That's a Wrap!

End of Year Digital Back-Up Recommendations

What a year! 2019-2020 brought many challenges, yet EMS ISD educators rose to the occasion. EMS Distance Learning has been a time when we relied on technology more than ever before. Each year, we share tips on how to back up your files and end the year strong. This year is no different - please review the following information carefully and reach out to your CTI or IT if you have any questions or need assistance.

This newsletter includes information on:

Promethean and/or Newline Interactive Displays
Summer Laptop Care
Creating a Backup of Computer Files
New Laptop Refresh (for some of you!)
Closing Out the Year in Canvas
Closing Out the Year in Microsoft Teams

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Interactive Displays

Interactive displays should remain plugged in during the summer, but powered off. This allows our repair staff to easily turn them on and run updates during the summer.

Please leave the USB and HDMI cables plugged into the board. They can be coiled up together and stuck behind board, just to have a cleaner look and not interfere with vacuuming or carpet cleaning.

It is also very important that any content that has been saved to the device itself be saved somewhere else. We do not expect that many teachers have saved content directly to the board, but any images or files saved directly to the device may be removed during the summer updates.

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Summer Laptop Care

Vacations and Summer Trips may be iffy right now, but we certainly hope you do have some down time to relax and have some fun in the sun. While enjoying the break, it's important to protect your laptop and other technology equipment.

Avoid exposure to direct sunlight or prolonged extreme temperatures. Both can cause severe damage to the laptop. (Let's keep the laptops OUT of the hot cars this summer!)
Keep food, drinks, and other sticky/harmful substances away from the laptops.
Enjoy your pool or beach time, but keep laptops far from the water and sand.
Charge and update your laptop throughout the summer. Power up and login every couple of weeks to get important updates. This is especially important before any professional development opportunity.

Create a Backup of Computer Files

One of the most important things on everyone's to-do list is to back up computer files. It is up to YOU to be sure your digital files are saved in a format where you can access them next year. Whether you're getting a new laptop or not, it's always a good idea to create a backup copy of any digital files from your computer to some other location.

We HIGHLY RECOMMEND using OneDrive for Business, the cloud storage solution that is included with your Office 365 account, to store your digital files. Flash drives and other external media devices are still acceptable options, but these forms of removable media can be costly and can easily be lost of damaged, which may result in a total loss of your files.

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New Laptop Refresh

Many teachers will be receiving new laptops this summer, as part of the three-year refresh schedule. If you are included in that group, you will receive information via email about the date/time and location for pickup.

Dates, locations, and instructions will be sent soon.

If you are getting a new laptop this summer, it is your responsibility to save all documents and files to an alternate source (we recommend OneDrive.) We highly recommend that you verify that the files have been completely uploaded and are accessible prior to turning your laptop in during the refresh process.

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Closing Out the Year in Canvas

There is very little teachers MUST DO to complete the year in Canvas. Courses created by our Skyward classes will conclude at the end of the term. Manually-created courses will remain active until you manually conclude them.

This Closing Out the Year in Canvas document provides more information about what happens to concluded courses, what information you will still be able to access, and optional End-of-Year Best Practices.

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Closing Out the Year in Teams

Microsoft Teams that were auto-populated by syncing with Skyward should be automatically archived within the first week or so of summer.

Archiving does not delete a team. In an archived team, all activity in the team is frozen. This includes the ability to add or edit channels, post messages, or create new assignments. However, team owners can still add or remove team members and update roles. The team will no longer appear with your view of active teams.

If you have any manually created Teams (one that a member of the IT team created for you), you may choose to keep it active or you can manually archive it. You can read more about the process here.

We do not anticipate losing any content in our Teams, but it's always a good idea to download copies and create backups of important information and files.