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!

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Mike Jackson, Science Teacher

Senior School Technology Coordinator

St Michaels University School, Victoria, BC

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!

http://www.skynews.ca/supermoon-monday/

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
	.

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

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

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

http://smustechtips.blogspot.ca/2015/11/weekly-tech-tip-2-my-classroom-screen.html

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