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

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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
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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 10^th, so we can enjoy more evening sunlight (sunrise does not start getting earlier until December 31^st (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

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Mike Jackson, Science Teacher

Senior School Technology Coordinator

St Michaels University School, Victoria, BC

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!

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!

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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