May 1, 2018 | General News
A big thanks to everyone for a great Tech Directors Conference! We had two days of discussions and networking. There were about 60 attendees plus representatives from the WDE, the Department of Audit, Wyoming State Library, Enterprise Technology Services, and Dustin Berger from Holland & Hart, LLC. Many vendors were there to show off the newest gadgets and tech.
A major theme of the conference was the deployment of the statewide Canvas LMS. Every district, postsecondary institution, and WDE has its own instance. Instructure will link users in the different instances through the WISER ID. This will allow students, teachers, or any other user that are in multiple instances to be able to log into one instance and see all courses they are associated with, even if the course is part of another instance. For example, a student will be able to access courses associated with district's instance and will also be able to access dual enrollment courses from a UW or a community college. Teachers who are also students will be able to use a single log-in to see all their courses.
Cybersecurity continues to be discussed, especially policies that schools and districts will need to adopt. Click here to read the WDE policies. More information and templates will be shared during upcoming Tech Director Zoom meetings.
The new Computer Science initiatives have created a lot of buzz. During the 2018 Budget Session, the Wyoming Legislature passed Senate Enrolled Act 0048, which adds computer science and computational thinking to the state educational program. Technology Directors seem ready to tackle the infrastructure to support these new programs.
The most valuable part of the conference was the networking, especially the folks who shared their own experiences and stories. Many thanks to Representative Lloyd Larsen from HD54 for the legislative news and insights.
Overall, it was a great event and we look forward to another one next year!
Beginning with the Fall 2018 WDE684, the Military Connected field will have a fourth option for reporting part-time members of the Armed Forces. The change was initiated by Wyoming House Bill 28 from the 2018 Legislative Session.
The new code set will be:
(N) – Not Military Connected
(A) – Active Duty
(G) – National Guard
(P) – Part Time
This option will allow districts to report students who are dependents of part-time National Guard Members as military connected on the WDE684. Additional guidance will be provided in the Guidebook, Data Element Specification document, and WDE684 training session which will be made available this summer.
Never open email attachments if you are unsure about the origin or
reason for the attachment.
You
should exercise caution and assume the worst with email attachments. Don’t
click an attachment unless you have a good reason to do so. Even if you
receive an attachment from a friend or coworker, think twice before
opening. If you’re not expecting an attachment, treat it with healthy
suspicion. Conversely, if your colleague tells you in person that they’ll email
you an Excel spreadsheet and you get an email from them with an .xlsx file that
day, the attachment is probably safe.
If
you’re not sure whether someone sent you a suspicious-looking email attachment,
it is best to give them a phone call or ask them in person. If they didn’t send
the attachment, just delete the message and notify your IT professionals.
If
you get an email from someone you don’t know with a questionable-looking
attachment, it’s probably malware. Delete these messages and don't click on the
attachments.
Many
email servers will perform virus scanning and remove potentially dangerous
attachments, but you can’t rely on this. Some cyber attacks have used email
attachments to take advantage of previously unknown security
vulnerabilities. It takes both the virus scanners and your keen eye to
keep our computers safe!
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