Introduction

1. Today we are going to work with the Technology Resource Center, also called the TRC.
2. The TRC is an online technology tool that allows you to store your school technology projects and files in a Project Library. Because your Project Library is online, your files are accessible from any computer with an internet connection. Of course, your computer will need the program the file was created in (ex. Microsoft Word, Publisher, PowerPoint, etc.) to open the file.
3. The TRC also has a feature called Presentations that allows you to create Web pages, journals and photo journals with a few clicks of the mouse. Your teachers can access your site, view your presentations and add comments, so this is a great tool for producing creative school projects.
4. To view and edit projects that have been uploaded to the TRC, users must work on a computer with the Microsoft application used to create the project (Word, Excel, Publisher, PowerPoint and/or FrontPage). Some resources on the TRC were saved as PDF files. To view these files, students will need a PDF reader on their computers. Users can download a free Adobe PDF Reader at www.adobe.com.
   
5. Lastly, the TRC gives you access to a variety of resources that will help you in school, college and career. These include online libraries and encyclopedias, help guides for using Microsoft applications (Word, Excel, Publisher, PowerPoint, FrontPage), and a citation engine for creating bibliographies, footnotes and endnotes, among other resources.
6. Kindergarten–5th Grade Account Policies
   
   • Students’ projects are deleted at the end of each school year. Schools have an opportunity to download and save students’ projects before they are deleted.
7. 6th–12th Grade, Teacher and Staff Account Policies
   
   • Students upload their own technology projects. Parents use a guest password to access their student’s account and view his or her projects.
   • Student, teacher and staff projects are maintained from year to year.
   • Graduating 12th graders have the opportunity to keep their accounts active after high school. The accounts of graduates who choose not to do this are deleted at the end of the year. Students will be given time to download and save their projects before accounts are deleted.

My TRC Tour

1. To log in to the TRC, go to www.globalacademics.com and click the MyTRC button in the top right corner of the page.
   
   
2. From here, you will enter your username and password.
   
   
3. As you can see, the site opens to what’s called your Profile page. This has information about you including a place for you to upload a picture, an area where you can change your password, and access to the Presentations area and Project Library.
   
   
4. There are also tabs across the top of the site that give you access to a variety of resources including online libraries, online encyclopedias and Web Links. There are also a variety of lesson plans and tools to help you with technology projects and projects for your other classes.
   
   
5. The Citations tab opens your private citation locker.  Here, you can enter information on the sources you use in your research for any project, and the site will automatically format your footnotes, endnotes or Works Cited list. You can save your source information here until you are ready to download it, print it and turn it in.
   
   
6. Let’s go back and take a look at the Presentations tool. (Click on the MyTRC tab and choose Profile to return to the Profile page. look for the Presentations area on the right hand side of the page.) Here, you can easily create Web pages, journals and photo journals by entering text and uploading photos. The site automatically formats your text and photos into a Web page, journal or photo journal, depending on which one you choose. As you can see, all of the instructions are right on the site.
   
7. Lastly, let’s take a look at the Project Library.  This is where you upload the technology projects you create in computer class and in your other classes. Again, the instructions for uploading your files are right on the site. You can upload multiple files at once, and you can also put them into folders for better file management. There is a limit though to the project library. you are limited to file sizes below 4 megabytes, and a maximum storage amount of 50mb
   
8. Now, some other things that are important for you to know:
1. You also have a guest password that your family and friends can use. It will let them see your Profile, the files in your Project Library and any projects you create in the Presentations area. But they will NOT be able to make any changes to your account, change your projects, etc.
2. This site is NOT meant to be a place to store all of your photos (like Snapfish, Ofoto, etc.) Though you can upload some photos, the site will not allow you to upload too many. The number of pictures you are allowed to upload will depend on the file sizes.
3. As you are using the site, you should remember that every teacher at this school can look at your account and projects at any time. We do not need to know your password in order to access your site. So think carefully about what you post on your site.
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