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TWTW Teaching with the Web |
The Instructional Technology Journal of Volume 2, Number 2 July 15,
2006 |
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BIG Question: Is Your Laptop Ready to Bring Back to
School? 7/15/06 With only three weeks (or so) before
school starts, it’s time to check your laptop to be sure it’s ready to go on
your school’s network. When you
connect your laptop to the network, it will broadcast a lot of information
across the district’s system – identifying itself and you to the network as
well as connecting you to the Internet, email, and other applications. You want to be sure that it does not also
send out a set of viruses, worms, or spam.
Please check the following things to get your laptop ready for that
first day back: ·
Update
your Symantec virus definitions and run a full scan on your laptop – before bringing it back to school. See the instructions for doing this in TWTW
#3 (at http://www.gwd50.k12.sc.us/techplans/TWTW-Vol01No3.htm).
·
Remove
all personal software from the laptop.
This is essential because that software will show up on the network
inventory after you connect to the network. ·
Lastly
– if you have any doubt that your laptop is “clean” when you bring it to
school the first day, take it directly to your on-site technology support
person and ask how you can make sure it is clean. |
Important Teacher Notes · Please do not let anyone outside
of OCS attempt to fix or upgrade your laptop.
Doing so will invalidate the warranty – meaning that we cannot get it
fixed for free by Gateway if something goes really wrong. · Remember that you are expected to
have your laptop at school every day during the school year – and that your
old desktop is no longer available to you for attendance and grades. · Be prepared to log into the school
network to take attendance on the first day of school. · If you have a printer at school
that you want to use with your laptop, you may need the CD with the printer
drivers. This is especially true for
the “all-in-one” printers – those that scan, print, and copy. · You may need a different printer
cable (your laptop does not have a parallel printer port). Check the following link for sources: http://www.gwd50.k12.sc.us/TechPlans/PrinterCables.htm.
· If you would like a “port replicator” for your laptop, click here to find out more information about functions and
pricing. · If you would like to have a second
power adapter to keep at home, click here for more information and pricing. |
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Things to Do to Be Ready for School Several
teachers in the district have offered suggestions about getting ready for
that first day of school – using your laptop and projector” ·
Create a PowerPoint presentation for student and class orientation.
(C. Schwartz, ·
Collect parent email addresses and send an “e-bulletin” each week with
events, learning activities, lesson schedules, projects, and more. Also include your class web page address.
(P. Fagan, Brewer) ·
Create a Word document with links to web resources that you will use
for each of your classes during the first quarter. (from laptop training
sessions) ·
Prepare a PowerPoint presentation to run automatically on a computer
in your classroom during open house or conference days. (from middle school comments during
training) ·
During the first week of school, collect email addresses for all
parents and create an email group to which you can send information,
assignments, and web resources. Also
use addresses to let parents know specific information about their student.
(from several elementary school teachers) ·
Plan a laptop-and-projector lesson for the first day of school. (from
OCS) |
Site Survey: Websites that Educate,
Enlighten, Entertain, and Engage ·
Back-to-School Activities, Ideas,
and Resources ·
Figure This! Math Challenges ·
Outline Maps ·
Cool Science for Curious Kids ·
Project Gutenberg You can read 18,000 free books – download to your laptop. |
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The Laptop-and-Projector Project Website Tech Project:
http://www2.gwd50.org/TechPlans/TechPlan2006.htm Instr. Resources: http://www2.gwd50.org/TechPlans/StaffDevResources.htm
Previous TWTW Issues: http://www2.gwd50.org/techplans/TWTW-Index.htm
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