Well, I have been using the iPod for a couple of months now and still love it.I have been able to find many useful applications including one that will allow me to use Remote Desktop to my servers as long as I have a wi-fi connection. I have also found the WordPress application for the iPod, as that is what I am composing this post on. The keyboard isn’t too difficult to use once you get used to allowing the spell checker do it’s job (thanks to Ryan Collins for pointing that out).
I was really getting tired of the older theme and had to pick a new one. It may get changed again over the weekend, we’ll see.
For school I carry a Samsung i760 Windows Mobile “smart phone.” I’m not sure who coined the phrase “smart phone” because it really couldn’t be any further from the truth. This thing wasn’t designed with the phone part being it’s primary function. To be honest, I’m not really sure what it’s primary function was supposed to be. Several years ago I purchased a Compaq iPaq Windows CE device and wasn’t impressed. I found the Windows CE operating system difficult to operate, and not really good at any of it’s intended functions. Personally, I feel the same way about Windows Mobile 6 Professional, it’s not really good at anything. Maybe that’s a little harsh, it’s not GREAT at anything. For example, I received a text message from one of my assistants letting me know of a family emergency and that she wouldn’t be in to work. However I didn’t get notification of that text message, I stumbled across the message that afternoon. Blackberry devices on the other hand do nearly everything great! Perhaps those of you with Windows Mobile devices know of some tweaks or something that I could do to start loving that device, but I think I’m going to stop using it.
Over the weekend I purchased an iPod Touch so that I could use it as a PDA, and use my LG VX-8700 cell phone. I’d buy the iPhone (or perhaps the new Blackberry Storm once it arrives) but the coverage area, particularly at school, is better with Verizon. So far I’m loving the iPod touch other than an application that I downloaded just seemed to lock up the device. All has been well since I removed it. I’ll write more of a review as I discover this little gem.
Here is a script that I have been using for a couple of years now to create hundreds or thousands of users from an Excel spreadsheet.
Today as I was filling out my documentation for Professional Development points at school, I came across an article that I didn’t link to on my blog. I wrote an article for EdTech’s Feb/Mar 2008 issue about e-Discovery tools. Check it out here:
http://www.edtechmag.com/k12/issues/february-march-2008/help-is-on-the-way.html
We have needed to make some long overdue upgrades to our infrastructure. We have 9 servers that are due to be retired/replaced at the end of this school year, and our wireless network needed an overhaul.
We recently purchased a Trapeze Networks MX-200 and MP-422A access points. So far they are working great! It’s nice to finally have a controller for the APs so that changes can be made centrally, and not on each AP. I’ll keep you up to date on it’s performance.
As for the servers, we selected the IBM BladeCenter, 4 blades, and VMWare. We should begin that installation in a couple of weeks once I get the correct power into the datacenter. I also have to make some room in the rack to handle the chassis. I can’t wait to dive head first into the world of virtualization!
It’s the time of year when we start shopping for laptops for the next school year. For the 2008-2009 school year we selected the Toshiba Tecra A8 laptop. However, the students haven’t been very happy with it because of the weight. The 15.4” WXGA screen makes for a large, heavy laptop – can’t say I blame them. Apparently many of the laptop companies have decided that 15.4” wide screens are the way to go, and are making them the most affordable units in their line. A few years ago a 14” screen was the de facto standard, now it’s a premium product that companies like to sell as an “upgrade” to their now standard 15.4” wide screen. We decided that Toshiba’s brand new Satellite Pro U400 which has a 13.3” wide screen (just like a MacBook) was the unit to buy this year. Unfortunately by the time we added a 3-year warranty the cost was $1150+ per unit. That’s pretty hard to swallow since we bought a Tecra A8 last year with a 3-year warranty for $800 each. We have been told we got the “buy of the century” on the Tecras. I have a sneaking suspicion that Toshiba doesn’t manufacture these new Satellite Pro U400 units, they have someone else OEM them. The reason I say this is because they wouldn’t deal at all on price. If we selected a Tecra, they were willing to negotiate on price.
So we started shopping for a new vendor, I hate doing this. I hate the fact that we have to shop for a new unit each year, but since we only have our students (and laptops) for 2 years, it doesn’t make sense to spend $1100+ per laptop. We gave some very serious consideration to Apple, but we just couldn’t make it happen. With all of the software we use in our labs, we need to run Windows. Most of the programs have a Mac equivelant, but the big one that doesn’t is AutoCAD. We have over 100 students taking classes that use AutoCAD, and that means running BootCamp and purchasing a $140 OEM copy of Windows XP or Vista for them. Financially it doesn’t make sense for us. We would have to transition the entire network over to Mac, but that would take a few years.
We looked at the Acer TravelMate series of notebooks. These laptops appear to be built very well. The only problem is that we can’t find many schools using Acer laptops, and the service kind of scares me. There are no Acer service centers, everything is depot.
We ended up purchasing a HP nc4400 laptop that has a 12” screen, and an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0Ghz processor. This has been a very speedy unit in our testing, and the students love the fact that it is only 4 pounds. Furthermore, it boasts a 5.5 hour battery. The students should be able to use the laptop most of the school day.
Our next major decision, what laptop bags to buy.
Last month while at the eTech Technology Conference I was involved in a discussion about eBooks and laptop programs. The topic came up about loading eBooks onto the student laptops, and doing away with the traditional hardback textbooks. So far we have only heard promises from book publishers, and it seems that they really don’t want to make the shift away from those traditional textbooks. In speaking with our students, the laptops are heavy enough, and they really don’t want to add several books to what they are carrying around. The laptop is a great platform to load eBooks onto, but there just aren’t very many of them out there.
The topic came up again on an e-mail listserv that I participate in, and I spoke out again about publishers not willing to shift to eBooks. We have enough talented teachers in the State of Ohio to write the textbooks that could be used statewide and correlated to the Ohio Academic Content Standards. I offered to build and host a site where this content could be housed - for free. I’m working on creating a wiki that can be the home of this content. This content really shouldn’t be limited to Ohio, in fact it really shouldn’t be limited at all. I really like what MIT (and others) is doing with their OpenCourseWare project, and would like to create a similar project for K-12 schools. Please stay tuned for more information about the eBook website.
My last blog post was 3 months ago, and things are finally starting to let up. Actually things are constantly evolving and new opportunities are always presenting themselves. For instance, I was 1 of 3 panelists that conducted a webinar for EdTech Magazine (http://www.edtechmag.com/k12/index.php) entitled “Going One-to-One.” I joined Stewart Crais (Lausanne Institute) and Justin Dover (Harpeth Hall) on a variety of topics for the webinar, as well as fielding questions from the audience. There were 350+ attendees registered for the event. I feel very fortunate to be able to present with these two gentlemen, as they both have far more experience than I do in the 1 to 1 arena. Thanks guys!
I have written an article “Doing More With Less” that is currently hosted on EdTech’s website. You can access it here. http://www.edtechmag.com/k12/events/updates/doing-more-with-less.html . I will have another piece on e-Discovery tools coming out soon. I’ll post the link here when it’s published.
As for school, our master image has been much better than in the past (third time’s a charm). We replaced our web filter due to students being able to get to anonymous proxy servers. We looked at several solutions, and it seems that the 8e6 appliance was the best fit for us.
I have been using Google Analytics to keep track of the traffic on this site, and have found it to be a wealth of knowledge. Last week when reviewing my reports, I noticed that a ton of students have been searching the web trying to get around the Marshal Software WebMarshal product. Since I have previously mentioned that product on here, my site keeps showing up in their search results. I found that quite ironic because I would NEVER post information “how to get around your school web filter”. Kids – if you’re reading this page, you should get back on task and quit trying to get to porn or MySpace.
I’ll try to post more information soon rather than waiting another 3 months.
Merry Christmas!
It’s been a while since I’ve posted to the blog, we’ve been very busy getting ready for school to start. On August 22, 2007 we officially began year 3 of our laptop program. We’ve learned a lot since we started the program, and it shows this year. We decided to distribute the laptops in the labs during our orientation nights. Last year we distributed the laptops during orientation night, but had only one central location. I had the Technology Department setup in our IT lab where the student-run helpdesk will be located. We figured this way the we could get students used to go to the helpdesk rather than the Technology department.
We implemented Software Restriction Policies through AD Group Policy in an effort to control the applications that students are using during school hours. We wanted to lock-down the laptops during school hours, but allow students to play games and communicate with their friends when not in school. We were able to accomplish this by following some recommendations from Lee Tilley (Chamanade School). Lee had suggested creating a second user account in which students could login to their PC with admin rights. Once we got some group policy issues worked out, things started working very nicely.
The problems that we are still battling are as follows:
Can’t get students to leave the laptops in the bags - they take laptop out while at home
Students are putting binders and notebooks between the screen and back of laptop bag
Students are using school e-mail system as an IM tool.
If you have any suggestions for how to solve my 3 problems listed above, please let me know.
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