I put together this list to help with a training on how to get the most out of the new machine. I know, I know the fact that a teacher knows how to use ‘spotlight’ does directly translate in to good teaching/learning, but this is a start. I believe if teachers are more comfortable using the computer the more likely they will be to bring that technology in to the classroom, and if they can attend a useful, informative training the more likely they will be to come to the next training with positive expectations. So here are a few things I collected from around the internet.

Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts
***Pressing “Control + Click” on a Mac acts like a ‘Right Click’ on PCs***
*Cmd or Command is Open Apple, the button next to space bar*

Cmd-C = Copy
Cmd-V = Paste
Cmd-X = Cut
Cmd-A = Select All
Cmd-Space = Open Spotlight- Great at finding any file. Just start typing the file name, or application and it will come right up.
Cmd-O = Open
Cmd-S = Save
Shift-Cmd-S = Save as
Cmd-P = Print
Cmd-I = Get Info- A quick way to see how big a file is, or what type.
Cmd-Delete = Move to Trash
Cmd-E = Eject
Cmd-F = Find- Use this to search a web page for a specific word or phrase. Or search you whole computer this way too.
Cmd-Z = Undo
Cmd-? = Open Mac Help

Screen Capture

Take pics of anything on your screen and add it to a document or email.

Cmd-Shift 3 = Capture the screen to a file
Cmd Ctrl Shift 3 = Capture the screen to the clipboard
Cmd-Shift 4 = Select an area to be captured to a file
Cmd Ctrl Shift 4 = Select an area to be captured to the clipboard
Cmd-Shift 4, then press Space = Capture entire window

Other useful tips and tricks….

F5= Show Desktop- This will allow you to go directly to your desktop without minimizing other windows. (This is F11 on the on the older keyboard) We added this to our specific image

F3 or F6= Expose- This will separate every window you are working on, making it very easy to find that ‘buried’ window. (This is F9 on the older keyboard) We added this to our specific image

Zoom= Hold Ctrl and ‘two finger’ swipe forward. Swipe back to zoom back out. This is useful when doing a presentation with an overhead projector.

Quick Preview- Just highlight any icon and hit the space bar. You will be able to view a ‘preview’ of that icon without having to open the application. A great way see that document it what you are actually looking for, or you can view an entire Powerpoint this way. Really nice feature.

Text Drag- Just highlight text in a webpage, PDF, or document and drag it to the desktop. A small text file will be saved. You can do the same thing with links.

Two finger scrolling- If you are trying to scroll on a document or a webpage just put two fingers on the Track Pad and swipe up or down.

Cmd + Click on a window in the background will allow you to only move that window in the background. This is very useful if you are using spreadsheets, and typing information from another document.

Force Quit Applications- Option+Command+Escape You can kill that application that is causing that dreaded ‘pinwheel of death’ by using this command and using “Force Quit” on the program that is not responding.

In Firefox

Cmd + Click on a link= will open a new tab without taking you to that tab. Really helpful for keeping that one important page upfront while allowing you to research other pages. This trick will save you so much time when doing research on anything.

Cmd + ‘+’ = and you can increase the font of the text you are reading.
Cmd + ‘-’  = will decrease
Cmd + ’0′ = will go back to the default

We have a total of 481 computers in the building

Of those 481, 425 are used by students and staff

Of those 425 60% are 6 years old or older. The grand bulk of the computers being bought in 2001.

Of those 425 75% are 4 years old or older

These numbers include the previously mentioned new Mac lab bought this year.

Tyler (our computer technician) and I  compiled a spreadsheet containing every computer, with its name, serial number, RAM, CPU, and year purchased. Gathering all of this information in a concrete fashion really helped show where we are at as a school. It is so important to be able to have data to back up what you are trying to get across. Since that spreadsheet was created real action has taken place to improve the hardware situation in our school. (Including the new lab mentioned before and the replacement of 57 staff ibook computers from 2001 with new MacBooks.) And while shiny computers are all well and good, it is critical to remember what they need to be used for–helping students learn. That is where the real work begins.

This discussion is just begin to take form in our high school and it is an exciting time.

This comment/question was from a couple of weeks ago and I want to answer if even if the moment may have passed. Sorry Paula for the tardiness.

2. Paula Falconer – August 28, 2008[Edit]

I am not a technology major but I was thrown into the position for the last 4 years. I think that I did a fantastic job, but now I think my style is getting old and the students are familiar with the content. I usually give them the history of the computer and ask them to copy it for future testing. Could you help me with any other suggestions as to how I might start this school year off?

I think staying current on things that are happening in the ed tech world is very critical. I am not sure what your positon is exactly, but if you have been doing the same types of things for the last 4 years I think it is time for a revamp. I would recommend setting up a Google Reader (or any RSS reader) and fill it ed tech blogs you think are interesting. There are some very amazing people out there who somehow find time to great stuff with technology AND write about in their blogs. If you can spend a few minutes a day reading about people doing exactly the kind of stuff you are interested in it will be well worth your time.

Here are just a couple of links to blogs I have in my RSS reader

http://nhokanson.wordpress.com/

http://remoteaccess.typepad.com/remote_access/

http://ideasandthoughts.org/

http://elemenous.typepad.com/weblog/

I hope these help get the ball rolling

Could you please describe the type of network our school is currently using?
Please try to include the following:

What types of cabling are we using and how are they being used?

Mostly Cat 5e cable, Fiber in the mider (those closets with all the wires and stuff in them) rooms; we do have gigabit to the desktop although the bulk of our machines do not have gigabit cards. The wiring in the school fantastic. It was just completed last summer and is pretty amazing.

What types of communication protocols do the computers have?
All connect to our network using TCP/IP

How does the server work for email, printing, filtering, and other types of communication?

Our email server is hosted at starmail.adams12.org, but I don’t have any other information on it. Our Windows machines we use a Windows 2003 server called HOHPS to facilitate printing. Website filtering is handled through the district.

Approximately how many MACs, PCs or other types of operating machines do we currently have in the school, running on the same network?

All run on the same network, 3 student labs of Windows machines, and  Windows machines for every secretary.

That equals 232 PCs. There are about 5 student labs of Macs in the school equaling about 184. Then there are 126 staff laptops in the school. All of those are Macs. This count was just done for the first time this summer. The pure number of machines in the school is daunting.

Of these machines how many are for teacher use and how many are for student use?
I would have to say about 350 of the 542 computers in the school are for student use.

What kinds of operating systems are these machines running?

Windows use Xp Pro, some Macs use 10.4 versions and the MacBooks run 10.5.

What kind of link to the Internet do the computers in our school have?
It is a fiber optic line running all the way into the building. (I think that is what you are asking?)

Do we have wireless?  If so, please describe it and if not please give a reason why.

Very limited wireless capability right now. There is wireless access in the staff centers that is not used very often. Sometimes it can be picked up in a few class rooms, but not very often. Horizon is a very unique school when it comes to design. It is a labyrinth of steel, concrete, corners, and odd shapes. Wireless in the entire school would be a very expensive task. That being said, the district just did a survey to see Horizon could be a wireless school. They have not reported back to us on that as of yet. (The survey just happened yesterday)

Will the infrastructure of our school support Web 2.0 tools?
If so, please make sure to state how and if not please state why.
The short answer is yes. But it is fairly limited in my opinion. Right now the interest and enthusiasm out weighs ability and availability of the machines in the building. This should be a priority for the school.

Could you please briefly state your ideas/plans for the continued use of technology and integration of Web 2.0 tools throughout the school.

As the interest increases at a rapid pace so will the use of these tools. Two things have to happen make sure that the integration of Web 2.0 tools are successful. First, teachers need to know how to use the tool, and WHY they are using the tools. These tools need to support the end goal of helping students learn. Second, the hardware technology needs to work and run these tools. If things don’t work then it does not matter how great the Web 2.0 plan or lesson is. Right now Horizon High school has to improve the physical hardware in many areas to utilize these new tools effectively.

Please try to include the following:
What types of sessions would you like to offer next year at our PD sessions?
I want to offer a wide variety, from the beginner to the experienced. I think the differenation teachers are expected to use to teach students needs to be used when teachers teach teachers. It is very hard for many adults to admit a lack of competence with technology and I want to find a way to make them feel comfortable and help them grow step by step. This will need to be done in smaller groups, so more tech leaders will be asked to participate in trainings to give the staff a variety of options during professional development.

Specific training will include:
Office 2007
Infinite Campus
MacBook tips and tricks/basic care
Department specific training
General Ed Tech (blogs, wiki, podcasts)

Do you plan to offer sessions outside of our PD sessions?

Yes, I think professional development does not just start and stop each Wednesday between 1-3pm. Good professional development happens all the time and needs to be flexible for teacher schedules. I would like to be able to set up individual help sessions at teacher request. Another option will be a tech help wiki specific to Horizon High School. It will be a free standing resource that will be available to staff 24/7 at school or at home. This will help allow staff of all ability levels a chance to get tech training or reminders at their own convenience.

Do you think/know if we have administrative support in attempts to get more teachers using blogs, wikis and other Web 2.0 tools in their classrooms and with their students?

Administrative support has been fantastic, at the building level and at the district level. A new instructional technology coordinator at the building level is very excited about the use teacher blogs and wikis. There is support all around but the details about how to carry it out is not in place at this time.

Is it a future goal of the tech department to get everyone in the school up and running with a simple teacher site, which includes contact information and upcoming assignments and tests?

That isn’t as high up on the priority list right now. I think it might be more beneficial to focus on the department level first. It is likely that at least one person in each department will be excited/willing to maintain a department website. From there individual teachers will be able to create and maintain their own individual site, some will and some won’t, but at least we can have department contact information, overview and maybe even pictures of staff.

Do you you think/know if our tech plan contains a plan/goal or money to upgrade our current computers in the labs or get more/newer labs?

I know we have begun to layout a plan for replacement of computer labs in the school along with a replacement cycle for the staff laptop computers. The laptop replace started last year, but there are still 51 ibooks in the hands of staff.

Money is seriously limited at this point and I don’t know if the replacement cycle will be able to be started this year. The best hope is that the district bond will be passed this September, that mill levy has funds allocated specifically for technology. That would cover an entire new lab. Cross your fingers.

This is a quick trial video I have created to help the Horizon High School staff get the most out of their new MacBooks, I hope to have a complete library of these tips to address technology issuse many of the staff run across. I used a trial version of Snapz Pro 2 (Mac compatiable, I recommend Camtasia for PC) It does the trick but I would like to see more control over the export setting. I am not that happy with the voice over on this one, but after reading a post from my classmate Jack, I think there is a fix to that. And I just used YouTube to host it, I am still getting used to my new HostGator Cpanel account so the quality will be better when I use that. For the videos I use the school I will probally host them through the school.

What if I could replace a computer lab in my school. What would I do? Lets say there is a lab with 30 Pentium III, 933 Ghz PC’s with 20 GB hard drives and have half a gig of RAM. They are older and need to be replaced.

Our school district has a couple options.

1. A PC with a Intel Core 2 Duo 2.3 Ghz, 2GB RAM, 80GB Hard Drive, 16X DVD +/- RW. For say $X. This price does not include a monitor (19 LCD for $Y and a Monitor Protection system for $Z) and will require a $100 fee licensing.  Total = about  $______  ( I don’t think it would be good practice to list out all of the prices that have been offered by our vendors in a public setting because I could not find the price online)

2. A iMac with a Intel Core 2 Duo processors, 1 GB RAM, 160GB Hard Drive, 17 inch LCD display, and a combo drive with the AppleCare Protection Plan. Plus the $100 for fee licensing. Total being about $60 more than #1. Here is the link if you want to see Apples prices for education (easy to find online).

They are almost exactly the same price, but that $60 over 30 computers ends up being a serious chunk of $1,800. And if we wanted to go with out the screen protection that would make the difference closer to $112 or $3,360.

Here is where it gets tricky, what if we were able to run Apple BootCamp for each machine on our old cite license? The $100 fee…?? I don’t know that we could but what what if. We could have a Mac that could boot right into Windows XP. That may not be possible but I would like to see if a third party option like Parallels might work too. I really like the idea having both operation system available in a high school lab, and my experience has been the the Mac computers hold up better over time.

There are the strong points of the PCs too. a 2.3 Ghz, 2 GB RAM machine is nothing to scoff at and the DVD burner is nice, but what about all of the the other add-ons to consider, the support, the downtime? I need to put more time in figuring out the balance between the two options.

I attended a round table discussion led by Michael Riggs, Systems Engineer or Falcon School District 49. Titled ‘Geek Factor’ I knew I did not want to miss it. It was a group of 12 System Admins and building tech people. This is an area I want to get stronger in. The Informational Technology/Computer Science side. I am just not as knowledgeable in this area as I would like to be. It was great to hear the people in the group discuss issues like, wireless, security, lab images, PDAs, and all kinds of issues related to the technical side.

The first session was really, really good. Led by Bud Hunt, Instructional Technologist of the St.Vrain Valley School District. “Twitter Me This: Presence Tools for Just in Time Learning” It was almost like a mashup presentation. He demonstrated many incredible useful tools. The starting point was his wiki he had a slide show presentation of tools and rational for using web 2.0 tools. We then did a Chatterous ‘back channel’ chat room while the presentation was taking place. Many great jokes, links and observation were presented there adding a whole new layer to the session. It was so refreshing to have another outlet for discussion and sharing rather than listening to a single presenter for 3 hours.

We used twitter and saw examples of how it made Bud a better teacher, we learned how simple Chatterous (transcript here) was to use, and oh yeah did I mention that the whole thing was live blogged and streamed over the interntet  allowing for someone in Texas to play along….using Mogulus. By the end of the session I had my own streaming channel live and broadcasting too. Great stuff Bud!

This application is not expensive or complicated to operate. The costs would include a USB headset which can range from $16-$100, but for $25-$35 you can have a very high quality device that can last many years. The other cost would a webcam and these have also dropped in price dramatically over the past year. Or just a webcam with a built in mic does the trick too. Skype is free when calling another computer that uses Skype, but you can connect to cell phones and landlines for a fee. Text messaging is also an option.

How can Skype serve people like us in an educational setting? Here is a list of things I think you could do with Skype in an online class. I am considering a 10^th grade social studies class and the use of Skype is a supplementary resource not the primary medium of instruction.

- Class conference calls that could serve as question and answer sessions.

- A file distribution center where ‘handouts’ of assignments could be given.

- A text message relay center where an instructor could send reminders, grades, updates and other useful information right to students cell phones.

- A chat center where simple quick questions could be asked and responded to.

- A video conferencing tool that would allow an online educator a chance to hold online ‘office hours’ where he or she could have meaningful face-to-face conversation with students.

To me this is one of the new Web 2.0 tools that are starting to make real headway in how students can learn online. The learning process can be directly improved when you consider a student learning something that does not translate in written word, like learning a language. In Skype they can actually speak to a person that speaks the language they are trying to learn. Here is a great example: Language exchange in Dickinson College. Also, the ability to have a conversation with a person while being able to see them give both people a much better understanding of the information trying to be shared. The ability to make that final connection, where students produces written or spoken word, in the learning cycle is crucial and Skype provide a wonderful opportunity to do just that.

The use of this tool in formal education is apparent but it does not appear to be widespread. Jeff VanDrimmelen wrote an insightful article and used Skype to hold a discussion on technology in education in November of 2006, and there many other examples of educators who have used the tool to talk with other educators about the potential of Skype in education. One special example of students using Skype can found at the Learning is Messy blog. Click on the picture to see the video about how Skype was used for inclusion of a very special student.