New! Resources Link on Schools-On-I-Net
When staff members at George Westinghouse High School in Brooklyn mentioned that their school was in desperate need of a centralized way to share their school’s most important information, the SOIN Team had the perfect solution.
“Why can’t we just have an icon or somewhere on SOIN to put all these forms and documents that everyone needs to access?” a few staff members had asked a SOIN team member. “It would be even better if we could decide who could see what too, so that we could post stuff for faculty without fear of students seeing it.”
Enter the RESOURCES LINK pictured underneath the MY CLASSES LINK below.
“We took the SOIN Newsletters feature that many schools use to share Parent, Faculty and Class Newsletters, and gave schools the option to call it “Resources” to accomplish George Westinghouse’s goal to use the module in a broader sense,” explains Sunita Pradhan of SOIN. “Teachers loved the way they could now create resource categories (Important Staff Forms, Staff Bulletins, PTA Newsletter, Student Documents, for example) and have a one-stop spot to share things securely online and decide who has access to them.”
As the screen capture below demonstrates, George Westinghouse staff can now very easily navigate and create Resource Categories at their school. One was created for Student Resources and is accessible by all user types: staff, students and parents. Another category was called Marine Science Lesson Plans which contains examples and references that only the staff can access.
“This Resources link is really great,” said Brent Sackris, a special educator at the school. “There was a great emphasis this year placed on sharing and discussing lesson plans from the school’s administration, and this new Resource Link on our SOIN page makes that task so much easier! It’s also great that we can post school-wide documents, like the school’s Grading Policy, to students instead of having to keep multiple paper copies on hand.”
“This is so much better than having to haul a flash drive around with all sorts of general information,” said Debbie Randorf, the school’s librarian.
“The greatest thing about the Resource Link is that it can be monitored for different levels of user access by Resource Type from a single location on SOIN,” Sunita Pradhan continued. “This is another great example of how individual school feedback can be used to create an even better SOIN experience for our clients.”
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
One of our Frequenly Asked Questions on Google Apps Gmail from parents is:
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) begins at sundown on Friday September 18 and ends at nightfall on Sunday September 20. 
SOIN Newsletter: Don’t Click That! Be Safe Online
Subject: Don’t Click That! Be Safe Online :: Oct 24, 2009
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Jan 17 – 19, 2010
Greater New York City
Professional and lay leaders from Jewish day schools from across the spectrum of practice will come together in a first-ever unified educational conference this coming January 2010 in the Metropolitan New York area.
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Dear Friends and Colleagues,
My Yahoo Account was going to be suspended…I had to act quickly…but wait…what Yahoo account?!A personal story from Sunita Pradhan, OM, Schools-On-I-Net:
You can guess just how “Google” I am – even if you don’t know me personally: the SOIN software is integrated with Google Apps for Education, we offer training on Google Apps as well as free Google Apps Setup, and generally help others get the most out of Google services.
But even I was tempted by an email threatening to suspend my Yahoo account if I didn’t click on a “fix-it-now” link. I mean, who wants to risk an account suspension that could affect personal credit scores in this economy?
After taking a second look at the email, I realized it was a fake! The link was probably a porthole for bad people to infiltrate my computer; or it could have been a fake form setup by identity thieves for gathering my personal information….. I don’t know for sure where the link lead to, but I believe it was to nowhere good.
This email was an example of “phishing.”
Just like telling our children not to talk to strangers in the playground, it is our responsibility to share awareness on how not to talk to strangers online.
Click here to find out how I identified the email as a fake plus my 5 tips for email safety.
Visit staysafeonline.org for internet safety tips, resources and lesson plans for K-12 educators.
Be safe.
Sincerely,
The SOIN Team, Schools-On-I-Net
RK Solutions, LLC