Even more Powerful
It is official, we have upgraded to PowerSchool version 7.
Besides all of the great "behind the scenes" changes Pearson made (all Java, etc.) there are some great changes that Teachers and Parent/Students will notice right away.
Here is a video about the major changes to the Teacher Gradebook!
Also see this cute clip about the "Making of PS 7"
iLike the iPad for day-to-day
I attended the PSUG of Michigan Summer Conference in Battle Creek, June 27-28.
My friends from Brother Rice let me borrow a gen1 iPad (thanks Br. Rice!).
I used it both days of the conference and while not everyone agrees (see 10 Things Netbooks still do better than iPads), I found it to be an adequate replacement for carrying my notebook.
One of the things I kept thinking about during the conference was "wouldn't this be a great device to use if I was still in school..." Bingo! I think the iPad or a like device is only a year or two from changing students' lives.
Here are a few things I found:
- Middle School Math a Perfect Fit... (iPADModo)
- 10 iPad Apps that Preschoolers will Enjoy... (Examiner)
- Replacing a Pile of Textbooks with an iPad (NY Times)
Regis in the news: Internet connection
St. Regis didn't get top billing but we did have a nice feature in the local Observer and Eccentric newspaper. click here for the article
The article references a bandwidth upgrade project we completed in August 2010 with Marian and Brother Rice High Schools. See the previous post here.
Since the connection went live earlier this year, we have only averaged 6 Mbps out of a possible 100 Mbps. Looks like we still have some work to do!
Regis LibraryAnywhere
Would you use the St. Regis School Library catalog more if you could search from your mobile phone?
Well the truth is you can view the catalog already but not in a mobile-accesible format.
Enter applications like Library Anywhere. I think we are going to look into this program which allows complete access to the catalog -- even reserving books. Currently available for iPhone and Android devices.
What if we even had a few iPod touches for the library so they students weren't tethered to the OPAC computer?
Read more about the app on LibraryThing.com.
Also see the product website for a live version of the app that you can try out.
Textbook demonstration video
We have created a short video which shows how to get access to the online textbooks.
Direct questions to powerschool@stregis.org.
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Blip.tv video.Apple issues with online Textbooks
Some issues have been experienced by Mac users with viewing the online textbooks. The instructions below should resolve these issues for most Mac users. If you continue to experience problems after following these steps, send an email to powerschool@stregis.org and indicate the MAC OSX version you are using.
General steps to resolve issues on all versions of MAC OSX:
- Download and install Adobe Reader (here)
- Open Adobe Reader, if prompted allow Adobe Reader to be the default PDF program
- Go to Edit -> Preferences - > Internet. Make sure "Display PDF in browser" is checked
- Open Safari (browser), if prompted allow the Adobe Reader plugin to be installed
- Login to PowerSchool and launch a textbook
Online textbooks!
In an effort to (1) extend the life of textbooks ($$) and (2) decrease the weight of books being carried home by students, St. Regis has begun purchasing only classroom sets of new textbooks.
To replace carrying the books home, all textbooks will be made available over the Internet (through PowerSchool). See image.
Can I also consider this another green effort?
Watch a short video about accessing the textbooks.
Where do you see God? 2010
This is my favorite posting to the web all year!
Singing "Me and God" by Josh Turner, the 2010 Kindergarten class presents Where do you see God?
Office 2010 aka Version 14
We have a few users that have tried the beta version of Office 2010. So far so good.
The most frequent comment so far is that the Ribbon interface has been simplified and is present in every application (even Outlook and Publisher). See this article on the MS Office Team blog for a good side-by-side comparison.
The only test left are integration with SharePoint 2010 (don't have the beta yet) and which version to buy. They have narrowed down the product versions, so it looks like we need Professional Plus.
Here is a good article from TechCrunch outlining the changes in Office 2010.
PowerSchool preview
The Technology sub-committee will be presenting an overview of PowerSchool to the community at a special SAC meeting on Tuesday, October 13 beginning at 7 p.m in Room 6 of the School.
PowerSchool provides real-time, secure access for parents to their child’s grades, assignments, hot lunch balances, progress reports and more. PowerSchool is used by some of the top schools in the country and St. Regis will be the first school in the Birmingham/Bloomfield area to deploy this web-based portal.
Below are some preview images from PowerSchool:
Current view of grades for all subjects.
Parents and students can view their current grades in each subject. You can also click on a teacher's name to send an email.
List of assignment and scores for a single subject.
By clicking on a subject, a list of all assignments currently graded is displayed - including point earned and percent/grade.
Description of an assignment in Ed Tech class.
When a teachers includes more information about an assignment, it is viewable by parents. In this example the assignment titled "Excel Lesson 3" was described as "Entering data and creating formulas".
Current lunch balance and list of transactions.
Current lunch balance and each lunch transaction are listed. This listing is live to the minute!
Email alert setup screen.
Parents can setup several different email alerts as well as set the frequency of the alerts (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.).