Fremont #1 Tech News

Each issue of our Tech News focuses on the great things we have going on, including our subscriptions and resources! We'll develop and refine these over time and your feedback will help us guide these efforts, so let us know what you'd like to see and learn about!

A big thanks to all who participated! It was a fun afternoon learning about all of our AI solutions. For Tech, it was also a great opportunity for us to hear how many of you are already using Gemini, MagicSchool, and Brisk in your classrooms.

Please help us understand your needs with AI. Here's a short survey for certified staff who participated in the day, so you can let us know what you found valuable. We'll use your ideas for "AI in the Afternoon, The Sequel" coming in January! 😀

You can now find information about our "AI Hopscotch" professional development program on the Fremont #1 Tech Services website.

This will become a one-page stop for information regarding our three AI applications. You can find the first "squares" in the hopscotch -- our three introductory videos. We will be adding your presentations, additional videos, and more resources over the next few months.

Go to the Tech Services website (District website - Departments menu - Technology) and you will see the "AI Hopscotch" link on the menu bar. You can also follow the link below:

We appreciate everyone's patience as CyberNut worked with Google to iron out a few minor issues with their CyberNut add-on. Everyone's add-on should now be fully functional.

Remember that for "regular" spam, you can use the Spam button in Gmail to classify those and stop receiving them.

We often get asked to approve an "add-on" in Google Workspace. Google has "extensions" and "add-ons." Extensions are installed by individual users and add or change functionality in the Chrome browser just for that user. Add-ons are modules that change a core product, such as Docs or Sheets or Slides.

An add-on is generally an "all or nothing" installation, which can potentially become active for staff and students who do not want them. Add-ons are not created by Google; they are made by individual or unknown developers, usually without vetted privacy restrictions and with little to no assurance of quality or data protection. Such add-ons can lead to unsupported configurations, errors and apps crashing, and potential data loss. We learned this back during COVID when add-ons to modify how Google Meet worked were constantly crashing Meet, leading to frustration and missed connectivity.

Unless it's an add-on that is evaluated and purchased by the district, please understand that we are very reluctant to approve add-ons that affect the consistency and functionality of the Workspace core applications.

Got any old cassette tapes in your classroom? You can now convert them to mp3 audio files that you can store and play from Google Drive! This is much more convenient than trying to find a working cassette player, and you can bring those old tapes back into use.

This checkout kit consists of a USB cassette tape player. Just put your SD card in, drop in your cassette tape, and press Play to start recording to the card.

Checkout kits are available for K-12 teacher use. You can view more information about our kits, as well as the checkout form and availability calendar, on the Tech Services website.

This is a cassette tape, BTW, in case you've never seen one! 😄😄

These applications can be quickly and easily used with their "Sign in with Google" option.

Are your students asking why the "save icon" is a funny square? Want to show your students how computers worked in the "old days"? 😀

Infinite Mac is a website that lets you experience old Macintosh computers from the 80s, 90s, 00, and 10s. You can explore how interfaces and programs changed through the years, and show students how computers were laid out before the Internet took of in the mid-90s.

Each simulator has many contemporary applications and games preinstalled, like Oregon Trail, that you can explore!

We will have some information about our new EdPuzzle subscription, as well as more AI follow-up!