Yesterday, I was invited to our elementary building to see a 1st grade class using Glogster. I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I got there. I was thinking maybe they would need some extra help. I was thinking maybe they would need some sort of technical support. What I saw was why I do what I do.
The project was to take the research the students had done on an animal and posterize it using Glogster. When I walked in the lab, what I saw was pretty amazing. The first graders had plenty of help. A third grade class who had already used Glogster had partnered with the first graders to teach them how to use it. There were plenty of adults in the room, but they weren't doing much besides providing encouragement and some general guidelines and reminders. The third graders were the true teachers in the room and good ones at that. I saw very little of the third graders doing it for the first graders. There was much pointing at the screen and saying click here. There was much instruction on what each piece of Glogster does. There was much learning going on in that room. Students were helping students create.
It was a truly inspiring site to see. I took a little bit of video and posted it to YouTube here, but I really just wanted to watch. This one simple project made all the late nights, early mornings, missed lunches, time away from my family, etc. worth it. The 'computer guy' sometimes gets bogged down with making everything work, gets stuck in the office for what seems like days, and never makes it into the classroom enough. When we see things that remind us why it is we do what we do, it is a pretty good feeling.
Friday, May 13, 2011
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Expanding Our Use of Casper
Jamf Software's Casper Suite is an essential tool in an Apple Blended Learning Environment of any size. Casper allows one to do everything from imaging machines to collecting inventory information. It is the latter that we have chosen to extend.
Using Casper's Extension Attributes we have added information to the database that was previously stored in several separate spreadsheets and databases. Pulling as much data as we could into Casper has helped us to streamline our repair procedures as well as helping us to better maintain a detailed record of all issues and damage we are seeing. Casper further eases some of these processes by allowing for the easy creation of custom reports.
We have added the following Extensions Attributes: Been To AppleCare, AEA Job Number, Repair Costs, Repairs/Issues so far. The "Been To AppleCare" item is a simple yes/no, but it allows us to quickly see if a machine has been to AppleCare, and, in conjunction with GSX, lets us quickly produce a repair/issue history for a machine. Since we do not send non-warranty repairs to AppleCare, we need to track those repairs as well. The "AEA Job Number," "Repair Costs," and "Repairs/Issues" items allow us to produce custom reports very quickly showing various versions of all of that information.
Prior to expanding our use of Casper, producing a repair/damage history for a machine was a process that involved several spreadsheets, paper copies, and a database or two. Now everything we commonly need is at our fingertips and accessible within seconds of logging in to Casper along with all of the other wonderful information it already gathers.
Using Casper's Extension Attributes we have added information to the database that was previously stored in several separate spreadsheets and databases. Pulling as much data as we could into Casper has helped us to streamline our repair procedures as well as helping us to better maintain a detailed record of all issues and damage we are seeing. Casper further eases some of these processes by allowing for the easy creation of custom reports.
We have added the following Extensions Attributes: Been To AppleCare, AEA Job Number, Repair Costs, Repairs/Issues so far. The "Been To AppleCare" item is a simple yes/no, but it allows us to quickly see if a machine has been to AppleCare, and, in conjunction with GSX, lets us quickly produce a repair/issue history for a machine. Since we do not send non-warranty repairs to AppleCare, we need to track those repairs as well. The "AEA Job Number," "Repair Costs," and "Repairs/Issues" items allow us to produce custom reports very quickly showing various versions of all of that information.
Prior to expanding our use of Casper, producing a repair/damage history for a machine was a process that involved several spreadsheets, paper copies, and a database or two. Now everything we commonly need is at our fingertips and accessible within seconds of logging in to Casper along with all of the other wonderful information it already gathers.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Invisible Integration
My ultimate goal as a Director of Technology is to provide the support needed to help our teachers achieve what I like to call Invisible Integration. You might ask, "what do you mean by Invisible Integration?" Invisible Integration to me is when technology is not a thing by itself. Technology is not something our students do once or twice a week in a lab down the hall. Technology is not something teachers try to dream up new lessons for in order to integrate it. Technology is not something we use on special occasions for culminating projects. Technology is not assigning a Keynote presentation or iMovie project.
Invisible Integration is when technology becomes part of what we do everyday. Technology is the right tool to create the expected outcome for a lesson. Technology is what the kids choose to use because it is the tool that makes sense to them to complete the given task. Invisible Integration is when students are given a task and they may or may not choose a given technology to accomplish that task.
Is Invisible Integration achievable? Maybe not. Maybe Invisible Integration is one of those things we continue to strive to achieve, but it is always just out of reach. That's ok. Technology changes rapidly and there will always be some sort of learning curve for new tools. Students will always have to be taught to use those new tools at some point. Whether they teach themselves, each other, or are taught by the teacher is most likely dependent on the technology.
It makes more sense to me to do the teaching of those new tools in context and as invisibly as possible. Use the given tool because it makes sense to use it to achieve the desired outcome. Don't make using the technology the desired outcome, and then wrap content around it. Make the technology work for you; don't let the technology make work for you. Then, technology will begin to become invisible and utilized because it should be and not because we want it to be.
Invisible Integration is when technology becomes part of what we do everyday. Technology is the right tool to create the expected outcome for a lesson. Technology is what the kids choose to use because it is the tool that makes sense to them to complete the given task. Invisible Integration is when students are given a task and they may or may not choose a given technology to accomplish that task.
Is Invisible Integration achievable? Maybe not. Maybe Invisible Integration is one of those things we continue to strive to achieve, but it is always just out of reach. That's ok. Technology changes rapidly and there will always be some sort of learning curve for new tools. Students will always have to be taught to use those new tools at some point. Whether they teach themselves, each other, or are taught by the teacher is most likely dependent on the technology.
It makes more sense to me to do the teaching of those new tools in context and as invisibly as possible. Use the given tool because it makes sense to use it to achieve the desired outcome. Don't make using the technology the desired outcome, and then wrap content around it. Make the technology work for you; don't let the technology make work for you. Then, technology will begin to become invisible and utilized because it should be and not because we want it to be.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
iMovie and the iPad 2
After doing my walk around last week and gathering some video clips with my new iPad 2, I was anxious to edit those clips into a 4 or 5 minute video to post to our YouTube channel. The plan was to put those clips together using iMovie on the iPad 2. I was quickly disappointed.
Putting the clips in and adjusting their length and position is easy enough. After that, the disappointment started. When trying to add captions, one can only do so based on the chosen theme for the project. There are only eight themes to choose from, and those aren't the best. If the caption is too long for the particular theme chosen, instead of multi-lining the caption the software just cuts it off. There is also no way to adjust the length the caption shows on the screen. It is stuck to the length of the clip it is applied to. So, to adjust it's length, one has to split the clip. This is not a huge deal, but still a limitation. The simple lack of choices for captions is a big negative in my opinion.
The lack of choice doesn't stop there. The transitions to choose from are also extremely limited. There are three: none, cross dissolve, and theme based. I am guessing this is due to the lack of processing power to render these on the fly.
The lack of processing power also rears it's ugly head when doing just the simplest things like clicking the project settings button. When making a change in those settings and trying to click out, there is a very noticeable delay as the project is updated to match those changes. So, be sure to close any other open apps before attempting any iMovie editing.
Something else I found to be missing was backgrounds. I like to do credits or additional comments in and at the end of videos. So the lack of backgrounds and caption choices is very limiting in this regard. I got around it in this video by covering the camera and recording a black clip to put a caption on.
I am reviewing this device as a possible alternative for a 1:1 learning environment. If the goal is to show learning through video, I would suggest buying a netbook and using Movie Maker. After using the real iMovie, the iPad version left me extremely disappointed. That being said, if the goal is to make very simple videos, very quickly, with little attention to detail, the iPad 2 and iMovie for the iPad will do just fine.
Apple has had a long and positive relationship with education. Wouldn't it be nice if they would ask people IN education what they really need in a 1:1 device and then deliver it, instead of those in education trying to make existing products work for their purposes?
You can see the video I made here.
Putting the clips in and adjusting their length and position is easy enough. After that, the disappointment started. When trying to add captions, one can only do so based on the chosen theme for the project. There are only eight themes to choose from, and those aren't the best. If the caption is too long for the particular theme chosen, instead of multi-lining the caption the software just cuts it off. There is also no way to adjust the length the caption shows on the screen. It is stuck to the length of the clip it is applied to. So, to adjust it's length, one has to split the clip. This is not a huge deal, but still a limitation. The simple lack of choices for captions is a big negative in my opinion.
The lack of choice doesn't stop there. The transitions to choose from are also extremely limited. There are three: none, cross dissolve, and theme based. I am guessing this is due to the lack of processing power to render these on the fly.
The lack of processing power also rears it's ugly head when doing just the simplest things like clicking the project settings button. When making a change in those settings and trying to click out, there is a very noticeable delay as the project is updated to match those changes. So, be sure to close any other open apps before attempting any iMovie editing.
Something else I found to be missing was backgrounds. I like to do credits or additional comments in and at the end of videos. So the lack of backgrounds and caption choices is very limiting in this regard. I got around it in this video by covering the camera and recording a black clip to put a caption on.
I am reviewing this device as a possible alternative for a 1:1 learning environment. If the goal is to show learning through video, I would suggest buying a netbook and using Movie Maker. After using the real iMovie, the iPad version left me extremely disappointed. That being said, if the goal is to make very simple videos, very quickly, with little attention to detail, the iPad 2 and iMovie for the iPad will do just fine.
Apple has had a long and positive relationship with education. Wouldn't it be nice if they would ask people IN education what they really need in a 1:1 device and then deliver it, instead of those in education trying to make existing products work for their purposes?
You can see the video I made here.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Meanderings With an iPad 2
This morning, I took my iPad 2 out for a spin. I walked around our buildings taking video of students using our technology to learn in various ways. The one thing that really stuck in my head as I walked through the halls was the 'anytime, anyplace' ability when in a 1:1 environment. I saw students in the hallways, on the floor, at tables, and, oh yah, some were still in desks of all places. They were using their laptops to do some pretty cool things. Some were using weebly.com to create websites comparing and contrasting two Latin American countries. Others were creating Keynote presentations to review vocabulary words. Still others were doing bell ringer activities on wordcentral.com. This is good stuff.
I saw elementary students utilizing the technology a little differently. Kindergarteners were using starfall.com for some reading practice during small group time. I saw a bunch of AR testing going on. There was a lab full of students using learning.com's EasyTech to learn about safe emailing practices. Another class doing small groups was using fun4thebrain.com for additional math practice.
The point of my excursion was to gather some video to test the video editing abilities of the iPad 2, which I will do. The result of my wanderings was excitement about how far we've come and how far we are yet to go in our 1:1 journey. So often I get stuck in my office dealing with all of the problems and don't get enough chances to get out and see the good things that are going on. My trip was revitalizing. I will post a link to the edited video once it is completed.
I saw elementary students utilizing the technology a little differently. Kindergarteners were using starfall.com for some reading practice during small group time. I saw a bunch of AR testing going on. There was a lab full of students using learning.com's EasyTech to learn about safe emailing practices. Another class doing small groups was using fun4thebrain.com for additional math practice.
The point of my excursion was to gather some video to test the video editing abilities of the iPad 2, which I will do. The result of my wanderings was excitement about how far we've come and how far we are yet to go in our 1:1 journey. So often I get stuck in my office dealing with all of the problems and don't get enough chances to get out and see the good things that are going on. My trip was revitalizing. I will post a link to the edited video once it is completed.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
The Last Year
The last year has been a busy one for me full of exciting changes. Since my last post well over a year ago, I have taken a different job at a neighboring district. Spirit Lake has become one of Iowa's largest 1:1 districts. I have been extremely busy helping to make that happen. There have been some frustrating moments as well as some very satisfying moments. We are finally ironing out many of the larger issues, and I am finding time to blog again. I am hoping to do a much better job at keeping this blog much more current. My plan is to do a couple posts a week talking about my day-to-day challenges and triumphs as the Director of Technology. My hope being that someone may find my rants useful in some way.
Friday, February 19, 2010
OpenOffice.org 3.2 Deployment Issue
Okoboji Community School District uses OpenOffice.org nearly exclusively. To make it work for us, I have written scripts that install extra components such as additional clip art, a button taking users to a clipart website, OOo add-ons, templates, etc.
When we went to start the deployment of the latest version, this caused an issue. When the installer went to remove the old version it did not remove the 'extras' I had installed. It kept giving an error saying it did not have sufficient privileges to acces the OpenOffice.org 3 folder. So, I had to create a way to fix this issue to automate the install process as much as possible.
The latest OOo also wants to install the latest version of Sun Java and remove the old versions. This was also not working for us as it was packaged with the OOo installer. It kept erroring out on the uninstallation of the older versions we had. I think, I don't know for sure, that it was having issues with there being multiple old versions on some machines. We are working to get ALL old versions of Java uninstalled from our machines, but we are not there yet. So, I had to create a solution to fix this as well.
The solution I came up with has 3 parts, all GPOs. 2 startup script GPOs, 1 to remove all the 'extra' stuff and 1 to get Java installed, and 1 software installation GPO to do the install of OOo 3.2 with some needed transforms for our environment along with the 'extra' stuff, I had removed previously, pushed in another startup script.
Although, not ideal, it works. It does require 3 reboots, 1 for each GPO. I enable the first, reboot the machines. Once it is done, I disable the first, enable the second, and reboot the machines, and so forth. We will do this a group of machines at a time. It will take much longer than previously encountered with our OOo deployments, but it is doable. I am also working on combing some of the GPOs into 1 unified GPO.
When we went to start the deployment of the latest version, this caused an issue. When the installer went to remove the old version it did not remove the 'extras' I had installed. It kept giving an error saying it did not have sufficient privileges to acces the OpenOffice.org 3 folder. So, I had to create a way to fix this issue to automate the install process as much as possible.
The latest OOo also wants to install the latest version of Sun Java and remove the old versions. This was also not working for us as it was packaged with the OOo installer. It kept erroring out on the uninstallation of the older versions we had. I think, I don't know for sure, that it was having issues with there being multiple old versions on some machines. We are working to get ALL old versions of Java uninstalled from our machines, but we are not there yet. So, I had to create a solution to fix this as well.
The solution I came up with has 3 parts, all GPOs. 2 startup script GPOs, 1 to remove all the 'extra' stuff and 1 to get Java installed, and 1 software installation GPO to do the install of OOo 3.2 with some needed transforms for our environment along with the 'extra' stuff, I had removed previously, pushed in another startup script.
Although, not ideal, it works. It does require 3 reboots, 1 for each GPO. I enable the first, reboot the machines. Once it is done, I disable the first, enable the second, and reboot the machines, and so forth. We will do this a group of machines at a time. It will take much longer than previously encountered with our OOo deployments, but it is doable. I am also working on combing some of the GPOs into 1 unified GPO.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Do we need textbooks?
Yesterday afternoon I met with our Math Leadership Team at the elementary school to discuss the purchase of a new textbook series. There was some very good discussion on the three 'finalists' they had chosen and the pros and cons of each. The discussion became very interesting when we once again started talking about whether we need textbooks at all. We have been talking about the need for textbooks for a few months now after it was brought up at one of these meetings. Since then, I have been slowly gathering online resources to help show them what teaching mathematics might look like if we didn't purchase a book. I believe the math team at the elementary level is ready to make the jump to having no textbook. I showed them websites like the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives. A great site packed full of java based manipulatives. I also showed them resources containing more than just manipulatives like Computing Technology for Math Excellence. I only had about 30 minutes so I tried to show them the best, free resources out there right now. I hope they were impressed and as excited as I am at the possibilities.
Now to get each of those elementary students a laptop...
Here is the complete list of what I showed them.
Now to get each of those elementary students a laptop...
Here is the complete list of what I showed them.
- http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html
- http://arcytech.org/java/
- http://learnalberta.ca/content/memg/index.html
- http://illuminations.nctm.org/
- http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/
- http://harcourtschool.com/activity/elab2004/index_2004.html
- http://www.visualfractions.com/
- http://mathforum.org/mathtools/
- http://www.ct4me.net/index.htm
Monday, January 18, 2010
January 18th Professional Development
During today's staff development at Okoboji I showed the staff some websites that I hope will prove useful for some. I am listed them below and have added a brief description of each.
Prezi
Prezi is a different way of presenting information. The hope, of course, being to keep engagement levels high. The interface to build the presentations is a bit hard to get used to, but once used to it is very easy to use. The one complaint I have so far is that you cannot hyper-link objects or even words. You have to type out the URL, close the presentation, and then re-open it for the link to become active. The site says they are working on making other objects linkable.
TimeGlider
Building interactive timelines could prove a very useful activity for a history class or any project where such a thing might be needed. This website makes it easier. There are also some already-created timelines that could prove useful for various topics in history.
Google Translate
With the increasing number of ESL students in our district and others in the area, I thought it might be useful to show our staff Google Translate. This is a pretty cool site that does live translation from one language to another. I am told that it does a pretty good job. Plus, there is always the option to offer your own, more accurate translation.
WolframAlpha
This site has been around for a while, but continues to get better and better. It is simply awesome. If you haven't checked it out before, you should check it out now. The ability to solve equations is awesome, but so are all of its other capabilities. Company comparisons, species breakdowns, information on elements, it's all there. How could you use this in your classroom?
Soungle
Need a sound to activate prior knowledge or help with a sensory lesson? This site has them. It is the Google for sounds. I also think it would great for sound bites for presentations or other multimedia projects.
Newseum
This site shows the covers of newspapers all over the country and the world? It is very interesting how different parts of the world view and/or potray worldly headlines.
Tag Galaxy
This site provides a very visually pleasing way to search tagged photos on Flickr.com. Many of teachers and learning teams are already dreaming up ways to use this site in their classrooms. The hope of such eye candy is to keep students engaged while still performing a needed activity. Our elementary teachers are hoping to use it in their sensory imaging activities. Our high school home ec. teacher is considering its use when introducing different types of clothing. How will you use it in your classroom?
Readability
The results this site produces make cluttered websites much more readable when projected in a classroom. It does a pretty good job of taking the main content of the page and making it larger and black type on a white background all the while removing the business surrounding it. I think this could be extremly useful for presenting content from the Internet in any classroom.
HippoCampus
Digital resources from various textbooks have been compiled in one place. They are all organized by subject, then book, then page numbers and topics. These are all great resources and could be utilized by anyone with the textbook or without.
Email to Text Message
The last site I presented to our staff was a list of email addresses from most US carriers to allow a text message to be sent to a cell number via an email.The teachers at the presentation were able to think of many uses for such a list.
I think the presentation went well, and I recieved several positive comments on it throughout the rest of the day. I am already scouring the Internet for more resources to present next time.
Prezi
Prezi is a different way of presenting information. The hope, of course, being to keep engagement levels high. The interface to build the presentations is a bit hard to get used to, but once used to it is very easy to use. The one complaint I have so far is that you cannot hyper-link objects or even words. You have to type out the URL, close the presentation, and then re-open it for the link to become active. The site says they are working on making other objects linkable.
TimeGlider
Building interactive timelines could prove a very useful activity for a history class or any project where such a thing might be needed. This website makes it easier. There are also some already-created timelines that could prove useful for various topics in history.
Google Translate
With the increasing number of ESL students in our district and others in the area, I thought it might be useful to show our staff Google Translate. This is a pretty cool site that does live translation from one language to another. I am told that it does a pretty good job. Plus, there is always the option to offer your own, more accurate translation.
WolframAlpha
This site has been around for a while, but continues to get better and better. It is simply awesome. If you haven't checked it out before, you should check it out now. The ability to solve equations is awesome, but so are all of its other capabilities. Company comparisons, species breakdowns, information on elements, it's all there. How could you use this in your classroom?
Soungle
Need a sound to activate prior knowledge or help with a sensory lesson? This site has them. It is the Google for sounds. I also think it would great for sound bites for presentations or other multimedia projects.
Newseum
This site shows the covers of newspapers all over the country and the world? It is very interesting how different parts of the world view and/or potray worldly headlines.
Tag Galaxy
This site provides a very visually pleasing way to search tagged photos on Flickr.com. Many of teachers and learning teams are already dreaming up ways to use this site in their classrooms. The hope of such eye candy is to keep students engaged while still performing a needed activity. Our elementary teachers are hoping to use it in their sensory imaging activities. Our high school home ec. teacher is considering its use when introducing different types of clothing. How will you use it in your classroom?
Readability
The results this site produces make cluttered websites much more readable when projected in a classroom. It does a pretty good job of taking the main content of the page and making it larger and black type on a white background all the while removing the business surrounding it. I think this could be extremly useful for presenting content from the Internet in any classroom.
HippoCampus
Digital resources from various textbooks have been compiled in one place. They are all organized by subject, then book, then page numbers and topics. These are all great resources and could be utilized by anyone with the textbook or without.
Email to Text Message
The last site I presented to our staff was a list of email addresses from most US carriers to allow a text message to be sent to a cell number via an email.The teachers at the presentation were able to think of many uses for such a list.
I think the presentation went well, and I recieved several positive comments on it throughout the rest of the day. I am already scouring the Internet for more resources to present next time.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Lightspeed's SAAVEx
I totally started from scratch with the SAAVEx deployment on our Exchange server and all seems to be well now. I must have had a misconfiguration somewhere. It has been up and running now under a full load of email traffic for several days with no issues. So, I am confident that the issue was resolved with the reinstall.
Lightspeed's customer support, as always, was the best. They respond in an extremely timely manner and are very knowledgeable when they do respond. I am still extremely happy with our Lightspeed box and its capabilities.
Now on to the bells and whistles.
Lightspeed's customer support, as always, was the best. They respond in an extremely timely manner and are very knowledgeable when they do respond. I am still extremely happy with our Lightspeed box and its capabilities.
Now on to the bells and whistles.
New to Blogspt
I have just moved my blog to this new address from my old address. I have reposted most of my posts from my old blog to this new one. The hope is that since this blog is much easier to post to that I will keep it more up-to-date. We'll see. My life is pretty hectic at times.
Lightspeed Update
The Lightspeed Security Agent is fully deployed throughout the network. The last thing left to do is the SAAVEx agent on the Exchange server. This step is proving a little more difficult than the rest. Every time I install it, the SMTP and IIS servers keep crashing. I have put a call into technical support, and as always, they returned my call very promptly. However, because of a blizzard and a personal day I have yet to get back to them to work on the issue.
The deployment of the standard Security Agent went very smoothly, and it is now fully deployed throughout our network. The information these agents are providing us is proving very enlightening. I think the Suspicious Search Engine Queries is my favorite piece. It has led to some interesting conversations with some students and to some suspension of Internet privileges for a few students.
Overall Lightspeed Total Traffic Control has been a very big success. The more I use it, the more I learn it, and the more useful it becomes. I am extremely happy with the district's purchase of this product.
The deployment of the standard Security Agent went very smoothly, and it is now fully deployed throughout our network. The information these agents are providing us is proving very enlightening. I think the Suspicious Search Engine Queries is my favorite piece. It has led to some interesting conversations with some students and to some suspension of Internet privileges for a few students.
Overall Lightspeed Total Traffic Control has been a very big success. The more I use it, the more I learn it, and the more useful it becomes. I am extremely happy with the district's purchase of this product.
eInstruction's InterWrite School Pad 400
The new school year brought some new technology to Okoboji Community School DIstrict in the InterWrite SchoolPad 400. I am one to extensively demo every product before making a purchase when possible. In this case I demoed 5 different units before deciding on this particular model. I also like to have beta groups test any new technology in the classrooms before we make any large purchases of that technology. So, this year 12 teachers at Okoboji will be test driving the SchoolPad 400s in their classrooms.
First impressions are great. One of the teachers that is testing the units happens to be my wife who teaches 7th grade language arts. She is loving it. I am really hoping her enthusiasm toward the product spreads to the others, because she is coming up with new ways to use it daily. Also, I feel that the SchooPad 400s have the ability to make an impact on student engagement in the classrooms for a fraction of the price of a full-on interactive whiteboard. As always, I will keep you posted on future developments with this project.
First impressions are great. One of the teachers that is testing the units happens to be my wife who teaches 7th grade language arts. She is loving it. I am really hoping her enthusiasm toward the product spreads to the others, because she is coming up with new ways to use it daily. Also, I feel that the SchooPad 400s have the ability to make an impact on student engagement in the classrooms for a fraction of the price of a full-on interactive whiteboard. As always, I will keep you posted on future developments with this project.
Lightspeed TTC
It has been a while since my last post. If anyone reading this is an IT person in a school district you will understand why. With the end of summer and the start of a new school year, things get extremely hectic. With the start to the school year this year came the purchase of Lightspeed TTC for Okoboji Community School District.
I am learning it as I go and will take the included training session as soon as possible, but until then first impressions are great. It was a little overwhelming at first just because it can do so much. However, it was not long before I was finding my way around the interface and quickly becoming used to the very logical locations of things. As I use it more and more it is becoming very easy to work with compared to our previous solution.
I have yet to deploy the Security Agent beyond some test machines, but that has also proven easily configurable. Once I get a little time to learn that as well, it will be deployed. I want the end-user experience of the Security Agent to be very minimal if not non-existent. I will do my best to keep you posted as to the progress on this project.
I am learning it as I go and will take the included training session as soon as possible, but until then first impressions are great. It was a little overwhelming at first just because it can do so much. However, it was not long before I was finding my way around the interface and quickly becoming used to the very logical locations of things. As I use it more and more it is becoming very easy to work with compared to our previous solution.
I have yet to deploy the Security Agent beyond some test machines, but that has also proven easily configurable. Once I get a little time to learn that as well, it will be deployed. I want the end-user experience of the Security Agent to be very minimal if not non-existent. I will do my best to keep you posted as to the progress on this project.
Randomizing Logos in Plone 3.2.3
It has been a while since my last post. I have been swamped with trying to get things ready for the upcoming school year. Plus, it is summer in Okoboji.
Anyway, I thought I should post this little tid bit regarding randomizing logos in Plone 3.2.3. It does not work the way it used to in this original post from Plone 2.x. However, you can use the script from step 2 of that post and edit the logo.pt file to get it to work. So follow step 2 of that post and then edit the logo.pt file from the ZMI inside your Plone instance under /portal_view_customizations/plone.logo to call that script instead of the img tag that is there. Below is what my edited version looks like.
<a metal:define-macro="portal_logo"
id="portal-logo"
accesskey="1"
tal:attributes="href view/navigation_root_url"
i18n:domain="plone">
<img tal:attributes="src context/logo" />
</a>
I also wanted my logos to show different sets of logos depending on what section of the website the user is in (i.e. when in the middle school section the user sees middle school related logos). So, I added a logo folder to each section of the website containing the appropriate number of logos to satisfy the script (in my case 15 for each section). Zope/Plone looks for the closest instance of the resource (i.e. the logo folder) based on where the script is called from. It's nice like that.
If you just want one folder with logos for your entire site you would just put one logo folder in the main folder of your Plone instance.
I hope this can help someone save some time searching. I would like to thank the original poster, Paul Hartzog, and pigeonflight from IRC #Plone for their know how.
Anyway, I thought I should post this little tid bit regarding randomizing logos in Plone 3.2.3. It does not work the way it used to in this original post from Plone 2.x. However, you can use the script from step 2 of that post and edit the logo.pt file to get it to work. So follow step 2 of that post and then edit the logo.pt file from the ZMI inside your Plone instance under /portal_view_customizations/plone.logo to call that script instead of the img tag that is there. Below is what my edited version looks like.
<a metal:define-macro="portal_logo"
id="portal-logo"
accesskey="1"
tal:attributes="href view/navigation_root_url"
i18n:domain="plone">
<img tal:attributes="src context/logo" />
</a>
I also wanted my logos to show different sets of logos depending on what section of the website the user is in (i.e. when in the middle school section the user sees middle school related logos). So, I added a logo folder to each section of the website containing the appropriate number of logos to satisfy the script (in my case 15 for each section). Zope/Plone looks for the closest instance of the resource (i.e. the logo folder) based on where the script is called from. It's nice like that.
If you just want one folder with logos for your entire site you would just put one logo folder in the main folder of your Plone instance.
I hope this can help someone save some time searching. I would like to thank the original poster, Paul Hartzog, and pigeonflight from IRC #Plone for their know how.
Netbook Decision
Okoboji Community Schools has decided to get 100 netbooks for the upcoming school year. 1 cart of 24 will be put in the elementary building to replace an existing cart and 3 carts of 24 will be put in the middle school to replace 1 cart as part of our refresh plan. In anticipation of this purchase we have demoed 4 different models.
The 4 we demoed were the MSI Wind, Acer Aspire One, HP 2140, and the Asus Eee PC 1000HE. We gave each demo machine to high school students to try out and give us feedback on. In addition to this testing I thouroughly tested each model myself to make sure it could do what we are going to expect them to do. Although the high school students are not yet the intended audience, we fealt that their input would be better for demoing purposes.
The student favorite was the HP 2140. The main reason for this student opinion was the larger keyboard size. However, the keys themselves are smooth and slippery and also a wierd concave design. They did not really like the buttons on either side of the mouse pad instead of the traditional below-the-mouse-pad position. I was also not a fan of the mouse button position at first, but got used to it pretty quickly. If it were not for the cost of the HP 2140 we would have gone with this machine. All of the other models were cheaper.
MSI's Wind was the first demo we had and was enjoyed by the student testers (the novelty factor was interesting to see.) They did not like the keyboard or the mouse pad and mouse button(s). I too was unimpressed with its keyboard and mouse pad resposiveness. The mouse button(s) were a single button that toggled in the middle which I also did not like.
I was excited when I first received the Acer Aspire One. First of all, it had a great price. It had great battery life. The keyboard was small but not too uncomfotably so. The students agreed that is was better than the MSI Wind. They, also, did not like the smallness of the keyboard. The keyboard on that one also did not feel as durable as some of the others. I am still actually considering purchasing the demo Acer we have at the special demo price for K - 12 institutions.
The netbook we chose to go with is the Asus Eee PC 1000HE. It was the students' second favorite behind the HP 2140. It has several very nice options. The most important one is astronimical battery life. I am using one to write this blog. I am not a normal user and it gives be about 6.5 hours of battery life. To achieve even greater battery life it has a cool little button in the upper left that allows you to turn off the backlight with the touch of a button. Touch any button or the touchpad and it flashes back on. It also has some Mac-like touchpad capabilities. Two-finger scroll, two finger zoom in, zoom out, etc. The keyboard is a little strange at first, but seems more durable that some of the others. The 1000HE has the more classic two button mouse pad design. It has the slightly faster 1.66 GHz. We will upgrade the memory to 2 GB which is also very simple on this machine (2 screws and pop a cover). Other models have no user servicable parts. Its1.3 Mega Pixel camera is superior to others I tested as well. This is the right machine for us, and we will be purchasing at least 100 for next school year.
One of the biggest negatives against netbooks that others claim is that you cannot create with them. I STRONGLY disagree. That is one thing that I knew we would expect these to do, so it is one thing I tested. I created video with the built-in camera. I edited that video with Movie Maker. I edited photos with Gimp and applied many filters and transforms. I created audio with Audacity and manipulated it. Admittedly netbooks are not as fast as full-blown laptops let alone desktops. You have to remember what you are using as your tool. But these tools CAN CREATE.
The 4 we demoed were the MSI Wind, Acer Aspire One, HP 2140, and the Asus Eee PC 1000HE. We gave each demo machine to high school students to try out and give us feedback on. In addition to this testing I thouroughly tested each model myself to make sure it could do what we are going to expect them to do. Although the high school students are not yet the intended audience, we fealt that their input would be better for demoing purposes.
The student favorite was the HP 2140. The main reason for this student opinion was the larger keyboard size. However, the keys themselves are smooth and slippery and also a wierd concave design. They did not really like the buttons on either side of the mouse pad instead of the traditional below-the-mouse-pad position. I was also not a fan of the mouse button position at first, but got used to it pretty quickly. If it were not for the cost of the HP 2140 we would have gone with this machine. All of the other models were cheaper.
MSI's Wind was the first demo we had and was enjoyed by the student testers (the novelty factor was interesting to see.) They did not like the keyboard or the mouse pad and mouse button(s). I too was unimpressed with its keyboard and mouse pad resposiveness. The mouse button(s) were a single button that toggled in the middle which I also did not like.
I was excited when I first received the Acer Aspire One. First of all, it had a great price. It had great battery life. The keyboard was small but not too uncomfotably so. The students agreed that is was better than the MSI Wind. They, also, did not like the smallness of the keyboard. The keyboard on that one also did not feel as durable as some of the others. I am still actually considering purchasing the demo Acer we have at the special demo price for K - 12 institutions.
The netbook we chose to go with is the Asus Eee PC 1000HE. It was the students' second favorite behind the HP 2140. It has several very nice options. The most important one is astronimical battery life. I am using one to write this blog. I am not a normal user and it gives be about 6.5 hours of battery life. To achieve even greater battery life it has a cool little button in the upper left that allows you to turn off the backlight with the touch of a button. Touch any button or the touchpad and it flashes back on. It also has some Mac-like touchpad capabilities. Two-finger scroll, two finger zoom in, zoom out, etc. The keyboard is a little strange at first, but seems more durable that some of the others. The 1000HE has the more classic two button mouse pad design. It has the slightly faster 1.66 GHz. We will upgrade the memory to 2 GB which is also very simple on this machine (2 screws and pop a cover). Other models have no user servicable parts. Its1.3 Mega Pixel camera is superior to others I tested as well. This is the right machine for us, and we will be purchasing at least 100 for next school year.
One of the biggest negatives against netbooks that others claim is that you cannot create with them. I STRONGLY disagree. That is one thing that I knew we would expect these to do, so it is one thing I tested. I created video with the built-in camera. I edited that video with Movie Maker. I edited photos with Gimp and applied many filters and transforms. I created audio with Audacity and manipulated it. Admittedly netbooks are not as fast as full-blown laptops let alone desktops. You have to remember what you are using as your tool. But these tools CAN CREATE.
Different Approach to Technology Staff Development
Okoboji Community Schools started taking a learning team based approach to our staff development this past school year. Next year we will attempt to expand that approach to the technology portion of those staff development days. We have been fortunate this past year to have about 2 hours per professional development day for "Tech Time."
This "Tech Time" will begin to look very different next year. This past year we delivered our technology staff development in a classic way with some sit-and-get led by me usually to the whole 5-12 group of teachers. This time was followed by work time to work on either what was just shown or some other technology related activity. As research shows, this is not an extremely efficient method of delivering technology staff development. The material being presented is usually only relevant to a small portion of the audience and the rest of them spend the time off task doing other things.
Next year we are going to attempt to deliver our technology related staff development using the learning team approach to our (and hopefully everyone's) advantage. We are going to let the learning teams tell us what they want to learn the next P.D. day. They will be responsible for letting us know what resources they think they will need to learn what they want to learn. We are also planning to rely heavily on collaboration between learning team members rather than instructor led learning. We would like to see a bunch of "this is what worked in my classroom" type conversations. No one is exactly sure how this is going to look and I am sure it will be extremely fluid in its "appearance."
I envision the different teams all exploring different aspects of technology in the classroom. Some being led by an facilitator and others simply having conversations and demonstrations by other team members about hoe tech is working in their rooms. I feel these conversation and demonstrations are going to be a huge key to the success of this approach. Peers getting the ideas flowing with other peers.
Towards the end of the session we would come back together and share what was learned by each group during their "tech time." This sharing will also be crucial to assist in the formation of new ideas between groups. Cross group sharing could also take place during the tech time if the need is there.
I am very much looking forward to this new approach to our technology staff development for next year and I will keep posting about how it's going, new developments, struggles, and triumphs. Keep checking back!
This "Tech Time" will begin to look very different next year. This past year we delivered our technology staff development in a classic way with some sit-and-get led by me usually to the whole 5-12 group of teachers. This time was followed by work time to work on either what was just shown or some other technology related activity. As research shows, this is not an extremely efficient method of delivering technology staff development. The material being presented is usually only relevant to a small portion of the audience and the rest of them spend the time off task doing other things.
Next year we are going to attempt to deliver our technology related staff development using the learning team approach to our (and hopefully everyone's) advantage. We are going to let the learning teams tell us what they want to learn the next P.D. day. They will be responsible for letting us know what resources they think they will need to learn what they want to learn. We are also planning to rely heavily on collaboration between learning team members rather than instructor led learning. We would like to see a bunch of "this is what worked in my classroom" type conversations. No one is exactly sure how this is going to look and I am sure it will be extremely fluid in its "appearance."
I envision the different teams all exploring different aspects of technology in the classroom. Some being led by an facilitator and others simply having conversations and demonstrations by other team members about hoe tech is working in their rooms. I feel these conversation and demonstrations are going to be a huge key to the success of this approach. Peers getting the ideas flowing with other peers.
Towards the end of the session we would come back together and share what was learned by each group during their "tech time." This sharing will also be crucial to assist in the formation of new ideas between groups. Cross group sharing could also take place during the tech time if the need is there.
I am very much looking forward to this new approach to our technology staff development for next year and I will keep posting about how it's going, new developments, struggles, and triumphs. Keep checking back!
Purchases Approved
This evening at the Okoboji Community Schools board meeting, my purchases of 100 Asus Eee 1000 HE netbooks, 32 HP 6730B notebooks, and 4 netbook carts were approved. We are on a 4 year refresh cycle for our PCs here at Okoboji so these purchases represent those computers due for refresh. The great thing is that we are refreshing out 2 notebook carts with 4 netbook carts bringing out student to computer ratio at the middle school up dramatically.
Also, with some money that was left in this fiscal year's budget we purchased 5 eInstruction Interactive Pad. We are choosing to go with these instead of full blown tablets for the simple fact that we feel we get more 'bang for our buck' with a Interactive Pads plus a regular notebook than we would with a 'full-blown' tablet pc. We tried the whole tablet pc thing and we were terribly disappointed with them. We are hoping that these will also be more mobile and that the teachers will be more willing to hand these over to the students to interact with the lessons more often. We are planning to purchase 7 more of these pads for a 'beta' program in the middle and elementary buildings with the next fiscal budget as well.
As always professional development will be key to the project's success. I will write more on how we plan to do that part in a later post. We have some different ideas about how we will do that part of the project.
Also, with some money that was left in this fiscal year's budget we purchased 5 eInstruction Interactive Pad. We are choosing to go with these instead of full blown tablets for the simple fact that we feel we get more 'bang for our buck' with a Interactive Pads plus a regular notebook than we would with a 'full-blown' tablet pc. We tried the whole tablet pc thing and we were terribly disappointed with them. We are hoping that these will also be more mobile and that the teachers will be more willing to hand these over to the students to interact with the lessons more often. We are planning to purchase 7 more of these pads for a 'beta' program in the middle and elementary buildings with the next fiscal budget as well.
As always professional development will be key to the project's success. I will write more on how we plan to do that part in a later post. We have some different ideas about how we will do that part of the project.
Lightspeed Total Traffic Control
Okoboji Community Schools is seriously considering the purchase of LIghtspeed Total Traffic Control for our content filtering, anti-virus, bandwidth monitoring, etc. This 'all-in-one' box offers some very intriguing options. The one feature that is stopping us from going forward with the switch is the anti-virus. In order to justify the purchase we will have to replace our current anti-virus, TrenMicro. TrendMicro does and absolutely wonderful job, and switching to something else is a big decision for us. I have had mixed reports on Lightspeeds anti-virus solution. However, the good are starting to outway the bad and I think I am going to recommend the purchase of this appliance. Now I just have to figure out whom to purchase it from.
Approved
I made a presentation to the school board this evening regarding our plans for the refresh plan. They were very receptive and approved the plans. So, the next step will be to finish researching which netbook we will purchase. Depending on what one we decide on, we may be able to purchase 96 instead of the 72 originally planned for. Which would, inturn, get us very close to a 1-to-1 at our middle school on the 7 - 8 level.
I am very much liking the Asus Eee 1000HE I am typing this blog with. It has some very interesting features, and is my favorite so far for various reasons. I do believe I will push for the purchase of this one with a memory upgrade to 2 GB.
They also approved an additional, faster wireless link from our elementary building to our middle school building. We have chosen to go with the Solectek radios which allow for some dynamic bandwidth throttling. That feature alone swayed us toward the Solectek solution. I really cannot wait to have the additional bandwidth to that building. It will greatly improve the middle school's access to the Internet and the rest of the network.
I am very much liking the Asus Eee 1000HE I am typing this blog with. It has some very interesting features, and is my favorite so far for various reasons. I do believe I will push for the purchase of this one with a memory upgrade to 2 GB.
They also approved an additional, faster wireless link from our elementary building to our middle school building. We have chosen to go with the Solectek radios which allow for some dynamic bandwidth throttling. That feature alone swayed us toward the Solectek solution. I really cannot wait to have the additional bandwidth to that building. It will greatly improve the middle school's access to the Internet and the rest of the network.
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