Sunday, 24 November 2013

Thursday, 21 November 2013

MAC Tutorials Beginner to advanced

Welcome to this page on getting to know your MAC


I would recommend everyone spends some time getting the most out of their Mac by watching some of the supporting videos you can find below (don't forget to pause from time to time to practise what you have learnt).

You can browse the apple support website, tehre you will find lots of video and text based guides. 
http://www.apple.com/support/macbasics/


Below you will find a playlist of useful videos, one includes "learn the mac in under an hour".
Click on the playlist icon on the left to see more Videos .






Once you get to grips with the Mac basics, there there is the Mac Quick Tips page 
to further develop your skills, there you can get podcast videos and shortcuts.







Thursday, 14 November 2013

The Geek Squad has Struck

I should probably start by saying that I was one of those people who would dread anything to do with computers – I don’t understand, didn’t want to understand and my teaching schedule doesn’t give me time to understand.

I would rather have spent a training meeting trying to make amusing sentences using those three little letters; I C T.  Then continue to try and distract my colleagues with my funniest invention.  I then realized a couple of things, 1) I’m not very creative or funny (Irritating Computing Training was probably my highlight) 2) I’m one of those students that I dislike teaching and 3) Perhaps I should listen.  I was just put off ICT because it all seemed too complicated.

I was then approached by a member of the ICT team to become the lead for my Year Group.  You can imagine my joy!  However, not one to shy away from a challenge – I went along and everything changed!  Anyway, I digress.  I have been tasked with raising the standards of ICT delivery in my Year group as well as trying out loads of new cool stuff – and to be honest, that’s all we are interested in.  My previous planning centered around the children making a PowerPoint based on their chosen ‘biome’….because everybody loves PowerPoint.  Having had an hours discussion and planning session with Mr Clark, I am now teaching the children to be innovators, to explore and connect with the technology.  Instead of PowerPoints creations, the children will be presenting their information using iBook illustrator.  We have already ‘played’ around with adding iMovies (which yes, we made ourselves), pictures, interactive pictures, quizzes and heaps more! 

Suddenly everything started to fall into place, previously I was using technology to substitute other teaching methods, rather than extend and challenge learning.  I had become a bit ‘stale’ in the world of ICT which is pretty shocking to someone who has only been teaching for 2 years. It all started to make sense and I realized that this was something I could do.  I didn’t need to be frightened about it.  Since the ‘moment of motivation’, I have had a go at making Tutorials for my class – whilst they are far from perfect, they are a start and can definitely only get better.  I would like to think that the way in which we have integrated this use of ICT is not just replacing what was already there but improved our teaching method, introduced the children to new tech and actually redefined their learning experience.

I left the room feeling like my feet couldn’t carry me quick enough, I was that excited.– Yes I am still talking about computers! I gathered up my colleagues and forced them to sit and listen to all of my new ideas.   I have also been boring my friends with my new found enthusiasm for ICT – to be which they responded that I should get a life….. I’ll let you make up your own mind about that!


People often travel the world to gain enlightenment – I only had to go to room 313.  

Sunday, 3 November 2013

SAMR Model

Technology should not just be used to substitute the way we have always taught and learnt, it should be used to enhance learning. 

See the SAMR Model diagram below using Google Earth.



This is the fantastic Pedagogy Wheel, including the SAMR Wheel. 

Want to print out the poster? Want the apps to be clickable? Click here to download the PDF. padagogy wheel version 2 

 

Thursday, 17 October 2013

iMovie - for beginners

Great beginning tutorial for using iMovie


Mac tips and Shortcuts


Click on the link below and subscribe the mac tips podcast... lots of really great tutorials to have you loving your Mac..... Then click open in iTunes and subscribe


http://tiny.cc/bispmactips





Mac Short-Cuts


For using a projector  
Command F1   - mirror / unmiorror
Option F1  - display preferences (resolutions etc)




Sunday, 13 October 2013

How to find parent emails in the ePortal

There are two ways to obtain parent and contact emails from the Advanced Learning ePortal

Firstly for a list of students with contact email addresses and telephone numbers use the student lists feature - described in eportal making lists of student information post.

Secondly for an individual student access their individual details page (use search on the home page, or on most lists the student's name is a link to the page). To see the contact email address, and other information, click more in the PERSONAL DETAILS bitlet. The contacts page does not include contact email addresses, the personal details page does.

Monday, 7 October 2013

Storybird

Visual Storytelling for Primary Level Students

Sign up as a Teacher and you can have students can work individually or collaboratively to create visual stories. You can also embed student work into blogs, sites etc.


Wednesday, 25 September 2013

Lets Chat with iChat

iChat is a fantastic way to communicate with colleagues.

You can use it for  text, audio and video chat. You can use it to share files and screen share.
View the videos below to get set up.

How to set up iChat on a local network


iChat Tips

Tuesday, 24 September 2013

Saving a flip chart into your P drive

Firstly, go ahead and open your P drive alias which should be on your desktop.


Save your flip chart


When you save, select the drop down arrow next to the file name




This will allow you to locate the connected server Svr-ad01.  Open this and you will find your P drive.

Sunday, 22 September 2013

Sharing Settings in Google Drive


Sharing Settings in Google Drive

It is a good habit to periodically check the share settings on an object are correct.

There are two different methods for sharing an item in Google drive, both are accessed from the Share option (right click on a object or the Share button in a document)

Firstly every item has a Visibility setting. When you create a document this will always be set to the bisphuket.ac.th system default (currently Private). When you look at the sharing screen this is the top item in the list and the options are largely self-explanatory.

The following guidelines are recommended:
  • For documents or folders intended for teachers use visibility should be Private
  • For documents or folders intended for student access visibility should be set to People at British International School Phuket with link
  • Only in rare circumstances should Anyone with the link or Public on the web be selected. In many cases such documents would be better placed on the school website
Secondly people can be invited, invitees are either View Only or Can Edit. These people can always access the document regardless of the visibility settings. When a new object is created it inherits the invited people from the folder in which it is placed

To assist with controlling permissions a variety of groups have been created and these should be used whenever possible for invitations. When group membership is changed so is access to folders without any additional work, where access is granted by name then any change has to be implemented separately on every folder and document. (Note these groups are not for email use currently)

Recommendations:
  • Staff documents placed inside the BISP Academic staff folder: BISP Teachers “View only” and ICT team “can edit”
  • Do NOT grant access to any external email addresses.
  • Keep the list of invited people as short as possible by using groups.
Groups currently defined:

AEN staff
aen@bisphuket.ac.th

Arts Teachers
arts@bisphuket.ac.th

ICT Team
bisict@bisphuket.ac.th

BISP Teachers
bispteacher@bisphuket.ac.th

Boarding Staff
boarding@bisphuket.ac.th

Computing Teachers
computing@bisphuket.ac.th

Counsellors
counsellor@bisphuket.ac.th

DT Teachers
dt@bisphuket.ac.th

English Teachers
english@bisphuket.ac.th

ESL
esl@bisphuket.ac.th

Humanities Teachers
humanities@bisphuket.ac.th

ilc
ilc@bisphuket.ac.th

Librarians
library@bisphuket.ac.th

Little Ducks Teachers
littleducks@bisphuket.ac.th

Maths Teachers
maths@bisphuket.ac.th

MFL Teachers
mfl@bisphuket.ac.th

Nursery Teachers
nursery@bisphuket.ac.th

PE Teachers
pe@bisphuket.ac.th

Primary leadership team
prilt@bisphuket.ac.th

Pri-MLT
primlt@bisphuket.ac.th

Primary Teachers
priteacher@bisphuket.ac.th

Reception Teachers
reception@bisphuket.ac.th

Science teachers
science@bisphuket.ac.th

Secondary Teachers
secgroup@bisphuket.ac.th

Secondary Leadership Team
seclt@bisphuket.ac.th

SLT
slt@bisphuket.ac.th

students
students@bisphuket.ac.th

Thai Teachers
thai@bisphuket.ac.th

Year 1 Teachers
year1@bisphuket.ac.th

Year 2 Teachers
year2@bisphuket.ac.th

Year 3 Teachers
year3@bisphuket.ac.th

Year 4 Teachers
year4@bisphuket.ac.th

Year 5 Teachers
year5@bisphuket.ac.th

Year 6 Teachers

Thursday, 19 September 2013

ActivInspire Switching between Primary and Studio Look and Feel

To switch ActivInspire between the Primary look and feel and the Studio Look and Feel

  • Open ActivInspire
  • If not visible select View -> Dashboard to make the dashboard visible
  • Go to Configure
  • Tick the box next to the "Launch next time using the ...."
  • Close
  • Quit ActivInspire 
  • Reopen with the changed Look and Feel
To reverse follow the same steps above.

Sunday, 15 September 2013

ePortal - making lists of student information

To make a list of student information from the Advanced Learning ePortal:

  • log onto the ePortal (link is http://mis.bisphuket.ac.th:8090/eportal/) 
  • select the Main Menu
  • Under Records select Student Lists 
  • In the left hand column use the drop down lists to select the group of students you want to produce information on. Note if a drop down is set to "None", the default, then every student that meets the criteria in other boxes is selected. Only use the boxes that you need to select your group of students.
  • On the right hand side you can select the additional information you want to appear. The box "Additional Columns" allows you to select many additional columns of information.
  • Once you have made the settings you want click on the "Generate" button to create the list.
  • On the final screen you can opt to download as a pdf file or you can highlight the table and paste the information into a spreadsheet (if the data formats badly or includes lots of links when pasted into Excel try again using "Paste Special" text)
    If the box labelled "Allow Event Entry" is ticked then selection boxes appear to allow the addition of Behaviour Events to students.

    If you would like assistance or a demonstration of making lists contact Nigel

Sunday, 8 September 2013

Parent Codes in Edmodo

Parents can obtain the Parent Code for their children either by asking their child or one of their teachers.

A student can see their parent code at the bottom left of their home page:

A teacher can find the students parent code by going to the group page and clicking on members in the left hand menu. Then obtain the Parent Code by selecting Parent Code from the "More" drop down menu to the right of the students name.
To obtain parent codes for the entire group. On the same screen select Print from the drop down menu Group Settings (to the right of the word Members) and including parent code in the items to print.

Edmodo help topic can be seen at https://support.edmodo.com/home#entries/22041470-where-do-i-retrieve-a-parent-code

Wednesday, 4 September 2013

Google Drive - Introduction and Installation on Mac & Windows



 

 An Introduction to Google Drive




Google Drive Application on Mac



  1. Go to http://drive.google.com New Window.
  2. Click the Download Google Drive for your Mac button. 
  3. Open installgoogledrive.dmg.
  4. Open the installation file and drag the Google Drive icon to your Applications folder.
  5. Open Google Drive from your Applications folder. (You may receive a warning that Google Drive is an application downloaded from the Internet. Click the Open button.)
  6. Enter your Google Account username and password in the window that opens. This will be the account associated with Google Drive for your Mac.
  7. Complete the installation package instructions.
  8. Launch Google Drive for your Mac from the toolbar. Drag files and folders into your Google Drive folder to begin syncing items to My Drive (part of Google Drive on the web).
 Install Google Drive on your computer (Windows)
  1. Go to http://drive.google.com New Window.
  2. Click Connect Drive to your desktop below the list of Drive views on the left side of the screen.
  3. Click Download Google Drive for your PC.
  4. Open googledrivesync.exe to automatically install and start Google Drive on your PC. (You may receive a warning that Google Drive is an application downloaded from the Internet. Click the Open button.)
  5. Enter your Google Account username and password in the window that opens. This will be the account associated with Google Drive for your PC.
  6. Complete the installation package instructions.
  7. Launch Google Drive for your PC from the Start menu. Drag files and folders into your Google Drive folder to begin syncing items to My Drive (part of Google Drive on the web).

    Once installed, you can access your Google Drive folder either by using the Finder, or the Google Drive icon located in the toolbar at the top of your screen.    




After you complete a piece of work,  you can drag the file into your Google Drive folder on your laptop and Google Drive will synchronize your folder with your web based Google Drive folder. Therefore, you will have 2 copies as a backup.

Google Docs in the classroom

Google Drive / Docs in the Classroom


  


TIP
If collaborating, get kids to pick a colour and write their name in it at the start (a key)... then you know which student has done what.