Music Apps in the Classroom

 Greetings students!  In recent weeks we have had a great number of requests related to student devices playing music in the classrooms.  At MMHS, the student handbook on page 59 is quite clear.  Music listening in the classroom is prohibited.  

Students should not be using Spotify or similar music-playing apps for streaming music in school.

Similarly, students should not be using YouTube to listen to music.  Please cooperate with us so that we can continue to keep YouTube available to students as an instructional resource.  Thank you for your cooperation.

Cleaning School Assigned Technology

 Welcome back to school!  We're glad to see student faces in the classrooms and hallways.  We prepared something that may be helpful for keeping your school devices clean and in good working order.  

See instructions here. 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1I1tYCbGxQclInmtraSJs2FYth0OOnlEYYnfxVCQkRfo/edit?usp=sharing

Laptop Changes 2019-20 at MMHS

Welcome back to school!  We made a bunch of changes to how some things operate which should help you.  You can read about those changes HERE.  You may also see this post on the school website at this address:  http://www.madawaskaschools.org/technology/laptop-changes-19-20

Changes to the printing system and JAMF's Self Service portal make up the majority of the changes.  Students are also reminded that they must have their laptop protection plan fee paid prior to taking the devices home.  See the Tech Office for the tags that go on your laptop.

Have a great year!

Personal Cell Phones in School

This is a friendly reminder from the Tech Office.

Students are reminded that their cell phones are to be turned off when they enter the building in the morning.  If we find you using your phone during the school day, the phone will be confiscated and turned in to the office for your parents to recover.  This includes having hotspots running on your phone.  All hotspots give off enough information that we can grab to identify the user’s phone, so it’s in your best interest to turn your phone off in the morning and keep it that way.  

Should there be any questions, please feel free to contact the Tech Office.

System Lock on MacBook Air

Hello Students,

Recently some students have had their school issued computer locked down remotely due to one violation or another.  When this happens, the Tech Department staff sends out a command that locks the laptop screen similar to this image.

System lock PIN screen

When this happens, there are a million different combinations that can be tried but only one combination that will work.   DO NOT TRY GUESSING the combination, because after three wrong guesses, you will have to wait.  Each time your computer reboots, you will have to wait a longer time before you get three more tries.  After a while, you end up caught in a vicious loop.
Once caught in that loop, even our local tech support can rescue this Mac.  It will need to be sent out to the Repair Depot and they have to replace the logic board (motherboard) of the computer.  This is a costly and unnecessary expense.

From this point forward, if you see this screen you should report to the Tech Office immediately.  Anyone who has to have their machine sent out unnecessarily for this issue will be responsible for paying the bill to replace the logic board on their machine.

The vast majority of our students follow the rules and will never see this screen.  If you do, you should "face the music" and get the issue resolved before making it any worse.  As always, please see us if there are any questions.

Vincent Vanier & Paul Chasse
Tech Department Staff

Why it's Time to Update your MacBook to Sierra

MacOS 10.12 Sierra is the latest version of your laptop's operating system.  Many users have not yet updated from MacOS 10.11 El Capitan.  Here are some reasons why you should do the upgrade.

1. AUTOMATIC UPDATES  In the new operating system, you can turn on automatic upgrades so that your machine has the most secure features and functions automatically installed on your laptop.  This will happen in the background, keeping you running with the latest and greatest.
2. IMPROVED SPEED, SECURITY, AND BATTERY LIFE  Improvements to the operating system allow you to leverage new technology to improve performance on the computer.  The difference is noticeable.
3. OPTIMIZED STORAGE  Sierra now used various techniques to automatically reduce the amount of storage used on your MacBook.  If you choose to login to your iCloud account, it will increase the amount of local storage automatically as well.  Disk speed also improves due to the new file system.
   
4. WELCOME, SIRI!  Apple's intelligent virtual assistant Siri now comes to the MacOS in Sierra.  Using keyboard commands you will be able to ask the laptop questions that Siri will answer.  Long available on iPads and iPhones, this voice recognition tool allows your laptop to answer your questions more quickly and effortlessly than ever before.
5. BETTER APP STORE PERFORMANCE  The Mac App Store is the place you can go to get various Mac applications.  In Sierra, you now get an App Store preference panel that allows you to configure how you get notifications and updates of these applications.  This is a very convenient new feature.  Check out the article at http://osxdaily.com/2016/01/27/save-mac-app-store-password-free-downloads-osx/ for more information.
6. MacOS 10.12 Sierra IS FREE This update is free.  Simply click on the App Store icon to launch the App Store.  The Sierra update should be at the top of the screen.  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/macos-sierra/id1127487414?mt=12

Technology at the Madawaska School Department

The Madawaska School Department has been able to integrate technology in a lot of different areas of the school.  This presentation outlines the essential questions about our Technology Department such as Who, What, Where, When, Why, How, and How Much when it comes to the use of technology.  Our students are very lucky to get a combination of technology at their disposal along with the support to make it work and courses to challenge them.

PDF  (Text of presentation)

YouTube Presentation  (Narrated Video)

Presentation on WOWL (WOWL Video of the March 17th presentation)