Quick Tech Updates

Welcome back!  It is always an exciting time of year.  I wanted to update everyone on some of the technology changes over the summer.  Some are behind the scenes while others are a bit more obvious.

I am sure all of you get annoying emails from wealthy people in Africa wanting to GIVE you money or from phishing scams regarding some fictitious bank account.  I get them, too - usually a few each day.  All of our outside email passes through MoreNet on its route to your inbox.  MoreNet applies their filters and tries to catch as much spam as possible.  Some estimates I have seen show that spam constitutes 80% to 90% of all email.  In other words, if you get 100 messages delivered to your mailbox each day from outside sources, then there are another 900 messages that are filtered out before they get to you.

I have been trying to learn more about gmail and google in recent weeks, making myself use gmail as a compiler of all of my email accounts.  One of my complaints initially is that when I compose an email, I frequently want to open another email to copy or refer to something.  That is a feature I could do with our Willard Web-mail.  I just learned that gmail has a feature that lets you pop your mail out into its own window.  It is called the "new window" icon and it is located in the upper right hand corner.  Simply click the compose new mail button.  When the window opens look in the upper right hand corner above the To: box.  It is two small boxes with an arrow in the middle.  When you click on the icon, it opens your compose mail window into a window of its own.  Then you are free to search your other emails without interfering with your new mail window.

I have been trying to learn more about gmail and google in recent weeks, making myself use gmail as a compiler of all of my email accounts. One of my complaints initially is that when I compose an email, I frequently want to open another email to copy or refer to something. That is a feature I could do with our Willard Web-mail. I just learned that gmail has a feature that lets you pop your mail out into its own window. It is called the "new window" icon and it is located in the upper right hand corner. Simply click the compose new mail button. When the window opens look in the upper right hand corner above the To: box. It is two small boxes with an arrow in the middle. When you click on the icon, it opens your compose mail window into a window of its own. Then you are free to search your other emails without interfering with your new mail window.

_________________________ Bob Andrus, Technology Director Willard R-II School District

I know some of you are using Google to check or "pop" in to get your Willard mail as well.  I do this as well, but always caution people that there is a 10-15 minute lag in the mail being delivered in Google.  Now gmail has built in a "refresh" feature that lets you tell gmail to go check your other accounts.  To activate it, simple open your gmail account, go to settings and then click the labs area in the tabs on the upper right.  Scroll down until you find the item called "Refresh Pop Accounts" and click enable.  Save your settings and you will see a new label in gmail called refresh.

I recently had a conversation with someone that pointed out to me how little most people know about searching.  I agree.  Most people throw in a quick word or phrase and just rely on luck.  Here are some tips from a google cheat sheet to help you get started making better searches  Try some of these in your google search box and see if they make sense:
EXAMPLE...................FINDS PAGES CONTAINING...

vacation hawaii ...............the words vacation and Hawaii

Maui OR Hawaii ...........either the word Maui or the word Hawaii

"To each his own" ..........the exact phrase to each his own

virus-computer ...............the word virus but NOT the word computer

+sock ............................only the word sock, and not the plural or tenses

~auto loan ......................loan info for auto and its synonyms: truck, car, etc

define:computer ............definitions of the word computer from the web

red * blue .......................words red and blue separated by one or more word

I'm feeling lucky ..............takes you directly to first web page returned

For more search tips check out the "explore google search" page.

Have you ever had to fill out a PDF form and your only real choices were to print it out and hand-write the form or use a typewriter.  (Does anybody still have a typewriter?)  Janetta sent me a link to a handy website that will allow you to fill out a pdf form online, download it, and save, print or email it.  The link is simply:
https://www.fillanypdf.com/

I played with it a bit and it works great.  The only stipulation is that it can't be a form with several pages.  I do not know the limit but I had good success with a two page form.  There is even a free-hand pencil tool if you want to try your hand at a signature.

This one is for you Google addicts out there. I love google. It is clearly rewriting the way we do things on a daily basis. Their gmail and google docs are very popular and their search engine is widely used. And don't even get me started on some of the neat concepts and ideas in google labs. But did you know that if you are have a gmail account / google account, then google tracks your information such as search history? I read an article the other day about a new feature in Google called google dashboard. Sure enough, I can go back and look at my search history - when logged into gmail- for the past 2 and 1/2 years! I guess it is a useful feature if I wanted to look back at something I had searched for, but I am not sure why I couldn't just search again. I guess it is useful if you are worried that someone is using your computer to look up inappropriate subjects. But I couldn't help feeling just a bit "invaded" when I learned that they were tracking my history. Something about seeing exactly what I was reading in April, 2007 makes me paranoid.

I recently attended a mini-conference on some of the seldom used "neat" features of google. Did you know google would do these things?

• To see the weather for many U.S. and worldwide cities, type "weather" followed by the city and state, U.S. zip code, or city and country.
• To see current market data for a given company or fund, type the ticker symbol into the search box. On the results page, you can click the link to see more data from Google Finance.
• To see the time in many cities around the world, type in "time" and the name of the city.
• To see scores and schedules for sports teams type the team name or league name into the search box. This is enabled for many leagues including the National Basketball Association, National Football League, National Hockey League, and Major League Baseball.
• To use Google's built-in calculator function, simply enter the calculation you'd like done into the search box.

To learn more about some of the neat features built into google (such as restaurant and movie find, populations, measurement conversions, etc. - click on the link.

I came across an article in pcmagazine about the 25 Golden Rules of Email. Some of them are pretty good. I picked out and paraphrased a dozen of my pet peaves. If you would like to read the entire article you can click on this link

1. Beware of hoaxes - Whenever the opportunity strikes to pass on some juicy tale of woe that has hit your inbox, first visit Snopes.com.

2. Don't perpetuate pointlessness - Your friends are too polite to ask you to stop, and everyone else is far too busy dealing with important messages to wade through nonsense emails.

3. Don't hand out your email address like candy - Give it only to friends and coworkers. Eventually all addresses get spammed, but keeping it close will delay this for a while.

4. BCC is your friend - use it to send a copy of an email to someone you want to stay informed yet the recipient does not know it.

5. Subject lines matter - people receive hundreds of messages a day and the subject line helps get yours read.

6. One topic per message - tracking multiple topics in a message - and responding to them - is difficult.

7. Avoid huge attachments - First and best option: Share a link rather than the actual file.

8. Attach what you promised - everyone forgets. Just try to minimize that mistake.

9.Trim excess in replies - trim away the extra appended messages at the bottom of the email replies.

10. No all caps - typing in all caps is annoying and the internet equivalent of Yelling.

11. Know your audience - you don't talk to your parents the same way you talk to your friends.

12. Create a useful signature file - at the very least it should contain your name, title, and contact information.

By now, many of you have made the leap to webmail and away from eudora. It has some limitations, but the benefits of webmail far outweigh the limits... but that is another post for another time. I wanted to point out a little used feature of webmail that might work well for you. There is a built-in calendar where you can setup your appointments and even set your calendar to email or text you prior to the appointment. It is really very simple, especially if you are just wanting an email reminder. If you want to setup a text reminder, just email me for more specific instructions - there is an additional step that I can help you with.

You - and parents - may now access all of the Willard library circulation catalogs online. My first grader can see what books the East library has on animals or monster trucks. He can see details about the book, reading level, number of pages, etc - and if the book is available. How cool is that???

Congratulations to the librarians for taking on this project and a big thanks to Scott for making it come to pass! BTW - there are 4 books about monster trucks at the East library. I am sure we will be investigating them in the coming days.

This message is not intended to single anyone out, but merely to make a comment or two about email etiquette.

Dramatization: If you wanted to get a message to all of the math teachers at the high school, would you consider telling every single teacher at the school in order to get the message just to the math teachers? Of course not, yet that is exactly what some do with email. Frequently, we see an email to one of the mailing lists that is actually intended for only 4 - 6 people. Sending an email to a mailing list for only 6 people may save you time, but generates a lot of extra email. Okay, what if it is for Math and Science teachers at the high school? Where do you draw the line? That becomes personal preference, but you do have to consider the numbers. If you are at the high school, for example, and the hsstaff mail goes to 75 people, you are sending it to 8 - 12 that need the mail, but you are also sending it to at least 60 that have no interest. If it is an attachment that you are sending, then it becomes an even bigger issue. Aren't you, in essence, spamming the 60 users that it was not intended for?

So here are your choices: Send it to everyone when only a dozen need it, or take a minute to type in addresses of the teachers you need. There is a better way to handle it.

Take some time over the summer to work on developing an address book in your email program. Think of possible combinations of people you would be emailing from time to time. Maybe you are a kindergarten teacher and occasionally you email the other Kindergarten teachers in your building. Put them into an address book. Maybe you are a support person and from time to time you email all of the teachers of a certain grade level in your building. It will take some time, but put them into an address book. Create an entry for each grade level and combination that you might need. One more tip - when you are emailing another Willard staff member, you do not need to put the complete address, only the username. For example, to email me from your Willard email account, you only need to put bandrus on the To: line.

Address book entries are a much better way of handling it than mailing it to 50 or 75 people when it was only intended for 4 or 5. You just avoided creating email pollution.

Last summer we developed the Classified page so that teachers could post individual items and announcements. Then we do not use school email to make personal announcements. I think it has been a success this year and has made a significant dent in the number of personal emails sent out to the mailing lists. If you have not read that page lately, here is the link: Classified Blog

If you need help in posting an announcement to the classified blog, go to the blog address above and read the very first post. It will tell you everything you need to know.

I have been suffering from blog-drought again.  I always feel guilty when I fail to get one or two articles out per month.  I just didn't ever get into any kind of rhythm in February with the snow days and the inconsistent schedule.  This entry is just a quick hit on the topic of the work order system.

Our work order system is designed to give us quick notification of a problem or a project to work on.  We use it to gather data about how our machines are functioning.  We also use it to gather data about how good a job we are doing in repairing / correcting problems.  For example, since the start of the school year, we are averaging just over a two day turn around on work order completions.

The problem is that data is inaccurate.  Too many people are not using the work order system.   We recieve emails and phone messages about problems and we plug them into our schedule, but there is no correlation to the work order system.  So, many projects and repairs are going unrecorded.  We need to keep this data as accurate as possible for our records, but also to show needs and repairs.   Please try to use the system for all of your tech requests, no matter how small you think they may be.  It gives us a clearer picture of our needs and our track record.

Just a quick hit about a sore subject.  I probably should have taken a firm stand on this a few years ago and by not taking that stand, I have created a monster.  (caution: rant ahead) Do not post your email with an automatic link on your blogs and webpages.  These posted addresses are picked up by scanning software and used to compile lists for junk email and spam.  Take your email address off of your blog or webpage.  Encourage those that compile the page for your school to find an alternative to posting the email link.  Will that solve all of your spam and junk mail issues?  No, but it is a start. 

We went away from using difficult to remember IP addresses last year on most of our sites.  We did that by registering domain names associated with the school.  Obviously our www.willard.k12.mo.us and http://willard.k12.mo.us names are well known, with the first being our district site and the second being our email name/blog site.  We also own the http://neon.willard.k12.mo.us name that currently serves as the hrportal site.  Did you realize we also own www.willardr2.net for our border manager server.  That server hosts several teacher websites as well as some school pages.  Using that same naming system, we registered these addresses:

http://acuity.willardr2.net for the district acuity testing site

http://calendar.willardr2.net/default for the sub calendar page

http://moodle.willardr2.net for the moodle server

http://plink.willardr2.net/sisparent/parlogon.asp for parent link

Two other important sites that are not hosted locally but still are registered for Willard Schools are:

http://www.sisworkorder.com/WICO/  for district work orders

https://sistime.sisk12.com/WICO for the district time clock

We will be adding another site in the coming weeks for online employment applications.  Changing addresses on webpages is a slow process.  If you come to link on someones school or classroom page, send me an email and I will tell them to change the links on their pages to the registered name.  It will work either way, but it looks more professional and is easier for parents to remember.

I am always being asked about spam. My response is to try to guard your email address as best you can. I ran across this list on epals.com the other day. It is very straight forward and similar to what I usually tell people:

1. Ensure that email addresses are not posted anywhere publicly viewable on the Internet. Using an email address on a webpage, a public bulletin board or newsgroup posting is a sure way to be picked up by spam mailers who comb online resources for more addresses.

2. Users should also be asked to avoid signing up for free offers and commercial mail distributions lists (joke-a-day mailing lists are a good example), as the main way many of these companies make a profit is by selling lists of email addresses to spammers.

3. Users should never reply to spam email, as it often simply serves to confirm to the spam mailer that the mailbox in question is a valid address.

4. Once an email address is known to spam mailers, it is essentially impossible to completely stop the flow of spam messages.

Here is the bad news. If you are concerned and reading this it is probably too late because you are on some spam lists. There are some settings in both Eudora and Webmail that allow you to do some filtering by subject line. We do not filter at the server level. Our only filtering is done through Morenet, before the mail ever gets to the server, so there is not much I can do about it except tweak the settings on my webmail filter.

Note:  This only applies to new teachers or those that are switching buildings.  If you were a member of a list last year, I have imported those to the new serer.  You do not need to rejoin.