Accessing+AW+from+home

toc =Academic Workspace=

What is AW?

 * Answer:** AW is a place where you and your teachers can meet in a safe, controlled on-line environment. Teachers can make available notes, assignments and calendars electronically, and, can provide discussion forums where students can ask questions of each other or perhaps of the teacher.

Students are able to maintain their own wiki or blog //My Sites// and share them with each other.

How do I get to AW from home?

 * Answer:** You can access AW from home via http://mytdsb.on.ca. You must have a valid student ID and password and must be running a compatible web browser and operating system.

1. Go to http://mytdsb.on.ca 2. Login with your TDSB username & password 3. Go to AW:
 * Note 1:** You may be asked to install Microsoft Silverlight. Please allow that to happen. If you use Internet Explorer you may be asked to allow other things to install as well. This is OK, but, if you are using Internet Explorer 8 you should confirm that the //My Sites// section works properly: quit Internet Explorer and complete steps 1-5 again. If you can open the course website in a new window everything works. If the window opens but nothing loads you need to check out Fixing Internet Explorer 8 in Windows Vista.


 * Note 2:** If you run into problems you should try the "Alternative Non-Smart-Tunnel Access" option:

You'll have to switch to using the JavaScript option from the menu which says //Welcome.// To switch back to Silverlight use the same menu.

Alternately, use [|FireFox].

4. Go to the light orange //My Sites// icon



5. Go to your science course (science, biology, etc.) and click on the link. This will open up a new window. If you are in another class, go to the relevant class (e.g. //SBI 3U Dunbar// for grade 11 biology students).



6. Read and complete the instructions

Are there software issues?

 * Answer:** Yes, there are software-related issues.

As of May, 2010 the following operating systems are fully supported with SilverLight:
 * Mac OS X 10.5 running on an Intel Mac
 * Windows XP/Vista/7

As of May, 2010 the following operating systems are supported using the JavaScript (Alternative Non-Smart-Tunnel Access) option:
 * Mac OS X 10.6 running on an Intel Mac
 * Mac OS X running on PPC Macs
 * Linux (e.g. Ubuntu 9.04)

If you are running //Internet Explorer 8// you may encounter problems with the SilverLight version of AW. Visit Fixing Internet Explorer 8 in Windows Vista for a fix to problems with IE 8, or, disable SilverLight and use the JavaScript option instead.