Tech Tips
Tech Tips
Tech Tips
Home Departments Schools Parents & Students Employees Community Teacher Sites School Committee
August 2013
Steven Thibert
upgrades will happen in the next two months and will complete grades K-2. These upgrades have allowed our teachers and
students to better utilize the web as well as allow them to use other online software. All regular elementary classrooms will have 4
computer stations and our self contained classrooms will have 2 computer stations.
Teacher Laptops…
Our first widespread implementation of teacher laptops took place last year with teachers at Shea and Tolman receiving laptops to
use for instruction, made possible through a Transformation grant.
The IT department worked very hard this summer to configure over 200 laptops for teachers to use in their classrooms. These
Ziggy-HD
laptops will not only allow teachers to better prepare for their lessons, but also allow teachers better access to student data during
their planning time. The professional quality USB camera
During the August 26 & 27 Professional Development days, our K-6 elementary homeroom teachers will be receiving laptops. it's first document camera, it was the
ELMO TT-02. It did not take long for
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ELMO TT-02. It did not take long for
Our goal is to continue to supply laptops to teachers in the encore subject areas as well as teachers in our middle schools. ELMO to become very popular with
teachers. Unfortunately when ELMO
Projection Devices for Classrooms…
breaks, there is no efficient repair
Last year we were able to add digital projectors to all of our instructional classrooms at Shea and Tolman. This year we will equip
method and it is very costly to repair.
all K-6 homeroom classrooms with a digital projector for instruction. Along with a digital projector we also want to equip each of
Purchasing a new ELMO costs over
these classrooms with a document camera. Some classrooms will have the well-known “ELMO” while others will receive my new
$500.
favorite - the “ZIGGY HD” document camera.
We have found that the ZIGGY-HD
camera is a much more cost efficient
Teacher Accounts (Novell goes away)…
camera and costs under $100. We have
been able to package this camera with
We are moving away Novell and converting our user accounts to Microsoft Active Directory. Part of our conversion this summer
a laptop for less than the cost of an
involved creating new accounts for our teachers. We are doing this conversion in stages. Last spring we recreated all of our
ELMO TT-12 camera. This gives our
elementary classroom accounts. This summer we started on our elementary teacher accounts. Unfortunately, we could not do this
teachers a better option, it’s a 2 for 1
without assigning a new password to all of our elementary teachers. This requires a login to our system using a temporary
deal - a camera and laptop. This is a
password and choosing a new password. We have copied all of your files over to our new servers. As soon as teachers are assigned
high quality HD camera with awesome
their laptops on August 26/27, they will be given directions to set their passwords.
resolution. Lookout for ZIGGY he will
be in over 100 classrooms this
Those teachers not receiving laptops (support professionals, encore teachers, etc.) will receive their login information at school.
September.
We will continue with the accounts in our secondary schools late October.
In an effort to make it easier for teachers to access the information they need, we have web-enabled our Shared Teacher folder.
You can now access this folder on the web by going to www.psdri.net, hover on the Employees link at the top of the page and
then click on Resources. In the Shared Teacher folder, you will find curriculum resources, tasks, evaluation information and Apps gone free -
much more. http://appadvice.com
Any teacher can sign up to create their own website. Teachers wishing to create a website can go to our website (www.psdri.net)
hover on Departments, then Technology and then Teacher Website Resources. You must use your psdri.net email address to
register. Once we receive your registration, we will contact you via email telling you your account is ready.
Flipped Lessons - http://ed.ted.com/
On this page you will also find video tutorials about the various modules that you can use on your website and a link to a live chat
Would you like to try a flipped lesson
helpdesk that is open Monday-Friday 8:00am-6:00pm EST.
with your students but don’t know
where to start? This is a great site
Website Spotlight - Look at what our teachers are doing...
which will allow you to use some
flipped lessons and tweak them for
your classroom. Engage your students
with videos and then check for
understanding by adding your own
"If you can dream it, questions. This is a great way to get
you can do it." your students writing as well as
- Walt Disney sharing their opinions.
network over the coming weeks and determine if we can add any additional devices. If we feel that we are able to add additional
devices then we will send out an email with scheduled times for configuring devices.
Last year we submitted our eRATE application for over $4 million in network upgrades. We do not expect to hear about our
application until late October but we are also working with RIDE to get funding through the
WCI (http://www.ride.ri.gov/FundingFinance/SchoolDistrictFinancialData/WirelessClassroomInitiative.aspx). We will keep you informed and
apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
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