YouTube Puts Myths to Rest

http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2011/09/clearing-up-some-policy-myths.htmlI saw this on Free Technology For Teachers and I had to report it.  YouTube Blog has posted some great policy myths many of which I am embarrassed to say i thought were true.   It covers everything from screening of videos to flagging.  I do like how YouTube comes right out and states that if you did not consent to your image being on youtube then you may appeal to have the video removed.  

Give this a read, whether for curiosity sake or conversation this is worth a read.

Film Club Story Lines

The Film Club I co-Advise with some of my fellow staff members is well underway.  Currently we have 40 interested students.  One thing we are trying to work on this year is a full story, a beginning, middle, & an end.  I am trying to create some how to guides for students to help them plan their movie and story.  I am always in search of solid material but I will include a copy of a sample story outline.

If you are interested in Film Club, what it is and the forms we use, use the blog search to learn more.

Network Down :/

Yesterday was the first day of the school year that we experienced a network outage.  We were fortunate in that only the Internet and communications went down and not the ability for students to access their drives and documents.  I know the tech team was working hard to resolve the issue but I am prepared for outages.  I keep a class set of USB drives on hand.  I also have paper print outs of assignments for students to work on.  As long as students are able to access their machines I am in good shape.  When students are unable to access their machine i have a login that will allow me to access that single machin locally.  By having these tools in place I feel confident that i can keep my lessons moving forward with limited interruption.  

I am curious what others do in a similar situation.  

Becoming friendly with Macs

This year more than ever it seems like that everyone at school has a Mac.  Apple makes fantastic equipment and I would love to own one of these.  Our school is all PC, and sometimes PC's & Macs don't play nice.  One thing to note for Mac users when using a LCD projector you will need an adapter.  The Mac Mini Display port to VGA adapter was $30 at the Mac store.  The device itself has mixed reviews but for me worked great.  

Attach the device to the VGA cord

Plug into your Mac

Wait a moment

You may need to go to your display setting and turn on mirroring

Enjoy

Google+

Google + has opened to the masses today!  I have tried Google+ since early this summer.  That's right I can brag that I was one of those lucky few who got in early.  There are a few things you should be aware of however.  By signing up your Google Profile is instantly viewable to the universe as well as your friends called circles.  Oh yea pictures too.  For the privacy lovers like myself Google+ does make it easy to hide information.  

Go to Google+ settings

Profile & Privacy Settings

select Edit visibility and profile

You can "click" on the "globes" to edit privacy to circles or just you

What I do love is that you can opt out of being found in search

You may also opt out of showing your circles and who your following

Your Picasa settings should be checked next

If you have Google+ then you have Picasa from default

Those settings are easy to lock down 

Note: YOUR PROFILE PHOTO ALBUM IS PUBLIC AND CAN NOT BE CHANGED

I suggest posting a photo of scenery rather than your face

Please comment back on your Google+ stories

Watch ESPN on my Android

Calling all college sports fans. I downloaded the watch ESPN app from the android market. I love it. I used my free preview but now cant login to watch again. I called Comcast and they don't understand why. This is highly upsetting news. 
Can anyone help?

Plug Ins, Add Ins and more

Since switching to SchoolWires there have been some add in or plug in issues for students when trying to watch videos.  Thankfully these add in like Active X are easy for students to install and run.  I took some screen shots and put them on my classroom website for students so they would understand how to run these tools.  In the past plug in and Add ins were a problem as students could not run them because of security restrictions.  

Do you have problems running Plug Ins or Add Ins?

What do you do to avoid these problems?

NO MORE ANGRY BIRDS!!!!!!

As an avid angry bird play I am completely distraught after my HTC Incredible updated to Android 2.3.4  All of my Angry birds are inaccessible.  Currently I have;

• rovio angry birds 
• rovio angry birds rio
• rovio angry birds seasonal

All versions show pieces of the program installed on the SD card but can not be accessed.  I am told that the application is not installed by the phone.  However when I go to phone settings / manage applications / ALL applications  - I can see the apps there.  However according to the Android Market & Amazon where I got Rio from,  I do not have Angry Birds installed.

I had 3 stars on all levels and all golden eggs.  I also just updated to the newest version of angry birds from the android market and newest rio version.  I am so sad, this was my guilty pleasure and I want it back.

I also tried to unmount and remount the SD card.  I have 1.6GB of free space on the SD card.  Angry Birds is not the only app I am having this trouble with but it is the most important to me.

I found this video and asked HTC and Rovio if this would help.

HTC ( A company that should win countless awards for amazing customer service )  wrote me and said; 

When you upgrade your phone from one version of Android to the next, in most cases your apps will be erased or removed from the device, similar to when you upgrade your PC operating system from say XP to Vista. Moving apps to the SD card does not keep them safe, it simply moves some of the application files to the SD card to free up space on the internal storage. However, a portion of the application files stay on the internal storage of the phone. Any apps on the SD card will need to be re-downloaded and reinstalled to your phone. There is no known method for restoring apps from the SD card after performing a ROM update. 
Because of this, a portion the Angry Birds app was actually erased from the device storage when you upgraded the phone, while the remaining files were left on the SD card. You may have been able to move the app to the internal storage prior to upgrading the phone, but this likely would not have changed the result since apps from the market get deleted when a ROM upgrade is performed.We deeply regret that you will have to begin your Angry Birds adventures from the beginning again. As for the video link that you sent, we cannot comment on the suggestions contained therein. You may want to ask the developers of the Angry Birds application as they would know more about the app and whether this will allow you to restore your achievements. 

I am still waiting to hear back from Rovio the maker of Angry Birds.  I will update with their response.

Squawk

QR Codes for Back To School Night

As I prepare for Back To School Night I decided to place a QR code on all of my handouts.  I am doing this for a few reasons.  1 I am trying to show parents that I am introducing as much new technology as possible to the room.  2 I am trying to become a "greener" classroom and am trying to hand out less.  3 I think its cool.  Making a QR code for your classroom is easy.  Watch my video here.

Facebook Friends

Facebook has announced an improvement to its friends lists.  This feature is designed to help with security and privacy issues which I am all for.  All of my friends are on a list.  It took me forever to get the lists configured correctly but once I did I changed all of my profile elements so that you HAD to be on a friends list to see anything.  This way I was certain about who was able to see what.  You can do this first by going to "friends" then view all.  As you scroll down your friends list you will see to the far right the "list" they are part of.  You can add friends to a list or create a new one.  Next go to your privacy settings.  Under who can view select "custom" and type in the name of your friends list that you would like to be able to view that album, interest, or other element.
How do you handle friends and lists?

Day 5 Website woes

Rebuilding my site is taking me longer than I wanted it to.  I know that I can't keep things the way they were and I find myself getting stuck.  My website has become such a major part of my lessons that I find without having it at 100% is really hurting me.  I am struggling to complete the new design so students can quickly and easily find what they are looking for.  I also want to incorporate some new elements, perhaps a news feed from Google News.
What are some elements or apps on your site?

Day 4 Reinventing the wheel

With the move from Fistclass to SchoolWires as a web client I have finally come to grips that I must completely reinvent the wheel.  There is noway to "copy" my old website to this new service.  I have to manually retype or paste all of the text, and re upload all of the files.  I had about 25 pages on my old site =(  This is taking a long time and I hope I don't have to do this again.  Although staff who have been here longer told me this is at least the 4th web service they have used.  Many of them link to an outside host like Google Sites so they won't have to do this moving over again.
What site do you use?  Have you had this experience before?

Day 2 internet Search Strategies and Browsers

Today we began discussing internet search strategies with my new cycle.  One thing I wanted to incorporate was the definition of what a browser is.  In our school we use Internet Explorer 8, I showed students how to use the search accelerator ( highlight any word then click on the blue arrow) & CTRL F to "find" something on a page.  I also downloaded Chrome and Mozilla.  I had all 3 browsers displayed on my screen.  All 3 sites displayed specific web pages differently.  Students gave me feedback that they found this useful as they really did not understand what the differences in browsers.  We also tested speed by trying to open the same website on all 3 browsers at the same time.  This highly unscientific experiment was engaging and useful.  By the way Mozilla won every time.

What browser do you use?

First Day of School

Welcome Back!  The first week at school is always an exciting one.  This year our district experienced a week long power outage before school began.  Our technology department has been going above and beyond trying to get things back up and operational as fast as possible.  When things go haywire I do have back up lesson plans.  I have a generic password that allows me to log into our network so students can access the internet or work on a particular machine.  I also have a complete classroom set of USB drives, so if students are unable to save to the network I am able still able to save their work.
What type of contingency plans do you have in place?
We also have a new webservice provider, SchoolWires.  I am eager to use this new service and hope to write about what I learned.
Have a great year.

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