Yet lately, I have been having a bit of a go at some serious hardware and software experiments. This was all prompted by some trouble I had with my old Dell, that was struggling to keep up. The machine has been getting slower and slower of late, but the recent arrival of iOS5 for our Apple devices caused me some serious hassles as the poor old boy had a lot of trouble dealing with the new drivers. So, time to update I said! (I have resisted doing this for a while, because my Grandfather gave me the Dell when he upgraded to a Mac – yes really!)

Then, along came our local Council’s hard waste collection and the usual proliferation of hardware beside our suburban streets. I couldn’t help myself: I grabbed a couple of drive cases (one from our own street.)  I was thinking I would just grab a new stick of RAM or two and an additional hard drive, but the end result has been way cooler.  Yes I know this is illegal, but please don’t dob me in to the authorities.  I was recycling after all

I cracked open one  drive case to find that only the hard drive had been left behind, sitting on a much better motherboard than my old Dell! No RAM though, so the hunt went on. The second case I grabbed had never been opened, the warranty sticker still intact.  In fact, the previous owner hadn’t even bothered to remove their O/S or user data.  A lesser human would have hacked their password and kept the system as is…. Another post for another time…. The happy ending is that this case had a nice big drive and compatible RAM sticks still on board.

So what to do with all this new hardware? Having spent zero dollars on some serious hardware, I felt it was appropriate to see if I could setup a working system without spending any more dough.  What I really wanted to create was a file server that would interface with our Windows laptops, and give us a place to store media and backup files.  So Linux seemed the next best place to look.  I remembered seeing a Linux distro on the cover of PC User magazine.  This seemed like a good option: it was nice and light, could be installed from a USB stick and came with instructions! Perfect!

I hooked up one of the smaller drivers to the better of the two motherboards I had inherited, and loaded up the distro on a USB.  I have to say how impressed I was with the ease of the Ubuntu install.  Went on without a hitch, although I decided to run it through a second time to get a better partition setup on the drive.  So after some consultation with a number of Linux forums we were away.  The detail that did hold me up for a while, is the Ubuntu is pretty much the only Linux flavour that doesn’t give you root access by default.  A simple entry in the command line sets it up, but it would have been nice to have been told…. It took me a little while to work out how to install new software packages too, but on discovering the Ubuntu Software Centre that all become a breeze as well.

So now I have a machine running Ubuntu on 1 stick of RAM and less than 20gb of hard drive space.  Try doing that with Windows! The next step was to try and share the drives on board.  The forums all pointed at Samba, so this was my next port of call.  I spent a good couple of weeks fiddling with config files and command line entries.  I succeeded in creating Samba users, and a pretty big mess.  As luck would have it, after removing and reinstalling Samba entirely, I happened upon a forum post that pointed at a couple of GUIs that were a bit easier to work with.  A simple way to config the Samba server, setup folder sharing settings and Samba users, and it all fell into place.  Hard drives on the Linux machine shared with Windows7 laptops!  Don’t you just love a happy ending?

So I now have a free computer, with several hundred gig of storage space, running on a free operating system and feeling a whole lot of satisfaction.  I reckon I have a bit of room left on the power supply to run another drive, so I might keep my eye open for a nice big terabyte sized hard drive to give us a bit more space (not that we really need it,) but other than that, problem solved.

The next step is to upgrade Ubuntu to version 11…. when I feel a bit more game.

Yet I am feeling that the real meat of the conference came from the Keynotes.  I felt quite challenged that it is now high time to stop thinking old school, students in rows, teacher does the talking.  Time to start taking some risks and let the kids manage their own learning.

I felt most challenged and inspired by Mark Pesce’s keynote centered around how young people connect.  The standout for me was his suggestion that parents are giving phones to their children at a younger and younger age.  It is just a matter of time until we have students arriving at Prep with a mobile phone in their hand.  I am already aware that my own children are growing up in an age where they have only ever known the presence of the Internet and the ability to gather info from anywhere, anytime.  Therefore, knowledge is freely available – it is no longer the role of the teacher to dole out facts at their chosen time and method.

So what to do with this?

Our classrooms no longer need teacher at the front sprouting information.  If we are to adapt our teaching practices to the way that young people now interconnect we need to consider how we can facilitate them in sharing their ideas in a collaborative sort of way.  Now if you are anything like me, you have heard all this before.  Yet it feels like things are getting urgent now.  So why are teachers not leaping at this seeing as the community seems to be screaming that this is where things need to go….

Big change is scary.  We don’t want to give up control of our classrooms in case it all falls over.  Yet I think the time is right to try.  So when I begin a new topic in class next week, it will be centered around a wiki.  Students, go find whatever you can that you think is relevant and share.  Obviously there will be more scaffolding than that. but one step at a time.  I don’t think I am quite ready to let them set the agenda entirely – pretty sure they wouldn’t know what to do with this anyway.  However, let’s be guided by their ideas and what they can find to bring to the conversation.  Mark suggested that if you give kids a connection, they will share whatever they think is important or of value.  How they choose to wrestle with a given topic will naturally be of value – so let others share in the conversation.

Next step is to model this.  Change needs to be gradual, but perhaps we can guide others to take similar risks and open up our classrooms to new ways of letting students interact.  You never know, we might even learn something ourselves!

So I began the journey to discover how difficult it was going to be to convert resources from the commonly used MSWord version, and create a file that could be opened on a range of devices.  Epub seemed to be the most common file type that would be opened by e-readers, and a wonderfully timely tweet pointed me at a nice online tool to convert docx to epub.

I created a word document with images, hyperlinks, even a mailto link to test my conversion process.   I was surprised to find that none of these features were lost.  In fact Stanza, my preferred ereader, displayed most images, font colors/sizes and linked out beautifully to both the browser and email when tapped.  It even used its onboard dictionary to give me the meaning of my own words when requested.

Other formatting features were lost, quite surprisingly.  See list below:

• Page breaks were ignored
• Section breaks were also ignored
• Word Bookmarks were ignored as well
• Table of Contents built in word are also ignored.
  • (How you create chapters in the ebook I am yet to work out….)
• Using a line shape seemed to force a page break (although the line itself was not printed)
• Page size (A4/5) seemed to have little effect on the finished epub result
• Images are automatically upsized to fill the horizontal page space available
• I did lose the odd image or two, so I have to work out if there are restrictions on size (by file size and pixel) restrictions on what will display.
• Embedded video would not play within the e-reader.

The process was quite heartening, as I feel that with some guidance the average teacher could begin to convert the resources they are currently using to a file that could be read by a range of devices.  The trick will be making them understand the need.

Next steps will be to see if there is a way to embed rich media into some sort of file so that it will open either in the e-reader, or pop out to another app/program.  Obviously one could link to Youtube, but we are trying to replace a textbook, so the challenge is to see if we can do all this without the use of the web.

Today, however, I became a back-end fella, and installed Moodle to run locally on my own machine.

I had a couple of reasons for doing so; firstly, I have been asked to be part of the process to phase in Moodle at another school. The second reason is simply curiousity.

I found the installation process to be pretty fascinating. Having downloaded the install pack, and already having a webserver running locally, installing and starting up Moo was a sinch! Literally a 5 minute job. Knowing what I know already about Moo, I was able to set up a few users and courses and began nutting out how to enrol one into the other…..

Anyway enough of techie stuff. what I found quite thought provoking was the sheer emptiness of the site once it is up and running, even with a couple of courses created. Our e-learning developer has spent the better part of 3 years building the monster that is now our multi-campus college moodle site, and I had to stop and reflect on the sheer volume of development that has gone into making a really neat, tight LMS.

It struck me that to make a site that really works on a curriculum level, a serious amount of planning, and thought needs to go into the ‘what-goes-where’ questions. I remember having arguments with our Moodle-development committee trying to decide how to create the links to separate Primary from Secondary, and one campus from another. Let’s not even get started on the difficulties we faced considering how to create links to subjects that had students taking the class cross-campus.  But if the site is to be student-friendly (and novice IT teacher friendly), this needs to be thought through.

The other thing that the blank canvas made me consider is the many uses of Moodle. Having adopted moodle at an ‘in-construction’ phase, the new courses we inherited already had some basic formatting and topic titles added. Yet when the course is empty, one tends to consider how many possibilities there are for a moodle course. Extra-curricular pages, welfare pages, pages for year levels…the list is endless and only limited by your imagination.

The thing I have come to love about Moo is its flexibility, the variety of ways in which you can use its courses, and the way that a teacher can shape a course to suit their needs. The other big positive with Moodle is the way it promotes collaboration, but more on that another time…….

I set aside time last night to nail the last part of this marking task, only to find that once the kids had got settled in bed and I had half a moment to scratch myself I was yawning like a cavern and thinking of bed myself. So I set the alarm for 5am and turned out the light.

5 o’clock comes, out of bed I jump (sort of,) make a cup of tea and away we go. Dialled in (yes, I know – its a long story….) and was able to upload student feedback to Moodle without worrying about tying up the phone line. The brain was ticking, the keys were clicking – it is all coming together….By the time the family all got up, I was basically done! Nice one! The house was nice and quiet. I was being nice and quiet so as not to wake anyone. No distractions, other than the Ipod, and a time limit to work to. The ADD part of me had to be settled with nothing to distract me, so the job got done.

You may remember from my post in March on bodybuilding, that I am used to getting into my day early. Nothing better than lifting some heavy weights before brekky. Early mornings were also the way of things for me when I was a kid – there was me sitting on the heater at 6am waiting for the cartoons to come on. After years of guilt for never finding time to read my bible, I suddenly found 20 minutes at the start of my day – regular quiet time suddenly became a habit.

The only problem with all this is a wife who is a night-time person. She picks on me, calling me an ‘old man’ as I am getting sleepy at early hours, in bed dropping the book I am trying to read on my face. There must be a balance in there somewhere, but it strikes me that we work best when we run in our natural stream. For me, that stream seems to want to flow early, rather than late. So the alarm gets set early again tomorrow…off to the gym, or perhaps to the lappy.

What draws me to Sonny is his heart for the lost, his way-cool dreads (which he has now cut off sadly,) and the tattoos.  Would love to have mad hair and tatts like that, but my middle-class station in life makes that a little hard.

Having journeyed with the band since ‘Satellite‘ in the early nought-ies, I have enjoyed watching the music and lyrics mature as the boys have wrestled with their own identity as a band, as well as issues of faith.  Aside from the music being interesting in itself, P.O.D. display a heart for the average metal-loving Joe, seeking to get into nu-metal air time with some really positive messages. I was fortunate enough to see the boys do their thing when they seconded to Disturbed in concert last year.  Was quite moved to see all the kids in their black t-shirts  singing “I feel so alive for the very first time, and I think I can fly.”

One theme that comes up continually in Sonny’s lyrics is his love for his mother, who he lost to leukemia before the band got underway.  After many years, one can see that he is still processing this loss, showing a deep spirit and empathy for the broken of this world.

Unashamed of their faith and with a mission to enarm the ‘warriors’ to change the world, P.O.D. inspire me to ‘keep it real.’

Great P.O.D. Lyrics
****************

Even though you feel all alone
It can’t rain every day, It don’t rain for ever,
Your sunshine may be gone, but I know
It can’t rain every day,  It don’t rain for ever.
“It can’t rain every day”  When Angels and Serpents Dance – 2008

I think the hardest part of holding on is letting it go
“Goodbye for now” Testify – 2006



One word, a voice unheard
You can change the world
If everyone would stop and listen
“Change the World” Payable on Death – 2003

Time after time, Walk the fine line
Something keeps bringing me back
Time after time, going in blind
I don’t know which way I need to go
Do all these roads lead me back to you?
“Going In Blind” Greatest Hits: (The Atlantic Years) – 2006

I feel so alive, for the very first time
I can’t deny you, and I think I can fly
“Alive” Satellite – 2001

My life, a sacrifice is made new through these confessions
Manifested, this joy is my desire
Light this fire to flames; praise the name, Jehovah Jireh
“Tribal Warriors” – The Fundamental Elements of Southtown – 1999

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We had a Moodle dropout last week, (see previous post.)  Stuffed up my whole day.  At least this time I have some warning.

So what are we going to do?  If the class had PCs and Moodle but no Me, no problem.  Write up a quiz or a webquest and away they go.  Would be a dream of an extra class to pick up.  But no Moodle!

I decided, on agreeing to give up my lab, that completing a task on paper is no big deal – the kids have to do this in exams anyway, and it is a good exercise to remind them that they have tobe able to verbalise IT concepts, not just do it on a computer.  It is planning the tasks for the class that is getting me down; no previously posted resources, no scanned textbook pages, no messaging instructions, no clever web2 tools to liase with.  It will have to be a case of read this bit in your text book, now do this.  I am going to have to type up instructions and print them out!  Ughh.

Yet, by the time the next opportunity to deal with the info came around, it seems that most of the students had manage to lose their bits of paper.  I can’t help thinking that with a PC and moodle available, students would have completed the task, saved their work and then uploaded the completed assignment for me to grade.   Perhaps the students had no idea what to do with bits of paper, as I have not done photocopying for IT for years.  Perhaps Moodle and online facilities make students less inclined to be organised with hard copies?

Food for thought.

Having entered IT teaching only in the last few years, I have tried to seek out PD that will give me the skills I need to better student learning in the IT classrooms I work in.  As things have changed so rapidly in the online world, there have been a myriad of new things to consider.

One of my greatest strengths in utilising online technologies in teaching is my willingness to ‘play’ with new tools.  One of my colleagues once noted that I am ‘fearless’ in the classroom and will trying anything.  The same is true with web tools – I’ll try anything once.
The fallback on this is that sometimes things do fall over, or in my excitement at unleashing something new on the students, I don’t think things all the way through, and could produce a better model or a better prepared activity.
Another downside to this is losing track of the ‘big-picture’ in the culture we are trying to create within the classroom.  It is easy to lose sight of the bigger goal in favour of the exciting new tool.  One thing I can work on in regard to good practice is to always work back to the same teaching goal – better understanding of the topics at hand.

I am also a big proponent of the ‘play and learn’ approach.  Rather than standing and speaking from the front, I would prefer to build something that kids can work through or play with, and ‘learn while they are not looking.’  Unfortunately not all students are as creative as some, and prefer to hear information that they know is correct.  The other downside is that in leaving kids to work on something to get concepts into their head, they sometimes lack feedback unless this is diligently followed up.

The other concept that features in the source documents is research.  One thing that teachers struggle with in general is in finding time for the important but not urgent things that enhance effective teaching – reflection is one of these.  I have noted on many occasions that teachers have a habit of  ‘talking shop’; given a little time to consider the fruitfulness of their endeavours, they will always natter on for hours about their kids or what worked in class last week.  Formalise this with structured discussion and emprical evidence and we would have a powerful tool to see how well things are progressing in our classrooms.  But the time…….

The source document on research also points out that the public benefits when proper research and reflection is carried out.  I have sensed, as my skills in using online learning tools has grown, that it is of great importance to share this with others.  Being a PD leader in my school community, I try to drop tid-bits of clever tools to my peers whenever I can.  Yet there are probably ways of sharing new tools in a public way amongst my school community that can be effective on a wider scale.  I have considered using a public forum to drop new ideas and examples of neat things my peers are doing out there, but again it all comes down to hours in the day.

Every now and then you have to ask yourself “Why do I do this?” What is going on in my head to make me behave in such a strange way?

I reckon weight-lifting is a guy thing. Strength is the epitome of a successful man – a man who can cope with anything that life throws at him. There is something very empowering about knowing you can lift something heavy that others can’t manage.  There is also an element of overcoming; achieving something that you couldn’t previously.  So in your head, you have control – you can beat things and overcome the odds.  The guy in the mirror is not the same person who peered out at you months earlier – this guy is stronger, fitter, more able to cope.

Then there is the feeling you get when you lift.  There are few sensations as overpowering as squeezing out that last rep knowing there is just nothing left.  Bodybuilders everywhere know that feeling, often 2 days later, when your muscles are aching because you pushed it the limit in your workout.  It is a nice pain, knowing that your muscles are developing under the strain you are exerting.

I didn’t grow up in a household dominated by sport.  We played basketball a bit, but exercise wasn’t high on the priority list.  On joining a gym to lose some weight, something clicked in my head – something I hadn’t experienced before.  That sensation of getting stronger, bigger, fitter is an addictive one.  I have had a break or two at times – ask my wife: I get grumpy!  Not only do you miss the familiar, noisy environment of your beloved gym, your body cries out to be worked and not neglected.

So find below a few shots of notable muscle men.  Few men cannot be impressed by the physique of a built guy – I think it is something all men crave for themselves.  It just becomes a question of whether you are ready to work for it.

As my computer tried to log on, I wrote a list of things to do for the day. On discovering that Moodle was down, I immediately crossed off half of the things on the list to be dealt with when the WAN woke up.

My morning then consisted of things I had been putting off for a while; sort out my budget, worked on some IT tutorials the old-fashioned way (in Word grrrr,) twiddled my thumbs trying to work out how my day suddenly became so defragemented…. .

Got to thinking about how much my day now revolves around access to Moodle.  With all my curriculum being replicated online, it made it exceedingly difficult to generate anything new.  I tend to be quite anal in my teaching resources anyway, so I make a lot of new resources. I have spent much of the last week developing tutorials for Access databases.  I decided it was time to fully embrace Web2 and do this online as a wiki.  I figure that I can then update my tutes over time with new ideas or better ways of doing things.  If the kids find a better way, then heaven forbid…they could add to the resources themselves.  Teacher losing control of class….ahhhhgh   With Moodle down, all that ground to a halt. Lots of our curriculum materials are now also stored or interfaced with via Moodle.  So the storm put an end to that as well.

Happily, our technicians restored access to Moo by lunchtime, so the universe righted itself once again.  The experience made me realise how much we now rely upon online content to get through our day.  I was also reminded how much I have come to rely upon the tools and resources that Moodle does so well.

Oh Moodle!  How shall I ever live without thee?
In fact, a colleague of mine turned down a job offer in another school as they didn’t have a decent LMS.  Well not Moo anyway.