April 2000

Janice Blencowe - Steve Cox - Neil Mactavish - Dan Mooney - Gisèle Winger - Ric Woltz

| Classroom Computers | Upcoming Computer Workshops | Internet Links | Macintosh Tips | Windows Tips |

	Classroom Computers
	HyperStudio Sound Quality If you are recording in HyperStudio, you can get a better quality of the recording if you hold down the Command key when you start recording. Holding down the Option key will give you the best quality. The reason for this is that compression diminishes recording quality. HyperStudio automatically compresses sounds at a ratio of 6:1. Pressing the Command key changes this ratio to 3:1. One Computer Classroom Idea Draw a shape and have each student add something to it.  This idea is similar to story starters, but this one focuses on an art project.  When students have completed the drawing, have them write a story about their class created creature.  The others can be drawing an individual picture at their desk. For more ideas visit http://www.telepath.com/edtechreview/Archive/March/Single_Computer/single_computer.html
	Upcoming Computer Workshops (Register for all workshop by email to: Carol_Edmondson@gecdsb.on.ca or fax to 255-1651.)
	Appleworks (Clarisworks) Series (April 3,10,17&emdash;4:00 pm Dowswell) April 3 (Word Processing), 10(Spreadsheets), 17(Databases) This series of workshops will introduce you to the various components of the Appleworks (Clarisworks) program. You may take all three of the sessions or pick and choose the sessions that meet your needs. Stupid Webpage Tricks (April 4&emdash;4:00 pm Dowswell) After you master the basics of getting a page with graphics, text, and links, what's next? How about frames, tables, customized buttons, mouse overs, counters, and a little bit of Javascript? In this workshop, we'll add these touches to your masterpieces. Webpage Design with Claris Homepage (April 5&emdash;4:00 pm Dowswell) After you've surfed a bit, the next step is to create your own, your student's, or your school's presence on the Internet with a personally crafted Web Page. In this session, you'll learn the ins and outs of HTML writing and build a powerful page in the process. Consider the Internet as the ultimate publishing and multimedia experience. Introduction to Webquests (April 12&emdash;4:00 pm Park St.) Webquests are a a technique designed to give students a successful directed Internet experience. In this workshop, we'll talk about what value the Internet provides for students and how to design a webquest to get the most from time spent online. Curriculum Planner Minicourse (April 18 ,27, May 11 see calendar for times and locations) Three sessions, hands on, explore planner and accessories to the planner, Create, revise or adapt a unit using planner, share completed units with one and other, please register with a partner max 32 people. Multimedia Authoring with Hyperstudio Minicourse (Apr 11, 13, 19&emdash;Dowswell) One of the most powerful applications of language is the ability to tell a story in order to convey your message. The written word, illustrations, animations, and sound all combine with the computer to let your students compose their own multimedia stories with Hyperstudio. In this mini- course, we will introduce the concepts of multimedia authoring incorporating many tools to help students "tell their story".
	Internet Links
	Animals Paradise Lost: Saving the native birds of Hawaii www.discovery.com/stories/nature/hibirds/hibirds.html Before it became a paradise for vacationers, Hawaii was for the birds. Meet biologists on the cutting edge of endangered-species conservation who are trying to prevent the loss of one of the islands' natural treasures. Spiders! www.discovery.com/exp/spiders/spiders.html As if the kangaroos and the crocodiles aren't enough, Australia's also crawling with spiders! Join this expedition to the Outback, where we guarantee you'll learn to appreciate, if not love, these eight-legged arachnids. Disasters Trouble in Paradise: On Montserrat www.discovery.com/exp/montserrat/montserrat.html Beneath the warm water of the Caribbean lurks disaster, as inhabitants of the island of Montserrat learned in 1998. See footage of the latest volcanic eruption and learn what's happening on the ocean floor to cause these volatile mountains to form and erupt. Earthquake: Waiting for the big one along the San Andreas fault www.discovery.com/exp/earthquakes/earthquakes.html Is it only a matter of time before California becomes an island, separated from the U.S. mainland by a catastrophic earthquake? See what two journalists learned when they traveled the entire 800-mile length of the San Andreas fault. Space Home in the Sky: The international space station www.discovery.com/stories/science/spacestation/spacestation.html In the market for a cool new pad? Then come take a virtual tour of the new international space station. It's fully furnished and operational, and the first crew moves in March 2000! Life on Mars www.discovery.com/area/science/mars/mars.624.html In a story worthy of "The X-Files," a 15-milion-year-old meteorite from Mars crashed on Earth. The weird part is, the meteorite contained signs of life. But was it Martian life? Find out what the latest research shows. Weather Thunder and Lightning www.discovery.com/indep/newsfeatures/sprites/anatomy.html You'd think scientists would have learned all there is to know about lightning by now. Well, you'd be wrong. Read about the new "light in the heavens" that's mystifying scientists, and learn how you, too, can see the light. The Chilling Fields www.discovery.com/exp/antarctica/antarctica.html Join an expedition to the most unexplored place on earth&emdash;a place that exists for only six months at a time, then disappears. It's the Antarctic sea ice, a vast frozen mass that nevertheless supports a thriving temporary ecosystem and helps regulate the world's climate. Math & Science and Technology How Stuff Works! http://www.howstuffworks.com/ Have you ever wondered how the engine in your car works or what makes the inside of your refrigerator cold? Then How Stuff Works is the place for you! Click on the categories below to see hundreds of cool articles! Whatis.com http://www.whatis.com/ whatis® is a knowledge exploration tool about information technology, especially about the Internet and computers. It contains over 2,000 individual encyclopedic definition/topics and a number of quick-reference pages. The topics contain about 12,000 hyperlinked cross-references between definition-topics and to other sites for further information. We try hard to keep it up-to-date. HyperGami Polyhedral Playground: http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~eisenbea/hypergami/paintplatonics-page.html HyperGami Polyhedral Playground: The HyperGami site allows you to explore polyhedra and make your own paper shapes. Visitors can manipulate and color geometric figures. A java-enabled web browser is required.  (Created by Michael and Ann Eisenberg)
	Macintosh Tips (for home computers)
	Recovering a Trashed File on the Mac Here's a neat tip we stumbled upon after a recent crash: If you empty the Trash and then suddenly realize that it contained a file you didn't want to delete, you might be able to recover it. Reboot immediately by pressing [control][command] and the power key don't use the Shut Down or Restart command. This trick might work because the Macintosh doesn't really delete a file until it goes through the shutdown process. So, when your computer starts back up, you just might find your file either in the Trash or right where it was before you put it in the Trash. Subdividing the Mac's Launcher If you like to use the Launcher to easily access applications or documents, you can create your own Launcher categories. To do so, open the Launcher Items folder, which you'll find in your System Folder. Any folder whose name starts with a bullet character is a category. To make your own category, press [command]N to create a new folder, then press [option]8 to create the bullet character, and name your folder whatever you want the category to be called. Now, just drag into that folder an alias to any application or document you want to appear in that category. Although the Launcher control panel began life only on Performas, it proved to be so handy that it became a standard part of the Mac OS starting with System 7.5. To open the Launcher, choose Launcher from the Control Panel's submenu of your Apple menu. Or you can set it to open every time you start up your Mac. To do so, open your General Controls control panel and check the Show Launcher At System Startup option. Speeding up the Mac's Finder Display If you view your folders with the View menu's By Name option, you can make a simple adjustment to speed up the time it takes to display folders when you switch from an application to the Finder, as well as the time it takes to open folders. The secret lies in the Views control panel. The Views control panel contains many options for viewing information about the items in folders. The more of these items that are checked, the longer it takes the Finder to open and display folders. That's because the Finder checks the items for any changed information every time you open a folder or switch to the Finder from an application. A real time-hog is the Calculate Folder Sizes option, as the Finder has to add up all the items every time it displays a folder. To speed your work on the desktop, uncheck as many of these options as you can bear. The fewer items your Mac needs to calculate, the faster your folders will display and open. Shift-Click to Highlight When you need to select large amounts of text in a word processing or spreadsheet application don't drag the insertion point over the text. Instead, save time by clicking at the beginning of the area you wish to select, and then hold down the [shift] key as you click at the end of the text you want to select.
	Windows Tips (for home computers)
	Screen Savers You just installed a new screen saver. Unfortunately, your computer seems to have lost some of its pep as a result. Screen savers can slow down Windows 95 and 98 machines. It happens after playing midi files (such as those used with screen savers that have repeated MIDI playback). It seems the Windows 95 and 98 MIDI sequencer (Mciseq.drv) loses memory during MIDI playback. Closing and then reloading the midi files releases the lost memory. Quattro Pro Secret You want an easy way to zoom in and out in Corel Quattro Pro 8. Select View, Page to see an overview of a spreadsheet or View, Zoom and 25% to see several pages. Netscape Communicator You're tired of new windows suddenly appearing when you're using Netscape Communicator. To disable the feature that automatically launches separate Web windows, choose Preferences, Advanced and uncheck the "Display JavaScript for Mail and News" option. Windows 98 Desktop Shortcuts Windows 95 offered several easy ways to create a desktop Shortcut, but in each case, you had to have the desktop in view. In Windows 98, this isn't necessary. From a Windows Explorer or My Computer window, for example, simply right-click the filename for which you want to create a Shortcut and choose Send To" Most programs add a Shortcut to the Start menu when you install them, but few add one to the desktop. To create a desktop Shortcut from the Start menu and to the Start menu, you can use the same techniques you would use to create one from an Explorer or My Computer window. The simplest choice is the one described above. You can also drag the item while holding down the Ctrl key to copy it or choose Copy, then right-click the desktop and choose Paste, among other approaches. Whichever technique you're most comfortable using when creating Shortcuts from Explorer or My Computer will likely work with the Start menu, too. " This tip comes from ZDNet http://www.zdnet.com/products/stories/reviews/0,4161,2184612,00.html.