EASD Technology Updates September 2016

Quick Guide to Chromebook Resources With the deployment of more Chromebook carts this year, the time is right to point out the various sources of information available on the tech page of the school website. You will find Technology under Departments on the main district site. Once on our page, click the links in the side menu to find a wealth of information that will answer many of your questions: • Google Classroom contains videos, tip sheets, and links to Google

help. • Google Resource Site explains and links you to the Google Apps

Learning Center. • Technology Tip Sheets contains tips sheets on many topics

including Google Drive, Calendar, Groups, and Gmail. • Tech Tips Blog has covered many Google Classroom and App

features—check the Tags index on the left hand side of the page. • Technology Updates Newsletter Nov. 2015 issue was devoted to

Chromebooks tips, tricks, and shortcuts. Also remember that students need to sign into Chromebooks using their full district email address: f irst_i_last@etownstudents.org

Customizing your Computer After an OS upgrade, user preferences often reset to defaults. You can use the top finder menu and go to Apple – System Preferences to customize your machine interface. When the window opens, click on desired options to change many settings. Under General, you can choose scroll bar options, reset colors, & change your default browser. On

the second row, Trackpad offers many options you might not have known about. Under Point & Click you can adjust tracking speed and secondary click options. Scroll & Zoom allows you to change scroll direction (Apple’s natural direction my not be natural for you!) and select zoom and rotate options. If that’s not enough, check out the More Gestures tab. Under Sound check to see that external speakers are selected, that sound is balanced, and to make sure Mute is not checked. Displays gives you resolution options. If you are connected to a projector or external monitor, the tab for Arrangement appears giving you the option to mirror displays. Hot Corners can be set up under Mission Control. Note that not all listed preferences can be changed since district computers are managed.