Tech Director's Message

 

Information for each school, department, class and other important areas within the district can be found at https://www.mlsd161.org.

 

If you need assistance with adding or updating website content, please submit a help desk ticket with the information you would like to have on the website (and where it needs to go). If you have any website questions, please contact David Bousson @ x7488.

 

Technology Website

 

If you require IT assistance, please contact the IT Help Desk using one of the three methods listed below:

 

 

When contacting the IT Help Desk, please include as much information as possible regarding your tech-related issue. Examples include device name and location, call back number, and description of the issue. Please do not contact your building tech directly unless you have an urgent issue and he/she is readily available to assist. If your issue is urgent in nature (student/teacher instruction is impacted with no workaround), enter a Help Desk ticket and then contact the Help Desk via phone. If computer access is not available, contact the Help Desk directly.

 

If new technology is required in your building/classroom, follow the Technology Purchasing Process where a list of standard technology items can be found. In order to ensure that new technology is deployed by the start of the next school year, please have all your technology purchases submitted by June 15th of each summer. If you have any questions regarding new tech purchases, please contact me directly.

 

If you need tech equipment moved from one location to another (including within the same building, please open a helpdesk ticket listing both the current and new locations. Also, as a reminder, no personal tech equipment is allowed on the district network or computers except for the guest, staff, and student wireless networks. If you have specific questions regarding the tech equipment policy, please let me know. My contact information is listed below for your reference.

 

To log in to your district computer, please use the network username (typically first initial + last name) and password provided to you. If you have forgotten your network credentials, please contact the IT Help Desk at x4411 for assistance.

 

Your email address will be [email protected]. You can check your email by navigating to https://mail.google.com and logging in with your full email address and your password. All other Google Apps can be accessed from the same link.

 

Since 2015, we have deployed thousands of Chromebooks throughout the district for student and staff use in support of our Google G Suite adoption. Chromebooks are a wonderful tool for students and staff to collaborate online and fully utilize our G Suite for Education platform. However, as with any tool, there are instructions and best practices to be followed. Please review the Chromebook/Cart Best Practices document created by our technology coach, Monica McAtee.

 

As a reminder, the tech department implemented a web portal for all users (staff and students) to reset their MLSD/Google password without having to contact the IT Help Desk. Much like a banking or e-commerce website, the password reset portal allows you to create a security question that can be used to reset your password from any Internet-enabled device. To set up your security question, please log in to the Password Reset Portal. Once your security question has been created, you can reset your password by clicking on the Forgotten Password link.

 

The Tech Department tries to service all of the tickets at the same level of urgency. In reality, some issues are more severe than others. Because of this, the following Service Level Agreements (SLAs) have been developed to help end-users understand typical timelines for ticket resolution. Please note that all resolution times are business hours.

 

Urgent tickets are issues that directly affect student or teacher instruction without a feasible workaround. (ITIP, Presentation, Testing, Etc.). District-wide and financial system issues (payroll, Skyward, etc.) are also considered urgent in nature.

 

High tickets are issues that directly affect student or teacher learning but have a feasible, temporary workaround.

 

Medium tickets are issues or service requests for equipment additions, moves, installs, purchase requests, etc. Most tech-related tickets fall into this category.

 

Low tickets are issues or requests that are not needed immediately (within 80 hours). New projects, research, some purchase requests, and many adds/moves fall into this category.

 

Suggestions? Comments? Please email me and I will add new tips to our website.

 

Thank you for your cooperation as we support the technology needs of Moses Lake School District. As always, if you have questions or concerns about district technology, please contact me directly.

 

Kindest Personal Regards,

 

Marlin Howell 

Technology Director

Moses Lake School District