Transcript Title goes here - Lower Hudson Regional Information Center

A Review of the Latest
Developments in eChalk
July 23, 2008
Released in 8.5
» Parent Registration for Class Email Alerts
» RSS
Page 2
Class Email Alerts…
» Improve the school-to-home connection
» Allow parents to be informed of child’s class work on
a regular basis via email
» Provide parents with the option to receive email
alerts on a custom schedule or only when content
has been updated
» Prevent parents from having to search for classes
on the school’s Web site
» Automatically generate a database of parents’ email
addresses that can be repurposed for other
notifications
Page 3
How Do Class Email Alerts
Work?
Page 4
School creates & publishes a
parent registration form.
Parent enters his or
her information.
Page 5
Parent is emailed the site
URL and username /
password to login and set up
a class email alert.
Page 6
Once logged in, the parent can
set up a schedule for email alerts
(Daily, Weekly, or only when
content has changed).
Page 7
Parents will receive an email alert in
their Inbox that contains upcoming
announcements and events for all of
their children’s classes.
Page 8
When a parent signs up via the parent registration
form, we’ll automatically create an email distribution
list of all parents’ email addresses. This list can be
used by Site Administrators to communicate
emergency situations, school closings, etc.
Page 9
What’s an RSS Feed?
» RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and it is just
that. It’s a simple way for end users to see a syndicated
feed of data from a Web site.
Page 10
Benefits of RSS
» Allows parents to receive the information they want
in one central location
» Saves parents time by eliminating the need to
search for information on several school sites across
the district
» It’s fast & easy to set up, and very convenient!
Page 11
How Does RSS Work?
Page 12
Click on any RSS icon
within Site
Announcements or
Upcoming Events!
Page 13
Choose the reader you want
to add the content to..
If none of these readers work for you, simply go
to: www.download.com and search for RSS
reader & you’ll find hundreds to choose from!
Page 14
Page 15
New Features Released in 9.0
»
»
»
»
»
»
»
»
Page 16
Blogging Tools
Emergency Alert System
Language Translation Tool
Google Web Analytics Service
Google Search
Enhanced Grade Book Support
Active Directory Support
Storage Upgrade
What is a Blog?
The term “blog” is short for Web log
» Users post journal-like pages to a Web site in
chronological order
» Blog posts often contain photos or media
» Blogs can be commented on by others, allowing for
and encouraging dialogue
» Blog posts can be “tagged” to organize content and
facilitate easy searching
Page 17
Benefits of Blogging for Students
»
»
»
»
Helps students find a voice
Creates enthusiasm for writing and communication
Engages students in conversation and learning
Provides an opportunity to teach students about
responsible journalism
» Safely empowers students
Page 18
How Can a Teacher Use a Blog in Class?
Put a biweekly writing prompt up on the blog and have your students respond to it by a certain day. Ask
them to also comment on one of their classmate’s ideas, drawing a name from a hat or rotating to be sure
that all students receive a comment from someone. Foster peer-editing by asking each student to make a
suggestion for improvements to content and mechanics (editing) of the other student’s submission.
If you use the approval process before allowing student responses to show, you can skim posts to be sure
there is nothing cruel or inappropriate. Invite parents to comment back to their elementary children.
Appoint a weekly blog team in your elementary classroom to write that week’s blog entry, describing the
events of the week in Room XYZ. Invite moms and dads to comment and watch the excitement grow! Soon
you will have students begging to write the summaries.
Practice good reading strategies and check comprehension by asking students to respond to an
assigned reading, reflecting on how it applies to their own experience. For example, after reading a nonfiction piece about the McCarthy Era, students could tell about their own experiences with labeling.
Post a statement with no supporting facts. Ask students to find facts to support or refute the opinion,
using links to reliable Web sites and their own persuasive explanations. This could work well for
environmental issues, political issues, or any topic that is debatable.
Post a link to a Web site related to a topic your are studying and invite students to give their personal
evaluation: Does the site show bias? Does it seem well-researched? Is it a reliable source?
Comment on current events - Post a link to a current events story and ask students to comment on its
implications in your local community or their own lives. Even young students can respond to stories from
the local paper’s online pages.
Page 19
How Do eChalk Blogs Work?
Page 20
Enable
Public
or
Private
Blogs
by
User
Type
Page 21
Create a Blog
Choose a title and theme for
your blog and determine the
appropriate visibility setting.
Page 22
Public
Coffee
House
Theme
Page 23
Read
Public
Posts
and
Subscribe
to New
Content
Page 24
Rate posts
Add comments, email posts to
friends, subscribe to a feed of
interesting posts, and more!
Indigo Theme
Page 25
Pink Butterfly
Theme
Page 26
Dark Cube
Theme
Page 27
Blog:
Public
Profile
Page 28
Emergency Alert Service
» Each user can set up their wireless settings within
their Email > Options page
Page 29
Emergency Alert Service
Page 30
Language Translation Tool
Visitors to your site will be able to convert all
public content into any one of 23 supported
languages using the new Language
Translation Tool powered by Google.
Page 31
Language Translation Tool
» 23 Languages supported:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Page 32
Arabic
Bulgarian
Chinese (Simplified and Traditional)
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Dutch
English
French
German
Greek
Hindi
Italian
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Japanese
Korean
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Romanian
Russian
Spanish
Swedish
Google Web Analytics
Site Administrators
can learn even more
about where visitors
come from and how
they interact with
their site using
Google’s Web
Analytics Service.
Track page views,
compare the number
of new versus repeat
visitors, analyze the
amount of time spent
on your site, and
much more!
Page 33
Google
Search
Tool
Site visitors will now
be able to find what
they’re looking for
even easier using
Google’s robust
search tool directly
from the main
Search option on all
public pages.
Page 34
Enhanced Grade Book Support
» eChalk now also supports easy integration with:
–
Easy Grade Pro 4.0
– Making the Grade 10.0
– Grade Quick 12.0
– Gradekeeper 6.4
» And continues to support:
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Page 35
Easy Grade Pro 3.6
Grade Machine 2.0
Grade Quick 9.0, 10.0
InteGrade Pro 9.0.1
Making the Grade 9.4
MyGradeBook.com
ThinkWaveEducator 2.5.7
Any customized tab-delimited export from a grade book
Active Directory Support
» Create and update eChalk user accounts using your
school’s or district’s Active Directory.
» Once logged into your network, users will be able to
access their eChalk account without having to enter
a username or password!
Page 36
Storage Upgrade
» We’ve increased storage capacity across the board!
– 50 MB of file storage for every user
– 100 MB of email storage for every user
– 50 MB of School & 50 MB of District file storage
– 500 MB of hosting storage
– And, as always, storage space within Classes and Groups
remains unlimited
» And, to provide users with greater flexibility when uploading
files, we’ve increased the limit for attachments in email to 20
MB and everywhere else throughout the application to 100 MB!
Page 37
What is in 9.1?
»
»
»
»
»
Quick search within folders
Auto-filing of email messages
Creating links to RSS feeds via Resources
Third-party application integration (netTrekker +)
Ability to designate whether a link should display within
the same frame or in a new window
» New option to print the calendar without images
Email Enhancements
Quick Search of Folders
AutoFile Old
Emails
Add a
Link to
an RSS
Feed
Page 42
Page 43
Third-Party Applications
Setting to Enable Third-Party Applications
New Area in
Manage
Site>
Account
Settings
Manage Third-Party Applications
Manage Third-Party Applications
Teacher’s View of Applications
netTrekker d.i.
Option to
open
links in
separate
window
Option
to print
without
images
Other v9.1 Enhancements
» Increased character limit in Site, Class, & Group
Resource Titles to 100 characters
» Increased character limit in Site, Class, & Group
Resource Descriptions from 256 to 2K characters
» Increased character limit in Site Resource Body
(Information & News Templates) from 50K to 150K
Q&A
Page 54