Keeping Older Computers Running Smooth and Safe

In an ideal world we would have a class with a laptop or tablet PC for every child, and we could update them every three or four years to keep current. Unfortunately in the real world we are fighting with trying to keep older computers patched together and running, so that our kids have at least some access to technology. In this and a few of the following articles I will discuss some of the ways we can keep these older machines running smooth.

The first concern is security. If you are not connected to the internet then this is really not an issue, but if you are there are some concerns that should be addressed.

• First keep your operating system up to date. Windows 98 is no longer supported by Microsoft, so this is one situation where updating to a more recent version is necessary. As of now Windows 2000 is still supported, and can be put on donated pc's for free through the fresh start program from Microsoft. Microsoft Fresh Start
  
• Mac computers support cycle is much shorter than Microsoft's, but because fewer people use macs they have not been a target for hackers. You are likely to be safe using a mac even if security updates are not being provided.
• Use an antivirus. AVG still offers a free version of their antivirus, and it is more than capable of meeting your needs.
  

More to come...

Brain Pop Jr. is a great addition to Brain Pop

website: http://www.brainpopjr.com/

Grade: A

Cost: $95 Annual fee for teachers (School, Parent, and other licensing options are available)

I have looked at Brainpop before and have given it a positive review. The addition of Brainpop Jr. which is targeted more to the primary grades, makes it even better. In addition to providing many great educational films featuring fun animated characters, it also contains many learning games and activities to solidify the concepts taught. Student can do Games, Writing, Drawing, read a comic book that teaches the concepts, as well as take a quiz on the subject. It also contains a link for teachers with suggestions of activities that correspond with the video. I can't say the animation is spectacular, but it is sufficient to keep students interested, especially with the well written scripts.

Is it worth the $95? With research you could probably find free resources to teach many of the concepts taught on this site. But if your time is at all valuable it is worth the $10 per school months to have all of these resources in one location. I personally think it is a bargain. My resource students have learned concepts on Brainpop with ease that they struggled to grasp in a traditional classroom setting. To me that is also worth a lot.

Ubunto Feisty Fawn Released/ Great School Solution

Website: http://www.ubuntu.com or http://www.edubuntu.org/

Grade: A

Cost: Free

I have reviewed and suggested Ubuntu before, but with their new upgrade to Ubuntu Feisty Fawn, I felt that it was a good time to talk about it again as a solution for schools. Schools face many interesting challenges, but the biggest is lack of current technology, older computers, donated computers, and lack of finances for software to keep everything working and running smoothly. Although it can't fix everything Ubuntu can help us in some of these areas. Ubuntu is a free Open Source Linux operating system that includes a wide variety of software to get you started with most common tasks. Of all the Linux varieties out there Ubunto is probably the easiest to get up and running. It also includes great software that gets you going, including a word processor, a spreadsheet, presentation software, firefox, email, and much more. Edubuntu is the education or kid friendly version that comes bundled with the basic applications as well as many educational titles. If you have an older computer that needs something more secure that an unsupported version of windows, or a donated pc that your not sure about software licencing on, or you just want a fun alternative, Ubuntu Feisty Fawn, and Edubuntu are a great choice.

Murphys Law for Teaching

Site: http://www.murphys-laws.com/murphy/murphy-teaching.html

This is just a fun list for teachers, because it seems to be true to life. I copies just a small portion, please visit the site for the full list.

• The clock in the instructor's room will be wrong.
• Disaster will occur when visitors are in the room.
• A subject interesting to the teacher will bore students.
• The time a teacher takes in explaining is inversely proportional to the information retained by students.
• A meeting's length will be directly proportional to the boredom the speaker produces.

Continued at: http://www.murphys-laws.com/murphy/murphy-teaching.html

A Cool way to Multiply (Video)

Website: http://www.glumbert.com/media/multiply

Grade: A

I found this video that teaches a new method of multiplication. It has worked time and again as I have tried it. Give it a try.

glumbert.com

100 posts which direction should I Go? User Poll

Wow! I have reached the 100 post mark. I have recently been posting rapidly and the posts, are adding up quickly. I currently have about 60 regular subscribers, and I also receive between one and two hundred hits a day. I want to provide you the readers with the best information possible in a format that will benefit you most. My recent posts have been mostly short one or two paragraph reviews of cools sites, tools, and software I have found. I think this is good for teachers because it introduces you to useful tools that make teaching a little more fun. In the past I have also created guides to using technology. For example I did a guide to movie making in which I discussed the tools used and needed for this specific type of project. Which Direction would you like to see Ed Tech Review? Please answer the poll question, and leave comments on this post for your suggestions.

Educated Earth for Edcuation

Website: http://www.educatedearth.net
Grade: B+
Cost: Free

Educated Earth is a very nice site that brings you a wide variety of videos, photographs and articles about the science of our earth. I found a wide variety of videos from an octopus that attacked a shark, to a science demonstration of blowing up bathtubs with a chemical reaction of alkali metals and water.

The only real problem I see is that many of the videos are not hosted on the site, so if your district like mine blocks Youtube and Google Video you may not be able to view them.

NyeLabs Is a great place for hands on activities!

Website: http://www.nyelabs.com/
Grade: B+
Cost: Free

I am always on the lookout for good science activities, and Nye Labs is a great site to find some of the many activities that they suggest on the television programs. The hands on science activities are well thought out, and most are very simple to implement. I enjoy the Bill Nye show and there is an episode guide to help you in selecting shows to go along with the activities. The site is done in flash and is well designed and works well.

On a personal note, which I rarely share on my site I do take issue with the loading page depicting evolution. It frustrates me that evolution theory is so widely accepted as fact when probability based on scientific studies really deem it next to impossible. Yet the scientific community totally dismisses the one thing that could make it a possibility, being divine design. I just think Science is about looking at many possibilities, and keeping an open mind to the many theories out there. It seems that the scientific community in general is moving away from the open-mindedness of the past and getting into a rut by totally dismissing other possibilities. OK, I over generalized, University Professors, and Government Funded scientist have fallen into the rut. There are many in private industry that keep an open mind. Maybe thats why most of the great discoveries in modern times came from private companies and not from Universities. Sorry about my soap box but it is my blog, and I needed somewhere to vent.

Science of Food

Website: http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/candy/index.html
Grade: A-

This is just a quick post to let you know about this cool site. If you are teaching about chemistry, Chemical and Physical Change, or many other scientific processes, many of those can be seen and experimented with through food. Kids relate well to food because they love to eat, and it is something they relate to. This site helps you tie food to science to make great lessons that kids will love. Check it out.

The Spanish Verb Conjugator is a Great Tool for Language Classes!

Website: http://www.123teachme.com/spanish_verb_conjugation

Grade: A

Cost: Free

Learning a Language is a challenging task. One of the most difficult tasks is learning how to conjugate or use verbs correctly. This task has become a little easier because of the release of the Spanish Verb Cogitator from the people at 123teachme.com. The addition of this powerful tool to their already robust website makes looking up verb and there many forms of conjugation a breeze. Simply enter the verb, and a chart of all of the conjugated forms of the word with a description of their usage and an English translation appear in a well organized layout. Common verbs are listed right on the main page for quick access, you simply need to click to see the results. The chart is well laid out and easy to follow if you have a little Spanish knowledge. Although it has an English translation of the , and English examples, the layout titles and sections are all in Spanish. This is okay, because Spanish Verb Conjugation is really a more advanced task, and for anyone ready for this they certainly have enough knowledge of Spanish for the chart to be effective.

The Spanish Word Conjugator is a great tool for any student or teacher of a Spanish language class. It is a quick and easy way to look up Spanish verbs and their conjugation, and belongs in the book mark of anyone involved in learning, teaching, or translating Spanish. The best part is that it is free to use.

(Sponsored Post)

Art Rage 2 is Amazing!

Website: http://www.ambientdesign.com/artrage.html
Grade: A
Cost: $20 (Free Version is available)

Art rage is a powerful yet intuitive paint application that is really amazing. You can start with a variety of canvas styles and instantly start your painting. Your tools are found in the lower left hand corner and you have a great selection of paint brushes, markers, crayons, a painters knife, the ever important eraser, and many more. I was able to pick up the program and create my first painting within a few minutes. The textures the program creates while painting are true to real paint tools, you even get the brush lines when using the brush. I have to say that the texture qualities of the paint's are the best I have seen even in much more expensive applications. It did take me a few minutes to figure out how to change the brush size, but once I figured it out it was very well placed and made sense. If you need a little help to get started the websites they have a great video tutorial on the website. This application is well thought out, and can be a perfect creative engine for students from the middle grades up through high school. In truth this is a professional level tool, with the ease of consumer level use. Have fun and create using Art Rage 2.

A Wiki for Education with Curriki

Website: http://www.curikki.org

Grade: A

Cost: Free

I love Wikipedia, and feel that it provides a valuable resource for all of us. Yes, there are some inherent pitfalls because the community at large can edit the information, but in general the information is very good and accurate. This type of media where the community provides the content can be very powerful and can be a great resource for all of us. This type of application is a perfect way for teachers around the world to get together and share lesson plans, resources, worksheets, video, and websites. The people at Curriki have developed and promoted a web site for educators that allow us to use this powerful WIKI technology.

Curriki is more than your average Website; we're a community of educators, learners and committed education experts who are working together to create quality materials that will benefit teachers and students around the world.

Curriki is an online environment created to support the development and free distribution of world-class educational materials to anyone who needs them. Our name is a play on the combination of 'curriculum' and 'wiki' which is the technology we're using to make education universally accessible.

Curriki is the result of work done for GELC - the Global Education and Learning Community - an online project started by Sun Microsystems to develop works for education in a collaborative effort. The leadership team consists of people with a long-time commitment to exploring the use of technology to improve education.

The power of Curriki is in it's members. The more people join and contribute to this site the better and more useful the site will become. This is a valuable resource and I believe the future of educational content on the internet.

There is an inherent downside to this type of system. It will likely become a site that will be invaded by special interest groups trying to push there message through biased lesson plans and materials, but there is nothing new with that. Nearly all current educational resources are already infiltrated with a significant Liberal slant. If you're a Liberal that may be OK, but for others that don't share that viewpoint it can be frustrating. The advantage to the WIKI format is that you may begin to see materials from multiple viewpoints and opinions.

The upside is that we will likely find a site with a wealth of lesson plans, materials, textbooks, and worksheets that are far better than any of the current generic worksheet sites on the web. Individual teachers create amazing things to teach there kids, and through this sharing system we can share and receive from the many brilliant teachers out there. This site is definitely the future of education.

Elegant Universe Availible in Free Full Screen Download

Website: (Teacher Resources) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers/programs/3012_elegant.html
Website: (Video Downloads)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/program.html

Grade: A

NOVA introduces string theory and Albert Einstein's dream of unifying the forces that underlie all phenomena in the physical universe. This television program is called The elegant universe. It is freely available for download from the above PBS Link. This program is very well done and is broken down into bite sized pieces that help you focus your lessons. The website also contains a teachers guide that provides you with with activities, lesson plans, and more to help you get the most out of this program. The video downloads are a very good quality full screen video so it does require the preprocessing power of a modern computer and high speed internet is recommended. If you want to avoid the hassles of the download, you can purchase the video from the PBS site but you can find Elegant Universe at Amazon for a little less. Following is a brief description about what the video contains.

The program:

• reviews the quest for unification, the search for a single theory that describes all the laws in the known universe.

• introduces string theory as a candidate for a unified theory and summarizes the theory's main idea—that all matter and forces are made of tiny strands of energy that vibrate in different patterns.

• chronicles how, in 1665, Isaac Newton integrated the laws governing the heavens and Earth under the theory of gravity.

• details Einstein's discovery that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light and reveals how that finding conflicted with Newton's laws that showed that gravity acts instantaneously across any distance.

• explains how Einstein resolved the conflict with Newton's ideas by showing in his general theory of relativity that gravity travels at the speed of light.

• describes how electricity and magnetism were unified in the mid-1800s into a single theory of electromagnetism and illustrates how electromagnetism works and why it is hundreds of billions of times stronger than gravity.

• chronicles Einstein's quest to unite electromagnetism with gravity.

• relates the rise of subatomic physics in the 1920s and reviews the development of the radical theory of quantum mechanics and the uncertainty that rules the quantum world.

• conveys the discovery in the 1930s of two additional forces—the strong force and the weak force—and the eventual grouping of electromagnetism and the strong and weak forces under the umbrella of quantum mechanics.

• discusses the challenge of unifying the force of gravity with the forces described by quantum mechanics and expresses the need for a unified theory to describe phenomena in the universe, such as the depths of a black hole, which is both enormously massive and incredibly tiny.

• concludes with the idea that while string theory could unify general relativity and quantum mechanics, there is currently no way of experimentally confirming its predictions.

Where did math symbols come from?

Website: http://www.roma.unisa.edu.au/07305/symbols.htm#Percent
Grade: B+

If you have ever wondered where the division symbol came from, or questioned the the origin of pi this website is great. This site has a tremendous amount of information as can be seen by their index:

1. The factorial symbol n!
2. The symbols for similar and congruent
3. The symbols for angle and right angle
4. The symbol pi
5. The symbol for percent
6. The symbol for division
7. The symbols for inequality
8. The symbol for infinity
9. The symbols for ratio and proportion
10. The symbol for zero
11. The radical symbol
12. The symbols for plus and minus
13. The symbol for multiplication
14. The symbol for equality
15. The symbol for congruence in number theory
16. Complex numbers and the symbol i
17. The number e
18. The calculus symbols
19. List of ancillary symbols without explanation
20. APPENDIX --- Personalities

The information is good but could be more organized and presented in a more entertaining way.

teacherxpress.com Directory for Teachers

Site: http://www.teacherxpress.com/
Grade: B
Cost: Free

If you are looking for a vast collection of education related websites this site is perfect. Even with the vast amount of information available is is surprisingly well organized. The downside is that despite the vast volume there are things missing. Also it provides no detail as to what the pages in the directory contain, other than the category they are placed in. This is a good site to find difficult to find links, but is not perfect.

For the Ambitious School Tech, Radio?

Have any of thought about starting a radio station for your school? I have thought about it a fair amount but was overwhelmed by the challenges that would prevent such a venture. The biggest challenge aside from acquiring the equipment is the costly and tedious task of acquiring a FCC License. The challenge of getting that license for educational purposes will get easier and cheaper for a few short days this year.
Radio for The People has important information for those interest in getting a FCC License for a FM Radio Station. There description of this event is as follows:
"We have joined together in anticipation of the upcoming FCC noncommercial license application window, to encourage the creation of more independent community radio stations. We know that the pending application window is an important one-time opportunity. We believe that a significant number of the radio licenses that will be available should be used for community radio. Community radio stations are priceless local community resources."

If interested please visit their site for more information.
http://www.radioforpeople.org/content/view/2/31/

Get the facts on the Civil War

Website: http://www.civil-war.net/

Grade: A

Cost: Free

When teaching students about the civil war, there are few sites that have more information and photos that are well organized as Civil War .net. It is an amazing collection of information. Battles are outlined, politics are discussed, and historical figures are brought to life. This is a fun site that really sheds light on this significant struggle in our nation's history.

Adobe CS 3 Brings together Adobe's Assets

Website: http://www.adobe.com/creativelicense/
Grade: ? Pending
Price: $489.95-$995.95 depending on version (Academic Pricing)

Later this month Adobe is scheduled to release it's CS 3 suites of creativity software. Adobe has made many acquisitions over the last few years including Macromedia with the most used web development software Dreamweaver and Premiere the popular Video Editing software. With the release of CS 3 now the interoperability of these industry standards will be paired with Adobe's dominant Photoshop software package that works seamlessly together. The way the programs work together is the most significant change, but each of the applications has many enhancements that significantly improve the user experience.

All the objects in our solar system

Website: http://kokogiak.com/solarsystembodieslargerthan200miles.html
Grade: A-
Cost: Free

This website shows all of the known bodies in the solar system that are over 200 miles in diameter. They are arranged in order of size. There are many that I have never heard of, and I learned a lot through this site. This is great for those teaching about space.

Program: Stellarium
Website: http://www.stellarium.org/
Grade: A
Cost: Free

Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. This application is available for Mac OSX, Windows, and Linux. A useful guide is also available on the site that provides you with all of the information you need to get started. The imagery is amazing and very accurate. This is a very powerful tool that is being used in many planetariums. This is a perfect application for any class studying space.

Back-up and share files online with dropboks

Website: http://www.dropboks.com/
Grade: A
Cost: Free (They do ask for a $3 donation but it is not required)

DropBoks is a little website that allows you to securely upload and download your files as you please. No bells, no whistles, just an easy and quick way to store your files online.

Each account has 1 GB of storage space available. You can upload and download files (any format) as large as 50 MB

This type of setup is great for students that need a place to store files that are accessable from any computer.

The site is free but they do ask for a $3 donation. In return you get a great place to store data without ads.