Welcome to echalk A Guide For Students. Introduction. Contents:

Transcription

1 Welcome to echalk A Guide For Students Introduction echalk is an online learning environment that connects students, teachers, parents and administrators within your school and district. echalk provides your school district with Websites, class Web pages, department or group Web pages, and online tools for teachers, administrators, students and parents that facilitate 2-way anytime, anywhere communication. Because safety and security are important in a school environment, echalk has both public and private features. Your school and district can choose what information is available to the general public by publishing items on the public side of echalk. Alternatively, they can also choose to allow only targeted groups of their school community to receive information by publishing it privately. The school community members then access this information by logging in to a private account. You can use echalk to: Keep up-to-date and accountable with important class information. Interact with teachers using safe and secure , online class discussions, and surveys. Contents: 1 Introduction 2 Finding Your echalk Site on the Internet 3 School Calendar 4 echalk Tools & Resources 5 Logging In 8 My 15 My Account 18 My Classes Keep informed about upcoming district, school and classroom events. Store information for easy access from any computer connected to the Internet. Remember that your echalk site is available from any computer with an Internet connection so you can access echalk from a computer lab, your classroom, the library, and home. Have fun getting to know your site and discovering all the new ways you now have to communicate, collaborate and connect with the members of your school community!

2 2 A Guide for Students Welcome to echalk My echalk Community Finding Your echalk Site on the Internet To find your school s echalk site: 1 Launch your Internet browser software. (Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer, Mozilla FireFox, or Apple Safari ) 2 To reach your homepage, type your echalk Web address in the Location (or Address) area. This Web address may look like the following: The homepage is the welcome page of your echalk site. Many schools choose to customize their homepage to include sections that will be helpful to their communities. However, a basic echalk homepage includes: The login box Your school s announcements A message from the Principal A calendar of upcoming school events Links to the school Directory and Resources

3 My echalk Community School Calendar A Guide for Students Welcome to echalk 3 You can view a list of the Upcoming Events on the right hand side of your homepage. Click the View Monthly Calendar link at the bottom of the list to see a detailed view of each month s events. From the full month view of the calendar, you may select a month from the drop-down menu or click the red arrow buttons to see the next and previous month s events. You may also choose to print the monthly calendar from this screen by clicking on the Print Calendar link located in the top right corner of the page. * Remember that from your homepage you are viewing your school's public calendar. Only events deemed appropriate for viewing by the general public will be displayed on this calendar. Once you've logged in to your school site, a more detailed calendar may be viewed. To return to your homepage, click the School Home link on the top toolbar.

4 4 A Guide for Students Welcome to echalk My echalk Community echalk Tools and Resources Let s take a closer look at the left hand navigation area of your homepage. This area may contain echalk tools such as a Directory listing as well as School and/or District Resources. Schools may choose to customize this area of the homepage. However, a basic echalk site includes the following areas: Directory School Resources District Resources Monthly Calendar shortcut The following directories may be available on your site: District Listing - The District Listing provides links to other echalk sites in your district. Faculty & Staff - The Faculty & Staff section lists all site members by subject area and provides a view of teachers and administrators personal Web pages. Class Pages - The Class Pages link brings you to a menu of class-specific Web pages created by teachers at your school. These pages provide information about class assignments, tests, projects and announcements. Group Pages - The Group Pages link displays a listing of Web pages created by different groups and organizations at your school. The Resources sections are maintained by the Site Manager and Site Administrators at your school or district. This area provides links to additional content that may include items such as school newsletters, interesting Web links, homework help tips, library resources, or even Web projects created by other students at your school. *Remember: As with the calendar, this is the public view of your echalk Resources. More content may be available once you have logged in. Complete Section A on Worksheet #1 An echalk Guide for Students as you explore your school s homepage.

5 A Guide for Students Welcome to echalk 5 My echalk Community Logging In Now that you have explored the public part of your echalk site, let s log in and take a look at the private side of the system. To log in: 3 Locate the login box on the upper right hand corner of the homepage. 4 Click in the space to the right of Username, and type your username (e.g. mary.brown). 5 Click in the space to the right of Password, and type your password. Note: Dots will appear to disguise what you type. 6 Click the Login button. Note: Your username is derived from your first and last name, usually in one of the following forms: Your first name and your last name separated by a period (mary.brown) Your first initial and last name (mbrown) Power Tip: Click the Forgot Password? link on the login box. This will allow you to send a message to your Site Manager who can reset your password. If there are multiple users with the same name, there may be a number in your username (mary1.brown). Contact your Site Manager if you need your username and/or password.

6 6 A Guide for Students Welcome to echalk First Time Log In The first time you log in to echalk you will go through a one-time procedure to activate your account. To complete the first-time log in process: 7 Click the Accept button located at the bottom of the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). This policy was written by your school or district and outlines the guidelines of acceptable use for your echalk site. 8 The next screen requires you to change your account password. Type a new password in the New Password box and then retype it in the Confirm New Password box below. Note: Try to choose a password that is easy for you to remember but hard for others to guess. 9 Click the Submit button. Note: Remember! The next time you log in to echalk you will need to use the new password you created.

7 Setting Your User Profile A Guide for Students Welcome to echalk 7 The next screen will help you set your User Profile. Your User Profile tells the system specific information about who you are at your school and categorizes you in the Find Members Directory accordingly. Scroll through the Profile page to check for the following: Make sure your Name is spelled correctly Check your echalk Username Write down the address provided for you: Enter a Nickname if appropriate Check your Grade Click the Finish button at the bottom of the page to access your echalk account.

8 8 A Guide for Students Welcome to echalk My echalk Community My refers to the sending and receiving of electronic messages. Faster than a letter, and often more convenient than the telephone, has become an immensely popular form of communication and can be very useful in a school setting. can be very helpful for your work as a student. For example, imagine you are doing research on volcanoes for your Earth Science class. You ve been searching for hours for a fitting response to your research question, but something remains absent from your query. echalk can help you find what you are missing. Use your echalk account to send your question directly to an expert Volcanologist. You can even get a confirmation back that the message has been read by the recipient! The next few pages are designed to walk you through the basics of using echalk and the address book. You will learn how to read and send messages and also how to organize your to ensure that it becomes a time-saving and easy mode of communication for you. Before you know it, you will be ing: Teachers with questions about upcoming assignments Classmates with thoughts and inquiries from class Field experts with questions for research purposes Happy ing! Refer to Worksheet #2 An echalk Guide for Students: My .

9 Address Conventions addresses can look like any of the following: But all addresses have a standard format. For example: A Guide for Students Welcome to echalk 9 katherine.thomas@school.echalk.com (pronounced Katherine dot Thomas at school dot echalk dot com ) Mailbox Name: Usually some form of the person s name, but sometimes a nickname. Domain Name: The organization that is hosting the account. The domain name usually refers to either the person s employer, or any of a number of large providers such as Hotmail or AOL. My Inbox Like letters you receive at home, messages come into a mailbox called an inbox. After logging into echalk, your Inbox will display. You may always click the My button to return to your Inbox. Just like the outside of an envelope, you can tell a lot about an message before opening it, including who the message was sent from, when it was sent, if there is an attached file, and what it is about. From your inbox you may use the command buttons to easily delete messages; mark s as junk, read, or unread; or block addresses from sending you .

10 10 A Guide for Students Welcome to echalk Reading The My tools in the left navigation bar help you write, organize, search, and control your . But before you look at these more advanced toolbar options, let s take a closer look at the basics of reading and writing messages. To open and read an message, click the Subject link for that . After clicking the Subject link from the Inbox, the body of the message will display. At the top of every there is a header that summarizes the information you learned in the Inbox, including a To: field which tells you who else received the message. Scroll through and read the message. When you are done reading, you can click the Close button at the top or bottom of the screen to return to the Inbox or use one of the response options that display across the top of the View Message page: The Reply button allows you to reply directly to the person who sent you the . The Reply All button allows you to reply to both the person who sent you the and any other recipients of the . The Forward button allows you to send a copy of the to a new recipient. The Report Misuse button allows users to report an inappropriate to the echalk Site Manager. Note: When you reply to an , any attachments that were included with the original will not be attached on the reply. When you forward an , the original attachments are included.

11 Writing A Guide for Students Welcome to echalk 11 To write an 1 Click the My button located in the left side toolbar. 2 Click the Write Mail button. The Write Mail screen will display. 3 Enter the person s address who should receive your message in the To: field. 4 Type a subject in the Subject: field and type your message in the text box. 5 Click the Send button when you are finished. Attachments An attachment is a file or document that is included in an . For instance, if Mr. Smith is ing you about the updated soccer schedule, he might include the schedule (a Microsoft Word Document) as an attachment so that you can preview it. The floppy disk icon indicates that there is an attachment included in the message. An attachment will appear as a link in the View Message screen. Simply click on the floppy disk symbol to open the attachment. The settings on your computer will determine what happens when you click on the attachment link. The file may automatically open up within your browser or a pop-up window may ask you if you would like to open up the file or save it to a disk or your local computer. If you save the file to your computer, it is important that you remember where in your file directory you have saved it (e.g. your My Documents folder), so that it will be easy for you to retrieve when you are ready.

12 12 A Guide for Students Welcome to echalk Sending an Attachment If you want to send a file as an attachment, you can do so by using the Attach Files button in the Write Mail screen. To attach a file to an 1 Click the Attach Files button in the Write Mail screen. 2 Click the Browse button and locate the file on your computer. 3 Select the file and click the Open button. 4 Click the Attach button. Your file name will display in the Attachments box. 5 Repeat steps 2-4 until all files you would like to attach are uploaded. 6 Click OK to return to the Write Mail screen. Your attachments will appear in the message header under the Subject field.

13 Using Your echalk Address Book A Guide for Students Welcome to echalk 13 Your Address Book is a great time saver. You can store addresses or groups of addresses so preparing an message takes only a few mouse clicks. You won't have to memorize or retype someone's address once you've saved it in your Address Book. To add a contact to your address book: 1 Click the My button on the side toolbar. 2 Click the Address Book button on the side toolbar. 3 Click the Add Contact button. The add contact page appears. 4 Click in each field to fill in the form. Certain fields (such as phone numbers) have drop-down menus associated with them. 5 As a shortcut, you need only fill in the address and first or last name, but you may find it useful to have all the contact s information stored in one place. 6 Scroll down and click the Save button when you re done. The Address Book appears. 7 The new member s name and address appear on the Address Book page. Once you ve added a contact to your address book, you may: Click a name to edit the contact information, or Click an address to send an to the contact. Power Tip: An easy way to add a new contact to your address book is from an incoming . Simply click on the Add to Address Book button at the top of the View Message screen. Note: You can remove members from your address book by checking the box in front of the member s name and clicking Delete.

14 14 A Guide for Students Welcome to echalk Finding Contacts in Your Address book The list of contacts is alphabetized in your address book. To find contacts or to move around the address book, use the Alphabet Bar at the top of the page. Click the first letter of your contact's last name to open your address book to the correct page. Occasionally, you may have a contact name starting with a number instead of a letter. For example, you might create a group and name it "5th Grade History Class". Any contact name that starts with a number is listed before the alphabetized contacts. Click the 123 link on the alphabet bar to view these contacts. You may use the Next link located in the upper right corner of your address book to flip through pages of contacts.

15 A Guide for Students Welcome to echalk 15 My echalk Community My Account My Files The Files area under My Account allows you to store files, such as Microsoft Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and photo images in your echalk account for easy access from any computer connected to the Internet. This is a private storage area--no one else can open or view files stored in the My Files area. Think of it as a locked filing cabinet for which only you have the key. Note: You have 10MB of file storage available in your account. To store a file in My Files: 1 Log in and click the My Account button on the side toolbar. 2 Click the Add button. The Add Files page appears. 3 Click the Browse button to select the file to add. A directory window opens. 4 Navigate the directory until you locate and select the file to be stored. 5 Click the Open button to select the file to upload. The Add Files page reappears. 6 Click the Upload button. 7 The My Files page will reappear when the process is complete. Note: Before you start, be sure you know where the file you will upload is saved on your local computer (maybe on your Desktop, or in your My Documents folder). Refer to Worksheet #3 An echalk Guide for Students: My Account.

16 16 A Guide for Students Welcome to echalk To download and work with a stored file: 1 Click on the file name link. 2 When the file name link is clicked, the File Download window opens, displaying four Download Options: Download option #1 provides the option to open the file in a new Web browser. Download option #2 provides the option to open the file in its registered application. (Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, etc.) Download option #3 provides the option to save the file to your computer. To do this, right click on the Save icon or hyperlink and choose Save Link As Download option #4 provides to option to save the file to your My Files folder in echalk. Bookmarks A bookmark is a shortcut to a particular Website or Web page. When you find an interesting or helpful Website/page, you can record its address (the URL) within the Bookmarks area of My Account. Sometimes bookmarks are stored directly on a computer s Internet browser (called Favorites in Internet Explorer). This means that the shortcut to the Website/page is only available on that specific computer. However, echalk Bookmarks can be retrieved from any computer with Internet access. Just log into your echalk account!

17 A Guide for Students Welcome to echalk 17 To add a Website/page to your bookmarks: 1 Log in and click the My Account button on the side toolbar. The My Files page displays. 2 Click the Bookmarks button on the side toolbar. The Bookmarks page appears. 3 Click the Add to Bookmarks button. 4 Type (or copy and paste from another Internet browser window) the Web page address that you would like to add in the Web Site Address box (e.g., 5 Type a more familiar or descriptive name for the web page/site in the Name box (e.g., CNN News, or NASA Website) 6 Optional: Categorizing your bookmarks is a helpful way to keep organized. You ll save time searching through long lists of bookmarks to find the one you want. To create a new category, type a name such as Personal Links, History Bookmarks, or Travel in the New Category box. You may also select a previously created category from the Existing Category drop-down list. 7 Click the Save button.

18 18 A Guide for Students Welcome to echalk My echalk Community My Classes The class Homepage allows you to view class Web resources, announcements and upcoming due dates, and to participate in class discussion groups over the Internet. echalk class pages will help you to: Communicate with teachers From your class Homepage, you can access important files, teacher notes, a class calendar, Web links useful for assignments and more. You can also: View assignments, deadlines, and class materials posted by your teachers day or night, your teacher a draft of a writing assignment or ask a clarifying question about homework or a class discussion. Collaborate with classmates You can work with students inside or outside of class to help you understand content more thoroughly. Use echalk to: Create a peer-journal with members of your class, Participate in an online echalk discussion thread to reflect upon class topics or to work on a group project from home. Connect with the global community Learning with echalk transcends classroom walls when you: Conduct an interview with an outside field expert**, Design a Website to post on your school s homepage. **Contact your school s Site Manager or check your school s Student-Safe policy first.

19 A Guide for Students Welcome to echalk 19 Class Calendar Your Class Calendar displays a monthly view of your classes. Use it to get a quick glimpse of assignment due dates. You can also adjust the screen for a monthly view of all of your classes. To use your calendar, you can: View another class calendar, or a monthly view of all classes by selecting an option from the View Another Class drop down menu. Use the red arrows or the month drop down menu to change the monthly view. Read an assignment description by clicking on the assignment link. The Homework Drop Box When reading an assignment, look for the homework drop box icon or the Submit Assignment button. Use the Submit Assignment button to electronically turn in your homework, project reports, or other assignments if your teacher has enabled this option. Refer to Worksheet #4 An echalk Guide for Students: My Classes and Worksheet #5 An echalk Guide for Students: My School as you explore more of echalk.

20 20 A Guide for Students Welcome to echalk Class Settings When you click on the Settings button, you will see the basic Profile of your class. The Class Profile displays important information about a specific class, including the room number, schedule, lists of the instructors and pupils in the class, a description of the course, and more. Review this page to make sure you are in the right class. Class Members Use the Members area of your class page to your teacher and/or classmates. You may select members individually or as a group.** **Contact your school s Site Manager or check your school s Student-Safe policy first.