It's That Time of Year!

October typically marks the start of my conference season, and this year has been no exception. If you've glanced at my schedule in the left sidebar, you may have noticed that I started with a new conference, at least for me, ITEC, in Iowa. Even a new conference, though, means some of the same familiar faces.

After you've put in time doing conferences for several years, it becomes apparent that there is a hard-core of presenters who make the rounds year after year. I'm not referring to the Keynote speakers, with their national reputations and substantial fees to support them. Rather I refer to the ones who, like me, continue to present at conferences from year to year, despite little, if any, in the way of financial compensation. Occasionally, a conference may pick us up as a featured speaker and at least cover our expenses, but I don't think any of us really expect to get rich doing this. We do it because it's part of who we are and what we do. We do it for the sense of satisfaction one can get, knowing that our efforts are truly appreciated by those attending our sessions. When I retired from classroom teaching over 5 years ago, some of my colleagues at the time asked if I was going to give up the tech conferences since they didn't pay. Well, look at my schedule. That's my answer...I'm doing more conferences each year in my retirement than I ever did when I was working full-time. And besides, as I told them, "How can I give this up? It's too much fun!"

Foiled Again!

Once again, I should know better than to try to get any work done on various websites I'm involved when I'm at school substituting for an absent teacher. The sites I was trying to get to include a couple of NING sites for educational tech conferences, (Dating/Social), a conference wiki, (blogs/wikis), my own three sites, (personal pages), and a conference booklet, (media sharing). I imagine that if I were still employed full-time in the district, I could make a case with the tech coordinator either to unblock the sites, or to allow me a password over-ride, but as merely a sub, I guess I'll just have to put up with the inconvenience until the time comes that administrators realize that collaboration is not a dirty word.

For what it's worth.

I've noticed a recent trend on several of the NING sites, related to education and/or ed tech. It seems profiles are being created for "members" whose educational connections are dubious, at best. Some are promoting ways to make money from the use of various web sites, while others are promoting a service that will "help" you with all your dissertation needs.

I would advise people to be on the lookout for these "members" and take care not to accept their friend requests. Some NINGS actively try to keep them out by requiring approval of all new members. ICE is doing that, but many others don't. As with all social networking, a little caution goes a long way.

BTW, here are a few of the names I've come across that fall into this "suspect" category: www.makemoneywith-google.com, Edna Cohen, Marilyn Willis, Rose Tyler, Cari T, Jen Thomas, Rose Tyler, Kelly Black, Janet Wilkins. In fairness, if you are one of these people and believe your name doesn't belong on this list, feel free to contact me.

As I encounter more of these, I'll update the list. Hopefully it won't get too long before the practice ends.

The Mt. Vernon Conference

For those not familiar with this conference, here is the program book for this years' conference.

And if I may draw your attention to page 6, (or 10-11), depending on the numbering.

Open publication - Free publishing - More teachers

And It Starts Again!

If it's Fall, I must be getting ready for the next round of Ed-Tech conferences again! So far, I have six conferences on my schedule for Fall/Winter. I'm expecting a few more opportunities to present themselves by the time Spring rolls around, but I certainly won't have to worry about keeping busy for the next several months. My "Keep It Clean!" session seems to still have some legs, after four years, and I'll be presenting it at two new, for me, conferences this season, ITEC in Iowa (Oct) and FETC in Florida (Jan).

My second session, "Tech-4-Teachers" is entering its second year on the circuit, after playing to packed rooms last year IETC and ICE. New for me this year is a session on OpenSource and Freeware options for schools. I'll let you know how that one goes after a few times around.

In addition to the conferences mentioned above, I'll be at the Mt. Vernon conference at the end of October and METC in February.

More later, as details become available.

Where is He?

Yes, I know, I've been derelict in posting but, for those of you who know me, you also know that the last couple of months have been a bit hectic for me. Well, that's all behind me now, so I hope to get back to posting with a bit more regularity. My goal, a realistic one for me, is to post at least once a week, even if it's just entertaining you with a recent vid, photo, or website. Give me a holler if I start to get behind again.

Also coming will be updates on proposals for my next round of conferences, which will begin in the fall. More news on that later as I get more confirmations.

Cat-Cam

Nothing spectacular today, just playing around with the embed code from Fliggo.com. The video was made using a Flip-cam and uploaded to Fliggo. You can find another of my Flip-cam videos on YouTube.
Cat-Cam

Cool Iris

I just had to try this! As you can see, Cool Iris has an embed code feature that you can use in your own blog or on your site.

Looking Back at ICE 2009

I can't believe it's been a month since I last put some thoughts to words here. But what a month it's been! One of my last entries was posted just after the conference in Columbus, eTech Ohio. Since then, the ICE Conference has come and gone as well. This conference is always the highlight of my conference season, since it is where I first ventured into the world of presenting sessions and sharing my experiences with my colleagues. I first presented here back in the early nineties, when it was still known as the "Role of Technology in Education Conference", years before ICE partnered with and eventually adopted the conference as its own. During the intervening years I have presented at ten conferences in the "Role of Tech", "IL-TCE" and now "ICE Conference" cycle. I've been part of the tech support team for the last eight years and have been on the conference committee for the last seven. We have a history.

At this year's conference, I was again presenting sessions and workshops, but one of the key parts of the conference this year was the PLN Plaza. If you are familiar with social networking, and who isn't these days, you are already aware of sites like Twitter, Plurk, Facebook and applications like Skype. What you may not be aware of is the growing use of these opportunities by educators to create their own professional learning networks or PLNs. The PLN Plaza at ICE 2009 gave educators, many of whom had never met face to face, a chance to meet with colleagues who they knew only from online contacts. It was a huge success as old friendships grew stronger and new ones blossomed. We realize more and more, that the miles separating us physically are irrelevant when it comes to sharing problems and solutions, questions and answers, in addition to sharing our own quirks and foibles, trials and tribulations. It grows quickly from a networks of colleagues to a network of friends.

With all of that said, why do so many school districts still insist on blocking access to these sites and services? That's the discussion educators and IT people need to explore. Too often we are faced with educational decisions being made by people who are not professional educators and who insist on doing things because "that's the way it's always been done." They fail to see the reality that "social" networking can just as easily be "professional" networking.

I dealt with this topic in a previous post, "Digitally Divided". Looking back, things haven't changed much in this regard in the last year.

Whazzat?

Have you ever opened your Window's Task Manager or looked at the start-up sequence, and wondered what all of those programs and processes are doing there? Here's a handy website that gives you a quick answer simply by entering the file name. It may not be perfect, but it gives us a head start when it comes to understanding what's using up all those system resources.

http://www.whatisthatfile.com/

We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat...

...or something like that. Last week I presented my "Keep It Clean!" session at eTech Ohio in Columbus The conference venue was the Greater Columbus Convention Center, and I could understand the need for this site as soon as I walked into the center and saw the throngs of educators there! I saw, somewhere, a number of 6,000 mentioned as the attendance, but I'm not sure if that included vendors and represented unique attendees or the sum of three days' attendance. Regardless, it was a lot of people and definitely marked the largest conference I had yet to present at.

As always, one tends to get a little nervous when faced with a new conference, especially one where I wasn't known. I had never even been to Columbus before this. I had the same feelings I'd had when first presenting in Nashville (TETC) and St. Louis (METC). At least now I've done each of those twice and have always run into people I know at these two conferences. eTech was an entirely new venture for me.

To make a long story short, I showed up early at the room assigned for my session. the time slot ahead of me had been vacant so I had ample time to get set up and make sure the technology was all working properly for me. The room was a moderate sized one, and set up to accommodate about 70 people. Okay, no problem there, or so I thought at the time. About twenty minutes before the session start time a few people started to drift in and claim their seats, mostly in the back rows. (The better to duck out of this guy's a real dud? ) As the start time got closer though, the people just kept coming and by the ten minutes to go mark, there were very few seats left. And still they kept coming... With five minutes to go, the room was full and people were sitting on the floor and standing in the back. It was at this point that I commented to the volunteer in the room, "I think we're gonna need a bigger boat." I found out after the session that their official room count for the session was 105, and this was after they closed the doors and started turning people away!

Once I got started, I just forgot about the numbers and took off with my session. I've been doing this topic for four years now and no two sessions are ever the same, but that's half the fun of presenting, getting a feel for the group and knowing which way to go and how far with each point. Anyone who has ever presented to a group of teachers can appreciate the extreme sense of satisfaction one gets after a successful session, especially when the numbers exceed your expectations, and no one ducks out early!

Well, that's five down and one to go...ICE 2009 at the end of February wraps up the Fall-Winter conference season for me. Then the only questions remaining are, how many to do next year, and which ones. Suggestions?

If It's January, I must be in St. Louis!

Well, it's conference time again and January-February shapes up as a busy stretch for me. This week, I'm in St. Louis for METC. Actually, it's in St. Charles, Missouri, but since the end of February will find me in St. Charles, Illinois for ICE 2009, I didn't want to cause any needless confusion. Next week, it's east to Columbus, Ohio for eTech Ohio.

Today, Monday, I presented my 1/2 day workshop, Keep It Clean!, which presents techniques and tips designed to help keep a Windows PC running more efficiently. One comment I hear repeatedly after these workshops and sessions is that too many administrators, tech support and IT people in schools assume that the average teacher has these skills already. What they seem to forget is that courses offered in Ed-Tech, generally deal more with the direct classroom and instructional applications of the technology. Of course, that's where the focus should be, but we shouldn't lose sight of the fact, that if we want to be able to use the technology effectively and seamlessly in our lessons, then the technology should be working properly. That's what this session offers teachers, the skills to maintain the PCs in their classes, to keep them running well, and cutting down on those frustrating calls to district tech support when their classroom computers "just aren't running right."

Oh, and I've had district tech support people tell me, they like the session because it enables teachers to take a more hands-on role in dealing with computer problems in their own classroom, without having to call tech support for routine maintenance tasks.

As long as the interest is there, I guess I'll keep offering this session.

Seven Things

Imagine mingling at a party where instead of making small talk and trading trivia, everyone is revealing personal secrets and surprises about themselves. By the time you circulate around the room, you have a new bond with the partyers, a deeper understanding of their quirky natures and worldly experiences, a new appreciation for their backgrounds, personal history, and wisdom.

This party is happening online.

Participants in the online community affectionately known as the "Eduverse" have begun "tagging" fellow members to invite them to post a list of "7 Little-Known Facts" about themselves to their blog. On sites such as Twitter and Plurk, members of the Eduverse PLN (professional learning network or personal learning network) are reaching out to each other to go deeper than the ordinary, professional issues to reveal more personal information.

With that as an intro, here are my "seven things":

1. I am descended from a full blooded Algonquin Indian, as well as from a French nobleman.

2. I was a preemie, one month early, weighing in at less than 5 lbs.

3. Throughout high school and the first few years of college I was preparing to become a Catholic priest. I was 21 before I decided to change directions.

4. My wife and I dated in college, split up, and got together again 11 years later!

5. I was in Chicago during the DNC in 1968 and later met one of the "Chicago 7" and Julian Bond. Some of you younger inmates will have to Google those to see what they mean to us 'ol farts.

6. I began my teaching career as an English teacher while student teaching, and then taught 6th grade, all subjects, for my first 17 years of teaching.

7. Finally, and some of you already know this, I have never taken a computer class in my life.

And there you have it, a little bit of what it is that makes me who I am. So many of us have been "tagged", so if you're one of the first seven to read this who haven't been tagged yet, consider yourself tagged. You can sort it out!

NECC - Strike Two!

Like many others, I was awaiting word from NECC this week, anxious to learn if my proposal had been accepted for a conference session. Well, it wasn't, and of course, my first reaction was the one of disappointment that generally comes along with being "rejected." But then came word that many others, all marvelous educators and presenters, were likewise "rejected". I started to feel like I was in pretty good company and that not presenting at NECC does have some advantages. Just think of the money I'll save by not attending!

And then another thought came to mind. I will have presented 13 sessions at 6 different conferences between October and February. I'll be reaching more people at those conferences than I ever could with one trip to NECC! Of course, the expression "big fish in a small pond" does come to mind too!

TETC, Nashville

Once again, I made the December trip to Florida, with another stopover in Nashville to present a 1/2 day workshop at TETC. I even got a chance to meet a couple of educators who I had only known through my PLNs on Twitter and Plurk. There's almost a surreal quality about meeting someone in person, after having communicated strictly as a voice from the ether in cyberspace. But that's another story.

This was my second year presenting at this conference, and my "Keep It Clean!" sessions seem to be as strong as ever in the amount of interest and attendees. Last year the workshop was a ticketed session, limited to 24 participants. This year, the lab was set up for 24, but it was open on a first come, first served basis. Scheduled to begin at 10:00 am, the first seats were occupied by 9:30, and as time progressed, it became apparent that all 24 seats would be filled. Well, by the time the session began, we had brought in about 20 more chairs, and the session facilitator commented that he had never seen anything like this! If you're a presenter or trainer, you probably already know the sense of satisfaction one gets from this kind of response. There was good give and take during the formal parts of the session, and good follow-up and discussion at the end. All in all, a personally rewarding conference for me, enough to ensure that I'll probably keep Nashville as part of my conference rotation.

Reflections on IETC

The Illinois Education & Technology Conference (IETC) in Springfield is over and, once again, I'm awed by the commitment of educators to making the use of technology the norm, rather than the exception, in schools. Even though I retired from teaching full time over 4 years ago, I continue to remain active in technology and education through my participation in ICE (Illinois Computing Educators) and by presenting at ed tech conferences around the Midwest. As a result, I've become increasingly aware of the fact that too many decisions regarding educational policy are being made, either by technologists who are not educators, or by educators who don't really understand the technology and how that technology enhances student learning. One of the most engaging aspects of technology in schools today is the broad range of collaboration tools, often referred to as Web 2.0. Unfortunately, the potential for abuse of these tools and the fact that many consider them "social" in nature, causes many schools to block them via their filtering services. I believe it is time for administrators to rely on the skills and integrity of the educators they work with and remove the roadblocks to engaging, effective collaboration for both the students and the adults in their schools. Sites and services previously perceived as "social" can just as readily be re-purposed as "educational". If these administrators haven't noticed, their people are already doing this. Let's make it a little easier.

On a lighter note, I find that I receive a great deal of self-satisfaction from attending and presenting at conferences, knowing that I continue to play a role in promoting the effective uses of technology in education. Also, it's really fun just hanging out with and sharing ideas and insights with people who are making a difference in the education of children and those who educate them. I could flatter them and just be a major name-dropper, but they know who they are. Thanks, you're all part of the reason I continue to do what I do.

Check my stats!

I was checking the hit counters for my sites today and noticed a rather significant spike for one of my other sites, Luke's Place. I was rather surprised at this, as the site normally gets very little traffic. In fact, I'm actually considering removing it. I checked a little further to see just where the traffic was coming from and it appears most of the hits were a result of a Google search on the terms, Luke's teacher. Well, if you try that yourself you discover that my site comes up #2 in the results. But that leaves the question, why would people be searching on those terms?
As near as I can tell, it has something to do with the TV soap opera, As the World Turns. There was a plot-line a while back involving the teacher of one of the characters, Luke. But why would these searches be coming now if this is the cause? Is the show in re-runs right now? I'll have to dig a little more and will comment back if I discover anything of interest.

MVC 2008

Another great conference experience here in southern Illinois! For the last 29 years, Mt. Vernon has hosted the annual Teachers' conference, held on the campus of Mt. Vernon Township High School. The conference draws teachers from all over the region, with offerings and sessions in all curricular areas. ICE sponsors a technology strand and I have been presenting a couple of sessions: my time tested "Keep It Clean!", and a new session, "Tech for Teachers." Turnout for both sessions has been good and the response has been especially gratifying. It makes me feel good that even though retired from the classroom, I can still be a productive, contributing member of the educational community.

A Tale of Two Crossings.

File this one under musings.

I remember family car trips to Canada, stretching way back to the 50s and 60s. My mother is Canadian, so these trips were a fairly regular occurrence with visits to the "Great White North" to see our many relatives there. Crossing the border was a relatively simple procedure in those days. The questions on entering Canada were generally, "Where were you born? Where are you going? How long will you be there?" followed by, "Have a nice trip." And then you were on your way. The stop at Canadian customs took all of two minutes, if that long. Returning to the USA was just about as easy. "Where were you born? How long were you in Canada? Anything to declare?" and the usual "Have a nice day." Again, two minutes, if that much.

Fast forward to a post 9/11 border crossing, same location, Port Huron, MI to Sarnia, ON.

Crossing into Canada: For the first time ever, as I came out of the toll booth after paying my toll on the US side, I was stopped by a US Customs & Immigration agent (a division of Homeland Security) and asked to show my identification, to say where I was going and for how long, and asked if the car I was driving was mine. Remember, this was US customs. Canadian customs isn't until the other side of the bridge. I got the feeling there may have been a special alert for something or someone trying to cross the border that day, but I knew better than to ask. Too much curiosity probably would have made the momentary stop an even longer one! Canadian customs was much as it has always been, except now they ask for identification, and if you're bringing any firearms into the country. (No NRA lobby to worry about there!) Still, a roughly two minute process.

Crossing back into the US: A bit of a line-up of cars waiting to go through customs. The agents didn't seem to be in any hurry though. As I was waiting my turn, I couldn't help but notice that in addition to the mandatory ID check, there were many more trunk lids being opened for interior inspections, mirrors being used for a quick look under the cars, and agents walking among the waiting cars, I assume, on the alert for any suspicious activity going on in advance of the customs inspection. By the time I got to the inspection booth, about a 20 minute wait, I was primed for a more than routine inspection. Long-haired, unemployed (retired), bearded guy traveling alone! Looks pretty suspicious to me! I was pleasantly surprised when all I had to endure was the now customary ID check, "Where were you born, how long were you in Canada, anything to declare?" Perhaps it's a sign that Homeland Security has figured out that it doesn't help when individuals are made to feel apprehensive and paranoid about a simple border crossing. Or maybe I was just lucky and drew an agent who was a kindred spirit, (we were about the same age) who remembered those border crossings from simpler times.

After the Flood!

Rather interesting subbing experience last week.
Preface:
The heavy rains that fell over northern Illinois during the last weeks of September, caused a flooding problem at the school where I regularly do my substitute teaching. The first floor of the building is actually below grade, but a large retention pond on the property is generally enough to keep the water out. Not this time! The retention pond was full, the sewers were backed up, and the first floor took in several inches of this backed up sewer water! This accumulation of water managed to lift two layers of carpeting from the hallway and classroom floors, and was soaked into many of the wooden bookcases, not to mention books. In the course of inspecting the damage, it was discovered that there was asbestos in the adhesives used for the carpeting, apparently not an issue while it was contained, but now it had to be removed along with the two layers of carpet and everything else that had been contaminated by the sewerage. School was closed for two days while plans were worked out for what everyone thought would be a couple of weeks of relocated classes.
As it turns out, the asbestos removal coupled with replacing the carpet and other lost materials will run for at least another six weeks.
Which brings me to my subbing story:
The 700+ junior high students have been reassigned and redistributed among the district's six elementary schools. To accommodate these numbers, the schools' gyms, art rooms, music rooms, libraries, and any other available space have been called into service as temporary classrooms for the junior high students and teachers. As of last week, no one knew for sure just how long this re-location would last, so transfer of supplies and books was minimal. Classes have been doubled and even tripled up to make use of available space. An attempt is being made to keep up with the core subjects, but PE, Band, Fine & Practical Arts, as well as special Ed resources, have had to take a back seat for now. Needless to say, this creates a rather unusual situation for a sub to step into. When I see an assignment posted, the first thing I need to check is which school I would be reporting to for the day. From there on, it's anybodies' guess as to class sizes for the day and even the schedule, as the efforts are made to not fall behind in any of the core areas.
So far, my experience with the situation has been limited, but as I put in more days, I'll likely have more reflections on how things are progressing.

Tempus Fugit!

It came to me this morning, in one of those "Where did that come from" moments, that I'm entering my fifth year of retirement! When I had first made the decision to retire, one of the things that concerned me was, of course, what do I do now? How does my role in life evolve as my personal circumstances change? The main thing, for me at least, is how my time is used now compared to five years ago. For thirty-three years my almost daily question was, "What do I do with the kids today?" Now it's more like, "What do I do today?"
One positive change is that I'm now free to pursue my interests in technology and professional development for teachers, without worrying about budgets, comp time, personal days, PO's, sub plans, and all those other things a full-time teaching position carries with it. While teaching, I was able to do one conference a year, not unreasonable, since I took an entire school week for that conference. That has certainly changed since retirement! Last school year I presented at five different educational technology conferences, and this year it could be as many as seven! And, by the way, only two of these are paying propositions. I do it because I enjoy it and I believe it has value. It may sound trite, but yes, it's a way of giving back to a profession that has been a major part of my life.
At one conference a young teacher told me she thought "it was cool that an older teacher was so into the tech stuff." My reply to her was that the "tech stuff", as she put it, was simply another set of tools and that in any undertaking, you don't last long if you don't keep up with the "tools of the trade."
And that's why I continue to do what I do. Retired? Only from the junior high classroom!

I think this post falls into my category of "musings."

Where's the Outrage?

This article really speaks volumes on the kind of paranoia we've come to accept as the norm from our government. The potential for abuse is so great that it just boggles the mind to consider all the possibilities!

Travelers’ laptops may be detained at border
Under DHS policy, no suspicion of wrongdoing needed to search devices.

Who's Watching the Watcher?

I was checking the hits on this site to see where folks were coming from and how they got here. I like to check to see if I'm getting hits from referring sites, or if people are just coming straight in. As usual, a good number of the hits were coming from Google image searches on "skyline" or "Chicago skyline", some were coming from Discovery links to blogs, and some were originating from my profiles on Twitter and Plurk. One referrer that caught my eye, however, was "Relevant Noise". Curious, I checked the site and discovered that they offer a service to businesses, apparently scanning blogs for mention of a particular business or topic. Their stated purpose is "dedicated to mining blogs for business intelligence."
Makes you wonder if the next time you rant about some company or product, someone who matters may be listening in and really paying attention. Big Brother, perhaps?

What's It Like Outside Today?

In the course of a lifetime, one quite often has the need to answer that question, "What's the weather for today going to be?"
In this blogger's lifetime, the methods of securing an answer have undergone an evolution, of sorts:

1. Ages 0-5: Basically, it was either look out the window, or ask a nearby adult, that is, if the weather concerned me at all.
2. Ages 5-18: Turn on the radio and find a station that gave regular weather reports, check the TV if it was during times when a newscast might be on.
3. Ages 19-30ish: Check the weather page of the newspaper each morning. Options from stage 2 were, of course, still good.
   
4. Ages 30ish-50ish: Call the weather number on the phone, if the need was immediate, keeping options 2-3 still available.
5. Age 50ish-?: Check online at weather.com, or some similar weather site. Options 2-4 no longer needed!

While this timeline may be valid for me, the stage where you begin on the timeline may give a person a clue as to you approximate age!

Nothing earth-shaking or revolutionary in the post. Just put this one in the category of musings. It occurred to me last night as I was watching the storms roll through the area!

I Need More Speed, Scotty!

You're online and the pages seem to be taking forever to load. You start wondering, what's wrong with my connection? I'm paying for broadband speed, where is it?

Here's a quick and easy way to check if the problem is with your isp, or with the site you're connecting accessing. Run the test, if the speed is good on the test site, then the problem may well be with the site. If it's a popular site, or just hosted on a slower server, this could explain the apparent lack of speed.

• Speedtest.net - The Global Broadband Speed Test

Busy Weekend

As if a holiday weekend wasn't enough, I had to add to the "things to do" by going out and getting a new computer. Needless to say, it came with Vista rather than ol' reliable XP. I'm sure there will be a bit of a learning curve as make the adjustment, and I'll keep you posted here I have any tidbits of note during the transition.

By the way, the first thing I did was to install Firefox and Thunderbird, followed by a de-crappifying of a lot of the demo and trial software that always comes pre-loaded on a new system. That's a start...more to come, I'm sure.

Browser Trivia

And in a completely unscientific survey, here are the browsers used for the last 100 hits on this blog. I know this is of no real importance or signifigance but it's just a bit cool that we can harvest this kind of information. Or perhaps it's just a little scary! What other kind of information is leaking out as we connect to sites around the web? Stay tuned...this calls for a little digging. MTF...(more to follow).

Perc.		Browser Name		Version
31.00%		MSIE		7
21.00%		Firefox		2.0.0
18.00%		MSIE		6
13.00%		Firefox		3
8.00%		Safari		1.2
4.00%		Mozilla		5
2.00%		Opera		8.65
1.00%		Unknown
1.00%		Safari		1
1.00%		Camino		1.5.5

A little of the MTF...if you look at the feedjit widget in the sidebar, you can click on options, traffic map, and be taken to a page that shows where the recent hits have come from. Nowhere to hide, I guess!

Keep It Clean!

Alright, here it is, a blatant plug for one of my other sites and my workshop/demo session.

I have been doing a conference session and 1/2 day workshop for the last three years, showing teachers how to reduce the clutter on their computers, to get control of their start-up sequence, clean and tweak the registry, eliminate adware/spyware, and generally improve the performance of their PCs. The sessions have been well received at conferences in Illinois (IL-TCE, IETC, Mt. Vernon), Tennessee (TETC), and Missouri (METC), and attendance at the sessions has actually been increasing each year.

There is currently a commercial running on TV for a website that offers to help users improve their PC's performance by offering free scans to identify the problems, but if they want their computers to Finally run Fast, they have to come up the with registration fee(s) for the software. You may have even seen similar ads online, offering a free scan, showing you all kinds of errors on your system , (some, reportedly give false positives), and then telling you how much it will cost you to fix these errors.

My point here is that my sessions and workshops use only readily available freeware. My follow-up site has links to all the titles used in the sessions, and my Diigo bookmarks has lists of utilities, as well as freeware available online! Does the freeware work as well as something you pay for? Not always, but there are several programs available for each of the clean-up tasks, and what one may miss, another may catch!

Maybe I'm just tooting my own horn here, but I believe people need to know that there are alternatives to paying high prices for software.

We've Been Spoiled!

At least most of us have. I'm referring to the ready availability of broadband access to the internet that most of us enjoy, either at our place of employment, favorite Wifi cafe, and yes, even at home! ( I don't know about you, but my cable access at home is consistently faster than my T-1 access at school ever was. )
Now, what brings all this on? I just returned home from a week at our lake house in Wisconsin. Sure, lots of sun, golf, the lake, the wildlife refuge, a nearby casino, but NO BROADBAND! Since I'm retired, I can't really justify the expense of a wireless broadband plan for my laptop, especially since I'd only be using it for several weeks during the summer. This leaves me with dial-up as my only economical connection option. When you fall back on dial-up after getting accustomed to broadband, you begin to realize just how many web developers seem to assume that everyone is accessing their pages on high speed connections. A page that pops up fairly quickly at home can take an agonizingly long time at 45.0 bps. I know, it says 56, but how many dial-up providers actually hit that number?
I can understand that it's probably unrealistic to have two versions of a site to accommodate this difference, but developers should, perhaps, try to remember the days when everyone had dial-up, and try not to throw all the bells & whistles of the multi-media web right there on the home page! Sorry to say, some of the worst offenders are bloggers who seem to feel their pages are the greatest thing since sliced-bread ( does that expression date me? ) and throw all kinds of peripheral content into the blog's sidebars. I don't intend to single anyone out on this, but, bloggers, check your page, load it on a dial-up connection, if possible, and if needed, try to accommodate your bandwidth challenged fans.
And that's all I have to say about that, at least for now.
( Apologies to Forrest Gump )

FIREFOX 3!

What can I say? I'm a big fan of Firefox and use it exclusively in my presentations at tech conferences. It always seems to draw comments and questions from some of the participants, many of whom have never seen it before, and I'm only too willing to show them a few of the things you can do and/or a couple of the addons that make it so versatile as a web browsing tool. And now, Firefox 3.0 is coming out soon, sometime in June, (actually, today, June 17th,) hence the blatant plug here!

If you dig straight down...

How many times as a kid did you hear someone tell you that if you dug straight down you'd end up in China? Since we knew China was on the other side of the world, and, of course, the world was round, it all seemed perfectly logical and we never questioned the logic of the statement. But where exactly would you end up if you dug straight down. Here's an easy little site that finally lets you find an answer to that age old question, "Where will I be if I dig straight down?"

Outside to Play!

School's out for the summer, (apologies to Alice Cooper), but how many of us are just so addicted to being online that we just keep clicking, page to page, site to site? Just as we need time away from the classroom, we also need to step away from the keyboard (afk) and get back in touch with the real world. One way to take the cure is to get away from our broadband connections and resort to dial-up for awhile. The drastic reduction in speed and response time is a great inducement to spend as little time online as possible. Check email, check stocks, check the news, disconnect - go outside and play! I have to do that every time I'm at the lake house in Wisconsin, no availability of cable or dsl and I have difficulty justifying the cost of satellite or cellular broadband for just a few months of the summer. Everyone wants long-term commitments. See how the internet is able to mimic reality at times?

And that preface leads me to today's fun link. Don't ask, just click, then go outside and play.

Another Online clock

Here's a clock you don't see everyday. Just one of those fun things that's out there to amuse you and your friends.

Industrious Clock

Red Sky at Night

Red Sky at Night, originally uploaded by luke1946.

In the previous post I mentioned sitting on the pier, reflecting. This is just one of the views I might get when I'm sitting there.

Ahhhh! Summer!

I would suppose this post falls into that category of "Musings". I was up at our lake house in Wisconsin over the holiday weekend, partly to start getting things in shape for the summer season. This included regular springtime chores around the place, grass cutting, tree pruning, leaf burning, (yes, they let you burn leaf piles outdoors), and the biggy of the chores, putting in the pier! Since the house is on a flowage of the Wisconsin river the pier can't stay in over the winter. The ice would destroy it.

Of course, one of the pleasures of having the pier in, is that it gives me an ideal place to sit, gaze out over the water, and just reflect on things. As I was sitting and reflecting, with an ice cold Leinies in hand, I thought of how fortunate I was to have a place like this to relax and unwind, especially during the 33 years I was teaching full-time. Like many teachers, I too would count down the days til the end of the school year and couldn't wait to say good bye to the classroom for a couple of months. The lake house was my retreat, away from the worries and concerns of school. One of my brothers used to ask me when I was going to get a "real" job and work all year. I asked him, if I had it so easy, would he be willing to trade places with me and spend 5-6 hours a day, five days a week, with 12-14 year olds, trying to teach them, counsel them and, in some cases, surrogate parent them. I think he figured out why teachers look forward to summers, but I'm not sure if he understood why we looked forward to Septembers as well.

But now, I'm starting to ramble, so suffice it to say, teachers look forward most to two times of the year...the beginning of a school year, and the end of one. Go figure!

Be the Master (Mistress) of Space!

I'm talking about your hard drive space, of course. Even with today's rather generous hard drive sizes, some of us still find ourselves running low on available space to store all those marvelous new programs or those movies and mp3's that can be real gigahogs. (Did I just coin a new word there?) How do we know what to get rid of to make room for more? What files already there are guilty of using up that valuable disk space? Windows explorer can be a bit cumbersome to use, as we go back and forth from one folder to another trying to find the culprits. We need another tool, and I may have found the one you need. This program gives you a visualization of the contents of the drive using a technique called "cushion treemaps." The program can give you an overview of the entire drive, or an individual folder. It won't do any of the deleting for you, but it does make it easier to see just what files may need to head to the recycle bin, and beyond! The program is SequoiaView. Check it out, it may be just what you need.

I should probably note that the vast majority of the programs I may be showcasing in this, and other posts, are specific to Windows. Apologies to the Mac people, but if I'm ever working on my wife's G-4 and find something of interest, I'll be sure to share that too.

Tags & More Tags

Just a quickie post today. Here's yet another way to search on tags at Flickr. Slightly different way of presenting it, but it does have a certain "Wow!" factor to it. Give it a try at Tag Galaxy.

Digitally Divided?

NetworkedTeacher, originally uploaded by courosa.

I came upon this diagram by following a link given in a tweet, ( a post in Twitter, for the uninitiated.) A colleague was looking for a chart or diagram to illustrate what was meant by Web 2.0 as it relates to education. As I looked at the diagram I couldn't help but notice that many of the web resources on the diagram are blocked by many school district filters.
Although retired, I still substitute in the building I retired from and I find it difficult, if not impossible, to do some of the things I would like to do because of this filtering. I am a frequent presenter at tech conferences, but am unable to do some of the research or networking needed for my sessions because of this filtering. I suppose I ought to note here, that I'm referring to what I do with my time at school, not class or student time!
I can only imagine the frustration active teachers must experience when they get back to school after attending a conference or workshop, and discover the tools they got so excited about are blocked by their districts' filters. I had to wait til I got home today to post this! Yup, Blogger is blocked!!
For the record, I can not get to Blogger, Flickr, my own website on Gogglepages, wikispaces, or even any of the image searching tools, such as Google or Yahoo image search. I can't get to my gmail account, the one I use for all my conference and tech related emails. I haven't tried yet, but I wouldn't be surprised to find other collaboration tools, such as Zoho or Stixxy to be blocked as well. I could probably run a check on many of the tools referenced on the chart, but I think you get my point. The tools are out there and it's time for administrators and/or legislators to realize the tremendous potential that's there, waiting to be tapped.

Right-Click (Mac people can skip this one!)

Have you ever looked at your right-click, or as it's also known, context menu and thought, "Why is that there?", or "I never use that! How can I get rid of it?' Maybe you installed a program that put some of its functions into your right click menus, but when you uninstalled the program, the command stayed put and now you'd like to get rid of it. Perhaps you just want to trim those menus down to the functions you really need or tend to use most often.

Here's the program for you! It lets you edit the context menus without having to go into the registry where the potential for serious harm is lurking for the uninitiated. Trust me, registry editing is not for the faint of heart or the neophyte! But back to the program. It's called, quite simply, FileMenu Tools, and it's a freeware download. Just click on the file name, it's linked to the download page, and have a look.

If you're timid or nervous about trying this kind of software, be sure to set a restore point before you do any fiddling. That done, you have your "Plan B" in place.

Helping to Protect Your Email

So, you have a website, you want to give people the opportunity to get in touch with you through your email, but you know that if you show your email, either in text or in a mailto: link, the spambots are likely to pick it up. Say good-bye to that nice uncrowded inbox!

Try this, mask your email address in a graphic instead. This will show your email address quite clearly, but keep it safe from the spambots. Just be sure you don't use the graphic to create a mailto: link. Spambots will pick up the address from the html just as easily as from normal text.

You don't even need to be an artist. Click on my email address here to visit a site that can create the graphic for you.

It's Been an Eye-Opener!

What can I say? Three days in the capital reading grant proposals for the state board of education. It certainly can give one a whole new perspective on what teachers, tech coordinators, administrators, and certainly kids have to deal with in terms of deficient and obsolete technology. Perhaps the most amazing thing, is not the urgent need for improved access to current technologies, but rather how much teachers have been able to adapt and succeed given the supplies and funds available. We live in an age when the tools of the trade are changing rapidly and the need to keep pace is hampered by the financial realities that too many schools have to deal with. You always knew that the "technology" of the basic chalkboard, pencil, or textbook had a usable lifetime measured in years, if not decades. We can say that about the new electronic technologies. Some are bordering on obsolete even before they're out of the box. That's an unfortunate reality that educators have to deal with. We are supposed to be educating the students for the world of tomorrow, when we can barely keep up with the world of today!

I'm retired, remember. I can get away with the occasional rant, but I honestly don't believe these thoughts aren't shared by many in the field of education today.

And I know I ended a sentence with a preposition somewhere up there. That's just something you'll have to get used to!

All it Takes is a Challenge

Today I was a Guest (substitute) Teacher at the junior high I retired from in 2004. The assignment, Kinetic Wellness. Remember when we used to call it Physical Education, or maybe you go back to when we even called it Gym Class! However you remember its name, the content has changed considerably over the course of my career.
Today, the students tackled the challenges of the "high ropes" course. Lacking the training to lead the activities myself, I served primarily as an extra set of eyes for the teacher who had the training to conduct the classes properly. As I watched the kids struggling with some of the tasks, I wondered how many of them really appreciated the opportunities an experience like this presented for them. Many of them would never have had the opportunity to attempt these kinds of activities and indeed, may never get the chance again, but they all seemed to relish the challenges, and no one looked for excuses not to take part.
Perhaps this serves to illustrate that if we can present the students with appropriate challenges, be they physical or academic, they're more than willing to take the risks in order to reap the rewards!

Keep It Secure!

From time to time, I plan on using posts to feature sites from my Diigo bookmarks. How many of actually go through all those lists anyway? (Maybe we just put them here to fill a little space and make it look like we know what we're doing.)

But anyway, today's featured site is the Password Meter. As the author admits, it's not foolproof and his scoring technique is totally arbitrary, but it can give you a sense of how secure your passwords really are. After all, sometimes we may be a little transparent in how we select our passwords, especially to people who know us!

Spelling Bees prove what?

As they are currently conducted, Spelling Bees are, at least to this retired educator, a pointless exercise. Proper spelling, after all, is a writing skill, not a language skill. Spoken languages have been around since long before writing, and some languages today still lack a written form. Pictographic writing, such as hieroglyphics, has absolutely nothing to do with how a word is pronounced. (Some would say this applies to English spelling as well, but that's another topic for another day.)
If you accept the premise that spelling is a writing skill, then you have to ask yourself, "Why are bees conducted orally?" When we write a word, we have the opportunity to see how it looks. Often we can tell if it's misspelled just by looking at it. Then we have the option of correcting the error. In the modern spelling bee, however, you have one, and only one, shot at getting the word spelled correctly. If you realize an error and try to backtrack, you're just out of luck! You're eliminated.
I'm not advocating total abolishment of spelling bees, but perhaps the format needs to be re-evaluated. Let's re-make it as a writing contest, not an oral language competition.

And yet another use for GoogleEarth!

I've had teachers tell me that GoogleEarth is one of the coolest programs they've ever seen and used in the classroom. It seems people are finding more and more creative uses for it all the time. Here's one that can certainly can appeal to the "geek" in all of us.

GeoGreetings

Springing forward to Fall

If it's springtime, that means it's time to get proposals out for next fall and winter's conferences. As of today, I've submitted proposals for the Mt. Vernon Conference in October and IETC in Springfield in November. I've already heard back from Mt. Vernon where they've accepted both of my session proposals for their two day education conference. I expect to hear soon from IETC as their deadline for submission was last week and I had my proposals in early.

Call for presenters is out now for TETC, December, in Nashville and METC, January, in St. Louis. I'm hoping to send off proposals this week for those two.

Interest in my "Keep It Clean!" session still seems to be good, as I'll be presenting if for the second time in Mt. Vernon and, hopefully in Nashville and St. Louis. I've already presented it in Springfield for two years and at IL-TCE for the last three! In fact, attendance at this session has actually increased each year!

Not wanting to be a "one trick pony", however, I'm in the process of working on my newest session, "Tech Tips, Tricks & Tweaks for Teachers", which will have its debut in Mt. Vernon. Hopefully, it will prove to be as successful as my previous efforts.

Keep those kids working, no matter what!

“Please have him read every day, and have him write a Travel Journal.”

For what it's worth, I have an issue with teachers who automatically insist that students work on “school stuff” when they are ill or on a family vacation.
If a child is ill, the last thing they need to worry about is school and the last thing a teacher should be worrying about is having an equal number of assignments from every student. Most homework is review and reinforcement anyway, and few, if any new concepts or skills are introduced in homework, so let them rest and recover.
Vacations are family time, not teacher time. Reading and/or journaling may certainly be raised as an option, but that should be a family decision. Family comes first when it comes to vacation time.
During my 33 years in the classroom, I’ve surprised many a parent by telling them there’s no assignment, just tell (insert name here) to feel better/ have a great trip, whichever applied at the time.

And that’s my two cents worth!

(From a comment I made to a post on Onionskin)

Brief Bio

Back in 2004, when I started this, I put up a brief biography, just in case folks were interested in who I am and where I'm coming from with all this. I haven't changed much since then, just a little older, grayer, and I don't move quite as quickly, but I've added a few minor updates. If anyone is still interested, the bio is here.

Do I get a Re-Do?

OK, it's time for a make-over here...not me, the blog. I'm going to try taking it in a new direction so check back for changes as I sort things out. I've already deleted many of the old posts, but kept the ones that seem to draw hits from the search engines, or ones that may still be relevant in the new direction. Maybe that'll all make better sense in a few weeks. Bear with me...it's a work in progress!

Back yard Visitor

Back yard Visitor, originally uploaded by luke1946.

It would appear that the bird feeders in the yard have attracted another bird whose primary interest is not in the bird feeders, but rather in the birds feeding at the feeders. I've noticed an increase in the number of loose pigeon feathers in the yard. All things considered though, it is kind of cool to look out the back window and see a Broad Winged Hawk sitting on the rocks by the pond.

Can We All Say "Whiner!"?

Updated: 5:50 p.m. CT Oct 1, 2007

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - A New York woman is so angry at Apple Inc. for lopping $200 off the price of the iPhone that she's filed a lawsuit seeking $1 million in damages.(click for the article)

So why don't we all just sue any business whenever they have a sale or lower a price and we already bought one of whatever they're selling? Any judge who agrees to hear this case ought to be voted off the bench!

Toronto Skyline

Toronto Skyline, originally uploaded by luke1946.

Another skyline photo. This is the Toronto skyline as seen from about 20 miles away, on the beach at Coronation Park in Oakville.

Vision Check

If you look at the image long enough, you should be able to see the giraffe!

Whatever Happened to Proofreading?

State urges MySpace to raise minimum wage - Security - MSNBC.com
I don't know how long this will go uncorrected by MSNBC.COM but I really think it's a sign of the times when even workers at a major news source can't take the time to have a litle more pride in their work and assure its basic correctness.

Addendum: It's a day later now and the headline has been corrected by MSNBC.COM. I wonder how many emails they received pointing out their error?

What a Week!

Well, it's Monday and I'm just catching up on R & R after a rather busy week. Last week was the Illinois Technology Conference for Educators, IL-TCE 2006. I've been on the conference committee for several years now, as well as working tech support for the week. All in all, a rather full week.
One of the new things we tried this year was a conference blog. At last count we had over 50 contributors to the blog. What a group effort!
This year I also presented two of the breakout sessions on Thursday and Friday. It was quite a gratifying experience as over 100 people attended my sessions over the two days of the general conference. I'm hoping to expand it to a full day workshop for next year's pre-conference days.

Illinois Technology Conference for Educators

If it's January we must be getting ready for the annual Technology conference. (See previous posts about this time last year.)

This time around the Conference will have its own blog with conference organizers and attendees as contributors. It's still in the stages of being set up and not all contributors are on board yet, but check back as the days go by and see how it develops!


IL-TCE

Sometimes they remember the darndest things!

I received the following email from a former student (1984) and thought it worth sharing. It's always interesting, as well as gratifying in most cases, to see how I am remembered by the students who have passed through my classrooms!

Roses are red. Violets are blue. Some poems rhyme...but this one doesn't.

What do you call a 400 pound Czechoslovakian gymnast? The biggest Czech that ever bounced.

Mr. Allen,

It's good to find you doing so well. I, like most people these days, got my weekly e-mail from classmates.com. My wife was out and I, for a change, was bored. I ran through the site and found your blog...very cool!

Above are the two things I remember most that were taught to me by you. Most would find this to be a serious lack of respect by me for my elementary education. Totally not true. I must tell you, I can't think of anything specific that any teacher from Kindergarten through 12th grade taught me other then what I wrote above.

Sure, by the time I got to College I certainly knew how to read, write, and maybe do a little math, but what does that have to do with who I am today. I have to say, there is only one other teacher besides you, that really made as much of positive impression on me.

I attribute this to the simple fact that you were you. I have a feeling that when you came to work to teach us, you were the same person for us as you were at home with your family, out with your friends, etc. For me, this worked.

Thanks Mr. Allen.

On a Clear Night!

Moon over Wisconsin

Just another photo taken on a clear summer night in Wisconsin. One of the things I like to do during my times there, besides golfing and visiting the casino, is to roam some of the back roads that are so plentiful. With camera in hand, I shoot whatever jumps out at me and gets my attention. Many of the shots end up in the recycle bin but this one was a keeper.

Post IL-TCE

( click for full size )

It's been a while since I've updated but here's the scoop on IL-TCE 2005: A highly successful conference! We ran 24 all day workshops on Tuesday and 28 on Wednesday followed by the two days of general sessions. The vendor area hosted 130 exhibitors representing a wide range of technology related products and services.

The conference was attended by over 2,100 teachers and administrators from all parts of the state. Word of mouth has it that this was one of the best conferences ever. We meet again in two weeks to begin planning for IL-TCE 2006!

The picture shows the vendor area as it looked during setup on Wednesday morning.

IL-TCE

This is it, the big event of the year for ICE! Every year at this time close to 2,000 educators from all over Illinois gather at Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles for the largest educational technology conference in the state. The first two days of pre-conference will feature over 50 all-day workshops covering a wide range of topics of interest to both teachers and administrators. Then come the two days of general sessions with over 150 breakout sessions, 15-16 every hour, on an even broader range of topics. The Mega-Center offers vendors (over 125) the opportunity to reach this audience with their products and services.

The conference traces its history back to the 70's and the "Role of Technolgy in Education" conference which was organized by Micro-Ideas, a part of what was then the North Cook Educational Service Center and in later years, the West 40 Intermediate Service Center became a partner in the conference as well. In 1986, ICE was just being organized and, as part of its efforts, a technology conference was held each fall. In 2000-2001, the two conferences were merged, with ICE eventually taking over as state funding for the Service Centers decreased and necessitated their withdrawal from the conference.

The truly amazing thing about this conference is that it is organized and run by educators. The entire conference planning committee consists of educators, donating their time to this massive effort.

I'll be working the conference again as part of the tech support team.

Overkill?

Maybe it's just a pet peeve of mine but is anyone else the least bit annoyed by how busy and cluttered many Blog sites seem to be? It's too bad that so many bloggers seem to subscribe to the idea that more is better. All that clutter just makes me less likely to read the blog. If you ever feel that mine is getting over-crowded with gizmos, gadgets, banners and links, please bring me back to my senses!

Catching the light.

(click on pic for full size)

There was just something about the way the early evening light caught the stone and the grass that caught my eye. This is Martyrs' Shrine outside Midland, Ontario.

Chicago Skyline

(click on pic for full size)

No real explanation needed. The Chicago skyline speaks for itself!

Alright, just who is this guy?

My name is Luke. I'm a retired teacher who has spent over 33 years in the classroom, primarily with 6th-8th grade students.

I am a member of ICE, Illinois Computing Educators, and have served on the planning committee for IL-TCE, the Illinois Technology Conference for Educators, for the last 7 years, coordinating tech staff volunteers for the conference and working with Web 2.0 resources for the conference.

I have been a conference presenter at IL-TCE ten times and have also presented at the MECC conference in Minneapolis, IETC in Springfield. TETC in Nashville, METC in St. Louis, and the Mt. Vernon Conference.

I received my B.A. from North Park University in Chicago and M.Ed. from National Louis University in Evanston, Illinois.

People sometimes ask me now, how it feels to be retired. My usual comment is that it's nice to work because you want to, not because you have to. I keep myself busy with substitute teaching, managing my website of resources for teachers and doing those odd jobs around the house that I didn't have time for before I retired.

In my "spare" time I enjoy golf, the outdoors, reading, digital photography and, of course, fiddling around with stuff on the computer.

I estimate that in my 33 years of teaching I have had over 6,000 students pass through my classrooms. I hope that some of them can find their way to this blog and perhaps use it as an opportunity to keep in touch.

Til next time!

(very minor updates on 5/2/2008)