Technology Updates
November 2018
Your Local Tech Team
Todd, Karen, Nick, and Kent
Email: karen.londgren@marshall.k12.mn.us
Website: https://www.marshall.k12.mn.us/domain/17
Location: Marshall, MN, USA
Phone: 507-537-6920 - 1133
Twitter: @KarenLondgren
OneDrive - This & That
OneDrive for Business explained in 2 minutes 32 seconds
Office 365 Education Templates
Office 365 Quick Start Tutorials/Guides
One Drive sync process and associated icons explained here.
Autosave - on by default now for all OneDrive files. Learn more here.
Microsoft Forms
November PD
Flipgrid - you don't want to pass this one by!
Online Security Tips
It’s everyone’s job to ensure online safety at Marshall Public Schools!
The lines between our work and daily lives are becoming increasingly blurred, and it is more important than ever to be certain that smart cybersecurity practices carry over between the two. When you are on the job at Marshall Public Schools your organization’s online security is a shared responsibility.
Remember, It’s not just the job of IT staff to ensure online safety at work!
Did you know that since 2016, U.S. K-12 school districts have experienced more than two cyber incidents per week on average. Additionally, it is projected there were $5 billion dollars’ worth of ransomware damages in 2017, and that number is only expected to increase in 2018.
The city of Atlanta was hit in March of 2018 with a cybersecurity Ransomware attack that cost the citizens an estimated 2.6 Million dollars in contracts to correct.
95% of all successful malware attacks were caused by human error. Even the high profile attacks like Target and Equifax, it was not the security system that failed it was the human element.
Creating a culture of cybersecurity includes ALL employees knowing how to protect themselves and the organization and understanding the cyber risks.
My advice is When in Doubt, Throw it Out Whether at work or in their personal lives, employees should know not to open suspicious links in email, tweets, posts, online ads, messages or attachments – even if they know the source. Many of you have seen these tricks where an email from someone you thought you knew such as Brian.Jones.Marshall.k12.mn.us@gmail is not the same person as our principal. So again when in doubt, delete the message. You could always then call or start a new email message to the person.
Is Adobe Flash Going Away?
In case you aren’t quite sure what the deal with Adobe Flash is, here’s the Cliffs Notes version: Adobe Flash is a software platform that was designed to run video, animation, and games on any given webpage.
In Short… Adobe Flash Will Be Discontinued, Is Going Away, & Adobe Flash Will Be Dead. You can learn more here.
Microsoft Edge...Is It Time To Make The Switch?
Student Account Creation Explained
We often get asked how soon a student will have access to their various accounts. Let's take a tour of how this process looks.
1. Student enrolls in the district and office staff create their Infinite Campus profile
2. Office staff notifies technology department of new enrollment (or enrollments)
3. Technology staff create an Office 365 account (email, OneDrive, etc)
THEN
4. Overnight the various accounts that a students needs are created using the information entered into the Infinite Campus system as well as the student Office 365 account.
5. The day after a student is officially enrolled and steps 1-3 are completed, step four takes place.
Accounts created via this method include:
- Schoology
- Clever (Study Island, Vocabulary.com, SplashMath, McGraw-Hill/Connect Ed)
- HMH/HRW curriculum content
- Pearson Perspectives
If you are using an online resource that supports automatic account creation, please visit with use to help facilitate that process for you.
Employing this method creates a uniform login experience for students and staff (called Single Sign-on).
From the Technician's Desk
On the Importance of a Restart…
“Have you tried restarting your computer?” is often the first thing you’ll hear us ask. But why do we ask this in the first place? What is it about restarting a computer that we think is so important?
Well – as it turns out, it has a lot to do with solving problems of all kinds. The short answer is that computers and software are always performing a very complicated dance. Sometimes, during this dance, your programs and the computer’s hardware might get a few steps mixed up or forget the next move. A more technical explanation of this is that software uses memory, talks to your graphics hardware, network hardware, and a myriad of other peripherals (mouse, smartboard, speakers, etc. etc.) MILLIONS of times per second.
Sometimes, the code that runs all of this finds itself in a complicated state that’s not easy for the computer to get out of. It shouldn’t happen, but you all know that it does from time to time. The simplest way to fix these errors is to restore everything (hardware and software) to a known state – hence a Reboot. The Reboot flushes all memory and starts all the hardware again in a state that it recognizes.
One last note – we often hear from people that they did restart their computer and it still does not work. When we ask people to show us, they press the computer’s power button. This is not a restart. A short press on the power button only puts the computer to sleep and then wakes it up again. It does not clear any memory or restore any hardware to a known state. You should always (if possible) click the start button, click the Power Symbol , and select Restart or Shut down. If your computer is COMPLETELY unresponsive, you will need to HOLD DOWN the computer’s power button for a good 10 seconds before trying to start it again.