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Who Will Help
Me?
Teachers
continue to request help through the eTeacher Conference. This is an
excellent resource and is monitored frequently by Doug Peterson and the
CAIT's. There is another resource as well. Over the past three years, the
CAIT's have been putting together a number of help resources in the form
of detailed instruction sheets. These help sheets are available on the Web
in PDF format. (Adobe Acrobat Reader) The page is updated frequently and
has most instructions required for the present term. If you need help
immediately, this is the place to go.
eTeacher
Help
http://www.gecdsb.on.ca/cait/MacTavish/instet.htm
Is Your PC
ILL?
There have
been numerous reports of computers crashing while using eTeacher. While
files in eTeacher are recoverable, numerous crashes are
disheartening.
Please check to see if your
computer is healthy. All computers should have a virus checker, especially
if your children use the machine frequently. Check your hard drive space.
A hard drive with less than 100 mg of space could cause you difficulties.
Defrag your hard drive (instructions below)on a regular basis. On a well
used machine, once a month is not unusual. Check to see that you have only
one version of FileMaker on your machine. At present, it must be 4.1v3.
Hopefully, with continued preventive maintenance, most of these crashes
can be averted. In Steve's interview below, several other concerns are
addressed. See your CAIT for more information regarding updates and fixes.
Interview with
Media - X, Steve Cox
For about
10 minutes this afternoon, I had Steve, Monique and an ETeacher programmer's
ear alone in the Blue room at the Board office. (!) Here's some answers
to my questions. I asked almost exclusively about helping the situation
where Filemaker Pro crashes in Windows while running eTeacher, and didn't
bring up much else.
1) A major thing to do to solve the crash problem is to increase the file
cache size in Filemaker Pro "preferences" from its default setting
of "512 k" to the maximum; Monique suggested "9999 k".
They all agreed this would make more difference than anything else. Go
to "edit/preferences/application/memory", and change "512"
K to "9999" K, then exit eTeacher, restart your computer and
restart eTeacher. The new setting will be saved from then on.
2) Having at least 100 megabytes free space (and preferable more) on the
hard drive is also important to avoid problems.
3) Disabling screen savers ( "start/settings/control panel/display/screensaver/none)
will help. Also, making sure that eTeacher is the only program running
is a good idea. It might also be a good idea to turn any virus checking
programs off while running eTeacher. (Make sure to turn them back on when
finished!)
4) This crash problem does occur with other database programs too, because
of the constant writing that these programs do to the hard drive, as opposed
to word processors, etc, that only write while saving. eTeacher writes
every time you switch from one student record to another.
5) After a crash, there is another option to the "standard"
of recovering and renaming the crashed file. (Often, the recovered file
still has some problems.) They suggested to completely reinstall eTeacher,
without deleting the old one, and then use the "restore from backup"
option. ("setup/transfer-backup/restore/restore from backup")
When eTeacher reinstalls over itself, it does not overwrite the previous
backup folder (although Steve says he always likes to copy the folder
to the desktop just in case.) All this assumes, of course, that you say
"yes" (as you should) when eTeacher asks to make a backup every
time you quit the program.
6) FM Pro 4 was originally released and tested on Win 95, not Win 98.
It should run fine on either version, though. They have recently been
hearing of strange errors with the new Windows "ME" operating
system, although none serious enough for them to officially recommend
against using this new Windows version.
7) They are working on eTeacher 3, which is designed to run on FileMaker
Pro 5. This new version of Filemaker has been licensed for use by the
Ministry of Education, and, unlike all previous versions of Filemaker,
has been completely rewritten in a native Windows programming language,
C++ The older FM pro versions are Windows "translations" of
the original FM Pro Macintosh code.
8) The Troi plugins allow mainly a) graphing b) background file manipulation,
c) more sophisticated dialog boxes. They were written by a programmer
from Norway, not named Troi ; they have no idea why they are called "Troi"
plugins! (I still think it's a Star Trek thing.)
Some of this is not new, but interesting to hear directly.
I did relay one opinion that I have heard from many teachers: that if
teachers are going to successfully use the Planning and Assessment modules,
they will need exclusive access to their own personal computer, and more
extensive training in the technical aspects of these powerful sections
of eTeacher.
It was a privilege to be able to talk to them.
Please see your CAIT if you need help implementing any of these suggestions
on your home computer.
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Defrag Your Hard
Drive
With more
teachers migrating to eTeacher, we have answered a number of calls related
to computers crashing. One solution is to defrag your hard drive. This
allows for a better organization of data with smoother boot ups of your
system.
It is best to defrag your
drive form Safe Mode. To start Windows in safe mode, Press F5 at startup,
right before the Windows graphic comes up. An easy way to make sure you
get this timing right is to repeatedly tap F5 from the first moment of
startup.
After this, bring up START
> PROGRAMS > ACCESSORIES > SYSTEM TOOLS > DISK
DEFRAGMENTER
Click this and follow the
instructions. The time needed to complete this operation is dependent on
the size of your drive and the state of your file system. In severe cases,
expect the process to take the better part of a few hours.
Disable
AutoPlay
If you change from audio to data CDs frequently, it helps to disable
the AutoPlay feature on your PC.
It is helpful to disable the Auto
CD Run feature, called AutoPlay, if you swap CDs frequently. Disabling
AutoPlay is especially convenient if you change from audio CDs to game CDs
to programs.
To disable AutoPlay, follow these instructions.
1. Click Start.
2. Click Settings.
3. Click Control Panel.
4.
Double-click System.
5. On Device Manager tab, double-click the CD-ROM
branch.
6. Double-click the CD-ROM driver entry.
7. On the Settings
tab, uncheck the Auto Insert Notification box.
To enable AutoPlay, follow the instructions to step six and check
the Auto Insert Notification box.
As an added bonus, here is a shortcut to suspend AutoPlay: Hold
down the Shift key while inserting a CD.
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WHERE TO FIND ALL YOUR USB PRODUCTS
You need information about USB or to look for a USB product.
Two top-notch USB sites are allUSB at http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?89683:3758319
and
USB Workshop at http://cgi.zdnet.com/slink?89684:3758319.
You'll
get news, product indexes, company indexes, cable guides, FAQs, hot lists,
help forums, hardware reviews, and driver downloads.
Global Warming: Early Warning Signs
Are temperatures rising throughout the World? (activities and
curriculum guide)
http://www.climatehotmap.org/
iKnowthat.com
This site is chock full of gewgaws that help kids learn.
http://www.iknowthat.com/
iKnowthat.com activities encourage kids to be creative and to learn by
doing. In the spirit of discovery-based education, the activities are
designed to provide kids with opportunities to actively explore concepts
in a multi-modality scenario where they can guide their own learning
experience. Throughout their explorations at iKnowthat.com, kids are
exposed to educational material which they can learn and apply.
Dance Fundamentals - My Next Drama and Dance
Class
Teutonic tutoring for the rhythmically challenged.(needs Quicktime
4)
http://raketik.com/workshop2/workshop.html
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