you move towards Tier 3 teaching in your classrooms. We ask that you finish the survey by February 28th, to give us time to submit it to OSPI.
If you've taken the PILOT survey in previous years, you already have an account! Follow these directions:
Go to http://www.edtech.wednet.edu/pilot/
Click on the "Login" button, and enter your e-mail address in the Username box. Enter the password you selected previously in the next box, and click login.
If you can't remember your username/password combo, you can have it automatically e-mailed to you using the "Forgot Username/Password" link. The PILOT site will e-mail you your login and password.
Once you get in, please choose the "Technology Integration and Proficiency Self-Assessment". After clicking this link, it'll ask you for your grade level, please choose either Grades K-4, or Grades 5-12 as appropriate.
When you're done, just click "Submit Answers" at the bottom, and your scores are saved. You can view your results from the main menu, and see how you've improved over the past year.
2. Tech Mini-Grants – $2000 – Deadline 3/9/2011
The Washougal School District Technology Committee is interested in having teachers pilot technology that might be adopted into wider use as part of the standard classroom model. To further this goal, the technology committee is seeking proposals from staff for technology they are interested in piloting. Applications must meet these criterion:
Technology funded through this mini-grant must lend itself to Tier 3 teaching. (for a definition of Tier 3 teaching, please visit the OSPI Tech website at http://www.k12.wa.us/EdTech/ ) The Technology should have an impact on student learning. Technology funded through this mini-grant should have applications for several curriculum areas and grade levels.
The technology should have reasonable support and system requirements. Technology should be inexpensive enough that it could be made part of the district standard. Applications should cost less than $2,000, and cannot be for software or subscriptions to online services.
Grant seekers should be interested in piloting the technology, and also willing to share their experiences with the committee, and to co-teach a class on utilizing the technology if it were adopted in wider use.
If you are interested in learning more, or would like to fill out the application, you can find the application on the District webpage under Business/Operations then Technology.
If you have any questions, please contact your building's tech committee representative, Rebecca Miner at ext. 3002, or Les Brown at ext. 3310.
3. Need Help? Please ask!
Sean Elkinton, Anthony Collver, and Les Brown are all available to answer tech questions via schooldude, e-mail, or the phone from 8:00 - 4:30. Even if Sean and Anthony are not in your building, you can get help from them over the phone or via e-mail. Les is available to do screen-sharing if you’re on a Mac, too! If possible, please use the School Dude system to track your request. You can find a link to it on the District website, under “For District Employees.” Click on the link in the left hand sidebar to get started. Contact your building tech staff person, or Les Brown if you don't know your password to submit the tickets.
4. Digital Collages Class 3-10-2011 by Ali Miller and Les Brown
Les Brown and Ali Miller are putting together a class on creating digital collages with students. This is a great way to integrate visual literacy into any classroom topic or unit. Photoshop is a powerful way for students to create posters to illustrate their understanding of a topic with others. . This will be a fun, hands-on class, from 4-7 PM in the Excelsior High School computer lab. Pre-registration with Rebecca Miner is required.
5. Fiber optic project complete
Hathaway, Jemtegaard and the District Office were connected to the WSD wide-area network last Spring, and Cape and Canyon Creek were connected in early January. The new fiber-optic connections provide more than 1,000 times the bandwidth of the old circuits, and provide a reliable, future-proof way to add capacity in the future. The new circuits were paid for by a 3 year, $600,000 grant from the FCC, written by Les Brown, with the balance paid out of District Tech Funds. The new circuits make video streaming and video conferencing possible, and any web-based services at these sites faster.
6. Please shut down your computer at night!
It is important for you to shut down your computer at night for several reasons. Backups of WSD staff computers and homefolders happen overnight. If you stay logged in, your files do NOT get backed up, and we will be unable to retrieve a copy of your important files if your computer crashes. Les Brown also routinely works on the district’s servers in the evening. If you leave your computer turned on and logged in, you run the risk of having corrupted files, which has happened to several people recently. Also, it costs money to keep computers turned on over night. An estimate by Clark PUD says that leaving a desktop computer turned on overnight for a month would cost the district an extra $7 per month, per computer. If half of the districts computers are being left on overnight year round, this would add up to $42,000 per year.
7. Can’t find the right menu in Office 2007?
Windows users – if you’ve recently been switches over to Office 2007, and you’re having a problem finding frequently used items, you’re not alone! The redesigned “ribbon” in Office 2007 marks a pretty radical change from the previous versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Microsoft has published a visually oriented clickable map of the menu functions for each program, and shows where to find the corresponding feature in the new versions of Microsoft applications. We’ve put links to these pages on the District website under Business/Operations, then Technology. It’s towards the bottom, in the left sidebar.
8. Teachers, want to get access to YouTube or other Audio-visual sites?
While WSD restricts access to YouTube and other streaming sites for bandwidth and student management reasons, teachers can sign up for a filter bypass which makes these sites available. To sign up for a bypass, please download the Filter Bypass Agreement from the WSD Technology page, and send it to Les after signing it. The bypass will let you into YouTube and other streaming sites, but does not bypass the filter for things like Facebook or MySpace.
