Overview of Microsoft's new Office Web Apps

D211 students will have access to many useful tools as part of the student e-mail system that will be in place with the start of the 2010-2011 school year.  One set of tools that will be available is called Office Web Apps, which are the free online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. 

For more information on Office Web Apps, please click the link below:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/web-apps/office-web-apps-overview-FX101825723.aspx

Solving a teaching problem

I found a website from Carnegie Mellon University's Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence that helps teachers (not just new teachers) through common problems they're facing with their class and then gives them suggestions to fix it.  Are your students late for class?  Here's some possible causes of that problem as well as some advice on how to curtail it.  It was an interesting approach.  I thought I'd share it with all of you.

http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/solveproblem/step1-problem/index.html 

Upcoming technology improvements

Dear Staff Member:

Next year District 211 will focus our efforts on improving your overall experience with technology.  In the coming summer months, we plan to implement six major improvements that will make your computer more reliable, your connection to the Internet faster and more stable, and your communication with students and parents more efficient. 

·    First, the wireless network is going to be completely overhauled.  Each school's wireless infrastructure will be expanded and improved to hold approximately 6,000 devices, which is four times more than the current system allows and enough capacity for every person to have two devices connected at all times.  Connections to the wireless network should be stronger and less likely to be lost and classrooms using laptop carts should expect faster boot times and far fewer issues connecting to network drives. 

·    Second, the Internet bandwidth will be quadrupled.  Streaming media will be expected to play smoothly, and large classes doing research will be able to maintain a more stable and faster connection. 

·    Third, as a result of a better wireless structure and greater Internet capacity, people will again have full access to the guest211 network as they have had in the past.  Students will be able to use any personal electronic device, including computers and cell phones, within the guidelines of District policy, to connect to the Internet inside our schools. 

·    Fourth, we will replace Windows XP with Windows 7.  This new operating system boots faster, has better wireless capabilities and is more stable than Windows XP.  Numerous staff members throughout the District have already been successful using Windows 7 and the transition has been smooth for them.

·    Fifth, we will replace Lotus Notes with Outlook as our e-mail, calendar, and messaging system.  Outlook offers a greater number of integrated communication features, is more compatible with your personal computers and is easily accessible on your cell phones.  We will make sure everyone has access to the training they need to use this convenient, easily accessible communication program.  Our ongoing discussions with Microsoft and our examination of similar transitions from other districts all indicate that all e-mail, data, files, folders and calendar entries accumulated in Lotus Notes have been successfully and completely migrated to Outlook.  More information about this will be provided in the near future.

·    Sixth, every student will be given a designated District e-mail account.  You will have the ability to e-mail your students, create student e-mail groups, and send out calendar reminders regarding tests, homework, practices, games and club meetings.

These six areas were chosen based on the extensive information collected from teachers, students, parents and administrators over the last few months, and they will have a positive impact on the way we use technology to advance student learning and achievement.

We will send regular updates over the next month to keep you informed of our progress and to explain opportunities for training.  In the meantime, please send us any comments or questions you might have.

Keith Sorensen  

Director of Educational Technology 

Charlie Peterson

Director of Technology Services

Protect yourself by using privacy settings on Facebook

Safety and privacy are big concerns for anyone who uses the Internet regardless of their age.  The more information you post on the Internet, the more likely it is someone will be able to piece that information together and figure out where you live, when you're going on vacation, or where your kids go to school.  Yet despite all we know about keeping our information private, many people break those rules when they are on a social site such as Facebook.

I've included two short articles on how to protect yourself when you're suing social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace. One is an article about overall things to avoid when using social sites, and then another article with tips on how to keep using Facebook but avoid getting into trouble at work for the things you post.  Both are worth reading.

Electronic textbooks

One significant barrier to adopting an all-electronic curriculum is the lack of support and resources provided by the textbook companies.  I know, why would a textbook company provide online resources when their money really comes from book sales?  The fact is, they need to find a way to provide their same textbooks in an electronic format as well as add new multimedia features while still earning enough money to stay in business.  They can do this.  We know this.  Newspapers, magazines, books, movies and music are all available online as well as in physical format, and those industries are finding a way to survive and in some cases even make more money than ever.  The textbook companies fell behind the times, but the companies that make the transition first will be in better shape long-term than the others.

As a member of a large school district, my interest is in our 13,000 students and not in the profit margin of the textbook companies.  I want the best resources for the lowest prices possible.  When the textbook companies are ready to produce high-quality electronic resources then we will be ready to evaluate them and consider them for implementation.  We're finally starting to see some companies ready to make the shift; McGraw-Hill, Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt, Pearson, and Kaplan have all signed agreements to deliver their textbooks in the iPad tablet format.  We haven't seen price points, and we don't know if it will be a straight adaptation of if they will take advantage of the multimedia capabilities of a computer-like device.  There's a lot we don't know, but we do know that publishers are finally taking the digital age seriously.

To read more about the iPad story click the following link:
<http://www.theiphoneblog.com/2010/02/02/major-textbook-publishers-sign-scrollmotion-ipad/>
(This tip comes courtesy of Scott Weidig at SHS)

Copyright and the classroom: showing video tapes in class

Copyright laws are meant to protect people who create something and want to retain control over what they created.  Music and movies are often the center of many copyright lawsuits, especially when it comes to illegal file sharing.  Artists do not like it when people enjoy their work without paying for it, and I don't know anyone else who would feel differently.

Educators are allowed to use copyrighted materials for free, but only in very specific situations and within a short time frame. It's called "fair use," and according to Stanford University,

"someone other than the copyright owner may make limited use of a copyrighted work without permission for purposes such as teaching, research, scholarship, criticism, parody and news reporting."

Again, there are very strict guidelines for this. To learn more about the fair use rule, please visit Stanford University's webpage at <http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter0/0-e.html>

How are kids affected by the use of media devices?

There have been many studies about the effects of television on children, and those studies have expanded to include the use of cell phones, mp3 players, handheld video games, and other media devices.  A recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows, among other things, how much time kids spend using different media devices.  You can read more about media usage studies at <http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2010/01/obvious-report-on-increased-media-use-among-kids-is-obvious.ars>

Here are two graphs from the study that I found interesting.

...

Daily amount of time, in hours and minutes, kids spend using media devices when parents set limitations on their use versus those whose parents do not set limits.

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Correlation between amount of media use and grades:

What is a word cloud?

A word cloud is a bunch of words all lumped together, with the size of each word dependent on how many times it appears in the original document.  A word that appears many times within one piece of writing will be larger than a word that is only there once or twice.  For example, if you listed all the words in one of President Obama's speeches in one big jumble, then made the words that appear most often larger than the others, it would look something like this:

Word clouds are mathematical, they're visual, and  they're a different way to view information in order to gain understanding. 

Go to Wordle's website <http://www.wordle.net/> to create yours today.

Online safety

The laws regarding privacy and protection on the Internet are rapidly changing, but the overall message is clear: we will protect our children from harmful things on the Internet, and we will teach our children how to protect themselves.  Below is a link to OnGuard Online, a federal website regarding Internet safety.  Within that site is Net Cetera which has resources to help parents and teachers talk to their children about the dangers associated with using the Internet.

OnGuard Online <http://www.onguardonline.gov/>
Net Cetera <http://www.onguardonline.gov/topics/net-cetera.aspx>

Internet search results in a table format

Google has a different way to search for information.  It's called Google Squared <http://www.google.com/squared> and instead of returning a list of websites it instead presents information in a sortable table.  It's different.  For some searches it's a better way to do things, and for others it's worse.  You'll have to make that determination.  Choosing the best way to find and use information is an important skill for our students and this website is just one more way students are doing just that.

Look at the two images below to see the difference between a regular Google search and the new Google Squared search.

GOOGLE SQUARED

GOOGLE

Office 2010 beta

We're going to see two different versions of Microsoft Office 2010 next year.  One will be a free online version with limited features, and the other will be the standard full-blown version with many new additions.  I think both will offer new ways to connect with people and share information and data. 

There are no plans right now to use either one next year in D211, but we will continue to monitor the situation as Office 2010 gets closer to its release date.  For now, feel free to get a closer look at Office 2010.  You can download the Office 2010 beta or read about the Top 10 benefits of using Office 2010.

Life expectancy of a laptop computer

A recent study by a company that sells extended warranties on electronic items found that approximately 1/3 of all laptops will no longer function after three years due to either mechanical failure or accidental damage.  D211 often buys 3 or 4 year warranties with all computers.  However, it might be to our advantage to purchase computers that have a better chance of survival even if it means paying more for the product.

Below is one of many charts found in the report.  I've included links to the blog written by Christopher Null as well as a link to the entire report by SquareTrade.

Free anti-virus software for home use

Microsoft has released a free version of their security software called Security Essentials. It protects your computer from viruses, spyware, and mal-ware. While there are several different free anti-virus software titles available today, our tests have shown that Security Essentials is easy to use and offers very good protection for individual users.

Download the software from Microsoft's website:
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/?mkt=en-us

Virtualization saves us money

Server virtualization, in a nutshell, is when several different servers are combined onto one machine. Combining servers and clustering them together is great for our users; it makes the network safer and more reliable. It also saves us money. Lots of money. Each high school used to have 14 servers. We have reduced that number to eight, and by next summer there will only be four. Eliminating 10 servers at each building saves us more than $50,000 annually just in electricity costs. On top of that, it costs less money to cool the server rooms and it will cost us less money in the future when we need to replace 4 servers instead of 14.

We began virtualizing servers to provide a better experience for our students and our staff members. We didn't realize how much money we would save each year in electricity costs until our energy consultant sat down with us and worked on the numbers.


For more information on virtualization please visit Microsoft's website: http://www.microsoft.com/virtualization/en/us/products-server.aspx