Whether you’re brand new to computers or a veteran, it’s good to go over some things that you should know and do before you get started working on your (super fun) projects.

First, log in. Your user name is: your first initial a dot, then your last name (some people add a number afterward)

ex: g.waters
or: g.waters2

Your password is: The first three letters of your first name (CAPITAL ON THE FIRST ONE ONLY) then the first three letters of your last name then the last 3 numbers of your student ID

ex: Geowat123

Remember to keep your log in SECRET! You do not want anyone logging in as you and messing up your work or doing something bad that you will get blamed for!

 

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For the next section, the video immediately below will show you everything that is written below that, so you can choose to either watch the video, read the instructions, or both!

Once you’re logged in, your desktop will look something like this:

You will see a couple of quick launch icons on the desktop and a Recycle Bin where files go when you delete them.

 

Down in the bottom right you’ll see a Start button

Clicking that gets you an area where you can open programs and sometimes see information like the weather:

Next to that is a search bar:

You can use this like Google (even though it launches another horrible search engine called Bing. It should be called Barf.)

Typing in a question or something like that will initiate an Internet search:

You can also ask it to do things like convert units for you:

And it will display the results for you:

This is a great way to get the answer to simple math questions and things like that!

You can also use this bar to launch programs. Type in the name of a program you want to open (like my favourite Internet browser, Firefox):

And it’ll give you a quick link to launch that program:

Beside that, you’ll see something called the Task Bar, which includes links to commonly used programs (and a couple of useless ones…)

   

That blue E launches a horrible browser that no sane person should ever use. I get tired of seeing it there, but you can remove it by RIGHT CLICKING on it. To RIGHT CLICK you either use a mouse and click the button on the right side OR tap on the track pad on your laptop with TWO FINGERS AT THE SAME TIME (NOT the same thing as a double click!)

When you RIGHT CLICK, you’ll get the name of the horrible program and the chance to Unpin it from the taskbar so you never have to see its ugly face again. Do it!

Next to that piece of junk is a program that we use A LOT! This program is called File Explorer and it helps you to locate, open, move, or rename files (or a whole bunch of other cool options!)

Opening up File Explorer will launch a window like this:

On the left, you will see a bunch of common locations. DOCUMENTS is one of only TWO safe places to save your files. If you save files into DOCUMENTS, you will be able to see them from any computer in the school:

Down in the bottom right corner there are two options for viewing your files, one is a list of details, like you see above. If you click the other one, you can see a “thumbnail” preview of the file:

Now those same files look like this. This allows us to know what a picture is of without opening it.

Next to that is another totally useless program:

Get rid of that one too!

In the bottom right corner you’ll see a few things as well.

You will see whether you’re connected to the Internet or not with the little wi-fi icon. Sometimes that gets turned off for some reason. If you can’t connect to the Internet, check to make sure that is turned on.

If you can’t connect to the Internet, you may be on Flight Mode for some reason. If that’s on, you can’t connect.

OR…

Sometimes Mr. Robson will catch you doing something you shouldn’t be doing on your computer (I see EVERYTHING!) and will turn off your Internet!

You can also see how good your battery is on the laptop. If they don’t get plugged in properly they can get low. You should notice before it dies!

 

There’s also a little arrow that you can click to Show hidden icons:

One of those icons connects you to OneDrive. OneDrive is where you will drop off your work to me and also a great place to store your files so that you can have access to them on ANY computer or device, even when you’re not at school.

See the OneDrive post for more information about how & why to use that application/site!

 

 

For this post, the video immediately below will show you everything that is written below that, so you can choose to either watch the video, read the instructions, or both!

There are 3 Internet Browsers on your computer that can connect you to websites, Firefox, Google Chrome, and Microsoft Edge (YUCK!)

In a previous assignment, you should have seen how to customize your Task Bar area (at the bottom of the screen) to remove that yucky browser (and the Microsoft Store, which you’ll never need.)

You should also have seen how to open a program. You can either use the Windows menu at the bottom left of your screen

Or use the search bar and type in the name of the browser you want. I use Firefox, so my demonstrations will focus on it. I recommend using it as well unless you’re used to Google Chrome. If you’re used to that other thing, CHANGE YOUR WAYS!

Once you have a browser open you’ll see it in your Task Bar. To get it to stay there (it will only “stick” on the computer you are using today, so if you switch computers, you may want to do this again), right click on the browser icon

And then choose Pin to taskbar

If you choose Firefox (good for you!) it will probably ask you if you want to make it your Default browser

Look for the Web browser section and click it, then click your chosen browser

That dumb Microsoft browser likes to make sure that you want to switch. Of course you do! Click Switch anyway

 

Visiting websites:

The top bar *can* be used to search for a site or topic, but if you know the address of a website, you can (and should) just type it in to go directly there.

Go to my site by typing in misterjrobson.com (you’ve already done this, obviously. Good job!)

Hit enter and you will be magically transported into Mr. Robson’s World

This is a site that you will need to visit a lot, so there are a couple of ways of getting here even more easily in the future

One is to add a Bookmark. You can click the little star to the right of the address bar to add a Bookmark. If the star is blue, you’ve already got one!

You can type in a custom name for the bookmark or just take whatever comes up

I like to make sure that my main Bookmarks go on my Bookmarks Toolbar

If you have that toolbar turned on, you’ll see a handy link to my site right in your browser window at all times. All you need to do is click it to be transported!

You can also edit or delete Bookmarks. I don’t use the Getting Started, so I like to right click on it and Delete

 

There are a few options that you can explore inside the “Hamburger” menu on the right hand side of your window (optoional!)

You can actually create a Firefox account so that you can save your preferences, like those bookmarks, and have them the same on every computer you use. I like this feature a lot.

You can also make sure that Firefox will start up exactly where you left off after you close the program by making sure that it will Restore previous session

We’ll talk more about this later, but you can also set where your Downloads go, or can choose to be asked every time:

 

 

For this post, the video immediately below will show you everything that is written below that, so you can choose to either watch the video, read the instructions, or both!

Click the little cloud to open the OneDrive app:

Click Sign in to, uh, sign in…

Sign in is your computer user name @sjasd.ca

ex:  

That should take you to another login page where you’ll put your password

On the next screen, you need to press Next

And then one more time to start to connect your computer to your online folder:

After that, there’s a little tour you can take if you want:

Or just Close the window:

Now you actually have a new folder on your computer where you can safely store your files AND back them up online automatically:

Now in your File Explorer window you’ll see a OneDrive folder:

Anything you put in that folder will be automatically uploaded online. You’ll know that it’s backed up when you see a green check mark on the file.

 

 

Starting today, we’ll discover the wonderful world of audio editing!

You’ll need to download this file: CLICK HERE

And then open it with 

When you’re done, your file should sound something like this, but NOT EXACTLY

Once you’ve downloaded the file (you have done that, right?), you’ll have to open Audacity

Then you’ll have to press Ctrl + O or go to the File menu and press Open

SAVING YOUR WORK

Please note: SAVING IN AUDACITY IS DIFFERENT than you’re used to!

When it comes time to save your work at the end of the class, you need to EXPORT your file to WAV

Once you’ve exported the WAV, you DO NOT have to save the project! If you try to save the project in your Documents folder it WILL NOT WORK.

Part 1: Reorganizing Audio

The first section of the file is in the wrong order. It should say:

Welcome students, to the wonderful world of audio editing. Once you learn how to edit audio, anything seems possible.

So you’ll have to rearrange the lines. To do this:

Click the magnifying glass with the + sign inside of it. I would click it TWICE if I were you.

Once you do this, the timeline at the top should look like this:

Each number represents a second of audio. You are editing the first 11 seconds only right now.

The section from 10 seconds to 11 seconds is actually the piece that should go at the beginning. Click on screen where those waveforms are and drag across to highlight like this:

Once you’ve got it selected, you just need to CUT by pressing Ctrl + X or the scissors on the top tool bar

Press the Home button on your keyboard to jump back to the beginning of your file.

Then press Ctrl + V or the clipboard on the tool bar at the top to paste

The second block, from around 2 seconds to around 4 seconds, actually goes at the end. Click and drag across to highlight

Go to the space between 8 and 9 seconds and paste

 

Only one more piece to move! Take the section from about 4 seconds to about 5.5 seconds and highlight that

Cut and Paste that section at about the 2 second mark

Now listen to your newly reorganized section to make sure that it sounds OK. If there are any extended gaps that don’t sound good, just delete some of the silence.

Something else that we should check regularly is the volume of a section. You’ll notice in the file that some parts are louder than others (the waveform bubbles appear larger.)

If you find a quieter section, or just want to check and make sure that the volume is right, just highlight the section (like this newly edited 12 seconds or so)

Then look under Effects and choose Normalize

Don’t worry about what the box says for now, just click OK

This particular section won’t change a lot, but it will get a bit louder and it’ll be at the ideal volume.

    

 

Section 2: Fixing Mistakes

Sometimes when you’re trying to record audio you stutter or stumble and make mistakes. No problem, it’s very easy to fix!

Look at the section from about 12 seconds to about 26 seconds. I stutter a lot, so we need to get rid of the bad bits.

The section at about 16 seconds is pretty good. It says, “You can fix.”

Highlight the section before that (about 12 to 16 seconds) and delete (Backspace) or cut (Ctrl + X) that

There’s another pretty messed up section from around 13 to 21 seconds

Get rid of that as well and you’re left with this

Again, listen to it to see if there’s too much space between the words or anything. On my example below, there’s too much space so it doesn’t sound natural

Highlight the extra silence and press Backspace or Ctrl + X to bring the words closer together

 

Section 3: Audio Effects

 

Now for the fun stuff! The section from around 15.5 to 21 seconds needs to be higher. Select that part.

I notice that it looks a little quiet, so I’ll Normalize first

 

Then go into Effects then choose Change Pitch

There’s a little slider down near the bottom that controls the change in pitch. You can also click in the Percent Change box and type in a number. I like to raise mine about 50 percent, but feel free to play around and find a number that sounds good to you.

You’ll need to click Preview to see how it sounds before you accept a change

If it sounds good to you, click OK and move on to the next section from about 22 to about 25 seconds

Again, it’s quiet, so I’ll Normalize

This time, you want to move the percentage down (negative). I used -50 percent (but again, play around a bit. Just don’t get too carried away. We still want to be able to understand what’s said

The next section is from about 27 to about 29 seconds. Highlight that.

We need to speed that up, so go into the Effects menu and choose Change Speed…

Again, you can use the slider or type in a percentage number to change. I like about 50 percent. Make sure you Preview to see how it sounds before clicking OK

The next section is right around 30 seconds

To slow it down, move the slider to the left or type in a negative number (I liked -50). Again, preview before clicking OK.

After that, there’s a long section from about 35 to 42 seconds that needs to be turned backwards.

Under Effects, choose Reverse

The next section is from about 45 seconds to 47 or so

You have two options here.

1. Choose Echo…

Or…

2) Reverb

I notice that mine now looks really qiet, so we should definitely Normalize

The next section is from about 48 seconds to about 51

This time, we want to go into Effects and choose Distortion

To preview this, choose Start Playback

And then instead of OK, you’ll click Apply

That one looks a little quiet again, so Normalize it

 

Section 4: Inserting Sound Effects and other Audio Clips

 

You’ll need at least 3 sound effects. There are lots of places to get sound effects, but we want ones that are free and legal.

A great one is the BBC Sound Effects Library

I also like THIS SITE. The problem with that one is that you can’t really preview most of the files, which is a bit of a pain. Some pages will let you (like these space sounds) but not all.

THIS ONE is also pretty good. Pick a category and browse (the search function doesn’t really help)

You can sample the tracks by pressing play

Then you have to click on the name of the sound to download and save

Once you have 3 (or more) sound effects downloaded, you need to Open them in Audacity

You can actually open all 3 at the same time by selecting more than one (click on one and then hold down Shift to select a range OR click Ctrl to select files one by one)

Then, one by one, go into each file, highlight the part you want to use (or the whole thing if it isn’t too long)

Then Copy (Ctrl + C or the two sheets of paper between the scissors and the clipboard)

Find the spot in your editing exercise file and paste in the sound effect

 

Trim the sound effect if it’s really long (a few seconds should do it)

or just select a piece of the file you downloaded and copy that

The last part is to find a sound clip that you can insert at the end. A movie clip can be found here

LOTS of them don’t work, unfortunately, so you might want to download a few just in case

Paste your clip at the end

And you’re done!

Remember to EXPORT as WAV! You DO NOT need to save your project IF you’ve exported the WAV

Save your WAV in your ONEDRIVE or DOCUMENTS folder

Keep the file name the same

Then go to Teams and drop off your 01_AudioEdit_intro.wav attached to the Audio Editing assignment.

 

You’ve used Microsoft Word many times to type up work, obviously, but did you know that you can create some pretty fun, colourful documents as well? Today we’ll get started creating a copy of your homeroom timetable that you can personalize and decorate however you like.

Here’s my sample. Your finished product should look something like this (click for a closer look):

 

The schedule for 711 looks like this. You will use this information to fill in your timetable, but you can decorate and change things as you like.

NOTE: You could, if you want, lay out your timetable so that it reads from top to bottom (like the timetables you may have seen in the past.) I’ll show you how to make one that looks like the timetable above (but oh so much nicer!), but if you want, you could do it something like this:

But I’ll show you the standard way. If you want to do one like the one above, you’ll just need to switch your rows and columns around.

You may either read the instructions below or watch the tutorial video below where I will demonstrate step by step. If you choose to watch the video, you NEED HEADPHONES.

Do not watch the entire video and expect to remember anything! Watch a minute or two until I do something, then pause the video, and go do that thing. Once you’ve completed that step, come back and watch a little more.

First, open Microsoft Word and create a new BLANK DOCUMENT

The first thing you should ALWAYS do with any work is to SAVE. Press the File menu at the top left of your screen or press Ctrl + S

then

Always save your work in your DOCUMENTS folder. Call this document TIMETABLE

Now we can start to set up our page properly.

Clic on the Layout menu at the top of your screen

Then choose Orientation

And switch your page orientation to Landscape to turn your paper sideways so that it is wider than it is tall.

One more thing that really helps. Again, in the Layout menu at the top, choose Margins and change those to Narrow

Now that the page is set up, we can put something on it!

In the Insert menu at the top of the page, look for Table. Click that, then below the boxes that appear, choose Insert Table

You want your table to have 7 columns and 15 rows

Now make sure that you can see your whole page. At the top of your screen, choose View, then select One Page

If you have your cursor in or on your table on your page, you should see a box at the bottom right. You can click that and drag it out to expand your table to fill up the page.

Here’s what the whole page should look like:

You’ll notice on my sample that some of those boxes (called CELLS) are joined together to make one wide box/cell.

To do that, click in the top LEFT cell, then hold down shift, and click on the top RIGHT cell to select all of the cells in that row.

Once you have those cells selected, you should see a menu section at the top called Table Tools.

Click the Layout tab on that section, then find where it says Merge Cells

That button should join your top row cells and create one big wide cell. Now you can start filling in some of your cells, as you see below. Obviously you’ll put your name at the top instead of mine. Duh!