12:54 pm Academics Manager, Google, Tablets, Tech Updates
Hello everyone,
You know those technology problems that drive you absolutely crazy? You know, the ones that you absolutely need to solve but working on them feels like giving yourself a root canal? Well, I live for working on those types of questions. So, if you have a technology integration question, send it my way. The harder the questions the better.
As always, you can learn about what technology initiatives have been worked on at www.STJLabs.com. The members of the Academic Technology Team are: Karen Pontti, John Sayarath, Kendra Paupst, Kim Darling, Denise Scavitto, and Sandra Mings-Lamar. Make sure to ask us all questions whenever you have them.
Random question: Does anyone have a Verizon iPhone 4?
Here is everything I covered yesterday during the faculty meeting. (With a few more items added in.)
Note: Your Portal and your STJLabs accounts are totally separate. If you change your password on one, it does not change your password on the other. The login info for each:
Portal
Login Location: http://www.stjacademy.org/userlogin.cfm
Username: firstinitiallastname (example: jseamon)
Password: Whatever you set it as. Email me if you need it reset.
STJLabs
Login Location: www.Google.com (Click on sign in in the upper right.)
Username: firstname.lastname@stjlabs.com
Password: Whatever you set it as. Email me if you need it reset.
Note: Yes, I am very much sympathetic to the fact that you all have MANY online accounts for school: Stjacademy.org email, Portal, STJLabs, Edline, Admin+, etc. I totally agree that it would be amazingly awesome to have one sign in for all of the system, or even just a few. Unfortunately, that’s far from possible at this point. So, how to you manage all of your accounts? I highly recommend writing down all of your password. Yes, you heard that right — record them on a physical piece of paper. Try to use a different password with each account. What happens when people don’t write down their passwords is that they tent to use the same one on many accounts. If that’s the case and one of your account passwords is compromised, then all of the other accounts are compromised. Just keep that piece of paper safe.
Moving on…
In the next few days your class pages from last year will be archived. I’m am aiming to have your new class pages online by next Tuesday. Once your pages are archived you will still have access to them, that just won’t show up for anyone but you. To access your archived pages, login to the portal and then click on “Account: Your Name” on the far left of the bottom black toolbar. Then click on “Group Pages”. A new window will open up. Selected the “Archived Classes” radial then click on the little plus sign next to “Academics Classes”. You should then see a list of all of the pages you have been an administrator for. Click on one of those page names to load that page.
I have attached a manual outlining how to use the class web page system on the portal right here.
Your STJLabs Google account now functions just like a full Google account minus a few random functions that I doubt many of you have heard of. Your STJLabs Google account is functionally identical to the ones that students receive. To view a full list of the services you now have access to (YouTube, Blogger, Picasa Web Albums, etc.) please visit: http://bit.ly/qIkCZ7
My goal is to have all new students receive a handout outlining the connection info for their STJLabs Google and Portal accounts next Tuesday, 8/23.
A returning student who can’t remember their password for either system should be sent to me in SV21. Please remind the students needing password resets to come by after school and not during class time.
I will be running portal refresher training today (8/18) from 3:20 to 3:50 on the first floor of the library.
If you’d like one on one tech training, or group training for the portal or any other tech item, let me know.
The library now has 10 Kindles. Linda and her amazing team will be launching their use in the next couple weeks.
I will be sending out 2 convertible tablet PCs and 5 Kindles into the faculty in the next two weeks. If you’d like to learn more about these items, please come to an info session on Thursday, 8/25 in my classroom, SV21 at 4pm. The meeting will last around 30 minutes. (A convertible tablet is a laptop that can function as a regular laptop with a keyboard, as well as a tablet you can write on.) At this meeting I will also be discussion ways in which to function with tight bandwidth restrictions.
I will be setting up Netflix and Spotify accounts that can be used by the faculty. (Spotify is like Netflix streaming but for music.)
I currently have a bunch of USB drives and lots of Open Education Software Discs available. If you’d like some of them, let me know how many and I’ll drop them off in your mailbox.
Some bonus info: I just heard from Jim Mazzonna that the new copy machines will have two fantastically great capabilities
- They will be able to scan to PDF which will be emailed to your stjacademy.org email address (Just like the business office copier.)
- You will be able to print from a computer TO the copier. The copier will print out the job when you go to the copier and enter in your access code.
If you’ve made it this far, congrats and thanks :)
Let me know if you have any questions,
- Josh
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