Safari Montage: Down for Scheduled Maintenance Tuesday, March 8

Safari Montage will be unavailable due to scheduled maintenance after 4:30 PM on Tuesday, March 8.

Extreme Makeover QC Process Begins at Danny Jones MS

The Extreme Makeover: High Tech Edition Quality Control (QC) process begins at Danny Jones Middle School tomorrow morning, February 24, 2011.

Jan North, MISD Director of Instructional Technology, will lead the QC team of vendor representatives and MISD technicians. If Mrs. North were available for comment tonight, she would likely say something like, “I enjoy talking to the teachers and seeing how excited they are to begin using this equipment with the kids!”

Please click on this link for more information about the training available for teachers on Extreme Makeover equipment.

Extreme Makeover Update: Phases I, II, and III

 

A Promethean engineer returned to MISD earlier today to continue troubleshooting a problem that causes Promethean ActivBoards and ActivSlates to lose connectivity momentarily with computers throughout the day. This problem appears to affect approximately 50 classrooms in the District.

Tests continue at Kenneth Davis Elementary. Some improvement was observed following the installation of an updated set of drivers. The Promethean technical team is developing other remedies, too, based on what has worked in similar settings in other school districts.

Walk-throughs at Phase III campuses are complete. Installations will begin once this set of issues is resolved.

Our engineer from Promethean said, “I will stay on this until it’s fixed.”

 

Extreme Makeover Update: Frequently Asked Questions

These are some common questions about the Extreme Makeover: High Tech Edition Project. Please read and share them with your colleagues.

Please ask any follow-up questions by posting a comment.

Is Phase III going to happen soon?

Extreme Makeover walkthroughs for Phase III campuses are complete. The project is scheduled tentatively for completion this summer. This phase of the project may be completed sooner. However, we want to resolve some issues with boards and hubs within the District (see next question) before placing more orders.

My board/slate loses connection to the computer, and sometimes power, repeatedly during instruction. What’s up with that?

You may have read previous reports about problems that affect approximately 60 Promethean ActivBoards and ActivSlates at various MISD campuses.

An engineer from Promethean will be in the District next Tuesday. We’ve been told, and we expect, that this engineer will remain engaged with us until the cause of this problem is identified and resolved. We will keep you posted.

It is not uncommon to experience problems like these when completing an implementation as large as ours. We remain committed to resolving them and appreciate your patience.

What is the plan for secondary band, choir, and consumer science classes?

Band, Choir, and Consumer Science classes are slated for AV upgrades, too. Because the teacher computer is often located in a separate office, it would not be practical to link the presentation system to it.

Buying an extra computer is not cost effective, and mounted equipment would be limited to use in one room.

A better solution for these settings involves using the presentation carts – which include an on-board computer – that were bought for Perry, Low, and Jobe when these campuses opened. The upgrades at Perry, Low, and Jobe are underway already so that these carts can be used in those rooms. A Promethean slate will be added for use with these carts, which will give them the same functionality as the mounted systems.

What’s the plan for small group instructional settings?

The scope of the Extreme Makeover: High Tech Edition includes large group instructional settings, which typically serve 22 or more students. The influx of equipment into these classrooms is freeing up equipment that will be repurposed in rooms where small group instruction takes place. This is taking place, as quantities allow, at Phase I and II campuses.

As this process of moving equipment has been completed at Phase I and II campuses, principals have been asked to send us their lists of document cameras and projectors so that we can make them available to other schools.

A master list of these items will be published within the next few weeks on the web. We’re calling it “Elmo’s List” instead of Craig’s List. Principals will be able to identify items that teachers still need and order them using a form in the Eduphoria Formspace system.

Currently, we are considering purchasing slates to supplement repurposed AV equipment in small group settings so that all teachers and students will have access to the same types of tools throughout each building.

We’re also working with the leadership of the departments responsible for small group instruction on plans for how to address AV needs for those teachers and students most effectively. We will continue to keep you posted!

Safari Montage Quick Fixes

 

 

 

You may have noticed some quirky behavior in Safari Montage. Here are some instructions that may help:
 

1. Safari content plays through QuickTime instead of Safari player; not all controls are available for your use.The Safari player did not install correctly and needs to be reinstalled.
   Control Panel >> Add or Remove Programs >> Safari Montage Media Player>>Remove

   Restart computer
   Login to Safari Montage (see notes 2 & 3)
   Follow the directions to install the player
   Close the browser
   Open the browser
   Login to Safari Montage 

    

2. Typing “Safari” into the browser within the District does not take you directly to the login page as expected.
   

   Click on the Safari Montage logo to get to the login page.

3. Safari Montage does not play well inside the District or from outside the District

   From within the district, type “Safari” or safari.mansfieldisd.org

   From outside the district, type “safarilive.mansfieldisd.org”