Using an Apple TV and a Flickr account to automate the display of student art work

The walls of our district offices are filled with student art – and I love that, but I’d really like to enable even more student art work to be on display.  So I spent some time yesterday connecting a Flickr account to a TV display.  The idea of is simple….  An art teacher could use a standard Flickr account (www.flickr.com) to store photos of student projects.  If they create a set (sort of like a folder) of specific photos/projects, we can target that specific set to be displayed on a TV.  The teacher could then control which photos are on display at our offices and the TV would take care of automatically running the slide show.

We’ll most likely add some extra TVs for art work displays this fall, and my guess is that several of our schools will also be using the idea to display extra art work in their hallways.

Here’s the setup and tricks that we found related to it….

We used an Apple TV ($99) and an HDMI cable to connect to the TV.  Of course, the TV also has to have an HDMI connection.  Connect the Apple TV to the wireless network, then go to setting to make sure the Apple TV is set to never sleep.  In the screen saver settings, select Flickr for your screen saver, connecting to the specific Flickr account and set of photos you want to display.  I then set the display mode to random, which means that the way the photos are displayed will change approximately every hour.  For the Start After setting, I set it to 2 minutes, meaning that if someone activates the Apple TV, the slide show will automatically kick back in after 2 minutes.  I’ve let the screen saver run for several days on a TV display and so far it seems to run well and doesn’t ever break from the screen saver mode.  Looking forward to seeing more student art work….

UPDATE:  In further testing, we found that if the Apple TV is running continuously, then it doesn’t receive any new pictures that the teacher uploads to Flickr.  However, we solved that with a simple Christmas tree timer.  We set the timer to turn the Apple TV off each night at 1am for a few minutes, then power it back on.  As soon as its back on, it takes 2 minutes for slide show to kick back on and at that time it will look to Flickr to update all the photos.

New family registration in August

Q1. I’ve heard the district will still offer new family registration in August, is this correct?  Aren’t they required to visit the District Registrar?
A1. Yes, this August each school will continue to offer new family registration at their school site as they have done before in prior years.  The paper work and verifications are required to go through the district registrar, but the family does not have to physically visit the district registrar.  In fact, during this past school year, most new families registered without having to physically visit the registrar’s office.

Q2. What happens if a new family visits the school on the new family registration day in August – and they haven’t completed anything yet with the district registrar, does the school then send them over to the district offices?
A2. No…  New families can fill out the necessary paperwork at the school building.  (In fact, schools can let Joy Zuber know how many new family packets you’d like, and we’ll send them to your school office so they are available).  The families are welcome to fill out the paperwork at the school, and then the paperword can then be directed to the District Registrar for processing.

Q3. Will the schools be able to get same day service during the new family registration?  In other words, if the family has everything needed (including address verification), can we get them registered that same day?
A3.  Yes, we are bringing in extra help during summer months and through August new family registration to help process new families as quickly as we can.

Q4.  What if the family visits the District Registrar over the summer and completes everything that the district needs… will the family still be directed to visit the school on the new family registration?
A4. We know that some schools have additional information that they want from families, so we can will direct them to your new family registration unless you tell us otherwise.

Q5. Can the district registrar come to our school during new family registration to help families?
A5.  No.  Since all new family registrations are on the same date, the district registrar is not able to be at all schools at one time.  Instead, we will be at the district offices ready to field questions and handle new family registrations.