Welcome back from Spring Break! I hope you had some time to relax and are returning to the classroom recharged. In technology we have used the past two weeks to perform several upgrades to our network.
| Internet Filter Update |
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 The Internet filter was upgraded on March 26th. This upgrade will require you to enter your username and password before you can browse the Internet or receive e-mail with images. Your username and password is the same used to check email. It is usually your first name and last initial with no spaces. If you have trouble logging in, please contact the technology help desk at 793-5900 ext.234
Internet filters were first installed on our network in June 2002. Filtering is required by the Children's Internet Protection Act. Our filtering was being done by Websense through our proxy server. A problem with this was that fact that a proxy can be turned off and students know how to do this. The upgrade sends all Internet requests through the filter and prompts you to enter a username and password to continue.
Student filtering is the most strict and is enabled when you log in as username "guest" and password "guest." Teachers and other staff members should use their own username and password to access the Internet. This will enable a less strict filtering policy. For additional information on the filter and other district policies relating to technology, visit the link below.
More Information About the Internet Filters »
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| Technology Training |
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 April 3 - Using technology in a Native American Integrated Studies Unit. Participants will learn how to integrate technology into already existing trade curriculum programs on Native Americans including the Black Hawk State Historical Site. Examples of technology used in the unit include Electronic Journals; Web Quests/Searches; Native American Themed Software; Virtual Tours; Rubrics: On-line Games/Puzzles and Greeting Cards; E-Pals; Portfolio Presentations, and Multi-media (digital images, presentation, and video, etc.).
April 24 - Use Kidspiration or Inspiration Software to integrate technology into your curriculum. These programs help student develop critical thinking, comprehension, and writing across the curriculum through visual mapping, webbing, planning, organizing and more. Learn how the program works, get free 30 day trial downloads from, and develop rubrics for your own units.
Tom Slininger from Moline High School will be teaching two graduate level courses for The Connecting Link during Summer 2003 entitled "Web Publishing for Educators" from June 23 - 27 and "MS PowerPoint for Educators" from July 14-18 at the Blackhawk College Outreach Center. Each class runs for one week and meets from 8am - 5pm each day.
Calendar of Technology Events »
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| Educational Pictures Scholarships |
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 Educational pictures, Inc. is awarding $15,000 in classroom scholarship subscriptions to one hundred schools worldwide. Educational Pictures features a standards aligned image database with a simple interface and image messaging system. Public and private schools are eligible.
To receive a scholarship subscription for one classroom in your school, principals, librarians or teachers can submit a written request to mfisher@gotoep.com with scholarship in the subject field and a short paragraph about how standards aligned images are good for education. The first one hundred schools to email EP starting March 27, 2003 will be awarded a scholarship and passwords good from September 2003 through June 2004. One scholarship is available per school.
Learn more about the scholarship program »
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| Reviewers Wanted |
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 T.H.E. Journal is looking for teachers, administrators, IT staff and anyone else interested in reviewing products for the magazine. Products will include everything from projectors, laptops and PDAs to various subject-specific, administrative and assessment software. Please e-mail your name, school, position and the types of products you would be willing to review to editorial@thejournal.com . All reviewers must be willing to write a 500-1000 word review for the magazine.
Visit the Technological Horizons in Education webpage. »
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