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Objective: Create a file management system for your place study. When completed this file management system can be used by both you and your students to conduct a successful place study—and do it electronically. This task sheet contains sequential tasks that will help you (and your students) learn how to create and manage files. The tasks have been written generically so that with only minor changes students can use this task sheet. The project staff did that to minimize the amount of time that you will have to spend getting instructional materials ready for students.
Your file management system can be saved on any computer. We recommend that you create one system, called a teacher organizational system, and save it on a hard-drive or network that you use most often. If you do a lot of your lesson planning at home (like most of us) you will want access to that file system. [Some teachers have the luxury of be able to work on their school district network from home]. Since most teachers do not have access to their network system from home, we recommend you put your work on the most frequently used drive space; then copy to other backup systems.
Your student file management system is another matter. If your students can use the school network their file system should be created on that network for maximum flexibility. That way, they can use any computer on campus when needed. Obviously, you need to have access to their work (for evaluation and assessment purposes) and, in the same way, you do NOT want students to have access to your management files. This is why you need to consult with your network administrator about setting up a system that has user permission requirements. If you have any questions about this process contact us.
As the first task on the Teachers Skill Ladder indicates, you must decide where this file management system will reside.
q Task 1: Creating a folder. Using your computer, create a folder called ‘My Special Folder’ and save this folder on the hard drive.
q Task 2: Creating a folder within a folder. Create a folder called ‘Neat Ideas’ in your special folder.
q Task 3: Creating files.
q Task 4: Moving files. Practice moving a file to another folder. Probably the easiest way to do this is to copy it there.
q Task 5: Creating more files. Create an Excel file that would be valuable for your place study. Save it appropriately.
q Task 6: Creating more files. Either minimize or close other applications and open Inspiration. Create an Inspiration file that addresses the question “how will you arrange your classroom to teach all students how to use our digital tools?”
q Task 7: Copying files. Copy one of the files you just created to a zip disk, to a network destination, and also to a floppy disk. Check to see if the files really copied.
q Task 8: Printing. Open one of your files and print it.
q
Task 9: Finding a file or folder. Use your
computer’s ‘Find’ command to find the files that you created and stored in 3
different locations.
q
Task 10: Determining the size of files or
folders. Locate one of the files
you created and determine its file size. Do the same for a folder.
q
Task
11: Delete files and folders.
Delete one of your files. Delete one of
your folders.
q Task 12: Renaming files and folders. Rename one of your files and one of your folders.
--------------------------------- End of Part #1 -----------------------------
Part #2 of File Management Task Sheet. This part of the task sheet shows you how to create a File Management System for your place study.
q Task 1: Create a folder called ‘Digital Tools - Teacher’. This will be the main storage folder for all of your place study organizational work and lesson planning. Your students will not have access to this folder. It is your electronic lesson plan folder. Save this folder on your most frequently used machine or your school network. From the student side of things, you would want to create a folder called ‘Digital Tools – Students’ and place it either on the district network or zip disks, etc.
q Task 2: Specific folders for your place study. Think of folders that would house important specific files for your place study. These folders must be inside the Digital Tools folder. Some suggestions are shown below. I am sure you can think of many more as you plan and develop your place study.
q Images
q Neat Ideas
q Internet activities or addresses
q Place Study
q Computer Lessons
q Inspiration Files
q Student Projects
q Student Skills Ladder Sheets
q EALRs and instructional unit concepts
q Assessment and Evaluation Rubrics
q Classroom Management Ideas
q Instructional Management Ideas
Task 3: Specific Files. Create a file called Electronic Journaling and save it in ‘Neat Ideas’. In this file develop a method for students to do electronic journaling as they progress through their place study investigation; then create a file called Electronic Journaling – Assessment and save it in the Assessment folder. Other questions that you will want to consider (and create files for) are: How will you arrange your classroom (both physically and from a learning point of view) to teach all students how to use each of the tools? How will you structure your lessons and manage your classroom so that all students have the opportunity to practice using each of the digital tools. How will you provide for individual help? How can you use your new presentation software to advantage?