Technology Update for August 22, 2008

Congratulations, we made it through week 1 of the new school year! Great job... I heard a lot of positive things going on in classrooms as I walked around the building over the past few days.

I am available to help you with technology and curriculum integration 1*-5* period and after school. I will be posting a mini-inservice schedule for the next few weeks on this blog over the weekend, as well as on the bulletin board in the FHS office. These will be short, after school sessions on blogging, using an online quiz generator, new features available in Office 2008, the Distance Learning Lab and SOIN. All of these sessions will be in the A248 lab (as long as the air conditioning is working )

Here is a quick update for all of you on the state of technology in our buildings.

Projector Ghosting
Everyone should be receiving a Line Driver device that you will use with your new notebooks - it must be plugged into an outlet - then your projector adaptor plugs into the end marked "to computer" and your VGA cord (the cable that connects the notebook to the raceway) gets plugged into the end marked "to display device" . On the back side of the driver is a small slide switch marked "normal medium maximum" Slide the switch to "maximum" This device will help clean up the signal your notebook is sending to the projector and should eliminate and ghosting that we were experiencing last year. Please let me or Laura know next Friday if you haven't received a driver yet.

VCR/DVD units
The RCA VCR/DVD units were not replaced over the Summer. They are all going to be replaced with new DVD/Tuner units, but as of this time Mark Kostur does not have a definite timeline for when this is going to occur. The tuner function should still be working on all of the units. I personally would not put any video tapes into the unit - this is the component that is consistently malfunctioning - and it will eat your tape. The only way to get it out is to take the whole unit apart. The district is now subscribing to Safari Montage, a great online "video" source that will allow you to stream videos through your notebook as project them onto your screens. You can also play DVDs through your notebook. (remember, the eject button is the small up arrow with a line under it at the top right of your keyboard)

Sound and Speakers
USCOMM came into the building over the Summer and replaced ALL of the 3.5 stereo mini cable jacks in the ceilings and in the raceways. These are the jacks that look like a headphone plug. IF you still aren't getting any sound or unbalanced sound from your ceiling speakers, please let Laura or I know asap. To prevent static and feedback, do not leave the 3.5 stereo mini cable plugged into the raceway if you are not playing sound through it.

SmartBoard
After next week, there will be a smartboard set up in the Library classroom. You can sign up to use that nice, air conditioned space and do a lesson with the smartboard! I will be offering training on how to use it starting after Labor Day.

Distance Learning Lab
Our distance learning lab is up and running for the new year. I will be spotlighting opportunities you will have to participate in discussion sessions and virtual fieldtrips. I also encourage you to look at the partnership opportunities that are available on the LCDLC website.

This is the resource page http://www.lcdlc.org/resources.htm

This is the calendar of DL opportunities including a bulletin board listing of teachers who are looking for classrooms to collaborate with
http://www.pageflakes.com/LCDLC.Ohio/12258169/

We will also be participating in their DL staff development sessions again this year - a number of you took advantage of this last spring. This is the schedule for the upcoming classes
http://www.lcdlc.org/TechnologyToolbox.htm

I will also be taking another group of teachers to their DL bootcamp training sessions this year - the teachers who went last year learned a lot of new skills and enjoyed the sessions. The sessions this year will be on December 13 and January 31. You must attend both full day sessions. If you are interested in learning more about Distance Learning and would like to be a part of these sessions, let me know.
I will be maintaining the calendar for reserving the DL lab. It will be on Google Docs so you will all have access to it.

Student Responders
There are two sets of student responders that will be available for sign out through the library once we get settled in for the new school year. There will be a full inservice training on them in October, but if you have already used them and would like to start signing them out, see Rose Mary or Julie in the library.

SOIN
As of 10:00am on August 22 – class lists were not loaded into the SOIN system. Mark Kostur is working with Sunita from SOIN to accomplish this. Once the class lists are posted, I will be available to help anyone who needs a refresher on using SOIN or who would like to use SOIN for assignments and grading rather than just attendance. I do have a few resources available to you at http://fpsdtech.rwlo.org in the “how to resources” folder. This folder also has the directions for eschool mall, Aesop and Special Ed Net.