ICT Basics

Lessons

Primary 4 · Science and Elementary Technology

ICT Basics

5 lessons

Lesson 4 of 5

Keeping Your Work: the Journal and a Flash Disk

14 min

Let's begin

Mutesi spent all of Monday's lesson drawing a map of her village on the school laptop. On Tuesday she opens the laptop and panics: "Where is my map?" Her teacher smiles. "Look in the Journal. It keeps everything you do."

The Journal

Many Rwandan school laptops run Sugar. In Sugar, the Journal is like a diary of all your work. It keeps your work automatically while you use an activity, so you do not have to remember to save. Your newest work appears at the top, because the Journal is sorted by time.

Using the Journal

Open it by clicking the Journal icon (it looks like a small notebook) in the Home view.
Each entry shows the activity's icon, the title of the work and when you last used it.
Resume: click an entry to open it again and carry on where you stopped.
Rename: give each piece of work a clear title, such as "Map of my village", so it is easy to find.
Star it: click the star next to important work to mark it as a favourite.
Search: type a word in the search box at the top to find an entry quickly.
Erase removes an entry for ever, so think twice before you use it.

Using a flash disk

A flash disk (also called a USB flash drive or memory stick) is a small storage device. You can carry your files on it from one computer to another.

Plug it in gently to a USB port on the laptop. Its icon appears at the bottom of the Journal.
Copy to the flash disk: drag a Journal entry onto the flash disk icon, or use the entry's menu to copy it there.
Copy from the flash disk: click the flash disk icon to see its files, then drag one into the Journal.
Remove it safely: choose Unmount (on other computers, Eject or Safely remove) and wait. Pulling it out while files are copying can destroy them.

Caring for a flash disk

Keep it dry and away from heat, put its cap back on, and only plug it into computers you trust, because flash disks can carry computer viruses.

Tip

Journal keeps; flash disk carries

The Journal keeps your work on this laptop. The flash disk carries it to another one. And always unmount before you pull out.

✦

Try it yourself

Try each one first, then tap Show answer to check.

1

Mutesi forgot to press save. Is her map lost?

Show answerHide answer

Answer: No. The Journal keeps her work automatically. She can open the Journal and resume it.

2

Why should you give each Journal entry a clear title?

Show answerHide answer

Answer: So you can find it easily later, for example by searching for it.

3

Which port do you plug a flash disk into?

Show answerHide answer

Answer: A USB port.

4

Gatete pulls his flash disk out while a file is still copying. What might happen?

Show answerHide answer

Answer: The file (or even the flash disk) can be damaged. He should wait, unmount it, then pull it out.

Quick check

Match each Journal action to what it does.

Tap one on the left, then its partner on the right.

What you learned today

In Sugar, the Journal keeps all your work automatically, sorted by time.
You can resume, rename, star, search and erase Journal entries.
A flash disk carries files between computers: plug in, copy, unmount, then remove.

Sources and credits

Human Interface Guidelines: The Journal, by Sugar Labs wiki contributors, Sugar Labs, CC BY 4.0, adapted by Ganzaa.
USB flash drive, by Simple English Wikipedia contributors, Simple English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0, adapted by Ganzaa.

The exercises (Try it yourself and the practice questions) are written by Ganzaa. The steps for using the Journal and a flash disk are written by Ganzaa. Sugar is free software from Sugar Labs.

This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.

1The Journal

2Using the Journal

3Using a flash disk

4Caring for a flash disk

Try it yourself

The Journal

Using the Journal

Using a flash disk

Caring for a flash disk