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Greenbrier High School
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Computer Use - Reminder |
The use of the computers in Columbia County is a privilege and not a right. Also, many of you may be aware of a Website called Kproxy. This website is created by a company out of France that believes it is wrong for businesses and educational facilities to block access to Internet sites. They have designed their website to be virtually unblockable by Internet filters. This website is considered a hacking tool. Students using this website to bypass our Internet filter are in violation of their network agreement form they have signed. If caught using this website, they will be written up and reported to the administration for inappropriate use of the computer. Technology is working very hard to find a way to correct this issue and hopefully we will have a resolution to that problem. Thanks for helping us look out for the welfare of our students.
The below was excerpted from CCBOE Policy IFBGA:
INAPPROPRIATE USE OF THE COLUMBIA COUNTY SCHOOL SYSTEM TECHNOLOGY NETWORK INCLUDES BUT IS NOT LIMITED TO USERS:
• Accessing, sending, creating or posting materials or communications that could be inconsistent with the district’s educational needs and goals
• Sending verbally abusive, obscene, profane, lewd, vulgar, rude, inflammatory, disrespectful or threatening electronic messages and images
• Placing unauthorized or unlawful information on the system that could cause damage, danger, or disruption, or engage in personal attacks, including prejudicial, discriminatory, or harassing attacks or knowingly or recklessly posts false or defamatory information about a person or organization. Please be advised that student’s home and personal internet use can have an impact on the school and on other students. If a student’s personal internet message creates a likelihood of material disruption of the school’s operations, students may face school discipline and criminal penalties. Our school system takes bullying and harassment by computer very seriously. Students shall not use any Internet or other communication device to intimidate, bully, harass, or embarrass other students or staff. Students who engage in such activity off campus and create a material disruption of school operations shall be subject to penalties for bullying and harassment contained in the Columbia County School System Code of Conduct as well as criminal penalties.
• Vandalizing the system including uploading/creating computer viruses/worms (“hacking”)
• Using the system for financial gain, product advertising, commercial activities, or fundraising that has not been approved by the Board of Education
• Providing personal information such as phone numbers, addresses, social security numbers, etc. without proper authorization
• Violating state and/or federal laws including copyrights, confidentiality, computer fraud and abuse
• Engaging in non-educational games and monopolizing resource time and materials
• Using the identity or password other than the user’s own
(Any user becoming aware of inappropriate use of the Columbia County School System Technology Network should report the inappropriate use to his/her immediate supervisor. In the event of a claim that a student has violated this policy or procedure, the school system will provide the student with notice and an opportunity to be heard in the manner set forth in the Columbia County School System Code of Conduct.)
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USB Jump Drive (Flash Drive)
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Teachers and Students,
When recommending or considering the purchase of a USB Jump Drive (Flash Drive), please consider the following:
1. What type of drive should I select?
Ideally, you want the best value for the dollar and that is understandable. So, certainly make your selection based on the size drive and the best price.
2. Which type of drives work with the CCBOE network?
Fortunately, there are a large number of drives that are compatible. Although, please do not select any drive that says it is U3 enabled or U3 Smart. This type of drive causes some headaches and can be frustating to say the least. The policies that CCBOE has applied on the network will prevent this type drive from functioning as the manufacturers intended, therefore making it very difficult to utilize.
3. What size drive should I purchase?
Since the price on these drives continue to drop the bigger the drive the better. The recommended size as a minimum should be a 512MB. This size of drive will allow for a lot of information to be saved. You would be able to save an entire years worth of work on a drive this size.
4. What should I do take care of my USB Jump Drive (Flash Drive)?
There are a few things to consider for safegaurding your information. Do not place the Jump Drive in the vicinity of your celluar phone. The magnetics of the phone can, and often do, distort the information on the drive, making it unreadable for the computer. Again, refrain from placing the drive on top of the TV, VCR or DVD Player for the same reasons. They are not particually fond of washing machines. It is recommended that if your drive needs cleaning a simple damp cloth on the surface does the trick quite well and is less harmful than the washing machine.
5. Can I purchase a Jump Drive at school?
Yes, the school store located in the Media Center keeps Jump Drives on hand for student purchases.
6. Do Jump Drives require any installation software?
Jump Drives do not require any installation if you are using Windows XP or later. If you are using Windows 98, then you will have to install the drivers necessary to make your drive work. You will probably have to go to the manufacturer's website to download the drivers. Very few companies supply the Windows 98 drivers with the drives. They do make them available for download on their websites.
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The Floppy Disk
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Unfortunately, there comes a time in all technology where the old is replaced with the new. We see this now as we look at the shelves in the local video rental store. How many VHS tapes do they carry for rental purposes? All of those have been replaced with the invention of the DVD.
Likewise, computers experience the same things. It has happened with the fading out of the 1.44mb floppy disk. New computers do not contain floppy disk drives. We must now look to alternate means of saving and backing up our precious data.
You will find that most computers today are equipped with writeable CD and writeable DVD drives. If you look at the front of the drive, you should see CD-R/CD-RW for a writeable CD drive. The DVD drive would display DVD-R/DVD-RW. The R indicates the drive is a writeable drive and must use CD/DVD's lable with the -R indicator. The RW indicates the drive is cablable of re-writing CD's/DVD's and can use either the -R or the -RW CD/DVD's. You will only get the re-writeable to work though using the -RW CD/DVD's.
The new media formats available to us are far more reliable than a floppy disk ever was. We have our choice of CD-R/DVD-R or the very portable USB Jump Drive for capturing our data needs.
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Microsoft Office Updates |
Teachers, Students and Staff,
Please be aware that at this time the computers in the classrooms and some labs are not able to open Microsoft Office 2007 projects. If you have purchased a recent computer and have installed a copy of Microsoft Office 2007, then this applies to you. Please be aware that the following information will help resolve issues here at school. Senior English Teachers, this information is also important for your students to know for Senior Projects.
With all Microsoft Office products, i.e. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, you have a "save as" option available to you. In order to save documents on Office 2007, it is important that you use the "save as" function instead of the normal save option. Using the "save as" option will give you the opportunity to save the document in a format that Office 2002 will be able to read. When you are saving the document, type the name of the document, and then in the save as type drop down box, please select the option that says Office 2002, Word 2002, or PowerPoint 2002 for whichever application your are using.
Should you have a student that fails to follow the procedures above, the computers in the media center have a file converter installed. These computers will allow a student to open and resave an Office 2007 document. If you should have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
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