»
S
I
D
E
B
A
R
«
The right school administrative software partner for your school
May 16th, 2009 by Schools-On-I-Net

“Soup to nuts, we want SOIN to take care of it. ”

A client recently called me to ask if we would create a donations page as an additional service.  I said we could. And she was happy saying that she was sure that SOIN would be able to handle this request, “soup to nuts.”

Schools-On-I-Net offers more than just a product, we offer our partnership and additional services making it easy for your school to depend on us for special needs, such as creating a donations page.

Just recently two of our clients wanted a way to accept donations online. There are many ways to accomplish this.  Why would our clients come back to us for this type of requirement?

We asked them. What they said is that

a. We know you.  
SOIN representatives work closely with our school administrators.  

b. We know your work.
Our work is solid. We have been able to accomplish the Schools-On-I-Net product from the ground up, working with our schools to give them what they need.

c. We know your pricing.
Our customization processes are reasonable so our clients don’t have to shop around, try out a new service or deal with a new representative. 

d. We know you will handle the details, “soup to nuts”

You can see two examples on www.flatbush.org and www.yavnehacademy.org

 Again we thank our existing schools for the opportunity to serve their schools communities.

And we invite you to see why SOIN is the right technology partner for your school. services@schoolsoninet.com to setup a time for a personalized tour of our system.

No Comments »
Gmail and Spam
May 4th, 2009 by Schools-On-I-Net

Google Apps for Education: Gmail and Spam

Schools-On-I-Net chose to integrate its online school management system with Google Apps for Education’s Gmail email product.  One of the main reasons why is that we liked Gmail because of its SPAM handling, user interface, and suite of collaborative tools.

Gmail has the highest customer satisfaction for free anti-spam filters.

Spam is an issue for any email system administrator.  Google Apps for Edu offers great spam filters. But there are some whose email boxes get more spam than others.  Some reasons why include:

  • The email account or domain is posted on public webpages
  • The email account is “guess-able” on a particular domain (like info@ or admin@…)
  • The email account is submitted through online forms that may not be secure (Always look for a notation of security when using online forms like a lock at the bottom or an https which means that information is transfered in an encrypted format.)

To learn more about Spam and Gmail,  click here.

SOIN works with Gmail or any email system you choose for your school. Our integration with Gmail provides some additional features, like managing users in one place, automatically updating user changes and sharing contact groups between SOIN and Gmail.

More email protection: SOIN Gateway; Postini

SOIN schools using Google Apps Gmail have an added layer of protection. SOIN applies our own custom filters to protect our users further.

Google Apps for Education is free for schools. For additional services, including more control on incoming and outgoing emails, archiving and domain level rules, Google offers Postini, a per user per year service add on.  http://www.google.com/postini

Hooray! St. Hubert Catholic High School is now using Google Apps for Education.
And we helped set them up. Contact us for help setting up your Google Apps for EDU account.  Email services@schoolsoninet.com

We thank St. Hubert Catholic High School for providing us with the following list of Google Apps for Edu references for us to share with you:

Google Apps - Overview

Google Apps Quick Tour

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJT3pagjd8s (video)

Google Apps in Practice (approx. 11 mins.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Leuvce3v5BM

Google Apps General Overview (2 mins.)

http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/admins/apps_video.html

Google Apps General Overview Tour (approx. 10-15 mins.)

http://services.google.com/apps/resources/overviews/welcome/index.html

Google for Educators

http://www.google.com/educators/index.html

Google Apps Training Overview

http://services.google.com/apps/resources/overviews/welcome/topicWelcome/index.html

http://services.google.com/apps/resources/overviews_breeze/Apps/index.html (ppt)

Google Gmail

Gmail Overview and Help

http://mail.google.com/support/

Voice and Video Chat

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=100173

Google Docs

Google Docs Tour

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYPjJK6LZdM

http://www.google.com/google-d-s/intl/en/tour1.html

Google Forms

http://edublogs.tv/play.php?vid=1009 (approx. 10 mins.)

Google Calendar

Google Calendar Tour

http://www.google.com/intl/en/googlecalendar/tour.html

Google Calendar and Contacts on mobile phone

http://www.google.com/mobile/default/sync.html

Google Sites

Google Sites Tutorial

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=9cfd5af860d9933673be&page=&viewtype=&category=

http://www.google.com/sites/help/intl/en/overview.html

More Google Products

http://www.google.com/intl/en/options/

No Comments »
How easy is it for teachers to do their report cards?
Mar 24th, 2009 by Schools-On-I-Net

Schools-On-I-Net Report Cards Training Presentation Wed. Mar 25th at 3:45.

Click here to register now!

Mrs. Golbari, Elementary Assistant Teacher at Yavneh Academy demonstrates how to complete report cards grades and comments.

Mrs. Golbari has been using Schools-On-I-Net since its first year at Yavneh Academy. Her main responsibilities are entering homework grades and comments, entering assignments to share with parents online, communicating with other faculty and staff as well as class parents.

The report card module on Schools-On-I-Net is our most popular module and the easiest for teachers to acclimate to. SOIN mimics the way report cards are traditionally completed, by providing a time frame for teachers to enter grades, having an administrative review, providing reports, transcripts as well as a “Dean’s List” sticker concept.

Parents and students retrieve their report card from their secure password protected account. The school can keep track of who has seen or not seen a report card online.  Additionally, there is a report card hold feature block students and parents from retrieveing their report card if there any obligations unsatisfied. 

SOIN report cards are customizable, each grade level can have different subject assessments.  Your school’s logo and slogan for branding is included.  Imagine the cost and time savings!  All of our schools are using the online report cards module with great success. 

The SOIN report card is also integrated with the SOIN Grade Book and Attendance programs. This means at the end of the term, final grades and final attendance counts are already calculated. Teachers just need to login and review the information.  Teachers also use our grade book as a calculator, setting up their own formulas for the final grades.

Contact us to find out more or schedule an online demo.

No Comments »
Multi Language Text Support For SOIN
Feb 9th, 2009 by Schools-On-I-Net

Multi Language Text Support
GlobeTeach, learn & communicate…in your language, SOIN now offers  multi language text support using Unicode.Want to motivate your students and reinforce language studies further? Now you can teach in the language of study with SOIN!

Schools-On-I-Net Online School Management Software with Google Apps for Education now supports Unicode (or multi language text). Educators can email parents and students, enter assignments, lesson plans, grades, comments and more in virtually any world language.

Hebrew was the first language supported on SOIN to meet the needs of our many Jewish day schools.
In Januaray 2009, SOIN released a Unicode supported version of SOIN with supports Hebrew, Spanish, French, Russian, Arabic, Hindi, and more. (See below for information on Unicode)

This latest software release is just another way we show that SOIN is not just a school management system, it is a community oriented communications tool. We care about the people using our product and about their needs. To be able to teach and learn in the language of study, or to have discussions online in one’s own mother tongue makes a difference.

We are proud of this release which is available now at no additional charge to our schools.

Google Apps for Education also supports Unicode,  so using SOIN with Google Apps for EDU is seamless and now a bit more ‘global!’

What is Unicode?


Unicode LogoUnicode provides a unique number for every character,
no matter what the platform,
no matter what the program,
no matter what the language.”Google’s objective is to organize the world’s information and to make it accessible. Unicode plays a central role in this effort because it is the principal means by which content in every language can be represented in a form that can be processed by software. As Unicode extends its coverage of the world’s languages, it helps Google accomplish its mission.”
-Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist, Google, Inc.

Now Unicode helps Schools-On-I-Net accomplish its mission too. Click here to visit the Unicode website
No Comments »
Schools-On-I-Net Announces Keep Me Logged In Feature
Sep 16th, 2008 by Schools-On-I-Net

 

Stay logged in for a day on Schools-On-I-Net Online School Management System

Now you can stay logged in for one day without being logged out or having your session expire by clicking YES when prompted.  When you first login, you will see a prompt: “Keep Me Logged In” - Click on YES to start a daily session.

This feature is great for academic administrators and office staff who asked if they can stay online throughout the day bypassing the default browswer sessions.

New feature on Schools-On-I-Net School Management System

This functionality allows users to remain logged-in to the school website for a day (keeps user session alive for a day), or until they log out.   A “Keep Me Logged-In” message window drops down in the left side menu as soon as user logs in to the website asking to confirm if they want to remain logged-in.

If user clicks “Yes” - then user session will be kept alive at the server for a day (maximum timeout).  In case the user’s session expires at the server (there are many other factors which can cause a session to expire), another message will be shown to user.

 SOIN administrators can enable/disable this functionality with a parameter, System/IsKeepMeLoggedIn=Y/N.

Available Now!

For questions or comments, please email us at sointeam@soink12.com

1 Comment »
Schools-On-I-Net and Google Apps for Education Presentation
Sep 3rd, 2008 by Schools-On-I-Net

Schools-On-I-Net offers weekly webinars so you can get to know us and our software.

We encourage collaboration among educators, engagement with parents, and use of technology to teach in the world students now learn and thrive in: the digital world. 

We provide a paperless education system, simply because we care about our environment.  The win-win-win of it is that our schools use less paper, less toner, fewer stamps and spend less time sending out mailings or answering redundant phone calls…so they can save some money and some trees in the process.

We provide support services including telephone, web, and online resources because any system is as good as it can be used… and we want you to use ours.

 

Webinar Topics covered:

What is Schools-On-I-Net
Unique features
Multi Language Text Support
Feature List
-Demographics
-Academics
-Report Cards
-Parent Teacher Conferences
-Gmail Communications using Google Apps for Education
Screen shots from
-Parent View
-Teacher View
-Academic Admin/Principals View
Conclusion: Schools-On-I-Net is the right choice for today’s schools.

Link to the Power Point Presentation available by request. Contact Us today.

See the webinar schedule or contact us for a personal appointment.

No Comments »
Google Apps for Education and Schools-On-I-Net
Aug 8th, 2008 by Schools-On-I-Net

Schools-On-I-Net Integrates with Google Apps for Education for the 2008-2009 school year, starting with Gmail.

Gmail Logo Schools-On-I-Net has replaced its SOINMail system with Gmail provided by Google Apps for Education giving our schools the best in innovative technologies.  Integrating with Gmail for schools provides schools with a more sophisticated integrated email solution.
Gmail spam filters allow us the opportunity to open the intra-school community email system.
To highlight some of the new functionality we get with this change: 
  • Auto-Save Drafts
  • Advanced Spell Check
  • Targeted Group Email from Communications Module inserted in “Sent” folder showing the BCC recipient list
  • Multi-language support includes Hebrew, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, and more
  • Gmail User-Interface, branded with school domain and logo
  • Gmail Search capability

Note: Gmail in Google Apps for Education has the option of turning OFF the ads that are shown on the right hand side of the standard Gmail account.

What’s more.. Gmail integration is just the beginning… Google Apps for Education provides more applications that will be integrated with Schools-On-I-Net in the future, Google Docs, Google Sites, Google Chat, etc.

Schools-On-I-Net acts as the Google Apps for Education Integration Specialist. The school must sign up for a Google Apps for Education account, then provide us with access to the API’s so we can manage the integration.

Spotlight on Yavneh Academy, Paramus, NJ
We presented the Gmail Integration with Schools-On-I-Net to the faculty and staff of Yavneh Academy, Paramus, NJ. 

Click here to download the PowerPoint Presentation.

What does this all mean?  Integration of Google Apps for Education with Schools-On-I-Net means:

  • Users will continue to use the Single Login from the school’s SOIN website to the Gmail account
  • Account add/update/delete functionality through SOIN’s User Maintenance Admin Section reflects in Gmail user accounts.
  • Send Email and Communications Modules insert Sent mails to the Gmail account “Sent” folder, showing BCC recipient list.
  • New Message Indicator on the SOIN user homepage shows the count of new messages available in the user’s Gmail account
  • Contacts in SOIN (new/updated/deleted users) reflected in Gmail Contacts

 

 

 

How Will It Work?

Here is a basic flow of how Google Apps works:
 
1. You sign up for Google Apps for Education
a. Sign up with your school’s domain (www.yourschoolname.org) if you are going to move your domain to Google Apps to be hosted by them
      i. the change will affect your email domain hosting, and not your website domain hosting. Your website domain hosting services continue as usual. 
OR
b. Sign up with a subdomain (www.soink12.yourschoolname.org) if you would like to keep things separate.
 
c. Sign up creating an “admin” account as we will be accessing this account.
 
2. Google verifies ownership of your domain, which takes 1-2 weeks.
 
3. Upon verification, Google sends a Congratulations email to you welcoming you to Google Apps, telling you your domain is ready to be used in Google Apps and providing information on the API’s for your domain.
 
4. You will need to forward that email to us so that we can access your domain and the API’s. Please send it to sointeam@soinmail.com
 
Note: API’s are codes that make information exchange seamless between two systems.  They allow us to ‘link’ SOIN with the Google Apps functions. For example, the API for User Accounts allows us to code it so that when you make a change to a user account in SOIN, that change is reflected in Google Apps (Add, Delete, Change User) so you only have to make that change in one place.
 
5. After we have integrated Google Apps for Education, your users will access their Google Accounts through your SOIN school site:
 
www.yourschoolname.org 
 
Users will login via the login box or link which authenticates the user and brings them to the SOIN site for your school.
 
To access email: users will click on the SOINMail icon on the user homepage. This will seamlessly take them to their Gmail account’s Inbox.
 
The new email will be the users SOIN website login id @ yourschool’s Google Apps domain. 
 
6. Each user can setup POP, IMAP and forwarding in the Settings tab of their new Gmail account. .
a. Users can activate POP/IMAP to use their new Gmail account with MS Outlook or other mail client.
b. Blackberry and Mobile support is available.
c. Email forwarding is available.
 
QUESTION: Can users access their Gmail account directly through a URL without having to go through the SOIN Site?
-No.  Because we have implemented the Single Sign On feature, that makes logging in to the Gmail account through the SOIN site seamless, direct access to Gmail through a URL is not allowed.

Please contact us for more information or to sign up for a SOIN-Google Apps for Education webinar:  sointeam@soinmail.com  or call 201-599-9454.

Thank you,

The SOIN Team

1 Comment »
»  Substance: WordPress   »  Style: Ahren Ahimsa