You want me to Tweet?

The Wonderment of Twitter

One of the difficulties of living and teaching in rural Iowa is we have few colleagues to collaborate with that teach the same things we teach. There is no substitute for being able to talk with fellow teachers, to bounce ideas off of, to learn from, and sometimes to vent to. So, the best way to build a great group of folks to learn from, from all around Iowa, the US or the world... Twitter!

Twitter isn't just about Ashton Kutcher and what $@#^^$ My Dad Says. Twitter is a great collaborative tool that you can use to build your own Personal Learning Network (PLN). This site will allow you to customize who you follow, who to collaborate with and who you interact with. There are TONS of sites and resources on building your PLN.  One of the main goals of the upcoming PD day with 1:1 schools is to start building your PLNs and inorder for this to work and be the most effective, we all need a twitter account! So, head on over to Twitter and create a log-in and get started following people!

Useful links:
Twitter Hand-Book for Teachers
A Teacher's Guide to Twitter
9 Great Reasons why Teachers should use Twitter
Twitter 4 Teachers

Twitter Users at South Hamilton
@karlhehr - Karl Hehr
@DonaKimberly - Kim Huegerich
@jsteino - Jeff Steines
@soniaheins - Sonia Heins
@karenwaid - Karen Waid
@donovan_science - Patrick Donovan
@lyleschwartz - Lyle Schwartz
@radclone - Trev Houck

A twitter list of South Hamilton CSD Staff on Twitter. As more teachers from South Hamilton get on Twitter I will add to the list.

Last bit of useful information: the hash tag for South Hamilton is #shcsd.

Newsletter Article for Summer 2010

The Wonderment of Newsletters

The first year of South Hamilton’s 1:1 is in the books and was a great success! There were many students that did not want to turn in their laptops and start their summer break. The School Board, Administration and Staff all expect the greatness to continue. Since technology never stands still and South Hamilton’s goal is to prepare students for the world in which they will live there will be some new things for next year:

1) All students will be given a gmail account in the fall, this will give access to emails, google docs and many other great apps provided by Google for free. Student email accounts will be firstname_lastname@studnet.s-hamilton.k12.ia.us. To read more about Iowa’s relationship with Google Apps for Education go to http://bit.ly/8YaTJM

2) More classes will be using Moodle to organize courses.

3) Limiting Printing, South Hamilton will be adding Turn it in.com to our teacher toolboxes. This website will allow teachers to collect papers electronically, grade and return paper electronically. This tool also allows teachers to check for plagerism.

4) Addition of Smartboards, due to the recent Microsoft settlement South Hamilton has been able to acquire a number of SmartBoards for the entire district K-12. Some of these will be in by the start of school.

5) Increase in bandwidth, South Hamilton increased their internet connection speed from 10Mb to 20Mb. As students need access to more and more web 2.0 websites we need more and more speed.

6) Also remember to check Mr. Hehr’s blog for continued updates.

One last important item to point out, roll out night for the 2010-2011 school year will be: August 16^th for last names A-N and August 17^th for last names O-Z. This years roll-out will be more workshop based and less paperwork talk than last year. Attention students: It is important to remember that in order to get your laptop back you need to attend the roll-out night with a parent/guardian.

1:1 Conference Resources

The Wonderment of a Dual Platform 1:1

Resources:

CASPER (JAMF)

Winclone

VirtualBox

XP SP2 (Do you really need a link for this?)

Baby it's Cold outside

The Wonderment of Condensation and Temperature change.

Came across this in a email I received from SmallDog.com's Newsletter. With students taking laptops to and from school, possibly leaving it in the bus, or in the car, this is a great little bit of information to remember.

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Tip of the Week: Cold Weather Care By Matt Klein

During the colder months it’s important keep in mind that cold objects entering a warm, moist environment (like your home or workplace) will become damp with condensation. As liquid exposure of any type can void your warranty and result in costly repair, and as Apple now installs liquid exposure indicators inside each of its products, it’s vital that you keep your electronic gear safe.

If at all possible, do not keep your laptop, iPod, iPhone or other electronic gear in the car overnight in the cold. We’re beginning to see a few victims of condensation come through the shop, and it’s easy to avoid. If you find yourself with a moisture-covered device, the first thing to do is turn it off and remove the battery. iPod and iPhone users can only shut down and wait as their batteries are not removable.

Legendary data recovery firm (and Small Dog data recovery partner) Drive Savers notes that this exposure to hard drives is particularly serious: “Cold weather can wreak havoc on temperature-sensitive hard drives used in computers, game consoles, MP3 players and video recorders. Condensation buildup on the drive platters and frozen components can lead to drive failure and data loss.

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SO be nice to your gadgets and treat them with care.

Setting up a Wireless Network at home

The Wonderment of Wireless networking

As much as I would like to help out and visit everyone and setup wireless networks in your homes, I can't. What is great about setting up a wireless network is it is very easy. Every wireless router on the market is basically the same when it comes to setup. There are only a few steps to setup up a wireless router, plug it in and then log-into the configuration page through a browser and follow the setup steps.

One thing to remember is that whoever your ISP is (NetINS, GlobalCCS, MediaCom, WMTel) all would be a great place to start if you need help setting up a wireless router.

Linksys Instructions from Linksys (Cisco)
Belkin Website
Netgear Website
About.com Wirless Router Setup
Setting up a Linksys Router

Re-Wiring your brain

The Wonderment of Web 2.0 Your Brain

With education and the world becoming more wired and interconnected, why not hack your brain. iTunesU is a great resource for many many many free lectures from Universities around the world, but this ONE from Texas A&M is specifically geared toward increasing your brain function and ability to learn.

Switching tips

The Wonderment of switching to the MacBook

Switching to an Apple computer from a Windows computer might seem daunting, but in reality it is quite simple. There are many tips and tricks that work on a Windows PC that also work on an Apple computer. There is no need for me to start writing up documentation on something that has been documented already all over the internet, so I will be posting links to sites that I feel will be helpful.

Switching 101
A Guide to Switching to a Mac from LIfeHacker
Apple Find Out How Videos
Shortcut Compendium