I made the visit to Trickie Dickies that I needed to make and while I was there spied something that I had read about on Boing Boing last week. Cyber Clean is an amazing yellow goop that claims to be able to clean all the germ ridden goop from all of your keyboards, phones and other electrical gear. I don’t know if it’s as anti-bacterial as they claim, but it’s great fun. And set the boy and I off on another non-Newtonian fluid side-track again. The joys of being in a family of geeks.

My car needed a wheel alignment so after dropping my car into the lovely guys at Beaurepaires Henderson (they are always so cheerful) I walked around the corner and parked myself at a small lunchbar. Armed with a decent cup of coffee I pulled out my eee PC and my phone and set myself up to get on the net.

My eee PC is getting a lot of use. I don’t like being without an internet connection so I use a bluetooth connection to my Windows Mobile phone’s internet sharing application. It takes a few minutes (and a bit of command line tweaking) to get it all set up but it’s definitely worth it.

My next move with the eee PC will be to look at some different operating systems. At the moment this version of Ubuntu is the one that I am most interested in looking at.

That will have to wait for another catch up day though.

Related posts:

1. Great Stories on the Internet

• I upgraded the eee PC by adding a 2GB memory stick. Although the stock standard installation of Xandros only recognises the first gigabite of that memory, I think it was a worthwhile upgrade in anticipation of further “upgrades” to come. I have been able to simultaneously open a couple of documents in Open Office, several tabs in a couple of Firefox windows and play some MP3s without too much difficultly. I’m interested in going further though and looking at putting Ubuntu on the machine to have a look at how it handles things.

• I applied Vista SP1 to my laptop (HP 6710). I have 4GB of ram in there and finally it all shows up in the Syem Properties. Whether it’s being used is a different matter of course! This is the best installation of Vista that I have done (out of about 25) and I was a bit aprehensive about applying all of the “updates” but in the end it has all worked out OK. And yes, again I did backup first.

• Last night I gave in and upgraded this site to WordPress 2.5 RC1. I backed up first – I have an automatic backup of all the sites that I look after happen every weekend – and uploaded the files. The upgrade was smooth and, so far, everything appears to be cooperating. I like the look of the new dashboard, and am particularly happy with the new addition of the full screen button – less clutter! I am looking forward to testing the new “Add Media” component of the “Write” page. More about that at the end of this post.

• This afternoon I got a tad side-tracked by the latest fad. Muxtape is a 21st century way of sharing your favourite music with your friends aka the old fashioned mixtape. It’s super simple – upload 12 MP3s, sort out the order and share the URL. My Muxtape is here – today it’s a mellow late afternoon playlist taken from the first twelve songs from my favourite iPod playlist. I could change things tomorrow by uploading some different songs. It’s simplicity is its strength – although I’d love to see a few stats. Who else likes Cordova from the Indigo Girls? And how many other people have played my Muxtape? I’m sure it will all come. Of interest I can’t play any Muxtapes in Firefox on either my laptop (Vista) or the eee PC. I think it might be something to do with the extensions that I have installed. I need to rouse myself and troubleshoot it further.

• The other job that I’ve been doing over the last few days is putting together a P4 2.8GHz machine for my daughter and her family. Their old Celery is dreadfully slow so I have put together some old parts and got a nice machine for them to use. It’s a nice solid P4, 1.5GB ram, DVD RW and has 180GB of hard drive space for them to collect photos of my grandchildren. It’s running Xp but after that I loaded Open Office and a whole lot of other free and open source programmes. Hopefully it will suit them for a little while.

And so to “Add Media”. Firstly an image:

Easy. The options are really clear and easy to follow. And, incidentally, checkout a whole gallery of Last Supper pictures (I know – Easter is over …).

And a link to a YouTube (make sure that you have your headphones on):

The Virtual Barber

or via the embed media button in the advanced options:

Which may or may not be something that Artichoke mentioned to me a couple of weeks ago? It’s definitely worth the five minutes it takes to watch / listen / think about.

No related posts.

After a few years of upgrading desktop machines I moved into the world of laptops. Last year I got a 15 inch Apple Powerbook so that I could support teachers who were using Apples. The Powerbook is a beautiful machine. It runs Tiger (OSX) and has a range of good software on it. It’s a light machine and it’s damn sexy to look at.

But it’s not my machine of choice. I’m a PC user from way back. I’m not dogmatic about using the PC, it’s just what I am used to using and what I am most comfortable using. For me it’s about getting the job done. I’m not able to get the work that I do as comfortably on the Mac. If I had ‘grown up’ using a Mac it might be quite different.
So when I was in the market for a new laptop a couple of months ago, I took a look at the new MacBooks. They are very nice machines with some cool features. Bootcamp and Parallels desktop could have given me the best of both worlds, PC and Mac.

In the end I decided to stay inside the PC world a bit longer. I’d been thinking about pen computing and how a tablet pc might be an interesting computer. I was really interested in the convertable tablet and decided that it was time to go to the smaller form factor offered by the Toshiba M400. And if Apple had a tablet on offer? I would have been interested. Maybe next time?
I was interested to see what Apple’s Steve Jobs had to say at the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC). He talked about some of the exciting new features of Leopard (the next version of OSX) due out sometime early next year. Then he rubbished MS Windows and accused the developers of Vista of stealing everything except his last billion dollars. Apple even made one of their funny little commercials about the conference.

Does Microsoft do this? Do either of these companies need to do this? People use the technologies that they want (and can afford) to accomplish the tasks that they need to accomplish.
Frankly I am tired of the one-eyed illogical ranting of the Mac fan-boys. Macs, Pcs, Linux boxen, iPods, Palms, Smartphones, PocketPCs, iPhones, Zen and Zunes … who cares? It’s about getting your stuff done in a way that you are comfortable with.

Links:

Steve Jobs at WWDC

Lifehacker puts Vista and Leopard side by side

Paul Thurrot’s take on Jobs’ keynote

Related posts:

1. iPhone – Smoke and Mirrors?

NZ Herald story

DigiOps Website

There has been lots to say about this project and about some of the dollars that are being spent on increasing connectivity and capability for New Zealand teachers and schools. Computerworld journalist Stephen Bell provided an interesting analysis of the press release information. He notes that the initiative could be a useful little earner for HP as it is one of the few vendors still selling tablet PCs.” Not quite true. There are several big name vendors selling Tablets , it’s just that many of the vendors are not well known here in New Zealand. Motion Computing? NEC? Fujitsu? And Lenovo or IBM? Toshiba? Off the top of my head …

Overall the article is a positive report about the value of putting tablets into the hands of kids and the importance of the government putting some dollars into ICT in schools in general.

Stephen Bell’s last paragraph is worthy of comment:

The children say the tablets provide for a quicker method of recording data in real-time, but say they would prefer a simple spreadsheet rather than the specially set up, but perhaps inadequately explained, database entry form provided. (italics mine)

In this case it’s not the tablet that is the issue, it’s the activity that is the problem. The kids can use the Tablet PC but are not quite sure about the activity they are doing. Surely the same issue would occur if they had been using a regular laptop or desktop computer – or even a pen and paper. So in this case it’s the design of the activity that is the problem.

Apparently there was a bit of controversy about this story:

There is little need for computers in day-to-day education. It may be nice to use Google Earth to see where you live, but Google this (or that) is not going to teach you the basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic.

and this:

Kids doing this kind of survey should stand outside with clipboards and pencils, and make marks on sheets of paper. They should then transfer the results to the white/blackboard. After that, they should draw, on paper, their own little bar chart showing the results and then colour it in.

And on the discussion goes.

What is being ignored here is the reason why we put kids in front of computers (on in this case, computers in front of kids). It’s to allow access to other ideas. It’s to allow data and ideas to be manipulated and shared and focussed upon. Yes, children need to do the old tally charts and construct graphs by hand. But, they don’t need to stop there. They need to be able to look at those tally charts and elegantly constructed bar graphs (and pie charts and line graphs) and identify what the data is telling them. Once a child has made a few graphs in their maths book do they need to go on forever making pretty colourful graphs? Or does it then become more important to analyse the data and develop some ideas or conclusions? And then maybe find ways to appropriately share their conclusions.
—

As a new tableteer, I am interested in how they are being used in education. One of the huge advantages of a Tablet PC over a traditional desktop or even a ‘normal’ laptop is the smaller form factor and the way that it combines the best of paper with the best of digital. Sometimes a screen becomes a barrier in a discussion; the tablet, because it resembles a diary or notepad, is far less intrusive. I quite enjoy entering information using the stylus pen and it’s an amazing way to work on digital art. A lot of the time (like right now), it’s easier to type but if I am in a meeting, then I prefer to go into slate (tablet) mode and draw on my screen.

The DigiOps website says:

Brooklyn School is part of the Digital Opportunities Project, a joint initiative between the Ministry of Education and technology partners and is looking at how emerging technologies can help improve student learning. The school’s three-year project named CHaOS (Children Having Ownership of Schooling), is investigating whether pen-based technologies such as the Tablets, help increase student engagement levels and contribute towards enhancing student learning.

I am interested in the Tablet Classroom project. I hope that we continue to discuss what is happening in all of these inovative projects and actually get some hard data about whether “whether pen-based technologies such as the Tablets, help increase student engagement levels and contribute towards enhancing student learning.“

Related posts:

1. Tablet Apostasy
2. TabletWiki
3. Tablet PC Webinar

This is an interesting subject and one that I’ve been considering from the educational angle. While the techie-boys (and unfortunately they are mainly young males) go on and one about the imminent bursting of the Web 2.0 bubble, those of us back with at least one foot on the ground are considering exactly how ordinary web users are getting their ideas.

Hang on. Is there such a thing as an ordinary web user? Can you classify according to age and gender? Are all ten year old boys doing Neopets and chatting on MSN? Or is that the domain of sixteen to twenty year old girls? Who is busy on TradeMe? A wide swathe of ages and certainly both genders if my family and friends are “average”. There may be trends emerging – younger people prefer instant messaging, ie texting and MSN Chat over slower email – but the internet on the whole is a great leveler. Flickr, deli.ici.ous, Google everything …

Back to gatekeeping. In his critique, Stowe Boyd asks “who are the gatekeepers?” He says we should all be our own, but then adds, “The reality is that we are unequipped — we do not have the time or resources.”

Then he goes on to discuss the four methods of getting ideas and knowledge and how authorities emerge – by dint of good writing, which is then picked up and worked over by others (much like I have picked up his post).

My issue is that there are a lot of self-proclaimed experts out there and people who have been able to work out systems and ways to get themselves to the “top of the charts” so as to speak. After all, get on Digg, Memeorandum, Slashdot orBoing Boing and, hey, you’ve made it. Right?

Back to what I consider to be my job with teachers. I think we have to look at evaluation and assessment in a new light. We need to look at systems of evaluating and assessing ideas and opinions as well as knowledge and facts as they are presented to us as adults. Back when I was in the MMP programme at Waikato University, the late (and great) Nola Campbell drummed into us the basics for evaluating a website. Is it dated? Is it acknowledged? Are there references? Simple stuff (and there is more) but powerful if we apply them to the other “stuff” that is thrust in front of us. A newspaper columnist, a talkback opinion, a website about monarch butterflies, the Wikipedia …

It’s not about the popularity of a topic (or the inverse popularity as in the case of Web2.0) it’s about carefully crafted authority. It’s about not accepting (or the Luddites dismissing) the internet as the only source of good information. It’s about accepting that books can only be as good as the editors who worked on them and the authority that published them. It’s about assessment and evaluation.

After all, it was Aristotle that said,

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

Links: here and the earlier discussion can be found here.

No related posts.

I’m still, though, struggling with a feeling that I am not quite hitting the spot. It’s really easy to show off a new piece of software (Google Earth or ArtRage) and easy to talk about how to integrate it into a classroom programme. But, I think it’s time to actually get in and do the classroom thing.

Related posts:

1. ArtRage
2. Time to Start Talking
3. Crashed

Unfortunately I was dressed in the wrong gear. My jeans were blue (designer, please), my jacket was brown (suede, please). Ordinary clothing for most women in my age group maybe, but not average clothing for this sector. I would say that more than ninety percent of the people out at Greenlane today were in black. Basic, boring black. Black pants and shirt for the men, black pants and blouse for the women. Polyester paradise. Oh, the Ingram Micro / Tech Pacific women had this knitted blue poncho on top, but basically it was black all the way. The more polyester the better. Blue jeans (designer, please) and brown jacket (suede, please) – my first mistakes.

I dutifully visited most of the trade stands at the showcase. After all I do sell the odd printer, wireless router and PC. It was really interesting. The moment I mentioned that I worked anywhere near schools the sales droids eyes glazed over. Yes, the Sales. Droids. Eyes. Glazed. Over. That’s what I felt these people were – droids. Master glazers. That’s really sad. What the droids don’t understand is that if I put a BrandX printer into a classroom 30 kids and at least one adult will notice that it’s brand X. When I was teaching, I noticed that several times – “Oh, Mrs G, I’ve got a XXXX printer at home. It’s great …”. Or “I told Mum that we had a XXXX camera at school …”. Brands do matter; kids are consumers too.

In my present job I am regularly asked about my printer / computer / camera / (insert) geek toy recommendations . I’m quite honest about the brands and models that I prefer. After today I’ll be even more honest because I kow who was happy to spend time talking to the woman who was not in the coporate black uniform and who was a teensy bit older than the buying demographic.

AArrrgghh.

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