The netTrekker usage statistics for your school and/or district will be reset to zero on August 1, 2004 for the 2004-2005 school year.

If you’d like to have a record of netTrekker usage from the 2003-2004 school year, please remember to print your usage statistics for your records prior to August 1st.

If you have any questions about your netTrekker usage statistics, please contact Customer Support toll-free at 877-517-1125.

“netTrekker is so easy to use and provides appropriate and relevant
information at a student’s own reading level. It has definitely changed the way we learn!”

Roma Smith
Instructional Tech. Specialist
North Thurston Public Schools
Lacey, WA

At netTrekker we appreciate our customers and your continued support of netTrekker throughout the school year. As the school year comes to an end, keep in mind that your netTrekker subscription allows access throughout the summer. With a username and password, any subscriber can use netTrekker from any computer that has Internet access. Here are a few suggestions on ways to use netTrekker over the summer.

• Summer Reading Lists
  Type in summer reading list* in the keyword box to get a variety of suggested reading titles sorted by grade level. Choose contemporary classics, traditional classics, historical fiction, humor, sports, nonfiction or medal winners.

• Learn About the Olympics [Shared Search Help]*
  The 2004 Summer Olympics are fast approaching and can provide some very interesting research for your students. Provide shared search folders with resources regarding the history of the Olympics. Type in Olympics* in the keyword box and preview the list of resources. Create a folder named Olympics and save the search results* into the folder. Share the folder* so that students can access the resources from home. Students will find comparing ancient Olympics to modern day Olympics quite interesting.

• Interactive Games Reinforce Learning [Tabs Help]*
  Teachers can share interactive learning games with other teachers and students who are looking for reinforcement activities throughout the summer. Use reading activities* as the keyword. Click on the yellow Learning Games tab* to isolate just the interactive games. If you desire to share these resources with other teachers outside of your school, you can email the list to them. If you would like to share these resources with others within your school, you will need to save your search* and then create a folder for this information. You might consider naming your folder something like “Grade 3 summer math activities”. Any student that logs in and accesses the shared search folders* can easily identify which resources they should use. Remember to click “share” once you’ve moved your searches into your folder.

If you have any additional questions or need help please contact Sharyl Barnes directly at sbarnes@netTrekker.com or toll free at 877-517-1125.

In our efforts to continually improve the usability of netTrekker and in response to feedback from our users, which is invaluable, the following enhancements will be made to netTrekker in June:

• Update to "Forgot Your Password" Feature
  If your students are sharing one username and password that has been put into the locked status by your netTrekker administrator, they will not be able to use the “Forgot Your Password” feature. They will receive a message that tells them the username is locked. Users who log in with a shared username and password should contact their netTrekker administrator if they forget their password.

• Improved Usage Statistics for Users
  Accessing netTrekker Through IP Access
  If your district accesses netTrekker through IP access and you have multiple schools that use the same IP address or range of addresses, you will have more accurate usage statistics for your individual schools. After these enhancements go live in June, the first time a user accesses netTrekker he/she will be prompted to select his/her particular school from a list of the schools in your district. This will only need to be done one time on each computer within your school building. This will enable netTrekker to track usage at an individual school level for districts that have multiple schools sharing the same IP addresses.

  This only applies to schools that access netTrekker through IP access and whose district has multiple schools sharing the same IP addresses.

• Update to Report a Problem Feature
  A comment box will be added to the bottom of the Report a Problem screen to allow users to provide details about the problem they have encountered with a particular link in netTrekker. For more information on the Report a Problem feature, please click here.*

If you have questions about any of these enhancements to netTrekker, please contact Customer Support at 877-517-1125.

2004 Distinguished Achievement Awards Finalist
netTrekker is a finalist in the 2004 Distinguished Achievement Awards program sponsored by The Association of Educational Publishers (AEP).

• netTrekker is one of four finalists in the Educational Websites for Children category.

• Products selected for this award are evaluated on creativity, originality of product, educational value, content vs. medium, and ease of use.

• Winners will be announced at AEP’s annual awards gala on June 8, 2004.

2004 CODIE Awards Finalist
For the second year in a row, netTrekker was a finalist in the Codie Awards competition, sponsored by the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA).

• netTrekker was a finalist in the category of Best Secondary Education Instructional Solutions, which honors the best school-based education technology solution for curriculum and content that is specifically targeted toward students in grades 7-12.

• In 2003, netTrekker was named a winner in the Best Elementary Education Instructional Solution category.

We have received some great feedback regarding how schools have implemented training and increased awareness of netTrekker within their school or district. We would like to hear other success stories about your school or district. We will share the best suggestions in future newsletters. Our Back to School contest will reward the top 3 suggestions for successful implementation and communication of the netTrekker program. The 3 winners will be based on 5 criteria as follows:

1. How did you communicate/promote netTrekker to teachers, students and parents?(specific details are required - e.g. newsletter, email, staff meeting, PTO/PTA meeting)

2. Did you provide training? If so what type of training? (specific details are required – e.g. did you purchase netTrekker professional development, hold a train the trainer session, train each teacher)

3. What type of access is your school utilizing? (individual registration, shared username and password, IP access, IP access and username and password option)

4. How are you getting feedback from your students and teachers regarding their experiences with netTrekker and how are you using this feedback?

5. What new ideas might you want to try to increase the use of netTrekker within your school or district?

During the next several months, think about what has worked best for your school or district and send us your responses no later than September 30, 2004.

• 1st Prize: $100.00 American Express gift certificate
• 2nd Prize: $50.00 American Express gift certificate
• 3rd Prize: $25.00 American Express gift certificate

All entries should be sent directly to sbarnes@netTrekker.com. Please use ´Back to School Contest¡ as the subject of your email. Entries will be accepted until September 30, 2004. All winners will be announced in our October 2004 newsletter.

• Keyword Search
• Saved Searches
• Shared Search Folders

* Please note that you will have to log in to netTrekker to view all areas of the product, including
   help topics.