March 10 to April 25, Summary

by Job Requests

Posted on April 25, 2017

Amanda Lampkin, April 13 – reported problem with trackpad. OS updates resolved problem.

Tech Plan – completed and submitted to school board. Approved April 17.

Marie Prewett, April 11 – reported a printing problem, seems to have resolved with a restart.

District VOIP Phones – posted in tech/assessment newsgroup for recommendations, overwhelming support for ShoreTel product and several vendors recommended. Contacted vendors and asked them to talk to the Superintendent. Attended meetings and webinars. Recommended Beasley and Shortel.

eRate – completed bid packet and submitted. Included VOIP service from ATT. Responded several times for requests for more information. Traveled to Kellogg & Sovereign to expedite the process. Now complete.

Janet Mullins – requested data transfer after she retires. Will use the new transfer tool from Google on April 27.

Cybersecurity – after attending the conference, I updated our website resources.

Writing Lab, April 4 – HP LJ4200 toner depleted. Ordered a replacement and installed it.

Kristina George (sub for Emily Fixico), April 4 – reported that the speaker felll off the wall in the classrooom. Upon inspection, I noted that the anchor screws had missed the stud in the wall. Will need to bring tools to correct this.

Ronda Garner, April 4 – informed me that Beasley had never billed us for wiring job last fall. They were apparently email Bob Neal (former superintendent). She got the invoice and I signed it (April 25).

District SmartNotebook Software Renewal, April 10 – received notification for renewal of license, submitted PO and received new license code.

Don Gallagher, April 10 – asked about ordering Photoshop, when I showed him how it would cost $385 per year we started looking for a replacement. I researched this and recommended PIXLR, a free web app. I sent an email to faculty which included the web site and also linked to several tutorials for the app.

Colleagues,

I used to love using PhotoShop. Then Adobe forced schools to start paying an annual subscription instead of selling a license. The last version of PhotoShop we purchased isn't compatible with the current operating system, so I have been scrambling around trying to find something free to create graphics and edit photos. Let me tell you about PIXLR.

First of all, PIXLR is a free web app. You can also download a mobile version for your phone or tablet free. As you might guess, there are ads and in-app purchase are available, but you can do a lot without spending any money. You can even create a free account to access their library services and access your work from any device.

Second point, the interface is very different from PhotoShop. So there may be some learning and adjusting if you were as addicted to PhotoShop as I was. 

Lastly, I've provided some links below to the PIXLR website and some videos to introduce you to this product. I'm sad we can't use PhotoShop anymore. Even the educational pricing for it runs $300 per seat per year. In my mind, that's ridiculous, greedy, and poor marketing. If Adobe would give it to schools, then when these kids hit the job market they would be far more likely to influence their employers to purchase and use it. But that's the way it goes... 

Here is PIXLR:
https://pixlr.com/

An introductory video to show you how get started creating graphics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y28QW05xtI8

Design Basics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txP6b8ZeRUc

Magic Wand and Lasso:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYyc5Gk7JGw

Layers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txP6b8ZeRUc&t=8s

Enjoy…

Amanda Maxwell, April 3 – requested help with a Windows Tablet. These were provided from GearUp. Karis Reavis helped her get it working before I could respond.

Smanatha Adkins, April 3 – reported that a message of lamp reaching end of life was coming up on her SmartBoard projector. I salvaged a bulb from a projector that had failed and installed it in her projector. That will help for a while.

District Surplus Inventory – gathered and inventoried all the broken and obsolete technology equipment. I place surplus on the agenda for the April board meeting and had the list declared as surpluse. American Recycling picked up the equipment on Friday, April 21. 

Website, March 28 – spam was being posted to the Job Request blog as comments, so I closed the comment permissions. Contacting Gabbart Communications I found out that they are soon implementing Captcha checks.

Sean Walker – reported problem with email links on web pages opened the Apple Mail app which we no longer use. I changed his system setting to use Google mail instead.