Technology Updates
November/December 2019
As a reminder ~ our technology team (Todd, Nick, Kent, Karen) are available as a support resource on any E-learning day. Please feel free to email or call any of us with questions or issues you or your students run into. You can reach Karen via phone or text at: 507-401-4005, and please contact Todd, Nick, Kent at their office phones or via a tech ticket submission.
Also - please remind any of your students who do not have Internet access at home that we have the wireless hotspots (Kajeet) available for checkout at the middle school and high school. Should an e-learning day be anticipated, encourage these students to check with their media center should they need to check one out. If you have any questions about these, please feel free to ask Karen or Erica for more information.
In this issue:
1. Data Security & Privacy
2. PowerPoint Presenter Coach
3. Import videos or photos from phone/iPad to your computer
4. Subtitles and Translation in PowerPoint
5. Online Quizzes - Which should I user?
6. Clever - What is it and how can it help me?
7. Projector Best Practices
8. What's coming in 2020 at Microsoft Teams?
Data Privacy & Security: Are We Keeping Our Information Safe?
PowerPoint Presenter Coach
Import photos and videos from phone or iPad to PC
Subtitles & Translation in PowerPoint
Clever.com – What Is It, and How Can it Help Me?
Clever is a service that makes it easier for schools to use many popular education technology products and websites. It works by providing a simple interface for websites and software to access data from our Student Information System (Infinite Campus).
What does this mean for me and my students?
Data imported into Clever can deliver services with less hassle for both teachers and students. For instance, a website could automatically populate itself with student rosters instead of you having to manually enter that data. In other words, when you sign into a website or service that we have synced with Clever, all of your classes will already be populated and be accessible exactly as you would see them in Infinite Campus. You will have to do none of the initial setup that you have had to perform in the past.
Further, many of these services can be synced with Office365 to provide a seamless sign-in experience for you and your students. This means that instead of having to create and remember new usernames and passwords, your students will simply login with Clever and their computer credentials will be used to sign into the website without them ever having to type in another password.
Clever also allows us to have control over who has permissions to access student and staff data, and exactly what data they are receiving. Recently, teachers were asked to fill out a survey of all the software resources/curriculum that they use in their classrooms. This is part of an ongoing process to reign in the data that we are sharing with third parties so that we can more closely align our district with existing and future privacy laws. Clever is an excellent resource that we can use to very specifically target exactly the data we want to share, and who we want to share it with.
Do you work with struggling readers? Remember to ask me about Immersive Reader!
Projector Best Practices
Almost every MPS classroom has a projector that feeds images to the Smartboard. Some of these projectors are ceiling mounted, others are mounted on the wall right above the smartboard. No matter the type – they both have one very important limiting factor in common…Projectors Have a Finite Lifespan.
That’s right – when we install a projector, we can usually count on several years of use. Most projectors will go through a few bulbs in their lifetime, but after time they begin to lose some of their brightness. After a time, even a bulb replacement will not make the projector brighter. This can be caused by a few reasons; heat entropy and internal dust buildup being the most common.
Considering the cost of a replacement bulb ($120+) and the cost of a new projector ($400-500) ~ not to mention the inconvenience of not having your projector work when you need it ~ there is one simple way that you can help extend your projector’s lifespan. Turn off your projector when it will not be used for over 5 minutes. This alone will extend the life of your projector by several months – possibly years. On any given day, I can walk down a hallway in ANY MPS school and find at least 3 projectors running with nobody in the classroom. Those minutes count towards the projector’s life just as much as the minutes it’s being actively used.
So - what's the point? Turn Off Your Projector When It's Not in Use! If we all work together, we can all perform best practices like these to help save our district money in the long run!
Soar into 2020 with 12 new Microsoft Teams for Education updates!
MPS Technology Team
Karen Londgren
Nick Esping
Kent Powell
Email: karen.londgren@marshall.k12.mn.us
Website: https://www.marshall.k12.mn.us/domain/17
Phone: 507-537-6920