Volume 1, Issue 1
September 30, 2010
HINSDALE CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL
Tech Times
District Leads Summer SharePoint Training
In the late Spring of 2010 the District Technology Committee faced a difficult decision. With new tablets on the
horizon, we had to determine an acceptable way to transition to SharePoint 2007 due to SharePoint 2003’s
known incompatibilities with Windows 7. Because the problems only exist with certain web parts and features
on SP03, we decided to make 2010-2011 a transition year. Although we highly encouraged teachers to get SP07
training over the summer to start the year fresh with a new platform that is easier to use and open to the public, we also maintained access to SP03 sites for teachers who decided to postpone the switch. A team of
teacher leaders well-versed in SP07 quickly got together and fleshed out a plan to offer not only the June Academy training, but also July and August options for those teachers who were interested and able to attend.
Knowing that approximately 80% of teachers at Central were using SP03, we wanted to give as many opportunities as possible to attend these professional development sessions. Additionally, the district was very supportive in granting CPDUs and Hinsdale Academy hours to teachers in recognition of their participation.
The SharePoint tech group (Jeff Waggoner (HC), Jen Dalrymple (HC), Steve Moore (HS) and Katie Aquino (HS))
trained the following numbers of teachers from Central alone…
June Academy—10 teachers from 6 departments
July sessions—17 teachers from 8 departments
August sessions—10 teachers from 7 departments
September session—19 teachers from 9 departments
If you are still interested in making the transition to SP07, it’s not too late! Sign up for the October 7 session at
Central!
TLT Highlights
-As of our meeting on 9/22/10, 16 projectors have been replaced with Epson’s full cooperation.
-We have discussed the issue of being able to email club/team members through TAC and Tim has determined
that this is not currently a possibility. Coaches or sponsors are encouraged to create an email distribution
group or use the emailing features of SharePoint for mass communications.
-We, of course discussed several issues teachers were having with SharePoint and continued to encourage
teachers to access the resources on our Faculty SharePoint page until the resource binders are fully updated
and donated to the departments following our October training session.
-We spoke at some length about the training opportunities available through the district and encouraged TLT
members to urge their department members to participate in the “Lunch and Learn” survey to determine
times and topics of interest.
Tech Times
Page 2
Media Specialists—Photostory Training
After requesting the library space using the online scheduler , on August 31 and Sept.
1 we took ALL sections of Spanish 2H to the library to work on their first chapter project. After prepping the students with homework to find images online using the HC
Library’s suggested copyright friendly search link, we took 169 students (mostly Freshmen, mind you) over 6 different class periods for our Photostory training. We provided
Photo Story 3 is a free
download from
Windows that can help your
students create picture
presentations.
our project description and Kerrin Riley and Myles Laffey were able to prepare and
amazing presentation for our classes. They showed our students the step by step
process of using the Photostory program and the story board template. As students
worked individually at their computers Kerrin and Myles floated effortlessly from
raised hand to raised hand answering the students’ technology questions and giving
helpful hints and suggestions through individualized attention, showing great knowledge of the project expectations, the Photostory program, and the needs of all stu-
SharePoint Tip#1
Did you know???
The HC Library
provides inter-library
loan services! Take
advantage of the
talented staff to help
track down your next
graduate course request.
http://www.delicious.com
is a website that keeps
track of bookmarks as
searched by others and can
track your own searches as
well.
dents of varying technological ability levels. We certainly did not get through this project without any glitches or misunderstandings, but without the HC Library’s help, I
don’t think we would have dared such a task. The products were incredible and a fascinatingly entertaining way of getting to know our students. At the end of September
we already have plans to head back to the HC Library for our second chapter project—
creating electronic cartoon strips! As Kathy Krepps told us, the librarians can pretty
much learn any program we’d want them to teach our students. I highly encourage
you to take advantage of such a talented staff!
Teacher Website of the Month—Delicious
The Web is a big place, full of new and interesting things to discover. The problem is
finding the good stuff and keeping track of it all. This is where Delicious can help. Delicious is a Social Bookmarking service, which means you can save all your bookmarks
online, share them with other people, and see what other people are bookmarking. It
also means that we can show you the most popular bookmarks being saved right now
across many areas of interest. In addition, our search and tagging tools help you keep
track of your entire bookmark collection and find tasty new bookmarks from people
like you. Delicious keeps all your bookmarks in one place so you will never lose track of
your bookmarks again. Since we store your bookmarks online, you can get to them
from any computer, whether you're at home, at work or on the road. You can share
bookmarks with your friends on Delicious, your Twitter universe, or friends and family
via the old-school way – electronic mail.
http://www.delicious.com/help/learn
Volume 1, Issue 1
Page 3
The HelpDesk really is helpful...
As you can imagine, the Tech Staff is hard at work resolving the Help Desk Tickets. As
of Monday, October 4, 2010, there are 54 tickets outstanding. A summary report of the
concerns from this date & time frame are:
 Connection problems; students into HAC/SharePoint, Projectors
 Projectors overheating
 Access and Speed of SharePoint
 The additional server to house SP07LMS seems to be doing what it was
Help is just a phone call or
an email away…
7-6180
helpdesk@hinsdale86.org
intended, increase the speed and efficiency of SharePoint.
Julie Van Ness, Eric Shade & David Ortiz have been working with their respective departments to support a working technology environment & a dynamic teaching staff. If
you have a technology issue, please email or call the help desk.
Check it out!! — “Ed Tech Experts Choose Top Tools”
http://thejournal.com/articles/2010/08/01/3-for-3.aspx
Windows 7
Tip #1
Take a look at this online article for all the experts have to say about Web 2.0 tools and
their use in the classrooms. The article contains commentaries on Blogs, Social Networking, synchronous live platforms (webinars, web meetings), Google Docs,
SlideRocket (a cloud presentation tool), SchoolFusion (website development and hosting), Twitter, TypeWith.me (realtime document editing by multiple users), and
Ustream (free live video broadcasting service). The article also contains direct links to
the tools referenced so you can see them for yourself!
Hold down the
Windows key
(Bottom left between FN and
ALT)
Use the Tab key (above
CAPS LOCK) to scroll
through open windows *
Techie to Know—Julie VanNess
*you must use an aero theme
for this to work
We are so lucky to have Julie VanNess as a tech specialist at Central! She is assigned to
the World Languages, Science, and English departments—that means she services and
maintains 4 labs, 30 netbooks, 24 student desktops, 65 student tablets, 68 teacher tablets, and all corresponding printers, projectors, and Extron set ups! After spending 3.5
years at the Administrative HelpDesk , she is the first and only woman to join the tech
team here at Central. Having worked as a computer lab aid before coming to District 86,
Julie has learned much about technology on the job from her fellow tech specialists and
from classes. Julie is so happy to see teachers and students get excited about using
Tech Specialist—
technology, and her advice is , “If you are trying something new give yourself plenty of
Julie VanNess
time, test it before you want to use it and ask for help when you need it. This building is
full of resources between the tech staff, Jeff Waggoner, Kris Frees and fellow teachers.”