In the first few episodes of BiTT, I will be sharing some exciting tips that will help take PowerPoint to the next level and help you think outside the slide.
http://thetechteacher.libsyn.com/

 

The TechTeacher Network is excited to announce the launching of a new and exciting podcast coming in the not so distant future; the Bryte Idea Tech Tips Podcast. This podcast will be a mixture of both video and audio podcasts that give simple and useful cross platform tech tips for both hardware and software. Don't fear, The TechTeacher Network will continue to produce the The TechTeacher Podcast along with WoW- What's On the Web. Keep listening!

As we all know, technology is wonderful tool that engages our students and basically helps makes our lives as educators just a little easier. In fact, many of us rely heavily upon technology each day, whether it is doing grades, analyzing student data, creating lesson plans, dealing with time sensitive material, researching, communicating or even teaching an online class. Technology has truly become something that we can't live without. But what do you do when you experience a sudden, mysterious crash or software hiccup? We know that this can spoil the best-laid plans for delivering those great lessons or it  can prevents you from carrying on with your daily tasks that must be done. This is not only frustrating for you, but it is also annoying for your students who also rely on these same appliances to access the content and information. Maybe a few years ago, when our classrooms did not really on so much technology, this would not have been an issue. In fact, a teacher probably would have gone weeks, months, or maybe would have learned to live with the technical issues. But in this day and age, that is not an option, and educators need a safety net.

 So what do we do to help alleviate these frustrations?

I am sure most of your districts or universities have tech support and protocol in place to deal with such issues. But if you don"t; or if they just arenâ??t working, then you may be interest in the following tool. Today I am going to share a very affordable solution that I found called SchoolHelpDesk.net.

So first of all, what is SchoolHelpDesk.net?

SchoolHelpDesk is a web-based help desk application for managing your Informational Technologists (IT) workload. School Help Desk is a powerful web-based help desk that your district or university installs on the Windows server. There is an annual license fee allows an unlimited number of users in the district to access the help desk through their web browser. Included in this license fee are updates , applications enhancements that are created during the subscription period, as well as technical support and customizable features.

So how does it SchoolHelpDesk work?

Once SchoolHelpDesk is installed on the server, when a teacher has a problem, they submit an online trouble ticket alerting the IT department of the issue. The tech department can then sort through the received tickets and assign and schedule the required maintenance.  The application tracks the problem, logs the status, prioritizes and is also capable of creating multiple reports to help make the ITâ??s task just a little easier and the response time for you a little quicker.

A unique feature of School Help Desk is that it has an additional feature that allows IT departments to write self-help modules to cover the most frequent problems that arise.  This gives teachers and administrators the opportunity to access self help for common computer usage questions whenever they need it. This again can help  reduces the workload for the overworked IT staff and allows users to quickly fix those smaller less technical issues on their own.

What are some of advantage of School Help Desk?

1. It is economical and affordable- The cost for school districts,community colleges and universities is $500 dollars a year Business is $1000 per year and Hospitals $1500, but they will get some additional features. With this low annual fee, School Help Desk can pay for itself in no time.
2. It expedites workflows by improving communication and efficiency in regards to client and IT support. Since School Help Desk is Web-based, it can be accessed anywhere anytime and does not require any client software.
3. It is extremely easy to use. Staff can access the application from any computer on the network to submit a trouble ticket.
4. The service is scalable- It can meet the needs of any size district and can serve dozens to thousands of users. It can be customized to meet the needs of your district.
5. The system is knowledge based and Self-help- It is searchable and can be browsed. Again, with the self-help modules, users help themselves, which is better use of everyoneâ??s time. After you get your self help tailored to your users, School Help Desk says that you can expect 80% of tickets to be resolved by the user.
6. Here is one feature that is great for any district- User accounts can by synced to Active Directory or eDirctory making the creation of user account effortless.
7. School Help Desk also offers e-mail and paging features so IT staff can be reached anywhere.

School Help Desk really offers a lot of features without requiring a large price tagâ?¦.this really is powerful and personal efficient applicationâ?¦not only saving district money, but also keeping the technology running for those who need it. So I guess you could say efficiency for techs, teachers, and learners.

For more information about School Help Desk, please visit their site at www.schoolhelpdesk.net or visit my web site listed in the podcast description. And as always, thank you for listening to The TechTeacher Podcast.

 http://thetechteacher.libsyn.com/