Ralls Apple Seeds

Got 45 Minutes? Take the Web 2.0 Challenge!

sarahwww — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:57:51 +0000

I found a resource that seriously reaches out and grabs educators with web 2.0 explanation, resources and examples.
Each video is 5-10 minutes long and really gives a great overview of cool web sites and ways to utilize them in the classroom. Honestly, if you can’t find something in these 6 videos that you want to explore, something that really sends you, I will come by and check your pulse!
In fact I am issuing a Web 2.0 Challenge to those of you who are ready to try something new.
Check out the videos and find something new to try. (If sites are blocked let me know and I will work get them unblocked) We know these kinds of projects take extra time and planning, your principals have agreed to offer 3 professional development hours to those who submit a plan and a link to or post an example from the final project. You can send plans to me (they don’t have to be formal, just tell me what you are planning to use, how and why) and then let me know (or post here) when the project is share-worthy). And just in case anyone in the Real World runs across this blog, this challenge is for Ralls ISD folks . Here is the link:
Web 2.0 Conquering Technophobia

I look forward to seeing what creative things show up!!

Address Unknown?

sarahwww — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 20:07:33 +0000

Time to create or update your email address book!
These instructions/pictures are for Entourage. The Apple “Mail” program (for the few of you who got it going) is similar, if you need help you can bring your MacBook to me or Juan (as can anyone needing help) and we can get you fixed up.
The instructions will appear above the picture
Open Entourage

click on the address book button

Click on FILE and select “Import”

Select “contact or messages from a text file” then click the right arrow at the bottom.

Select “import contact…” and then click the right arrow to continue.

Select the Rallsxserver on the left, then select the Users-1 folder

Find the sarahwood folder

Go to the Public folder

Find the “Comeandgetit” folder

Highlight the rallsemail.txt file and click on import

This is what will pop up, the first “record” should read Name and emaill address ONLY. You may need to click the “previous” button so that is what shows on the right hand (unmapped fields) box:

To map the fields (must be done for a sucessful import) you need to grab the word Name from the right side of the box and move it over to the left side of the box, dropping it by “Last Name”:

Then scroll down the left side of the screen until you see email address 1. Drag “email address: from the right side over next to the “email address 1″

You are now ready to click the import button. There is no need to save the mapping setting, just click “don’t save.”

When it iis all done it will give you a finished button!

You did it! Trust me, it take way longer to read the directions than it actually takes to accomplish the task. Holler if you need help!

You’ve Got the Power!

sarahwww — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:11:31 +0000

During our Apple training, we went around and gave teachers administrative rights to their laptops. This means that now when something comes up that requires authentication, you can supply your user name and your password and you should be able to do what is needed. Sometimes the authentication window pops up with your “long name” and you will need to change that to your “short name” (user name) before supplying your password. Of course if you are having trouble with this, please bring your laptop by so we can check things out. Also on some pages where you may want to change things you will notice a padlock on the lower left corner. To make changes you need to click the actual icon of the lock, not the words that say “to make changes…” (Don’t ask me how many times I have had to learn this…).
Questions? You know the drill!

Y’all Ready for This??

sarahwww — Fri, 29 May 2009 19:19:54 +0000

I have had many questions on the fate of your hard earned intellectual property that resides on our Windows server. Here is the tutorial for retrieving this.
Please be aware this may be a time intensive activity. It needs to be done, and at least, until you get the “My Documents” safely on to your desktop, must be done at school. You can take it home to do housekeeping and transfer if you wish.

OK After I typed all of this out I remembered that I have a small-in-size, large in capacity USB drive that I can probably use to copy of everyones profile and work from there. SO you can read and follow directions if you are anxious or you can wait for me to get things copied and out to you. Your choice!

Start on you MacBook desktop in Finder. Under the GO menu you will see Network. Hit it.

You will see a window that allows you to select a server– select Planter and double click.

You will get a notice that the connection failed. Look to your right, click on the Connect as… button

You will get this box…

Put in your Windows Network user name and password ( this is what you use every time you log into your computer)

Now you are on Planter. Select Profiles.

Double click on YOUR profile and it will open. Select your “My Documents” folder with one click.

With your “My Documents” Folder selected, go to the top of your screen and select Edit and “Copy ‘My Documents.’”

You can now click on the desktop, go back to Edit and select “Paste Items.”

When pasting is done, there is your documents folder (NOTE: If you have a LOT of files this process may take a l-o-n-g time)

You can even open it and check it. You can also (and should) take this opportunity to clean out stuff you no longer need–just drag it to the trash.

Now you can put your MY documents into your Macbook Documents folder.
Go back to GO and double click your HOME folder.

Double click on you “Documents” folder. (Yours probably won’t have anything in it.)

Open up your “My Documents folder from the desktop.

Select the first document in your list. Now on your keyboard hit the “command” button then teh leter “A.” All your documents are selected.

Go up to the edit menu and click on it. Select “Copy XX items” (XX being the number of documents selected)

Go to your Mac Documents file and click in that window. Go back to Edit and select “Paste items” (again paste will take from a few seconds to several minutes depending on how well you cleaned up).

Your documents from “My Documents” are now in the MacBook documents file (you can compare).

After that, close both windows and drag your “My Documents” folder off your desktop and into your trash.
Be aware that you just added anywhere from a few to many, many megabytes of data to your MacBook and so the next time you sync up (logging off the network) it may take a while to get everything where it is going. This is not a process to be rushed. Give it time.

If you also have data stored on the “Public” drive, you can grab it the same way, going to “Public” instead of “profiles” and finding your files there.

Flash drives also work to grab and transfer data and I will have some available. I would not trust the “Planter” server over the summer to hold “way too precious to lose” data. It has been acting funky for a time and I think we have learned not to trust such things. Word.

I got mail?

sarahwww — Thu, 28 May 2009 02:47:36 +0000

I have had several questions about email on the Apple laptops. I am so excited that folks want to get rolling on these!
There are a few choices for email you can pick from.
You can use the web based email from the service center. Most of you are aware of the process:
Go to http://www.esc17.net, find the web mail link on the bottom of the left side of the page and click.
Some folks don’t like this choice because there is “no address book.” Ahhhh, but there is! When you start a “new” message, click on the To; button and you are taken to a global address book where you can search by several different fields and select your recipient. Everyone in the area that has an esc17 address is listed. Even the Ralls mail groups are listed.
You can also create a personal address book by adding email addresses to the contacts list.

The most obvious choice for setting up your email would seem to be click on the stamp icon on the dock that says “mail” when you hover over it. I have tried to set this up. I have talked to a couple of folks who have tried to set this up, There is info you need to know, (it’s coming…) but even with the correct settings, I have not been able to make this work. Neither has anyone I’ve tried to help. If anyone has had good luck with this program, let me know– please!

The last and perhaps best choice is the Entourage program. This is included in the Microsoft Office 2008 folder, You can get to this by starting the finder and then looking in the Applications folder. You are looking for the Microsoft Office 2008 folder. Open it and look for the purple “e.” ( If this is your first time opening any Office 2008 program a small set up program will open–just give your name and it is happy).

When Entourge opens, your first screen has options. Select not to import anything:

The next screen lets you put in your email address. Do not check the box for the exchange server:

This Failure screen is OK, just click the arrow to continue.

The next screen asks you to put in some settings: The email type is POP and the address for incoming and outgoing servers is mail.esc17.net , Use your usual email password.

Lastly verify your settings

Success!

Watch Apple Seeds soon for information on how to import the Ralls ISD address book into your email account.

UUmmmmm, Printing?

sarahwww — Fri, 22 May 2009 19:31:20 +0000

Printing on your new Macbook works about the same as it did on Windows, pretty much.
When you first attempt to print, you may be intimidated by the long list of numbers instead of friendly names to pick from. Right now they need to be listed this way. I am trying to find a better way to show them. Meanwhile, If you select a printer if you look in the middle of the information box that comes up, you should see a familiar name to guide you.
This list only includes printers that are attached directly to our network, not printers that are attached to individual computers or those that are shared.

So that you can get used to finding your printer, I present:
The Printer Cheat Sheet:
10.14.99.22 RHS East Lab
10.14.99.23. RHS West lab
10.14.99.27 RHS Color Library
10.14.99.25 RHS Rm 138
10.14.99. 24 RHS Rm 119
10.14.99.26 RMS Upstairs Lab
10.14.99.28 RMS Downstairs Lab
10.14. 99.29 RMS COLOR
10.14.99.250 Central office COLOR
10.6.0.110 RES Middle Hall COLOR
10.0.1.18 RES South Hall
10.0.1.19 RES Middle Hall
10.0.1.20 RES Library
10.0.1.21 RES Library COLOR

I Want a Different Home Page!

sarahwww — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:52:53 +0000

The Macbooks come with the home page conveniently set to apple.com and there are some useful tutorials and other information on the page. If however, you would prefer a different home page, here is how you do that.
1) Go to the page you wish to have as your home page (perhaps rallsisd.addr.com?)
2) Once you are there look at the very top bar of your screen. You will see the word “Safari” or “Firefox.” Click on the word and you will get a drop down list.
3) Chose ‘preferences”
4) On the “general” tab near the top is a narrow box for the Home Page.
5) Click the button that says “Set to current page”
6) You can close the window after that. Next time you open your web browser you should see your prefered home page.

Video Adapters

sarahwww — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:37:37 +0000

When you picked up your laptop you also got 2 “white things” most of you assumed were the video adapters. Now I bet you would like to know what to do with them and why you got 2.
These adapters allow you to hook your Apple up to your projector ( those of you who are now hollering, “but I don’t HAVE a projector” need to keep reading and realize your patience will be rewarded).
Basically one of the adapters fits your computer and the other will fit the student (and cart) computers. You can attach the small end of the adapter to youe computer and then look at the cable that leads from the Y cable (or video splitter box) at the back of your computer to the box on the wall or window ledge. Unhook the cable from the side closest to the computer and hook that to the end of the video adapter. Turn on your projector and you should be able to show the computer on the “big screen.” Later when the students have their computers you can invite them to share their screen by plugging in the appropriate adapter to their computer and to the cable.
Here is what the Y cable at the back of your computer looks like (except yours is probably black and blue)
The “back”end plugs into the (windows) computer and at the front end the (windows) computer monitor is plugged in on one end and the cable leading to the box for the projector is on the the other. It is this end you want to remove and plug in to the video adapter on your Apple.

Wireless – Necessary or Not?

sarahwww — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:36:39 +0000

Wireless—Necessary or Not?
We have set up wireless access in our schools because the use of many laptops at one time would be exceeding unwieldy if cables had to be used at all times with them. We have had few issues with the school wireless at this point and we feel lucky and blessed to be able to offer this.
The wireless question for home use is what seems to cause more confusion.
If you are using Dial-up access—using your phone line which is then unavailable to anyone else, you probably will not have any luck getting that set up. There is no specific port for a phone cord and I have not found any place to configure Dial up networking.

Using DSL (probably the majority of you are in this category) you have a few options. If you now have just one computer plugged into your DSL you can remove the Ethernet cable (the one that looks like an over-sized phone cord) from the back of your computer and plug it into the Ethernet port on the side of your Apple. That should work to bring the Internet up.
If you are using DSL but have more than one computer already sharing internet in your house, you can see if you have another open port in your router, purchase an Ethernet cable (online,maybe at Walmart, never at Best BUY $$$$) and hook into the open port and to your Apple).
If you are using DSL and are considering putting in a wireless router, this can substitute for your previous router (see above) or you can add it to the DSL modem if you have not had a router. Routers can be purchased for about 80.00. You want a “G” or “N” type. It will say what it is on the box. Good brands include D-Link, Linksys, Belkin. The instructions that come with most wireless routers are pretty good. Follow them closely. Please do set some kind of security—WPA is best, WEP is better than nothing. If you don’t set security then anyone can “borrow a cup of wifi,” slowing down your connection and possibly introducing bad things onto your network ( this is the rough equivalent of taking an extension cord and plugging into your neighbor’s outside wall plug, stringing the extension cord across to your house and running your refrigerator off of it). Once you connect up to your wireless, the Apple should sense when you are near your wifi and when you are near the school’s and adjust accordingly.
Also a wireless router comes with ports for regular “wired’ access as well so if you have some computers without wireless ability, you can still hook them to this router.
I hope this provides a little clarity or at least information on the question of wireless connectivity at home.