Beth Bard

Parents and teachers can guide our youth by teaching them the following steps for Internet Safety -

• Keep personal information private
• Never open a message from someone you don’t know
• Don’t believe everything you read
• Use Netiquette
• If it doesn’t look or feel right – it probably isn’t
• Don’t reply to messages from cyber bullies
• Don’t keep bullying to yourself
• You don’t have to be “always on” – disconnect.

Source: http://www.besafeonline.org/English/safer_use_of_services_on_the_internet.htm

Before I explain delicious.com, I should make sure the term “bookmarking” is understood. When we talk about a bookmark, we are saying the same thing as a “Favorite” – those favorite websites on the internet that we know we will return to view over and over.  Since we know we want to remember them, we add them to our Favorites. Teachers might have a list of educational websites; cooks may have recipe sites; while a traveler’s selection of travel information may be endless. If you don’t use this feature of the internet and have questions about it, all you need to do is ask and I’ll gladly show it to you.

Say your computer at school has a large selection of Favorites and your computer at home has a list also. Here’s where the beauty of delicious.com comes into play. By using this site, you can combine your lists, have them in one location, and access them from any computer that has internet connection.

A second feature of delicious.com is the ability to share bookmarks with other people. This is called “Social bookmarking.” If you have a topic of interest, for example technology education, it can be searched at delicious.com and a list is generated for you to explore.

Check out Anne Reardon’s list to see a great example on how to use this amazing website. Anne’s site can be found at http://delicious.com/areardon222

What’s the value in filling out a help desk ticket versus sending an email for technology assistance? It may seem easier to most of you to send an email to the technology department when you’re experiencing a problem.  Since you’re not sure which one of us in the department takes care of your issue, you may even decide to send the email to all of us. Here are several reasons why submitting a ticket is important:

• Our school district’s technology department has 8 team members. Our job descriptions are specific yet we are each capable of assisting one another with certain tasks. When an email is sent to multiple members of the team, we aren’t always available to communicate with each other who will help you. Many times one of us will show up to take care of the problem only to find out someone else already fixed it. The time it took to stop by was time that could have been spent taking care of an assigned help desk ticket.
• Part of our responsibilities in the department is tracking. Here are just a few things we track:
  • Individual job duties and time spent indicating a demand for specific computer issues
  • Specific computer maintenance assisting us in the replacement schedule and purchasing
  • Toner and ink cartridge replacement maintaining our supplies
  • General software issues keeping us proactive in helping all staff
• With all the help desk requests in one place we are able to see each other’s assignments and transfer the duty to our own if we feel we can take care of the problem. Our Senior Tech Interns also have access to this and are able to go through the tickets to assist us. When one of us is on vacation, we check that person’s tickets to make sure general tasks are resolved. Using the Help Desk allows our department to work as a team to resolve district problems.

Submitting a problem is easy. Open the Internet and you’ll find Tech Dept Help Desk listed under Favorites. (You’ll also see a link listed here at my blog site under Technical Support.) Click on the Favorites link and fill out the information.  Once it’s submitted, it will be assigned to the appropriate member of the tech department. We will do our best to resolve your problem in a timely manner.

My explanation on RSS (see “What is RSS?” found below) might bring a new question.  Where does the RSS go when I subscribe to a website?

There are two steps to setting up a subscription.

STEP 1: Create a place for your subscription to be delivered.

There are many free RSS readers on the web. Two include Google Reader and Bloglines. It may take about 10 minutes to set one of these up. Once done, they will do all the work for you.

My example will use Google Reader. Open the Internet and go to google.com. There are choices in the top left of the page. Select More and then Reader. If you already have a gmail account (Google email), then log into google. If you don’t, click the Create Account button and follow the account wizard.

STEP 2: Subscribing to an RSS feed

There are many RSS Readers that are part of applications such as Outlook and the different web browsers – Internet Explorer, Safari, and Firefox. These are local readers – in other words they can only be accessed on the computer that was set up to read. I prefer to use one that is web based which is why I use the Google Reader. This allows me to go to any computer at home or work – even an internet café – and pull up my RSS subscriptions to catch up on my blogs.

To go from seeing the orange RSS feed button on your favorite page to adding it to your subscription list I’ll use my blog as the example. On my blog underneath the Subscription heading I find the RSS links for my blog. The easiest way to grab the link is to right-click on the orange button or the words and select “Copy Link”. Now you have the RSS feed Web address in your copy/paste clipboard. Go to your Google Reader and click on Add Subscription (located in the top left.) Right-click and Paste the link into the space provided.

Give it a try. Set up an RSS subscription to my blog and let me know how it goes. Don’t be afraid to tell me if my directions need more clarification. I’ll be anxious to hear from you on successes and frustrations.

This is a concept that has taken awhile for me to fully understand. The best analogy I found is a magazine subscription. Country Living is a favorite magazine of mine. Since I want to receive a copy on a regular basis, I decided to subscribe to it. Before I got my subscription, I was traveling to Borders often to see if the newest edition was out on the stands.

Similarly, I have my favorite blogs. The RSS (Really Simple Syndication) allows updates on the blog come to me, instead of me continually checking the blog to see if any new information has been posted. It’s a time saving method to be notified when there’s something new to read.

The concept then is this:

Me to News (going out to the blog to read updates)

versus

News to Me (RSS bringing the blog updates to me.)

My next blog will explain how to set up an RSS feed subscription.

I had my first question via email. Thank you for asking – how do I leave a comment to a blog? That is a great question!

You’re reading my blog and you want to ask a question or leave a comment.  If you click on the words “No Comments,” or if comments are already present, then just click the word “Comments.”  You’ll be asked to log in. Use your district account username and password. A box will open allowing you to enter information. When you’re done, click Submit Comment.

With my blog, I have a setting where I must approve the comment before it will show. This gives me the right to decline – for example, if a student should decide to enter something inappropriate. (Notice I said student. I doubt a staff person would ever make an inappropriate comment.)  Check out my directions to see if they work. I’d love to read your comments.

So, what’s the difference between a blog and a wiki? The best way I know to explain it is to think about a classroom. A Math teacher might stand up in front of her class and present a lecture on the Pythagorean Theorem to the students. Occasionally, a student might make a comment or ask a question. This is similar to how a blog works.  In a blog there’s a post (the teacher’s lecture) where comments may be made by the readers (student comments or questions.)

In contrast, a Social Studies teacher wants his students to discuss the similarities and differences of Sparta versus Athens. The class gathers in a circle and throws out ideas while the teacher adds and removes shared information on the white board. Similarly, with a wiki there’s a topic (Spartans vs Atheans).  This time instead of in the classroom, the group meets online by creating a wiki to discuss their topic, add information, remove information, and share ideas on a particular subject (like the teacher writing information on the white board.)

The school district provides both wikis and blog sites for teachers to use with their students. If you’d like more information, I hope you’ll feel free to contact me.

As of July 1, 2009, the webmaster assignment has been passed from Dale Hoke to Beth Bard. The district thanks Dale for the many years of service he has provided our schools.  As the new webmaster, I hope to continue to maintain a website our school community will use with pride as we keep our staff, parents, students, and community contacts informed about our activities.

Please review your teacher page. It is your responsibility to check your content daily and maintain up to date information. Periodically, I will check sites. If information is out of date, I will contact the section editor to discuss possible solutions to keeping content current.

Watch this blog for website tips or feel free to share tips you might have of your own.

Welcome to MASD Blogs. This blog is from the Application and Technology Support Aide and will feature technology items of interest for our district staff. If you have questions or would like information posted, please feel free to add your thoughts to this blog.