As a teacher, I am not always as up-to-date on new technology as I should be. I am trying to change that. This summer I have learned a lot from our district's technology guru, and I thought I would share a few tid-bits that I learned that I thought some of you less tech-savvy teachers might also want to know.
1. Shut down your classroom computer every night...unless your tech guru tells you not to.
I know, I know...it makes everything run slower in the morning and if your computer is as old as mine it takes forever to start up in the morning, but it is better in the long run for you. Depending on your operating system, your computer will probably install updates upon shutting down. This will make your computer run faster in the long run because you will have the latest and greatest that your software company has written. Shutting down your computer clears out your RAM. To understand the importance of this you have to understand what your RAM is...Random Access Memory...basically it's a short term storage area that your computer uses to hold information that allows you to access small parts of what is on your hard drive. (I never knew what it was...I always thought I worked directly from the hard drive.) Your computer makes what is called a swap file of the information/program you are using on the hard drive. This information is then sent to your RAM to be used. This action allows your computer to access the information quickly, rather than having to go back to the hard drive to retrieve it. The problem is, if your don't shut down your computer periodically your RAM will be full. Once your RAM is full, it will have to start working from the swap files, pulling them off the hard drive...this will cause delay and make your computer seem much slower. Your computer will seem slower in the morning because it will be the first time everything is being accessed for the day, but that is only because the swap files are being made. Each program will only be slow the first time you open it...after that it will open/run much faster.
2. Clean our your computer regularly!
Working this summer I actually saw a dust bunny inside a computer the size of a golf ball...no joke...a golf ball. Once of the simplest things you can do to help yourself...and your tech guru...is to regularly clean out your computer, BUT you have to know how to do it properly! Do not use a vacuum to clean the inside of your machine. You can use it to get the stuff on the outside of your machine, but do not use it inside. Ask your tech guru for advice on what they prefer you to use...a technology blower (a vacuum that can be reversed) or canned air. First, shut down your computer and unplug the power cord. We don't want any juice going while we work. Second, press down on your computers power button for 12 seconds. This dispels any stored power in your machine and can reduce the likelihood of static electricity which can fry your machine. Third, start by using your tech's preferred method clean the outside vents on your computer. Your processor creates a lot of heat and needs a lot of air flow to keep from burning itself out. We want to clean the vents on the front and the back of your machine. Fourth, remove the outer case panel to allow access to the inside of your computer. Only do this step if your are knowledgeable enough to keep from frying your computer by accident. If you don't know how to do this, or are nervous about opening your machine...call your tech guru. From what I have experienced, they are always willing to teach you how to take better care of your machine so they don't have to fix/replace it as often. Blow out all the dust bunnies (hopefully yours are smaller than a golf ball). Do not touch any of the components inside unless your are comfortable with what you can touch and what you can't. Fifth, reassemble your computer and attach it to the power cable. Allow all the dust to dissipate in the area where your computer is stored before starting it back up, or you will just be sucking all that dust right back in.
3. Back up your files, but do not work directly from your storage device...work from the hard drive.
I'm not sure of the mechanics behind why this is important, but what I did understand is that this can cause you to have problems with your file, making your file unusable at the worst and erratic at best. I actually experienced this myself. I have a 50 gig external hard drive for storing my documents on over the summer (our district erases our machine's hard drive every summer and you will lose your files if you don't back them up, and I have a lot of Smart Notebook files that take up a lot of space that I don't want to lose). Well, I decided it would be easier to keep the files on the external drive rather than moving over to my machine's hard drive each year. Bad idea! After awhile, I noticed that I would open my morning meeting Notebook file and all the graphics would be gone. (The first time this happened I freaked out!) But being the sane person I try to be, I thought...If I close it and don't save any changes maybe it will go back to normal. I tried it and it worked! I was so happy. As the year went on though, I found that I was losing my graphics more and more...they always came back, but I wondered if there would ever be a time they didn't come back. I talked to my tech guru this summer and he said it was because I was working from my external drive instead of my hard drive...remember what I told you earlier about swap files and RAM? Well, it had something to do with that, but since I'm still learning tech language, a lot of it went over my head. What I took away from it was this...large files, or files I use often should be transferred to my machine's hard drive and opened and used from there.
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