User's Guide To Parent-Teacher Hotline
Overview
The Parent Teacher Hotline application is a useful community service. Callers may listen to a variety of announcements. The announcements that the caller hears are, for the most part, the decision of the caller. These announcements can range from what's for lunch on a certain day to what was assigned for homework in a certain class. The caller can even leave a message for a certain teacher.
The possibilities for this application are limited only by what you want to do with it. You can quickly and easily customize a system for any school. The possibilities, with some help from your imagination, are limitless!
You, the Center Owner, record the Announcement (or Advertisements) you want callers to hear, such as School Activities, or some similar announcement. It is even easier if you get Branch Administrators, which are discussed later.
It is important that you be aware that the Parent Teacher Hotline application is a two-part application. This manual primarily deals with the first part of the application, the System Editor. This is the part of the application that allows you to design, build, and edit the application.
The second part of the application is the part of the application that callers actually deal with - the 'running' (working) application. While the System Editor allows you to access Parent Teacher Hotline for editing and design, the Business Manager application allows you to run the Parent Teacher Hotline application. For instructions on running your Parent Teacher Hotline application, refer to the User's Guide To Business Manager manual.
The purpose of this chapter is to acquaint you with the concepts governing the workings of your Parent Teacher Hotline system, including:
Terms
Listed here are some terms you need to know, as they appear in this chapter:
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Advertisement |
The speech recorded by or for the Advertisement Sponsor that plays when a caller accesses the system. |
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Advertiser |
Any merchant, person, or organization that purchases an Advertising from you. |
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Announcement |
The informative speech recorded by the System Administrator, typically a listing of upcoming school events or schedules for those school events. |
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Application |
In this manual, we are referring to Parent Teacher Hotline. |
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Caller |
Someone calling into the system, who may or may not be a client. They may call in to hear the Announcements, or to change their Announcements in the case of Branch Administrators. |
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Commit |
In the context of this application, this is a finalizing procedure. To 'Commit' is to finalize and save changes to the system's structure. |
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Greeting |
A friendly opening speech, recorded by a teacher, that tells the caller which Teacher Mail Box they have reached. The Greeting also gives some information pertaining to a specific teacher's class, such as homework assignments or test dates. |
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Icon |
An Icon is a graphic representation of a application in Windows. The icon is typically composed of a small picture along with the name of the application below it. |
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Message |
The speech that a caller may leave when he or she calls a teacher's Message Box. The term 'message' is also used in this manual when referring to a printed note displayed on the computer screen. |
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On-Line Help |
On-Line means that help is accessible at anytime in the application, unless you're already inside the Help function itself. |
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Prompt |
A speech that signals the caller to do something, such as enter a number on their phone to make a selection. |
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Speech |
A verbal message, recorded on a tree object in this application. A Speech may be a Prompt, Greeting, or an Announcement. |
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Sponsor |
Also, Advertisement Sponsor. Any merchant, person, or organization that purchases an Advertisement Spot from you. |
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Subscriber |
This is usually a student's parent or parents, and in some cases the student. They may or may not pay for this service. |
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System |
Your computer, while running the Parent Teacher Hotline application. It's a neat little technical term to impress your clients, and it's also more convenient than saying 'Your computer, while running the Parent Teacher Hotline application.' |
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System Administrator |
You, the Center Owner. You call the shots, decide how much to charge advertisers, decide when the system is operating, etc. This application is your domain. Your word is law here. |
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System Number |
The phone number that System Users call to access the system. It is simply the number of the phone connected to the system. |
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System User |
Also, User. Any person who calls into the system and performs a function. This includes parents listening to messages, Teachers recording messages, and many more. |
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Teacher |
The person in charge of a specific Teacher Mail Box. Teachers must update their Greetings, and retrieve any messages left in their Mail Boxes. |
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Teacher Mail Box |
The implied place where messages for a certain teacher are left. The teacher may call in to the system to retrieve messages left for them, and may also record their Greeting. |
You must first market your service to the schools or service organizations / clubs in your area, and demonstrate your Parent Teacher Hotline application to these groups. This application was shipped to you with a complete set of speeches already in place for demonstration purposes. Have people from these organizations call in to your system during your demonstration, so they may see how it works.
Other Center Owners have made interesting arrangements with these organizations: One Center Owner made a deal with a Parent Teacher Organization where parents could subscribe to the Parent Teacher Hotline, and the P.T.O. and Center Owner split the profits. An additional way to bring in revenue is by selling Advertisement spots to local merchants. Center Owners have also sold computers and the Parent Teacher Hotline Application to school systems. Other Center Owners have donated the use of their application to school systems as a community service.
Types of Calls
While your system is up and running, callers access your system by dialing the number of the phone connected to your computer. There are five types of typical calls into your Parent Teacher Hotline system:
• A call by a Teacher
• A call from a Branch Administrator
• A call from the System Administrator
• A call from a Sponsor or Advertiser
Subscriber Calls
These are calls made by Subscribers into the system, and occasionally other System Users. The most common call made by Subscribers is a call to hear one or more Announcements. The other call they make is to leave a message for a teacher.
Teacher Calls
These are the calls that teachers make into the system. These calls must be made on a regular basis, preferably each day. Teachers call in to record their Greeting, and to retrieve any messages they may have received.
System Administrator And / Or Branch Administrator Calls
The person or persons who maintain the Announcements and keep them up to date need to make the following types of calls. If there is a Branch Administrator as well as a System Administrator, then these calls are made by the Branch Administrator. Having a Branch Administrator greatly alleviates the burden on the System Administrator, and leaves the System Administrator solely in charge of maintaining the actual system tree. The Branch Administrator should be someone who knows enough about the school and its activities, such as the principal, dean, secretary, or other faculty member.
The three types of calls that the System Administrator, or Branch Administrator makes are as follows:
• A call to change Announcements
• A call to enable or disable an Announcement or Mailbox
Advertisement Sponsor Calls
These are calls made by the Sponsors of Advertisements to record their Advertisements. Sponsors may call in from time to time to hear how their Advertisement sounds, and this call is similar to a Subscriber call.
To open your Parent Teacher Hotline application you must first open Business Manager:
In Windows 95
2. Move your cursor up to Programs on the menu. Programs highlights and another menu appears.
3. Move your cursor to ECS Business Applications on the second menu. ECS Business Applications highlights, and a third menu appears.
4. Move your cursor to Business Manager on the third menu and click once. Business Manager opens and the title screen appears as shown in the next figure.
In Windows 3.1
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Double click on the appropriate icon in the ECS Business Applications program group. Business Manager opens and the title screen appears as shown in the next figure. |
Figure 1 -- The Business Manager opening screen
With Business Manager open, you can open any of the control menus or dialog boxes by clicking on the appropriate menu heading in the menu bar.
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1. Click on the Applications menu heading, and the Application Configuration box appears. 2. Select the Parent Teacher Hotline* option by clicking it. A blue bar appears on this option. |
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3. Click the Edit button, or double click the highlighted Parent Teacher Hotline* option. Either way, you enter the system editor for the Parent Teacher Hotline application. |
To get to the main screen of the editor, click on the File option on the menu bar. Next, click the Tree menu option on the drop down menu. The Tree Edit screen appears as shown in Figure 2:
Figure 2 - The Tree Edit screen
The Tree Edit Screen displays a 'system tree'. This is a graphical representation of the system. The tree that appears now is an example tree, which you will use to practice the skills you learn in this manual. This is a fully functional system, meaning that you could run the Parent Teacher Hotline system right now using Business Manager. You or other callers could call into the system and move through it. Calling into your own system gives you a good idea of how the system works. Eventually, you will either modify this tree to customize it for your use, or you will make your own system tree.
When you finish editing the system tree, you may exit the system editor so you can do other things. It is a simple procedure to exit the Parent Teacher Hotline system editor, and you may use the following procedure to do so:
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You may also use the a+o key combination to exit the application. You may also use a+F to get to the "File" menu, and press the X key. |
While viewing the system tree, click the File option located on the Menu bar. Then, click the Exit menu option on the drop down menu. The editor closes, and you return to the Business Manager window. You may also exit by double clicking the control box in the upper left corner of the Parent Teacher Hotline window. |
If you made changes to the system tree but did not commit these changes, the following advisory message appears:
Figure 3 - The Commit Changes Advisory box
Clicking the Yes button commits the system changes, and closes the system editor. You then return to the Business Manager window.
Clicking the No button allows you to exit the system editor without committing changes to the system tree. This means that all of the changes you made during the editing session are abandoned, and the system tree remains as it did before you entered the system editor.
Clicking the Cancel button allows you to return to the system tree without committing any changes. This means that you stay in the system editor, and may continue your editing session.
If you encounter a problem at any time during the normal operation of your application, all you need to do is ask for Help. The application includes an On-Line Help function to answer questions that you might have concerning Parent Teacher Hotline (On-Line means that it is accessible from anywhere in the application, unless you're already inside the Help function itself). The Help function contains the same basic information that you can find in this manual.
Starting Help
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To start the Help function, click on the Help button. Using the button saves you from having to select help using the Help menu. You can also activate Help by using the Help menu heading from the Menu Bar. A 'Menu Heading' is the word you find in the white bar along the top of your application window. The Help function is also accessible from anywhere in the application by pressing the lkey. |
Once you activate Help, you can select the topic you want help with from the contents table. Clicking the Contents... option opens the first Help Window, The Help Contents Screen. This screen displays the most general of the Section Headings. These Headings relate directly to the Chapter Headings in this manual.
Exiting Help
To exit Help, all you have to do is close the Help Window. There are three ways you can do this:
2. Select the Close option from the Window Control menu
3. Select the Exit option of the File menu in the Help Window.
The Parent Teacher Hotline is a useful community service which opens up lines of communications between parents, students, teachers and other community members. Once your system is up and running it receives a variety of calls to access the information provided by teachers, administrators, sponsors and advertisers.
You enter your Parent Teacher Hotline application by accessing the Parent Teacher Hotline* option in the Applications! dialog box of your Business Manager program. You exit by selecting the Exit option form the File drop down menu or double clicking the control box in the upper left corner of the Parent Teacher Hotline window.
Now that you know how to get in and out of your application, it is time to move on to the next chapter and learn about the tools you use to add, edit and print the information in your application.
