Technology Tips and Other Thoughts from JD

Monday, October 22, 2012

Technology and Media Meeting Oct 18, 2012

Tech Committee Members 2012- 2013

    Downs, John ‎[JDowns@wsfcs.k12.nc.us]
    Basham, Stacy R ‎[srbasham@wsfcs.k12.nc.us]‎
    Dipiazza, Julia A ‎[adipiazz@wsfcs.k12.nc.us]‎‎ not present
    Hatch, Cynthia F ‎[cfhatch@wsfcs.k12.nc.us]‎‎ not present
    Fought, Donald G ‎[dfought@wsfcs.k12.nc.us]‎‎
    Mabry II, Eugene L ‎[emabry@wsfcs.k12.nc.us]‎‎
    Speziale, Megan R ‎[mrspeziale@wsfcs.k12.nc.us]‎‎
    Suttles Jr, Ronald A ‎[rasuttles@wsfcs.k12.nc.us]‎‎ not present
    Kilgore, Rita ‎[rkilgore@wsfcs.k12.nc.us]‎
    Wells, Jennifer P ‎[jpwells@wsfcs.k12.nc.us]‎‎ not present
    Sigmon, John C ‎[jsigmon2@wsfcs.k12.nc.us]‎‎
    Turner, Lisa [lturner@wsfcs.k12.nc.us]

Lisa Turner began the meeting with a description of the needs for the media center.

Circulation is up with our student numbers approaching 1300
Turner has put in a request to administration for $5000 to be used for book purchases

That's just $3.61 per child
Focus of the request is on fiction
"Series holes" are horrible and waiting lists for certain books continue to grow
Sources of library funds? There are no dedicated sources of money, no line item in the school's budget for the Library
People think book fair all goes to library when in fact it goes to PTSA, and it is up to their discretion on how to use those monies.
Turner feels spending on books needs to be a priority and is asking for members support

Below is a list sent out by Downs showing infrastructure priorities for technology. Downs feels it is important to set a list of priorities so that we acknowledge them as a school, and so that other last minute items don't pop up and become the "flavor of the week" priorities. Discussion about these priorities follow:

Pod Sound system:

Are people using the microphones?
We recognize that the sound is bad out there, but do they help?
Turner--research shows that the sound amplification systems enhance student learning
Sigmon/Downs to talk with POD folks
Cost is ~$750.00/room

Media Center Plan:

Turner spoke of making the Media Center a 21st century learning center where access to technology if not limited to the lab, where teachers can group students with or without technology at tables or in what is now the lab area
Media center could be reconfigured somewhat with more use of shelves in the back if we go to the laptop model
Perhaps we could start with 10 laptops to give us a complete class set of computers and then hopefully build from there
As it is now there are really only 22 working computers in the lab area, and this does not accommodate most classes of up to 30 or more students
If we went with the Lenovo laptop lease program currently being offered by the school system, we would be looking at ~$200/year/laptop, so ten laptops would be roughly $2000 per year over three year--not bad.

EC Rooms:

Everyone felt this should be a priority high on the list
We are looking at Three main rooms (601, 701 & 801), with following costs:

Flat screen TV with mount: ~1500.00
Computer: $750
Document Camera: ~ 600.00
Wireless Tablet?: $350.00
Total Cost per room: ~$3500.00 with installations

What about ISS? Would it be used?
Could we use any equipment from science rooms if they get new equipment?

CTE classrooms with older computers for some:

Members felt this should be a priority as well since it affects students everyday and learning.
It's also a discussion with scheduling and data management in terms of putting more than 24 students in those rooms? (Kilgore, Dr. Daniels)

Admin Computers: (Downs and Turner spoke about that situation)

For people that work on their computers all day long (more so than teachers), this can be a big issue
Right now both Media circulation desk computer and assistant media circulation is one of the oldest computers in the building --over ten years old!
Office computers are the third generation IBM computers and the third oldest computers in the building
Example--Deb Neal as curriculum coordinator crunches numbers and data all day and this is an increasingly troublesome issue for her and others in the office as well. (works on Office 2003 and windows XP)
Speaking of computers, Mr. Mabry offered one computer his area to anyone who might need it. It is one of the older computers in the building too, and while Downs appreciated the offer, we are in fact working on "surplusing" many of those computers.
We thought of perhaps asking teachers if anyone might/could use it as even a word processing station?

**Next meeting set for November 15th **if needed**
if members could please talk to their "constituents" and find out thoughts on these priorities and whether or not they approve or have ideas for other things that should be on the list.

This was the agenda item list that Downs sent out prior to the meeting:

Priority list for investment in technology infrastructure for the future. Thoughts?

1)    EC rooms (601.701 & 801) have all expressed interest in updating their old technology. Those rooms would need a modified classroom solution (TV, doc camera, and PC ~ $3000/room to update) ISS?
2)    Media center and moving away from the lab situation in there (old computers on the verge of death) to more of a laptop open space type of set up where technology and work are in a more seamless integration and not so much a "lab" (COSTS ~ 200 /YEAR/LAPTOP if we do the lease option)
3)    More sound systems for the PODS (bad sound in those rooms ~ $1000/room)
4)    Updating some admin computers (such as the office and media center) These computers get a tremendous amount of use and have greater needs than average classroom computer (cost ~ $200/computer/year with lease deal)
5)    CTE—providing additional modern computers for classes above 24? They are only given 24 CTE computers but some classes have more than 24, and extra kids are on old computers.
6)    Others Priorities?
7)    Instructional Technology Issues?

Future happenings:
·        4 Laptop carts coming around the first of the year
·        Additional classroom solutions (pending)
·        More laptop carts?
·        Teacher laptop refresh

Other issues (support) on the horizon…
·   Laptops for 8th grade science. This will occupy Downs’ time for up to a month getting them setup and ready to use (labor intensive)

Thursday, October 4, 2012

October 2012

Tech Meeting—October 2012: http://todaysmeet.com/wsfcstfoct12

Betty Weycker

Staying focused at meetings
Non-negotiables…keep discussions at tables to a minimum

Pilot Schools:

Clemmons ES, Rural Hall Elem, Jefferson MS, Kernersville MS, Mt Tabor N. Forsyth

Grants

There are a hundreds of grants out there for ipad, and other tablets but we are still testing with the pilots schools to determine which device works best with our infrastructure, so the answer is NO if teachers ask about getting those devices onto our network :(
She is NOT denying grant opportunities, just because something is "available" doesn't mean we can necessarily support it.

Power School is the new NCWISE.

Pierson bought AAL, and they bought product called Power School. It is just gonna happen if it’s ready
Go to www.ncwise.org
Left side, power school icon—FAQ:

http://www.ncwise.org/documents/power_school/NC_WISE_PwrSchool_FAQ.pdf

Or check out more details here: http://www.ncwise.org/powerschool.html
- What is the schedule?—currently implemented by August ‘13
- Scheduling will need to be in place early next summer.
- It is a good product, parents will especially love it.
- Getting it rolled out is Betty's concern
- As soon as training is available, they will set it up, if indeed it goes live in August
- Go to: http://powerschool.com/ to look at demos—they are better on there.

EVASS:

DPI is now doing what WS was doing in terms of managing the data.
Will use email addresses out of NCWISE to manage Evass users
they have to populate email addresses in NCWISE
as a result email addresses may start showing up in documents for ncwise

K2 report cards—should now say 2012-2013

Kevin Sherrill--Tech updates:/Wireless infrastructure

Two wireless networks visible—

wsfcs_managed--Primary network for all domain members (laptops and desktops)
access it by being a member of active directory and pushes a certificate to those devices
With an “off domain device” you can currently authenticate with active directory user name and password

Wsfcs_MLC: (mobile learning community network)

Purpose--Getting ready for personal learning devices
And Guest/off domain wireless network
Based on school number: user for example: 556MLC
PW: school (see tech facilitator)
Every school has that account right now
Also for vendors and guests who come to the school—call the help desk and get a limited guest account—rather use the guest account then the school MLC account

They will be issued on the fly, and will expire in the time frame needed
Otherwise Visitors who are long-term need to be loaned a machine to use

In terms of connecting to an Ethernet wire, that is not supported but it works
Policies and procedures for letting people on the network is still in the works.
Only way to manage until that happens is to limit the MLC network
Long term they will want to use MLC—since it gives out bound internet only –for ipads, tablets, etc.
At that stage of the game until personal devices are approved for use in schools, it's just not proper procedure.

Dibbles issues explained

Kevin will push a new image out to the server, and they will help people backup dibbles, synch before they log-off then do image and it has to go on a wire to update.

Dibbles machine names?

a "D" instead of an "I" ??—they will be put on our managed network—should alleviate some of the pain dibbles has been.
In order to disable MLC they will have to shut that off when dibbles reimage push out is done
They also will be turning off user authentication connecting with private devices
Will affect wireless tablets that school folks connect to wireless
All the personal devices will stop working once they close this user authorization down, (unless they use a wire)
Time frame on when they will open back up for personal devices will be announced at a much later date:
November 1^st is the date they will shut down the MLC except for the pilot schools
Should give everyone a chance to re-image the dibble machines
AP phones/Samsung smart phones—as long as the user account is still in the group that will allow user authentication they should still connect to the wireless-–Kevin has a group of mobile phone users

*Requests for IP phones/classroom drops should be submitted through KACE not anything else

Surplus pickup for the Fall is coming/Carla Miller

Include only desktops non working that can’t be fixed
Dead monitors
Still do not have a solution for TV’s unless you want to pay for it
VCR’s, dead cameras,
Old laptops that do not boot up
Blown projector bulbs, put in a zip lock if shattered glass.
Fall 12 surplus pickup on the tech facilitator webportal under "request for information folder": Direct link here
Check out document

Little green arrow pointing out for check out
Most important--type of equipment, model if you have it, serial number, and asset tags helps with fixed assets, machine name if you know it, and ESN: for computrace
If do not know ESN, at least try to get serial number
Click on Save
Due October 19^th—two weeks!
Carla will pull the information the following Wednesday.
Email Carla Miller directly if you have trouble
Piedmont e-cycling is the company in Kernersville who collects the stuff
Will start picking up during first week of November
All your stuff should be put in one location

Steven Anderson

Technology PD offerings
This year, they are "pushing" gaming for kids that are geared toward educational programming

Site for courses:

http://wsfcs.k12.nc.us/Page/44870

Question: Training for Common Core? integrating technology—TPACK is the one they offer.
ITES standards are not in isolation—people should talk to program managers for more ideas with technology integration.
Moodle courses—some are worth .15 CEU's

School Wires:

Principals asking to know when was the last time teacher websites were updated?
Webmaster can pull "last modified report"

Tools
Reports
Last modified report

Tells also who all the editors are along with the date
Calendar does not show modified unless there is a change to the physical properties of the calendar--does not show as updated if only calendar dates are added
Can pull the report as an excel file to sort

Training for new webmasters: wed oct 10^th

Needs a email to Evan Herried from Principal

PTSA training—Oct 10^th from 8-11

Also have to have permission from principal to Evan Herreid

Open labs—for School wires general help

for general working on website time—

October 9th: 8:00-11:00
Oct 10^th: 1:00-4:00

Learn 360/Melissa Edwards

Melissa tells teachers to go thru learning village to access
Directions for adding new users were in the TBT, and will be again, and there is a page in KACE knowledge base page #65

User: full email address

Pw: wsfcs

Administration tab (if you don’t have it, contact Melissa)
Manage locations
Search for a user, hit go
Will not let you create and account for someone who already has one
Add new button down at the bottom
Change role to a teacher
Password: make it default
Alternate user name: you can use active directory user name (saves me time when people forget what their log-in is)
Student accounts are wsfcsstudent number and password is also wsfcs

Betty: Pilot /MLC

We are looking at pedagogy, infrastructure, etc for the onslaught of new technology including Bring your own device (BYOD)
Board did approve 1.8 million for purchase of laptops for 5^th grade, 8^th grade, and HS biology teachers
They also asked for classroom solutions. They approved Darrel Walker to go to commissioners to ask for funding for classroom solutions.
As of today, just PO for laptops has been completed
Teachers will have an edmodo group for support
WFU is still issuing laptops to freshman as of next year.

They are $400.00 and are two years old, no battery warantee, but has DVD drive
Leased Lenovo laptops (for $600.00 over three yrs) X131, laptop has considerably more memory than the WFU laptops,
Size is in between t410 and tablet
Battery lasts 6-8 hours
Does not have CD/DVD :(
Budget is $350,000 to purchase/lease ~ 800-1000 this year

Decided to continue a partial WFU purchase to provide some DVD’s support mainly for DPI testing requirements.
Will take remainder of the money and gain ~ 2000 laptops from Lenovo
So, can have 2/3 of staff with lenovo laptops by Christmas
Pick up that last third of teachers with lease program later
Does not have final part of the WFU laptops with DVD numbers yet

Laptop Carts:

Allocated laptops based on the class membership as of 10^th day
Cart with 28 laptops for classes of 24 on the books
Cart holds 32
Betty believes classes will have "more than they have to have"
These laptops do have to be plugged in (not like the Dell carts that slide in) but is an easy to manage plug setup
DOT will be at schools to help
Additional power adapters? There maybe some
Middle and High Schools: Carts of 32 for classes 28 and above
In some cases they will have an additional cart!
Every child who takes science should have a device
Betty will send us and principals with number of carts and number of laptops
If questions, email Betty and she will give better breakdown
She will start emails tomorrow

Deployment:

They need "to live" in the science rooms (Board members will be visiting)
“Have cart, will travel” –other teachers can check out
Mobile classrooms may need some tweaking in terms of classroom solutions
Nov 6^th is dedicated to training for science teachers—tech facilitators may attend
Middle Schools probably start January
HS, will get hit first with laptops
Dana Wright has testing calendar, and she will work with her to best accommodate high school’s testing schedule
Science teachers should plan on attending on Nov 6^th—every effort by principals to see that science teachers are there.
Hopefully should be enough devices for teachers to do the training on the Lenovo laptops—will be only mass face to face training—and will be at Glenn High School

Licensing:

Operating system licenses...
30,000 devices currently in the system
Getting ready to purchase ~ 10,000 laptops that need licenses
Ees enrollment foreducation licenses (agreement)

Now licences are based on the number of employees, once a year payment. Financially it’s a good thing and also get out of the version problems
Advantage--Don’t have to monitor machine licenses anymore, also gives us "work at home" version for up to five licenses

PO went out yesterday on this agreement
Lease: 36 month lease--~ 200 per year with licensing it ends up being cheaper than the value price of the laptop.
Could be at the end of three years they refresh them or buy out of the lease,
Goal is to get into a refresh cycle
In terms of school purchases (PTA’s etc.) , call them (Kevin) first to discuss the leasing option because the deal is so good.
Lenovo will support the machines
Betty will put details in TBT

Question: Is lease only with laptops?

It can be desktops or laptops and carts
Do not color mark those machines for inventory—because it is a leased laptop
Have had conversation with Patsy Squire—to decide how laptops should be labeled

Classroom solutions:

Took out the response systems
Betty just needs county commissioners to say yes

Channel 1:

We get it free now
Channel 1 junior to test in classrooms (commercial free)
You can do on-demand—decent content

Connect Your Community—phase 2

We are one of 23 sites in the country—won the grant that will provide low cost internet access for low income schools (22 schools) Time warner--$9.95
Will also give access to low cost computers
They don’t know exactly how the download will work at home, probably get a code,
Laptops will not be checked out to students this year.
There will be training for active votes
Schools may have to do some creative moving since you just put them in science rooms
Don’t move a thing; contact Kevin first—may be easiest thing is to move a teacher.

Sidenotes:

Best time for web-x sessions?? http://www.polleverywhere.com/web20classroom
If you see tsunami, put in a KACE ticket
Update next Wednesday on classroom solutions
It will be a custom design plan
?: MMC: replication process slow?
Netvistas with new “ees” agreement, trend will be going away
Microsoft forefrontanti-virus
You-tube for educators: You-tube policy of one time in 24 hours?
Periodically WSFCS also get panned by Youtube as spam because of 1 IP address
Try "watch knowlearn" and search for the video you have trouble with on youtube
Angela Wallace will send out a list of faculty and staff soon asking if it’s okay to delete old teachers
If you still have a teacher without a webpage, now you can put in a KACE ticket

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Tech Facilitator Meeting Sept 2012

Betty Weycker:

Address of today's meet chat: http://todaysmeet.com/wsfcstfsept12

Introductions: Hula Hoop demonstration

Life isn’t always what it seem to be--same can be seen when struggling with technology
Pilots Programs are teaching us this!
recap: not everyone was doing the same thing (with the hula hoops) even though we thought they were. This is the same idea when we realize what everyone is doing in different schools considering the varied roles that tech facilitators are playing these days.

Role of Tech Facilitators:

Betty shared our diverse roles in meeting with Principals
Keep focused, listen to the directions, know who your counterparts are, etc.
PIAT: “Put in a ticket”--This process works
Tech Facilitator role is not defined in the sense of an allotted position--which makes it a gray area for people in Betty’s position
Come to meetings at least 80% ("Betty Weycker policy")
There is a $2000.00 stipend
Technical and instructional support (can’t do that if teaching all day in one spot)
Fastest increasing category of "time specifically allotted for tech facilitators" is zero! Wow!
Best they can do is offer district level support and get out the message
Make sure you are getting TBD updates--subscribe via email
DPI tech support now falls under finance –another wow--shows the lack of "support for technology :(

ISTE nets: for teachers

Digital age work, learning, professional growth, digital citizenship—all intertwined
http://www.iste.org/standards
This is the framework for everything we do

Kevin Sherrill/Technical updates:

Work Order systemBest practices for using KACE system

(Dell product):

Top Line of ticket information has max of 255 characters—Kevin as asked for more of a box
Recommends brief description of issue and treat it as a subject line, and then elaborate in the comments box below
Be aware of your School Que for your work orders: You need to keep an eye on that, and assign to service desk as appropriate
Priority levels: Medium by default—please don’t change the priority level
BIG CHANGE/TICKET PROCESS

Most efficient to log ticket before you call.
(There are only 5 people on service desk) “F” is new service desk person
Password/account unlocks—don’t need a ticket for those
This will give a clearer and more accurate log of ticket
This is about a process that makes it better for everyone

Reminder: You do not need to put in tickets for account creations/deletion, etc—Those come from HR.
Kevin will look into stopping all those extra emails (user satisfaction ones for example)
Question: How long does it take HR action to get through technology—it is based on action date.
How are Student teachers handled? They will give them access as if a teacher—DOES need a ticket
We have to keep principals updated on account status of new employees
Long term subs will get accounts, Daily subs, just use the guest account.
Calls from teachers to HELP DESK: Process should be a KACE ticket first for them too--see your tech facilitator first –They are going to look at putting that in any mass communication from the service desk notices.
Remind the teachers of this process

Wireless Environment:

Continuing to roll out
Code for guest access: currently issued by service desk
Working on internal vs external access:
Wsfcs_managed—only used for devices joined to the domain--that have WPA policy/certificate installed on them.

If not working, let them know or
If it’s been off the domain for three months, then you have to bring in laptop and connect to Ethernet wire and do a gpupdate

Wsfcs_guest: For access to folks who are not part of our organization (vendors, guest speakers)

Call to help desk and you get that temporary user name and pw
When guest connects, they will browse for guest network, it will then launch a browsers, and the guest will put in guest user information
This provides "outbound traffic only"--internet no internal server access

Going Forward: wsfcs_MLC will be out new guest network (As of Sept 17^th)

(Mobile learning community)

They will give you a user name and password for MLC community—it will be 566_MLC with a password (the password will not expire)
They will only be on the guest network not the internal network, may change the pw periodically
They will be able to go to other schools and use
Tablets: They authenticate with managed now, but will be guest as well.
All "off the domain" devices will connect to this guest network (webportal access? maybe an issue to iron out
But as of right now personal devices are still prohibited,
The details of changing to MLC network will be summarized in next week’s TBT

Carla Miller Printer Management:

In the next two weeks they will be doing an Inventory on your printers

They will be checking:

the physical location
verify the printer name
the IP address

When a printer moves, you have to let them know because the printer name needs to be changed.

Issues when printers are moved and not renamed
Causes confusion when supplies are delivered and teachers choose printers
Lots of emails about toner cartridges not being delivered properly
Carla looks at the toner level report
Has to reach the 20% threshold or strategic will charge the school the difference
When submitting a ticket, print test page showing amount of toner left, send IP address, and name of printer to Carla.
Question? What if extra Cartridges are found? Strategic will issue a credit in some cases, or use with a stand alone printers. Technology does not support those.
Any new printer should be put in the system.

Kevin Sherrill--Web Browsers: IE verses Chrome

Google Chrome browser is now available on the AICP:
Only install for teachers who need it, certain things don’t work well including NCWISE, webportals, Plato.
If teachers uses a lot of google docs, you might install it for them.
IE 8 is available on AICP too.

Buddy Martin:

Chis, Sherry, Justin and Luu are part of this team.
Email notification on TBT about security enhancements that required password changes.
The Policy in active directory was to change password every three years
When we upgrade domain, they will be able to differentiate between students and teacher password requirements
Security enhancements will go in effect this fall.
Email and active directory passwords will sync, but password should be changed with active directory (cntr-alt-del on desktops)
Issues discussed about giving personal email and cell phones for MS Live email—they will research if this issue is

Computrace: https://cc.absolute.com/Default.aspx

Asset tracking system--not the best for those purposes, but good for tracking the location of machines.
Email address is user name on computrace
Generic password 123...123456 and prompted to change it

“File Screens”: on home directories—

Purpose is to filter out certain file types: including mp3’s , executable files, etc.
You can use the K drive instead--it's not backed up but doesn’t count against your allotted space.
You have to backup old K drive or loose previous year's files (they keep one year archive)
Speaking of space/quotas: Teachers have 300 MB
Tech Facilitators/Admins currently have unlimited space

Technical Update continued…miscellaneous items

Have users change password in active directory—cntr-alt-del
Local contacts in people's email are what syncs to contacts on Samsung Galaxy phones. So, change on local contacts in email to fix mistakes.
If a Principal needs to find a mobile number it is published in active directory—look up in email address book and you will see the mobile number there

Chris Corbin

Java issue/ "Unknown publisher" problem with NCWISE: not much news on it.
Seems to be only Affecting windows XP machines (not windows 7)
Problem appears/behaves to be profile based
No root cause known yet
Fix for labs? Can use generic log-in for training
Encourage teachers to mainly use one machines to access NCWISE for now
Erin Mulhern sent me these directions to share with teachers, and I edited and here they are:
Here is the Notice/directions: There have been issues with accessing NC Wise (district wide) - to prevent chaos Monday morning, PLEASE follow these steps:

In some cases have to remove version 7 of Java in control panel and then go to Java site.
Is there a way to stop the JAVA update? there is a registry update that can stop that.
Use teacher issued laptop until they work out this issue

Printer Issues?:

Justin part of the systems team, and has worked on work station images
Anything with windows 7 license now has that on the image
the "unintended error" problem with windows 7 images is now fixed.
Betty will put out a complete organizational chart on the roles of the system team

Digital Learning continued:

Standards based report card with this new system coming in the future (next year)
Report works
Parent Access will be available
Will roll out next August!

Debbie Harmon:

Parent Assist: url as of last week was going to a test link environment. It should be running on the 11^th day.
NCWISE team working on TAM training in schools—calendar is filling up
Very Important that prep setup stays the same throughout the year once it is setup
On teacher webportal there is a link to TAM user guides and web x too—They can do it at home.
Also under departments/ncwise: http://www.wsfcs.k12.nc.us/Page/45268

Connect 5: Blackboard connect

Two training 17^th 1:00 in NCWISE lab and 18^th at 8:00 am
Ava has a web-x to be posted soon and will be updated soon.

Digital Citizenship:

Setting the tone: A connected school approach to creating a bully-free classrooms.
Book we were to read this summer: http://www.amazon.com/Setting-Tone-Bully-free-Classrooms-ebook/dp/B006WWGWK2
Stand up against bullying walk—emphasis on cyber bullying for the month of October Sept 27, October 13th

Steven Anderson:

Roles and Responsibility of Instructional Technologists

Angie Wallace, our admin assistant
Brian takes care of central office and Moodle
Colleen: handles e-rate
Marty: one to one pilot, and CPS issues
Dorene: Smart issues, edmodo
Evan: Promethian, media caste, school wires
Melissa: Learning Village, Learn 360, netrekker
Celia Newest—special project with admins,

NCTIES:

Plug—call for proposals opened on Tuesday

www.Ncties.org

Grants:

Teachers must go to departments and research and evaluation and grants and read before they apply for a grant—can’t put in a grant before reading those two documents: http://www.wsfcs.k12.nc.us/Page/817

Mobile Pilot Program: http://wscommunityoflearners.blogspot.com/

Invited teachers at the end of June to apply for a one to one device either tablet or laptop
6 teachers were chosen after rigorous screening
(2 at each level, Rural Hall, Clemmons Elem, Jefferson and Kernersville Middle Schools, Mt Tabor and North Forsyth)
Teachers say "It's the hardest thing they have ever had to do"

School wires Update:

There have been some errors in their database
Best piece of advice is to navigate to the site that you want to edit and then sign in to school wires.

Otherwise you get errors.
There was slowness recently and was reported.

Major update coming, we have told we don’t want until this issue is resolved.

Accounts:

Angie Wallace handles the account change ticket
it causes problems when webmasters create them with wrong credentials.
Please don’t create School Wires user accounts.
Just hide them for now—there is a back log, and they know about it.

TPACK documents: http://www.wsfcs.k12.nc.us/tpack

Activity types--what technologies go with what activities

Software clearing house:

Remind staff about the process—place to look for approved and unapproved software

Don’t waste money on software that is not approved by instructional services/technology

Password matrix has been updated:

Webportal--Information for tech facilitators under security: https://webportal.wsfcs.k12.nc.us/sites/Techfaq/Information%20for%20Technology%20Facilitators/Security/Password%20Matrix.pdf

Learn 360: issues:

There service has been kicking out all of our users, and they run a script and it gets fixed.
Password changed this year to wsfcs
Lists and old things went away too

Betty:

BYOD—Bring your own device. IS NOW

MLC: Mobile Learning Communities

Pilots—we will learn so much from these pilot classrooms!

Her money is on veteran teachers who can handle classroom management

Tuesday night to the Board:

The proposal is for Science classrooms in 3^rd, 5^th grade, HS to get”

classroom solution,

Teacher would get 28 laptops and cart

Some leasing involved

Modified classroom solution:

Desktop

Teacher cart

Monitor

Sound enhancement

Document slate

Will start in high schools because of testing in the fall

Video from Betty:

The times are a changing/education on Youtube: http://youtu.be/wuyrP_HhWEg