Getting used to using a Mac - 1

Kalmarsunds gymnasieförbund have just started issuing Macs to sixth-formers (and to teachers - at last!) and I wondered how people who were probably only used to using an old version of Windows XP would cope with the transition.

I've actually never had a PC running Windows issued to me. In fact, when I took the job down here in Kalmar, me having a Mac was a condition of my accepting the job, believe it or not! I started on a Mac SE20 in Saudi Arabia in 1989 and I haven't looked back!

So … what surprises does a teacher have in store for her (by the way, since English doesn't have a non-sexist generic third-person pronoun, and since we've been using 'he' for a thousand years, I decided a few years ago that 'she' deserved its thousand years too!)?

One immediate difference you'll notice is that you can have two windows open side-by-side on a Mac, even if they're in different programs. Or they can be in the same program. So, if you've got some text in one Word document that you want in another one - and let's say that the text is broken up into lots of little chunks scattered throughout the document - the easiest way to get the bits you want into your new Word document is just to select the text and then drag it across. When you 'drop' it, you'll find the text in the new document too … without it disappearing from the old one.

I'm going to detail how we prepare a brand-new Mac for a new user in a separate post in a few days, but one thing we do is always to move the 'dock' from the bottom of the screen to either the left- or right-hand side (gives you more space on your screen for documents). Click and hold on the black apple right up in the top left-hand corner and choose the Dock menu. You'll find the choice of where the Dock is going to be there.

Another neat aspect of a Mac is that the key commands are the same in all programs. So we just get used to hitting Command-S to save and Command-W to close a window, for example. It works much faster than going up to a menu (You want a new document? Command-N - You want to print something? Command-P).

One last useful key: the Dashboard key (which doubles as F4 on the top row of your keyboard). When you push that key, you switch to a view which contains a lot of 'widgets'. The 'Convert' widget, for example, is really useful for working out how much $75 is in Swedish kronor, or how much 65°F is in °C. I know there are web sites where you can find that information too, but it's just so convenient to push a key, find the information out and then come right back to whatever you were working on by pushing the same key again.

Oh, and one last useful command: Command-Tab (the one right next to 'Q' on the left). When you use those two keys together, you see which programs happen to be open and if you keep the Command key down and click on the Tab key, you go from program to program. It's really useful if you have to switch back and forth.

Finally, have you ever wondered what most Swedish people feel about the Swedish chef on the Muppets? Click here to find out!

Have fun with your new Mac!

David Richardson

Just come back with David from the EuroCALL conference in Gothenburg, hosted by Gothenburg University.

Very interesting few days of workshops, exhibitions and more academically-orientated papers on all aspects of CALL (computer-aided language learning) and ICT. I've never been to this conference before but the impression I got was that Facebook and other forms of social media are now beginning to  assume a more important place alongside traditional language learning activities.

The use of online course management systems (sometimes called virtual learning environments or VLEs) is also a big trend in the world of CALL. The open source VLE Moodle is being increasingly used not just here in Sweden but all over the world. My feeling is that course management systems integrating learning activities, chat, blogs, quizzes, tests and forums will also become important in schools.

We talk about these developments and others  in more detail in future posts.

Link to EuroCALL website

Chris