Albemarle County Public Schools is evaluating the performance and effectiveness of our Electronic School Notification System (ESNS). We currently use this system to communicate important information and emergency alerts to parents/guardians and employees by phone, email, and text messaging.
Please help us assess our existing system by participating in a survey: Open the survey »
The Department of Technology needed to perform an update to our internet filter this week. If after the update students are unable to connect to the internet, please have them restart their laptop (rather than selecting “shut down” or “log off”). Also, please remind all students to restart their computer on a regular basis, as this keeps the computer healthy and running in the most efficient way. Continue reading
Computer coding is everywhere! A stoplight changes color… you click a link to visit a website… your students customize a world in Minecraft… all of these are examples of coding in real life. Hour of Code, held the week of December 9-13, is an opportunity for students and teachers to connect coding to their own experiences and to learn more about coding. Continue reading
Welcome to Quarter 2! We hope you have had a productive beginning of the school year. The Department of Technology has some updates for you:
Chrome extensions and Google add-ons are powerful tools that unlock the functionality of G Suite applications. To help ensure safe behaviors online, the Department of Technology has vetted a list of extensions for students that support a wide range of learning needs. Continue reading
Albemarle County Public Schools’ Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Christine Diggs, has published an article in CIO Review, Supporting K-12 Digital Transformation: The Changing Role of the Technology Department. Check it out!
Thank you, Christine, for representing ACPS so well!
Digital Citizenship Week (October 14-18) is an opportunity to reflect on the role of technology in our schools. To help strengthen the role of technology in your classroom, consider taking some time next week for discussions and activities with your students. To support this, the Department of Technology has created resources for ACPS educators including videos, discussion prompts, and more: Continue reading
The Department of Technology appreciates your support and patience yesterday with the required student password change. This change in practice for our students and staff is important and necessary for digital security. Also, practicing and understanding the importance of password security helps build our students’ digital citizenship skills—skills that will serve them for a lifetime.
We also appreciate the feedback we have received and would like to share a few lessons learned: Continue reading
The Department of Technology previously announced that all students in grades 3-12 will be required to change their password this year. This is a reminder that students who have not yet done this will be required through a prompt to change their default password on September 18, 2019. The new password must be 8 characters in length.
If you have questions, please talk with your school’s Learning Technology Integrator.
The Department of Technology takes digital security very seriously. In an effort to keep everyone safe, we would like to share best practices around phishing.
Phishing is the fraudulent practice of pretending to be from a trustworthy, reputable company in order to get individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers, usually over email.
You should never share your password with anyone, digitally or face-to-face. Continue reading
Adobe has changed their licensing structure and considerably increased the cost. Also, our data reveals a decline in usage by staff and students in the lower grades.
As such, the Department of Technology has purchased licenses for every secondary teacher and student to have the Creative Cloud Suite provisioned to their ACPS account. Each account owner can go to the Software Center in the Start Menu to download the application and install the Adobe products. View step-by-step install directions »