11-5-2024 Tuesday Tech Tips

  

In today's edition, read all about updates on the AI tools available to GCSD staff and students, how to safely clean your Interactive Panel, searching the Web Help Desk FAQ section to get quick answers to your tech support questions, using Chrome's Reading Mode to cut down on visual distractions, and more! ➡️ ➡️➡️

💡 Quick Tip 💡 Are you tired of constantly entering two-factor authentication codes in Google Chrome? We've learned that some of our users are doing this A LOT.  As in, multiple times a day.  If you find yourself repeatedly signing in to your account, there’s a simple solution. In the address bar in Chrome, type: chrome://settings/content/siteData Make sure the option "Allow sites to save data on your device" is selected. Close Chrome and then reopen it. You should only need to sign in once more with two-factor authentication.

Do you have a tip or idea for the Tuesday Tech Tips? Or a request for a topic or question you'd like to know more about? Please let us know! You can email us at joseph.lombardo@greececsd.org with your submission.

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All staff have access to two fabulous AI tools for GCSD when signing in with your GCSD Google account. First, GCSD staff have access to MagicSchool (also found in ClassLink).

Visit our MagicSchool page on our ITT site for more information. MagicSchool is a great tool to increase your productivity and for various daily tasks for instruction and beyond! Be sure to refer to this poster of Best Practices for Using AI. 

Grades 3-12 teachers who have used MagicSchool may want to pilot MagicSchool for Students (MagicStudent) by visiting our MagicSchool page on our ITT site and contacting their ITT.

Secondly, Gemini by Google is a chatbot similar to ChatGPT. Watch the intro video here.

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The approved cleaning solution for ViewSonic and BoxLight Interactive Panels is the Ready-To-Use Non-Ammoniated Glass Cleaner, which can be obtained by contacting the custodian for your building.

Cleaning solutions should be sprayed onto a soft lint free cloth and then wiped on to the surface of the device to be cleaned. Cleaning solutions should NOT be sprayed directly on to computer devices, to avoid the potential of drenching the device with liquid which can damage the device.

This information can be found in the FAQ section of Web Help Desk. You can search the FAQ by going HERE and searching by category or even just keyword. What a great self-help resource!

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You can customize your reading experience on Chrome with Reading mode. This feature is conveniently located in the side panel and helps you:

• Focus more easily on text.
• Reduce distractions from images and videos on screen.
• Select alternate typeface and font size.
• Adjust letter and sentence spacing.
• Choose background color.

If you’re using a Chromebook, you can even hear the text on the page with Read aloud.

Reading Mode works on many, but not all, websites.  (Spoiler: it doesn't work on the Tuesday Tech Tips).  You can find all the details about Reading Mode HERE.

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For assistance with these topics, or anything else related to instructional technology, please click HERE to book an appointment with your building's ITT.

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12-12-2023 Tuesday Tech Tips

In today's Tuesday Tech Tips found HERE, read all about:

• exciting new Google Tasks functionality 
• an invitation to the District Digital Wellness Committee
• Interactive panels and Smart Lunch pointers
• making snazzy documents with Adobe Express
• toner cartridge do's and don'ts
• and more!

10-31-2023 Tuesday Tech Tips

Click the image below to enjoy the Halloween edition of the Tuesday Tech Tips!

 

5-23-2023 Tuesday Tech Tips

  

In today's Tuesday Tech Alerts, read all about the current status of our Interactive Panel Rollout, how to keep your students' emails from going to your Spam folder, PL opportunities for all staff, & more!➡️ ➡️➡️

💡 Quick Tip 💡 Need to speedily switch between programs or swiftly go between tabs in Chrome? With one of our favorite keyboard shortcuts, you can do either of these in an instant, on both PC's and Chromebooks. Alt + Tab is a keyboard shortcut to switch between open programs on the device.  To switch between open tabs in Chrome, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Tab.

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Updates on the Status of Our Interactive Panel Rollout

Planned for 2023-24 school year:

• Classrooms at Arcadia and Odyssey will receive ViewSonic Interactive Panels, with Athena and Olympia happening the following school year. (We will be consulting with Phoenix Academy on a plan that works for them.)

• Secondary teachers can get started now with the myViewBoard software without having the panels.

• On a Windows device, it's the desktop icon that looks like this: 

• If you don't already have it, you can go to the Software Center in Windows and install it yourself.  

• There's also a "lite" version of the software for Chromebooks.  To install it, go to the Play Store and click on the icon there.

• SMART Notebook is being retired by the vendor.  We'll continue to make the software available, but eventually it will no longer work.

• If you still have SMART Notebook files, then there's good news: They will open in and convert to myViewBoard.

• Elementary classroom teachers can continue to go through Principals to request removal of SMART Boards if desired, but either way, the projectors will stay mounted. This will allow teachers to continue to project in one place, while also using the panel as an instructional display space.

• Please visit our help page on Interactive Panels and the accompanying myViewBoard software HERE.

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Have You Been Missing Emails from Your Students?

We've seen a significant uptick in the number of emails from GCSD students to GCSD staff members ending up in the staff member's Spam folder. We're working with Google to resolve this. We highly recommend that all staff members, especially teachers, check their Spam folders now to see if there are any student emails in there. If there are, you can mark the email as Not Spam, which will send it to your inbox and keep future emails from that sender from going to spam.

We always encourage all users to regularly monitor your Spam folders to check for emails that you might want but were marked as Spam.

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Self-Paced, Instructional Technology PL, Anyone?

If you're in a position where you'd like to (or maybe need to) get some PL hours in before the end of the school year, or you're just a go-getter and want to learn something new, please check out our curated PL offering from our partner vendors HERE.

Make sure you scroll down on that page to see the links to sites to get certifications directly from companies such as Nearpod, Book Creator, and Kami.

The Book Creator certification HERE is very good. Plus, the vendor has promised to send us some swag if we get more of our teachers, by percentage, to get certified than their current leader, those know-it-all's in Kansas City Public Schools. It's a recently updated, media-heavy PL that will teach you all you need to know about this outstanding resource in less than two hours.

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For assistance with these topics, or anything else related to instructional technology, please click HERE to book an appointment with your building's ITT.