Basic+Computer+Needs

**Taking Care of Your Computer**
This information comes directly from Apple's Support page.

1) When carrying your MacBook, in a bag or briefcase, make sure that you keeps small objects such as paper clips, staples and coins, away from your laptop. They can get lodged inside the ports or the disc drive and jam up the entire works. 2) Your power charger has a magnet on it that can erase digital data on your iPod, iPhone, MP3 player and credit card. Always keep the power adapter away from these items. 3) When cleaning your computer, make sure it is shut down first. If you're doing a deep clean, you should unplug it and detach the battery. Use a damp, soft, lint-free cloth to clean the computer’s exterior. Avoid getting moisture in any openings. Do not spray any type of liquid directly on the computer. Don’t use aerosol sprays, solvents, or abrasives. 4) To clean the screen, make sure the power is off. Use a damp, soft, lint-free cloth to clean it. Don't spray liquid onto the screen. 5) If you are storing your MacBook for an extended period of time, let the battery run down to about 50%. Then shut down the computer and remove the battery, Then store your computer in a cool dry place. 6) Never, ever leave your computer in a hot or cold car. It's very bad.



**Desktop/Finder**
That big space sitting on your screen right when you open it up is called your Desktop. Most likely this is where you have a lot of items sitting. The Desktop is being run by Finder. Finder allows you to access practically everything on you Mac, such as documents, folders, and disc drives.

One of the absolute best things that you can do to keep your computer running faster is to not store every file and folder on your desktop. Store them in the MacIntosh HD. The more items that sit on your desktop, the slower the processor is going to run. Some try the trick of putting a folder on the desktop and then throwing everything in there. It makes no difference to your computer whether you have 99 individual items or a folder with 99 items in it. It slows down your machine the same. So keep that desktop clear. Use your hard drive - you can put millions of items in there.

**Universal Access**
Universal Access is part of your System Preferences. To get to System Preferences you have several options. You can open it in your dock, go under the Apple Menu, or open up your MacIntosh HD>Applications>System Preferences.





Within Universal Access you have several items you can change to make your computer easier to see, hear, and function. This is also an area where the students have figured out how to monkey around with the computers, so it's very important to know how to fix these problems.

//**Seeing Utility**//


The //**Voiceover Utility**// allows you to command your computer using your voice and a keyboard shortcut. I personally have never used it, but I can see how it would be awesome to use. I recommend leaving the Zoom function on. Then you can just use the keyboard shortcut ⌘+ to zoom in or ⌘- to zoom out. This will make it easier for you to make your screen bigger for students to see. The Display is something many of the students meddle with and it's kind of hard on the eyes. Many of them know the keyboard shortcut which is ˆ⌘⌥8 or Control>Command>Option>8. The students will turn this on and off and sometimes forget to switch it back, so it's good to learn this shortcut!

//**Hearing Utility**//
Not many options in here. If you have a student with hearing difficulties, you can turn on a function that flashes the screen when a sound alert occurs.

//**Keyboard Utility**//


Sticky Keys holds down modifier keys for you while you type other keys. For example, you could type an ellipsis (…), with Option Shift (⌥ ⇧), or call up a Dictionary definition with Command Control D (⌘⌃D). I've never used it myself, but I've had to deal with keyboards that had it on by accident. Very difficult to deal with when teaching keyboarding drills. On the other hand, it's a blessing in disguise for one handed typers or people that "hunt and peck".

This allows you to set up your speed and to use your mouse as a keyboard. Most of us will never use this, but it's there.
 * Mouse and Trackpad Utility**

**Force Quit**
Sometimes an application refuses to run properly and it gets frozen. This often happens when trying to open too many applications at once, or when a script is not running effectively online. You should only Force Quit when absolutely necessary. Doing so will lose any unsaved changes. There are several different ways to Force Quit. You can go up to your Apple Menu, choose Force Quit and then choose the application you want to close. You can hold down your Option-Click on the application in your Dock and choose the Force Quit option. Lastly, hold down Command-Option-Shift-Esc for three seconds to quit the front most application. A quick tip - whenever I have to Force Quit an application, I always restart my computer. Restarting your computer fixes 97.15% of computer problems. Also, 67.42% of statistics are made up!

**System Preferences**
We already talked about the Universal Access, but System Preferences is where you can really make your Mac your own. //**Appearance**// - allows you to change highlight colors, where scroll arrows are, and show number of recent items.

//**Desktop & Screen Saver**// - allows you to change your desktop background and screen saver. A word of caution. Lots of people like to use their own picture folder as a screen saver or desktop background and have the picture change every couple of minutes. The surest way to slow down your computer is to have that happen. Pick a picture and stick with it!

//**Dock**// - allows you to change the size, magnification, position, and animation of your dock.

//**Expose & Spaces**// - allows you to set up Hot Corners, Keystrokes, and the Dashboard with one key. Spaces lets you organize your windows into groups to reduce desktop clutter. We'll delve into this more in a bit!

//**Language & Text**// - allows you to order the languages you want. Unless your bilingual, keep it on English. Also allows you to set Dates, Times, and Numbers according to languages and to choose which input source you want on your character viewer. Foreign Language teachers may wish to adjust this.

//**Security**// - allows you to set up General, FireVault and Firewall. In the General Security, you can require a password after sleep or screen saver. If students are poking around your computer, this can be a great way of keeping them out of it.

//**Spotlight**// - allows you to change the order in which spotlight results appear and which keyboard shortcuts you would like.

//**CDs & DVDs**// - allows you to set up functions for when you insert various CDs and DVDs.

//**Displays**// - allows you to change the brightness and resolution of your computer display. You can also set this to appear in your menu bar. Often you may have to change this when you plug into an LCD projector. In the Color tab - I never change this, the Mac knows what it wants!

//**Energy Saver**// - allows you to change the time when the computer and display goes to sleep. I have mine set for an hour when plugged in and 5 minutes when on battery. You can also set a schedule for when you want a computer to start up or wake and go to sleep. This works better for desktop machines.

//**Keyboard**// - allows you to set the Key Repeat Rate (great if you're a slower typer) and the Delay Until Repeating. You can also set up your own keyboard shortcuts, but make sure you keep track of them!!! You can also add Bluetooth accessories, such as numeric keypads.

//**Mouse/Trackpad**// - allows you to set your Tracking, Scrolling, and Double Click Speed. I had to change my home mouse click speed to very slow when teaching my Grandpa how to use it.

//**Print & Fax**// - You can use this Preference to delete computers. However, to add printers on the school network, make sure you use the Zidget feature, which we will discuss later. You can also set up the Default Printer, Scanner, and Paper Size.

//**Sound**// - allows you to adjust Sound Affects for various alerts and their volume. You can also adjust the output and input. If you're using external speakers, you may want to check the Output in Sound Preferences and if you choose to use an external microphone to record, you will want to fix that under Input. This may need adjusted quite a bit on student machines when using external microphones, but the computer will "remember" them later.

//**MobileMe**// - MobileMe is Apple's earlier online storage. You needed a paid account for it. With the iCloud service coming in the Fall, this will go the way of the Dinosaurs, so just ignore it.

//**Network**// - this allows you to adjust any network settings. Macs are pretty intuitive about finding Airports and Wi-Fi signals, so it's rare that you need to go into here. Sometimes you may need to make adjustments, in which case, try using the Assist me button. Follow the prompts and most problems will get fixed.

//**Bluetooth**// - allows you to pair a Bluetooth capable device to your Mac. For example, I've paired my iPhone with my home Mac and my school Mac and I have apps that function as a wireless mouse, pointer, remote, and numeric keypad that I can use with it.

//**Sharing**// - allows you to fix your Sharing settings. Be careful with these. You can also set up DVD or CD sharing (which allows users of other computers to access others to use the drive), File Sharing, Printer Sharing (helps with at-home wireless printing, and all sorts of others types of sharing).

//**Accounts**// - allows you change your password, add accounts, login items and much more. For example, in Login Options, you can have the computer automatically log into your account. I recommend changing your main computer password every time you have to change your network password. I keep them the same and life is easier for me. You can also adjust your Address Book Card here or in the Address Book. It's important that your Address Card says something other than teacher. This is also where you can change your account picture, just hover over it and a down triangle appears. You can choose one of Apple's pictures or choose one of your own using Edit Picture. You can choose one from iPhoto or take one if you're feeling photogenic that day!

//**Date & Time**// - this is pretty self explanatory. Sometimes if the computer runs down the battery, this needs reset. I've also had to adjust mine from Standard time to "Crossroads" time.

//**Parental Controls**// - use this to adjust what applications students can access.

//**Software Update**// - run them. Whenever they come up, run them. This is your best line of defense from viruses. Apple does a great job of protecting us from these, far under 100 known Mac viruses (mostly Trojan horses). PCs - here's the list. Updates are also where new functionality, features, and bug fixes happen, so make them happen.

//**Speech**// - you can set up Speech Recognition, which we discussed earlier, or Text to Speech, which will make your computer read text when you press a key. A great feature for our learning support and younger students.

//**Startup Disk**// - let this alone, you don't need to change it!

//**Time Machine**// - if you have an external hard drive, you can set up your Mac to automatically back it up.

//**Universal Access**// - covered already. Whew!

**Spaces**
Spaces lets you organize your windows into groups to reduce desktop clutter. Open up System Preferences and choose Expose & Spaces. Check the Enable Spaces box and the Show Spaces in the Menu Bar box. You can then choose which key you want to activate Spaces. This may or may not be awesome for you. I rarely use it, I just scroll through my open apps using Command-Tab.

**Expose**
Expose allows you to set up Active Screen Corners to do some basic functions. For example, I can set my upper left hand corner to show only my Desktop when I hover over it. I can also set up certain keystrokes to do functions. Right now, F11 will show my Desktop and F12 will show the Dashboard. If you don't want those to work, change 'em.

**iChat**
iChat is a fun application that you and the students can use. If you've never used it before, we first want to set up our Address Book Card. Open that up first and make sure you change the name from your Username or Teacher to something more recognizable. If you have your phone number, email, and address in there it can make autofill easier later. Now, open up iChat, and hit the Continue button. If you have and AIM, Jabber or Google Talk account, set that up. Over the school network, we can use the Bonjour option. The preferences in iChat really help you to personalize what you might want in iChat.

I try to keep iChat open as much as possible. You can do video, audio or typing chat with anyone in your building - this can be great during testing when you need a bathroom break. You can record your Chats, which can be very helpful when remote conferencing.

**iCal/Google Calendar**


iCal is an Apple calendar program. I love it, but I also use it in conjunction with Google Calendar, both of which sync to my iPhone. iCal allows you to have multiple calendars, one for Home, Work, School, Birthdays, etc. You can set up events to repeat weekly, monthly or yearly. You can change your view to Day, Week and Month. You can sync your iCal with your Google Calendar. Google Calendar is an online calendar. Please see the attached sheet for how to create a Google Calendar account. I love Google Calendar. I can see from anywhere who has signed out which computer cart or who booked me. There's no excuse for people to have not signed out a cart. It's slightly tricky at first, but not terrible! On a personal note, I use Google Calendar as a menu planner for my husband and I - he always knows what's for dinner!

**Photo Booth**
Photo Booth is an application that lets you use the built in iSight camera to take pictures or video. It's important to know how to use this, because the students do and you may have to fix problems within it. Within Photo Booth you can add effects. You have to add the effects first before you take a photo or video. It will even do green-screen effects with built in backgrounds/video, or you can add your own. Pick a neutral background and step out when it tells you!

**Stickies**
Stickies is an application on your Mac that functions as digital post it notes. I have them turned off of all the student laptops in my building - otherwise the students will write notes to each other. For myself, I use them to store information, including internet passwords (NEVER MY MAIN COMPUTER PASSWORD OR NETWORK PASSWORD), books I need, items I don't want to forget, to-do lists and more. If you use Stickies to store passwords, make sure you export them every now and again and save them. Very important!

**Disk Utility**
Open up MacIntosh HD>Applications>Utilities>Disk Utility. This can do various operations. I run Disk Utility quarterly (more often if the computer is being funny). Select your disk, then click Verify Disk Permissions. When that is done, Repair Disk Permissions. This is slightly similar to defragmenting your hard drive on a PC. This can take a while, so be patient. You can also use this to create Disk Images and to Burn folders to CDs.

**Keyboard Shortcuts**
Why use keyboard shortcuts? 'Cause they're faster. And awesome. Refer to this cheat sheet:.

You can print it out and carry it like a little booklet.

**Zidget**
Zidget allows you to add printers within the district. Open up Firefox or Safari and type Zidget in the address bar. Just that word. Follow the instructions on the screen and you'll be able to print to various printers like a champ.

**Help Desk**
To access the Help Desk type the word "helpdesk" (no quotes) into the Firefox or Safari browser. Just that word. You will have to login with your network username and password. Then figure out what your problem is. I mean your computer problem. Do not call up Tech and Media, it just slows down the whole process. Once you fill out the forms, the system generates a work ticket to the appropriate tech and media person. They will contact you and tell you what your next step is. Often, it's to box it up and have it sent to ACE. If it's your machine, they will send you a loaner. Have problems fixed, don't go on with a broken machine.

**Changing Your Network Password**
You will now actually have to use the HelpDesk website. At school, just type in helpdesk into your web browsers URL bar. There is a link on there to go to the Password Reset Site Please note, if it is your first time using this, you will need to use the Password Enrollment Site first. Your password must be between 6 and 8 characters and they cannot repeat within 365 days. Your password may contain letters, numbers, symbols, and are case sensitive. Your password should not be something easily associated with you. Do not share any of your passwords with anyone. Failure to do so will result in a Board Policy 815 violation. Do not write your password down on a sticky note and set it on your laptop. The students will find it.

**Backing Up**
I'm going to go slightly off topic and talk about backing up your photos. If you have photos stored on your laptop, it is critical that your have them backed up somewhere else. Your digital photos are the only item on your computer that you can't replace if your computer would crash. You can't get them back. There are several different ways to back up - you can burn your photos to a CD or DVD, store them on an external hard drive or pen drive, or use online photo storage.

//**Burning to a CD or DVD**// depends on whether or not you have a DVD burner. Most of the district laptops do not have an internal DVD burner (we do have a CD burner). However, there are usually external DVD burners in every building. If you choose to burn them to a blank CD, it can use up many CDs as they only hold 700 MBs of information. A DVD can hold 4.7 GBs of information, which is almost 7 times as much information.

//**External hard drives**// come in many different formats. You can have a portable one, which would run off of your computers' power, and can often cost more and hold less. Or you can have a standard external hard drive which plugs into an outlet. This is totally up to you. Most standard hard drives are much sturdier, but you can't transport them too easily. You want to make sure you have a MacIntosh compatible hard drive and I usually like to use a Firewire connection because it's faster. Western Digital probably makes the best external hard drives and you can see several right here. The cost for external storage has decreased dramatically in the last five years. It used to cost around $1 per GB of space, now they are much less. The best times to purchase an external hard drive is Back-to-School, Father's Day, and around Christmas, particularly Black Friday. I was able to purchase my 1 TB external hard drive for $59.99 at Target (but I did have to be in the store at 5 am with all the crazies!).

//**Online photo storage**// can range from free to costing between $25-$100/year. I store my photos online at several places. My fallback is Facebook. You can set any photo so that only you can view it. Facebook does downgrade the quality of the photo slightly, but in a pinch you still have them and it's free. Flickr is initially free - you can upload 300MB of photos and 2 videos per month. If you purchase a paid Pro account for $24.95/year you get unlimited storage, although your photos are limited to 20MB each. I have 2 paid Flickr accounts, a personal one and one that I use only for school. There are many other photo storage websites such as Picasa, Photobucket and iCloud (coming in the fall from Apple).

**Saving/Folders**
//**Saving Documents**// Be careful with long file names. The server doesn’t like that. Also, don’t use spaces in a file name. They get corrupted more easily. Also, do not use / or - in file names.

//**Using folders**// Divide your documents into folders (Go to file --> New Folder): Chapter One or Geology Civil War Divide your “Major” folders into “Smaller” folders. For example: Folder “8th Grade Computers” has folders within titled “Powerpoint”, “Word”, “Keyboarding”.

//**Where to Save**//
 * Desktop** - this should be working documents
 * Documents** - easy access. This is the best place to save on your machine. To get there, double click on the hard drive (Macintosh HD) and find Documents on the left.
 * Server** - for professional files only. (IEP’s, Lesson Plans, Tests, Etc). Do not put photos, music, or movies on your server folder.
 * External Hard Drive, CDs, or Pen Drive**. It’s always good to have an external source to save your documents to. Some teachers burn their documents to a blank CD, others copy them on to a pen drive or external hard drive. 4GB pen drives are usually around $10 and you can usually buy a 500GB external hard drive for under $80. The best time to get these items are around Christmas, Tax Refund Time, and Father’s Day and Back To School. Obviously, these will come out of your own pocket, but they are worth it.

//**Saving to the Server**// Connect to the Server. In Finder, click on the Go Menu and choose Connect To Server. You will need your email username and password. Drag your documents or folders from your computer to the server. Quit and close the application before saving to the server. Do not drag the Macintosh HD icon from the desktop or server. It is best to drag items from the server to the machine to work. Do not try to work directly from the server. This will slow down the network for everyone and also make work very slow for you.

**Customize the dock**
The dock has short cuts to your applications. The actual applications are stored on the hard drive. To remove an item from the dock - click and hold on an item and select remove from dock. To add an item to the dock - double click on the hard drive. Click on the application folder and drag the icon to the dock. Applications with the little triangles under them are open and running.

**Help Feature**
The best way to find out how to do anything is to use the Help feature built into every Apple Application. Go under that window and start typing what you're looking for. If that doesn't work, Google the problem. Between these two steps, I find the answers to most of my questions and the questions of teachers and students.

**Moodle/GoogleDocs/Wikispaces**
The district has its own Moodle site with Google Docs and a private label Wiki. Go to: @http://moodle.wssd.k12.pa.us/ and use your network username and password.

You can request your own Moodle Course from Laurie Vitale. Google Docs allows students to create and collaborate word documents, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, and drawings. They can share them with anyone with an email address including you. What a super easy way to collect work! It runs very similarly to Microsoft Office and Apple's iWork suite, it just lacks some of the power.

Wikispaces is an easy to create web site. I use this much more than my district website. You can create one within District Moodle or create one through Wikispaces itself. The site you are on right now was created through the district's private label Wikispaces account.

**Internet**
To add a bookmark in either Firefox or Safari, you can just use Command-D or drag it into the bookmark bar. I like to keep my bookmarks organized into subjects, because I have so many.

To create a new Tab in Firefox or Safari, just use Command-T. I usually have 5 or six tabs running at a time.

There are many Firefox and Safari add-ons and scripts that you can install to make your life easier. Explore and see what works for you!

The final topics, if we have time, are below. I will go over any questions you may have. Email District Teacher Pages Google Earth iLife/iWork/Comic Life (if time)

**Awesome Websites**
TinyUrl - allows you to shrink a long website into something much shorter and easier for students to copy down/type. Keepvid - allows you to save video from Youtube Free Technology for Teachers - this site is a treasure trove of fantastic resources. While I've never even been able to go into 1/1000th of the information on here, I look forward to trying new techniques. Apple Support Apple Support Communities Kathy Schrock's Guide For Educators Powerpoint Game Templates Internet4Classrooms MacIntosh How To Diigo and Google Bookmarks - allows you to save your bookmarks and look them up on any computer. District Curriculum WestShare

My Favorite Apps (for iPhone)
Facebook Angry Birds Plants Vs. Zombies Card Star Appzilla Soundhound Checkpoints Coupon Sherpa On This Day ColorSplash Hipstamatic Instagram Lose It! Brushes iBookshelf Fruit Ninja IMDB Netflix Viggle Shopkick

My Favorite Applications (for Personal Use and Classroom)
Keynote Pages GarageBand iPhoto iMovie Popcorn CleanMyMac Comic Life Ranch Rush Plants Vs. Zombies Yummy Soup Seashore Senuti Handbrake Mac The Ripper Swagbucks

My Favorite Places to Buy and Legally Get Free Music
Amazon MP3 - don't forget to check out their monthly $5 albums here! iTunes eMusic

Presenters: Jess Pugliano