Issue 1, Volume 9 August 21, 2008     Thought for the Week You don't get harmony when everyone sings the same note. -- Doug Floyd   Welcome Back! Welcome back to the 2008 - 2009 school year and the ninth year of the CPSB electronic resource - Tech Connect. This online newsletter is a collaborative effort of all the staff in the Technology Department. Each week they submit articles, and the articles are compiled and sent as the new Tech Connect newsletter. I am so proud of our Tech Department staff, and this newsletter is a “Quality” example of their commitment to providing employees with current and relevant technology information. The CPSB Technology Department had a very busy but productive summer. We conducted training sessions for hundreds and hundreds of school system employees in preparation for the beginning the new school year. We provided over 100 face-to-face and online classes to help school district employees improve their use of technology. Blackboard training continues to be in huge demand as teachers, principals, and department heads explore the power of our online eLearning portal.  The good news is this year we will be providing training, new computers and printers to all science teachers in middle and high schools, and third grade elementary teachers. We look forward to not only providing these classrooms with the newest, up-to-date technology but also providing support for the comprehensive curriculum. Additionally, we have provided email accounts, student log-ons and network storage space for all high school students. At the beginning of the school year, please remember we are a very small staff supporting almost 40,000 users - students and employees - in the district; and, we are running as fast as we can….everyone seems to need tech help at the beginning of the school year. Sending any and all tech help requests to tech.help@cpsb.org will result in your issue “getting in the line” and will assure you faster service. We routinely expedite emergencies from the online help desk system, but if you are not in the system, it is very difficult to get the proper support for your technology need. For the seventh year we held the annual summer Tech Camp for students at our Tech Training Center. This year the theme was Exploring the World in Web 2.0! Over 150 students in grades 3 - 8 enjoyed a week of fun and intense learning with technology conducted by our technology department staff. The CPSB and Region V Technology Staff geared up and provided these students a great technology-infused adventure with an award winning multimedia atmosphere using cutting edge technologies. This year Tech Camp offered cutting-edge technologies as camp participants received a digital video camera to utilize in the camp experience, challenging the imagination and creativity of the campers with secure Web 2.0 technologies such as weblogs (blogs), collaborative bookmarking, wikis, podcasts, and RSS feeds. These tools empowered the students to produce personal masterpieces—complete with the look and sound of authentic productions. They shared their finished products on DVDs and the web. Campers were captivated as they participated in a compelling and digitizing adventure in photo and video capturing, editing, producing, and more at Tech Camp 2008! Check out the student projects at www.cpsb.org/techcamp. As you log on each Thursday morning you can expect to find waiting in your email inbox the latest in "technology happenings" in our district and current "tips and tricks" to improve your technology skills. We hope you will join us in celebrating the numerous successes we have in technology by emailing tech.connect@cpsb.org any information you would like to share with our colleagues in the district. Please share any suggestions you have, and let us know what will help you in your specific job assignment. We will attempt to include your suggestions in our future issues. We look forward to working with you again this school year. Let us know what we can do to help you and have a great school year! Sheryl Abshire, Ph.D. sheryl.abshire@cpsb.org Chief Technology Officer CPSB Technology Department 337.217.4100 X 1001 “Advancing Quality Education with Technology” Start Of School Tech Support Tips The Technology Support Center staff would like to welcome everyone to the new school year and take this opportunity to give you some updated information about technology issues you may encounter this year: Whenever contacting the CPSB Help Desk about problems with your computer, always make sure to include the computer’s host name (serial number) and / or IP address in the message. This information speeds up the help process as we do not have to do follow-up emails asking for the information. Remember that the host name and IP address is visible as white text information on your Windows desktop background. When sending emails from and to CPSB email accounts, make sure that you include a subject line. Any emails with blank subjects are automatically rejected by the district email server and a “bounce back” message will return to you saying that the message wasn’t sent due to security policies. Wireless configurations on laptops are now handled automatically by the network so you no longer have to send a wireless MAC address to get your wireless activated. You must, however, have your computer registered by sending your name and computer serial number (not CPSB tag number) to tech.help@cpsb.org to get administrator rights on the computer so the automatic settings can take effect. Remember, there is very good technology information available, as well as technology guides, at the Tech Support Center website at http://help.cpsb.org that can help you. If you need to have a computer repaired, need price information and recommendations for a grant, or need to locate a tech guide, this site is the best place to start. It is an intranet site which means that you can’t access it from home, so remember to use a district computer to access the site. The Technology Support Center stands ready to help you with your technology needs and that while we are very busy at the start of the new school year, we will attempt to get to your questions as quickly as possible. You can reach us by phone at 217-HELP (4357) or by email at tech.help@cpsb.org. Attention Teachers! Register Now For Upcoming Blackboard Classes! Register now at the following site: https://www.cpsb.org/techclasses/   BB305: Podcasting in the Classroom Prerequisite: BB103 or BB201 CLUs: 1.5 Date of Training: September 3 Time: 3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. Location: Lab C This hands–on workshop will guide participants through the steps to set up a podcast and produce their first episode within Blackboard. BB101: Introduction to Using Blackboard as a Classroom Website Prerequisite: None Technology Requirements: Internet Access at Home/Computer Proficient CLUs: 6 Date of Training: September 10 (orientation session - 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. ) September 10 - October 7 (online course) Location: Lab C The hands-on workshop (orientation session) combined with a 4-week online will guide the teacher through the creation of the Blackboard Classroom Website. Participants will learn how to customize the design of Blackboard, add documents, and utilize Blackboard tools. BB106: Orientation to the Content System Prerequisite: None CLUs: 1.5 Date of Training: September 16 Time: 3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. Location: Lab C This hands-on workshop will guide participants through the use the BB content system as a virtual hard drive with file storage for personal use and course content. BB201: Utilizing Blackboard to Support Curriculum – Getting Students Involved Prerequisite: BB101 or BB102 Technology Requirements: Internet Access at Home/Computer Proficient CLUs: 8 Date of Training: September 30 (orientation session - 3:30 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.) September 30 - October 20 (online course) Location: Lab C This hands-on workshop combined with a 3-week online class will guide participants through the enhancement of their current Blackboard Website to utilize with students during the upcoming school year. Participants will learn how to utilize the many tools of Blackboard to create a rich, engaging online environment for students extending instruction beyond the classroom. This class will allow students to have usernames and passwords to Blackboard for the upcoming 2008- 2009 school year. Check for more Blackboard classes and register at https://www.cpsb.org/techclasses/. For further information, feel free to contact Kim Leblanc (kim.leblanc@cpsb.org). Top 20 Back-To-School Resources Start the school year with great lesson ideas from NEA (National Education Association) for back-to-school. At this site you will also find ideas for welcoming students, setting up your classroom, meeting parents, and more. You'll find activities, icebreakers, a learning strength inventory, a back-to-school survival kit, and lots of other ideas. The URL: http://www.nea.org/lessons/backtoschool.html Back-To-School Planning During the first days of school, the secret to success is in the planning, not the pedagogy. How's your back-to-school planning going? Have you forgotten anything? Education World’s checklist can help! You will find online resources for a variety of back-to-school planning needs, including welcome letters, bulletin board ideas, and back-to-school activities. Check it out at http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr360.shtml. Prevent Excel From Turning Fractions Into Dates If you do not apply a fraction format to a cell before you enter a fraction into it, Excel will convert the fraction into a date. For example, if you enter 1/50 into a cell, Excel immediately converts it to Jan-50. If you then try to reformat the same cell to a fraction, Excel converts it to 18264, the internal number that represents Jan-50. In that case, if you want Excel to recognize your cell entries as fractions, you must apply the appropriate fraction format to the cell before you enter the data. For example, say you are importing a column of data from an Access database table that contains fractions such as 1/50, 2/70, and 30/65. You will need to format the column of cells containing the data to an appropriate fraction format before importing. Follow these steps:   1. Select the column that will contain the fractional data. 2. Right-click the selection and then select Format Cells. 3. In the Number tab, under Category, select Fraction. 4. Under Type, select Up To Two Digits (21/25), then click OK. 5. Now, when you import the data to that column, Excel will format each entry as a fraction. Keep in mind that if the data contained fractions such as 30/750, you would select Up To Three Digits (312/943) in Step 5. If you wanted the display your data as fractions over 100 (for example, 30/65 displayed as 46/100), you would select As Hundreds (30/100) in Step 5. Alternately, if you won’t be using the fractions in calculations, you can prevent Excel from changing your entries to dates by applying the Text format to the cell before you enter the data. In that case, in Step 4 select Text under the Category list, and then click OK. Web 2.0 Enhances Learning Web 2.0 tools have broadened the resources available in the classroom and reduced the reliance on Internet search. To enhance a history lesson, teachers can utilize the free Google Earth to send students virtually to any location in the world. Find out how to meet the needs of digitally-literate students by using Web 2.0 tools to make lessons come alive. Read the article from TechLearning at http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.php?articleID=196604982. Stuck Pixels Do you have a new LCD monitor (or even an old one) that seems to have a "stuck" pixel on it? Let's explain a little more. It could be any point on your monitor that seems to always be a little brighter or duller looking than the rest of the colors. This isn't uncommon, especially with brand new LCD monitors. Why does this happen? Well, it's usually caused by a transistor malfunction or by an uneven liquid distribution in the liquid crystal display. If you are having a problem with this, there is an easy way to try and fix it. First, turn off your computer and the monitor and get a damp cloth to use on your screen. Next, apply some pressure to the area where your stuck pixel is located. Make sure you don't put pressure anywhere else, because that could cause more pixels to stick. While you're still pressing the pixel area, turn your computer and the monitor back on. Remove the cloth and the pixel should be back to normal. The pressure helps to spread the liquid around the stuck pixel area. Doing this will also help with the backlight of your monitor, allowing more light and the different colors to come through. Biblomania More than 2000 texts—poetry, short stories, novels, and more are available online from Bibliomania. Authors range from Aesop to Emile Zola. The best part, at least for educators, are that the study guides and teaching aids for many, many classics. The URL: http://www.bibliomania.com/  Best on the Net!! -- Visit this site for hundreds of websites for teachers! We would love to hear from you about the best educational sites you have found on the web. Please submit, via email, the sites you feel merit inclusion. Send to tech.connect@cpsb.org. Please include the URL and a short sentence about the site.  Featured Sites: (These sites were submitted by teachers in Calcasieu Parish) Artists Helping Children http://www.artistshelpingchildren.org/ This is a good site for teachers looking for arts and crafts from A-Z using items you have on hand. They even have things to make on holidays and special occasions.   Timesavers For Teachers http://www.timesaversforteachers.com/index_page0002.htm Help yourself to these FREE, printable timesaving sheets for homework, parent contact, field trips, math, lesson planning, classroom management.   Spatial Concepts and Story Retell Lesson http://www.lessonplanspage.com/LASpatialConceptsInferencesAndStoryRetellK3MO.htm This lesson is perfect for teaching spatial concepts, following directions, asking/answering questions, making inferences, sequencing/retelling a story, and more! It was designed for speech-language impaired students, but may also be used for K-3. An official publication of the CPSB Technology Department If you have any questions or comments please e-mail the Webmaster. For Technical Support:  tech.help@cpsb.org Calcasieu Parish Homepage  Technology Department  Teacher Link  Best on the Net Tech Guides  Computer Purchasing Information  Tech Connect Archive