Category: General

I started blogging using a product from Pyra called Blogger Pro. This was an inexpensive subscription service that was an upgrade from the free Blogger product. I was recently notified by Pyra that the Pro version was being discontinued and the extra capabilities were being made available for free. They are sending me a sweatshirt in compensation for the subscription fee. If you are interested in creating a blog, we have always recommended Blogger.Com and now the potential of this service is even greater.

Wonder how online services can be offered at no cost? Me too! Often the answer is that the service incorporates ads in some way. This does not seem to be a big part of the Blogger strategy. Blogger has been purchased by Google and the connection with Google is somehow responsible for the change in policy.

The Chronicle of Higher Ed recently sponsored an interactive discussion with Dr. James Gee, author of What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. See my previous post 8/23 describing this book.

I read on Slash.Dot that today is the anniversary of the first computer bug. The Navy historical archives retain primary source material on Grace Hopper and this event.

Software companies wanting to promote their productivity tools and educational institutions in need of staff development offer each other some great opportunities. Tools that I know how to use or have an inexpensive way to learn how to use are more attractive to me. If I am aware of the opportunity, this would provide companies willing to provide me free or inexpensive training a great marketing opportunity. While some skills I would learn could be applied with similar tools, certain skills would not. All things being equal (e.g., price), I would probably also be fairly loyal to a company that was supportive of my development.

I happen to be a fan of Adobe GoLive (web authoring tool) and Adobe makes an attempt to use this approach. Check out Adobe’s online tutorials for educators and the program for high school students.

Kids.us, the domain promising content appropriate for a young audience, is online. NeuStar, the company responsible for registering sites wanting to use this domain, requires registrants to submit their content for review prior to website activation. The only link I found was to the Smithsonian so we will have to see whether companies make the effort or see any advantage in this approach.

Ran into a couple of interesting policy issues today. The Grand Forks schools no longer allow students or teachers to bring their own laptops to school. It turns out the schools have major problems with the recent viruses even though protected by a firewall and are guessing that a teacher brought the virus inside the protected system on a personal machine. The school has no way to control the virus protection on personal machines like they can on the machines owned by the district. As you might expect, teachers who have invested in laptops expecting to use the machines at home and in their classrooms are not pleased.

I am also confronting unexpected policy issues related to wireless networks. I thought wireless was the answer and I have been frustrated with tech administrators who are holding up access in local educational buildings because appropriate security is not in place. I am starting to learn that there more security issues than I realized. I understand that once within range, an unprotected wireless network could be accessed by anyone with a wireless laptop. Somehow, this did not bother me. I can also sit down at any computer on campus and access the network without identifying myself. It just seemed allowing open access to desktop machines and worrying about laptops was out of balance. Perhaps people working on hard connected computers are more visible?

The idea that someone outside my building (or home) might be using my network seemed impossible. I can’t even gain access from certain locations within my house. It turns out you can build an antenna to improve your range – see the story of the Pringle antenna. I guess that guy pointing the potato chip can at my house was not as strange as I thought.

Gallup has completed the annual poll on public attitudes toward public schools.

Some conclusions included in the executive summary:
1. The public has high regard for the public schools, wants needed improvement to come through those schools, and has little interest in seeking alternatives.
2. The public sees itself as uninformed on the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, with 69% saying they lack the information needed to say whether their impression of the act is favorable or unfavorable.
3. Responses to questions related to strategies associated with NCLB suggest that greater familiarity with the law is unlikely to lead to greater public support.
4. The public is concerned about getting and keeping good teachers, thinks teacher salaries are too low, and is willing to see higher salaries paid to teachers teaching in more challenging situations.
5. The public continues to believe that closing the achievement gap between white students and black and Hispanic students is important but blames the gap on factors unrelated to the quality of schooling.