Remind, previously known as Remind 101, is a commonly used notification system in the district. This is why it is important that all staff utilizing this tool read this blog post. Starting January 28, 2019, Verizon customers will no longer receive Remind notifications through text messaging. Please note that Verizon customers, as well as all other users of Remind, can still receive notifications through the Remind app. Please read below for further details from Remind’s announcement regarding this issue.

“What’s happening
Starting on Monday, January 28, text notifications will be ending for Verizon Wireless customers who use the free Remind service.

If you communicate with your class on Remind: People who normally get your Remind messages as texts may no longer receive them.

If you have Verizon Wireless as your phone carrier: You’ll no longer receive Remind text notifications. To get messages, you’ll need to turn on smartphone or email notifications instead.

Why the Verizon fee affects free text messaging on Remind
To offer our text messaging service free of charge, Remind has always paid for each text that users receive or send. Now, Verizon is charging Remind an additional fee intended for companies that send spam over its network.

Your Remind messages aren’t spam, but that hasn’t helped resolve the issue with Verizon. The fee will increase our cost of supporting text messaging to at least 11 times our current cost—forcing us to end free Remind text messaging for the more than 7 million students, parents, and educators who have Verizon Wireless as their carrier.

What you can do
IMPORTANT: If you have a phone plan with Verizon Wireless, click here first to make sure you can still receive Remind messages on the app or by email after January 28.”

In the wake of this change, Richard Byrne (from the Free Technology for Teachers blog) has posted Free Alternatives to Remind that you may also want to consider.

If you have any questions or need help with this adjusting for this change, please feel free to contact us at tis@pccsk12.com or submit a service request for technology integration support.

 

Are you looking to add a little more spark into your presentations? Then you might want to consider taking a look at Adobe Spark for Education. This graphic design app allows you to create impactful graphics, web pages, and video stories in just minutes. Best of all, it’s free for all P-CCS staff! For a quick tutorial on how to use Adobe Spark, we encourage you to watch this tutorial video from Richard Byrne.

When you are ready to get started with Adobe Spark, you can log in by following the instructions at http://links.pccsk12.com/adobespark.

Want your students to use Adobe Spark? Well, you are in luck! In late January, the technology department will enable Adobe Spark for all students 13 and older, as well as students under the age of 13 whose parents/guardians have initialed the district’s COPPA agreement. Additional details will be shared in a future blog post.

 

During the week of January 7th, the Technology Department will make a change to our district wireless network. After this change, our wireless network will no longer broadcast at the lower frequency band of 2.4 GHz; it will only broadcast on one band, 5.2 GHz.

Technology equipment that was manufactured in the last nine years, if WIFI-enabled, typically can connect to both bands (N.B. all currently deployed district-owned WIFI-enabled devices connect at both bands). The Technology Department feels comfortable making this adjustment so that devices connecting to our network will default connect to the 5.2 GHz band since its higher bandwidth can provide much faster data connections than the 2.4 GHz band. Since November we have piloted this change in one school and performance results there support this decision.

Staff will be asked to submit a service ticket if they, or students that alert them, experience unexpected wireless connectivity issues after the week of January 7th.