Bits & Bytes Issue17

Page 8 Chrome OS

Vesatile OS, Versatile devices
Page 2

Booking a laptop trolley

Laptops when you need them
Page 3

Design(er) Desktops

Design with purpose
Page 7

Retro corner

Hop aboard the nostalgia timemachine!
Page 4

Issue 17, March 2019

As Chromebooks are becoming more and more common we would like to introduce you to
the models we use at the ISE and also point out their differences. If you would like to see or
know more feel free to ask anyone from ICT or your colleagues already using the devices to

show you more.

Acer Chromebook CB3

The Acer CB3 Chromebook has a traditional laptop formfactor.
Featuring a full aluminum body, 14” IPS non– reflective display and a
battery that can last up to 12 hours this is a powerful high end device.
This particular model is available for secondary staff and students in
the library. In the primary department you will find 2 of these per
classroom. With powerful specifications this is a reliable partner for
everyday full day use.

Lenovo 300e / 500e Chromebook

Featuring a full 180 degree flip hinge this device is a true hybrid giving
you the best of both the laptop and tablet world. You can use it as a
normal traditional laptop but with a simple flip this device turns into a
very powerful tablet. The build quality of these devices is according to
military specs. Waterproof, pry-free keyboard, rubber bumper
protection and drop/shock resistant up to 75 cm (the height of a
average desk).
The difference between the 300e and 500e is that the 500e features a
‘worldfacing’ (2nd) camera for when in tablet mode and a quadcore
Intel processor instead of a less powerful ARM processor in the 300e.

Acer Chromebook Tab 10

The full versatility of Chrome OS in the compact formfactor of a tablet.
That is the Acer Chromebook Tab 10. Very suitable for class projects
where moving around with the device is a must. Also the first Chrome OS
tablet ready for Google Expeditions AR (Augmented Reality). The ISE was
one of the first schools utilizing these devices. They are found in our
primary department in groups 6, 7 and 8. They come with a built in
Wacom EMR (Electro Magnetic Resonance) pen for precision writing and
drawing. Curious? Go check them out and ask your colleagues for a demo
2 and their experiences.

Since the beginning of this schoolyear a lot of old laptops have
been retired. This was done for several reasons. One the one
hand we have of course age and technical demands and on the
other hand we were facing an increase in vandalism. Also
BYOD is now in place for the secondary department so most
students are bringing their own device for use in class.
We do however want to facilitate class projects, exams and
Asessments. Therefore we now have 3 trolleys of 24 high end laptops available for these matters.
These 72 devices are meant for the whole ISE and need to be booked through Topdesk. All you need to
do is create a ticket informing us where and when you need how many devices. If available they will be
delivered to your classroom or placed on the ground floor of the building you are teaching when you
need them. If it is not possible to deliver them to your location we will inform you well in time so you
can take a trolley from the library. It will be visibly reserved for you then. So in short:

 Create a Topdesk ticket informing us when, where and how many laptops
 We will always try to deliver them to your classroom or place them on the ground floor
 First come, first serve. No ticket, no laptops
 Devices will be checked before and after use
 When booked, the booker is responsible for correct use
 Devices are NOT intended for replacing broken/malfunctioning BYOD devices
 When a BYOD device is broken/malfunctioning/forgotten students can retreive a device from

across the library upon handing in their student card

Did you know that these trolleys have a
smart charging system? They automatically

start and stop charging and balance the
charging load between devices

3
3

RETRO ORNER

HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF
. (1985)

THIRTY FOUR YEARS AGO A original Super Mario Bros. development sheet

An Italian-American plumber from Brooklyn TECHNICAL LIMITATIONS
first saved a princess from a tyrannical turtle
monster, using only mushrooms and guile. Back in the 80’s hardware wasn’t nearly as powerful as
Since then, he’s gone on to become the worlds today and this of course created several challenges in
most famous videogame character. Appearing order to overcome these limits. For example, the
in more than 250 video games and earning a reason mario has an overall, hat and mustache is
spot in the hall of fame. But Mario’s impressive because it was simply impossible to create a highly
career had a beginning. For the first Super detailed character. The overall was to create a high
Mario video game released for the Nintendo contrast against the background. Mario wears a hat
Entertainment System (NES) in 1985, his beacuse it was too difficult to create hair and the mus-
designers had to draw every pixel by hand. tache is there to distinguish his nose and mouth from
Every square of land, question-mark block eachother. Also, because of the very limited amount of
and Goomba had to be hand-drawn and memory available on the NES some items were re-
colored on graph paper. When they were used. The clouds for example are the same as the
happy with the design, they sent it off to a bushes, only colored green. And the first enemy you
developer to code. Fixing errors or making encounter (Goomba) doesn’t actually move. It just flips
changes was tricky. Shigeru Miyamoto, Mario’s to simulate walking but it is the same ‘sprite’.
creator, said whiting out mistakes was too
messy, so they overlaid opaque tracing paper
on top of the level being drawn.

Clever re-use of sprites 4

ONLY MOVE RIGHT Shigeru Miyamoto,
Another side effect of limited memory space is the ‘Godfather’ of Mario, Zelda,
that in Super Mario Bros. you can’t move left. Donkey Kong and much more.
As you move Mario to the right the NES has to
load the next part of the screen into it’s limited THE LEVEL THAT CHANGED GAMING
memory. The only way to create enough space
to do so is to delete the previous part on the Establishing that moving right is the key to success also
left. Due to improvement in programming and helps introduce Mario’s first enemy, the lowly Goomba. If
technical advancements this became possible Mario’s progress is limited to him running ahead, then the
in the later installments of the series. Also note Goomba swiftly marching towards him indicates that this
that videogames before Super Mario Bros. character is designed to impede his progress. His mean,
Didn’t move the screen at all but were set in a furrowed eyebrows are a dead giveaway that he’s a bad guy,
static screen moving only the character. too. Miyamoto had initially intended for a different enemy to
take the Goomba’s place in the game’s opening level.
Takashi Tezuka, “Originally we had a Koopa Troopa that came out, but we
Co creator of the thought it might be a little too difficult for the player to jump
Super Mario Bros. Series. on and then kick it,” he told in an interview back in 2015.
“That’s why we created the Goomba. If it was a turtle, we
Koji Kondo, couldn’t really just jump on it and defeat it. So we decided
Musical composer for Mario, Zelda, we needed a ‘bad mushroom’.”
Donkey Kong and many many more.
With the Goomba’s design resembling that of Mario’s most
famous power-up, Miyamoto needed to differentiate the ga-
me’s bad guys from the mushrooms that players could use to
help them on their adventure. As such, the first structures
that the player encounters are a combination of ordinary-
looking brown bricks and mysterious question blocks. These
flashing, golden blocks are inviting the player to hit them,
and when they do so they’re either rewarded with a few coins
or a moving mushroom.

Miyamoto made the mushroom difficult for the new player to
avoid, with a pipe blocking their path and the power-up
dropping down from the platform above them. This ensures
that the player immediately understands that these bigger
mushrooms aren’t obstacles for them to avoid, but rather a
way to increase Mario’s power.

“We added a hole that you’ll need to speed up for and then
jump,” Miyamoto explained. “We made sure that there were
some parts that even if the player fell, it would be safe. By
doing that, we wanted the player to gradually and naturally
understand what they’re doing. The first course was designed
for that purpose. So that they can learn what the game is all
about. But then after that, we want them to play more free-
ly. Once the player realizes what they need to do, it becomes
their game.”

5

Together with School Update and The Ed Tech Team, Professional
Development Partners of Google for Education, we are organising
and hosting an Impact Lab at the ISE on Wednesday 8th May. As
a host, we have 30 spaces (from a total of 80) which we can fill
allowing us to train and support staff using technology in the
classroom.
The goal of the Impact Lab is to create a network of empowered
professionals who will, in turn, build local capacity in their
regions by empowering educators with new skills, strategies, and
best practices, further innovating the education practice.
Google for education has been a great tool which we have used to develop our school culture and educati-
on at the ISE. Professional development for using Google for education is continuously happening whether
it’s through their free online training, group sessions or one to one support. We have colleagues who have
become certified educators in the hope to raise our tech skills and tech education. In addition, the Chrome-
book has become unmissable in the classroom due to its speed and low cost. We would like to ensure our
colleagues get the best out of using these devices.
The impact Lab will start at 13:30 and finish at 20:00. Dinner and refreshments will be included. You will
also receive a voucher for the Google Certified Educator exam. A large proportion of the day will be in
Dutch, however there will be some workshops available in English.
Applications will close on April 5th, 2019.

6

Maurice and the ICT department teamed up for a solution to the ever increasing need for
powerful computers for design and technology. In order to run demanding applications such as
Adobe Photoshop or InDesign etc. powerful devices were assembled and installed in the special
cabinets created by Maurice himself. This was decided as vandalism to the previous devices was
substantial. To prevent this the ICT department placed them behind the acrylic screens only
giving the user acces to the mouse and keyboard. A special powerbutton was rerouted and fitted
in the acrylic panels to turn the devices on and off. This way students have access to powerful
hardware and the devices are kept safe from vandalism. When a device turns ons the cabinet is
lighted up indicating the device is switched on. Feel free to have a look in BAT 0.06

7

ISE Bits & Bytes—Issue 17 QR (Quick Response) codes are quirky little squares that can carry
March 2019 a lot of information. Basically, a QR code works in the same way

A newsletter provided by as a barcode at the supermarket. It is a machine-scannable image
the ICT department of the that can instantly be read using a Smartphone camera. Every QR
International School Eind- code consists of a number of black squares and dots which
hoven. represent certain pieces of information. When your Smartphone
scans this code, it translates that information into something that
If you have any content for
this newsletter please can be easily understood by us puny humans.
send it to; Quite simply, a QR code is an encoded piece of data. The data in a
QR code can be alphanumeric, numeric, binary or Kanji (Kanji is a
[email protected] form of Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese
writing system).
ICT Department ISE
Although that is the technical explanation of how a QR code
Fox building—office 0.07 works, something much more important to focus on is the fact
Phone: 3131 that QR odes can be scanned at the touch of a button by the
hundreds of millions of people around the world that use a
Smartphone on a daily basis. If you've ever scanned a QR code
with your Smartphone, you'll likely have noticed that they can be
scanned extremely quickly (we're talking within a second-or-two
here). This makes QR codes an extremely simple way to access
stored information in an instant. We have added a new icon to
your Zenworks window which will open up a website where you

can freely create QR codes.

1st line support:
Jeroen van Keulen
Thomas Kok

Issues and questions:

Topdesk selfservice portal

Urgent matters: Simply choose your category (plain text, website URL etc.) and
Call 5000 (Reception) and type what you want the QR code to communicate and copy/print/
they can contact us direct- scan or save the code.
ly at any time for you.
The 3 squares in the code image guarantee it is always scanned
UW LOGO correctly as the scanner always knows what is top left/top right
(2 squares) and bottom left (1 square).