One Link to Rule Them All....

If you cannot find a work-related link you were looking for, it's probably at http://s.oregonsd.net/nav

This page is the replacement for the links that use to be on the OSD Start Page, before it was discontinued by Google. Now, you have both the Navigation page and a personal iGoogle page which you can customize to your heart's content.

Browser recommendations from Skyward and IT

Tech note from Skyward regarding supported Web Browser Versions:

The latest versions of Firefox (PC), Safari (Mac) and Internet Explorer (PC) web browsers run well with Skyward’s Web applications.  In performance tests, Firefox and Safari have actually performed slightly better than Internet Explorer.

If your district uses Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) version 7, we encourage you to upgrade to Internet Explorer version 8 because it runs Skyward's Web applications noticeably faster.   The speed improvements in IE 8 are primarily due to improved processing of java script.

Although Google Chrome is not an officially tested web browser for Skyward, many customers have expressed interest in using this browser.  Since Google Chrome follows basic web browser standards, it should work with the Skyward Web applications.  If your district chooses to use Google Chrome, please report any issues to Skyward.

We (OSD IT) strongly recommend using Firefox for all general browsing due to its better speed, stability, and security versus IE. A few applications may still require the use of IE, so it will remain installed on Windows computers. IE 6 has been removed from all computers, and IE 7 is being replaced with IE 8 in an ongoing manner. IE 8 should be installed on all computers within the next six months. We do not officially support Safari or Google Chrome.

The More You Know....

New servers and drive letters- a quick overview

All the servers have been moved and renamed. Here's a cheat sheet including the shortcut drive letters on your computer.

H: is a shortcut to your home folder on a server called osd-home1\staff

S: is the place for sharing files internally with other staff. The share folders on the separate building servers have all been moved to a single server so that you can share more easily with staff from other buildings. These are now called "CommonShare" and are accessible at the S: drive. The building-specific folders are still intact, but that's just because we didn't want to mess with anybody's organization. 

U: is where applications live. You don't really need to use this- it's just where the apps are stored.

V: is a big drive space for storing videos.

W: is a shortcut to a server called "osd-web1" which is (as you may have guessed) a web server. The public can get to this server at http://teachers.oregon.k12.wi.us Many teacher website are hosted here. Don't put anything here if you don't want it to be public.

Here is a screenshot of the local and network volumes as they appear on a Windows7 computer.

Planned website outage Saturday, 8/14, 7-11 AM

SchoolWorld will be performing maintenance on the public website server on Saturday, August 14, 2010 from 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM ET. While there will not be a complete outage during the maintenance window, connectivity will be sporadic during the required server reboots. We appreciate your understanding.

PowerTeacher login blank

Staff Security Settings Screen: Teacher Login ID and Teacher Password intermittently blank

SUMMARY

PowerSchool administrators use the Staff Security Settings page to modify security settings for selected staff members. Intermittently the Teacher Login ID and Teacher Password are blank when the fields are populated with data. Refreshing the screen sometimes causes the Teacher Login ID and or Teacher Password to show. If the screen is submitted before being refreshed, the Teacher Login ID and Password may be overwritten and password will need to be reset.

PREREQUISITE

• Teacher Login ID and Teacher Password fields were previously populated on the Staff Security Settings Screen.

REPRODUCTION

1. Log in to PowerSchool
2. Start Page > Staff > Select A Staff Member
3. View Teacher Login ID and Teacher Password fields.

ACTUAL RESULT

Teacher Login ID And Teacher Password fields are empty.

EXPECTED RESULT

Teacher Login ID and Teacher Password should display data.

WORKAROUND

Refresh screen.

Issue is being researched.

New website! (And how to get to the old one)

Our new public website launched today! It has a great new look and more capabilities, including newsletter services, text alerts to parents, and easier editing of web pages.

We are working on getting accounts created for all staff so you can log in and create your web pages on the new system. Staff who have pages on http://teachers.oregon.k12.wi.us (aka "the W: drive") can still access them at the old URL. Staff with pages on the old CMS server can access them at http://old.oregonsd.org

Once you have instructions for creating your new pages, you can copy and paste your content from your old site to the new one.

Change to Google Image Search mess individual image filtering

On July 20, 2010, Google introduced a new method to more efficiently return image results and provide an enhanced user experience. However, the results no longer include an individual link for each image. As a result, we are no longer able to provide the policy option to block Google image thumbnails by category.

We are still able to enforce the SafeSearch options with all of Google's search functions including image searching.

We know that Google is making every attempt to only return appropriate images with SafeSearch enabled. In the event an image is improperly returned as a SafeSearch result, you can report this image to Google here (requires Google login):
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/removals?hl=en&pli=1

When you issue a new removal request, you'll be prompted to provide a reason. Conveniently, one of the options is, "Inappropriate content appears in our SafeSearch filtered results."
If you would like to read more about Google's Image searching enhancements, you can find the details on its official blog: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/ooh-ahh-google-images-presents-nicer.html

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me directly.
Sincerely,
Rob Chambers
robc@lightspeedsystems.com
Chief Technology Officer
Lightspeed Systems
661.716.7600