Technology for New Teachers at CVC 2002-2003

 

Each teacher has at least one computer in his/her classroom:

  1. Unless otherwise told, please use your correct username and  password when booting into Windows. Do not merely push the escape key. Although your computer will boot up, much of  the network resources will be off limits.
  2. We have a faculty use policy that applies to all teachers and staff members at CVC. We will go over the FUP with the entire faculty. This FUP must be read carefully, signed, and followed.
  3. Do not use screen savers!! (They are notorious for carrying viruses and use up much of a computers resources). When not using the computer for a duration of time, merely turn off the monitor.
  4. When leaving the classroom for the weekend or holiday, turn off the computer and monitor. However, when you leave the classroom during a weekday (i.e. if you will be returning the next day to teach), leave your computer on but turn your monitor off. Your computer is checked for viruses and/or updated at night during week nights.
  5. Do not add any software to your computer without first getting approval from the Director of Technology (Bill Drennon).
  6. Back up your personal files regularly. Within the next month, there should be a computer assigned to you for backup. In the meantime, you may back up your personal files on the lab0 computer in the cvc lab workgroup.
  7. Each computer should have Microsoft office including Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint. You should find this software useful for classroom administration, making classroom presentations and hound-outs. When saving Word documents, save them in rich text format (.rtf), not as word documents (.doc) since “.doc” files often are infected with viruses or worms.
  8. Never transfer a file from one computer on our LAN to another without first checking it with an up to date virus program. If you do not have a virus protection program or do not know how to check a file to see if viruses are present, place files in a shared  folder called C:\downloads and email Bill Drennon on the CVC LAN email to check that folder for viruses. If you do not have such a folder already on your computer and do not know how to create a shared folder, please request a session with Bill Drennon by sending him a request through the CVC LAN email.
  9. Regularly (At least once a day) clean out the contents of your C:\Windows\temp folder and your C:\Windows\recent folder. At least bi-weekly, run scandisk and defrag on your hard drive. This will help your computer run faster with fewer problems than if you do not do this. If you feel that your computer is not running up to speed, request by LAN email to Bill Drennon that he take a look at your computer.
  10. Regularly update your operating system and browser by installing the critical updates from http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com There should be a windows update icon on your desk top and/or in your start menu.
  11. Construction dust can kill a computer, and there is plenty of it around. If you feel that your computer is overheating, or the cooling fans are chocking with dust (fan become noisy or no longer is heard at all), please contact Bill Drennon by LAN email immediately.
  12. Do not save work on floppy disks. They are not reliable. Save work and pull work up off of your hard drive. You can use Windows Explorer to back up work onto a floppy disk (or better, on 2 separate disks.), but perhaps a better way is to email them to your home computer has attachments or transfer them through our on-campus web-server via WinSCP. If this sounds Greek, or you do not know how to do this, request a session with Bill Drennon via LAN email.

 

 

Our website can be a valuable tool

1.        Be a better communicator to the parents of your students. Use our website for communication.

2.        If you publish handouts or weekly newsletters, why not publish them on the web? You can start right now… even if you know nothing about web publishing.  It is really very easy. To start you can request that Mr. Drennon convert them to a web page for you  and load them up.  Simply email me your file with a request to convert it to web format and load it for y ou.

3.        You can do all of this yourself. I expect you to be able to do it very soon, actually. It takes very little time. Mr. Drennon can teach you in one session and follow through when questions arise. Request that he show you how to convert them yourself and load them onto our website. This is what you will need to give him to get started:

a.  A web address http://home.cvc.org/somename  where “somename” is what ever you wish it to be (as long as it is not already taken) such as the name of   your course or class, your name, etc.

b. a user name

c. a password that is composed of atleast 6 characters and no more than 250 characters. (Something you can remember!!)

4.        Why not publish your lesson plans and/or homework on a website.

5.        You can also publish progress reports, grades, or other confidential information, protected with usernames and passwords. Mr. Drennon can show you how on request.

6.        We also publish a lot of useful information for families and teachers. Take a look at our website at http://www.cvc.org (gateway) and http://home.cvc.org  and come familiar with its layout.  You will find this document by going  to the computer help link or by going directly to  http://home.cvc.org/howto . The complete URL for this document is http://home.cvc.org/howto/newteachers/index.html

 

 

 

CVC LAN email

1.        We communicate with each other via LAN email when on campus. This works a little differently than internet email. You don’t really have an email address,  you simply pick a name or group of names from the POST  OFFICE LIST or create personal address lists.

2.        Your cvc email program should open at bootup. IF not you can click on it from  your desk top. It should be labeled “CVC email” or “inbox” or “microsoft outlook”. Do not confuse this with “Outlook express” which is the software for your internet email.

3.        Do not close the program when you finished reading mail. Sometimes emergency messages come your way. Instead minimize it. It will be in the background checking for new messages every 10 minutes. It should inform you when there is a new message.

4.        You should empty your inbox regularly. That way you will not miss important mail. You do not have to delete messages. You can create new folders and transfer “keepers” into these new folders.

5.        Make sure your clock is set with the correct date and time. Your computer clock dates the messages that you send out. If your clock says it is 1992, then the recipients computer will think it is a very old message.

6.        You can arrange your email messages in many different ways. It is possible to accidentally change the system in which message queue up. If you were expecting a message and it did not come, check the VIEW tab to make sure that messages arranged by the order in which they were received.

7.        Be very careful with your mouse. Many people in the past have thought they were deleting one message when they actually deleted a bundle. Usually “deleted” messages can be recovered. See Mr. Drennon for instructions.

8.        Do not slow down our network and clog email boxes with spam. Be professional with your communications. Do not send your jokes to the entire faculty. If you have a few friends that appreciate this, stick to sending to those friends.

9.        USING UPPER CASE LETTERS IS LIKE SHOUTING!!!! Be considerate and use mostly lower case letters and reasonable sized fonts.

10.      Use rich text format when sending documents as attachments. Make sure you check attachments with virus-checking software. Just this past week, someone (or his infected computer) tried to send an infected screen saver called wrapper.scr and another a bgcolor.exe that carried a virus. Don’t do that!! Our LAN email server does scan all email for viruses, but it is possible for a new virus to be missed.

 

 

Classroom supervision

1.        Absolutely no student is to be in your classroom using a computer without adult supervision.

2.        There are no exceptions to rule #1.

3.        Students are notorious for bringing in viruses to our network. They are not to download any programs from a floppy disk unless it is first checked by a virus-checking program. Please remind them that documents should be transferred in rich text format (.rtf extensions), not in document format (.doc extensions).  Just changing the extension does not change the type of document. They must save the document on their home computers in rich text format.

4.        Even if a student is bringing files that are not known to carry viruses such as .rtf, .jpg, .txt files, check them first for viruses anyway.

5.        Become familiar with the student AUP (acceptable use plan) and enforce it.

6.        Students can not use our computers unless they have signed the AUP for this school year. Please enforce this rule.

7.        Students are notorious for installing screen savers and changing desktops. Let them know that this is forbidden.

 

Our Internet Connection

1.        There is no dialup or password required. We have a fast direct connection to the internet.

2.        To access the internet, no additional passwords are required. Just click on the icon of the software that you will be using, such as MS Internet Explorer.

3.        Your computer is firewalled from the internet to protect its contents from the outside world. We try to keep that firewall up to date.

4.        If you download any files from the world wide web, news groups, or  other internet connection, place it in a shared C:\downloads folder first and do not open them until they are checked by updated antivirus software. Our network was recently infected by a mp3 file (that was actually not really an mp3 file but disguised as one) that was downloaded from the internet.

5.        Make sure that your web-browser is MSIE 5.5 sp2 or MSIE 6.0. Click on the help button to see If it is not, see me immediately.

 

Internet Email

1.                    Please access your personal email at home and use our school internet email for business use. This should help cut down on viruses.

2.                    Everyone should have a cvc.org email address. If  you do not yet have one,  give Mr. Drennon a username and a password. The password must have at least six characters.

3.                    Your internet email address will be username@cvc.org

4.                    If you want a different internet email address for personal use at home, give Bill Drennon an user name and password for that one too. The advantage of having a cvc.org email address is that we will soon have both spam and virus protection on all cvc.org email. That will reduce infections between home and school.

5.                    To set up your email on a home computer, set your POP3 server (incoming mail) to mail.cvc.org.  Keep your SMTP server (outgoing mail) to your ISP’s address. Make sure the return address is set for your cvc.org email address. If you have specific questions, contact Bill Drennon.

6.                    You are not allowed to download attachments from emails to your school computer unless you have anti-virus software on your computer. We do not put antivirus software on all computers because these programs often slow down computers, sometimes cause conflicts with other software, and may slow down your computer’s clock. You are better off, transferring attachments to your home computer.

7.                    Never use web-based email such as hotmail, yahoo, etc on school computers.

8.                    Students are not to check their email on school computers. If you want a classroom cvc.org email address or some separate student cvc.org email address for classroom work, this can be arranged.

 

Printing

1.        Your default printer is the copy machine that is closest to your room.

a.        For preschool and K-4 classrooms, this digital copy machine is located in the west campus office.

b.       For Grades 5-8, the digital copy machine is located in the middle school work room

c.        For high school, the digital copy machine is located in the high school office.

2.        For color printing, use the HP LaserJet 4600dn printer that is closest to your location.

a.        For preschool and K-4 classrooms, this color LASER  printer is located in the K-4 workroom

b.       For grades 5-8, this LASER printer is located in the middle school office.

c.        For high school, this LASER printer is located in the back room of  the high school  faculty lounge.

3.        Please use the color LASER sparingly. The most cost efficient to the school is the copy machine.

4.        Printing to the copy machine directly gives a much clearer image than making a copy of a copy. It is also faster and more cost-efficient.

5.        Make sure that you pick up your copies immediately after sending them through the network. Also check that you are not picking up the copies of others.

6.        Always check to see that the machines still have paper when collecting your copy. That way the next user will not be frustrated upon trying to pickup copies that were never printed due to an empty paper tray.

7.        If there is a jam or other problem, notify the secretary of your school immediately. Be gentle with the printers. They are fragile and expensive. If you do not know how to clear a problem, seek help form someone who does. Never use brute force.

8.        Both the copy machine and color LASER contain hard drives where print orders are stored in times of heavy use. Printing jobs are done in the order in which the queue. It is possible for someone to be physically making a copy at the machine, but a network job is printed ahead of them or during their process.

 

 

 

WinSCP

1.   WinSCP is freeware that we use to access our internet web site and to transfer files between home and school.

2    Through WinSCP, you can load pages onto your cvc.org website from home or from school.

3    Through WinSCP, you can store files on our internet server for accessing both at home and at school. It can be very handy.

4    To use WInSCP, you need to know the IP address and have a valid username and password (at least 6 characters). This would be the same username and password that you choose for your website… if you participating in our website.

5   WInSCP is just the software that is used. The actual files are stored on a computer here on campus. It is secure OpenBSD machine, much more reliable than a Windows machine, for this type of application.

6. To setup WinSCP,

Enter host: 206.171.191.4

Username: enter your case-sensitive user name

Password: enter your case-sensitive password

Port: 22

 

Accelerated Reader

1.        The Accelerated Reader Program is being upgraded to a newer version.

2.        It will have a new look and feel

3.        Tests and books will be saved in a new format on the server

4.        We hope to have it going within a couple of weeks.

5.        I will get back to you.

 

Our Severs

1.        HUNTER SERVER:  Stores grades and administrative information. It is also called “School Minder”  The grade book program used by middle school and high school teachers interfaces with this server.

2.        ATHENA SERVER:  Accesses our school libraries. See what books we have, what is on the shelf and what is out. With special permissions, it is possible to find out who owes fees, who has books that are overdue, when books should be returned, etc.

3.        AR SERVER:  Serves our Accelerated Reader program.  Though tests are taken by elementary students on classroom and library computers, the data is actually stored on this server, through the network. If a classroom computer does not show a list of students or books, there is probably a network problem between the server and the classroom computer.

We will soon be upgrading the AR server to a different version.. so more about that when this is accomplished.

4.        LAN email server.   Acts as a post office for CVC LAN Email

5.        mail.cvc.org email server Located physically on campus and carrying both a LAN IP address with firewall and an Internet IP address. So even if the internet connection is down, you can still send and receive interent email from  your campus computer.. though there will be a delay in sending out your email from the server until the actual connection is reinstated.

6.        home.cvc.org webserver:  Located physically on campus, but not connected to our LAN. Instead it has only an internet IP address. We communicate to this server via our internet connection from school or from home. The bulk of our website is here.

7.        Drennon.org webserver:  For advanced computing students work and learning.

8.        www.cvc.org webserver:  Located in Fresno at the gateway or our internet T-1 connection. Thus if our T1 internet line is down, our website can still be accessed by the outside world.

9.        Anti-virus servers:  Detect viruses when they show their ugly head. There are several of these located throughout our campus.

10.     Backup Servers: There will be backup servers on the three main campuses where you can backup and retrieve your personal files.

 

Computers and Health

1.        Computer mice and keyboards can be vectors for desease. Be sure to wash your after using your computer…before eating, placing your hand on your eyes, etc.

2.        Computers are particularly notorious for spreading  pink eye, certain fungus diseases, and some viruses.  (The same is true for public phones) The younger  the grade, the greater the risk.

3.        Remind students, too, to wash hands after using the computer.... even better: before and after. To kill germs, it is recommended that soap be used for atleast 20 seconds before rinsing.

4.        Too long at the keyboard in any one stretch can be harmful. Take breaks.

 

 

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