Bowie Tech Tips for Parents & Students

STEP 1

Create Your AISD Parent Portal Account - The Parent Portal serves as the primary resource for all of the services provided online to our parents. This site gives parents direct access to their child's classroom information, registration to your child's campus, district-wide information, and links to other often used services. Instructions on creating your Parent Portal Account.

STEP 2

Get to Know Two AISD Systems - After you create your AISD Parent Portal account familiarize yourself with these two important tiles contained within the portal:

• Parent Self-Serve - this application allows parents to access their student's attendance and grade records.
  • Parent Self-Serve Access Instructions will walk you through how to view your child’s grades and attendance.
  • Parent Self-Serve Notifications Instructions will help you set your notifications to configure how you want to receive communication from teachers, the school, and the district.
• BLEND - this is the digital classroom that allows parents to support student learning by providing a view of assignments, due dates, communication with teachers, and more. Take a tour of BLEND, and view videos about how to access BLEND, and for a PDF with some basic steps to organize your BLEND dashboard and change your BLEND notifications.

STEP 3

Request a Chromebook for Your Bowie Student - All students are required to bring a computer to school every day. The device must have a minimum screen size of 10” (smartphones are not adequate). Bowie recommends that all students check out an AISD Chromebook, even if they prefer to use a personal device at times. The AISD Chromebook includes specialized programs and apps that the student will need that cannot be loaded on a personal computer. There is no cost to checkout an AISD Chromebook. Broken Chromebooks can simply be traded in for a working one. Wifi hotspots are also available upon request at no charge. Student can pick up the Chromebook from the A-Hall technology room. 

• Default student login:
  Username: capital "S" + student ID#
  Password: capital letter of last name + 6 digit birthdate + lowercase "s"
• Key Student Programs in the AISD Portal
  • Frontline - This is where you will find your schedule, grades, and attendance record.
  • BLEND - In BLEND, you will have a “tile” on your dashboard for each class period. This is where you will access all of your course materials and where you will digitally submit your assignments.
  • Google Drive - This is where you can create, share, and store Google files (documents, spreadsheets, forms, etc.)
  • FIT Portal - This is where you will schedule yourself into sessions during Flexible Instructional Time and where you will look to see if a teacher assigned you to a FIT session.

• Helpful list of student videos  for getting started at the beginning of the year
  • How students access AISD Gmail and Google Drive
  • Getting Start with BLEND/Canvas as a Student (six videos for new users)
• Chromebook Troubleshooting
  • Make sure you have the latest version of Chrome. Here are the instructions to manually update your Chromebook: “Using Gopher Buddy to Update Your Chromebook”
  • Reset your Chromebook by powerwashing. Follow the directions in the“How to Powerwash Your Chromebook” video. If powerwashing doesn’t work, then call the AISD Student Help Desk at 512-414-4357.
  • To swap a non-working or damaged Chromebook at Bowie, drop by A117 before school or during lunch. 
• How to Connect to Wifi on your personal computer or smartphone
  • Select the network “education” from available wifi networks on campus. Do NOT attempt to connect to the Guest network!!
  • Enter your AISD credentials for username/identity and password to connect to the network
  • Android Devices & Chromebooks: change validation setting to EAP method: PEAP, 2nd validation method to MSCHAPV2, and do not validate certificate.
  • iOS devices: after connecting to the network, click to trust the certificate.
  • All users: upon connection, you will need to agree to the bring-your-own-device agreement (BYOD) that should appear in your browser, if it does not open automatically, go to austinisd.org in your browser
  • IF you have never used your computer on the Education wi-fi on campus: input the following into the URL: cloud.securew2.com (this will open the direct path for you to sign in)