Welcome to the Technology Design Team Weekly Lessons Learned! This is a recurring feature on Friday afternoons where the Technology Design Team will share top of mind resources and learning. Each week, we will post a few key things we hope you may find useful. We look forward to sharing our learning with you. We look forward to sharing our learning with you.
Some of the content may be specific to the realities of Austin ISD though, we hope, much will be useful to viewers worldwide. The Weekly Lessons Learned Archive contains a list of topics from and links to previous updates.
Want to use Immersive Reader without having pages enabled in your Course Navigation?
- The Immersive Reader bug that needed Pages to be visible in course navigation to function has been hotfixed in Canvas. Students can once again use Immersive Reader even if ‘Pages’ is hidden in course-nav.
- This video demonstrates how to add and remove items from course navigation in BLEND/Canvas.
- Want to know more about BLEND’s immersive reader function, and how students might use it? Here is a guide to the tool and its features.
- This video demonstrates how to translate a page with Immersive Reader.
How do students check their grades in Frontline?
- This video demonstrates the process.
- Important Note: Currently there is an issue with virtual students accessing grades in Frontline.
What are some helpful resources I can share with caregivers to help them manage and guide the student(s) associated with their parent portal?
- This video demonstrates how to change colors for course tiles and calendar.
- This video demonstrates how to remove the color overlay from course tiles.
- How to Use the BLEND Calendar as an Observer/Caregiver
- Parent Portal/AISD Caregiver Website
- Reminder: If a caregiver is NOT associated with their student in the Parent Portal or Frontline, they will need to contact the campus to get them added to the system. For security reasons, this is not something that can be done by the teacher.
How do students use the webcam to take a photo for an assignment submission in BLEND?
How do students add or remove approved apps on district managed iPads?
- Teachers can push district-approved apps to student devices using the Jamf Teacher app, as demonstrated in this video.
- Students can self-install certain apps (such as Epic) using the Jamf student app, as demonstrated in this video.
How do I make my homeroom course show up as the first listed (and landing course) in Seesaw?
- Students will be rostered in multiple Seesaw classes (Homeroom and Essential Areas). We recommend that HOMEROOM teachers rename their class with an asterisk (*) in front of the class name in order for the class to show up first. Also consider adding an emoji to help students easily identify classes.
Where can I find Seesaw activities shared last year?
- We are currently in the process of checking activity links from weeks 1-4 for PK-2. Some of the shared activities from the 2020-21 contained SafeShare or SafeTube links and will need to be switched out for YouTube links. The affected activities are being noted, but if you come across one we missed, please email Danielle Rivera. Please understand that while we are unable to update the original activity, we will work on providing the working YouTube link directly in the Google Sheet.
What is the best way for students to log into IXL on the iPad so that they do not have to sign in each time?
- This silent screencast demonstrates the process.
- Important Note: IXL at the elementary level is only rostered for reading this year. Students will use Dreambox and ST Math for math in grades K-5. You can find out more information on the AISD STEM website (Austin ISD Only).
Technology Design Team Virtual Office Hours
The Technology Design Team is hosting virtual office hours to help provide real time instructional technology support in the first weeks of school. Virtual Office Hours with the Technology Design Team will happen on Monday-Friday from 8:00-9:00 AM , 11:00AM-1:00PM and 3:00-4:00 PM. Please check the Global Announcement in BLEND for the Zoom link.
If you have a technical support issue (device repair or setup, access to systems, etc), please create a ServiceNow ticket to have a technician address your concern.
Connect. Design. Learn 