Monday, June 3, 2013

Year-end tech procedures

Please help us make summer school and the fall successful by doing a few checklist items!

If you brought in a personally-owned monitor please take it home. All CRTs ("tube" monitors) will be replaced with LCD (flat) monitors this summer.
Remove CDs, DVDs, and USB devices from the computer.
Remove everything from your computer and monitor
(e.g. sticky notes, tape, pencil holders, decorations, awards, gum, mysterious life forms, etc.) If you plan to replace them next year, just store them somewhere. Or go crazy and throw them out, giving you a fresh start in the new year. This helps us work more quickly when replacing 200 computers.

Delete old and unused files from the Video (V:), Home (H:), and "share" folders (that you own, of course). If you don't specifically need it as part of curriculum next year, it's just using up valuable and limited space on the network.
Turn in mobile devices. We need iPads, Chromebooks, and laptops for summer school! Please turn in iPads to your library (if that's where you checked it out from) or to the district IT office (if it is assigned to you primarily). We will update the iPads for next year. The wireless network names will change and we will update each school-owned computer/iPad/Chromebook with the new credentials over the summer. If you don't turn it in, you won't be able to connect to the new network!

If your main computer is a laptop and you are not a year-round employee, you must turn in your laptop
on your last day of work or the last day of Curriculum Academy to the IT office. We know that some people get really emotionally attached to their laptop (I can relate), but we need you to part with it for a while so we can do routine maintenance. You can pick it up about a week after you drop it off if you really want it back over the summer.
If you are a year-round employee whose main computer is a laptop, please schedule a time with the IT department when your computer can be updated (i.e., you can be without it for a day).
Summer AV procedures and cleanup
If your room is being used for summer school (which is pretty much all of PVE and half of NKE), please don't pack up your SmartBoard items and AV stuff; the summer school teachers have requested projectors and SmartBoards. Please label everything, though. Summer cleaning involves moving everything in your room into the hallway (along with everything from the other classrooms) and sometimes things get switched around. Labeling helps fix this. Using Velcro to attach remotes to the devices they control is also handy.

Those of you at
all other buildings, please:
  • label all movable items especially SmartBoard USB connectors and put them into a bag in a secure place in your room
  • remove all batteries from remote controls. (i.e. Projectors, TV, boom boxes.) This keeps the batteries from draining over the summer, or worse, corroding inside the unit. You may want to label the batteries or tape them to the thing they came out of so you know where they go when you come back.
  • Unplug all power cords from all A/V equipment in your room, including TVs.

Thanks for your help with this! Please contact me with any questions.