Making the Connection...A Video Conference Symposium :: Blog

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I was researching wireless for a WLAN implementation RFP going out and stumbled on this website, wikia.com. It seems to be a new take on Wiki where they are grouped into communities, one of which is school computing. It looks like a great resource but I haven’t had a chance to do a deeper dive.

http://www.shack.ca/index.php?id=18

I have been trying to install Wine on EeePc for a while..the most popular instruction, to use the Xandros repos at wine.budgetdedicated.com don’t work. They throw an error about a Winbind dependency. So I am reading a forum post that describes this problem perfectly and I wanted to share the reply:

_this is not a wine bug

nor is the repo for xandros

but rather for ubuntu and debian.

either build wine from source a get a package for your Distribution. _

Super helpful.

If Linux is going to win converts, the user base has to realize that the vast majority of computer users don’t compile the software they use. In fact, most mainstream computers don’t ship with the tools necessary to compile from from source.

Maybe some Linux users believe this is a must have skill for anyone that is going to use Linux. If that is the case, hope you are enjoying life on the sidelines because that is where you will stay.

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Well, it took me a while but I did validate the instructions I found for a factory eeePC restore from USB. The instructions are almost perfect except I had better success copying the boot tool folder to my Windows XP hard drive and running from there with the Recovery CD in the ODD. So, my version of the instructions, without the pretty screenshots, would be:

Easy Eee PC recovery in ten quick steps

(Assumes E: is your DVD Drive)

1. Insert the Tools DVD into your computers DVD drive and copy the E:SoftwareBootToolBootTool folder to your hard drive.

2. Remove the Tools DVD and insert the Recovery DVD and your USB Key. Navigate to the BootTool folder on your hard drive and run FreeOSTool.exe

3.Once the utility is started, please ensure the disk drive chosen is correct and select “Copy EEE PC 700701 image to USB flash and make it bootable”

Once complete, press execute.

4. The warning message will pop up to make sure you have backed up your data (if any) from your USB drive. Press Yes if confirmed.

5. Next, wait for a minute before formatting finishes. During formatting, a message pops up to ask you to unplug and plug the USB drive back and click Retry.

6. Wait for a while before the files are copied to the USB drive. Once completed, a message shows up and you may click Yes to close the program.

You may then unplug the USB drive.

7. Plug the USB Drive into your Eee PC and boot up. When the Eee PC logo appears, click the Esc key couple of time to go into the boot device menu. Please select the USB Drive and press Enter.(Note: Due to the manufacture may vary, the name of the USB drive may be different. However, they should show “USB:…” to begin with)

8. Please wait a few minute before the recovery system is activated.

9. Next, it will ask again if one wishes to recover. Input “yes” and then Enter to continue.

10. After a few minutes, the process will finish and one may click Enter to reboot the system. Once rebooted, the recovery is completed.

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As I was searching for a way to speed up my video encoding I stumbled on this article. I couldn’t agree more. Even if Moore’s law holds true, it will be 10 years before a home PC will encode video to DVD at an acceptable speed. With video editing becoming a more mainstream activity there needs to be an easy way to aggregate the processing power of the 3-4 computers in some of our households. There is a Java X-Grid client which allowed me to connect 3 machines to my Mac for a total of 12 Ghz of processing power but I can’t run my encoding client on an X-Grid of mixed platform. I wonder how schools with active video production facilities are dealing with this…maybe a video encoding grid at Secondary would help these students be more productive and address one of the least appealing aspects of digital video production.

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If you are one of the two people reading my blog (Thanks Mom and Dad!) you know that I wrote a few entries on email overload which were then published in the OASBO Advocate. Well…I just finished reading Wired and Clive Thompson had a great article on, you guessed it, email overload. While I didn’t take the time to patent it, the phrase “timesuck” figures prominently in his article, i.e. THE TITLE, “Great American Timesuck”! Clive’s article is here

Coincidence? Or just wishful thinking that maybe there are three readers of my blog!

Either way, the article features a cool little piece of software that I definitely intend to try, Xobni

It is billed as AI for your inbox and gives you some insight into how you AND the people you correspond with use their email. Neat.

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I was very fortunate in working towards my district’s technology plan to have a very committed and excited group of stakeholders to work with. In fact, they were so excited after our first meeting that our Controller of Finance pulled me aside afterwards to make sure I knew there were limits to how much we could spend (bummer!)

So, as we were talking about how nice it would be to have a smartboard in every classroom I got to thinking about how I could let the committee dream, but still stay within the budget handed down. For our last meeting I presented the Classroom Technology Configurator, an Excel spreadsheet that allowed the committee to place technology at different levels of the board and instantly see the financial impact of their decisions. Within our budget it allowed the committee to see that in order to continue with our Teacher laptop project, we could not put Smartboards in every classroom.

The spreadsheet was pre-populated with our budget, what I thought to be reasonable lifespans for each piece of equipment, the cost of equipment and the number of times it would need to be replaced in our planning horizon (6 years). The cost of the technology chosen is automatically subtracted from the available budget. It allows for some great “what-if” discussions, we worked on the spreadsheet in pairs and it led to some amazing ideas and conversation. An example is, what if we put a video conference unit in every school…$200K. That could buy 125 laptops…then maybe we can put 5 video conference units at the board office and loan them to schools as needed!

The configurator is available at http://www.shack.ca/files/classtechnologyconfigurator.xls

I hope you find it useful!

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My earlier blog postings on email overload were published in the OASBO Advocate

http://www.shack.ca/index.php?id=12

Well, I am definitely not the first person to blog about their first impressions of the eeepc, probably not even the thousandth. But my question is does the Eee PC have a place in the arsenal of tools teachers will use in classrooms. I say that because I have no doubt that this machine will make its way into the class, particularly after this Christmas. My question is should it be recommended and purchased for use in the classroom by me? My answer right now is No. It’s tough buying an Alphasmart or Neo for $300 when you can buy a micro laptop for the same price that can run XP and Linux. Having said that, anyone who has attempted typing on the Eee PC will recognize immediately that it is not appropriate for Special Education use. The small screen is difficult to read and would be tough on young eyes. I have successfully installed Wine on the Xandros Linux partition and have run a few programs like Kidworks and Speedway..they look great but again very small. Anyway, it has been long enough since I have been in the classroom that I will definitely need a second opinion. I plan on posting my eeepc experience here and will give (hopefully) very specific instructions to configure the Linux partition with Wine and some Windows software titles. First off, I need to make a backup of the default install. It is on DVD but what a pain it is to get an external DVD drive and hook it up everytime I break the thing. So, there are instructions on using a Windows XP computer with DVD drive to copy the contents of the DVD to a USB Key. The link is here and I will be validating the directions tomorrow on my lunch break!

This morning I started reading a book called "Action Research in Organisations" by Jean McNiff.  My principal actually gave a copy to me last year after our annual learning plan meeting.  In that meeting, I stated that my goal was to conduct a kind of "mini action research project" in which I looked at my students' multiple intelligences as well as their left brain/right brain preference.  My principal handed me a copy of the book and it sat on my shelf - until now.  So far, I have only read through part of the introduction and believe me, it has been an interesting and thought-provoking experience.  A few things have come out of my reading so far.  Here they are, not in any particular order, just random comments based on writing in the book.  In each case, I will quote the part of the book and then give my perceptions/comments/questions afterwards. Forgive me for taking each quote out of context...

 a) "What is needed, says Schon, is a new way of theorising which integrates theory and practice, a form of theory which is embodied in real lives and shows the process of reflecting on reflection-in-action, and which may be shared with others who are also studying their own practice" - Isn't this what action research is all about?  Isn't this what we, as teachers, do inside our heads (except for the "sharing with others" part)? Is this the shift that needs to take place in education - going from each of us teaching in our own rooms to a point where we each share our "best practice" with our colleagues both in our school and perhaps virtually around the world?

 b) "Our language informs and creates our realities.  Change the language and you may change the reality."  Reminds me of a principal who told me that "perception is everything" and a parent who remarked during an interview that "MY (his own) perception is what matters."  Perhaps our difficulty in understanding our students is not so much finding out what their needs are but, rather, having a glimpse into their own personal perception.  Is this what the new "metacognitive" piece in the Ontario curriculum is all about - ie. finding out a student's perception so we can better understand the student?

 c) "Learning involves creating new ideas out of old ones.  It does not mean entirely rejecting what went before, but making new connections and reconfiguring the neworks, so that previous knowledge transforms into new knowledge that serves human purposes more adequately than older forms."  Reminds me of a keynote speaker at Leading Learning 2008 (maybe George Siemens??) who said that we all come to education with a bulk of understanding of what has gone before.  Everyone has had their own experience in education and we interpret what happens in the classroom now based on our own experience.  Since the world around is is changing exponentially, we cannot afford to subscribe to the attitude of "this is the way I have always done it in the past - and this is how I will teach in the future."  Perhaps the self-reflective nature of action research allows us as educators to get a better indication of what the present attitude is in our classrooms and in our teaching communities so we can actually use our experience (our "best practice") to frame the direction in which we are to head next.... 

 Just a few thoughts...  I would welcome comments and discussion from anyone else.

I haven't use a blog in such a long time - actually not since my introduction which was my first entry!  Here is an update and, hopefully, the beginning of a new professional blog.  Please feel free to add to my comments, give me feedback, tell stories about technology etc. 

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This past school year (2007/2008) was an interesting challenge for me as, once again, I was teaching in a Grade 3 classroom.  I helped Tim Pugh with a couple of presentations on videoconferencing.  The first was when we co-presented at ECOO in November.  That proved to be a very interesting and valuable experience.  For me, the highlights of the conference (other than our own workshop) happened when I was able to connect with my class using my laptop, PVX software from Polycom, and the Polycom in my classroom.  Imagine for a moment ...  I was in the hotel lobby, with my laptop, webcam and microphoned headset talking to the students in my class and the supply teacher to get updates on their progress with a Remembrance Day project. The next day, during our workshop, I again was able to connect with the class.  My students were so excited to tell me about the assembly and what they had learned. It still amazes me how easily children are able to adapt to technology and how they are so natural when using it.  I also was able to meet Kevin Cougler face-to-face.  Tim, Kevin and I chatted over lunch and I am so excited about VROC and the opportunities that are provided to our students. Thank you Kevin!

 The second presentation Tim and I were able to provide was during the Leading Learning Conference in May.  I LEARNED SO MUCH from the keynote speakers and from the other workshops I attended. It was fabulous to present our Virtual GrandE project and, once again, connect live to another site.  This time, it was Simcoe Composite School in Simcoe, Ontario. I facilitated a live, interactive interview with the principal of the school and the moderator from our Earth Day videoconference.  I also had opportunity to have some extremely interesting and encouraging conversations with others who share my passion for technology.  Thank you Kevin, Geoff, Ron, Tim, and a host of others who welcomed me into their discussions.  You gave me so much to think about...

In September 2008, I will be back in a Junior classroom - teaching Grade 6.  I will also be helping Tim with videoconferencing and will be promoting the continuation of Virtual GrandE in our board.  In the meantime, I am taking Computers in the Classroom Part 3 this summer.  I expect that I will be using this blog for some "musings" as the course continues.