Week One Rewind

As everyone settled into new schedules, ringing bells, and 17 additional minutes, the first week of school at MHS went off without a hitch. Much information, data, knowledge, statistics, facts, and figures were imparted within the classrooms of MHS this first week . . . which leads to this “Week One Rewind” blog post--a chance to review, reflect, and reprocess the concepts that were discussed in Room 228 during the first week. Read on to review, reflect, and reprocess . . . a quiz will follow!

The difference between the “Internet” and an “intranet” is more than just one letter. Like Interstate 80, aka I-80, which runs from Teaneck, NJ, to San Francisco, CA, and is the second-longest interstate highway after I-90, the “Internet” is an electronic network providing access to millions of resources worldwide. Intrastate 209, originally one of the most rural US highways to traverse Pennsylvania, began as an intrastate highway, running from Milford, PA (north), to Clarks Ferry, PA (south). So . . . an intranet is an inter-connected network within one organization that uses Web technologies for the sharing of information internally, not worldwide.

PDF is Portable Document Format—an electronic document that is read with Adobe Acrobat (free download). Advantages of PDF include preserving of fonts, images, and layout of the document no matter what application was used to create it and the ability to read the file on any computer without any conflict. PDF’s cannot be altered or edited which is also considered an advantage.

File management is controlling the creation, deletion, access, location, and use of files, data, and programs. A good “rule of thumb” is to create an electronic folder when you accumulate five or more files dealing with the same subject. Using appropriate filenames is also a good file management technique which can help you be more organized in saving and finding files. And . . . every month you should either purge or archive files that are no longer imminently needed.

Aaaah, the fine art of “multitasking,” a term that became a buzzword with technological inventions and the Windows “task” bar, cell phones, IMing, texting, MP3, Bluetooth . . . etc, etc, is best defined as executing many processes at the same time. Gone are the days of simply talking on the one “land line” “rotary” “short corded” phone located in the kitchen of your household or watching one of three channels on the one TV located in the family room—at different times, of course.

A template, or a pattern used to create documents, can really be a time-saver . . . and we all need more time. Use the template concept when you know you’ll be using the same pre-designed format many times.

That's week one's computer concepts . . . wow, we covered a lot of territory. Can't wait for week two ;-) Good luck on the quiz.