GLPS May Technology & Media Newsletter

Important End-of-Year Information

As we approach the end of another school year, the Tech Team would like to remind you of our annual updates to district devices. In order to keep our devices fresh and up-to-date, we will be applying many important updates over the summer break.

1. ALL TEACHERS NEED TO COMPLETE THE END-OF-YEAR TECHNOLOGY CHECK-OUT FORM NO LATER THAN JUNE 14.
2. Save any favorites and bookmarks to your home directory (My Documents) Folder or use a social bookmarking tool such as Delicious or Diigo to save them online.
3. Make sure all items on your desktop are saved in your home directory.
4. If you have any unique programs installed on your computer, please note that you may have to re-install them when you return in the fall. 
5. All district-owned laptops and netbooks will need to be turned in by the end of June for essential updates.
6. If you have anything saved on the shared drive, please back it up to an alternate location as it will be cleared - the Shared Drives are only temporary holding places and content stored on them is not backed up on district servers.
7. Register for Rebel U if you have not done so already.  If you do not register before the end of the school year, you will need to register the day of and will have limited session options.

Please let us know if you have any questions regarding any of these items, we are happy to help!

And for your viewing enjoyment - a promo video for Rebel U (link to video can be found here).

GLPS April Technology & Media Newsletter

For our newsletter this month, we decided to create a short animated video.  As we can't share links in a video, short descriptions of the video segments (including links) are listed below the video.

Note: For our video newsletter this month, we used GoAnimate to create our video.  If you are unable to view the video below, please click here.

Dan Townsend, District Technology Coordinator

As educators, it is difficult sometimes to spend a large amount of time searching the web for tools that you can use in the classroom. Apple’s App Store does a great job at delivering educational apps in a simple to use interface. What if you don’t have an Apple Device though, Edshelf is a great alternative for you either way.

“Edshelf  is a directory of websites, mobile apps, and desktop software that are rated & reviewed by educators, for educators. They decrease the friction of using and procuring effective technology into the classroom.”

Some apps have prices associated with them but there are tons of free apps and sites organized for your classroom use. Check it out and see if it works for you. You can even filter by grade level, subject or platform. Go ahead...find tools... and share the ones you like with colleagues!

Sarah Wood, Technology & Media Integration Specialist
Like I mentioned in the last newsletter, I would like to share some of the features of the 21 Things for Students program.  One thing that can be helpful for you and students is social bookmarking, or in other words, saving your bookmarks online instead of to a specific computer.  Tools such as Delicious or Diigo can help you keep your bookmarks organized and allow your students to access teacher-selected websites easily.
Also, if you haven't signed up for Rebel U yet, please do so very soon.  Spots are filling up quickly.  Registration should be completed by the middle of May.

Kelly McGee, District Media Specialist & Technology Integration Support
Check out my online picture book at tinyurl.com/mediaguru1 using www.storybird.com.  I've created recommendations for action/suspense books for middle and high school students.  These are books, that I'm positive if you pick up and read the first couple of chapters, you'll have to finish!

Jason Faasse, Audio/Visual Technician

A good pair of headphones or a quality headset is hard to come by, that is why this weeks edition of the AV item of the month is featuring both!
With the increasing amount of laptops, netbooks, and other devices in our district we are able to create more learning opportunities by allowing students to listen to things on the web.   Headphones and headsets would eliminate the possibility of disrupting others while students are learning online. *If you are interested in getting new headphones, please contact your building administrator*

Recommended Headphones:

• Avid AE-981 USB Headset
• Avid AE-06 3.5mm Headphones
• Avid AE-808 USB Headphones

Jesse Burrows, Network Administrator

E-mail/Twitter/Facebook tip:
If you’ve ever been the victim of Malware, Here are 8 Best Practices to avoid Malware.

Gmail tip:
Don’t like the new Gmail look? How to get old style Gmail buttons back, instead of the picture based ones. click Here

Like our avatars?  You can make your own using Face Your Manga.

GLPS March Technology & Media Newsletter

Our Technology & Media Team receives many questions about the status of projects, how to use specific resources and tools, and for things such as recommendations for technology purchases.  In efforts of trying to keep everyone in the district on the same page with what we are doing, our team decided to create a short monthly newsletter that contains updates, tips and resources for staff in our district.

It is our hope to provide our monthly newsletter in different formats to show you different tools and hopefully give you ideas for things you can do in your classroom or with your students.  Our first newsletter was made using an online comic generator, was saved as a .pdf, and then uploaded to Issuu to create an interactive "magazine-style" newsletter.

If you are unable to see the newsletter below, please click here.

Please feel free to leave a comment for us and share what you think!