201 TECH TALK New Tech Associate at Aux Sable By Marilyn Querciagrossa

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1 201 TECH TALK TECH TALK New Tech Associate at Aux Sable By Marilyn Querciagrossa Issue 7, Dec 2010 Contents P 1 New Tech Associate at Aux Sable -- Tech Committee Meeting We welcome another new technology associate to our district. Andrew Huffman began work at Aux Sable Elementary School in August. For background information on all of our tech associates, Marilyn Querciagrossa and Jason Willis, visit our Minooka Technology webpage at okatechnology.html. The link can also be found from our home page under About Us > Dist 201 Technology. First Technology Committee Meeting Held The first technology committee meeting was held on Thursday, October 28 in the computer lab at Minooka Elementary School. Several people expressed an interest in joining the committee this year. Mrs. Peck from Walnut Trails and Jones Elementary School joined the group and there were several other people who are interested in serving on the committee but could not attend. Committee members are: Vicki Allen (JES), Kathleen Byrd (AS), Mary Jo Botnick (WT), Peggy Fitzgerald (JH), Heather Giacomi (MIS), Terri Hall (MIS), Michelle Hanley (WT), Kristen Konfirst (JH), Patty Kosek (MES), Amiee Merkel (MPC), Brad Opiola (MIS), Kristen Peck (JES, WT), Sally Readle (JH), Tara Vertin (MIS), Jason Willis, Network Manager, and Marilyn Querciagrossa, Technology Coordinator. At the end of the meeting, we held our first professional development prize drawing. This year, when teachers attend any technology workshops before or after school, they are entered in a drawing for a mimio pad, USB flash drive, and free time from Mrs. Q. P 2 P 3 P 4 P 5 District Recognized by HP Make a Snow Animation Importance of Using Help Desk New Mimio Software The lucky winner of the Mimio Pad was Katie Krempasky from Walnut Trails. Lois Berger (WT), John Seaton (WT), Kathleen Byrd (AS), and Erin Nolan (JES) won the gift of time, and Donna McDonald (WT), Denise McEvilly (WT), and Krystal Valladolid (MES) each won a USB flash drive. The next drawing will be in January at the technology committee meeting.

2 Minooka is Recognized by HP By Marilyn Querciagrossa In early September, Minooka CCSD 201 was featured in a Hewlett Packard case study about thin clients and Citrix in schools. The study was also presented by HP at a technology conference in Berlin, Germany. Because thin clients are cost-effective, the district has been able to purchase and deploy at least 3 student work stations per classroom and has been able to add computer labs at some of the elementary schools. There are two labs at Jones Elementary School and Walnut Trails, one permanent and one temporary lab at Minooka Elementary School, and one lab at Aux Sable Elementary School. In recent weeks, a number of improvements have been made to the district s Citrix system which has led to an improvement in log in times and reliability in the system overall. Mr. Willis and the entire tech team will continue to implement strategies and explore ways to make the Citrix experience better for teachers and students. 2

3 Making an Animated Snow Scene in PowerPoint Here s a great way to improve skills using PowerPoint make an animated snow scene. (Directions are from Begin by selecting a black or very dark background color for the full effect of this snow slide show. In PowerPoint 2007, go to the Design tab and click Background Styles in the Background group. Select Format Background to open the Background dialog. In PowerPoint 2003, go to the Format menu and click on Background. Select the background color of your choice (albeit a dark one!) and click Apply. Insert a small circle onto the slide. On the Home tab in PowerPoint 2007, click a circle in the Shapes box of the Drawing group and click on the slide. In PowerPoint 2003, go to the Insert menu, point to Picture and click AutoShapes to find a circle. Right-click the circle and select Format or Format Shape. In PowerPoint 2007, make sure Fill is selected in the left pane. Select Solid Fill and choose White as the color. Go to Line Color in the left pane and select No Line. Go to Glow and Soft Edges. Select any glow variation in the third row of the presets and change the color to white. In the Soft Edges presets, select 10 point. In PowerPoint 2003, select Fill Effects from the Fill dropdown box on the Colors and Lines tab. Click on the One Color radio button and make that color white. Down at the bottom under shading styles choose From Center. Slide the To bar under Transparency (still on the Gradient tab) to 100% and click OK. Back on the Colors and Lines tab of the Format AutoShape dialog box, select No Line from the dropdown under Line and click OK. Copy and paste or duplicate (Ctrl+D) your snowflakes and place them wherever your little heart desires near the top of the slide. The more, the merrier! You can resize some of them as well, if you want different sizes. Select the snowflakes (Ctrl+A) and get ready to animate them. In PowerPoint 2007, go to the Animations tab and select Custom Animation. In PowerPoint 2003, choose Custom Animation from the Slide Show menu. Click Add Effect, then Exit, then Fly Out. In the Animation Pane, click the arrow for the first dropdown menu. Choose Start: With Previous. Select Direction: To Bottom. For about a third of the snowflakes, set the speed to Very Slow. Change the speed to Slow for another third and set the remaining snowflakes' speed to Medium. Click on the first effect in the task pane (it might say something like Oval 1). Ctrl+A to select the entire list, and then use the dropdown arrow on the last effect to select Timing. In the Repeat box, choose Until End of Slide and click OK. Have even more fun by adding text, clipart or other animation (search "snow animation" for some fun clip art). Then sit back and enjoy the show. 3

4 The Importance of Using the Help Desk When experiencing technology problems in the district, it is vitally important to use the Help Desk to report the problem. All Help Desk tickets are kept indefinitely in the system, so should there be a question about how the problem was or was not addressed, there will be a record of the request for assistance. Also, it is very important that ALL technology problems in the district be reported to the technology associates, Mr. Willis, and Mrs. Querciagrossa via the Help Desk. Understandably, no one wants to be considered a complainer, but asking for help with a problem or reporting a problem is not the same as complaining. None of the technology associates, Mr. Willis, or Mrs. Querciagrossa can read minds or look into a crystal ball, so the only way we know there are problems is if you report them. Please read ALL instructions you receive from Mrs. Q, Mr. Willis, or any of the tech associates. The s contain very important information about using the system. It is a tragedy when documents are lost or things don t work right because the proper procedures were not followed. If you don t fully understand a procedure, or you don t know the proper procedure, please ask for assistance. Mrs. Q, Mr. Willis, and all of the tech associates are here to help you with whatever you need to use technology successfully. No Crystal Balls in the Technology Department! 4

5 Updated Mimio Notebook Software Now Available Many of you who have Mimio devices know there is updated software available now for both PC and Mac. If you would like version 7.01 of the Mimio Studio software installed on your laptop, please let your building tech associate know by sending a Help Desk ticket. If you try to download lessons from Mimio Connect that were made in version 7 of Mimio Studio and you only have version 6, you won t be able to open and view the version 7 lessons. The updated software has several useful new features. Thumbnails of the pages now appear on the right when you are working on a project. The software now has a Clone tool available that allows you to duplicate many objects very quickly. There is also an Align tool under Format for arranging objects. You can import many more kinds of files than was possible with version 6. There are also Page Transitions available. Below are some directions for using some of the new features: 1. Select the object to add the clone action to. Adding Cloning to Objects 2. Choose Action Settings from the Insert menu. The Action Settings dialog box appears. 3. Select one of the following from the Action list: o On Click - to create a copy of the object each time the object is clicked o On Drag - to create a copy of the object each time the object is dragged 4. Select Clone from the Feature list, and then click OK. You can also add the clone action to an object by choosing Clone from the Insert menu. By default, a copy of the object is created whenever you drag the object. Adding Page Transitions 1. Choose Page Transition from the Insert menu. The Page Transition dialog box appears. 2. From the Transitions list, select the transition to apply. 3. From the Apply To list, select the pages to apply the transition to. 4. To apply the transition to all new pages, select the All new pages check box. 5