LCSD Connect

 Follow this guide and see if it resolves the issue.

In the last post we talked about signing in to the district help desk, now let us talk about how to submit a help desk ticket. Why is this important? Simply put the more correctly a help desk is filled out the quicker something will be done about the issue or request being submitted. Fun Fact: 5 years ago an IT company audited our help desk system it was discovered that over 90% of all tickets were mislabeled by the creator of the tickets which resulted in significant delays in assistance. The better a person is at submitting a ticket the easier it is for them to get the help they need in the shortest amount of time. So let us pick up where Part 1 of this mini-series left off. We have successfully logged in to the help desk portal and we are presented a screen like this one. This is where you will select several things. Request Type : Is a drop down menu that has categories that you select and then based on your selection you have sub-categories. Subject : Title of the...

Ever wonder why you need to "Submit" a help desk? Always having trouble "Signing in to help desk"? or ever wonder what happens after you "Submit" your help desk ticket? Well fear not, this mini series on help desk is here to help you make the IT department work for you, why you say? well why not! Let's start with the basics; Solarwinds Help Desk is a portal that allows you as a staff member to access help from Clint, Andrew, Jojo, and Odette. It enables us to see who needs help with what and ensures that everyone who needs assistance receives it without getting lost in an email inbox somewhere. So how do I find Help Desk?       Two simple ways to access Help Desk, the first is to open up the "Self-Service" app and the first page has the website bookmarked for you already.         The second way is to open up a browser and type  https://helpdesk.lrcssd.ca: 8081/  (Hint if you ever got an email from me it is in my signature). E...

As you all have been doing so much for your students, I just wanted to say thank you for all the hard work all this transitioning has been on each of you. Behind the scenes I just wanted to let you all know that the Zoom installer for Mac, as well as Zoom and Google Meet apps for iPad are now all in self-service.  I know it has been a popular request so I hope this helps reduce some of your stress in knowing how to reach your co-workers or students. I know many of you have been using the web browser for both but now you might have more flexibility. For Macs you can find the Zoom client under the 'Software' category in self-service and for iPads you can find the Apps under the 'Video Conferencing' category. As always I am only a help-desk away, it does work from home or at school so if you need help with technology do not forget to reach out the IT department. We are all in this together and we will try to support you the best that we can. -Andrew 

Asking the right questions about technology in education. I once had a new teacher ask me how often they should utilize technology in their classroom.   The answer to that question is that it depends how you use it. Here is the longer answer :-) First - I’d like you to watch this video put out by Apple in 2013 that is totally true - I checked out the school and successfully used a lot of their ideas in an outreach setting for high school students.   Essa Academy was a failing school with a high number of lower socio-economic students, high ELL numbers, etc., and yet they pulled a rabbit out of the hat so to speak…. How did they do it, can you tell? Here is the video: Answer: Even though the video focused on technology, it wasn’t the technology!   It was, however, a synergy between sound instructional practices and what technology can enable - this synergy made their incredible success possible. So after watching this you might be pumped a...

Colleen and I are going to be running a level one G-Suite certification program in the division.  We have sent a survey around to everyone's email.  Please take a moment to reflect on how much you use G-Suite in your classroom and how knowing all the in's and out's can benefit you! Thank you, Clint and Colleen

Hi! Welcome to a new blog-series, called "Teeny-Tiny Tech Tips". These are those tips that take 30 seconds to show you, and make people go "Wow!  I wish I had known that before!" If you are reading this post from email, please click here to go to the actual blog - it contains how-to videos and gifs to help you. Today's topic:  Re-opening a closed tab. - Command-Shift-T. (Control-Shift-T on a chromebook) You know when you are working in Chrome and you accidentally close a tab instead of choosing it?  Command-shift T will bring it back. You're supervising your classroom, and a student quickly closes a tab when you come close - Control-Shift-T will show you where they were surfing! Try it!  You'll love it! Happy Surfing!

Becoming an Apple Teacher is an easy and worth while endeavour you can do to increase your familiarity with Apple products in our schools.  Best of all it's free! Why become an Apple Teacher?  To be a better teacher with technology of course. Lakeland Catholic Schools currently has well over 300 MacBooks/iMacs and over 1400 iPads for student use.  Chances are, that if you want to use an Apple product in your classroom you will have the opportunity to do so.  The technology department will be placing most of the ex-teacher computers back into schools to increase the number of laptops schools have available for student use. iPads and MacBooks have certain advantages over Chromebooks when it comes to dealing with assortment of media in your classroom and while Chromebooks can also be used to create a large variety of media, Apple products can do so while using very little bandwidth, which might be a factor in your school. So how do you get started?  First y...

Hey everyone, I totally missed doing a coffee draw in January, so I get to pick two names for this month! Click on "Read More" and then watch the video to see the winners! Congratulations to the two winners!  I'll get your gift cards to you ASAP!!

Engaging students in learning using technology:  Ensuring time with technology is time well spent! Using Technology Wisely In our ongoing series on Learning First, Technology Second I’d like to give you a brief description of the first “E”, or engaging students with their learning using technology. When we engage students in learning we are encouraging them to internalize the learning outcomes from the curriculum.   Having students state what they have learned in their own words is an example of internalizing learning. Some example of engagement from can include (source: https://tripeeframework.com): Guided practice. Modelling thinking. Modelling navigation of the tool. Software tour. I do, we do, you do. Teacher monitoring. Student self-reflective monitoring. Co-use or co-engagement. Purposeful partnering. Gradual release of learning. Create a mentor text. Share-aloud. Turn and talk. Switcheroo - when students exchange digital devices to see...

Smart Notebook Interactive Activities If you are reading this post from email, please click here to go to the actual blog - it contains how-to videos to help you. Smart Notebook has made a lot of changes in the last little while that are meant to help teachers to move their classrooms from a teacher-centered, Smart-Board centred modality to more Student-Centered, indiviualized learning places.  They have created a number of ways to easily make your lessons interactive and facilitate formative assessment quickly and easily. Over the next few blog posts, I will explore a variety of features in Smart Notebook, along with different ways that they might be used in your classrooms. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Option 1 for Interactive Activities - Starting in Smart Notebook Watch the video to see Interactive Activities in action... Here is a preview of each of the different types of interactive activities: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Click here to access a step-by-step g...