MC Digital Blog

Common Sense Media recently shared a great article for teachers to introduce 1:1 devices within their instruction. Check it out: 6 Tips for the Paperless Pioneer: Making the Most of Your Chromebooks 1. Begin with low-stakes activities. - Create a few low-stakes, content-light activities designed to get students used to the routines of the Google for Education platform. Teacher example: Paper-pencil scavenger hunt, which required students to navigate through a teacher website, the school website, and Google Classroom , in order to find and record various information. Students gained experience with functions like posting comments, accessing online resources, and checking their grades without having to worry about digesting difficult content. Moreover, the fact that the actual assignment was still completed on paper and turned into the bin on my desk at the end of the period allowed reluctant students a smoother transition into the paperless world.  2. Teach to no more than four st...

We had a lot of fun at our Digital Lunch, Laugh, & Learn Day at CHHS provided by the JCS Digital Learning Team!  We explored the Greenscreen using the Do Ink App, Google Virtual Reality Glasses, Anatomy 4D, Elements 4D, Robotics using Play-doh, circuit board, and a clipboard to play Mario and the piano, and created mix music on the Chromebooks using YOU. DJ  

This morning ALL of our Chromebooks went off the server! ALL 601 of them! Teachers were calling me frantically as I was frantically calling the district for help. It was down the entire 1st block- 90 minutes of instruction time was taken away. Time is always valuable in the classroom, but with only 23 days left before final exams begin-- time is of the essence!  Mrs. Rous, our school librarian, posted and tweeted on her blog today about technology failing with some good preparation tips for the future. Check out these tips Mrs. Rous provided in the event technology crashes on us again. She says it best by stating, "So don't curse it when it crashes, but always have a back-up plan "just in case" and you'll be fine." The Bookshelf ATE My Shelf Marker...and Other Media Tales!: When Technology Fails (Or At Least Lets You Down) : Repeat after me: Technology is my friend. Technology is my friend. Technology is my.... Yes, it's true, even if it let'...

To access NCTest, students should hover over the "Apps" button on the lower left corner of the Chromebook login screen. Click on the "NCTest" app to launch the test portal. If the NCTest app button is clicked by mistake, you must click on one of the portal buttons and then click exit to leave the app. Please hold down the Power button on the keyboard or press Shutdown on the screen. Any questions, please email MeganCox@johnston.k12.nc.us 

When students logon Chromebooks there is a JCS iBoss one time authentication prompt. All students should "Accept" this request,  otherwise the Chromebooks functionality may be limited.   Students can and do cancel the authentication and the request prompt will come up at the next logon.  We advise all teachers to request that their students "Accept" the JCS iBoss SSO message when they see it to eliminate possible issues with the Chromebook and Internet access.  If you have Chromebook issues such as  limited and problematic internet access, pages unable to load properly, "spinning," etc., you may want to have the student logon to another Chromebook and verify they have accepted the request.  Likewise, you may want to logon to the device with your logon to see if the issues continue.   Note: this is a one time authentication for students, they will not see it again.  Keep this acceptance process in mind with ne...

For the first time using Chromebooks, students must "allow" iBoss. If students do not click "allow" the student will have problems and it won’t show up again for awhile.