My computer lap is dual platform. The machines are Intel based Apples, but we have boot camp on all the machines along with OS X. Most days the students decide which operating system to use on an individual basis. On other days, like today, I require them to complete an activity with a specific OS.
Today everyone made a “Microsoft Word for Dummies” document. Using Word on OS X, each student created a tutorial (complete with screen captured pictures) that explained how to insert a picture into Word, resize, crop and format it so that text flows around it. This is a process that each student has done many times, but now he/she had to put that knowledge into a document from which someone else could understand this procedure.
The hardest part of this activity was accomplishing everything using an unfamiliar OS. Many of them were disappointed that the “right-click” option wasn’t available. All the processes (File/Open, File/Save, Insert Picture/From File) worked the same as in Windows, but the general layout of the computer desktop was different. I demonstrated the built-in Grab program in OS X. There is also a keyboard shortcut (Shift-Command-3) that captures the screen, but that does not work in our labs (I’ll talk about that in another post sometime).
This activity was a good exercise in “learning something fast.” This is a skill all 21st century learners must possess. Overall, my classes did well. More than anything I think they realized that learning a new technology is going to be a regular part of their teaching and a skill they will need to practice.
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It’s interesting how you say that the most difficult aspect of the lesson was the students learning how to use a familiar program in an unfamiliar operating system because I can agree with you.
Thankfully, many of the computer programs that we know and take for granted can be used on both PC and Mac operating systems, but they will always have their unique little quirks due to keyboard configurations and the like.
I remember my high school experience when all of the computers in the school were Macs and I had a PC at home. It made compatibility issues somewhat difficult if I wanted to have any type of digital presentation. However, I become well-versed in the aspects of a Mac, such as the keyboard shortcuts and even prefer them for certain projects. I find iMovie to be one of the easiest video editing softwares while also being one of the snazziest for amateurs.
I agree with you in the fact that students do need to learn fast and have the ability to learn new technology quickly. Just because a student thinks they know a particular type of technology doesn’t mean that it could translate into the same knowledge on a different platform. Students must possess that ability to shift their knowledge.
With a mouse that has two buttons (and a scroll wheel
), you’ll find most of the right-click menus are pretty close to Windows… I use a Mac all the time and I can’t live without a two-button mouse with scroll wheel!
If you do presentations and have a scroll wheel mouse, try holding down the “ctrl” key and scrolling to zoom in on your screen with the scroll wheel on the Mac – great tool for presenting. I haven’t found a similar shortcut for my Windows computer…. Do you know of a way to accomplish the same on a PC?
When I’m teaching people how to use any program, I only use the menus. It is a lot easier for them to write in their notes what menu and menu item to use then to either click on an icon in the toolbar or right click. It seems as soon as you tell them to right click on something, every other question from a beginner is “Do I right click or left click?”.
As to no right click on the Mac, just hold down control and click and you’ll get your contextual menu. Or plug a two button mouse in and you’ll get them too.
Peggy – the Ctrl-Scroll will zoom on most programs – Browser, Word, Excel, PowerPoint (in design mode) in Windows.
It doesn’t work in presentation mode of PowerPoint. That shouldn’t be a problem. Since you have design control over each slide, make the slides legible at the normal size. As a rule of thumb, I never have text less than 30 points in size on my slides. I don’t need to zoom with text that size.
Thanks for the tip! I had not tried it except in ppt in presentation mode!