2018 Summer Projects

The technology department has the following planned projects this summer:

• Clerical Computer Refresh: Clerical staff will be receiving new computers over the summer with a Windows update. Staff who do not work summer hours will need to backup before the end of the school year.
• Desktop Reimaging: All district desktops will be reimaged over the summer. Please make sure that you backup computers before leaving for the summer.
• Student Chromebooks: We will be going through all elementary chromebook carts over the summer to check for damage, update chrome, and wipe user profiles to start off the new school year. We will also be reviewing all MS/HS chromebooks to assess damage and make sure they are ready to go back to students in the fall.
• Fiber Construction: We will be finishing up our CINC fiber construction project and switching over to their network this summer. The majority of the construction has already been completed. Our construction crew will terminate the fiber at each site in the next few weeks and then we'll be able to setup the new lines.

Brightbytes: Use Digital Assessments Strategically

Based on our Brightbytes data all of our schools are in a good place to consider how to use digital assessments strategically. Many district teachers are already using digital assessments regularly with students.

Formative assessment is a great tool to support the learning process and provide students with timely, personalized feedback. Technology tools, such as discussion boards (Padlet) and polls (Kahoot/Forms),  give us a greater range of options and efficiency in assessing students throughout the learning process.

It is important to select tools strategically—whether they’re technology-based or not. The following questions can be a simple metric for assessing the appropriateness of a strategy:

• What am I looking to assess?
• How can this tool save me time and provide reliable data?
• What can I learn about student knowledge and needs by using this tool that I can't learn using other techniques?

Please share your favorite digital assessment tools and how you use them to support your instructional practice and provide feedback to students.

Brightbytes Data Insights: 21st Century Teachers and Students

Thank you all for taking the time to participate in the Brightbytes Technology and Learning survey. Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing data points from our collection, as well as, supporting research and resources, related district plans, and more.

First, I'd like to highlight 21st century teacher and student data points. It's great to see that teachers' foundational and online skills are strong. Notice that students do not feel as confident in some of these skills. While kids spend a lot of time interacting with technology, it is often focused on social media and multimedia. We need to help them learn the productivity tools (Docs, Sheets, Slides, email, etc). On the flip side, our students can definitely support our growth in multimedia skills including photo, video, and sound editing. Professional development for Multimedia Skills was the highest ranked need by teachers and will be considered in planning session schedules next school year.

Our district technology committee has spent the past year researching digital citizenship resources and curriculum and is in the process of developing curriculum and professional development.  This ties into Classroom Management with Technology being identified as an area to provide additional professional development.

Spring 2018 Technology Data Collection

We are partnering with BrightBytes, an educational research organization, in order to learn more about your and your students’ technology access and use for learning.

We are reaching out to ask you to take part in our teacher and administrator questionnaire. Your participation is essential to help us form a more complete picture of technology use for learning in our students’ lives. Please know that all of your responses will remain anonymous to protect your privacy. Your answers will help our school choose the right technology for our classrooms and the right professional development for our staff. It will take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete.

The last day to complete this questionnaire is Friday, April 20.

Check your email for the link to complete the survey.

For more information on our spring technology data collection, check out our slides.

Door prizes include screen cleaning kits, iPevo PageStays to hold books open, movie passes, and more.

New Google Releases Make Collaboration Easier

Google has two updates that are being rolled out this month to help improve collaboration. First, the "Shared with Me" tab in Google Drive is becoming more predictive and will feature documents shared by your most frequent collaborators. Learn more about this feature from Google.

Second, Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides will now feature an activity dashboard for more transparency into who has viewed files and when. This will help editors know when to alert collaborators when changes have been made. To learn more about this feature check out Google's post.

Both of these features will become available in the coming weeks.

Voice Comments in Google Drive

Kaizena is a Google Docs add-on that allows teachers to create text comments, voice comments, link to resources and lessons, and provide rubric style feedback on skills. Simply highlight a portion of the document and select how you'd like to give feedback.

Here is a video that outlines everything you need to know to get started including how teachers and students enable the add-on in Google Docs.

Introduction to Team Drive

Team Drives are shared folders where team members can store their files and guarantee that every member has the most up-to-date information, no matter the time or place. Team members may be added individually or by district Google Groups. 

 What's the difference between a standard shared folder and a team drive?

Team Drives retain all files added to the collection even if members leave the team or organization. 

To get started with Team Drives:

1. Go to drive.google.com.
2. On the left, click Team Drives.
3. At the top left, click New.
4. Enter a name for the Team Drive.
5. Click Create.
6. At the top, click Add members Group contacts.
7. Add names, email addresses, or a Google Group.
8. Click Send.

A few notes about adding members:

1. By default, members can upload, edit, and delete files, and invite other members.
2. It is recommended that one member retain full rights and other members are given Edit Access to avoid any accidental deletion of files.
3. If the team member with Full Access leaves the team or organization the technology department can assign Full Access rights to a new team member.

There are 4 tiers of access for members:

Full Access – upload/delete/edit files

Edit Access - edit/upload files

Comment Access - view/comment on files

View Access - View files