Office 365 Student Email Accounts

All students at NWCS now have school-issued email accounts.   The advantages to using these accounts is that they are standard in format and can be accessed by simply knowing the students’ first and last names.  Students can access their email by following the steps listed below:

1.  Find the Office 365 web clip on the iPad and tap on it.

2.  Login with their student number@stu.nwcs.k12.in.us. They will only have to do this part once.

3.  Enter their password (the one they use with their number when they login to Safari).  

4.  Set the time zone to Eastern Standard (this only has to be done the first time they login).

Now they are ready to send and receive email!

To check or send an email:

1.  Find where it says:  Collaborate with Office Online.

2.  Tap mail.

3.  To send a new email, start typing in the name of the recipient.  Names should start to pop up as you type.

4.  This will make communicating with individual students much simpler . . . especially on an eLearning day.

After setting this up the first time, students will just need to tap on their number and enter their password.

eBackpack Tips and Hints for Teachers

                  

Our first eLearning day has come and gone, and overall, it was a great success!  As with all new experiences, there were a few little things that came up that we didn’t expect.  For example, some students were confused by the number of assignments showing in eBackpack. Here are some ways to clean up the list.

1.  First, if students “turn in and mark as complete” when they submit assignments in eBackpack, they can then filter what they see in their assignment lists.  When they tap on the assignment tray, at the top of the screen, they will see Completed and Not Completed tabs.  That will help narrow things down a bit.  

2.  Another way to help the situation is for teachers to delete or archive assignments when they are finished.  Deleting an assignment will remove it permanently.  To delete an assignment on the iPad, tap on the assignment tray, open the assignment, and tap on the wrench in the top right corner.  Now, tap on delete.  To delete an assignment on Mac or PC, click on the class you want to work with.  Next, click on the assignment.  Go to the actions drop down and choose to delete the assignment.  Archiving an assignment will make the assignment disappear but it will be accessible for later.  To archive an assignment on the iPad, go to the assignment tray.  Open the assignment you’d like to archive.  In the right hand corner, under the wrench and due date,  you will see “Archived”.  Tap yes.  To archive an assignment on the Mac or PC, click on “assignments” on the left hand side of the screen.  Click on the box that says “Archived” on the right side of the screen.                          

3.  Finally, teachers can “hide” an assignment as well.  To do this, simply open the assignment and choose to edit it.  Next, at the bottom of the screen, you can change visibility options. You can choose to hide an assignment on a certain date.                                                         

4.  It might be a good idea to encourage students to check their graded work throughout the day. This way, they can see the feedback you provide and correct any problems.

          Some students and parents were confused as to what assignments to complete on the eLearning day (especially since we had two days of eLearning material loaded).  There is no right or wrong way to load assignments for an eLearning day!  However, it might help to hear the different options available so you can choose what’s best for your students! 

1.  Some teachers loaded all the materials for one eLearning day in one assignment.  For example, if elementary students had math, reading, and social studies work, all of that work was loaded and assigned in one place.  So, as they finished work, students submitted it to the same assignment.  Teachers would then have 3 submissions in that assignment tray for each student (math, reading, and social studies).  That could potentially make it easier for parents of elementary students simply because they only have to work in one assignment.  All the instructions for the assignments can be in the instruction box as well.  

2.  Remember, you can also record audio instructions in eBackpack below the instruction box or you can embed audio right on a document if that would be more helpful!  Audio instructions will definitely help struggling readers and students working with little adult help.

3.  Due dates seemed to confuse parents as well.  Some of us set the due date as the eLearning date (so it would show up on the calendar and be easily recognized).  Others set it out five days (to include the grace period).  While others set the due date for the day after the eLearning day.  Since you can allow “late “ turn in, it would probably be best to set the due date for the eLearning day.  That way, students and parents know to work on that assignment on the actual eLearning day.

Including eLearning day 1 or eLearning day 2 in the name of the assignments seemed to help parents / students find what they needed.

          According to student feedback, there are a couple of things tripping them up in eBackpack.  If we can work together to share this information with them wherever and whenever possible, hopefully, we can reduce the challenges they encounter.

1.  Some students have had trouble saving their work in eBackpack.  This is often due to the fact that they open a document to “Mark it” in the assignments for a class.  After they mark it, they often tap save and then are not sure where they have saved the document. If students are not done with an assignment, they should always tap save.  Then, tap pick a location, and save to My Files.  To continue their work on that document, occasionally students will go back to the assignment tray.  When they open the document, they are surprised to see that none of their work is there.  That is because they are opening the original document that the teacher posted.  They must go to My Files to get the document they marked upon.

2.  On the eLearning day, some parents and students said that they had difficulties hearing the sound from audio or videos that were in eBackpack.  Sometimes, this is as simple as turning up the volume on the iPad.  However, many times this occurs because the side switch on the iPad is set to mute.  When the switch shows a red dot, that means the side switch is locking something. Depending on the settings in the iPad, it could be locking screen rotation or muting the iPad.  In any case, it is a good idea for students to turn the side switch off (so the red dot is no longer showing) to see if the volume will work.

3.  We have amazing teachers at NWCS!  A couple of K-2 teachers noticed that it was taking a long time to bring videos offline in eBackpack.  So, these teachers decided they would simply airdrop videos to students who did not have wifi.  That way, the videos would be in their camera roll, and there would be no need to wait for them to load offline.  Great idea!  

4.  On the eLearning day, some students were asked to read a document placed in eBackpack.  They were then told to answer questions about the document.  It is difficult to read, close that document, open another one, answer a few questions, then go back and read again.  So, one solution to this is to teach the kids to screen shot the text.  Then, when they are marking up the answer sheet, they can insert the screen shot onto the page so they have everything in one spot.  You will just have to remind them to delete the screen shot of the text before they submit their answer sheet!

5.  A few students forgot that they needed to keep eBackpack running in the background if they need offline items.  This is something we will just have to keep reminding them about.  Remember, if students have lots of difficulty with this, they can always open documents in Pages or Notability and open videos in iMovie.  Those items are always available without internet.  It might be helpful for those students to also screen shot the instructions for the assignment in eBackpack as well.

eBackpack Tips for Parents

   

eBackpack has been a great addition to our digital learning initiative this year!  With inclement weather a definite possibility in January and February, eLearning days may be just around the corner, and eBackpack is a tool that many students will be using on these days.  So, here are some tips and hints about using eBackpack at home.

1.  Students should be sure they login to the internet via the Safari icon when they get on their iPads.  To login, they use their student number and password.  This needs to be done before they enter into eBackpack.
2.  If you cannot get Internet access:

• Turn Wi-Fi off (Settings/Wi-Fi, then toggle the switch on the right so it is no longer green). Restart the iPad by holding the top button and the home button down until the Apple logo appears on the iPad. When the iPad reloads, turn the Wi-Fi back on (Settings/Wi-Fi, then toggle the switch on the right so it is green). Try to access the Internet and repeat logging into the NWCS Lightspeed filter device.* 
• Go to Settings/Safari and select “Clear History and Website Data”. Return to NWCS Lightspeed filter device.* 
• Go to Settings/General/Reset and select “Reset Network Settings”. This will not delete anything from the iPad, it will just reset the network connections. DO NOT select “Erase All Content and Settings”, this will wipe everything from the device. Return to NWCS Lightspeed filter device.* 
• Go to Settings/General/Reset and select “Reset All Settings”. This will not delete anything from the iPad, but will restore the settings back to their original state. If there was a passcode on the iPad, it will be removed. Return to NWCS Lightspeed filter device.* 
• Home router/modem security may be blocking the iPad from accessing our global proxy filtering device. You may need to contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to set your security on your modem/router to the low setting. If so, you can turn this back up when the iPad is not in use. 

3.  If students do not have access to wifi, they should have moved items offline while at school.  They need to keep the eBackpack app running in the background to have access to materials that have been moved offline.  If the app is closed (by double tapping on the home button and flicking the app to the top of the screen) offline materials will be lost.  However, students can recover the items once they have access to wifi again.  

Tiny Scanner

     A free app called Tiny Scanner will allow you to scan a document you need in a hurry. Then, in just a couple of taps, you can add that document to any folder or assignment you’d like in eBackpack. To get started:

1. Download the free app from the app store onto your iPad.2. Open the app and tap the plus sign at the bottom of the screen to start. Tap on the button on the right to take a picture (scan) your document.
3. Drag the white circles to crop the document in the way you’d like. 4. Tap next at the bottom right of the screen. 5. Now, tap the check mark in the bottom right of the screen.6. If you have more pages of the document to scan, tap on the camera icon at the bottom of the screen. If you are finished, tap on the sharing icon (box with the arrow up) in the upper right hand corner.
7. Tap on Open In. Select Save to eBackpack. Now select where you like to save the document. If you want to put it in an assignment (that you have already created) for your classes, tap on Shared Class and Group Files or Current Assignments, and find the assignment to which you’d like to add it.
8. Tiny Scanner only lets you keep two scanned documents at a time. However, once you have loaded them to eBackpack, you can delete them from Tiny Scanner. 

eBackpack Parent Portal Available Now!

     Parents can now access their child's eBackpack account through the parent portal! To begin, you simply need to visit: https://parent.ebackpack.com or download the eBackpack for Parents app on your mobile device, and create a new parent account. When doing so, you will be asked to enter your parent code, your child’s last name, and your email address.
     The parent code will be printed at the top of your child’s next report card, which will be coming home in the next few days. eBackpack will provide you with the steps needed to create your account and to add each of your children. However, if you would like to view a step by step tutorial, please see the video below!