Tech Tip #47

Have you ever needed to convert a MS Word document or MS Excel spreadsheet to a professional quality PDF document?  This software is installed on all Learn IT Issued computers and is called Cutepdf. http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp

This software is very user friendly.  You just need to select "Print" and choose "CutePDF Writer;" this will allow you to save the file as a PDF.  

Please see screenshots below for the process.

For non Learn It employees, Cutepdf works great for saving documents as PDF files.  We recommend getting it for yourself!

Pinterest

Did you know Learn It is on Pinterest?


...Wait, what is Pinterest?


Pinterest is an online vision board to organize and share findings on the Web!  Whenever you see something you'd like to add to a board and share, you "pin" the image.  Pinning an image already on Pinterest is called "re-pinning."  Trust us, you'll get it down!

Visit our Pinterest page and follow our boards!  We have been pinning everything from teacher appreciation gifts to inspiring quotes and educational images.  If you are as visual as the Marketing team and love sharing findings, you will get hooked!

Learn It's Pinterest

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day from the Learn It family!

Cristo Rey intern, Tyshae Jones, presents our "Learn It Mother," Jerrelle Francois,
with fresh flowers and a card signed by Corporate Office staff.

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

We'd like to take a moment to thank all of teachers for their hard work and devotion.  We appreciate each and everyone of you and the difference you are making in our student's lives.  Without you, we simply cannot Live It, Love It, LEARN IT!

Remember to thank your child's teacher!  A simple gesture goes a long way!

STEAM Before & After School Programs

We have reinvented the before and after school care experience!

Our programs build up STEAM with Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, & Mathematics and also include homework help and tutoring.  Students are greeted with healthy snacks and also get chances to use today's latest technology and play educational games.  It's the perfect way to start or unwind from the school day!

Want to learn more?  

The following video gives you an inside look at a typical day of our program and provides you with all the information you need to know.  

Tech Tip #47

When Should you Properly “Eject” your thumb drive?

 this is related to Windows OS 

 Some users just yank it out any device , while others perform religiously rituals every time.     How do you when you should properly eject a drive before removing it?   Some devices never need to be ejected before removing, and others may corrupt the file systems.  

NEVER NEED EJECT

·         Read only media – CD’s, DVD's, SD cards, portable devices like media players and cameras

ALWAYS EJECT

·         USB Flash Drive, External Storage Drives -  These devices do not like power being abruptly cut off ; this will help prevent file system corruption

HOW TO SAFELY EJECT  

·         Right Click on the Drive icon in My Computer and choose Safely Remove

·         Right or Left click on the Device in your system Tray –  choose Safely Remove Hardware  (picture above shows system tray location, bottom right side of your desktop )

BEEcap

Congratulations to Shaheer Imam on winning the 7th Annual Baltimore Spelling Bee at Towson University!

Champion Shaheer with the pronouncers,
judges, and Learn It staff members.

Shaheer is 8 years old and in 3rd grade at Al-Rahmah School.  He is from Catonsville, MD.  Shaheer correctly spelled "Fuselage" in the 17th round to take the Baltimore Spelling Bee.  He will now go on to represent Baltimore at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC.  Today's Bee featured 49 spellers from Baltimore City and Baltimore County.  Second place went to Elizabeth Bernatowicz of Masters Academy and in third place was Lance Pacis of the St. Clement Mary Hofbauer School.

A big thanks to Baltimore City Councilman Bill Henry (District 4), Baltimore City Schools Title I Director, Tasha Johnson, and Nadia Nasr and Jennifer Langdon of Towson University for judging the event as well as Learn It Systems, the Baltimore Spelling Bee's head sponsor. 

Learn It staff members pose before
checking in student participants

All student particpants gather outside for a group photo
with Baltimore Bee pronouncers, judges, and Learn It staff members.

2012 Baltimore Spelling Bee!

BEE Ready!

The 7th Baltimore Bee will take place on Saturday, March 17, 2012 at 8:00 A.M in the auditorium of Stephen's Hall at Towson University.   The Baltimore Bee team here at Learn It has been working hard coordinating this event, and we are excited as the date quickly approaches.

Most of the students have enrolled in the Bee, judges and readers have been selected, t-shirts are being ordered, and other preparations are taking place to ensure this is another successful and inspiring event for the participants, family members, and staff.   The students are studying hard, and we look forward to them competing for the chance to represent Baltimore at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C this June.


Employees, the Baltimore Bee team would love to have your support the day of the event whether it's volunteering with tasks or coming out to watch the competition.  If you are interested in helping out and attending, please let Meghan Meyers Stella know.

The Baltimore Bee has its own Facebook page and Twitter account.  Like and follow us today to catch the latest buzz now, through, and following the event!

Facebook - Baltimore Bee
Twitter - @BaltimoreBeeLIS

We'd like to thank all team members who have been working on this event these past few months.  Your hard work and dedication has not gone unnoticed!  We'd also to like to give props to this year's Baltimore Bee intern, Carolina, for handling multiple aspects of the event's coordination.  Carolina is a Senior at Towson University majoring in Business/Marketing, and we are excited to have her working with us!

Tech Tip #46

As Smartphones become more prevalent, we thought we'd give you a little bit of information on what the difference is between an APP and a Widget.

APPs (short for Applications) are programs designed to add new functions and features to your smartphone.   APPs allow users to utilize services like Facebook, Twitter, Skype,  Pandora, and etc.  Additional APPs allow users to play games and find a new place for dinner, for example.  There are a wide variety of different categories of APPs (Education, Finance ,News, etc.)   APPS are available for iPhones, Android devices, Windows, Mobile, and Blackberry.

WIDGETS are found on Android devices, Window Phones, and Blackberrys.  iPhones do not have them.   Widgets give you a quick view of different kinds of information and quick access to your APPs and configuration settings.   Widgets are very small programs to run on your home screen.  These tiny programs often include real time weather, stock reports, top new stories , Facebook updates, and etc.   Widgets also provide quick controls for functions like WiFi , GPS, and Bluetooth.  

The main distinction is that APPs are fully featured programs while widgets often provide surface controls for APPs and the phone features.  APPs generally are several megabytes and may take several minutes to download and install.   A widget is much smaller and can be downloaded and configured much faster. 

Tech Tip #45

Proper Packaging of Electronics for Returns

This week’s tech tip is more of the common sense tip.  IF you can  physically see most of the item you are shipping, that it is not enough packaging.   I cannot count the numerous times that I have had  computer / printer equipment returned to Corporate not properly packaged. 

The best package to return an item with is the original packaging,  which in most cases are Styrofoam molds for the equipment.   I recommend keeping some of the original packing that the  IT Department has sent the new equipment out in case you need to return the item.

IF you do not have the original packaging ,  either purchase a box with proper packing material from a local shipping store ( UPS, FedEx , etc…).  The last resort is to wrap the equipment in bubble wrap and make sure that the item does not shift in the box.  These boxes are not handled with care from the shipper, so over doing it on the packing is the best way.

Placing a laptop in a UPS or FedEx medium box is not proper packing!

Tech Tip #44

Sending a Email message to a Mobile Phone Number

Cellular carriers provide a service that many people are unaware of — the ability to send email to a cell phone. In other words, this is how to send a text message from email. 

Carriers assign an email address to each phone number utilizing a format that is specific to each carrier.  Using this format you can compose email or text messages with Microsoft Outlook, Yahoo Mail, AOL, Gmail, or other email programs and easily send your email message to the cell phone of a person or a group of people.

Text messages are limited to a 160 character maximum.

An example of how to send a text via email to a Verizon account you would use the “@vtext.com”  extension  ex: 4105551212@vtext.com.

Here are some of the major carrier extensions:

Verizon –    “phonenumber@vtext.com”  or 4151112222@vtext.com
AT&T –     4151112222@txt.att.net.
Sprint –      4151112222@messaging.sprintpcs.com

Tech Tip #43

Should you Bookmark it or Add it as a Favorite?     

A Bookmark or a Favorite is a saved URL (website address) to a preferred website.   The main difference is the term bookmark is used in specific Web Browsers and some toolbars ( Ex: Firefox, Safari and Google toolbar).   Favorites refer to Internet Explorer. 

Here is a great link on Managing Internet Explorer Favorites. 

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Managing-your-Internet-Explorer-favorites

Here is a great link for those who prefer the Firefox browser.

http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-do-i-use-bookmarks

Since we have recently migrated to new servers be a great idea to practice making it ONE OF YOUR FIRST new favorite or bookmark.   Here are the URL’s:

NO WWW

OASIS

http://oasis.learnitsystems.net

OASIS Form Generation—now you can login separately!

http://oasis.forms.learnitsystems.net

OASIS Bulk Attendance (will be active Monday)

http://oasis.attendance.learnitsystems.net

Virtual Training

http://training.learnitsystems.net

LISAS

http://lisas.learnitsystems.net

2012 Title I Conference

The 2012 National Title I Conference begins this Saturday the 21st in Seattle, WA!


Our staff will be traveling to the convention center starting tomorrow morning to check in and get the Learn It Systems booth set up and ready to go.  This year, Learn It will be showcasing our newest product line, Focus on Common Core.  If you are at the conference, make sure to stop by our booth to learn more about us and the services we provide! We will be having a raffle for an iPad, providing free popcorn, and handing out fun giveaways.  Additionally, on Sunday evening, Learn It will be hosting its annual VIP Reception to (by invitation only).  

Here is the official link for this year's conference:
2012 National Title I Conference - Seattle, WA





We wish all Learn It staff attending the conference good luck, and we hope you all have a successful and fun experience.  


Stay tuned for photos and a conference recap!

Tech Tip #42

Exel offers many different ways to adjust each column and row width to suit your needs.

AutoFit Column Width - Adjust the width to automatically fit the data included in each column.

• Click the column you want to modify ( to select multiply columns, press and hold Ctrl while clicking each column).   

        2003 EXCEL Users - Click the format drop down menu in the cells group and select       

        "Autofit Column Width."     

        2007 EXCEL Users -  Click the Home tab, "Format", and "AutoFit Column Width."

• Click the column you want adjusted and drag the vertical bar between any two columns to the required width.  You can also double click that same vertical bar, and the column will be automatically fitted to the widest entry in the column.  The same method works to adjust row heights.

You can also highlight all columns and double left click on the last column vertical bar, and all of your columns will be increased to the required width based on the data entered into the cell.  

THIS IS A GREAT WAY TO SAVE TIME IN YOUR SPREADSHEET FORMATTING!

GO RAVENS!

Psyched up about the Ravens play off game this weekend, the Corporate office dressed up in Ravens gear and had a pot luck lunch last Friday in preparation of the Divisional playoff game against the Houston Texans.  Hotdogs, sausages, chili, wings, and purple side dishes were only some of the delicious food shared amongst the spirited crowd.

Learn It Systems Purple Friday

Jerrelle Francois (Education)

Leigh Hannan (HR) and Jim Eikenberg (Finance)

Troy Laur (Marketing) and Nathan Livengood (Central Operations)

The day began with Ravens colored donuts and purple beads being passed around to wear for the day.  Ravens conversation and excitement still has not stopped since 8:00 a.m.  As if donuts, beads, and a decked out lunch were not enough, the big screen TV in the kitchen is looping Ravens footage videos all day.

Here is a great video put out by the Ravens.  Enjoy!