Thursday, November 7, 2013

Tech Facilitator Meeting November 2013

  Steven Anderson's blog:  http://wsfcstechnology.wordpress.com/2013/11/07/technology-facilitator-meeting-november-notes/

Personnel Changes:

  • Kevin Sherrill: Our new assistant superintendent for technology—round of applause !
  • New tech facilitator--Marion Abrams Mineral Springs Middle 
  • Ramika Rhoads will be back in a couple of weeks at the service desk 
  • Cameron Cook will be out in the field with classroom solutions and media caste 
  • Kenny Flynn: leaving?

Joan Proffitt Help Desk/ Issues to share from the service desk:

  • JAVA:  Java 7 does not work well with gradebook,  it is blocked as an automatic update, but teachers can update manually or by accident

  • Use JAVA on AICP to install to work with grade book
  • For at home use of Power School,  recommend teachers use school system laptop 
  • The "fix" for home computers that teachers want to use grade book on, is for them to uninstall any versions of JAVA and install the one that works with Power School--The Help desk can drop an executable install file on your hard drive that you can put on a flash drive for teachers to install. (the version of JAVA 6 that Power School needs is difficult to find on the Java site)

Proxy server errors on laptops at home not connecting to internet:  

  • Was a problem with IE and chrome, but would still connect with FireFox
  • Teachers will have to bring laptops from home, and do a gpupdate, 
  • laptops that have been off the school network a long time, you  may have to add back to the domain
  • The gpupdate, will un-check the "automatically detect settings" under LAN settings
  • The policy will fix this IF they are able to log-on
    • There is also a gp reset tool (under utilities?) , so you can access a machine remotely and put in the name of the computer,  and it will force a gpupdate if the computer/laptop is on



Problems playing You tube videos:  

  • They have been hearing about many problems with Youtube videos not playing/just spinning

Parent portal:  password issues:

  • Forgotten password parents are calling help desk
  • Help desk can not reset passwords
  • Parents have to go to the link for "forgot user name or password" themselves:
  • https://wsfcs.powerschool.com/public/account_recovery_begin.html
    • Have to know email address they used to set up the account
    • If that fails, then the Data Manager is the point of contact

Miscellaneous Service Desk Issues:

  • Can Ladi bug to be a published icon?—Sandy Holt to put in a ticket to have that as a published icon (otherwise subs do not see it when trying to access document camera)
  • Day to Day Subs do have AD logins—so should be able to see certain programs like lady bug or smart, etc. but many are apparently using the generic school log-ins--Kevin will try to communicate to sub people that they should be logging in with their AD account (all should have!)
  • Some suggested work arounds: 
    • Put icons in media folder of the individual computer ahead of time, and log machine in with media log-in
    • Jeanne--You can back out of MMC, and find the subs AD account.  You can also look up in email and then try the generic pw 
    • Can have access to student share under the media  login?
  • Flash issues with smart board?
    • In control panel... do something with flash player (Sandy Holt gave directions)
      • Joan to send out to elementary schools the Smart Board flash fix
      • Email concerns to Joan otherwise they will get forgotten

 Kevin Sherrill/I-PADS
  • To buy apps for Ipod, you have to buy vouchers from the price list
  • Steven: Read privacy policies of the apps (many times apps are for 13 and older) before you put in a ticket.
  • Some apps require Facebook logins and they cannot approve that
  • Carla handles the purchase order approvals and we need to understand the process

Jennifer Ellington:


Volume purchasing procedure (VPP)

 Here is the Power Point that Jennifer Showed us:
https://skydrive.live.com/view.aspx?cid=7B8F9573D4393628&resid=7B8F9573D4393628!200&app=PowerPoint

  • There is also a "VPP facilitator" who does the actual app purchasing at the school, and must be approved.
  • There is a part number, you get something similar to an itunes gift card and you get a redemption code
  • Then you go to volume.itunes application
    • http://www.apple.com/education/it/vpp/
    • Log-in with VPP account
    • Brings up volume purchasing
    • Put in the code from the card and it gives you the credit you have
    • Once you have the spreadsheet, you email it to Jennifer and she will add to airwatch
    • Also most of these directions are on the Price List:  http://wsfcs.k12.nc.us/cms/lib/NC01001395/Centricity/Domain/61/PriceList_11-05-2013.pdf
    • Then under air watch, it’s under purchased applications
    • License discussions—Have to have IOS 7
    • Teachers all have access to the app store, and on the apple website on the computer
    • make sure they check the terms of service and the privacy policies
    • Steven will publish a list of approved apps
    • Instructional technologists are great resources for info on apps too
    • Volume pricing starts at 20 licenses
    • IO7 upgrade has been piloted and done most successfully at Mineral springs (with air watch update)
    • Whoever the purchasing person is will need to be in contact with Jennifer
    • Do not update via i-tunes plug in to the computer unless a teacher dedicated i-pad
    • They may make edits to the standard AUP form to cover i-pads, 
    • Has to be run through legal and ( Allison Tomberlin, General Counsel  )
    • If you make your own AUP, then you might not be defended by wsfcs legal.  
    • AUP covers you at this time. Also info in student handbook
    • Non i-pad mobile devices must also be registered in air watch
    • We do not have a process in place for google mobile devices.  They are evaluating that at this time.

Printing:

  • Rolling out to high school servers
  • Hearing about people who don’t understand the TRAC utility.
  • Will send out a video on TRAC
  • Please work with principals and establish print locations and try and stick with it

NCDPI initiative:

  • November 11/12th—Internet bandwidth usage test based on volume and hits, etc.
  • Kevin will email us links instructions (is it this? https://www.mcnc.org/events/12days-of-broadband )
  • Encourage teachers and kids to go to website and at least hit the bandwidth
  • 2 GB Internet usage has gone into affect—highest we have gotten is 1.1
  • We are just one of 5 districts in the state that have 2.0 GB bandwidth
  • Slow downs at school could be infrastructure issues at the school

Carla Miller:

  • Printers:  Carbon 6 is the back end program for the printers
  • Issues #1) printer moves is HUGE—must let them know ASAP
    • Results in missing toners and misplaced toners  
    • Carla has the digital signatur and can track deliveries
    • Sometimes they ship wrong toner
    • Anytime you have a faulty toner, you have to hold on to the bad cartridge and it has to be sent back.  They will send lead secretary the return labels
    • How can you tell if a toner resets or not?  can't really 
    • Sometimes the problem is with the computer chip in the printer.
    • If Carla does not get information about the moved printers, then you won’t get toner.
    • Carla needs to know if you get a cartridge with no name for the printer location.
    • Carla will be doing another comprehensive printer survey soon (getting printer names and IP addresses, etc.) 

Surplus:

  • Extra equipment that is still working that you can’t use –Carla did a survey earlier this year--will follow up on that soon: http://wsfcs.k12.nc.us/techequip
  • Wireless Access Points:  Still installing as part of BYOD—questions about that—email Carla.
  • Also Carla is trying to deal with dead spots in schools when money comes in

Kevin/Customer Service:

  • Something they are going to do as a department is focus on Customer Service—renewed effort
    • They can and will do better
  • Secure browser for testing—look for more information for installing from AICP
    • John Worley—new testing person
    • Secure browser:  locks you into the browser and you can’t get out of it during testing
    • Kevin will get clarification and get all that information to us
Updates:
  • Kevin and Steven will work on an updated blog site and hope to have live shortly
  • Will be hosted by word press, with pictures, videos, etc.
Laptops for Teachers:
  • 2300 for teachers, showing up Nov 19th here at Central office
  • Talked to superintendent:  Have to have the WFU laptops back--T400's
    • They need for 3rd grade testing
    • Good news is we are getting new laptops
  • Also looking at computer refresh in classrooms--goal long term is to never have computers older than 5 years
  • Cisco IP phones—still 37 schools to do—Cory Mccloud is heading up that program—hopefully by the early part of next summer it will be complete

Steven Anderson/Power School:

  • Share things we talk about with grade book Gurus
  • Steven and his staff are  getting trained on all aspects of the gradebook
  • Refer to the Power School help site:  http://wsfcs.k12.nc.us/powerteacherhelp
Three common problems: Grade setup, not changing from F1 to Q1, 
  • (Teachers have some comments in the wrong place as a result) Also defaults to F1 in between quarters) on a weekend it may also default to F1 --Best practice is for teachers to always check that they are in the correct quarter 
  • Also better not to manually override letter grade—better to change an assignment(s) instead to make the grade they want
  • Issue of tech facilitators not being able to get into teacher gradebook?
  • Reset the numeric value if manual override for letter grades is done
Tickets on blocked websites:
  • Remind teachers to check the links with students before they put in the tickets
  • Also, describe how they are using it, and give lots of information
Speakup survey: http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/
  • Steven will send the link (starts at grade 3)
  • Prize for school with highest percentage wise of participation?
  • Takes five-ten minutes to fill out
Dec is computer education month
  • Encouraging teachers to CODE
  • Part of the STEM project
  • Register on the website—Dec 9-15 (especially elementary)
  • http://csedweek.org/
  • Steven will send out more information
Next webmaster/pta web master meeting will be Monday Nov 18, 8:30 -11, and webmasters in the afternoon
  • PTA people need to be designated by principal through Evan Herreid

Instructional Tech people come up and demonstrate apps

How to capture an IPAD screen:
  • Apple TV box connected to projector—hardware is on the price list—about 150 total with the cords
  • Put in the ticket with Jeff Taylor to determine your setup
    • Hook to a flat panel just need hdmi and vga for a projector
    • Goes on the public network and the ipad and the box talk together and mirror the image
  • Chrome cast will only mirror certain things like netflicks, no way to authenticate so will not work on our system at this point
Tellagami with Doreen Bates:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tellagami/id572737805?mt=8
  • Under 13 can use with parental permission
  • Good for storytelling
  • Used pics for learning to get the background picture or use one of their background pictures
  • Can share through twitter/email/text
Colleen Fitzgerald/Read aloud:
  • for very young kids--  comes with some pre loaded books
Brian Piekarski:  Myscript calculator:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/myscript-calculator/id578979413?mt=8

Michael Wiseman:  Wunderlist:  simple to do list
  • Syncs with all your devices
  • Can also share with people Like grocery lists with another person
Daisy the dinosaur—Evan Herreid
  • Hop scotch- scratch is an alternative for PC
Steven Anderson--Highlights of the State technology plan for our district
  • MLC is not BYOD
  • BYOD is part of MLC initiative
  • School net feedback—mixed and most teachers don’t like it and it doesn't work
  • TPACK training continuing and will revise
  • Walk thru process will be re-worked
  • Continue PD on MLC
  • Principals need to be the tech experts so they can have a firm understanding
  • Blended learning at all levels, run our own virtual high schools?
  • Partner with local universities (Salem, WFU, WSS, Salem, etc) how can they support us better? And us be better partners?

http://wsfcs.k12.nc.us/drafttechplan  (Tech facilitators offered input via today's meet)

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