Makey Makey? Kickstarter? GO!

Adventures with Makey Makey GO!

Chris Rybicki 2016

It all started around May of 2015. Reading some tech blogs online, I had discovered a kickstarter for what seemed like an extremely unique product - the Makey Makey GO. For those unfamiliar, kickstarters are campaigns on the internet where creators with unique product ideas try to get people to fund the production of cool products. Makey Makey GO was one of these projects, and it captured my imagination so much that I had to back it. On the campaign, it showed people doing tons of silly activities like typing with a donut, playing a harp made of leaves, playing flappy bird with jello, and more. So after they reached more than $200,000, it went into production, and so I waited.

Come December, the Makey Makey GO finally arrives in the mail. Excitedly I brought it to my help desk class in school, and everyone was surprised by what it could do. We tried to recreate some of the ideas I had seen, as well as some new ones, all with the small USB-sized device. While I had backed the project assuming the wiring might be difficult, or that I would have to install some software first on my computer, it turned out that none of this was required. The only wiring required was some small hook ups between the device and the objects we used (like a banana) using easy-to-use alligator clips. While there are possibly unlimited uses for this, I definitely thing showing this to kids is especially fun because of how interactive and tangible it makes technology experiences.


If you'd like to see more about the Makey Makey GO and how it works, along with some special tips for using it, just check out this presentation I made about it! I go over what the kit includes if you're interested in getting it, and some of my first experiences using it and other useful info.

Momentum Extension

Momentum

Noelle Tatsis 2016

Recently, my help desk teacher showed me an awesome Google Extension called Momentum.

This extension is actually a theme. When you download the extension you will see what it does

when you open a new tab! As shown in the picture below, this is the screen that appears when you open a new tab!
The picture changes every day and is always a beautiful sight. It is great to look at a such an amazing view such as 
a sunset or a waterfall, each time you open up your Chrome.
https://goo.gl/LV6kJe

First Techy Job!

First Techy Job

by Tay O'Rourke 2016

Hello Everyone!

About a month ago we received a Chromebook that had an issue. The issue was that it only worked when plugged in. After some extensive research I became certain that it was a battery problem and ultimately the battery needed to be replaced. The programming language on a Chromebook is “Crosh” (short for Chrome Shell) and the message was “battery not found”. A replacement battery, spudgers, a multiway screwdriver/Phillips head kit were purchased and those tools, along with a Youtube video, made it possible for me to repair the Chromebook. Replacing the battery took about 5-7 minutes. There was a moment of wondering if it would work but I plugged in the repaired Chromebook, checked Crosh using the code “battery_test” and the battery appeared as 96% healthy! The final test to see if the Chromebook was working properly was to unplug the device to see if it would work without being plugged in. To my surprise, it stayed on and was successfully working!!!

Here is the process of replacing a battery:

1. Unscrew the back cover
2. Use a spudger (yes, that is the name of the tool!)  to separate the keyboard from the computer. Note: I was slightly afraid that I would damage the computer, but no worries strength is needed...
3. Find the rainbow colored strip, that is the battery/motherboard connector. Remove that first.
4. To the right of the battery/motherboard connector is the keyboard connector strip, disconnect that as well.
5. Next to the left is a smaller strip, that is the touchpad connector, you can either leave it or disconnect it, I find it easier and most likely safer to disconnect the strip
6. Unscrew the battery and take it out, and replace it with the new one.
7. Repeat the steps in reverse order starting with screwing the battery in, connecting touchpad etc.
8. Plug in the Chromebook, and let it charge fully, to figure out if the Chromebook battery replacement open Crosh (the hidden Chrome OS Shell) and type in battery_test. The result should indicate success.

I have provided some photos of my journey of fixing the Chromebook.

Thank you for Mrs.Engvall and Mr.Trahan for giving me the learning opportunity and encouragement. ��

Personalized Signature in your Email!

Add your Personalized Signature to your Email!

Allie Fasold 2016

Everyone in their lifetime will eventually end up having an email in order to communicate with
people around the world. There are many features to sending an email that many people do not
know about. One of those amazing features is being able to add your personalized signature to the
end of your email. No, it is not typed out; no, it is not electronically written. It is the signature that
you sign on documents or letters! It is easy to get your personalized signature at the end of an
email you would like to send.

First, take a screen shot of a white background (this is so it blends in with the white background
of an email, but you may choose any color picture you would like). In order to take a screen shot
press Comand, Shift, and the number 4 all at the same time. once you see that your mouse is a
plus sign with a circle in the middle that means you are ready to take a screen shot. You can make
the screen shot as big or as small as you would like, just click and drag your mouse across any
white background on the screen. Once you have made this screen shot it will appear on your
desktop. Click on the new picture you have just created.

When the picture comes up look for the briefcase symbol. Once you click on it, the symbol will
turn blue and right under it more symbols will appear.




Click on the symbol that looks like a cursive signature and click "Create Signature".













Your camera will turn on where it would like to scan your written signature. Write your signature
out on a piece of white paper and line it up in front of the camera. Once it scans your signature
press done and it will add to your list of signatures.

Click on the signature you just made, and save your screens shot under "File".






Next go to your email profile. If you have a Gmail go to the gear symbol in the top right-hand
corner, click settings, and scroll down to the signature section. Click on the image symbol and
add the screenshot that you created with your signature on it. Then at the bottom hit save changes.








Now when you compose an email your personalized signature should appear at the bottom.

Field Trip!

A Trip to the Apple Store

by  Christopher Rybicki 2016

That's something I never would have expected in high school - going all the way to the Apple Store as part of a school field trip! And though we use quite a lot of Apple products at school as part of our 21st century learning movement, I've never actually been to their flagship store. It turns out it lived up to most of my expectations!

First and foremost, the Apple store is very stylized. They choose to have a very clean, white, modern look that complements most of its products. There were three floors, all organized by the product lines - the first floor had their newest addition, the Apple Watch, along with iPhones. The second floor had MacBooks and iPads, and the third floor had the Genius bar (for customer service) as well as desktops. The third floor is also where we had our workshop.

Here we had a great time learning about some advanced techniques and shortcuts for using Macs. Admittedly, I already knew some of the shortcuts, like Cmd+Q to quit a window or Shift + minimize to show longer animations. But there were a lot of tips I didn't know. Like if you are making a screencast and want to zoom in to parts of your screen, you can use Ctrl+scroll to zoom in and out, once you enable it in accessibility. There were too many to list them all, but it was certainly a lot of information.

From there, we split into groups and created training videos together. At the individual Mac desktops, we were able to try some of the things we learned and make screencasts in specific using the QuickTime player on the Mac. It was especially convenient since we all got Apple EarPods! After thinking of some ideas, Sarah and I decided to make a screencast on Pixelmator. This is an app which I don't have, but I recognized many of the features from other graphic editors of its type. The audio did not work properly when we saved the video, but we were still able to show off a lot of features for drawing and editing photos. Based on our experience, we are going to be trying out the trial for Pixelmator in our help desk class.

It was a long trip to and from the Apple Store, but I certainly enjoyed our time there. As we left, we were finally able to save our videos on special USB bracelets that we received and put our own names on. Though the time felt short, I think it was a pleasant experience and showed insight into the experience of working with tech support in the real world, as there is always a need to learn new skills and techniques. Hopefully my other classmates can agree that we all had a pleasant time visiting the Apple Store and were glad to spend the time on the field trip.

Uploading Videos to your Blogger Account from the iPad.

Uploading Videos to your Blogger Account from the iPad.

by Allie Fasold 2016

Many student have been required by different classes to make a blog and upload videos in order to share their projects. One problem people faced was being able to upload a video to their blog from the iPad. In order to add a video to your blog you must first upload the video to YouTube (You must have a personal account in order to do this.) After you upload the video and give it a name, you can go back to your blog but only from the browser NOT the "Blogger App". When you are on your blog click "New Post"if you have not already started creating your post. Next, on top of the document to the right there is a video symbol. Click on the symbol where it will bring you to a mini YouTube page. Next, click the "My Videos" tab and your video should come up. Click on the Video then press the blue " Upload" symbol. Finally, the video should be added to your new post.  

360 Videos

Youtube's 360 Videos

by Chris Rybicki 2016

http://rybickichelpdesk.blogspot.com/

All the time people discover new and interesting features that you can do with the iPad. Sometimes this is a new app, or a convenient shortcut - but for me yesterday, I had discovered perhaps the coolest feature on one of the apps I knew inside and out.

This app is YouTube. As the world's hub for video content, I use the platform a lot to watch videos related to personal interests and hobbies I have, as well as watching tutorials and lectures for school and news to keep me up to date. But yesterday I found out about the most peculiar feature - 360 degree video.

Though I had heard of this feature before, I had believed it only worked on new phones, and had never tried it with the old iPad. So when I saw a video mentioning it, I quickly found some videos to try it out with and it worked! It's quite interesting to use - since you have a complete view around you, it feels more immersive and realistic. By tilting and rotating your iPad around you, you have a special "lens" through which you watch the video, responding accurately to your minute wrist movements.

To get the most out of the feature, I sat in a desk chair that could be spun, so instead of moving my iPad around awkwardly, I could just rotate my chair to go left and right, and only use my hands for rotating up and down. Though it's not quite like virtual reality, it certainly creates a similar feeling through the unique perspective that you acquire.

I definitely recommend that other people try this out. Though it seems more useful for entertainment, I feel like it could be used for school if there were videos showing 3D tours of locations (perhaps exotic countries or simply college tours). Finally, I will link to three videos that I recommend trying with this feature.

http://youtu.be/aQd41nbQM-U

http://youtu.be/WKAgKlnfkDA

http://youtu.be/2OzlksZBTiA