IT News and Notes

September 2023
Embracing District-Approved Programs
As we begin another exciting academic year, we find ourselves in a digital age where technology plays a significant role in education. It is crucial to ensure that our students have access to the best tools and resources while also safeguarding their sensitive information. In this regard, we would like to highlight the importance of using district-approved programs available through Clever, and the essential role these programs play in preserving our students' data privacy.
The Power of Clever
Clever has proven itself to be a valuable resource for teachers and students across the district. By providing a centralized hub for access to all district-approved programs, Clever simplifies the process of finding and signing in to various programs. However, our emphasis goes beyond the convenience Clever offers. The use of Single Sign-On supports our commitment to student data privacy.
Protecting Our Students' Data
In the digital era, safeguarding student data is paramount. As a district, we continue to take steps to ensure that the programs available through Clever adhere to Student Data Privacy Agreements (SDPAs). These agreements are legally binding documents that require vendors to comply with guidelines to protect students' personal information and data.
We want to assure you that every district-purchased program available through Clever has either already obtained or will soon have a signed SDPA in place. This means that when you utilize these programs, you are not only providing quality education but also prioritizing the privacy and security of our students' data.
Exploring Additional Resources
While district-approved programs should be your first choice, we understand that teachers often seek supplemental resources to enhance their teaching methods. After we have obtained all of the signed SDPAs for our district-purchased / district-supported programs, we will start to look at other FREE programs used by our teaching staff to see if there is already a state-approved SDPA in place. In these instances, we will piggyback on the state agreement and then add the program to Clever. A few examples of these programs are Formative, EdPuzzle, and Quizlet. Our goal will be to have all of the district-purchased programs with SDPAs at least started by October 23rd. We will also try to have a few key FREE programs completed by this time. If you would like to share a FREE program that you use and would like checked to see if a SDPA is already in place, please complete this form. We will start with the programs with the most requests. If there is no state-approved SDPA, we will not seek an SDPA from these vendors. These programs can not be used. We will provide an updated list of these programs here in future IT News and Notes.
A Note on Google's SSO Requirement
October 23rd marks an important date related to our district's technology integration due to Google's Single Sign-On (SSO) requirement. This requirement emphasizes the need for a secure and seamless login experience for both educators and students. We will only implement Google SSO for FREE programs if a signed SDPA is in place.

Together, we will continue to navigate the digital landscape while ensuring the highest data privacy standards.

Last school year, the District Technology Steering Committee set out to find a program to allow for communication through text, email, and voice. This was largely in response to the use of other free programs such as Remind and ClassTag where many teachers and coaches used the texting feature of the program. The challenge with these free programs is the district had no way to retain records, and the responsibility for retention fell on the user of the free programs. The district and the Technology Steering Committee reviewed five programs and ultimately chose Loop because of its ability to deliver on these three key features:
  • The ability to send texts and retain these messages
  • In an emergency situation, Loops ability to quickly send information through text and phone calls
  • Ease of Use (simplistic communication tool). Some of the other programs could do these same things, but they were much more involved and at a significantly higher price point.
Over the summer, we developed a plan for rollout:
  • August / September - We began the school year using Loop to alert families if a bus is delayed. We knew that this would not involve the use of the Loop app, but rather, parents would automatically receive the text messages.
  • September / October - We are now focussing on training for administrators and instructional coaches.
  • October - We will finalize Google SSO for all staff. Once the training is complete for instructional coaches, we will work with a few pilot groups to test at the beginning of October. At this time, we will work out any challenges that are presented.
  • Late October - We will communicate with parents that the Loop app will be available, and our staff will be using it soon.
  • November - Loop will be available to all staff members to use by early November.

We encourage teachers to continue to use Infinite Campus Messenger until Loop is fully operational in November. Our intentional roll-out will hopefully remove as many challenges as possible so we have a seamless transition with the use of Loop.
GIF of the Month - Trying the "New" look in Infinite Campus
Each month, our IT Techs will share a GIF to remind you of an essential item related to Technology in Mentor. This month's GIF shows how you can switch to the new look in Infinite Campus. There are several new features in the "New" look. We've highlighted in Todd's video below that you can learn to FAVORITE tools/locations within IC. This can be a tremendous timesaver!
IT Tips and Tricks

In IT Tips and Tricks this month, Todd shares how to create FAVORITES in Infinite Campus to make it easier to find different tools in the new look! This could be one of the biggest timesavers yet!
IC - Classroom Navigation
You can turn classroom navigation off by going to the Teaching Center then click on the toggle switch to off.
You can find more information visiting the following links:
A Little IT Humor!

Doug always manages to keep things light around our IT office, so each month, he will share something funny relating to the articles in IT News and Notes. At the start of the school year, we recognize the importance of setting up good routines for your students. We are sure the reminder has been given many times over these first few weeks to ensure their devices are charged and ready for learning. Babies and funny faces can always provide a "chuckle"!
Mentor Schools | Adapting, Balancing, Collaborating