I’ve always thought of snow days as a gift. I never really count on them. There’s no guarantee that we’ll have any in a given year. I always assume we’re going to have school. Then, when they come, it’s a pleasant surprise. Truth-be-told, it shouldn’t make that much difference. I don’t work directly with students anymore, and I have to work on snow days. Except … Continue reading Snow Day

“Is this file too big to send in an email?” “Why, yes, I’m glad you asked.” I had spoken to a teacher on just this topic earlier in the day, after she tried to send a 100 MB attachment. Several times. “So how am I going to get it to him?” “Use Senduit.com.” “Senduit?” “Send you it.” “How does it work?” “Go to the web … Continue reading Senduit

The results from the latest Biennial Educational Technology Assessment are in. Every two years, teachers in Ohio are required to complete the 48-question BETA surveys that measure teachers’ access to, use of, and attitudes toward technology. I haven’t really spend much time digging in to this year’s results, but I did notice that teachers’ attitudes about technology have changed in our district over the last … Continue reading Believers

I received our Asus eeePCs yesterday. After playing with a couple at the tech conference last week, I thought it would be worth the investment to try a few out in the district. I bought one for each building, plus one for my techs to share and one for me to play with. That’s a total of eight. I purposefully didn’t pre-configure anything. I simply … Continue reading I Want My eeePC

I’ll admit it. I’m a sucker for free books. Whenever the school library is weeding out the collection, I’m invariably digging through the boxes of castaways, looking for something of interest. I always walk away with a small pile. And I even read some of them. Sometimes. And so, in this 21st century post-information-age, when there’s no premium on information, and a quick Google search … Continue reading Books

The eTech Ohio technology conference wrapped up this week. Throughout the conference, people kept asking me if I was enjoying the conference, or if I was getting a lot out of it. Mostly, these were eTech employees. I’m not sure whether they were nervous about how things were going, or if they were looking for honest feedback, or if they were just trying to make … Continue reading Most Valuable

Presented at the eTech|Ohio State Technology Conference February 4, 2008 How do you find professional development that is tailored to YOUR needs? Create a Personal Learning Network to connect with other professionals all over the world. By sharing common experiences, challenges, and successes, everyone learns from the community. This session provides an overview of Personal Learning Networks and highlights the EdTechTalk community. Thanks to everyone … Continue reading eTech 2008

The eTech|Ohio Educational Technology Conference starts Monday in Columbus. This is the tenth year for the conference, which usually draws several thousand people. The theme of this year’s conference is “Transforming Education Through Technology,” with conference strands covering classroom integration, e-learning, emerging technologies, leadership and planning, infrastructure and support, and staff development. Keynote speakers this year include oceanographer Robert Ballard, inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, … Continue reading eTech Conference

A recent discussion about providing access to students’ home directories from outside of school reminded me of all of the open source applications we run on our servers. When faced with a new challenge, I frequently turn to the open source community to see if a solution is already available that can be adapted to our situation. As a result, our district has saved hundreds … Continue reading Open Source Servers

Time is running out for you to sign up for your free Yugma Premium account. In December, Yugma announced that they were giving away free one-year subscriptions to their premium service to any blogger who requests one. The offer expires January 31, though, so you’d better hurry up if you want one. Yugma is desktop-sharing software. It allows you to share your computer screen with … Continue reading Free Yugma Premium

Back in the dark ages, I remember being very upset about the amount of money I spent in the college bookstore as an incoming freshman. Every course had at least one textbook that had to be purchased. English had several books, but at least they were small and relatively cheap. The kicker, I remember, was calculus. This was no $35 paperback like the structured programming … Continue reading Textbook Economics