New Tech Help Request System

The BB&N tech department is pleased to unveil our new help request system this week. It is a system which puts each tech request into a database that allows us to have better accountability, communication, and history of all the requests that we handle. The beauty of it from the customer's point of view [this means you] is that all you need to do is send us an email at "tech help" or help@bbns.org and it will flow right into the system and create a new "ticket" for us to address. Any email responses to a particular ticket will get added to its history in the database. When we add a note to a ticket, you will get an automatic email with the info. On the back-end of the database we triage the requests, set priority levels, and get reminded if a ticket lingers too long without action. You can see the history and status of all your tickets by logging into the system at https://helpdesk.bbns.org when you are at school. This is the new system that is replacing the FirstClass technology conferences.

6th Grade Glogster and QR Code project

Glogster is a tool that allows your students to make interactive online posters by mixing images, text, music and video.

This year the 6th grade French and Spanish students are using Glogster to complete their MFA ACTion (Arts, Culture, and Technology) projects. All students visit the MFA, and in art class they choose a painter and a painting for a master study.  In French and Spanish classes the students research their painters and paintings to create interactive online posters. Using Glogster, students are able to embed video clips and insert images of their artists and their paintings as well as audio clips of music from the artists' time periods.  Lastly, students can use Glogster to record their own voices in their target languages.  Each glog results its own unique URL.  During technology class, students will turn their URLs into QR codes, and on Sunday, May 13th, the student paintings will be hung on the MFA walls along with the QR codes linking the students' physical artwork to their interactive glogster posters, accessible online via iPads and smartphones.

Below are a few examples of student projects:

Frank Weston Benson

Salvador Dali

John Singer Sargent

If you are interested in learning more about Glogster in the classroom, check out Glogopedia to see sample projects to get ideas on how Glogster could be useful to your students.

For more information on QR codes in the classroom, please see:

Edutopia- Using QR Codes in the Classroom

Edutopia- 12 Ideas for Teaching with QR Codes

The Thinking Stick