First of the Year Info
- Frequently Asked Questions
“Who Handles What ?”
Contact info
- This contact information is specifically for the tech coordinators at my schools - Eagle Ridge, Hannan, Mathews, Midland Academy, Waddell, Wesley Heights, and Wynnton. Teachers, please contact your school's tech coordinator for assistance
- Read below in the General Notes section to determine who you need to contact for various needs
- Tony Mitchell – Instructional Technology
Specialist for the Division of Information Services - MCSD - I am your contact for training
- Email – tmitchell@mcsdga.net
- Phone – 706-329-9451
Resources for
information and help
Ways I, as your ITS, can help you and your school: My function is
to ….
- Deliver training geared toward helping teachers
integrate technology into the Georgia Standards curriculum
- Help schools plan staff development for their faculty
- Advise schools in all technology purchases
- Act as technology liaison between schools and school
district
- Help school tech coordinator configure Outlook
for new teachers. As of August 2009, this is usually completed by our computer
vendor, but if there is a problem, contact me
General notes
concerning how to report problems and who is responsible for various issues
- Most technology problems are addressed via a work order. Generally in my schools the
people who are authorized to submit a work order are the tech coordinator
and/or the media specialist, the principal, and the person who administers Sasi
- If you are a new tech coordinator at your school and need to have the necessary access to create work orders, contact your ITS
- Directions for submitting work orders can be found here
- If you do not have connectivity anywhere in the
building, such that you cannot submit a work order online, call the Customer
Support Center at 706-748-2271
- Email
- To request an email account for a teacher new to MCSD, turn in a work order. Teachers moving within MCSD will have the same email address, although their Outlook might have to be reconfigured
- To reconfigure Outlook on a laptop for a different teacher, contact me - 706-329-9451 or email tmitchell@mcsdga.net
- To request access to the school list server (this is a task of the tech coordinator to enable them to add or remove names from the 1schoolname email group), turn in a work order. Then see the directions here to add or remove teachers from the list
- Laptops for teachers
- Early in the school year your ITS will contact you and/or your principal to determine if your school has any new 'sections'. (This means your school may have had 21 homerooms last year, but this year your school has 22 homerooms, then you have one new section. A new teacher at a school does not necessarily mean a new section has been added.) New laptops will be ordered for new sections. If one teacher leaves your school and another one replaces that teacher, the original teacher's laptop is passed on to the teacher who is new to the school. Teachers within MCSD do not carry their laptops with them if they transfer. The laptop stays at the school and is reconfigured for the teacher replacing the transfered teacher
- InteGrade
- Generally my assistance is directed toward those
teachers who attend the IGP Setup
training given at the beginning of the school year. If a teacher chooses
not to attend the training, it is very, very difficult to figure out what has
gone awry
- Grade books are not available at the beginning
of the school year, until after your administration has completed scheduling, run the IGP Data Exchange,
and allowed one day for the grade books to be generated on the IGP server
- InteGrade can be used
by a teacher even if Sasi scheduling is not done at
the school. A few additional items of information will have to be entered
initially, but grades can still be calculated and progress reports run
- Teachers who use the new Standards Based Report Cards will not need to use InteGrade. InteGrade is merely a fancy calculating
spreadsheet. If no calculation is needed, then you may choose not to use InteGrade. You administrator is the final authority on this
matter, not me
- Remember InteGrade can
be used from home. Follow this link to download the
needed component for use at home. NOTE
– you must obtain the needed codes from your tech coordinator before the
program can be used from home
- Novell
- If new users are needed in Novell, a work order
should be turned in
- The Novell window on new laptops should
appear because the computer vendor should have already installed Novell, but
the teacher’s name should NOT appear. They will enter it as they login. If it
does appear, this is not a problem, but do not turn in a work order requesting
it to appear
- SmartBoards
- Training on SmartBoards
is handle by your ITS, me
- Technical issues related to the boards
functionality are addressed via a work order; be sure to bubble in the AV
option at the top of the work order form
- Various other helps for tech coordinators can be found here
- Main
Frame problems – call Perry Lopez at 706-748-2239
- Destiny
issues are addressed to Donna Gullatte; her email is dgullatte@mcsdga.net
- Sasi and Class xp issues are now addressed via a work order. The Sasi person in the school should have access to submit work
orders. If not, please contact me to put you into the system
Suggestions for
organization and planning
- To gives schools direction and guidance, as it
relates to the utilization of technology in the classroom, it is beneficial to
setup ‘Technology Teams’. These teams act as a committee of the school, to give
guidance in the area of technology specifically. I have found the most affective
teams include at least two teachers (a primary and upper grade), an
administrator, the tech coordinator and/or the media specialist, and the
district ITS (me). In order to assure attendance and keep everyone up-to-date,
it is best to have set dates (ex: first Monday of the month), and meet
regularly
- It helps everyone involved in staff development
if those who plan it are mindful of the 10 hour per credit (per year) factor in
technology staff development. It helps staff members keep their certification in
order if they can get 10 hours of staff development each year, allowing for the
accumulation of SDU credits. Less than ten hours of training does not complete
a full SDU and is NOT carried over each year. This is very unfortunate, but it
is state policy
- Do remember that staff development that I do in
your school can be combined with MCSD technology
training to accrue SDU credit hours
Suggested
applications or resources for training of your staff
- New teachers to the district need to be trained
on the following, and I can work with the tech coordinator to arrange a time:
- Novell login and use of network resources
- Outlook and webmail
- Class xp
- InteGrade Pro
- InteGrade Pro Setup training. If this is done in mass, with
a faculty, there are seldom problems. If not, and each teacher does it alone,
there are often issues that arise throughout the year
- InteGrade Pro (usage) - New 4th and 5th grade teachers will need training to enable them to use the district's grade book program profficiently.
- Various other elementary MCSD software apps –
such as MegaMath,
Online science textbooks, the Online Leveled Reader resource that came with the
science adoption last year, Smartboard Notebook
software, OAS, Timeliner, Reading for Meaning, GraphClub, Math Mysteries,
Science Court, GeoSkill
(primary and Intermediate) and Neighborhood MapMachine
- Other possible training ideas:
- Teacher web pages - using some new free
resources
- Interactive Educational Video Activities - click
here to see example
- Video Lesson plans – utilizing United Streaming
and PowerPoint
- Key Pals - pen pals via email, that opens a lot
of cultural doors
- Movie projects – student creating educational
video clips
- GoogleWorld –
exploration and educational application for a multitude of Google resources