Every six or eight months, I have to talk about books. It still drives me crazy that we pay a fortune for textbooks, and that no one is seriously looking at the e-book market for education, and that no one can seem to get an open source textbook off the ground (despite cool projects like CK-12, Wikibooks, and others). But despite the convenience factor with … Continue reading Here He Goes Again…

We’ve been inundated lately with students walking in to our office bearing flash drives. Usually, they’re accompanied by a staff member. “We need help opening a file.” “What kind of file is it?” “It’s an English paper.” “Right. But what program did you use to create it?” “I did it at home.” At this point, it’s easier to just look at the drive. Usually, the … Continue reading File Formats

Microsoft Windows XP reached a milestone last week when all new sales of the operating system ended. That’s not really new – most people haven’t been able to buy Windows XP for more than two years. But this latest nail in XP’s coffin affects netbooks. An exception to the 2008 end-of-life date for XP still allowed sales of XP on netbooks though October 22. Hereafter, … Continue reading The Microsoft Problem

“The kids are telling me that email is old-fashioned.” The message popped up in my Facebook chat. It was one of our high school teachers. “They say they don’t use email. Should I be setting up a Facebook group instead?” I didn’t like where this was heading. Setting up a Facebook group would likely mean teachers and students friending one another. While I don’t necessarily … Continue reading Reminding Students

My poor neglected blog. There was a time when I posted twice a week, 100 times a year. If I had something to say, I said it here. People were reading the blog, and commenting, and this was how the educational technology community kept in touch. I was out in the blogosphere much more than I am now, reading and reacting to the things others … Continue reading Still the One

I’ve been whining about ebooks for years. We’ve moved well beyond the place where information was a scarce resource. With its abundance, though, its value has diminished.  If I want to learn about hydrolysis, I don’t need to buy a book. I don’t even need to go to the library and look in a book that they’ve bought. I don’t need to subscribe to some … Continue reading E-book Wish List

If you’re using other programs in Windows to send email, you may be getting an error because the program doesn’t know which email settings to use. Fortunately, this is a very easy fix if you’re using Outlook Express. http://content.screencast.com/users/jschinker/folders/Default/media/845bb65f-a8dc-402b-a5ef-c66e938e3eff/bootstrap.swf There’s also a larger version of this video available in case this one is too hard to read. Continue reading Default Email Account

If you’re a BBH user and you’re having trouble getting to some of the network services (like the new email or Google Apps accounts), it’s possible that your passwords are out of sync. Fortunately, it is very easy to reset your password with the BBH User Management System. This will make sure that your network, email, Google Apps, and blog passwords are all the same. … Continue reading Resetting Your Password

As we have moved from our own mail server to Google Apps for Education, everyone’s Outlook Express configuration was automatically changed to access the new server. Some people have reported problems accessing their email with Outlook Express using the new system. This short screencast shows the most common problem we’ve seen so far, along with instructions for fixing it. http://content.screencast.com/users/jschinker/folders/Default/media/c5cc85c0-3c84-4a6f-aafb-6e9a5d2580af/bootstrap.swf If that’s too hard to … Continue reading Missing Folders

I can’t say that I’m an early adopter when it comes to mobile devices. I was reluctant to carry a pager when it was first offered, because there were times when I felt that it was good to be out of reach. I was similarly reticent about a cell phone, especially because it was being offered by my employer. While it was great to have … Continue reading One Device to Rule them All

In 2005, we decided to bring email in-house. Prior to that, our email was handled by our ITC, a consortium of school districts that provides many technology services like student records, fiscal services, library automation, and Internet access to its member schools. But they were ill-equipped at the time to handle email. Accounts and settings were confusing and inconsistent, there was no usable webmail system, … Continue reading An Offer we Can't Refuse

I can’t remember when I started using passwords. In college, I had email and mainframe accounts that had passwords, but I don’t think they were new to me then. I certainly had a pin for my ATM card by that point. And I’m pretty sure I used voicemail passwords in high school. And before that, even as far back as fifth grade, we had locker … Continue reading What's the Password?