The posts of a unique ed techie as she seeks and shares lessons learned, knowledge, and educational technology resources and experiences while taking life one day at a time.
May is the busy month of celebrations from School Nurse appreciation Week and Day, Teacher appreciation week/day, Mother's Day, Cinco de Mayo, and way to many events to list in a blog post. Check out Brownie Locks and The 3 Bears site for daily, monthly, and unique events. But take some time to ensure to restock your first aid kit. Whether you are the school nurse, an adventurist, or keep a pocket kit available, clean the kit out and restock the kits at home, work, and in your vehicles. The most used items need restocking, creams and liquids expire or evaporate, individual towelettes dry out, batteries need to be replaced, plastic and rubber materials dry rot depending on the environment the where the kit is stored, and special instructions and contact numbers need to be updated.
It may also be time to review or renew your CPR or AED training and certifications or sign up or host a local basic first aid course. While you are at it, check the fire extinguishers. You can have the tools but if you do not know how to use what is in the kit, the effort is useless. If you never need a first aid kit...good for you! But for that paper cut, bug bite, unexpected splinter, or unplanned event...you never know when you will need something. Better to be prepared than never ready. How do you schedule the review of your basic first aid kits? Monthly, Quarterly events on a shared calendar, make it a family event, involve the coworkers? Comments, +1s, and reaction check boxes are always welcome.
Every now and then my mom encounters a computer error that she cannot resolve. By the time she calls or sends a text she has done everything in her knowledge base to fix an issue. I gave her a moratorium during my moves that she must start using the F1 key, click on the question marks, or do a Google search to resolve her technology issues. So today she encountered an error that displayed Error 15 (net::ERR_SOCKET_NOT_CONNECTED): Unknown error. A Google Search for this error message produces about 2,180 results. Sometimes clearing the cache and cookies resolves some basic connectivity issues but for this particular error she encountered, this response was helpful. Closing the idle sockets resolved her errors. If you are using Chrome and come across a site you normally access and receive an unknown error message, check out the Net Internals Test function and see the test results. The "chrome://net-internals/" webpage is a special URL in chromium that dumps a view of the network stack's internal state. This data can be helpful when debugging performance or connectivity problems. It includes information on request performance, proxy settings, and DNS cache.
With this function, input the URL that failed to load and press the Start Tests button. Net Internals is described in the Chromium Projects.
From Chalkboard to Tablets was presented in DC on April 19, 2013. I told myself if I was ever in the area I was going to attend one of the presentations given by Julie Evans.
The panelists provided a positive presentation and information about some schools that are integrating technology but as many of us know this is not the majority. While we have diverse tech skills amongst employees, students, educators, parents/GParents and those with access, when you look at the workforce replacements (current K-12) the diversity exists. Of course, the time with the panelists went quickly. I would still like to know the impact on students and educators who transfer in and out of the districts that have the great technology integrated programs. Due to career progression, economic factors, or military families I can only wonder what options do students have when transferring in and out of the technology integrated schools. Maybe another data set for the Project Tomorrow Team ?
I am glad I attended and met Julie. The next session is scheduled for June 4, 2013, 12-1330 @ the Capitol Visitor Center, House Visitor Center, Room 201 with a panel of Students. If you would like to attend, RSVP Jenny Hostert @ jhostert@tomorrow.org where the theme of the presentation is "Celebrating 10 years of giving a voice to students!"
Hat tip to a former coworker +Sean Mercer for sharing this Washington Post article with the unofficial furlough anthem. As we prepare for furloughs this YouTube video will bring a smile to your face if not a full chuckle. From the article, The tune, which borrows from the tally-me-banana song “Day-O,” is called “Furlough Friday.” It comes from Aloha State comedian Frank DeLima, who wrote the parody to make light of Hawaii public school furloughs that took place in 2009 because of state budget problems. Enjoy and share
Feel free to share your favorite one liner or YouTube video that helps you laugh instead of cry as the furloughs begin.
On November 28, 2012 I did a blog post recommending that people of all ages read Little Brother, from tinkerers to educators and technophobes to techsperts. Little Brother is classified as Young Adult or Juvenile fiction, but the reality is interwoven throughout the story and many people can relate to the characters in the book, the tech used, and the credible resources in the afterwords, and the bibliography. It was a quick and easy read but I love tech, tinkering, learning from others the diverse things that can be done while integrating technology, good, bad, or ugly. From companies making ginormous amounts of $$$ from people with student loans packaged as bonds, quad copters, cold brew coffee, Burning Man, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Noisebridge, Tor, Wikipedia, Google, Maker Faire, supporting an Independent political contender, techno-paranoia from webcams, UAVs, 3D printers, People's Mic Checks, leaked documents...there is something for all readers. I looked forward to Homeland being released, wanted to participate in one of many stops on Cory Doctorow's book tour for Homeland. Then life happens. Maybe on his next book tour? If you read Little Brother, then you need to read Homeland. Then we wait on Cory to publish the follow on book or for someone to turn it into a movie. There were times when I was reading this book, I said, "Hey I am connected to this issue, that tech, him, her through social media and news feeds". Probably the section that was like someone talking from the grave is the Afterword by Aaron Swartz. Cory Doctorow's boingboing.net post, RIP Aaron Swartz began before Homeland was officially released. The response from Aaron to Cory is used in the book, so if you read the blog post before reading Homeland you could reflect on the story and depending on your memory recall say, "Hey I remember this from somewhere" or just chalk it up to a deja vu moment. Jacob Appelbaum closes his afterword with, "It's up to you now-go create something beautiful and help others to do the same. Happy hacking," And as with Little Brother, the bibliography is full of credible resources. From the secrets to using Wikipedia (sources and talk) to sites like Code Academy, Tor Project, CyanogenMod, Electronic Frontier Foundations (US & Canada), Open Rights Group (UK), Creative Freedom (New Zealand), Creative Commons, Pirate Party, and more. Of course, as Cory states, "There's plenty more-more than would ever fit between the covers of a book" so a visit to boingboing.net keeps you up to date with Cory's every day writings. Cory...we look forward to the follow on projects to Little Brother and Homeland.
