There is no box
thinking out loud about technology, education and life
recent posts
about
Category: Commentary
-
There has been a lot written lately about Google “mining” student data in the free for education Google Apps suite of online tools. I’ve watched the conversation evolve from a desperate attempt by Microsoft to remain relevant to seeing passionate educators accused of bringing the Google “stranger” into their classrooms for money. I must admit that…
-
Warning! Boring technical post follows. Read at your own risk. I recently contracted with two low voltage (ie. data cabling) contractors to do some cable plant improvements at my school district. I had two goals. First, I wanted to beef up our wireless for the upcoming SBAC testing and rather than pull new cable, I…
-
Building a sound computing environment that provides “enterprise class” services for schools on a California budget isn’t rocket science. It involves making smart choices and focusing on what’s important. Plant some cable. It’s the foundation for everything. Crap cable equals a crap network. Wifi like starbucks. Instant on and connected to the web. Buy the features…
-
This is the final part of the VDI Saga I’ve been writing about on and off for the past several months. To catch you up, two years ago, I inherited a 1000 seat VDI infrastructure build in 2009 that wasn’t performing. The situation was a result of a trifecta of poor design, old (and slow) technology…
-
Last week I had the opportunity to interview Ewan McIntosh from NoTosh on rebootED and he got me thinking about Instruction versus Learning. He said that here in the states we tend to substitute the word teaching with instruction. Think of all those Curriculum & Instruction departments out there. The word instruction carries with it…
-
This weekend, Mike and I had an opportunity to Hangout with outgoing CETPA Board Member and Director of Technology Support Services from Fairfield-Suisun, Tim Goree. Between airport security announcements, he talks about how Open Source is powering his district’s open devices network and BYOD program.
-
There has been much discussion about the best way to administer the SBAC test on iPads. Look no further. Follow this simple 5 step process and you’ll be all set. Step 1: Buy a Digital AV HDMI Adapter (brand unknown) Step 2: Buy a Logitech Wired Keyboard For iPad (30-Pin) Step 3: Connect HDMI Adapter to…
-
I’ve about had it with this whole G+ Custom URL thing. I’ve been anotherschwab on the web since setting up my hotmail account in 1997. I’ve been anotherschwab on Yahoo, Excite and a bunch of other services that have come and gone. With the rise of twitter, @anotherschwab became the name I used in…
-
I’ve been averaging an edtech conference a month for a few years now, and in some months, like this upcoming February, I’ll be at edtech events three Saturdays in a row. Obviously this puts a bit of a strain on the family what with two kids and the wife and all. It gets even more…
-
Working in a modern day manufacturing facility, data was all around me. As the IT Manager at Quebecor World’s Merced Plant, my team was responsible for the plant dash board. A web based application that collected and showed the plant’s production performance in real time, pulling in data from hundreds of sensors throughout the production…
There is no box 