Monday 12 December 2016

Tech tip #39 - what does the XXX key do?

There are quite a few keys on many keyboards that do interesting and sometimes unusual things… Here is a sampling:


Insert key: the insert key toggles whether text is inserted before other text or overwrites it. If you accidentally press insert, it can be surprising! http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/i/insertke.htm

Home key: the home key returns you to the beginning of the line where your cursor is. Ctrl-home will take you to the beginning of the document. Shft-Home will highlight to the beginning of the line. http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/h/homekey.htm
.
End key: the home key returns you to the end of the line where your cursor is. Ctrl-end will take you to the end of the document http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/e/endkey.htm

Numlock key: the numlock key toggles whether the number keypad acts as a number key entry system or whether the other functions (arrows etc) are enabled. http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/n/numlock.htm

F-lock key: the F-lock key toggles whether the function keys at the top of the keyboard behave as “F-keys” (e.g. F5 for “refresh”) or as indicated on the key (open, spell, save, print etc) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-Lock

ScrLk (Scroll lock): This key is rarely used. In Excel it will change whether the cursor moves or the page moves. http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/s/scrolock.htm

Windows key: the Windows key is found to the left and right of the space bar and can be combined with other keys to perform common tasks. Win-E – explorer, Win-P – monitor/projector choices etc (http://www.computerhope.com/shortcut/windows.htm#2)

Menu Key: beside the right Windows key, you may find the menu key which brings up a context-sensitive menu (usually the same as when you right-click)

This page has a good summary: http://www.computerhope.com/keys.htm

This page of the top 10 is pretty useful: http://www.computerhope.com/tips/tip79.htm



If you would like any help doing this, please let one of your EdTech support teachers know, and they will be glad to help.

These tips are now being archived at the following location in a blog format: http://smustechtips.blogspot.ca

Also, please let me know if you have any tips you would like to share!


Michael Jackson MA (Cantab) MEDes (Calgary)
Science Teacher
Senior school Technology Coordinator
Senior School, St. Michaels University School
3400 Richmond Road | Victoria BC | V8P 4P5 | Canada
Phone: 250-370-6182 | Fax: 250-592-2812
Cell: 250-888-8783
Twitter: 
@MikeJ_SMUS
www.smus.ca
.


non tech tip - Sunsets are now getting later! (though the days are still getting shorter)

The earliest sunset (4:18 pm) of the year was on December 10th, so we can enjoy more evening sunlight (sunrise does not start getting earlier until December 31st (8:05am), however!) …

The December Solstice (Winter Solstice) is on Wednesday, December 21, 2016 at 2:44 am in Victoria. This day is 7 hours, 48 minutes shorter than on June Solstice (3 and a half minutes shorter than today). In most locations north of Equator, the shortest day of the year is around this date.

To understand why the latest sunrise, earliest sunset and shortest day are different one has to understand the “equation of time” – basically the difference between “clock time” and “sun time”. Basically “solar days” (solar noon to solar noon) vary in length. A good explanation can be found here: https://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/equation-of-time.html. Another good article can be found here: http://earthsky.org/earth/winter-solstice-and-late-sunrise. Yet another here: http://earthsky.org/tonight/earliest-sunset-today-but-not-shortest-day.

If you want to get all nerdy about Victoria’s “sun stuff” you can go to: https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/canada/victoria

Enjoy the sky! (even though we can’t see much of it today!)

Cheers
Mike

-------------------------
Mike Jackson, Science Teacher
Senior School Technology Coordinator
St Michaels University School, Victoria, BC

Thursday 1 December 2016

Tech tip # 38 - network start menu folder

Hello all,

Many years ago, all the programs on the network were available through the start menu, but that is no longer possible with our network setup.

To compensate for this, we have created a shortcut to a folder of shortcuts called W7-Start Menu (or W10-Start menu). This folder should be on your desktop. If it is not, please ask one of your ed tech support folks to help you find/recover it (you can find the shortcut in the W: drive).

I have created a screencast of how to use this folder: http://www.screencast.com/t/z0TbgJoK  (the video also shows how to use the Lab monitoring software)



If you would like any help doing this, please let one of your EdTech support teachers know, and they will be glad to help.

These tips are now being archived at the following location in a blog format: http://smustechtips.blogspot.ca

Also, please let me know if you have any tips you would like to share!


Friday 25 November 2016

Tech tip #37 - Making photo slide shows with PowerPoint

Hello all,

If you want to make a “slide show” from a group of images, this can very easily be done with PowerPoint’s “insert-photo album” function.

I have created a short screencast to show you how it is done: http://www.screencast.com/t/WrbglfIp4K


If you decide that you want to change your settings after having made the album, it can easily be done by choosing “insert-photo album-edit photo album”.

Thanks to Chris Bateman for this suggestion!

If you would like any help doing this, please let one of your EdTech support teachers know, and they will be glad to help.

These tips are now being archived at the following location in a blog format: http://smustechtips.blogspot.ca

Also, please let me know if you have any tips you would like to share!

-------------------------
Mike Jackson, Science Teacher
Senior School Technology Coordinator
St Michaels University School, Victoria, BC

Wednesday 23 November 2016

Tech tip #36 - Remote desktop access to SMUS network

Using the Remote Desktop is the easiest way to access your school data and use school licensed software from your home or BYOD computer.

Many of us need to access the school’s network from home (or elsewhere) and this is easily done using the SMUS remote desktop server. It can also be handy if you are using a BYOD mac at school and need to access SMUS network resources or tools.

You can find instructions on how to do so on the Intranet at this link: https://secure.smus.ca/wiki/index.php?title=SMUS_Virtual_Desktop

Instructions are available for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android (tablets and phones) (yes it is possible to access the remote desktop with your phone!)

I have created a screencast of how to do this with your Mac here: http://www.screencast.com/t/zCMPY1v9pwwb

And with a windows computer here: http://www.screencast.com/t/RsCjHLILU

I have also created a third screencast to show you the RDP client in action. When you run the RDP client, you are essentially running a virtual computer at school and viewing it from home (or wherever else you might be).
The link to the third screencast is here: http://www.screencast.com/t/9SI0JEEhg

And a short astronomy update: Many of you may have heard that last week’s full moon was a special “supermoon”. This Skynews article explains why it was statistically kind of special though not visibly so!


If you would like any help doing this, please let one of your EdTech support teachers know, and they will be glad to help.

These tips are now being archived at the following location in a blog format: http://smustechtips.blogspot.ca

Also, please let me know if you have any tips you would like to share!

-------------------------
Mike Jackson, Science Teacher
Senior School Technology Coordinator
St Michaels University School, Victoria, BC

tech tip #35 - the dangers of autocomplete

Dear all,

Gordon has given me permission to use his recent example of accidentally sending an invitation to all senior faculty for his own calendar item as a “teachable moment”.

Very often when you are filling in a form or creating an event, your web browser (or in Gordon’s case his iPad) will “helpfully suggest” something to fill in. If you accept that option, you need to check that the suggestion is in fact  what you want. In Gordon’s case the iPad (in striving to be helpful!?) happened to suggest an event that had 19 invitees attached, including all senior faculty! When he accepted this choice it sent the invitation to all senior faculty and more! To prevent this from happening, you would need to either edit the event to remove all the invitees, or just not accept the suggestion.

Gordon’s particular example was specifically a result of how things work with Apple’s iOS. The option the iPad suggested for him was not actually what he wanted!



Michael Jackson MA (Cantab) MEDes (Calgary)
Science Teacher
Senior school Technology Coordinator
Senior School, St. Michaels University School
3400 Richmond Road | Victoria BC | V8P 4P5 | Canada
Phone: 250-370-6182 | Fax: 250-592-2812
Cell: 250-888-8783
Twitter: 
@MikeJ_SMUS
www.smus.ca
.


Thursday 17 November 2016

Tech tip #34 - The Windows 10 menu (and the tiles will be going!)

One of the biggest changes between windows 7 and windows 10 is in how the start menu works.

HEADS UP – The “Tiles” section of the menu will be disappearing next week (probably Monday)
Please note that the “tiles” will be disappearing from our network menu soon. This is because Microsoft has made tiles difficult to manage in a multi-user environment such as ours. Users were finding that tiles were getting corrupted and were not user configurable.

The start menu still contains shortcuts to all the installed programs. The links are sorted alphabetically by folder. One of the best ways to find a program is to type it into the search box by the start menu. If there is a program that you want an easy link to, I recommend that you right-click on it and “pin it to the task bar”.

I have created a short screencast on how to use the start menu: http://www.screencast.com/t/Em0QdfX9j


If you would like any help doing this, please let one of your EdTech support teachers know, and they will be glad to help.

These tips are now being archived at the following location in a blog format: http://smustechtips.blogspot.ca

Also, please let me know if you have any tips you would like to share!

-------------------------
Mike Jackson, Science Teacher
Senior School Technology Coordinator
St Michaels University School, Victoria, BC

Monday 7 November 2016

tech tip #33 - finding large files/folders with windirstat

Hello all,

Over the years, many of us have accumulated many files in our H: drives and other locations and in some cases these are taking up a lot of space on the school’s servers.

If you would like to check out your folder usage, please try the following:

1)  Open the W7-SusNetworkMenu folder on your desktop (if this is missing ask one of the EdTech or  IT folks for help in reinstalling it)
2)  Open the Faculty Staff folder
3)  Run WinDirStat
4)  Choose the drive you want to search (eg Staffhome: (H) or browse for a folder on the P or S drives
5)  The program will then scan the drive or folder and provide a list and graphic overview of your files. You can then easily see which files or folders are taking up the most space
6)  You can then open and/or delete files as desired/needed

(Thanks to Chris Bateman for the suggestion!)

If you would like any help doing this, please let one of your EdTech support teachers know, and they will be glad to help.

These tips are now being archived at the following location in a blog format: http://smustechtips.blogspot.ca

Also, please let me know if you have any tips you would like to share!

-------------------------
Mike Jackson, Science Teacher
Senior School Technology Coordinator
St Michaels University School, Victoria, BC

Friday 4 November 2016

Tech tip #32 - tech tip # 2 repeat - how to fix your blank screen

Hello all,

I have it on good authority that I need to send out tech tip #2 again (October of last year)… J


This tip shows you how to use the windows key and the “P” key to adjust your screen viewing.

The key thing is if you can’t see your screen and your computer is connected to a projector, it is most likely that “Windowskey-P” will solve the problem.

If you would like any help doing this, please let one of your EdTech support teachers know, and they will be glad to help.

These tips are now being archived at the following location in a blog format: http://smustechtips.blogspot.ca

Also, please let me know if you have any tips you would like to share!

-------------------------
Mike Jackson, Science Teacher
Senior School Technology Coordinator
St Michaels University School, Victoria, BC

Monday 31 October 2016

tech tip #31 - Youtube tips

Here are a couple of tips for using Youtube: (thanks to Chris Bateman for the suggestion!)

If you want to download a video because you are worried about the wifi connection while showing it (or losing it because the video disappears):
1. go to video in youtube
2. type "ss" just before the "y" of "youtube" in the url
3. hit return
4. takes you to a new page with a mp4 download link

If you want to share a Youtube video, you can click on the “share” link (or right-click on the video), where you then have a choice to copy the youtu.be link, get embed code to paste into a website like MOODLE, or email it directly to a list of recipients. Embedding is a bit complex, but allows you to include the video in your own page without all the youtube clutter. You can see an example in the staff resources MOODLE page: https://secure.smus.ca/staffmoodle/mod/page/view.php?id=604 (how to get to chapel on time!)


If you want to share a youtube link but only to a certain part in the video:
1. go to the youtube video
2. scrub forward to the spot you want to share from
3. pause video
4. right click "copy video url at current time"
5. embed or paste into email to share.


If you would like any help trying out these options please let one of your EdTech support teachers know, and they will be glad to help.


These tips are now being archived at the following location in a blog format: http://smustechtips.blogspot.ca

Also, please let me know if you have any tips you would like to share!

Michael Jackson, Academic Technology Coordinator
St Michaels University School

Wednesday 26 October 2016

Tech tip 30 - Wireless display

Many of you may be aware that we have a program called Airserver installed on most of the computers that are connected to projectors. (If you have a projector-connected computer that does not have Airserver, please contact help@smus.ca)  This program works a bit like an Apple TV or Roku device in that it can mirror most screens wirelessly to the projector. Currently, Airserver can display up to 4 devices at one time. Airserver also has the ability to record the screen being displayed.

At the moment, you can do the following on our network:
<![if !supportLists]>1)      <![endif]>Mirror an iOS device (iphone or iPad) via airplay or the Airserver connect app (this is the only way to project student devices on the screen)
<![if !supportLists]>2)      <![endif]>Mirror an Android phone or tablet using the Airserver connect app (this allows students and faculty to display wirelessly)
<![if !supportLists]>3)      <![endif]>Mirror a MacOS device (eg Macbook) using airplay  - this only works for faculty devices.
<![if !supportLists]>4)      <![endif]>Mirror a MacOS device using the “cast” option in Google Chrome (faculty devices only?)
<![if !supportLists]>5)      <![endif]>Mirror a PC device running windows 10 using a program called Airparrot ( this has to be downloaded and purchased)
<![if !supportLists]>6)      <![endif]>Mirror a PC device using the “cast” option in Google Chrome (you have a choice of just a tab or the whole desktop) (faculty devices only?)
<![if !supportLists]>7)      <![endif]>Mirror a Chromebook using the “cast” option in Google Chrome on the Chromebook. (I think this also works on student devices)

Airserver can display a QR code which makes it easy for devices using the airserver connect app. It can also be used with an on-screen password. These are settings that you can change for your user. You can also change the name of the device to be something easier to find than the full computer name. Since the change is tied to your user, I suggest you use your name.

If you would like any help trying out these options please let one of your EdTech support teachers know, and they will be glad to help.


These tips are now being archived at the following location in a blog format: http://smustechtips.blogspot.ca

Also, please let me know if you have any tips you would like to share!

Michael Jackson, Academic Technology Coordinator
St Michaels University School

Wednesday 19 October 2016

Tech tip # 29 - SDS - finding out who is free or teaching

If you want to know who is doing what and where on a particular day, you can go to the SDS and go to Staff menu – Teachers – Daily Campus Schedule and see what is happening during each block of the day. This could be useful if you want to find out who is teaching during the same block in case you want to enter into a collaboration with another teacher during one of your blocks. A direct link to that page is here: https://sds.smus.ca/index.php?next_page=teachers/daily_campus_schedule.php

You may also be interested in finding out who has spares in common with you on a particular day: Staff menu – Teachers – Common spares (https://sds.smus.ca/index.php?next_page=teachers/free_teachers.php)

Also you can find out who is free in a particular timetable block by going to Staff menu – Teachers – Who’s free? (https://sds.smus.ca/index.php?next_page=teachers/free_teachers.php)

Let me or one of the other Ed Tech Team folks know if you need any help with any of the items covered in these tips.

Mike


These tips are now being archived at the following location in a blog format: http://smustechtips.blogspot.ca

Also, please let me know if you have any tips you would like to share!

Thursday 6 October 2016

tip #28 - uploading and converting Google docs

Dear Colleagues,

Many of us are using Google Drive to store and work with our documents on line.

If you want to make your files available in the “cloud”, you can copy them to your Google drive. Your SMUS google account has a huge capacity and is available anywhere you can access the Internet with a computer, tablet or phone. It is best to access your drive with Google Chrome or the drive app on your phone.

To get to your Google drive the easiest way is to go to: http://docs.smus.ca

There are several ways to upload files, including dragging them to the folder window or using the New-file or New-folder upload button. 

If you upload office files (Word, Excel or PowerPoint), they will stay in their original format by default. This means that they cannot be collaboratively edited in the same way as Google docs, sheets or slides can be. To make them far more useful, you can right click on them and choose “openin Google docs”. This makes a copy of the original file in the Google format. The problem with this approach is that you end up with two files with the same name (different format).

I recommend that you convert all your Word, Excel and Powerpoint files that you upload to your Google Drive to the Google format automatically which you can do via the settings (gear icon in the top right) and checking the box for “convert uploads”. This way you don’t have to worry about multiple versions or converting, as it is all done for you. It is then easy to convert entire folders of files in one operation.

The images and video linked below is a good overview of the whole process:
.
Please feel free to ask any of your ed tech specialists for help!

These tips are now being archived at the following location in a blog format: http://smustechtips.blogspot.ca

Also, please let me know if you have any tips you would like to share!


Monday 3 October 2016

tech tip # 27 - practical ed tech guide

Dear Colleagues,

For those of you that are teachers and any of you that work with groups of students, Richard Byrne of http://www.freetech4teachers.com/   has created a Practical Ed Tech Handbook that can be viewed/downloaded from the following link: https://app.box.com/s/jw3v4nprrqz0nex4qbgb1zhzi54aacst

There are lots of good suggestions for tools that you might wish to use with your classes or groups.

The table of contents is as follows:

Introduction

1. Communication with students and parents.
● Text/ SMS/ push notification tools.
● Email management tips.
● Blogging tools.
2. Web search strategies.
● Getting beyond the first pages of Google.com results.
3. Digital citizenship.
● K-6
● 7-12
4. Video creation.
● Video projects and tools for creating them.
● Tools for building & distributing flipped lessons.
5. Audio recording and publishing. 
● Web-based & mobile recording tools.
6. Backchannels & informal assessment.
7. Digital portfolios.

If you need help figuring any of this out, please don't hesitate to contact one of the ed tech specialists on your campus. Let me know if you have any other questions!

Cheers
Mike

These tips are now being archived at the following location in a blog format: http://smustechtips.blogspot.ca

Also, please let me know if you have any tips you would like to share!

--------------
Mike Jackson, Science Teacher
Senior School Technology Coordinator
St Michaels University School, Victoria, BC

tech tip # 26 configuring Windows 10

Dear Colleagues,

By now you are probably all getting somewhat used to Windows 10 (it is quite a change from Windows 7 which came out in 2009!), but there are a few things that you may want to do to customize your personal Windows 10 settings.

Personalize
If you right-click on your desktop and choose “personalize”, you can adjust quite a few things about how things look, including the background image, the lock screen image. Under the “lock screen” item, you can adjust the screen timeout settings as well as the screen saver settings.

Taskbar
If you have a program that you use often, you may want to “pin it to the taskbar” so that it is readily available. To do this you can right click on the program icon in the start menu and choose “pin to taskbar”.

Launching programs
In general, one of the easiest ways to launch a program is to type the program’s name into the search bar. This is often faster than scrolling through the list of available programs. (once you find that favourite program, add it to your taskbar!)

Logging out, shutting down and restarting
If you forget to log out of your computer and it “locks”, then there is no way for anyone else to log in without restarting the machine. Windows enterprise does not allow multiple users at the same time. The person who needs to log into that computer has to either “restart” the computer, or shut down and then power up. Surprisingly it is usually faster to so the latter rather than restart. Please get in the habit of logging off when you leave your computer. Also, please remember to leave your computer on (logged out) when you leave so that updates to software can be performed.

SMUS Windows 10 FAQ
Chris Kloosterman sent out an email in late August with a link to the “Frequently Asked Questions” about windows 10.  In case you have misplaced the link it is here: https://secure.smus.ca/wiki/index.php?title=SMUS_Windows_10_FAQ
At the moment this FAQ includes topics such as: logging out, setting your default browser, setting the right program for PDF files, and much more


If you need help figuring any of this out, please don’t hesitate to contact one of the ed tech specialists on your campus. Let me know if you have any other questions!

Cheers
Mike

These tips are now being archived at the following location in a blog format: http://smustechtips.blogspot.ca

Also, please let me know if you have any tips you would like to share!



.


Wednesday 28 September 2016

Tech tip #25 Getting a high resolution digital copy of your school photo

Hello all,

We just noticed that you can get a high resolution digital copy of your current school photo (if you want it!) by following the link at the bottom of the sheet that has your photos on it. You have to go to http://download.edgeimaging.ca and enter the download code on your sheet. The links expire on November 18th…

These tips are being archived at the following location in a blog format: http://smustechtips.blogspot.ca

Monday 26 September 2016

Tech Tip # 24 - saving/printing a Google doc with comments

If you need to print or save a copy of a Google doc with the comments visible, it is not yet possible to do that from within Google docs. However, there is a workaround that involves saving the document as Microsoft Word. This would be useful if you want to have a copy of student work with your comments saved as a reference.

This 2-minute video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNV28QckhQw outlines a simple sequence for doing this.

Thanks to Janice McCachen and George Floyd for sending in this tip!

These tips are now being archived at the following location in a blog format: http://smustechtips.blogspot.ca

Also, please let me know if you have any tips you would like to share!


-------------------------
Mike Jackson, Science Teacher
Senior School Technology Coordinator
St Michaels University School, Victoria, BC

Friday 23 September 2016

Tech tip #23 - Acrobat(ics)

Dear Colleagues,

One of our colleagues suggested that I send out a tip about using Adobe Acrobat (please let me know if you have any questions/ideas/suggestions for tips!)

Adobe Acrobat has been a standard format for sharing documents in a consistent format for many years now. PDF is the format to use if you want anyone else to see your document the way you want it. Pretty much every device and computer can read .pdf files.

At SMUS we have the Adobe suite of products installed which includes Adobe Acrobat pro DC (by the way you can get a license to install this software at home for $9.75 US instead of $600! See SDS for details: https://sds.smus.ca/index.php?next_page=admin/mis/access_adobe_hup.php ). This means that not only can we read pdf format files and fill forms etc that we are sent, but we can also create, edit and otherwise modify pdf files. If you want to learn more about how to use Acrobat, I recommend following the “learn Adobe Acrobat pro DC” link in the program’s help menu or following the links on the “get started page” (there is a short video on how to edit pdfs there).

Amongst other features, the program will read documents out loud to you!

Most programs installed on our network allow you to print to PDF, which is a great way to make a document suitable for emailing or posting to your MOODLE or Google Classroom site.

If you have a pdf that you want to convert to Word, Exel, PowerPoint etc, it can also do that via the “File-Export to” menu.

You can also take multiple single-page or smaller pdf files and combine them into one document or conversely split a larger document into smaller ones, or single pages

There is also a tool that allows you to compare the contents of two pdf files to see what differences there are.

If you need help figuring any of this out, please don’t hesitate to contact one of the ed tech specialists on your campus.

Cheers
Mike

These tips are now being archived at the following location in a blog format: http://smustechtips.blogspot.ca

Also, please let me know if you have any tips you would like to share!




Michael Jackson
Science teacher, Technology Coordinator
St Michaels University School

Monday 19 September 2016

Tech tip #22 - last year's tech tips

I decided that the first tech tip of the year should be a table of contents of last year’s tips. Each tip is linked to the original article on http://smustechtips.blogspot.ca/
(I also added a table of contents list to the blog page)

Please let me know if you have a suggestion for a tip, or a question you would like answered.

Cheers
Mike

2015-2016 tech tips:
2016-06-20
2016-05-17
2016-05-12
2016-05-06
2016-05-02
2016-04-22
2016-04-06
2016-03-07
2016-02-29
2016-02-29
2016-01-25
2016-01-19
2016-01-11
2016-01-04
2015-12-15
2015-12-08
2015-11-26
2015-11-19
2015-11-10
2015-10-28
2015-10-21
2015-10-16
2015-10-07


-------------------------
Mike Jackson, Science Teacher
Senior School Technology Coordinator
St Michaels University School, Victoria, BC