Remote Assistance

I just moved my Mail Server from one ISP to another and I knew some of my teachers would be calling because their email didn't work any more. I was going to do a 30 day trial of goto assist because of its great reviews but didn't want to deal with trying it with the school credit card. I kept looking and found TeamViewer. It's working great. When a teacher calls in asking how to get his/her email working, I can take over their computer and fix it for them.

1. have them Google teamviewer download and go to the page
2. talk them through downloading and running the small program - TeamViewr Quick Support
3. have them give you their id number and password

Linux Domain / File Server

Our Windows 2003 server had major problems last week $$$$. Not good at the end of a school budget. But a perfect opportunity to try Ebox Linux Server. So I put together a Ebox Office server, added the users, copied their files on, and chown -R their directories. So far - working like a champ.

200+ users

Ebox 1.4
I added icewm (windows manager), ivman (hotplug USB), nedit (editor), and nautilus (file manager).

So far - so good I haven't observed it under a heavy load yet but it doesn't look like its going to be a problem.

iPod Touch in the classroom

I just observed a six grade class using iPod Touches for the first time. In very little time they were zipping around exploring the apps I put on and surfing the web. They were easily able to find web pages and resources the teacher asked for. I'm impressed. These are going to be a useful tool for teachers.

Windows 7 voice dictation

I am playing around with voice dictation in windows seven. I am very happy that voice dictation is built into windows. It is one of the few features that I miss when using Linux. So far, I am finding that the accuracy and usability of voice dictation in windows seven is not as good as I have experienced with Microsoft office voice dictation, IBM, or dragon dictate in XP. I am spending a lot more time correcting mistakes than I ever have with previous voice dictation programs. It does however seem to be learning from my corrections. Windows voice dictation does not work with Open Office writer, it does work with Wordpad.

I have used voice dictation with students in the past but only with limited success. Voice dictation does not work as well with immature voices and can be a frustrating experience for students.

Here is a link to an article about getting started with speech recognition in Windows 7.

Frist Class and Linux

I find the First Class email client for Linux to not work as well as I would like. The better solution is to install the Windows client using wine. The best solution is to switch to Google Apps for Education (working on that). The only drawback I find is that web links don't work seamlessly, I have to copy/paste the URL.

Backup

We all know how important it is to have a backup. But here is one I have been hit with twice now - OK I get it.

The power went out on us yesterday and the battery backup on the wireing closet died sooner than we thought it would. When the power came back on, our main router had lost/scrambled its settings. Luckily, we had an old router we could throw in to keep the school running while we rebuild the main router.

Backup is not just software. Have a backup plan for minimal networking also: mode, router, switch, etc.

When do you tech software and when do you tech skills?

When is it appropriate to teach a software package because it is the industry standard vs. challenging students to figure out multiple software packages? I will typicaly install Gimp and Open Office on computers and sometimes hear "shouldn't we be using the standard programs"?

Here are some thoughts on that:

• It's more important students learn how to figure out software than learn a given package.
• The software will change and evolve by the time the students get in the workplace anyway.
• I want my students to be comfortable using these tools for the long term. I don't want them feeling that they have to use the expensive commercial program if there is a valid open source alternative available such as Gimp vs. Photoshop.
• The only time I could justify the cost of the commercial software is at the high school level.