Using Technology in Mr. White’s Class Mr. White’s Class

What We’re Going to Learn After this period, you should: ▫Know Mr. White’s expectations for appropriate technology use ▫How to log-in and trouble-shoot computer access ▫How to access Mr. White's blog and use it correctly ▫How to use Edublogs for Mr. White’s class ▫How to use your H drive at GCIT ▫How to use the P Drive at GCIT

My Expectations I expect that you will: ▫Show respect to yourself, GCIT, and others at all times while using school technology ▫Use GCIT technology only for school-related work ▫Treat all GCIT property with care

Part I

Using Laptops in Mr. White’s Class When we use laptops in Mr. White’s Class, we must first sign them out. At this time, I will call tables up to the laptop cart. Please: ▫Remove the laptop from the tray ▫Disconnect the power cable Please sign-out the laptop in the sign-out book on top of the laptop cart

Logging Laptop Problems Make a note of any problems with the computer related to its functioning properly, and write them down in the sign-out book – Missing hardware or parts – Non-functioning hardware, parts, programs, or features Slow computers still function – please see Mr. White if your laptop is extraordinarily slow You are responsible for any damage that you do to the laptop

Logging In To School Computers To log in to all school computers, you have a log-in name and password I will issue you your log-in name and password now Please memorize or write down your log-in name and password! When you have your log-in name and password, please type them into the log-in screen that appears when you turn on the computer When the second, smaller log-in screen pops up, simply press “enter” or click “OK.”

Can’t Log In? If your log-in doesn’t work the first time, STOP. Do not continue to attempt to log-in. – Take a deep breath. First, check the small wireless switch on the right-hand edge of the laptop – make sure it is switched toward you. If it isn’t, flip it. Did you type in your log-in correctly? If you think you didn’t, carefully type in your log-in information one more time. If you did type your log-in correctly, or your second attempt didn’t work, flip the wireless switch back and forth, then turn off the computer, and turn it on again If all these fail, please see Mr. White

Part II

Mr. White’s Blog Once you have successfully logged in, please open Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer will ask you to log in again to access the internet Once you’ve done this, please go to: ▫Dwhitejr.wordpress.com This is Mr. White’s blog page

Mr. White’s Blog On Mr. White’s blog you will find: – All make-up work, posted electronically – Class updates and assignments – Links to important sites for Mr. White’s class – Links to Mr. White’s class calendar With Mr. White’s blog, you will also: – Post comments to respond to class assignments – Post the link for your own blog so Mr. White can access it – Take some time to look around the blog and locate these things!

Part III

Edublogs Once you’re familiar with Mr. White’s blog, please go to: ▫ Here is where we’re going to create our own blogs for the classroom Click on the green panel that says, “Free”

Edublogs On this screen, you will create your own blog Create a username and password for your account. Please write them down so you don’t forget them! You may provide your address if you like, but you don’t have to. Once you have completed this page, and read the terms of service, click “Go to Step 2” to move on On the next page, you will create a name for your blog and add other information for your blog.

Posting Your Blog to Mr. White’s Blog Very often, I will have you use your blog to complete class assignments When I post assignments, all you need to do is post the link to your blog in the comments section of Mr. White’s blog The nice thing is that you can do this before you finish the assignment – you won’t forget to do it at the end!

Posting Your Blog to Mr. White’s Blog Go to Mr. White’s blog and find the “Welcome Back!” post. Copy and paste the address from your blog. Only copy the main part, which will look like this: ▫Dwhitejr.wordpress.com Now your blog is posted, and you can work on creating whatever post you need to do

Part IV

Your H Drive Now, we’re going to learn how to download files and save them to your school H drive You should keep all of your school files in the H drive – you can access them anywhere on campus You may also want to get a USB memory stick for yourself so that you can take files home – your choice You are responsible for keeping copies of your files!

Saving a File Go to Mr. White’s page entitled, “Student Information Sheet” In the post, you will find a link that says, “Student Information Sheet.” Right-click on the link and then click, “Save As” In the box that opens, find your H drive using the sidebar or drop-down menu – click on it This is your H drive. Save this file to your H drive.

Creating a Folder Once the file is saved, go to your H drive through the My Computer icon. Now, we’re going to create a folder with your name on it, so that you can drop files into it In your H drive, right-click and choose, “New Folder” Rename the folder with your name: ▫Last-name, first-name

Student Information Sheet Once you’ve created a new folder with your name on it, open the Student Information Sheet file. Type your personal student information into the Student Information Sheet. When you have finished, do a File > Save As and save the file as: ▫Student Information Sheet; ; Last-name, First-name Save this file to your H drive

Part V

Electronically Submitting Files Now, we’re going to learn how to electronically submit files to Mr. White Please open My Computer, then open the drive labeled: Student Work. This is the P drive. Open the folder labeled, “White, David Jr” Then open the folder labeled, “Classwork Drop.” ▫This is where you can drop electronic files for Mr. White’s class

Mr. White’s Magic Double-click into the folder labeled, “New folder - always copy and rename” Then, double-click into the folder with your class period on it. Copy and paste the folder that you’ve created into the folder with your period on it Then wait – Mr. White has to do some magic.

Submitting Your File Now, go back to the Classwork Drop folder and look for the folder that says, “Student Information Sheets” Copy and paste your Student Information Sheet into the correct folder for your period, with your name on it This is how you can submit files electronically to Mr. White through the P drive

Warnings Some warnings: ▫Do not attempt to save directly to the P drive – it won’t work correctly. You must COPY and PASTE any file that you want to submit ▫Do not attempt to open anything directly from the P drive – stuff won’t work correctly ▫Only submit work to the P drive when you are absolutely sure it is finished – like sending an e- mail, you can’t modify the file once you’ve submitted it

The End! Now you’ve completed Mr. White’s short technology lesson! With the remainder of the period, I’d like you to: ▫Log-in to your Edublogs account ▫Create a blog post talking about:  One interesting (and school-appropriate) thing that you did this summer  One thing that you’re looking forward to this school year (it can be in school, or outside of school, but again, must be school appropriate) ▫Feel free to mess around with the various Edublog features! Make your blog look cool.