Tech Info for the Beginning of the Year

Well, it's that time again and here we are back in the classroom. In order to help you through some of the changes and new things, I will be doing a series of posts this week and next on helping staff get settled with tech for the new year.  Some of it will be new information and the rest will be reminders and quick tips from trainings we've done previously. If you haven't already, please subscribe to make sure you're receiving all the updates.

First things first:

"My computer has been re-imaged. What do I do next?"

Pick Up Your Device

Make sure you've received your device. If you haven't, HS/ML teachers will need to pick theirs up from Brenda's lab and EV teachers will need to pick theirs up in the 3rd Grade lab.

Either way, Josh will need to log you in the first time due to some settings changes that have taken place. This will get you logged onto the secure network for staff.

Websites and Homepages

We've spent a lot of time working on new websites over the last year. We have a new district site, activities site, site for each school, staff intranet site, Moodle site.... well, you get the picture.

You probably want to start with one or two of these sites every morning when you log in. To do this, you will need to set Chrome to open automatically and the new website homepage(s) as your homepage when you open Chrome. Below is a video to help you through this.

Access Your Backed-Up Files

Most staff last year chose to back up their files via Google Drive. If you haven't already, you'll need to access those files to get rolling for this year. You have three options this year for working with your Drive files:

1. Continue working through drive.google.com to access, edit and download files as necessary. 
2. Use the Google Drive application now on your computer as a "server folder" of sorts to store and access your files from programs such as Word. 
3. Do a mass download of your backed-up files bringing them all back onto your computer. 

If you choose number 1, you don't need to do anything special right now. However, options 2 and 3 need a little help. We will start with option 3 first. 

If you want try option 2 (which is my recommendation if you use Word or Excel a ton and don't like GoogleDocs), this will get you started. 

Miscellaneous

A few more items for today's post:

1. There are two networks now, please make sure that your teacher computer is using the secured (not open) network. The open network is being heavily filtered at this point and you may find things you need inadvertently blocked or slow. 

2. Printers can still be added as before by teachers. (This is important as your list of printers has likely disappeared). Please remember to get your requests in early to Carol.

3. Future posts will address things like Google and Moodle, but remember all of your spring tech trainings in Moodle (i.e. the tutorials) are still available.