tech news & notes
== march 2017 - shakopee technology services ==
whd AT final
Assistive Tech in Help Desk
We have added a category in the help desk for Assistive Technology. This applies to issues that specifically involve assistive technology hardware, software and set-up for special education students. Stephanie Betley and Bob Cole will get the majority of tickets submitted as an Assistive Tech help request. View the video above to see the various options when submitting this type of ticket.
SmartBoard tool in Self Service
There is now a fix for the “blinking green light even though my SMART Board is connected via Bluetooth” error. To get to it, just open and log into Self Service, search for “SMART”, and you should see it come up as “SMART Board Service Fix”. It will only work if you’re already connected to your SMART Board via Bluetooth, so make sure you’re connected first (three dots over the Bluetooth “B” icon in your menu bar is a good way to tell).
Securly for Parents
The Parent Portal for Securly recently went live (it was in beta for most of this school year). This means that parents of students in grades 6-12 for whom we have an e-mail address have started receiving a weekly report from Securly showing student Internet browsing history. The e-mail report is fairly basic, but parents can also set up a Securly account to log into the site directly and view a more detailed version of the report. Future upgrades to the parent portal may include the ability to set different restrictions for home (the restrictions we set up for the school day would remain unchanged). The chart above shows the various filter groups and the categories or functionality that are blocked for each group.
Securly info for parents and the community has also been updated on the district technology page.
Apple TV Reminders
There are a number of resources for set up and daily use of Apple TV devices:
- Stream video from Safari using AirPlay mode. Whenever possible, do this.
- Connecting to an Apple TV.
- Apple TV Troubleshooting.
- How to remove the "rental video" banner from the start-up screen.
2017-2018 Tech Deployments
The new devices for next year will be in 3rd-5th grade. This is a summary of deployments that includes device refreshes (or new devices as part of grade level transitions).
- K-2nd: Existing 2:1 iPad deployment in Carts.
- 3rd-5th: [NEW] 1:1 iPads in gen-ed classroom carts.
- 6th grade: Continue with iPads; fresh batch.
- 7th-8th grade: Retain iPad from previous school year.
- 9th grade: Continue with MacBooks; fresh batch.
- 10th-12th grade: Retain MacBook from previous school year.
PaperCut WebPrint option
Our print management software (Papercut) will soon allow you to log in and submit jobs from an iPad or Chromebook, which will generally be sent to an office or centralized printer in the building. Here is a how-to on using WebPrint. [Note that the Papercut link and functionality only works when you are on-site.]
Recent Projects and Items of Note
Completed
- Network Operations Center configured (screenshot shown above; this informational site is only accessible internally, ie., not when your device is off-site). It shows application status (green light is good, red is down, anything else indicates some kind of issue), network traffic, and other network functionality.
- GuideK12 geolocation software set-up.
- Securly parent portal upgrades
- Web Help Desk ticket type added: Tech > Student Devices > MacBook Parental Controls. This ticket should be used by junior high and high school building admins to request app blocking and time restrictions to be set up by tech on student devices, for those extreme cases where that level of intervention is necessary.
- Canvas parent (observer) accounts created for all 6th-12th grade students for whom we had a parent e-mail address.
- DLCs/Tech and Equity hosted a parent tech information night at EJH on February 28.
On-going or Starting Soon
- On-line payments module added to Infinite Campus
- Roll-in planning
- K-5 tech focus group (March 14)
- Testing a new system for updating hallway TV displays at the high school
- Setting up identity management software that will streamline user account creation, logins, and eventually allow us to roll out a single sign-on option.
Shakopee Technology Services
Email: helpdesk@shakopee.k12.mn.us
Website: https://whd.shakopee.k12.mn.us
Location: 1200 Shakopee Town Square, Shakopee, MN, United States
Phone: 5100
Twitter: @ShakoTechDrozd
Old News
Randomness
8700 tickets created in WebHelpDesk since it went live last January; who will submit our 10,000th ticket?
Update: We're now up to 9200+.