Work Orders for Technology Issues

We invest a great deal of money into technology for this school district.  We want to make sure that the hardware; meaning computers, printers, lcd projectors, document cameras, microphone systems, and more are in good working condition at all times so that technology can be integrated whenever and wherever possible throughout your instructional day.  The same can be said for making sure software is functioning correctly and updated as needed.  There are some measures you as a classroom teacher can facilitate yourself, such as running software updates when they “pop-up” on your screen to be run.  Other issues need to be reported so that a network technician or building tech coordinator can resolve the problem for you.  What we cannot afford to happen is for that resource to sit idle because it is not working correctly.

It is then everyone’s responsibility to turn in work orders when they have technology issues.  This includes issues found when using a mobile computer lab.  Even though many teachers share that resource it is up to the one who first finds the issue to turn in a work order.  Everyone who uses that mobile lab in fact owns that mobile lab.

Now let’s talk about how to go through turning in a work order and steps you should do when following up on a work order:

1.  To submit a work order log onto www.cmcss.net > Departments > Technology > find the Work Order button and click

2. You must now enter a user name and password.  The username is your building acronym and password is apple.  If you try this and it does not work speak to you others in your building or contact me and I will let you know what it is for your building.

3. On the next screen you have the option of entering a work order number.  Use this option if you are checking on the status of a work order you have submitted.  OR, Add a work order.  Choose this to add a new work order.

4. Fill the form out as completely as you possibly can.  The information being asked for is important for us to complete your work order in a timely manner.  For example when we ask for a serial number and you provide it you may be cutting days off the work order being completed because the correct part is brought out on the first trip to repair your hardware.  Go slow and complete all boxes where necessary.  It is also important you put your email address in the box requesting it.  You will get the first email that your work order has been submitted and is in the work order queue and another email when your work order has been completed.

5. This next step is optional but definitely speeds up the process.  Once your work order is submitted print out a copy and attach it to the piece of equipment that is having an issue.  I print out another for my records so I can use the number to check on the status when it takes more than a couple days and the issue is still not resolved.

6. If your work order is outstanding after two weeks time I would certainly log into the work order system as described above and enter that work order number to see what had been done to resolve the issue.  If you find that your work order has been closed without being resolved then you may certainly enter another work order and in the notes field make note that this work order has been previously submitted.  You may also alert your administrator that it has happened so they can help you resolve the issue.

We work hard to get all work orders turned around and resolved as quickly as possible.  There are times a part must be ordered or the number of work orders coming in is very high.  In that case you may be waiting more than two weeks for a work order to be completed.  By using the work order system effectively you will know when your issue is resolved or why it is taking longer than normal.

Classroom Management with Technology

We are very fortunate in this district to have a wealth of technology to use with our students. We are fortunate to have a team of network technicians whose job it is to troubleshoot, fix, or repair both hardware and software problems that arise as our students use technology in their learning. I can not stress enough how important effective classroom management strategies are when using technology so that the learning experience is a positive one and the hardware and/or software continues to operate smoothly.

Nellie Deutsch posted an article providing outstanding guidelines for effective classroom management strategies for technology. I am going to summarize what I feel to be key elements to a stress free learning environment when using technology but feel free to click on the above link and read her entire article.

Planning is key. Let me say that again…planning is key. Not only do you need to plan which student is assigned to which seat but which student is assigned to which computer. Yes, there will be times a student’s assigned computer is not working and they will be using a spare. But, to teach responsibility the student must understand that they are responsible for the technology they are using, and they will be responsible for any problems that arise while they are using that technology whether they visit an inappropriate website or damage occurs to the computer/technology. Planning also involves scheduling and rotation in an efficient way. Providing additional activities for those fast working students, as well as additional scaffolding for those students who need more assistance. When using mobile labs or working in student labs the teacher is constantly on the move facilitating and managing as they organize the class and delegate work to the students. Learning is promoted through the meaningful activities the students are engaged in completing. There is a plan clearly communicated to every student for the steps they need to follow while using technology to complete their work along with expectations of what should be completed at the end of every step / class period / lesson along the way.

Activities that allow for sharing, discussing, clarifying, explaining, making personal connections, thinking out loud, listening to others think out loud, and negotiating meaning while constructing learning lends itself to allowing students to work in pairs, individually, or in teams. The teacher then has the flexibility to work with individuals or small groups. Working in pairs or small groups also enables technology lessons to be successful when using a limited number of resources in a large class.

Collaborative or team learning means developing the skills for cooperative work. Now I know what you are going to say…”Not with the bunch I have this year”. If we are here for the students and mean to provide them with the greatest opportunity for success as they join the work force they MUST have not only collaboration skills but problem solving as well. It is up to each and every one of us to help them gain those skills. Back to planning… do not neglect to plan how you are going to form teams, budget class time, provide clear guidelines on policy and procedures to include the Acceptable Use Policy. We as teachers must anticipate possible problems and have a backup plan ready to go if needed. If may even be necessary to rehearse or model the technology lesson before going into class. Expect your students to begin work just as soon as they sit down and provide them with easy to follow instructions so they get the most out of their computer work.

One great advantage to working with computers and using the student servers in our schools is cutting down on printed copies, collaborating across the room or district without leaving your seat, and getting feedback almost instantaneously from the teacher. The more you think through and plan out the details of your technology lesson, the more structure you provide your students for the activity they must complete, the greater your likelihood for success, and the more reward you will receive as your lesson is successful and your students are attentive and learning.  Our students today feel they must power down when they walk into our buildings.  They learn best when they are engaged and for the students of today engagement usually means working with some form of technology.

Planning for Summer Technology Professional Development

International Society for Technology Education, or ISTE, has put forth new technology standards along six strands: 1. Creativity and Innovation, 2. Communication and Collaboration, 3. Research and Information Fluency, 4. Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving, and Decision Making, 5. Digital Citizenship, and 6. Technology Operations and Concepts.  Number six historically was the top objective but after working on technology standards for years use of applications is now the last strand.  The complete list of standards can be found on ISTE website.   All of our technology professional development offerings are correlated to those strands to provide our teachers the materials they need to make sure our students are technology literate.

We are very busy planning for an outstanding summer of technology course offerings for the teachers in CMCSS. I would venture to say it will be our best, most powerful summer yet. Technology Professional development is having to meet the needs of an ever more diverse group of teacher/learners and to do that we have designed our offerings around weekly themes when possible.

If you were hired prior to 2006 you should be Teacher ICT certified before the end of August 2008. We will continue to offer this course as an ongoing offering for newly hired teachers. However, we will revise and revamp it after this summer to meet the growth in the field of technology integration and best practices. If you still need to take this course it will be offered five times over Summer 2008 as face-to-face with up to fifty seats per training available. Or, you may elect to take it online. It will be offered twice with one cohort beginning in June and another in July. I will release those courses for sign-up as soon as you return from Spring Break. My trainers and I are already discussing improvements, enhancements, and changes to be made beginning next June for the face-to-face training.

Teacher ICT Advanced – The Next Level is an online course being offered for the first time to those who are ICT certified and want to know…what’s next. This course is only offered online at present and will be for 21 hours of inservice credit. The course is designed around best practices and industry leaders such as Alan November, David Warlick, Jamie McKenzie, and Tom March. Sessions are designed in pairs so that the cohort investigates the strategy one week and finds a way to implement the best practice into their teaching the next week. This course has been field tested with those who work as trainers in technology professional development during the summer and has met with huge success. The learning, collaboration, and growth has been phenomenal. This course will be offered once beginning in June for up to 30 people. It will be repeated again and again.

Other technology professional development available this summer will include Basic Users Academy combined with Basic New Teacher or Get Hired, Get Wired. We anticipate between 300-400 new teachers again coming on board with us this next year. Get Hired, Get Wired will be offered often to accommodate the influx of new teachers. It is always scheduled on Mondays. Basic User Academy will be offered twice in July for any wishing to pickup training on using basic applications such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Email, etc. New teachers wishing to learn, for example, more about our email will attend with Basic Users.

Last summer we launched our Workshop Series, where teachers who were already Teacher ICT certified came and worked for a day developing rigorous and relevant lessons using Problem Based Learning. This year we have a week long series being offered once in June and again in July. Each day of the week will focus on a different type of technology integration lesson such as PBL, Getting More out of Office, Generative, SlamDunk. Those wishing to participate must already be ICT certified. Instructors will be onhand to assist you in developing higher level technology integrated lessons for use with your curriculum. These sessions are not designed to teach the fundamental concepts that were covered in ICT.

Also this summer we will offer a week long series on Web2.0 Tools. We will offer this series once in June and again in July. Each day of the week will focus on a different type or set of Web2.0 tools that teachers can use to assist their students with learning curriculum while working in groups to collaborate and investigate or to communicate learning to an audience. Topics such as blogs, wikis, podcasting, Google docs, and more will be presented with time to learn and incorporate.

We are rolling out an offering on Research and Information Literacy that will give you the tools to use with your students so that they make informed, intelligent, reliable searches with valid returns. We also cover how to use the material they discover and abide within copyright law. Digital Citizenship is another new offering. It is our responsibility, many states are mandating these lessons, to teach our students to be safe while using technology. Our trainers have developed lessons for each grade level and they will be presented at this training with time for you to practice and make them work for you.

Advanced Excel, Google Earth, CPS/LearnStar, Inspiration/Kidspiration/CMAP, Model Classroom Training, InterWrite Training, and other offerings from last summer will be offered again this year.

As you can see we have a busy summer ahead. I am privileged to work with a talented team of trainers who plan, develop, and write these professional learning experiences for you all year long in preparation for training you each summer. Look forward to seeing you at Greenwood beginning in June!

Web Server Usage

Every teacher in Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools has file storage space on our web server. That address is www2.cmcss.net. Your username is LastFirstMI ex. GoochHelenB and your password is FL**** ex. HG**** where the **** are the last four of your SSN. There are several folders generated automatically when your account is set up. All folders are private and available only to you with the exception of your PUBLIC folder and any new folders you add. Let’s discuss some of these individual folders.You have a Documents folder. This is a great place to store or back up your documents from your computer. It is very important that you back up your important files. Computers do from time to time fail from viruses, crashes, etc. I would back up my documents to one or more available servers and perhaps a usb flash drive. Better to safeguard you hard work than to have to recreate it.

In addition you have a Desktop, Library, Movies, Music, Pictures, Public, and Sites folder. Feel free to make use of any of these for storage. Your Sites folder is where you store your web page if you create one yourself. The url to see your personal web site is: http://www2.cmcss.net/~LastFirstM/ as an example my url would be http://www2.cmcss.net/~GoochHelenB/. This will take you to any web page you have created and placed there.

Your Public folder is available for the public to use. Inside you will find a Drop box. People can share documents and files by placing them inside your Drop box. ONLY you can get them out. You can share with others by locating documents in your Public folder outside the Drop box. Anyone can have a copy of whatever document you locate there.

Finally, each school also has an admin server and/or communicator server available to use for backing up files, maintaining grades, and even for student file storage. Check with your building tech coordinator to make sure you have access and priviledges on your school’s server.  Every student in each school should have a folder on the school communicator or server to save documents, allow for project work, collaboration, and access to their work no matter what classroom they are working from or what period of the day it is.  We offer technology professional development on using the servers every summer and our Technology Integration Coaches can assist you as they work across the district.

Classroom Technology Model for Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools

The original 21st century model classroom in this district included a teaching station equipped with a projection device – TV, a networked printer, and a teacher computer on a cart.  In addition you would find student resources.  Depending on the grade level, this might be anything from 1-5 additional student accessed computers.  Each of our buildings were then outfitted with technology labs.  Many buildings had fixed room labs, with up to thirty computers, and networked printers installed.  Some buildings had mobile labs, with student computers housed in a rolling cart, that could be moved throughout the building as needed with a printer and wireless base station.

A new classroom model has been adopted after much careful study and research by our technology steering committee made up of teachers, administrators, parents, and interested community members.  This new model will be in place when our newest elementary opens in August 2006.  Each regular classroom will now make use of an LCD for the classroom display.  The teaching cart will house a document camera, teacher computer, and InterWrite board.  A wireless keyboard and mouse may be added through other funding sources as deemed necessary by the school/teacher.  This new model will also include a wireless speaker system to better enable all students to hear the instructor and to be heard when responding.  Each classroom will continue to have a networked printer and media player.  Student computer resource number will be determined by grade level with K-2 having up to 4, 3-5 having up to 5 in each classroom.  Middle and high schools will see an increase in the number of mobile carts coming into the building so that one-to-one computing can occur in classrooms on selected days.

Established classrooms will be retrofitted to the new model as funds are available in the budget and as old equipment wears out.  It will be a slow process and take several years to go across the district but the committee feels strongly that to help our students achieve their greatest potential they must know how to function in today’s digital society.

Connecting to the Network

Every teacher laptop, whether Apple or PC, can connect to the network / internet in one of three ways.  Every laptop has a port on the side or back with a small picture of a telephone and another right beside it with a different icon.  They look identical, but they are not.  The one with the icon, picture, of the phone requires a phone cable and you would make use of this one if you use a dialup connection at home.  Using this approach you would be using the internal modem built into your computer and will need to go in and configure the modem to dial into your ISP, internet service provider.  Those directions can be obtained from your service provider and often vary slightly from one to the other.

The port next to the modem port with the different icon, some look like several computers connected, some look like a double headed arrow, is your network or ethernet connection.  This cable is ever so slightly larger than the one for a telephone.  We have network cables in every classroom throughout the district.  If you also have a network in your home, use cable modem, or satellite you might use this to connect your computer at home.

The last method is going wireless.  For the Apple, you will be working with an Airport card installed internally in your computer.  You may have to turn on your airport card.  Look at the top toolbar for an icon that looks like a fan or radar.  If it is all grayed out then click and hold moving down to where it says, “turn airport on”.  If you alreay have black bars showing on that icon your airport is active.  Sometimes you can receive signal from more than one airport base station.  The more solid black lines you have showing the stronger the signal you have to the network.  If your computer has never been used wirelessly you may need to open the system preferences > network > and click to start an airport connection.  Your building tc can assist you the first time you try this.

If you work on a PC and are going wireless you will notice two computer monitors in the bottom task bar.  One is for a network connection.  The other has sound waves or radar looking lines coming off the right side of the little picture of the monitor.  This is your wireless indicator.  If it lights up and the lines glow green your computer has gone out an found a wireless network for you to join.  It tries to assist you as much as possible.  If there is no indication of life hover over the icon and right click on it.  Then click on view availabe wireless networks.  Choose one that you believe is closest to your location and connect.  If this does not work for you contact your building tc to walk you through the setup so that you can make notes and understand the process for future attempts.

Technology Professional Development

No Child Left Behind mandates that all students will be technology literate by the end of eighth grade. For that to occur our teachers must be technology literate. They should use technology as a tool. They should integrate that tool whenever and wherever possible throughout their curriculum. It should be a natural fit. Using technology for the sake of using technology achieves little. Infusing technology appropriately throughout all grades and ages increase achievement, attendance, attention. It allows our digital natives, the students of today, to learn in a modality that is just right for them. Many teachers feel ill prepared to take on this task as they realize the students are more comfortable with using the technology than they themselves are. That is where our professional development program can assist.

We have a certification process in place to meet the demands of NCLB. Teacher ICT certification is all about integrating technology and infusing it throughout the curriculum. When you are at this stage of technology use it is understood that you are comfortable with basic technology use. You have no problems using email. You can create PowerPoints for your class. You use Word to create newletters, handouts, or tests. You are familiar with graphic organizers such as CMAP Tools and Inspiration. When you are comfortable on that basic level therefore, you are ready to look at becoming certified. There are two ways a teacher can achieve this. One is to attend our three day Teacher ICT training and produce a portfolio of lesson plans. The other is to have your principal score you on the Teacher ICT Competency Rubric. All teachers in CMCSS should be ICT certified by August of 2008.

For those teachers needing more of the basics prior to tackling full integration we have a host of technology trainings. Most are offered during the summer. Select trainings do occur throughout the school year. We cover everything from Photoshop Elements, Inspiration/Kidspiration, CMAP Tools, Letting More Out of Student PowerPoints, Beyond the Electronic Blackboard, LearnStar, CPS, Advanced Excel, Enhancing 6 Trait +1 Writing with Technology, and more. As the needs of our teachers change we try to provide new and interesting training.

There is a survey in our PLAN system that allows our technology department to see a snapshot of where our teachers are in using technology. Plan to visit the survey a couple times a year and update your progress. The data pulled from that instrument assist us in developing professional development at the level most of our teachers need. The next level of integration is being planned from the results of those taking the survey this year. Only you the individual can see your personal results. The snapshot the technology department sees is for an entire building or grade level.

We have now branched out into online professional development and we offer the Teacher ICT course online two times a year. Other professional development online activities are on the drawing board.

Software and Web Based Resources

Here in the CMCSS we provide several technology resources to all teachers. These resources are the same whether you work from an Apple or a PC. All computers have access to Microsoft Office Suite. For the Apple, the latest verison would be Office 2004; while for the PC, it would be Office XP. Every teacher has access to a graphic organizer: K-2 use Kidspiration, third grade may choose Kidspiration or Inspiration,and grade 3-8 use Inspiration. High school also has a graphic organizer at their disposal. This is a piece of free or shareware called CMAP Tools and is free for all computers in their buildings. The current math textbook adoption for elementary grades arrived with a wealth of computer programs. These programs are housed on each school’s local server and the client icon would need to be installed on individual machines, but we have unlimited licenses for these applications. Photoshop Elements is available for work with digital images. Although this program is not difficult it is suggested that a teacher attends training prior to using this program. Geometer’s sketchpad is available for all middle/high school math classes teaching Algebra I and above.Many buildings have individual purchases that have been made with individual school funds. You will find Accelerated Reading, STAR Reading and Math in several buildings as well as other titles. These titles do vary since they are purchased by individual schools.

We also have several web resources provided to all schools in the district. Visual thesaurus is available to all users in the district. Your librarian can also share the username / password for Grolier, ELibrary, Tennessee Electric Library, and PowerMedia Plus which is a video streaming, graphic, music warehouse we have rights to use. Google Earth is a great resource availabe at no charge online. BrainPoP is available for all middle schools at this time.

Copyright is a big issue when using technology. The issue of copyright will be handled in a separate post.

Technology Mission / Definition / Goals

CMCSS Technology Mission…The vision of the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System is to provide a learning environment in which the tools of technology support teaching and learning to enhance the mastery of academics and life skills necessary for our students to become productive, responsible citizens.Technology Integration is…technology literate teachers teaching students necessary subject matter content while incorporating technology concepts and skills in problem solving strategies.Technology Goals…

1. All students will be educated in learning environments that have access to educational technology used in support of academic achievement.
2. All students will demonstrate technology literacy by the end of eighth grade.
3. All students will be taught by teachers qualified to use technology for instruction.

Teacher ICT (Information and Communication Technology) Certification

Questions often arise whether a teacher is ICT certified. There are two ways in our district for you to be considered certified. Your administrator observes you, scores you against a rubric, and completes your ICT Certification form or you attend Teacher ICT professional development training. Once your training is complete and you have successfully submitted your portfolio your ICT Certification is awarded with you receiving a copy, your principal receiving a copy and the original going on file in the office of the Instructional Technology Coordinator.

We have had on occasion teachers who complete the training or seat-time and receive in-service credit, but do not complete their portfolio. They have in-service credit but are NOT ICT Certified. The portfolio of lesson plans must be submitted, they are then scored on the ICT Portfolio rubric and must meet Proficient Level standards before certification is given. Anyone who is missing any aspect of their portfolio is contacted and given two weeks to make corrections before their portfolio is resubmitted for evaluation. If it still does not meet the standards that teacher is invited to audit a face-to-face ICT training and work to complete their portfolio.