New Richmond Schools Technology Blog

NRHS Autopsy - Videoconference

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Prichard) — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:18:00 +0000

Mrs. Minning and Ms. Wilkens took the opportunity to schedule another fantastic distance learning session for their science students involving a real Autopsy presented by COSI and the Ohio State University.

Mrs. Minning’s Forensic classes connect with COSI several times a year to Experience a REAL autopsy from start to finish. Students are guided by a forensic pathologist and follow a videotape of an actual autopsy from beginning to end. Students work through the “case” and solve for cause of death.

How to Find Elementary Classroom Grants

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Prichard) — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:12:00 +0000

There are many small grants from $100 to $500 available for individual classroom teachers that can significantly improve the delivery of the instruction that you can provide. Here are three ways to go about finding them: locating lists of requests for proposals, posting a small project online for individual donors to contribute and searching for a corporate foundation whose giving priorities match your program's objectives. Knowing where to look for these grants is just one piece of a larger process that involves an in-depth analysis of your classroom's needs and opportunities, careful strategic planning and creation of a competitive proposal that will resonate with the funder.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE....

New Summer PD Schedule Released - Soita

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Prichard) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:27:00 +0000

Soita has released their new Summer Schedule for PD training.

"Learn with it, leave with it" workshops include some of the following:

Intro to Digital Cameras
Intro to iPods
Making Music with Garageband
An iPod Touch, the Internet, and You!
Airliner by SMART Technologies
Intro to the SMART Document Camera
Intro to the Digital Camcorder
Intro to Flip Video
Netbooks, Cloud Computing, and Open Source Software
Integrating a GPS into Your Classroom

-And More-

We are members here in the district. While we don't have any PD funds available to send staff to these workshops at this time, I would encourage you to attend yourself if you're interested in obtaining any of these products for personal use.

You can view full schedule by clicking here.

If it sounds too good to be true....

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Prichard) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:21:00 +0000

If you received the following e-mail lately, it's a hoax.

"I am Mr. James Lynnwood our client died in air crash along with his family, (US$14.7M)left behind in our bank,nobody has put application for the claim. I am asking for your asisstant since I have all the details for you to claim the Funds,if you are interested forward to me your names, cell, Phone/fax, profession,age and country and His Name is Dr. George Brumley. You can confirm http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/07/20/kenya.crash/index.html
Mr. James Lynnwood."

Track Swine Flu via Google Maps

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Prichard) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:14:00 +0000

It's tough for laymen to know just how serious (or not) the current outbreak of swine flu will become. If you're interested in tracking swine flu cases there is now a Google maps app to help.

Click here to view.

How Can I Tell If My PC Is Infected?

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Prichard) — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:26:00 +0000

I've been getting this question a lot about the Conficker Worm that everyone has been hearing about so much lately. One of the easiest ways to tell if your PC is infected with the Conficker Worm is to attempt to browse out to web sites that offer security prevention against the worm:

microsoft.com
sophos.com
norton.com
symantec.com
kaspersky.com

These are just a few. If you can access these web sites you should be in good shape.

Also, don't foget to run an online virus scanner to make sure as well. You can run this one from Microsoft's web site:

http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm?s_cid=sah

If you're unable to access that tool, or any anti-virus web sites but can browse to other pages on the web, your PC may be infected.

Conficker Worm Information

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Prichard) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 23:51:00 +0000

As of this writing, the New Richmond Exempted Village School District has not been infected with any known cases of the well publicized Conficker Worm.

All Windows computers are vulnerable to this infection worldwide. Conficker cannot infect Apple Mac computers.

A security patch was released by Microsoft in October of 2008 and the technology department has worked hard since then to ensure that this patch has been applied to our network of over 1,000 computers.

However, because our network could become infected at anytime, it's always best to report any suspicious activity on your computer to the district technology helpdesk.

If you suspect that your personal/home computer may be infected, or would like more information on what to do to prevent an infection, please visit the following web site from Microsoft.

http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/viruses/worms/conficker.mspx

You can also scan your computer from a secure Microsoft web site to check and see if your personal computer is infected.

http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm?s_cid=sah

You can watch the story reported via 60 Minutes about Conficker and how it works here:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4901282n

The New Richmond EVSD Technology Department will continue to monitor all computers in our school district for this threat.

SmartBoard Training - Central Office

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Prichard) — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 18:51:00 +0000

Great news!

I have worked it out so everyone who currently has a SmartBoard in their classroom will be provided with more training. Even better news, the training will be a ½ day session held here in the district and Mr. Durbin has agreed to provide subs for each of you so everyone can attend this training session during a regular school day. These sessions will be held at the Board of Education room (3rd floor), at the Market Street Central Office building. (212 Market Street, New Richmond)

See you there!

OSU Students use iPods for Medical School Study

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Prichard) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:48:00 +0000

The Ohio State University's medical school has joined the ranks of colleges replacing cumbersome textbooks with the Apple iPod touch this year.

OSU med officials say the iPod lets students study high-quality images of organs and body parts in the palm of their hand, on the fly. A welcomed change from the days of flipping through textbooks to find pictures and directions for surgical procedures.

Technology Empowers Differentiated Instruction

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Prichard) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:23:00 +0000

ISTE webinar offers new strategies for ensuring that all students learn by tailoring instruction to their abilities, needs, and interests

Although many educators realize technology's enormous potential to help them differentiate their instruction so that all students can learn, regardless of students' needs, abilities, or learning styles, it might be hard for them to find concrete applications of this approach to emulate in their classrooms. But in a Jan. 28 webinar from the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), experts provided several examples of classroom projects that can help all students learn while keeping them engaged.

The webinar, titled "Differentiated Instruction + Tech = Powerful Learning," was presented by Grace Smith and Stephanie Throne--authors of the book Differentiating Instruction with Technology in K-5 Classrooms and the soon-to-be-published Differentiating Instruction with Technology in Middle School Classrooms. Both authors are former educators.

Smith and Throne described differentiated instruction (DI) as a strategy that is centered on the belief that students learn in many different ways. They also said DI is a collection of best practices from gifted, traditional, and special education. "Some educators think it's a new model, but it isn't," said Throne.

Both presenters agreed that DI is student-centered, offers multiple paths to learning, and is grounded in assessment practices. They also cited research that shows students are more successful in school and find it more satisfying when they are taught in ways that are responsive to their readiness levels, interests, and learning profiles.

According to the presenters, teachers can differentiate four elements of instruction: content, process, product, and learning environment. They also can differentiate instruction based on student traits, such as readiness, learning profile, interest, and affect.

Finally, educators can differentiate instruction through a range of instructional and management strategies, including software, video streaming, and the web.

"Above all, DI should be used to promote 21st-century skills," said Smith. "This includes digital-age literacy, inventive thinking, effective communication, and high productivity. A mastery of these skills will lead to student achievement."

Both authors said technology is a great choice to consider for DI, because it helps to personalize instruction, enhances learning with multimedia components, can help students construct new knowledge, and motivates students with their work.

"We also like to give students choices in their learning, because offering choices gives students a way to make decisions about what they will do in order to meet class requirements," said Smith.

One way to do this is to create and present what the authors called a "tic-tac-toe board," or three-by-three grid, of suggested activities from which students can choose to demonstrate their understanding of a topic. This helps students make their own choices and also gives the teacher an idea of his or her students' interests.

College Web Design Courses Fail With Bosses

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Prichard) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:20:00 +0000

Experts say higher education should focus on fundamentals of web design, not just currently popular software

Web site development experts said in a recent survey that colleges and universities lag behind in using the latest in web design technology and ignore foundational lessons that would produce college graduates ready for the rapidly changing profession.

The survey, called "Teach the Web," was released Jan. 20 and includes opinion and advice from 32 web design professionals who are considered some of the most knowledgeable and respected in the world.

James Archer, an executive at Phoenix-based Forty Agency, a marketing company, said in the survey that campus bureaucracies move slowly when approving new curriculum, while the web design industry "moves fast enough that the curriculum is obsolete by the time they get around to committee approval."

Forty Agency does not hire graduates of university web development programs, Archer said.

"The culture of large educational institutions has, in my experience, consistently proven itself unable to cope with the demands of such a varied and fast-moving industry," Archer said. "I know many good people are trying, but I've yet to see anyone come out of a university program knowing what they'd need to know in order for us to hire them. Most of the time, they've been brought a long way down the wrong path."

Leslie Jensen-Inman, an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where she teaches design, business, and technology, wrote the "Teach the Web" survey and said web design college instructors should embrace the business's harsh realities.

"Let's face it. Technology moves fast; academia doesn't," Jensen-Inman, a member of the Web Standards Project Education Task Force, wrote in the survey's introduction.

She said campus officials should build relationships with leaders in the web design industry and use their advice to shape faculty approaches and college courses.

"As the people who will hire our students, they should have input about what type of students we are producing," Jensen-Inman wrote.

Several experts said slow-moving changes in university curriculum result in students learning about program such as Photoshop that will be considered outdated by the time they graduate and apply for jobs.

Because web design firms see constant change and updates to technology, some experts said students should develop basic knowledge to attract employers.

Molly Holzschlag, an author and web standards advocate, said "general awareness of the web, social networking and culture, strong spoken and written language skills, [and] enthusiasm and commitment to life-long learning" would signal to employers that a recent college graduate is capable of keeping up with ever-changing technology.

"Everything else can be taught, and will be taught, over and over as time goes on," said Holzschlag, who has written more than 30 books on web design. "Therefore, it's the broadly educated, open-minded, and self-motivated individuals who would get my attention."

Critical Internet Explorer 7 Security Patch Released

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Prichard) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 19:03:00 +0000

The stars of yesterday's security bulletins from Microsoft were a couple of flaws in Internet Explorer 7 (not earlier versions). These were rated critical so it's obvious you have to take them seriously, but in fact it's more serious than that.

A few months ago Microsoft started including an "Exploitability Index" value to show how easy it should be to construct a successful attack using the vulnerability they were disclosing. In many cases, a vulnerability may be critical because the consequences of it being exploited are serious, but in fact it is not so easy to exploit.

Yesterday's Internet Explorer vulnerabilities were give an Exploitability Index value of 1, which translates to "Consistent exploit code likely." Microsoft adds the note "Consistent exploit code can be crafted easily." See the monthly security bulletin summary and click on Exploitability Index for all this. For some reason, Microsoft does not include these Exploitability Index values in the individual security bulletins, such as the one for Internet Explorer yesterday.

What this means is that you can expect, or at least you should assume, that attack code to exploit this vulnerability will be on the Internet very soon. It will be pushed through all the usual channels, some of which are hard to avoid, such as ad banners.

Yesterday's SQL Server vulnerability also received an Exploitability Index value of 1 and, in fact, according to Microsoft "Post-authentication, functional exploit code has been published." This means that a user who can authenticate on the server can exploit the flaw to take control. It's just a matter of time before there is plug-in code to exploit it through a SQL injection vulnerability.

To install any newly released patches, run Windows Update from your PC.

Web Spotlight: TeacherTube

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Prichard) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:51:00 +0000

TeacherTube's goal is to provide an online community for sharing instructional videos. They are seeking to fill a need for a more educationally focused, safe venue for teachers, schools, and home learners. It's a site to provide anytime, anywhere professional development with teachers teaching teachers. As well, it is a site where teachers can post videos designed for students to view in order to learn a concept or skill.

Feel free to click here to get started.

Watch Out For Valentine's Day Virus

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Prichard) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:42:00 +0000

Valentine's Day-themed malware is an old tradition by now. This year will see the ninth anniversary of the ILOVEYOU worm, one of the early mail worms that drove the development of malware and anti-malware. And we're seeing some this year too.

McAfee has found a particularly cute one. Follow a link in spam e-mails they have been monitoring and you get to this web page:

Everyone loves puppies, and this message tries to get you to download the "Valentine Devkit" which, you have probably already guessed, is a Trojan horse program.

McAfee had just recently issued a general warning about Valentines-related threats, but experienced users should be on the lookout for these things every year, or even in the love off-season.

Google Sync with iPhone Available

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Prichard) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:32:00 +0000

Google announced today that the beta Google Sync for Mobile capability, long a feature on the Blackberry, has now been extended to iPhones (via Microsoft's ActiveSync), and also to other devices that support the SyncML standard. You can sync your Google-side calendar and contacts to your device of choice, free, bidirectionally, starting today.

There are a few caveats with this beta, as one might expect: the main one is that you cannot use the sync capability if you already synchronize with an Exchange account, as there can be only one ActiveSync config on the iPhone or iPod touch at any time. Setting up sync with Google will also nuke your local contacts and calendar on the device, so back up before you proceed. Still, this represents a big step forward in the delicate dance of Google services in cooperation with Apple's mobile gear.

If you configure sync for your device, let us know how it goes! Early comments note that the lack of multiple calendar support is a showstopper -- if that applies to you, check out the NuevaSync option. Update: You can apparently sync up to five calendars to the phone, see here for details.

Click Here to get started.

Or Here.

IRS Tax Refund Scam

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Prichard) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:37:00 +0000

Please delete any messages you receive with the following text claiming to be from the IRS with information about a tax refund/stimulus package refund. Do not submit your personal information as the web site you are directed to is a scam.

-----------------
After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have determined that you are eligible to receive a Stimulus Payment.
Please submit the Stimulus Payment Online Form in order to process it.

A Stimulus Payment can be delayed for a variety of reasons.
For example submitting invalid records or applying after the deadline.

To access the form for your Stimulus Payment, please follow next URL:

http://www.bebeseguro.net/jscripts/tiny_mce/plugins/visualchars/_vti_cnf

Note: For security reasons, we will record your ip-address, the date and time.
Deliberate wrong inputs are criminally pursued and indicated.

Regards,
Internal Revenue Service

-----------------------

Postcard Virus Warning

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Prichard) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:33:00 +0000

Please do not open an e-mail attachment that appears to be a Hallmark Greeting Card. The attachment is named Postcard.zip and contains a virus that will attempt to infect the system you're using at the time. If you have received this message just delete it ASAP.

New Richmond EVSD Installs 19 New SmartBoards

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew W Prichard) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:30:00 +0000

We are pleased to announce that the New Richmond EVSD has added 19 new Interactive Whiteboards (SmartBoards) into classrooms across the district for students and teachers to utilize daily. This process started at the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year.

New Richmond High School - New Fight Song

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Prichard) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 13:39:00 +0000

As featured on Channel 5 (WLWT), Bootsy Collins personally creates new fight song for New Richmond.

Click here to view the video on the WLWT web site. (Advertisement may play before video begins)

GradeQuick Web & Edline Help Guides

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Prichard) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:04:00 +0000

Feel free to download and view the help guides for GradeQuick Web and Edline for the current 2008-2009 school year by clicking the links below:

GradeQuick Web Help Guide:

GQWeb_Teacher_Guide.pdf

Edline Help Guide - Full Edition

TeacherEdlineGuide_FULL.pdf

GradeQuick Web For New School Year

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Prichard) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:32:00 +0000

New for the upcoming school year, GradeQuick Web version. All teachers will now have the ability to access and manage their gradebooks via the web 24/7 from any computer that can connect to the Internet.

More details in the coming weeks.

Google Apps Available For The 2008-2009 School Year

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Prichard) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 05:52:00 +0000

Google Apps will give us a custom email address, tools for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations, a shared calendaring system and access to a flexible intranet system. This feature will be available to all students and staff for the 2008-2009 school year. More information will be presented soon!

You can also find more information by clicking the link below:
http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/users/user_features.html

Edline Interactive Classroom - Arriving for the 08-09 school year district-wide

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew W Prichard) — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:49:00 +0000

With Edline’s Interactive Classroom, you can bring classroom web pages to life with online discussions, electronic homework hand-in, interactive assignments and online assessments. These features allow us to access popular Blackboard features from a familiar application such as Edline.

Some key features include:

Online discussions that maximize participation

Integrate online discussions with instructional content on any web page to engage students at the point of interest. Leverage your Edline data to easily target or restrict certain students within your classroom. (Teachers can review all comments before they are posted.)

Interactive assignments

Easily post homework that integrates online practice exercises, quizzes, or worksheets. Students complete the learning activities completely online. No paper!

Homework hand-in

Quickly create a homework “drop-box” where students can submit documents or other files to hand in their homework electronically.

Flexible online tests & quizzes

No more waiting at the copier! Create your own online exams for your students to take. Choose from several different components: text entry fields, radio buttons, drop-down lists, file attachments and more.

Automatic grading

Assignments can be graded automatically with no intervention by the teacher. Grades can then be transferred to your GradeQuick gradebook.

Track and review student responses

Track which students have and have not submitted a response. With a single click, send an e-mail reminder to students who have not submitted a response.

NOTE: We will be providing training on all of these new Edline features this fall to all staff.

Please Vote on Technology Upgrades!

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew Prichard) — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:25:00 +0000

Which Technology Upgrade Would You Like Most For Next Year? ( surveys)

"Mr. Combs is Cool!" New Richmond Elementary School Video

noreply@blogger.com (Matthew W Prichard) — Sat, 10 May 2008 16:31:00 +0000

Click the play button below the video to watch the New Richmond Elementary School presentation titled "Mr. Combs is cool" courtesy of Judy Meyer and her 5th Grade class.