Ken Lupo -- Resident Geek

August 22, 2008 1:52 PM

Moodle

Let's talk about Moodle.

From the Moodle website:

Moodle allows educators to create online courses, which students can access as a virtual classroom. A typically Moodle home page will include a list of participants (including the teacher and students) and a calendar with a course schedule and list of assignments. Other Moodle features include online quizzes, forums, where students can post comments and ask questions, glossaries of terms, and links to other Web resources.

Moodle is a great way to extend the classroom and to really get kids involved with their classes online. The great part is that teachers can post all assignments, quizzes and tests and make them available online for both students and parents to view.

This is Saline's second year of using Moodle and we are really excited to empower teachers to use this great online tool.

Interesting article: Building Educational Websites with Moodle

Until next time,
Ken

August 13, 2008 12:14 PM

SAS Website

You may have seen my message about the new website moving to Joomla! but I didn't mention all the great extensions that are available for Joomla. You can load in everything from calendars to directories to authentication plugins to blogs. The list is endless. There's also some great tutorials available on the site along with reference links to hosting providers that host Joomla!.

Interesting Link: Here's my super secret Apple info site where I find out all the new Apple stuff coming out.

Until next time,
Ken

July 16, 2008 3:57 PM

SAS ITD is going green

That's right the Tech department of Saline Area Schools is going green. We have started a green initiative to reduce, reuse and recycle.

In the last 3 weeks we have managed to turn off 13 servers in our server farm. What we have done is convert these servers to VMWare Enterprise Servers or Virtual servers. These 13 servers are still available, they are now simply living in software. By turning these servers off we have significantly reduced our power consumption. Here's a calculator to show you how big a difference 13 servers makes:
http://www.vmware.com/solutions/green/calculator.html

In the next 3 weeks we plan on turning off another 6 servers bringing our total to 19 physical servers, using energy 24/7 365 days a year, that we have turned off. Talk about taking a bite out of global warming, that's like planting 380 trees and giving the district a savings of $12,500.

In the fall we are hoping to move our efforts out to each building and reduce power consumption and paper use significantly. I am hoping to get staff volunteers and possibly members of the community together to assist us in reducing our carbon footprint.

Here's a great article about Going Green in Education: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/04/20/BAgreenschools.DTL

Until next time,
Ken

July 7, 2008 12:50 PM

Good Article

Real quick, I wanted to share this article from Yahoo, I think it's a good indicator of where we're going:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080707/tc_nm/usa_education_technology_dc

Until next time,
Ken

July 1, 2008 12:15 AM

Remember the Milk

One of the most glaring missing pieces from Gmail(Google Apps) is a task list. In comes Remember the Milk(RTM). Here's the main website: http://www.rememberthemilk.com but read this first:http://creativebits.org/toolbox/to-do-list_for_google_apps_right_within_your_gmail and then go to the site.

There's a nice little addon for Firefox which is very easy to install after you sign up for a free account.

Also RTM works with about everything out there too, there's even a dashboard widget for Mac.

Words of Wisdom: If you can think of some missing functionality odds are good someone else has already thought about it too and done something.

Here's something fun from Google: http://www.google.com/ig

June 24, 2008 11:20 PM

Director of Technology

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Saline Area Schools Board of Education, Scot Graden, the Saline Area Schools Staff and the Community for the opportunity to serve as Technology Director. I know there is much work to be done and I plan to work my hardest to bring technology inline with every classroom in Saline. I believe with teamwork, solid communication and the proper tools we can give all the students the best education possible.

Words of Wisdom: Never, never, never give up...Winston Churchill

Interesting Link: http://www.instantanatomy.net/anatomy.html It's great for learning anatomy.

Until next time.

Ken

June 17, 2008 12:13 AM

Open Source Software

Go Linux! But open source software is no longer just about the Linux operating system. It may sound like I'm speaking a different language, first let me explain what I mean when I say open source software:

Open source software are programs, applications, services and/or operating systems for computers that are completely free of charge. The creators often make the software to satisfy a need whatever the case may be from a web server to a math program for kids. Often these developers start out as college students(that's how Google started) and the continue to develop their product asking for no money from the actual product.

A good example of this model is RedHat (http://www.redhat.com). Redhat develops one of the world's best operating systems - Fedora Linux, and they charge nothing for it, you can download it freely from many universities. So your next question might be: How do these companies make money? I'm glad you asked. They generate revenue in 2 different ways: 1. They also sell an enterprise version of their product for money and 2. They sell support for their product.

This is a complete 180 from the old school model of software practice. In the olden days a company would produce a product and then license their product to people for money(*cough* Adobe).

Moving forward you will see more and more companies moving to the Open source model, many companies are already embracing it and have done quite well. Two example are IBM and Sun microsystems. Both of these companies have endorsed and use LInux and Open source software and give it away for free and offer service contracts to support this software. It's a win win in my opinion.

For more references and resource please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source, http://www.redhat.com, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux, http://www.linux.org/. Also, if you really would like more info go to Amazon and look under books for Linux :)

Here are some great free applications for elementary school kids:
Tux Paint
TuxMath
And here's a great article with links to lots of applications:
http://www.techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=196604921

Words of Wisdom: The best software is not always the most expensive software.

Here's a fun website to learn the state capitals: http://www.vectorkids.com/maps.htm, it's harder than you think it would be.

May 15, 2008 12:14 PM

Google Apps For Saline Area Schools

Let's talk about Google Apps (http://www.google.com/a/)

Next year Saline Area Schools will be moving to Google Apps and I wanted to give some links to some great training, faqs and resources that Google has provided for us. Here are the video tutorials: http://services.google.com/apps/training/index.html, here you will find all the training you will ever need along with FAQs and discussion boards.

Also, here is a short flash presentation showing all the Google apps features: https://services.google.com/apps/site/overview/index.html

If you have a gmail account then you will easily pick up Google Apps, it's basically the same thing, just specific to Saline. Let me take a moment and answer a few questions regarding our migration:

Question: Will I have all my old email and folders?
Answer: Yes, you will have all your email and it will be labeled according to your folders, gmail uses labels instead of folders.

Question: What about my Contacts?
Answer: We will transfer over all your contacts currently in your personal address book. The global addresss book, which has all saline.k12.mi.us addresses will also be available.

Question: Will my email address change?
Answer: No, it will remain username@saline.k12.mi.us

Question: How will I get to my email?
Answer: The same way you do now, either by logging into the website and clicking the link(the name of the link may change).

Question: When will the migration occur?
Answer: In June, I can't give an exact date yet but it will defintely be in June.

If you have any more questions that the tutorials or FAQs can't answer please email me: lupok

Words of Wisdom: The old software model of the past is an aging dinosaur, everything will be online and it will happen sooner than you think.

Interesting find: http://www.daskeyboard.com/ , it's the craziest keyboard I have ever seen but it'll rid you of looking at the keys.

Until next time,
Ken

May 15, 2008 12:14 PM

Google Bookmarks

Bookmarks(or Favorites in Internet Explorer) are often a mangled mess of links that you don't always know where they go or you have a different collection on each computer, one set for your work computer and one set for your home computer.

Enter Google Bookmarks(http://www.google.com/bookmarks), google allows you to keep track of all your bookmarks online. And the great thing is if you use Firefox( if you're not you should be) is that they have a great addon to help ease the use of google bookmarks. Here is the addon: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2448, so no matter where you are you will always have your bookmarks with you.

Another great thing about google bookmarks is that you can assign categories(I know IE and Firefox do this too) to make is easier to manage those links you were saving and to make it a bit easier on the eyes to sort through.

Words of Wisdom: Organizing your life with online access makes it much easier to work from anywhere at anytime.

Here's a great resource for free online learning.

Til next time,
Ken

May 15, 2008 12:15 PM

Creating PDFs

My topic for today is creating pdf files from any document.

On the Mac this is easily done. From the application you are working in go to File->Print(or ⌘ P for you short key people). When the print menu comes up you'll see in the lower left hand corner a 'pdf" button. Click the "pdf" button and select "Save as a PDF". Here's a picture:

On a PC it's a little harder but not much. You'll need to download an application called PDFCreator. The nice thing is it's free and it works great. You can download it here. I've used PDFCreator for years and it has always worked great. Once you have it installed and you have your document open you want to create a PDF with go to File->Print or Alt+P(shortcut key) and choose the PDFCreator printer. That's it! You're done.

For Saline Area Schools Staff to quote Eddie:

"Keep in mind you staff out there that the Windows tip above will not work for you here in the district. Since you can not install any software on a district workstation, you should go to our PDF Creator on the Printserver instead (Start>Run then enter \\printserver and then double click to install it in your profile). After you have printed to it, you then go to the Commons folder and then go to the PDF folder within. Your document will be inside. Remember to delete it afterwords, please. ;-) On the Mac it still works the same way as above."

Thanks Eddie.

Words of Wisdom: Don't always think you need to buy software to do the task at hand, lots of time with a little googling around I've been able to find a solution that is free or nearly free.

If you have the time, here's an interesting website I found for all the parents out there.

May 15, 2008 12:15 PM

Spam!

Let's talk about Spam...

Lately, I have been working diligently to get Saline up and running with our own Spam filter and here are some quick statistics since it's been up and running.

2 day total volume: 78,941 email messages

percentage of Spam: 87.4%

dropped for no known user: 3,241

dropped because server is on a blacklist: 36,417

As you can seen very little email is actually valid email, it's absolutely amazing how much junk comes in. So here's a few tips to help reduce Spam:

1. Don't sign up for lists - when given the option when you're buying something and looking at a product, DO NOT sign up on their mailing list, make sure you uncheck that little box that says "keep me updated" or "send me emails".

2. Do not respond to Spam or click any of the links in a spam message ever.

3. Think of your email as your personal phone number, only give it to people you would trust to call you either at home or the office.

4. Disguise your email address if you have to post it on a website, forum or blog. For example: user@user.com would be user(at)user(dot)com, this way the data miners won't be able to pull out your email.

5. If you do want to sign up for things use an alternate email address. I myself use my gmail account for all purchases, mailing list info,etc. You have to remember that your school email is for school business only.

Words of Wisdom: Avoid using the "@" sign on the internet at all costs.

For those of you math nuts out there, this made me laugh:

May 15, 2008 12:15 PM

Productivity - Shortcut Keys

Many of my tech tips often refer to productivity on a computer, the reason for this is that I believe that computers should allow you to do your tasks quicker and easier. I mean wasn't that the original intent for the creation of computers to begin with? I don't think it was to make things more difficult or more time consuming, in fact it was just the opposite. Today tip covers shortcut keys, below are two links to shortcut keys for Mac or PC:

Mac shortcut keys

PC shortcut keys

Words of Wisdom: Check where you are printing before you click print, I can't tell you how many times I've had users not look and end up printing to a different building on accident.

If you have time check out this great resource for educators here.

May 15, 2008 12:16 PM

Productivity - Desktop Space

Mac: For productivity, one of the best but often overlooked feature of Mac OS X is the possibility of hiding the Dock. A fast,easy way to do this is go to the Apple in the upper left hand side of your desktop, click it, navigate to dock and enable hiding. You can also get to the Dock preferences through System preferences, there you can select to not only hide your Dock but modify the magnification and choose which side you want the dock to be on.
Here's a screenshot of mine:

PC: You can also hide the taskbar to give you more screen real estate. Right click on the task bar, go to properties and click auto-hide.

Words of Wisdom: More screen space cn make you more productive, it's even been written about in this article.

If you have time for an interesting article about 15 great tools for techs click here.

May 15, 2008 12:16 PM

Productivity - Multiple Desktops

Mac: If you are running 10.5(Leopard) you can turn on Spaces to give you multiple virtual desktops. To enable Spaces go to System Preferences->Expose & Spaces and check the "Enable Spaces" checkbox. I also like to check the box "Show Spaces in Menu Bar". After you have turned it on you can use Fn+F8 to get a bird's eye view or control+arrow keys to move from one desktop to another. This can be really handy when you're working on multiple projects. For me, I like to put my mail in one and work on another one, just to make getting to my mail quick and easy.

PC: Windows has an application that can give you multiple desktops, it's an addon from Microsoft. You can download it here.

Words of Wisdom: Using keyboard shortcuts to navigate in multile desktops and multiple aplications can speed up your productivity.

Here's a great resource for all you web designers out there.

May 15, 2008 12:17 PM

Backups are essential

Today's Tech Tip of the day is pretty simple and it applies to PC, Mac, Linux or any other operating system that might be out there, it's a basic concept that most people don't do and regretably should.

BACKUP YOUR WORK!! Save often, make a copy of items that are really important and put them on a usb drive. Nothing is more horrifying than to realize that you accidentally deleted your word doc that you've been working on for a week or a presentation that you're getting ready to show.

One note to this: Do not make copies of items in the same place. This is not a form of backup. A backup is copying your files to some other location, a usb drive, burned to a CD-ROM, copied to your local machine as well as in your server space.

The people I know that do good backups are usually only those who have lost something at some point and know the agony. Spread the word on how important backup are, be proactive instead of reactive. To make things easier on yourself you can always use syncing software to sync your USB device with your computer, this makes backups simple, easy and you won't forget to do it. I recommend Allway Sync or MIcrosoft SyncToy.

Words of Wisdom: Before you upgrade, make a backup.

If you're interested, here's an interesting article about the mysterious cattywampus.

May 15, 2008 12:17 PM

Productivity - Scrolling

Tech Tip:

Mac: Pressing ⌘+tab you can scroll through your open programs, this is a nice quick way to bounce between applications. For example, your doing work on a website and you want to check your mail, press ⌘+tab and choose your mail icon, Boom! your in Mail and the best part is you have all your shortcut keys available.

PC:Pressing Alt+tab has the same effect on a PC, easily scroll through all your open applications. This can be especially nice if you're doing some copy and paste work.

Words of Wisdom: Use the keyboard more and mouse less, you will increase your efficiency.

If you have the time and are interested here are the hundred greatest math theorems all in one place.

May 15, 2008 12:17 PM

Where's my Desktop?

Tech Tip:

Mac: Pressing F11 brings up your Desktop, no matter how much stuff you have open, it clears a path and gives you your Desktop. This is very useful when you need to clear your head and your Desktop, one button does both.

PC: Pressing Windows Key+r gives you the run window, from here you can run any program on your computer. Try it. Press Windows Key+r and then type "excel" or "winword", it will open excel or word and if you really want to help your IT guy do this: Windows key+r, type "cmd"(without the quotes) ->enter and then in the command box type "ipconfig", now you can see your IP Address on the network.

Words of Wisdom: When in doubt...Restart

And if you have time for a decent read check this out Teaching Binary to Third Graders

March 11, 2008 8:57 PM

Olivia and the old man

This is Me and Olivia in the Summertime..
Livie and Dad

Livie and Dad