We're Your Easy Button

Each week our tech team does a bunch of different things from making videos to writing things for blogs. We don’t always know how to do what we are asked so we study it till we can help the person. We never do the same thing twice. Sometimes we think of things that we have to do and other times people ask us if we can help. We are more than glad to help.

This is what our team has been working on this week:

Making a flip camera video tutorial – showing our viewers what each function is on the camera to help them when needed. How to get videos out of the library. and how to get them onto your computer.

Working on iMovie – Showing our viewers the different features you can use with iMovie like adding graphics.

Making Keynote presentations for 1st graders -  Make a keynote in spanish for the months and 1-10 writing the word in spanish and a picture to show the children.

Updating a website – Updating things that we out of date and making it better.

Getting blog ready – setting up the blog and making it the best we can.

Updating a MacBook – someone wanted Windows XP on their new MacBook and have the functions of the mac book all in one.

Its been busy week for all of us but we have got all of our things accomplished. We learned new things. Thing that we might not have if no one asked. These are thing that we will know how to do and the will come in handy in the future.

Thanks for visiting us
Dirigo Tech Team.

Which Citation Maker Should You Use?

There is several different citation makers out on the web that students and people use sometimes on a daily basis. Students would probably use citation makers the most because they are using them for school references. The top two citation markers used by High School students would be Easybib (http://easybib.com/#sourceList) and Citation Machine (http://citationmachine.net/ ). These are the top to because the seem to be the easiest and fastest way for students to site information, and print it out in a list right there.  Voted by most students Easybib would be their number one choice. This would be the number one choice because it is clearer to read, and it has more choices on the different ways to cite different types of sources such as (books, magazines, web sites, view point cites, photographs, journals) and many more. So test both out and tell us what you choose.

-The Tech Helpers Team

What is Twitter?
Twitter is a free social-networking an micro-blogging service that allows users to send and read other users updates which are known as Tweets. Users can send and receive tweets by using the Twitter website or Short Message Service (SMS).(An SMS is a text message.) You can use it free over the internet, but if you are using (SMS) it may apply charges to your phone. Twitter is the third most used social network after Facebook and Myspace With over 6 million users.
You can also follow many people on twitter even celebrities. When you first start Twitter it will suggest some people that Twitter knows are not fake. Many people make twitters saying they are celebrities when they are not. If you are looking for celebrities to add, you should add the ones that twitters suggests so then you know that they are not fake some suggested users are Lance Armstrong, Brittany Spears, 50 cent and many others.
Also, on Twitter when big things come up on the news like the Swine Flu or about the winner of American Idol it will also be on Twitter before you find it anywhere else. `Some things may be rumors, but you just have to judge what people say and decide for yourself if they are rumors or not.

Key Terms
Tweet- Text-based posts up to 140 characters in length. They are displayed on the user’s profile page and sent to other users who have subscribed to them. (Known as Followers)

RSS- Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated work. Like blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video. An RSS document (which is called a feed, web feed, or channel) includes full or summarized text.

-The Tech Helpers Team

Wikipedia has a variety of different features that can benefit you when your using this website. It has features including wikipedia: media help, keyboard shortcuts, login help, wikipedia urls, to wikipedia: uploading images. All these features are about wikipedia only and how to use them on the wikipedia website.

These different features all have write ups about how they work, how to use them and getting help to use it. There are all features that wikipedia includes with the website. For example: If you want to upload an image or learn the keyboard shortcuts for wikipedia or find any other article to help you, go to this website; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_features and it will tell you how to do it.

Wikipedia’s features can help you learn more about the website while you use it for different purposes. Most people just use this website for searching different topics, but what they don’t know is that you can do so much more with it. Instead of just looking for information for a project or homework, you can go read threw the different features they have to offer. These features aren’t just write ups that the administrator put on here, they used it to explain how the features fit in with the website.

If you have any problems with getting to these different sites linked above or can’t find the features page on wikipedia, you can contact us at mnolette@msad21.org or go to our home page – http://techhelpers.edublogs.org/ to read more about u

We’re your easy button

Command-A Select all Command-W Force Quit
Command-C Copy Option-Command-W Close Window
Command-V Paste Option-Shift-Command-esc Close all windows
Command-T Open sidebar Command-] Back, Forward

Ever Wanted an easier way to get around on a comp or to just make life that much simpler well in this blog I well show you a few key combination that well help you get your moneys worth out of your key board. A hot key is a button combo that makes things shorter like short cuts without having to do it the long way. Why you should care about the hot keys is everybody likes things quicker. Quicker computers quicker cars it’s just better that way. The command which is located two keys from the bottom left right next to ALT it is pretty much the key that makes all the secondary keys work. Keys like COMMAND- A, C, V, T. You can do these same commands with the mouse but by using them on the key board it does it insanely, it just saves time. Here are some sites that show you even more hot keys but also go in to more depth then I did try these sites out.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343

www.d3scene.com/forum/mac-discussion/10632-mac-hot-keys.html

www.usingmac.com/2007/11/21/mac-os-x-leopard-200-productivity-booster-hotkeys

I recommend these sites but I will leave the last remanning hot keys for you to figure out.

Need photos or music for a school project or homework?

This information below gives you websites and information on where to go and how to get photos/music

Creative Commons Photos

These sources 4 sources below are for a website called creative commons photos. They explain to you what the properties of that photo was set as by the creator. These 4 sources are also on the creative commons website.

One source of creative commons photos is called Attribution (By). Its lets people take the photo, use it, copy it and display it but you have to give the person credit for the photo if you use it. You cannot call it your own.

Another source of creative commons photos is called Noncommercial. This allows people to copy, distribute, display and perform the persons work only for noncommercial purposes only though.

Other sources are No Derivative. This allows people to have the photo but they can’t change the original properties of the photo. Share Alike is another source where you can share it with others if you put it on the website. So if you put it on there, you have to share that picture with other people who want to use it.

If you need photos or music for a project or homework but you don’t know where you can get them without it being illegal, creative commons photos is the website to go to. Creative commons photos is a website that makes sharing and building work upon others easier, but with the rules of copyright. They provide you with a free license and other legal tools to mark creative work with freedom the creator wants it to carry. This way others can share the photo, remix, use commercially or any other combinations.
If you need to get photos to use for a project, research paper, etc. you can go to these websites; flickr.com, http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons, & www.zoo-m.com/flickr-storm. These websites allow you to take photos from the person who put it on the website, share it, edit it, and distribute it. But this also depends on what source is from the creator wants it to be.
This website also lets you get free music. If you visit http://freeplaymusic.com/ you can find any type of music that you want to listen to. This is where you can get free music and its no illegal. It allows you to use it for a project or homework.

-The Tech Helpers Team

There are several different types of creative commons licenses.

One source of creative commons photos is called Attribution. It lets people take the photo, use it, copy it and display it, but you have to give the person credit for the photo if you use it. You cannot call it your own.

Another source of creative commons photos is called Noncommercial. This allows people to copy, distribute, display and perform the persons work only for noncommercial purposes only though.

Creative commons photos is a website that makes sharing and building work upon others easier, but with the rules of copyright. They provide you with a free license and other legal tools to mark creative work with freedom the creator wants it to carry. This way others can share the photo, remix, use commercially or any other combinations. If you need to get photos to use for a project, research paper, etc. you can go to these websites; flickr.com & creativecommons.org. These websites allow you to take photos from the person who put it on the website, share it, edit it, and distribute it. But this also depends on what the source or the copyright rules are for that picture.

The source out of these two that is the best would be the noncommercial one because even though people can copy, distribute, display and perform the persons work, it doesn’t mean you can’t go back and still get the original copy because it will always be there. And nobody else can take it and call it there own. Also other people cant take it and recreate it to use it for another project.

-The Tech Helpers Team

Are you having trouble using macs? Here are some good websites the have mac tutorials on them. You can use these sites if you have any questions about mac computers or their applications.

http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/
On this website you can watch movie tutorials and text tutorials. On the movie tutorials there are categories such as Get started with a mac, Wireless, and Going further with Leopard. For the text tutorials there are many more categories like, Customizing you mac, Using the doc, Using mail, Using address book, Using safari, Using ICal, using IChat. There are categories inside these categories. You should go check it out.

http://www.techhelpers.wikispaces.com/about+us
This is out website and we have tons of tutorials on it. We did some tutorials on first-class, General applications, and many other things. We even had some people make a video about how to set up a projector.

http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/tutorials/en*/mac/0/0/
This website is called atomic learning. This is a website where you have to pay but there are some free videos. If you click on the link with the description that you need, another page will pop up and the links that are bold are the free ones.

These next website are for mac tutorials but they aren’t as clear as the other ones.
http://www.myfirstmac.com/index.php/mac/articles/195-free-mac-video-tutorials-the-master-list-for-new-mac-users
On this website the videos go really slow and they skip. There are 195 videos but they defiantly don’t have good quality. When you click on the video you want it takes you to a apple website. The other two websites up above are more clear about things.

http://www.macinstruct.com/tutorials
This website just has text tutorials. There is a lot of words and I think that it would take a long time to read all of it and then try to do it. They categorize them by challenging and simple.

Tell us what you think, please leave a comment.

-The Tech Helpers Team

iGoogle is a free service from google. You can access it from any computer with an internet connection. You can rearrange your page with drag and drop. It gives you the ability to  add apps that can provide help with school work and a way to keep in contacts with friends such as the dictionary and To-Do list, and Gmail. You can change the theme of the background of the google search engine on your igoogle page with either the Artist theme link or the change background from classic link. I recommended iGoogle is to anybody already using Google applications such as email and Google Docs.

iGoogle Features
*  Add RSS feeds and Google Gadgets to a personalized. Google gadgets is basically things that can be added to your page to make it better for your use. Things like the dictionary app, and the To-do list app.

* Different themes and color palettes available. The most popular themes are Google classic, Summer ocean, Spring flowers, Theme of the day, flox, and earth light, the list keeps on going if you click the next button.

* Organize the iGoogle page with tabs. Tabs are located on the left hand side when you log into iGoogle, its a quick and easy way to get to your added gadgets “apps”

-The Tech Helpers Team

Blogs Are the new way for people to expresses themselves. This is the diary on the web. Anyone that has access to a computer can blog. Your favorite actor or actress can blog. I can blog and you can blog. But the big issue is this. So many people can blog, but how do you keep track of the ones that interest you? How can you keep track of the new entries? How do you follow all these people? Do you have to check your computer every second to see if they posted a new blog?

The biggest solution to this problem is the RSS (Really Simple Syndication). This makes your computer do work for you. This makes the computer do the job it was made to do. This Keeps you intact with your information.

What the RSS feed is, is the way to follow the blog. Lets use Twitter. Twitter is a site were people can constantly blog using their mobile phones and computers. So lets say that you want to follow up on Lance Armstrong. He has a Twitter account. With RSS you are-able to follow every tweet he sends to Twitter without staring at the site twenty-four seven because no matter how good you are, you can’t follow everyone.

But were can you send the RSS feed? You can purchase something, or use one tht’s free, such as Google Reader. Google Reader takes every RSS feed you sign up for and follows them. So yo can sign up to Lance Armstrong, and follow every tweet he sends. Google Reader is like your little monkey constantly watching every site you want them to to, even if your not there. It gives you the chance to follow up on everyone that you wat to with ease.

With that, you can stay in touch with everyone, and everything you want. Go Check it out. Make your computer work for you!!!!!