If anything the current web 2.0 trend is fragmentation. There are thousands of social networking sites out there, each fighting a battle to get users. There are a whole lot of services that let you interact, publish, follow or be followed. There are aggregating sites that aggregate it all for you. There are aggregators that aggregate all the content from the sites that already aggregate content for you. And if that wasn’t enough we now need to take it away from the browser and move each of these services into tiny little desktop application.

How can we expect our teachers to start to explore web 2.0 technologies when techies, such as us, have such a difficult time keeping up with all of the new developments?

I read Techcrunch every couple of days, and I am constantly amazed by the number of new services that seem to be nothing more than repackaging of the same content. How many social networking sites do we really need? Just the other day I had a teacher ask me why she should use a specific bookmarking tool when there were so many to choose from? I can make recommendations, but can I ensure her that a particular service will be still working in a year? 2 years? I can’t. Teachers are already wary to invest the time in technology, and are even more so if they are not sure what they are learning will have lasting value.

As Alexander states later in the same article:

How many people do you know outside your tech community that want to have 25 desktop applications live, running Firefox alongside with 10 tabs open, twittering 100 times a day, reading and commenting articles on Friendfeed, writing a blog post about it, starting riots to get traffic going, AND still have a normal day job and a life after that?

I think he hits the nail on the head. We have to step back and realize that we are the minority in the education world. Most teachers don’t have the time, patience, and interest needed to try out every new service they can get their hands on. Until teachers can understand and investigate web 2.0 technologies on their own, I guess it’s up to us to filter through the hundreds of different services, looking for those real gems that can truly change the classroom experience, and then hope that they stick around long enough to use them!

Jason

1. Fox IT PDF Reader
2. Adobe/Macromedia Flash Reader and Shockwave player
3. Audacity
4. Firefox
5. JRE
6. Skype
7. Google Earth
8. Codec packs to allow teachers to view and listen to divX, mp4, ogg, etc…
9. GIMP or another photo editor
10. VLC player

I would really like to hear what others are including on teacher laptops. Do you use freeware programs? Or do you prefer to use commercial products? What software could your teachers simply not live without? And what software causes you (and your teachers) the most frustration?
Jason

I have been a Watchguard Firefox supporter for years, but Untangle’s feature list gives Watchguard a run for its money. It offers just about everything my Firebox did, including spam filtering, web filtering, protocol control, virus and phishing blocker, intrusion protection, reporting, as well as remote access functionality. Best of all, as Untangle is an open-source product, it is freely available and can be downloaded and installed on regular hardware. A similar feature set on a Watchguard Firefox would cost thousands in yearly subscription fees.

I have put together an old Pentium 4 box with 2 network cards, downloaded the ISO, and I am up and running. I am done with most of the configuration, and so far, it was relatively painless. My current firewall/spam/intrusion solution is still in place, but a number of computers in my test environment are also routing through the Untangle box to test its functionality without compromising security. If it lives up to its claims, Untangle would be providing a feature set that Watchguard charges thousands of dollars for on a yearly basis.

I would recommend trying it out.

Jason

Why don’t teachers rely on VLNs? Some do, but the majority I have worked with continue to wade through problems on their own. If they do rely on someone else, it tends to be the same person, or they consult outdated information found in books, journals, or magazines. When they have a problem with software, I find most become frustrated and contact IT Support. They don’t think of asking a teacher next door, or a student, who is easily accessible and probably has the solution. This isn’t just confined to technical support issues. Lesson plan ideas, unit plans, rubrics, educational software reviews… tools and resources for just about any aspect of teaching and learning can now be found online. And yet few teachers I know use this information.

Is is a lack of knowledge about these resources?

Or not knowing how to set up a VLN?

Or a lack of technical knowledge about how to access the resources and use them once they are found?

Or do they feel the quality of these resources is sub-par?

I would apppreicate your comments. Why don’t teachers use VLNs? And how would you encourage teachers to set up their own personal learning network?

Jason

Moodle for Windows to the rescue! Moodle.org provides a complete installer package using XAMPP. XAMPP is basically a all-in-one program that installs PHP, MySQL, and Apache and provides a simple interface that can be used to stop and start the database and web server, configure PHP extensions, and edit configuration files. It takes about 10 minutes to install.

I try to keep the setup on my production server and my Windows box as similar as possible. It is very easy to dump the data from the production server and import it into my Windows test instance to ensure that my data is in sync.

Although you may be tempted to use a XAMPP/Moodle set up for your production server because it is so easy to use, there is one caveat. Most would say that this set up is not secure enough to run on a server that is accessible on the Internet without some tweaking.

Jason

NETS-S standards are categorized into 6 categoies:

1. Basic operations and concepts
2. Social, ethical, and human issues
3. Technology Productivity tools
4. Technology communication tools
5. Technology research tools
6. Technology problem-solving and decision making tools

Why not just adopt these standards? Late last year, the ISTE published updated NETS-S standards, based on input from schools all over the United States and 22 other countries. The six categories of the second edition standards are:

1. Creativity and Innovation
2. Communication and Collaboration
3. Research and Information Fluency
4. Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving, and Decision-Making
5. Digital Citizenship
6. Technology Operations and Concepts

It would be logical to adopt these new standards for our integration plan as they reflect a fundamental shift away technology operations and concepts (how to create a database, how to search for information on the Internet) to focus on the impact technology has on society (what are the limits of technology, how can we use technology to communicate and collaborate with others). However, the student standards are just one part of the equation. Teacher standards that match the new student standards are currently being reviewed, but will not be published for some while. In addition, many resources are available that incorporate NETS-S first edition standards, but few have been published for the second edition.

Is anyone in the same situation? If so, I would really like to hear your opinions on the matter.

Jason

In an effort to help improve web content filtering to remove objectionable material, I am testing OpenDNS. The setup was done in about 5 minutes, and required little more than creating an account with OpenDNS and then pointing our DNS servers to forward any requests not handled by our internal DNS to OpenDNS servers.

What are some of the features offered?

1. Custom pages that are shown when a user attempts to access a blocked web site or page. Users can choose to send a message from the blocked page if they feel it should be unblocked, and an email will be sent to the account administrator with the details.
2. The ability to block categories of sites (i.e. gambling, tasteless) or individual sites.
3. The ability to add specific sites to a whitelist.
4. Detailed statistical reports showing how many requests were received by OpenDNS servers, at what time, and which blocked sites have been accessed.
5. Typo corrections. If I accidently type in www.wikipedia.og instead of www.wikipedia.org, OpenDNS will correct the error and forward the request to www.wikipedia.org.
6. Network shortcuts. I can add a shortcut called “gmail” so that users simply have to type “gmail” into their web browser, and the request will be forwarded to http://gmail.google.com.
7. Anti-phishing checks. If a site is labelled as a phishing site, OpenDNS will block access to it.

So far, I am very impressed, and we will continue to test the system to determine if it is a viable long term option for the school.

Jason

My M1330 came pre-installed with Vista, but as someone who is never happy with the OS they have running on their computer, I wanted to try out a few different OSs before settling on just one (or two!). After a few days of using Vista, I had had enough. It was slow, buggy, and simply did not feel as snappy as I would have expected from a machine that had 2GB of RAM and a dedicated video card. Following instructions from Notebookforum, I quickly removed Vista and had Windows XP installed on the laptop. Now that was better! The interface looked old, especially compared to Vista or Leopard. But reliability trumps looks, so it was an easy decision to pack away the Vista recovery CD.

All was well for a few weeks, but then I decided to give Ubuntu a try. I had used Ubuntu on many different machines in the past, but always ended up moving back to XP on my primary machine, usually because of problems with hibernation or poor peripheral support. I installed Ubuntu in a dual-boot configuration, and with a few exceptions, everything worked right away. Hibernation was a bit tricky, but eventually I had it working.

Over the next few days I found I was spending more time working in Ubuntu, but I still had the need to occasionally use Windows XP for a few reasons, namely Office applications when working with students and teachers, as well Internet Explorer when configuring or posting to Sharepoint. Rebooting into Windows was a pain, so I settled on VMware as the best solution, as it would allow me to run a Windows virtual machine from within Ubuntu. Not leaving well enough alone, I didn’t want to have to create a new Windows image, so I used these instructions to run my existing Windows partition in VMware Player. After some issues (I had made a mistake in the cylinders calculation), I was able to run my Windows partition in VMware Player from within Ubuntu. It wasn’t easy, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who doesn’t like tinkering, but now I have a setup that allows me to boot into Windows or Ubuntu, or alternatively access all of my needed Windows applications when running Ubuntu if I need to do something quickly and don’t want to reboot.

I think I have found the best configuration for my needs… at least for now!

Jason

I now have the Moodle server authenticating users against our Windows 2003 domain controller, and things are working great. The bind settings were a bit tricky because we have teachers, students and staff in different OUs, but thankfully Moodle allows users to define more than one OU, as well as search through subcontexts.

Other LAMP/WAMP systems rarely offer this sort of flexibility in their configuration options and require some tweaking of the PHP code to get it to work properly. Moodle has a decent tutorial on their site discussing the configuration necessary to configure LDAP authentication in Moodle if you want more information.

Now, when users log in for the first time, profile information is automatically populated by the user data in Active Directory. Users only need to fill in a few missing pieces of data and are ready to use Moodle. Using LDAP helps in 2 ways:

1. It helps to reduce the number of different login credentials that users must keep track of.
2. It helps to reduce the likelihood of garbage data and spelling errors ending up in Moodle user profiles.

All in all, it was relatively easy. If you need help working through the steps, let me know.

Jason

My position had remained vacant for a considerable time before I took over last summer, so I knew I would have my work cut out for me. But I don’t think I realized just how much work it would entail.

My previous school was infused with technology. A well established 1-to-1 laptop programme had been implemented throughout the high school. Teachers used email and intranet postings throughout the day to communicate with one another. Moodle was used by a considerable number of the teachers and students, and a Technology Committee was well established. Teachers always seemed interested to try something new. Contrast this to my current school where I arrived to find great technology resources and equipment, but very few teachers utilizing the technology available to them. All teachers are provided with laptops which they use at school and are free to take home. And yet, most teachers check their email only once or twice per day. Most save all of their school-related documents on their laptops, even when provided with network storage space. Lab sessions involve little more than “doing old things in new ways”, such as creating a PowerPoint presentation or a one or two page poster.

Clearly, I have made some headway. I have started up a Technology Committee that meets once per month to help drive technology adoption and integration. A document repository has been created that allows teachers to file important curriculum related documents in an area accessible to all teaching staff. Moodle has been setup and is being piloted by a number of teachers. We are reviewing the list of educational software, and I am collating a list of internet resources that can be used in different year levels and subjects. Weekly PD sessions with teachers from each section is helping to improve technology use. Technology standards based on the NETS framework are being implemented and should be in place by the end of the year. An Intranet has been created to help foster ad-hoc discussions and bring the school community together. Policies and procedures are being fleshed out. Positive changes are being made. But there is a long way to go. In many ways I wish I had been at the school from the beginning to ensure that things started off on the right foot… unraveling bad habits is never easy. But I am happy with the progress I have made, and the staff have been very welcoming to the changes I am trying to implement.

Do I want teachers to utilize blogging, social bookmarking, podcasting, wikis, and other Web 2.0 technologies in their classes? Sure. But at this point, I need to start with the basics and ensure everyone has a minimum level of knowledge of the technology we currently have available. That will be my focus for now.

Jason