IT for Students and Teachers

Turning on and off PCs (Windows 10)

To turn on PCs (Personal Computers, generally includes desktop computers and laptops) press the power button, marked with a 1 inside a 0, on the main body of the PC. One short press should do.

The monitor (screen) has a separate power button which can be left on except during holidays as it goes into sleep mode soon after it is idle for a while.

To turn of PCs, click on the Wndow button (bottom left of screen), then choose Shut down. On some PCs you can turn them off with one short press of the power button on the main body of the PC, not on the monitor.

During the early classes there is no need to shut down, just log off as below.

Logging on to PCs and logging off (Windows 10)

Students log on using the username “student” and a general password which the teacher will give you. Teachers log on using the username “teacher” and a generic password. To install software teachers need to log on as “administrator”.

To log off click on Window button, then on the head and shoulders icon above it and choose log off. This is done between classes. During the last class that is held in that room that day (see computer room timetables on door) please shut down PCs as above.

School Website

The web address (URL, universal resource locator) for the website of Our Lady’s College is

ourladys.ie

Use the website as a quick way to access Office 365, to view school reports on Vs-ware, to see the school calendar or just to view the Latest news or news feeds including Twitter.

Using Office 365

Office 365 is a web based package available to all members of the school community. It offers e-mail, file storage (OneDrive) and other services to students and staff.

Logging in to Office 365

On ourladys.ie click on the E-mail button, right hand side of screen below the moving picture banner.

A student’s username is firstnamesurname(((@)))ourladys.ie with no punctuaction. Your teacher will tell you your password.

Creating a Secure Password

When you log on for the first time you will need to make up a new password. Use one that has at least 8 characters (letters or numbers etc.). It should include at least one lower case letter, one upper case (Capital) letter and one number, and possibly a symbol. It should not be easy to guess, or include your name or age or date of birth etc. When you create it, write it down somewhere secret in case you forget it.

Unless you are using a private PC or device that only you have access to you should not let the device store your password, so do not choose “Remember me” or “Remember this password” or “Keep me signed in” etc.

Logging off Office 365

Click on the Icon on the top right which symbolizes you, perhaps a coloured circle including your initials or a head and shoulders icon, depending on the version of 365. Then choose Sign out. Closing the browser may not sign you out.

Using different Apps within Office 365 e.g. OneDrive

When you login as above having clicked on the E-mail button you are normally brought to the Outlook app for E-mail. To use other apps click on the 9-square icon, top left of screen and choose the app you want e.g.

1. One Drive for storing files or retrieving them
2. Sharepoint for sharing files with fellow students or teachers
3. OneNote for collaboration
4. Word online etc.

Keeping two 365 Apps open at once

By default, when you are in email (Outlook), when you click on the 9-square and then choose OneDrive, Outlook closes and OneDrive opens in the same browser tab. To keep both open, first right-click on the browser tab where it says “Mail…” and choose duplicate. A second tab opens with Mail on it. Use this one to open OneDrive and leave Mail open in the first tab.

Saving and Retrieving your work

Saving your work locally to the PC you are using

Saving your work locally is only a first step before saving it remotely (see below). Files saved locally can only be accessed from the exact PC you saved them to, not from another PC or from home.

In the File menu choose “Save As”. Choose Documents. Click “New Folder” to create a folder. Call it something appropriate like “Coding” or “Mathilda Coding”, as you will be sharing this PC with other students and you need a way to separate your work from theirs.

Saving your work remotely using OneDrive on Office 365

If you want to save your work then save it to OneDrive as follows. To save Office documents like Word, Powerpoint or Excel files you may be able to save them an easier way but the method here works for all files including text files, photos, coding files etc.

Saving your work remotely means saving it to another big PC (a server) somewhere else (probably in Ireland), in “the cloud”. This means you can access the work from any PC anywhere by logging on to 365 e.g. at home, from another device e.g. your phone.

1. First save the file to a folder on the device you are using as above.
2. Login to Office 365. Open OneDrive.
3. On the left you should see Files highlighted and the folders and files you have saved on the right, if you saved any.
4. If Shared is highlighted on the left (click on it) you will see folders and files on the right that others, perhaps your teacher, have shared with you.
5. To save the file you have been working on make sure Files is highlighted on the left then:
6. Click New to make a folder. Call it something appropriate like “Coding”.
7. Click on the folder name.
8. Click Upload. Chose Files or Folder. Find the folder you saved your file in locally, perhaps in Documents and within another folder that you created.
9. The file should appear in your folder in OneDrive.

Getting files from OneDrive

To get a file from OneDrive that you saved there earlier:

1. Login to OneDrive (in Office 365).
2. Click once on the folder the file is in.
3. Highlight the file and choose Download (above or by right-clicking on the three dots).
4. Save the file locally e.g. in Documents in a folder.
5. Open the file from the Documents folder and work on it.

Getting files from OneDrive from a Shared Folder

To get a file from OneDrive that a teacher (or another student) shared with you:

1. Login to OneDrive (in Office 365).
2. Choose Shared under Files on the left, scroll down until you find the folder you need.
3. Follow steps 3 – 5 above as usual.

Using IDLE to write Python programs

On Windows, on a PC (or Mac) on which Python has been installed along with IDLE which is a development environment which allows you to write and test Python code:

1. Click on the Start button, bottom left of the toolbar. Click on a letter e.g. A then when you see the alphabet choose P (for python) then choose Python then IDLE.
2. Create a new python file: click on File, New File. A new window opens.
3. Save the file: Choose File, Save As. Call the file something relevant to its function e.g. Hello. The computer adds on the .py file extension indicating it is a Python file.
4. Save it locally, i.e. on the PC you are using, in the Documents folder. Choose Documents. Click “New Folder” to create a folder. Call it something appropriate like “Coding” or “Mathilda Coding”.
5. Write your code. When you are finished, or every so often, click File, Save to save the file locally.
6. Near the end save it to OneDrive as described above.

[J. Loughran, Nov 2018]

Checklist of ICT Skills

Name:

How confident are you in performing the following tasks on a school PC?
For each skill indicate using a number before the skill that you:
0 = cannot do it
1 = can do it with help
2 = can do it on my own
3 = can show others how to do it

Turning on PCs (Windows 10)
Turning off PCs (Windows 10), shut down
Logging on to PCs (Windows 10)
Logging off PCs (Windows 10)
Accessing the School Website
Logging in to Office 365
Creating a Secure Password
Logging off Office 365
Using different Apps within Office 365 e.g. OneDrive
Using E-mail in Office 365 – Outlook
Using Word online in Office 365
Using Powerpoint online in Office 365
Using Excel online in Office 365
Using Sharepoint in Office 365
Keeping two 365 Apps open at once
Saving your work locally to the PC you are using
Saving your work remotely using OneDrive on Office 365
Retrieving files from OneDrive

For Coding

Using IDLE to write Python programs
Opening IDLE to use Python
Create a new python file
Saving a python file locally
Saving a python file remotely
Retrieving python files from OneDrive
Write a simple program in Python to print “Hello” to the console
Save this program to modify it later
Save this program to modify it later from another location

Logins on the Student Network – prior to 2017

On Windows 7 computers, on the student (olc) network, students or teachers should log in as follows:

Username: olc\username, where username is normally firstnamesurname with no punctuation or special characters e.g. “olc\aineoreilly”.

Password: pres. Passwords are normally reset to ‘pres’ at the start of each year, and students must reset this password on first use.

If a student has forgotten their password temporary login is available as explained on a notice on the door of each computer room. Their work will be saved in a general student folder and will not be private.

A list of usernames is available in a folder on the teacher`s desk in each computer room.

On the student network (olc\) students should save their work to the H: drive, not to the Documents folder. Saving to the Documents folder saves it to that machine only and their work will not be available if a student logs on to a different machine.

To save to the H: drive:
Open “My Computer” and click on the Folders icon near the top.
Underneath the Computers folder, as a subfolder of it (you may have to click on the + symbol) find the drive marked H as:
username(\\SERVER01\username)(H:)
where username is the student`s name e.g.
aineoreilly(\\SERVER01\ aineoreilly)(H:)
Within the H: drive students can make a Documents folder etc. as they wish.

[J. Loughran, Sept. 2012]