The Media Spot, PD Sessions 2 & 3: Using the Macs

If you’re reading this YOU MADE IT to the blog!

This blog will be used for school announcements, posting student work and sharing your technology program with the extended community of schools who are on the web.

I am from The Media Spot, a media education company that works with students and teachers to read and write with digital media, and designs custom resources to help schools integrate technology into their curricula.

Media Education Goals at PS 130
* Establish a culture of comfort communicating with computers among staff and students
* Establish routine use of the school blog(s)
* Increase students’ critical awareness of the Internet and digital media
* Design classroom projects that integrate existing technology into the curriculum

AGENDA

1. Get comfortable with the Mac:

a. Turn it on (look for a power icon like the one pictured on the right and push it once)

b. Log In: NYCDOE, Teacher (ask me for password), Student (no password required)

c. Your Desktop (pictured on the right):

- Navigation bar, left to right across the top (Apple Menu, File, Edit, etc.); shows what program you’re in, and allows commands in whatever program you’re in, Apple menu allows you to “Shut Down” or put the computer to “Sleep”.

- HD or “Finder” (shows everything on the computer in a tree of folders and sub-folders)

- “The Dock” (at the bottom of the screen; shows shortcuts to your favorite applications and folders, and it will display the icons of any applications that are open)

2. Opening Applications (or “Programs”)

There are 2 ways to open a program from your Desktop, through the Finder, or using the Dock.

a. Look for it in “The Dock” (bottom of the image on the right): roll over the icons in the Dock and see what’s there. “Safari” is the application we’ll use to browse the Internet. Click once on Safari to Open it.

b. Look for it on your Hard Disk (HD) a.k.a. the “Finder” (center of image on the right): double-click on the HD icon on your desktop, then click on the “Applications” icon on the left of that window, find “Safari” on the list of applications and double-click it.

3. Opening our blog

Once the Safari window is open, type ps130.wordpress.com into the address bar at the top of the Safari window, then click “Return” on your keyboard.

4. Leave a “Comment” on the blog

The PS 130 blog can be a powerful and paperless way for the school to make announcements, check announcements and stay in touch from any computer connected to the Internet.

a. Click on the title of the blog post: “The Media Spot, PD Sessions 2 & 3: Using the Macs (or any other “Post” title you want to respond to.

b. Scroll down by dragging the blue scroll bar on the right edge of your Safari window, and find the “Leave a Comment” section of the blog post.

c. Type in the required information, type a simple message, and click “Submit Comment”. When the screen refreshes you should see your message.

3. Saving a File

Saving your work is the most critical thing you do when working on a computer. The next most important thing is being able to find it. You want to establish simple routines for you and your students to determine where files are saved. Start by having students save all of their work in the Student user folders, and create a folder for yourself within the student user account for anything you will save.

a. From within almost any application click on the “File” menu at on your navigation bar to drop down the options, and click “Save” (Save may have something after it depending on the application you’re using, i.e. “Save File”, “Save Document”, “Save Page”, etc.)

b. You will see your computers’ “tree” structure of folders, sub-folders and files, click on the folder you want to save your work in and click “Save” in the lower right of the window.

c. Create a new folder:

- Open the “Finder” by clicking on your HD icon, and click on the “File” menu and select “New Folder” from the dropdown menu. Name the folder “Teacher” and click “Return”. Now you can select that folder (by clicking on it) and save your file into it by clicking “Save” in the lower right of the window.

- If you are Saving a file you can create a new folder by clicking the “New Folder” button in the lower left of the Save window.

If you are ready for more…

Check out what Ms. Kotas and Ms. Lopez are learning about blogs, how to become an author of Posts on your blog, view examples of other school blog projects, and find out exactly what a “Blog” is by clicking this link to the advanced group agenda from 6.4!