Presented by Tammy Worcester, ESSDACK

www.tammyworcester.com

http://handouts.tammyworcester.com

On instructional uses of cell phones – yes they can be bad, and most schools ban them – but they can be used for good, too!

Most kids say when they come to school they are “taking a step back in time” when it comes to technology

1-800-Goog-411 – Free 411 service from Google

Text questions, any questions, to Google at 466453

Google maps – choose the “send” option to send maps and addresses to your phone

http://www.google.com/mobile/ - has lots of tools that can be used with cell phones

Posting to blogs by cell phone – via email – set up through blog settings – can create project-specific blogs and students “send” (aka email) assignments – show up as blog posts – caution: students have to sign posts somehow, either with id # or name, so teacher knows where they came from – nice way to post pictures on blogs

Cell phone to Flickr – can email pictures to flickr, too, just like to the blogs – be sure to include tags – http://www.db798.com/pictobrowser/index.html can then be used in combination with tags to create slideshows and embed in blogs (But Flickr is often blocked, not sure how this will work in that case)

Podcasting by cell phone – really easy using http://drop.io/ – “drop” audio files from your phone – click phone link and gives you a number to call to record your message – can embed the audio

http://www.geograffiti.com/ – leave voice marks – marks it on a map – call in and talk about where you are at that time – nice for geography or family vacations – Caution: there is no filtering so kids can say anything

http://www.polleverywhere.com/ – Student response tool using cell phones – nice example of instructional use of cell phones

Additional links at end of presentation – check the presentation link – one really cool one on ring tones that can’t be heard based on your age – http://www.freemosquitoringtones.org/

One of my favorite things about this job is that every year you get to start off fresh — new classes, new students, brand new shiny school year! However, one thing that won’t be “fresh” next year is your classroom computers. Those won’t be “refreshed” for at least another year or two. Knowing that, now might be a good time to “defrag” your computer. You’ll be too busy to even think about it at the start of next year, so do it now as part of your end-of-year clean up.

What does defragging do? It cleans up and re-organizes the files on your hard drive, speeding everything up.

So, to defrag:

1. Go to Start/All Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Disk Defragmenter.
2. Make sure the C: drive is highlighted.
3. Click Defragment.

Defragging can take a while, especially if you haven’t done it before. You can work on other things while it’s defragging, but it will slow things down a bit as it processes. I recommend doing it when you have a long break — maybe during lunch — and won’t be needing your computer.

Recently we’ve had a number of reports about thumb drives not being recognized by school computers. You plug the drive in, go to “My Computer” and……nothing. The thumb drive is not listed. The problem is that the drive that would be normally assigned to the thumb drive is already being “mapped” to something else. The result is a very confused computer. To alleviate this confusion, our wonderful TSSPEC, Teresa H., has added an icon to your Novell desktop called USB Drive.

If the thumb drive is not being recognized, just click this handy icon and choose a different drive letter (I like “U” for USB).

To keep our network and the files that reside on our network secure, it is very important that every staff member either log out of Novell or lock the workstation any time they are not using the computer. To lock the computer just press [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Delete] and choose lock workstation.

Not doing this is a violation of our district’s Acceptable Use Policy for technology. More importantly, if a student should happen to gain access to a computer that you are logged in to, you are responsible for anything that happens. A lot of damage can be done in just the few minutes teachers are out monitoring the hallway between class changes.

So, please remember — log out or [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Delete] any time you have to step away.

There are times when the desktop printers you have in your classrooms will “go down”, either because they are out of ink or because they are simply broken. When this happens, be sure to complete a Help Request about the problem and then, so that you can still print, you can add one of our many networked printers to your printer list. That way, you will still be able to print what you need even though your local printer is out of commission.

To add a printer:

1. Go to Start/Printers and Faxes.
2. On the left, click Add a printer.
3. Click Next.
4. Select A Network printer, or a printer attached to another computer and click Next.
5. Select Browse for a printer and click Next.
6. Browse to NDPS Printers/NDPS Controlled Access Printers/HYLTON.HS.PWCS/C100-HPLJ4200-ITLAB and click Next.
7. Select No for default printer and click Next.
8. Click Finish.

The next time you print, be sure to select File/Print and then select the C100-HPLJ4200-ITLAB printer. Your print job will print out in the IT Lab where it will be taken out of the printer and set aside until you can come down to pick it up.

To print color, add the printer ITLAB-HPLJC3800.HYLTON.HS.PWCS and be sure to select that printer when you go to print your job. Again, it will be taken out of the printer and set aside until you can come down to pick it up.

If you are printing something sensitive (like a test), call ext 4273 to give us a “heads up” that it is coming so that we can secure it for you.

If you know of another networked printer that is closer to your room, you can add that one instead of the one(s) in the IT Lab. However, please remember that the ink for printers in the main office, 4th street office, and Guidance are not covered by the Instructional Technology budget. For that reason, you should probably NOT add printers that are located in any of those areas.

This year we have been installing ceiling-mounted digital projectors in a lot of your classrooms. Whenever new hardware is added, we inevitably have new hardware problems. If you are having trouble with your projector, here are a few of things to try:

• As always, the first thing you should do if you are experiencing difficulties, is reboot your computer.
• Make sure your VGA cables are connected securely.
• Unplug/replug the projector from the ceiling outlet.

If none of the above corrects the problem, submit a Help Request and one of our friendly Tech Support folks will be by ASAP to help you out.