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~ …give that you may live, for to withhold is to perish. (Adapted from Kahlil Gibran)

Around the Corner

Monthly Archives: September 2011

#Amazon Got To Me – BYOD and #Kindle #ereader @NEISD

29 Thursday Sep 2011

Posted by mguhlin in Amazon, BYOD, Education, eReader, Kindle, MobileDevices

≈ Leave a comment

Real Steel – http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-TmWcCkYErY/TQJTnXOqokI/
AAAAAAAAJE8/6WAJuK_UduI/s640/hugh-jackman-real-steel.jpg

Real Steel reminds me of the game I had where two “robots” boxed in a ring until the head on one of them popped up. Whomever thought of making a “real life” movie out of it with Hugh Jackman (e.g. Wolverine in X-Men) is going to cash into hopes and dreams of old men everywhere who’ll take a trip down memory lane. Amazon may be doing the same thing, playing underdog to Apple’s iPad, with it’s new wave of Kindles. Who doesn’t love an underdog, and Apple is the new Microsoft, right?

When I woke up this morning (09/28/2011) to wait for the air-conditioner guy to show up and do annual maintenance, as well as attend a funeral, I had no idea that I’d finish the day off as an Amazon Kindle owner. It just wasn’t on my horizon… Buying Amazon simply goes against the grain.

Here are my top 3 reasons why I don’t like Amazon Kindles:
  • Digital Rights Managements (DRM)
  • Tough to manage easily in K-12 environment
  • Fail to use the standard ePub format
Like many others, I simply didn’t want to have to invest in a device that would lock me into their product. Fortunately, you CAN load nonDRM mobi formatted books–after converting them with Calibre–onto the Kindle…that means you get a nice device that you can load your own or free content on.

You could say that Amazon’s low-price knocked me out, popped my head off. When I came to, I’d placed an order for the least expensive of the devices. I’d planned to invest in a new Nook for myself, but for the same price, I could get two Kindles. Who could pass that deal up?

Image Source: http://cdn.gottabemobile.com/wp-content/uploads/kindletouch03.jpg

I saw the Amazon Kindle’s for $79, the perfectly priced gift for my kids, who are avid readers and consumers of content. Why not get them each a Kindle and see how it goes? After all, $79 each is a small investment when you consider they both carry 20 pounds in books everywhere they go. And, it’s a way to get them into ebooks and clean out their rooms, infested with those perniciously ubiquitous paper tomes…Harry Potter alone would liberate half a shelf.
So, I indulged in an impulse purchase. By the time they read this blog entry tomorrow afternoon (I’m up late purging my guilt with this blog entry), the Kindles will be charged and in their hands. And, I’ll have the opportunity to document their reading habits.
Others are asking a question about whether the new Amazon Kindles, especially the Fire, will resolve the tablet question for schools. Is the $199 price point low enough to supersede the iPad? This perspective (Audrey Watters, Hack Education) below is one I agree with: 

In some ways, all this concern over what tablets schools should/could/might buy is moot. I tend to think that the future of computing devices will be BYOD — Bring Your Own Device. It’ll be that way for businesses. It’ll be that way for schools. Do you have an iPad? Awesome. Bring it to class. Do you have a Chromebook? Woohoo. Do you have a Kindle Fire? Whoopee.  Bring your laptop.  Bring your tablet.  Bring your cellphone.

But if that’s the case, then schools are going to have to look for digital content that is available across platform. That could mean looking for DRM-free resources, or at least for resources that aren’t restricted to one particular platform or file format. That could mean turning to Web apps over native apps.

I encouraged my son to try out the Aluratek eReader I’d picked up some time ago (and I still like it). His only complaint was, “I can take this to school. They won’t let me.”
“Why?” I challenged. “It doesn’t have WiFi, you can’t play games on it, and you don’t have to carry around those hardback Harry Potter books.” Of course, he didn’t know.

BYOD is coming. It’s inevitability is stronger than traditional 1 to 1 in a tough economy. If your school isn’t embracing cloud storage, course management systems, some kind of place to gather online, it’s clear that what remains of schools will be an outlet for your local big name content providers (e.g. Apple iTunes, Amazon). 
Our schools are battlefields and there’s little hope of stopping these giants. Will our children be the casualties of the perpetual boxing match between commercial giants? Will they be crushed underfoot, impoverished in a mad dash for financial success?

I can guarantee you one thing…I’ll be challenging the “No eReaders in school” policy first thing in his school next week. As a parent, I hope you do, too.

Source: http://www.filmofilia.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/real-steel-01.jpg

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

#BrainShark – Enhance Your Slidedeck #ppt

29 Thursday Sep 2011

Posted by mguhlin in TechTips, Web2.0

≈ 2 Comments

http://www.brainshark.com/

A dear colleague, Daryl Ann Borel, wrote me recently with information on a new free tool that allows you do some fun stuff with Powerpoint:

Miguel, I’m sure you know about this application, but I just had to share my excitement with you. It’s not very often that a new software application excites me these days. I’ve seen so many in the years . I’ve discovered a new application that ranks right up there with “sliced bread” and Jing. It’s called myBrainStark (http://www.brainshark.com/) It allows you to add voice to PowerPoint presentations, documents,  videos, etc. You can also incorporate audio recordings, live web pages, pictures, and surveys to a PowerPoint or document.  It is excellent and very easy to use. You can also share/embed.  And, it’s FREE.  I like the fact that you can edit the PPT narration within the application rather than having to upload an MP3 of the audio and sync it like with Slideshare or similar applications. I see great potential for K-12 educators.

Here’s a video overview:

Anyone try this out?


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Job Posting – Instructional Technology Coordinator

29 Thursday Sep 2011

Posted by mguhlin in Education, JobPosting, Texas

≈ Leave a comment

This job posting comes from Del Valle ISD…the positions pays up to $65K annually. Get exact details online at the District site. Note that the link below will get you to the ballpark but give an error message (time out)…just wait a moment, then search under Professional Positions.

Posting ID: POS20110922000001
Posting Start Date: 09/22/2011
Name: Instructional Technology Coordinator (Teacher Certification Required) Posting End Date: Until Filled
Location: Edward A. Neal Administrative Complex
Overview:
Primary Purpose:
The primary focus of the Technology Integration Coordinator is to enrich and support teaching and learning while strengthening the technology skills of students, teachers, and staff. Ideal candidates should work well with others, be skilled in team management, have a background in instructional design, and have clear goals and strategies for integrating technology into instruction. Teaching experience is also required.
The position has some administrative responsibilities in coordinating teams, consulting on technology budgets, supervising training activities, establishing technology policies, and proposing learning objectives for staff as they relate to technology. Successful candidates will be involved in leveraging the power of new digital-age technologies towards the engagement of students in their processes of learning and discovery and with implementing progressive learning methods involving connected learning environments and digital-age learning skills.
The successful candidate should also be compatible with the district’s desire to embrace and recognize the ever-increasing importance of 21st-Century skills, among them information literacy, creativity, collaboration, communication; and look to provide opportunities for student and staff development in these areas.
Major Responsibilities and Duties:
            Instructional Strategies:
13.       Collaborate with teachers to support their use of technology in delivery of curricula through a variety of instructional methods. In partnership, the Technology Integration Specialist and the teacher will work toward integrating the use of hardware, software and Internet resources in support of student learning and assisting teachers in meeting state and national standards for subject-area and technology-learning objectives.
14.       Must create learning resources for teachers, staff, and students. These may include Web sites, tutorials, interactive programs and databases that support teachers in integrating technology. Ideally, teachers will be guided and encouraged to develop their own resources, while the Technology Integration Specialist will support these efforts by providing additional support as needed.
15.       Have the ability to structure the technology education of teachers. Through the Technology Integration Specialist may not directly conduct all training, lab work or classes regarding computer use, he/she will coordinate instruction to meet technology proficiency goals. Additional instruction of parents or community members may also strengthen students’ technology skills.
16.       Must have an understanding of key learning theories and methods of instruction, and their relation to technology integration.
17.       Be familiar with methods for integrating technology into the curriculum such as WebQuests, on-line resources, digital portfolios, and other forms of assessment.
18.       Have experience with effective technology teaching strategies in teaching software and hardware skills.
19.       Have technology skills in up-to-date computer software, including word processing, database, spreadsheet, Web page development, presentation, digital video and audio editing, image processing, and graphics applications.
20.       Must have experience with effective technology teaching strategies in teaching software and hardware skills.
21.       Perform any other duties as assigned by the administration.
Laboratory Management and Organization:
22.       Identify trends in software, curriculum, teaching strategies, and other educational areas.
23.       Assess technology skill levels of students, teachers, and staff.
24.       Create, maintain, and oversee integration of the school’s technology plan with a technology committee.
            Implement technology skills in up-to-date computer software, including word processing, database, spreadsheet, Web page development, presentation, digital video and audio editing, image processing, and graphics applications.
25.       Attend professional growth activities to keep abreast of innovations in instructional technologist methods and technologies.
Budget and Inventory:
26.       Consult with Director on the technology budget for computer resources, including hardware, software, learning resources and training needs.
27.       Recommend, and in some cases, purchase hardware, software, and related resources.
28.       Compile budgets and cost estimated based on documented program needs.
29.       Generate accurate inventory reports for grants and special programs.
Other:
30.       Correct unsafe conditions in work area that could cause an accident and inform supervisor of any conditions that are not correctable immediately.
31.       Shall comply with District policies, as well as state and federal laws and regulations.
32.       Shall comply with the standards of conduct set out in Board Policy DH (Legal) and (Local) and with any other policies, regulations, and guidelines that impose duties, requirements, or standards.
33.       Perform any other duties as assigned by the administration.
Policy, Reports, and Law:
            Comply with District policies as well as state and federal laws and regulations.
Supervisory Responsibilities:
May be required to supervise campus based Integration Specialists.
Equipment Used:
Computer, scanner, printers, video equipment, sound systems, projection system, digital equipment, handheld devices, wireless hubs, calculator, telephone, copier, fax machine, and shredder.
Working Conditions:
            Mental Demands/Physical Demands/Environmental Factors:
Work with frequent interruptions and maintain emotional control under stress.   Repetitive hand motions; prolonged use of computer. Frequent district wide travel and occasional statewide travel. Requires occasional prolonged and irregular hours.
Qualification:
Minimum Education/Certification:   
            *Bachelor’s degree in education or technology related field; Masters Degree in instructional technology preferred
            *Certified teacher with at least 5 years teaching experience
            *Certified in a recognized “train the trainer” programs such as Intel Teach Program
Special Knowledge/Skills:     
1.         Have a practical knowledge of instructional technologies.
2.         Posses strong interpersonal and communication skills.
3.         Have the ability to work with minimum supervision and as a member of a self-directed team.
4.         Must be able to lift, move and connect computer and video related equipment.
5.         Must be willing to flex work schedule as needed to fulfill job responsibilities.
6.         Must be able to balance priorities at multiple sites.
7.         Must have and maintain a valid driver’s license and a vehicle to provide own transportation.
Experience:    
8.         Must be a certified teacher with at least 5 years teaching experience delivering and integrating technology in instructional programs.
9.         Must have at least two years experience training teachers or other adults in the integration of technology for instruction and productivity using the following modes: modeling, one-on-one, small group, large group.
10.       Must have experience providing leadership in planning for and integrating technology in instruction, including working collaboratively and communicating effectively with teachers, principals, and parents about technology integration in instructional programs.
11.       Completed at least two years experience evaluating software and media based on curriculum, learning styles, and instructional methodologies.
12.       Must have experience in the use of Internet resources in the instructional process.

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

#Moodle Academy at @TCEA 2012 Conference

29 Thursday Sep 2011

Posted by mguhlin in Education, MoodleConversations, OnlineLearning, TCEA, tceamoot, Texas

≈ Leave a comment

The Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) has announced that it’s holding another 1-day Moodle Academy at the TCEA 2012 State Conference. Here’s the email announcement with information on how to submit a session:

The TCEA 2012 Convention will again include the Moodle Academy, a full-day, content-specific academy offering a series of sessions and opportunities for collaboration on the uses of Moodle in education. If you are attending the convention in February and would like to share your success and knowledge, we are currently seeking presenters. The academy will be held on Monday, Feb. 6 and is included with the TCEA 2012 Premium Registration; however, pre-registration is required. Please submit your session for consideration of inclusion at this link:https://docs.google.com/a/tcea.org/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGJXV3VwSFFYTUU5SWRfNmVuUzIwSlE6MA

Are there any sessions you would like to see in particular, and any sessions you would like me to facilitate?

In the meantime, have you joined MoodleMayhem.org ?


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MyNotes – Online Enrollment Drops in Texas Schools

29 Thursday Sep 2011

Posted by mguhlin in Education, MyNotes, OnlineLearning, Texas

≈ Leave a comment

MyNotes:

Online enrollment drops | Amarillo Globe-News

    • Online enrollment drops State funding cuts chip away at programs Posted: September 26, 2011 – 10:55pm Photos
      • By JACOB MAYER Copyright 2011 . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. September 26, 2011 – 11:55pm Online enrollment drops jacob.mayer@amarillo.com
        • State cuts totaling $4 billion over two years are taking a bite out of online learning programs and eating into budgets for traditional classrooms.
          • Enrollment in the district’s online classes through the Texas Virtual Schools Network plunged to 50 this fall from 1,300 students across the state last year, said Jay Barrett, principal of Amarillo ISD’s Online School.
            • The state had provided a “virtual school allotment” since the 2009-10 school year that paid $400 for each student who took online network classes, Barrett said. The state is not funding the allotment this year and students’ families must pick up the cost, Barrett said. “The decline in enrollment is directly because of that,” he said.
              • Enrollment in classes on the Texas Virtual Schools Network decreased by more than 2,400 students compared to last year’s fall semester, according to the online network.
                • That barely covers paying the teacher for the work he or she does with the kids,” he said. “We’re not making any money on it. It’s bare bones.”


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                  #Texas4TEE Podcast – BYOD with Hiram Cuevas @cuevash

                  29 Thursday Sep 2011

                  Posted by mguhlin in 1to1, BYOD, Education, Podcast, Texas, Texas4TEE

                  ≈ Leave a comment

                  Hiram Cuevas via impromptu Google+ Hangout

                  LISTEN TO HIRAM CUEVAS

                  MP3 Version (38megs) | OGG Version (16megs)

                  What a treat to chat with Hiram Cuevas (Richmond, VA educator and blogger at Give Me Ludicrous Speed) about Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD), a topic many have been discussing recently! Hiram describes the program in this way on his blog:

                  This is a big summer for St. Christopher’s School.  We have a 1:1 program launching in the fall, our school will be celebrating its centennial, and we will be opening the Luck Leadership Center in January 2012. So in the midst of all of the excitement, I find it is critical that as we create new and engaging activities for our boys, we must also be mindful to reflect and revise as needed.

                  Hiram was kind enough to offer a few comments on my blog post on BYOD via Google+, and was open to chatting via Google+ Hangout. We managed to connect earlier this evening for about 30-40 minutes. 

                  AUDIO PROBLEMS
                  I do have confess there were a few audio problems. I made the recording–how to record Google+ Hangouts–using BB Flashback Recorder, a free Windows recording tool, and it appeared that audio of his responses and my questions overlapped each other. I’m guessing this was caused by lag in the audio/video. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to edit this out or separate the audio streams. In spite of the “echo” in advance of Hiram’s words, you can hear him quite well, responding to the questions outlined in the BYOD blog entry written earlier this week. Part of the audio, though, was un-usable and had to be discarded, especially towards the end of the recording. 8-(
                  Still, I look forward to trying out a different approach to recording audio from Google + Hangout soon.
                  LISTEN TO HIRAM CUEVASMP3 Version (38megs) | OGG Version (16megs)
                  Show Links:
                    • School web site – www.stchristophers.com
                    • Contact Info for Hiram Cuevas
                      • 711 St. Christopher’s Road
                      • Richmond, VA 23226
                      • Twitter: @cuevash
                      • skype: hiram.cuevas
                      • http://letsbringit.stchristophers.com/
                    My Script for the Podcast:

                    “Welcome to Texas for a Technology Enhanced Education, or Texas4TEE. I’m your host, Miguel Guhlin. Texas4TEE’s mission is to put you in touch with other education professionals asking and answering the kind of in the trenches questions Texans are focused on. Join us online at our web site at http://texas4tee.net, as well as via Facebook Group and Page so you can find out how other Texans are enhancing education through the strategic application of technology.
                    Social media enables us all to crowdsource solutions to problems we are facing in schools today. Texas4TEE seeks to bridge the gaps that separate us from each other, regardless of what professional organization you may belong to, whether you’re teach in public, private, charter or home-school your child. The focus is on enhancing education through technology.
                    **
                    Today is Wednesday, September 28, 2011, and all this week, I’ve noticed a lot of interest in Bring Your Own Device (BYOD/BYOT) to schools. Tim Holt, El Paso ISD Instructional Technology Director, makes this point in an article entitled, Encouraging Innovation, published by EdTechMagazine:

                    Most schools prohibit the use of personal electronics on campus. But this ban rarely applies to faculty and administrators. Students see the hypocrisy of these policies, of course, and bring their gadgets anyway, betting that teachers are too preoccupied to catch them while they text under their desks — the 21st century equivalent of note passing.
                    We can either continue the Sisyphean struggle of trying to equip students with district-owned and -filtered “safe” devices or start to embrace the technology that’s already paid for and in pockets, purses and backpacks across the country. The trick is to develop a methodology that allows the use of such devices while at the same time meeting district infrastructure and policy needs.

                    Yes, that certainly is THE trick. In the conversations I’ve read or had with others, the trick isn’t about protecting the sanctity of the District network from the virus-infested devices our children will bring to school. The trick isn’t ensuring that children will dance in front of the Golden Calf, worshipping at the feet of their social media gods–that’s Facebook, and other tools only they know about. Rather, the trick is getting adults to change their daily practice and use these technologies to change what they do every day. Even the FCC realizes social media shouldn’t be in the cross-hairs simply because it enables us to be human online:
                    The ruling, as cited by Nora Carr in eSchoolNews 09/26/2011, asserts the following:

                    “Although it is possible that certain individual Facebook or MySpace pages could potentially contain material harmful to minors, we do not find that these websites are per se ‘harmful to minors’ or fall into one of the categories that schools and libraries must block.”

                    In a blog entry published at Around the Corner-mguhlin.org, I shared the questions technology directors in Texas and Oklahoma have been asking about BYOD. Taking advantage of Google+ Hangout, I was able to share my blog entry with a professional learning network of over a 1000 educators. Hiram Cuevas kindly offered to chat with me about the program he enjoys at his schools in Richmond, Virginia.
                    I’ve included links to the web site and more information online. Since this conversation was a bit off the cuff for both of us, a perfect example of the just in time connections we can make as educators through the use of social media, you may find me jumping around. I’d like to say up front how grateful that Mr. Cuevas took time from washing dishes to respond to questions Texans and Oklahomans were asking about BYOD.

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                    Recording Video/Audio on Desktop on Linux

                    28 Wednesday Sep 2011

                    Posted by mguhlin in AudioTools, FreeSoftware, PeppermintICE, UbuntuLinux, VideoConversion, VideoRecording

                    ≈ 1 Comment


                    Earlier tonight, I had it in mind to record a BigMarker.com test session between Moodle Mayhem Podcast Co-host Diana Benner, Jen Hegna (our guest in October) and I. With the demise of LearnCentral.org, I began pursuing other options.


                    Simultaneously, BigMarker.com was kind enough to send an informational email sharing about their service. I proposed that they host the MoodleMayhem Podcast…they suggested I go get an account and give it a shot!

                    What do I think of BigMarker.com? It’s almost ready for prime time provided it handles somethings better, such as desktop sharing, faster refresh rate on its Java-based app. Aside from that, it has some nice features that are a boon for online learning facilitators that the LearnCentral.org crowd will certainly be missing in January. At this point, I recommend it for slideshow presentations, chat, a simple whiteboard, but no desktop sharing. 

                    I tried to record on my Mac using TechSmith’s Camtasia, but no cigar. I was using Soundflower–which allows you to record the audio output from your computer–but Camtasia was unable to accept the Soundflower as an input source, even though their Jing product can do so. Hmm.

                    So, what to do? How was I going to record my desktop, simultaneously capturing the audio, of Jen’s presentation? In desperation, I remembered that I’d played around successfully with gtk-recordmydesktop on UbuntuLinux.

                    Since I was running Peppermint Two linux, I decided to give it another shot:


                    Record Your Desktop – This is an UbuntuLinux friendly recorder (a few more here). To get it going, follow these steps:

                      • sudo apt-get install gtk-recordmydesktop pavucontrol (creates OGV video format)
                      • sudo aptitude install mencoder (this allows you to convert OGG to AVI video format)
                      • Once installed, you can control it via a GUI interface or at the command line, type recordmydesktop then press Ctrl-C to stop it from recording.

                    The PAVUCONTROL program–Pulse Audio Volume Control–actually works like Soundflower in re-directing the audio flow to a virtual sound driver. You can do this on Mac with Soundflower (and HyperStudio has a proprietary virtual sound driver that works great) and on Windows.


                    While I was able to record my desktop, any part of it, the audio from BigMarker.com was not coming in. So, I setup PAVUCONTROL to be open and then clicked on ADVANCED button in recordMyDesktop (shown above).


                    In the DEVICE box, recordMyDesktop said DEFAULT. I changed that to pulse, as shown above, and audio started being included in the video stream.

                    This worked great! The file was saved as OGV, which can easily be converted using one of these sets of instructions (or just use WinFF but be sure to do this first):
                    • Script to convert OGV to AVI
                    • Use this command:
                      mencoder -idx out.ogv -ovc lavc -oac mp3lame -o output.avi -srate 8000
                    • Another bash script
                    • Another command but using FFMPEG instead of mencoder:
                      ffmpeg -i Your_Video.ogv -s qcif Your_new_Video.avi

                    Another neat feature of the Pulse Audio Volume Control tool is that while I was recording the desktop (video+audio), I am also to record directly to Audacity to get an “audio only” stream. Pretty nifty!

                    Nice tutorial online via YouTube on this whole process (not mine) that’s worth checking out!
                    On a related note, I played around with OpenShot Video Editor for Linux and was pleasantly surprised! Check out the screenshot:
                    I’ll have to spend some time playing with OpenShot in the future, but I’m hoping this solves video editing struggles folks have had on linux distros!


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                    BYOT/BYOD – Dealing with the Fallout (Updated)

                    27 Tuesday Sep 2011

                    Posted by mguhlin in 1to1, BYOD, BYOT, Education, Texas

                    ≈ 3 Comments

                    Dealing with the fall out or rising from the ashes like a phoenix, schools are coming to terms, one way or another, with bring your own technology (BYOT) or bring your own devices (BYOD).

                    Bring your own device or technology (BYOD/BYOT)–NOT Bring Your Own Taser–intrigues many, frightens others. Students and teachers (83% of adults have mobile phones) already bypass district prohibitions. “Using your own device at school is in violation of the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA)!” some might say. Usually, such usage allows students and teachers to attempt using social media/networking tools for instructional use. ANYTHING that allows students and educators to congregate, create and share content online may be banned in today’s schools. That approach will have to change to match more progressive schools that recognize it’s about how you model the use of these tools in schools…and CIPA may no longer serve as a legal scare tactic, it’s chilling effect warmed by the FCC in August: 

                    According to the ruling, “Although it is possible that certain individual Facebook or MySpace pages could potentially contain material harmful to minors, we do not find that these websites are per se ‘harmful to minors’ or fall into one of the categories that schools and libraries must block.”

                    By clarifying that schools can allow access to social media websites without violating the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and risk losing coveted e-Rate dollars for telecommunications, the FCC opened access to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and other top social media sites for instructional use.

                    Source: Nora Carr, FCC opens access to social media sites for e-Rate users in eSchoolNews 9/26/2011

                    The road ahead is clear and open…not only will devices that offer increased access to social media be allowed in schools, it’s time to consider bringing them into schools to offset deep cuts to education technology funding, especially when State Board of Education (at least, in Texas) are worried that money from the Instructional Materials Allocation will be diverted from all important PRINT textbooks and spent foolishly on technology.

                    Hmm…all human beings need to question if what they once believed is still relevant and on target. Isn’t it time textbook advocates–not on the payroll of textbook companies, of course–questioned their own motivation for NOT issuing ebooks and ereaders to students? Lighten the load of those textbook-laden backpacks?

                    At a time when shrinking school budgets mean that schools will never achieve one to one, the resourceful approach involves asking kids to bring their home devices into schools. As a parent of two children who have their own inexpensive netbooks–which they use for everything from typing up their homework, creating collages and presentations, using tools like LibreOffice and GoogleDocs to watching virtual TV channels like Hulu, ABC.com, and movies–I know that these devices grant them MORE access to technology than what they have at school.

                    Consider Tim Clark’s account of BYOD in schools:

                    We also have some pretty big extremes in how many students own devices, and I’ve also heard the screen time concern. However, the majority of the parents are happy that their children are learning how to use their devices in school. 🙂 We have used devices at all grade levels. One of the devices that many primary students own is the Nintendo DS. Those devices can’t access the Internet (unless they are DSIs). 

                    But the DS has this cool pictochat feature that enables the students to chat and draw with others DSs in the room. It is a great way to write stories together, solve math problems, study spelling, etc., and it helps the teacher talk about digital citizenship and netiquette in a safe way. When students bring in their different devices, the teacher can jigsaw activities so that a student with an iTouch or iPad can conduct research on the Internet and email it to others. 

                    The student with a laptop or desktop can help create the project or multimedia presentation. This enables the student without personal tech to have a pretty big role with the school’s technology. Another great point to tell your administrators is that when students bring their own devices, it frees up the school’s resources for the students who don’t have their own and often have the greatest needs. All of these devices help the elementary teacher to facilitate more learning centers in the classroom. These were just some brief ideas. I hope they helped!

                    Tech directors often ask questions like these (culled from a year of discussion about BYOT on Texas and Oklahoma email lists):

                    1. What are districts doing on the technical wireless network side of things to ensure the students have access to the wireless network through a student access (separate VLAN, etc.) and still preventing any possible viruses from corrupting other devices throughout the District?
                      (Note: Don’t you love the implication that BYODs include corrupting viruses?)
                    2. Are viruses and malware still an issue if the devices are mobile devices such as iPads, Android tablets, iPods?
                    3. What percentage of devices being brought to school require active virus/malware protection? How do you gauge that?
                    4. If you are involved in a BYOT program, did you install an additional firewall?
                    5. What did you increase your internet bandwidth and speed for devices on the “guest network?”
                    6. Are you allowing printing from student and teacher devices?
                    7. If you are a Windows shop are you authenticating with AD or open? 
                    8. What standard apps will work on ALL devices, such as iPads and Android devices (e.g. Stoneware, share school apps on a variety of devices with VBridges through Virtual Desktop Integration)?
                    9. Is cloud computing (e.g. GoogleApps for Education, MS LIVE@EDU) and shared storage a solution that works across all devices and does your district support that?
                    10. What do I need to do–as a tech director–to ensure my school/district is ready for the influx of BYOD?
                    11. How do you handle theft/damage of student devices while being used for learning purposes in schools?
                    12. What restrictions are CIPA compliant?
                    13. What solutions are available to help you manage BYOD to be CIPA-compliant (e.g. iBoss, CISCO ISE, )?
                    14. How do you introduce this idea to parents and students? Have people bring computers in to get up to speed (removing viruses, peer to peer software, etc.).
                    15. Are you allowing teachers to participate and bring their own laptop to use as their primary device?
                    16. If yes to the above question, do you purchase and allow them install district software that they may need in order to be successful?
                    17. If yes to the above question, what is your process when one of those teachers leaves the district?  How do you verify that the software was removed?  Or do you have them sign an agreement that will put that responsibility on the them?
                    18. Do you have your students/parents sign an agreement to participate in the BYOT initiative?
                    19. If yes to the above question, how do your teachers differentiate between a student using a personal device that has signed an agreement, vs. one that hasn’t signed an agreement?
                    20. What are you doing about the cell phone versus Wifi connection? 
                    21. What will it mean for statewide comparability when some students take a test on a 21-inch widescreen monitor, with full-size keyboard and mouse, while other students in the state take “the same” test on something more resembling a smart phone? (Source for Q21 – Bryan Bleil, Pearson)

                    Update 09/28/2011: Listen to this interview Hiram Cuevas on BYOD. He answers many of the questions above.

                    While the questions from school technology directors may be centered around questions like these, I suggest there is a greater fallout, or danger, that leaves our children unprepared for the global collaboration they need to succeed in today’s global economy.

                    Source: McKinney ISD, http://tinyurl.com/3l9hkv2

                    DO YOU HAVE VISION? THINK EXPENSIVE!

                    “From a vision standpoint, it’s coming to the realization that the instructional benefits far outweigh any concerns we may have had,” says Bailey Mitchell, the district’s chief technology and information officer. (Source: Wylie Wong, Open Invitation in EDTECH K-12)

                    What a vision! Since learning, communication, collaboration, and social media are as fluid as the people who use them, the danger is the consequences of our “uptight” approach to BYOD sabotaging the whole effort. The old vision was buy everything for schools. . .now we know, that can’t be the way. We just need to get there, get there any way we can. Is BYOD the answer?

                    Some places are already doing BYOT/BYOD. Paul R. Wood (Bishop-Dunne, Texas) was interviewed by Tim Holt (El Paso ISD) about Wood’s Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT) to school program. Watch the YouTube video below:

                    INCREASE IN TEST SCORES? IRRELEVANT!
                    Research, as cited in various publications, reveals that there are benefits to students bringing their own devices. 

                    “In Maine, findings indicate that teacher knowledge and practices and use of technology increased,” Hezel said. Math and reading scores increased, and all involved learned lessons about technology, learning, and assessment. (Source: ESchoolnews)

                    But are test scores really relevant?

                    CIPA ISN’T AN OBSTACLE
                    The question isn’t when or IF students will bring devices, but WHAT school districts will do to empower these students in using these powerful technologies? From the questions shown previously, you can see that the focus is on containing, controlling, restricting, and limiting these devices, almost as if they were a flow of unwanted, dangerously toxic fluid into schools. CIPA wasn’t ever an obstacle…

                    Remember that under CIPA, you are only required to filter/block your network. So if a student is using a cell phone tower to access the Internet, they do not fall under the requirement and you do not have to monitor their activities, nor can you be held responsible for those activities. Source: Email (11/18/2010) from Lori Gracey, TCEA Executive Director

                    …and now certainly isn’t with the FCC clarification.

                    POLICY DOCUMENTS
                    Still, laying the foundation is critical; some districts have already begun or are doing so, as evidenced by the documents they are preparing and sharing:

                    • Bastrop ISD’s BYOT policy documents…
                      • Campus Form: http://bit.ly/cAm0pW
                      • User Form: http://bit.ly/9woaMB
                      • Parent Form: http://bit.ly/dihFpn
                    • Bishop-Dunne Campus
                    • Deer Park ISD
                      • Electronic Network Use
                    • Eanes ISD AUP
                      • In our BYOT and Cell Phone Regulation docs, parents and students agree that the cost of minutes and/or text is the sole responsibility of the student.  They can use our Guest Wifi network, but some choose not to in order to circumvent the filter. (something we’re looking at changing as well)
                    • And, some interesting videos…

                    TIPS FOR BYOD IMPLEMENTATION
                    For example, some details on getting ready for the BYOD includes these tips from Converge magazine article, Student Devices Save Districts Money, which you’ll want to read for more details on these suggestions.
                    1. Lay a wireless infrastructure foundation that allows you to allocate public and “district-only” usage.
                    2. Pilot a bring your own technology program.
                    3. Create community-based purchase program–a la employee purchase but that includes parents and students–your own device.
                    4. Learn how to use cloud computing/storage (like GoogleApps for Education, MS Live@EDU’s Skydrive, Dropbox.com) and course management systems like Moodle, Edmodo.com, and others to build an online learning environment.

                    And, though not mentioned in the article, some other tips include:

                      • Communicating what BYOD goals to school community
                      • Not being afraid to provide support (e.g. antivirus software, free open source software, web-based tools) ahead of the implementation
                      • Involve teachers in changing what it is they are doing to take advantage of the technology
                      Command and control doesn’t work, does it? Pro-active support does, though.
                      Of course, what happens when the technology envy sets in, as illustrated in this commercial from Best Buy?

                      REFLECTING ON WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN
                      CASE STUDY #1 – Daughter, High School Senior
                      My daughter spent most of her time growing up cranking out homework, doing research using a Dell desktop computer that is now tottering along, not much use except for cloud computing. Although it runs Windows XP Home, the power of this machine lies on its UbuntuLinux side, where it turns into a scanning powerhouse when connected to an inexpensive <$60 HP scanner (that we never could get the right drivers for in Windows and Mac) and easy connections to a printer.
                      For much of her school career, my daughter hand-crafted her compositions. “Rosalie,” I’d encourage, “why don’t you type as you compose?” School had pre-disposed her to handwriting everything. Only after she received an Asus netbook–dual boot with Windows 7 Starter Edition and UbuntuLinux added after Win7SE proved to be such a headache–did I see a marked difference in her writing habits. Now, her netbook–the best investment ever made–is her constant companion, easily fitting in her purse, and empowering her to do her writing.

                      I can only imagine what would have been possible if she BYOD had been in effect when she was developing these habits.

                      True BYOD will never be a solution for schools that continue to focus on standardization of hardware and applications.  .  .Let’s face it, human beings tend to take better care of something they own versus something they rent. It is time to give our students ownership over their learning through the use of their own devices. (Source: Scott Meech, The Future of Ed-Tech is Bring Your Own Device)

                      CASE STUDY #2 – 2ND GRADE TEACHER
                      One of my favorite experiences about BYODs involving a teacher includes my encounter with an unsuspecting 2nd grade teacher in a summer Abydos (a.k.a. New Jersey Writing Center) workshop. She didn’t know I was from the Technology Department, as she happily setup her Clear mobile wi-fi device, whipped out her own netbook computer, and Android HTC Incredible phone.

                      When I asked her about the plethora of personal devices, and whether they were allowed to be used inside the school district–effectively bypassing the technology restrictions (e.g. locked down Active Directory profiles, prohibitions to use mobile devices for social media/networking, CIPA-filtered Internet) the District had put in place–she smiled and said, “I refuse to let the District keep me from accessing the resources I need to teach my second graders effectively.”

                      My second favorite experience involved a day-long workshop I facilitated for a Texas school district in North Texas. The content filters were set to be very restrictive, and even though I’d provided a list of my preferred web sites, those were blocked. Fortunately, my co-facilitator had her own WiFi PC Card from Sprint, and we were able to bypass content filters. Teachers in the room were amazed, but all agreed that the cost of those contracts was out of range of their budgets. Thank goodness for programs from Clear that now allow those teachers to get connectivity for free.



                      What stories do YOU have about BYOD, whether as a teacher or student?


                      Image Reference
                      BYOD – YouTube Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBEvycYTTZo
                      Backpacks and kids – http://www.csus.edu/atcs/tools/graphics/images_library/students/large/BackpackWalk2.jpg


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                      Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

                      Podcast – #Moodle Mayhem – Josh Davis @diben

                      26 Monday Sep 2011

                      Posted by mguhlin in Moodle, MoodleConversations, MoodleMayhem, Podcast

                      ≈ Leave a comment


                      Title: Building a Moodle Community, One Classroom at a Time

                      Guest: Josh Davis (Email:  joshosu@gmail.com; Skype:  fwsquatch)

                      Listen to Episode 5 – Josh Davis

                      Note: Apologies…some parts were cut out due to static emanating from an errant microphone. You’ll probably figure out where.


                      ABOUT MOODLE MAYHEM

                      The Moodle Mayhem Group is a community of Moodle-using educators who have joined together to pool their creative innovations regarding the use of Moodle with K-12, as well as adult learners. The MoodleMayhem Podcast is co-hosted by Diana Benner (Email: diana.benner@gmail.com) and Miguel Guhlin (Email: mguhlin@gmail.com).

                      Find out more about how to take advantage of this no-cost, free resource online at http://moodlemayhem.org , as well as find us on Facebook! Not on Facebook? Join the email list!


                      About Josh Davis in His Words
                      Originally from Stroud, Oklahoma, I am a graduate of Oklahoma State University.  I spent the last 11 years teaching in and around Fort Worth, Texas.  I have been both a High School Math teacher and a Middle School Tech Apps teacher.  I also did some web development and tech consulting on the side.  During my time teaching computers for Eagle Mountain/Saginaw ISD, I discovered Moodle and became interested in finding ways to use it in my class.  Because EMSISD didn’t have a server yet, I ran a Moodle for my classroom on an old laptop that the Technology Department had lying around.  



                      I am passionate about open-source software and enjoy tinkering with Linux servers and desktops.  I also get a kick out of networking and my idea of a fun afternoon is flashing a new firmware to a router or setting up automated off-site backup for my wife’s laptop.  This is part of what drew me to Moodle.  I love that it’s open source.  I like how much it can do “out of the box” and I really like that it can be modified to do whatever you want.  


                      This summer I moved back to my hometown in Oklahoma and now teach High School Math.  I’m also a Technology Consultant  for our district.  It has been a real culture shock moving from a school district with more than 16,000 students to a place where there is only 2500 people in the whole town, but it’s great to be back.  Because I am now a full time Math teacher, time to work on our Moodle server is in short supply.  I’ve been using every trick in the book to streamline content creation for my classes.  My main focus this year is building a Moodle server and filling it with as many teachers and courses as I can.


                      Show Links
                      1. You can find Josh’s resources online at http://moodle.stroud.k12.ok.us/
                      2. Get a video tour from Josh – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQRPDQxQTPM
                      3. View images – http://letscrate.com/fwsquatch/moodle
                      4. MoodleShare.org

                      Listen to Josh Davis

                      Note: Apologies…some parts were cut out due to static emanating from an errant microphone. You’ll probably figure out where.


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                      Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure

                      MyNotes – Why Some Companies Successfully Innovate and Others Don’t

                      26 Monday Sep 2011

                      Posted by mguhlin in Leadership, MyNotes

                      ≈ Leave a comment

                      Boils down to communication and collaboration….

                      Why Some Companies Successfully Innovate and Others Don’t – BusinessWeek

                        • Why Some Companies Successfully Innovate and Others Don’t  – Collaboration, communication, and automation separate the successful from the strugglers
                          • By Christine Crandell
                            • Not collaborating. Failing to share information and collaborate with customers, partners, suppliers, and other key stakeholders in exploring new ideas. For struggling companies, fewer than half their product ideas came from these sources.
                              • Too often senior management and product-line staff fail to communicate, which often results in their spending time and money on the wrong product priorities.
                                • Paper-based methods and other traditional innovation management processes slow down the development life cycle, especially for complex products.
                                  • Struggling companies have trouble planning the resources needed to match market opportunities, difficulty managing multiple teams and regions, and a hard time managing the risks associated with new and existing products.
                                    • There are concrete steps that struggling companies can take to redirect themselves along the road to success, as well as steps that currently high-performing companies can take to reach even higher levels. 
                                    • Key among them: collaborate closely with key stakeholders, harness the wisdom of crowds, clearly define and convey product requirements, leverage outside help, and automate the innovation process.


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                                    The Silver Bullet – Computers

                                    26 Monday Sep 2011

                                    Posted by mguhlin in Education, Math

                                    ≈ Leave a comment

                                    Swallowing the PR about Math…you know, when my kids ask me, “What do you think we should be focusing on to get a good job?” my answer isn’t what you might expect. After all, I’m a writer. That’s what I do no matter where I am, what job I do.

                                    “You need to focus on math, science, and write about how and what you are doing.”
                                    Listening to the TED Talk by Conrad Wolfram (http://www.wolframalpha.com/) via Melissa McClatchy‘s 6 Tech II Daily, I like the following points:
                                    • Using computers is the silver bullet of making math education work.
                                    • Pose the right questions.
                                    • Change real world problem into math problem.
                                    • We ought to be using computers to do step 3. (My mother, a veteran math teacher who is 82 years old, disagrees with this…everyone needs to do this calculating by hand).
                                    • Math is not equal to calculating…it’s the chore, it’s a means to an end, not an end in itself.
                                    • Computers dumb math down…do we really believe that the math most people are doing in school  practically today is more than applying procedures to problems they don’t understand for reasons they don’t get? I don’t think so.
                                    • Make math more practical and conceptual simultaneously…
                                    Wow. I love quotes and questions like that, don’t you? I can’t disagree with these points. I use technology to solve math problems, not sit around doing calculations by hand. My traumatic experiences in math education through various schools in different countries make me ask a question whose answer is obvious to me:

                                    Have we abdicated real world, math formulation, verification process to an education process that hasn’t updated the technologies it needs to teach kids how to use?


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                                    Euthanizing the Education Experiment #edchat

                                    26 Monday Sep 2011

                                    Posted by mguhlin in Education, Leadership, Transparency

                                    ≈ Leave a comment

                                    Image Source: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o6luWQG_UFA/TmpvfbXDCQI/AAAAAAAACcg/oKO-eRGNHwE/s1600/euthanasia%2Bdoctor.jpg
                                    Doug Johnson (Blue Skunk Blog) and Stephen Downes (Half an Hour) had an interesting exchange earlier. The question was fundamentally, Are teachers today experimenting on kids when they use technology in the classroom?


                                    Doug puts it quite baldly here:

                                    Children are not rats on which educational experiments should be endlessly run. Until we have a body of evidence, hopefully gather by lab schools or non-commercial researchers, we ought to be following best practices as outlined by our professional organizations.
                                    Educational technology experts may be doing both students and themselves a significant disservice by advocating a single, unproven approach to educational practices

                                    Stephen’s response to Doug’s assertions is a blog entry long, but I found this particular section relevant:

                                    Children are lab rats on which endless experiments are run. Coaches try out new practice regimes, advertisers try out new commercials, toy companies test out new games, media companies experiment with new genres (and retread pop idols), clothing manufacturers try out new fabrics, and hospitals try out new treatments. There’s no way to get the evidence other than by experimentation – demanding “best practices” with no experimentation is inherently self-contradictory.

                                    Few would deny that public schools not only experiment on their students constantly, they use taxpayer dollars to bring in large companies (e.g. Read180, Successmaker, Voyager, Plato, Compass Learning to only name a few) that promise BIG changes but whose results are easy to quantify, but yield less than desirable results according to some opinion leaders I’ve spoken to in schools. This experimentation often occurs without parent consent, and it’s foolish to believe that school boards even understand how wrong efforts are. Given glossy charts, slick presentations, who wouldn’t believe these are effective interventions? 

                                    In  a  knowledge  construction  setting, technology becomes a tool to help students access information, communicate information  and  collaborate  with  others.  In  today’s  classrooms  there  is certainly the need for some knowledge instruction but a great deal of student activity  might  involve  \ knowledge  construction  given  the  explosion  of information.  We  do need  to move  away  from  students coming to school to watch teachers work. (Source: Michael Fullan, Technology and the Problem of Change, 1999)

                                    Yet, in our schools, it’s about content knowledge, right? Even though Fullan (1999) encourages knowledge construction, we still insist on using technology to instruct, and we train principals to watch teachers at work rather than help them create learning opportunities for students.

                                    Some would argue that this last minute scramble for technology tutoring is really a procrastination on the part of administrators afraid to invest in solid teaching. That’s what makes “reform experts” like Michael Schmoker, Michael Fullan, and many others such an attractive group. If only the “Let’s get back to basics” group focused on the fundamental units of the classroom…the instructional leader, the classroom teacher, the student, and the parent(s)/guardian(s). 

                                    I also take issue with the assertion that “educational organizations” know what they are advocating. Organizations are full of people, some of which are as hide-bound and determined to cling to the past, to their way of doing things as anyone else. Flip technology integration on its ear, if a tech expert was challenged to teach without technology, how would s/he go about it?

                                    “The most important thing any teacher has to learn, not to be learned in any school of education I ever heard of, can be expressed in seven words: Learning is not the product of teaching. Learning is the product of the activity of learners.” ~John Holt

                                    There’s no simple, cut-n-dried answers, though. Before we euthanize the educational experiments going on in schools, maybe we need to decide what we are trying to accomplish.


                                    After all, there’s no path ahead that’s perfect. All are replete with dangers and will subject one to criticism…why not decide on a path and then follow it to achieve the easy to measure, desired results? Ok, ok, that’s a silly question.

                                    It’s a question that came back to mind again after I read this article on Do Principals Know Good Teaching When They See It? 

                                    “It takes expertise to make expertise,” Fink and Markholt say, yet coaching in schools is “still the very rare exception, not the norm.
                                    “We believe that K-12 education, as often practiced, is a quasi-profession at best, because we do not, in fact, have common standards of professional practice.”

                                    From a technology perspective, the answer is a resounding, “No.” You see, my workshops in several large districts have revealed, again and again, that principals really don’t have a clear picture in their mind of what qualifies as technology integration. The most common response after observing technology use was positive. Simply, technology integration occurred at the “desired” level because it was present. 

                                    It’s when we think we know, but do not, that we callously commit the most grievous damage.
                                    -Stephen Downes

                                    To help principals get past that idea of technology use being great because it’s present, I emulated Dr. Chris Moersch’s approach of showing videos at various levels of technology implementations and then asked principals to assess what level. I also asked them to explain their reasoning. We had great conversations, but a 55 minute session only scratches the surface. Often, principals don’t develop the technology skills, or they take a simplistic approach to technology that discounts it as a distraction from the “important” things kids need to be learning and teachers need to be doing.

                                    Still, the idea that using technology in a classroom is an experiment causes concerns among many. Take a moment to reflect on this article:

                                    The “elephant in the room”–for proponents of educational technology–is how the success of technology implementation in the classroom is gauged.  In this case of this particular article, results on a standardized test are the measure of success or failure.  As we are all well aware, there has been much gnashing of teeth related to the merits (or lack thereof) of standardized testing.  When educational professionals struggle to be convinced that standardized testing measures what is truly relevant to our students, I think it is a bit presumptuous to make judgements about the “value” of technology based upon these results.

                                    Source: Jeff Delp, Balancing Technology and Pedagogy 

                                    Each day that goes by, I start to believe–without the support of research–that school leaders have forgotten what they once knew, are walking in circles trying to find it again as everyone yells at them to get it right, and technology will be a casualty of that fear-mongering, except when purchasing technology is in the best interests of those who will profit from the purchase.
                                    As an educator, the landscape of what we expect in society has changed dramatically. The tools to survive and thrive in a vibrant, digitally-rich environment are ever-changing. Should learning in this environment be our focus? I’m not sure…but I do know that yesterday’s lessons = #FAIL.


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                                    Is Facebook the new Study Hall?

                                    23 Friday Sep 2011

                                    Posted by mguhlin in Education, Facebook, SocialMedia

                                    ≈ 2 Comments



                                    This is an app my teenager can use when doing her Calculus homework (you won’t find me anywhere near that subject!). Anyone try Hoot.me on Facebook? Here’s what it does:

                                     Hoot.me, a Facebook application that turns the social networking site into “study mode.”
                                    Like other Facebook apps, Hoot.me keeps you inside Facebook but moves you away from your wall and news feed. Instead of the typical Facebook prompt, “What’s on your mind?” Hoot.me asks its users “What are you working on?” From there, students can join the live study sessions on that topic.
                                    These sessions can use group video-conferencing, which Facebook itself doesn’t yet offer, as well as the “smart chat” function. Smart chat allows you to type mathematical formulas in English, which are then automatically translated into mathematical notation. A screen-sharing option is coming soon, too.
                                    Hoot.me also saves and archives the study sessions so that people can search for answers in other, older study sessions.
                                    Source: via Mindshift.com

                                    This type of app raises the question, again, as to whether schools are getting their money’s worth out of what they’re trying to use to foster collaboration among students and teachers, rather than taking advantage of existing technologies! I’ve seen (and participated) in programs to try to improve homework hotline connections, but Hoot.me and Facebook might be the ultimate “homework hotline” that facilitates collaborations between students.


                                    Fran Smith (Edutopia) reminds us that social media like Facebook and Hoot.me can be used for “academic networking:”

                                    We need to teach kids the powerful ways networking can change the way they look at education, not just their social lives. We don’t talk enough about the incredible power of social-networking technology to be used for academic benefit.

                                    Of course, I like her point below….

                                    Administrators have to facilitate change. A lone teacher can do it, but it’s hard to sustain… Lots of teachers are doing it on their own, but it can be exhausting. That’s classroom 2.0, not school 2.0.

                                    Why should we be spending time modeling this in schools? Lest you think PARENTS will provide guidance on this topic, just as they have ably done for teen pregnancy and pre-marital sex, consider the following quote:

                                    Van Cleave wrote a book called “Unplugged” about digital addiction. He says many parents don’t know that their kids are splitting homework time between their books and their Facebook page.
                                    “We used to have latchkey kids, but now we have digital maniacs and parents don’t even know it,” he says. (Source)

                                    How many kids are using Facebook for studying, though? And, will using Facebook for studying (or homework help) be equivalent to other “social networks” designed for studying?
                                    1. OpenStudy – OpenStudy is a social learning network where students ask questions, give help, and connect with other students studying the same things. This allows you to connect via Facebook.
                                    2. LiveMocha – Livemocha is the world’s largest online language learning community, offering free and paid online language courses in 35 languages to more than 10 million members from 196 countries around the world. This allows you to connect via Facebook.
                                    3. Homework Paradise – Homework Tutoring service. This allows you to connect via Facebook.

                                    What do you think? Is Facebook the new study hall?



                                    Social networking has increased the rate and quality of collaboration for students. They are better able to communicate meeting times or share information quickly, which can increase productivity and help them learn how to work well in groups. (Source: http://edudemic.com/2011/07/social-media-education/)

                                    If you could use Facebook to collaborate at work, would you? What kind of work do you do anyways?


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                                    Practice Makes Perfect #math

                                    22 Thursday Sep 2011

                                    Posted by mguhlin in Education, Math

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                                    “Practice,” my dad would say to me with a smile, “makes perfect! Practice, Practice, Practice!” He was referring to a lot of things, but usually, the conversation came up when it was time to work through math. With a mother who was a math teacher, who would work math problems for fun, you’d think math would come easy. Unfortunately, I’ve never enjoyed math the way she did…I imagine now, it’s like one of my children not enjoying writing and reading for fun (thank goodness, I’m blessed).
                                    When I was growing up, it seemed like the math textbook never had enough problems to work through. And, math continues to be my least favorite subject (ok, I would be happy to write 10 pages than work one math problem).

                                    Earlier this week, my son started working on math at school, working on equations, and my old approaches to doing math arose again. I could feel my affective filter coming up as I stared at the incomprehensible math problems on his paper.You can imagine the conversation:
                                    “Dad, I’m not doing that great in math.”
                                    “Hmm….”
                                    “I’m failed my test on equations.”
                                    About an hour later….
                                    “I’m emailing your teacher for more work you can do. Where’s your homework?”
                                    “She didn’t assign me any homework.”
                                    “What!? No homework?” I had a brief, guilty thought of the Truth About Homework but pushed it aside in a fit of barely controlled anger (Note to self: extra hour on the treadmill and more weights to alleviate need for blood pressure medication).
                                    Well, the end result is, I started looking for more problems my son could work through. Here are some web sites I stumbled upon…what would you suggest?
                                    1. Math.com Worksheet Generator
                                    2. HS Unlimited Worksheet Generator
                                    3. Free Math Help – Worksheet Generator
                                    4. Printable Worksheets (PDF)
                                    5. Percentage Worksheet Generator

                                    And, for those of you gasping in shock at the liberal use of the word “worksheets” in this blog entry, here’s some goodness for you:

                                    • Math Projects – Project-based learning is a terrific way to link your curriculum with real world events and applications of concepts that your students are learning. 
                                    • Solving Weaknesses in Math Education Using Project-based Learning
                                    • Math Projects Journal

                                    Image Reference

                                    Practice Makes Perfect. Source: https://mguhlin.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/practice-makes-perfect.jpg


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                                    Education Experiment Ends

                                    22 Thursday Sep 2011

                                    Posted by mguhlin in Education, Leadership, Transformation

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                                    Image Source: http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRTyMbK29Zy6wCbNLOdb03UU1eKo0nRmfwbGuPoywDIWuFGikG_tT5zhyTl


                                    Reading the #edchat summary by Sarah Fudin this morning before work–Can educators in the 21st Century be content experts, but media illiterate  and still be relevant?–made me sit up and take notice at the conversations happening on the sidelines. #EDCHAT is a conversation I’ve lurked but seldom participated in.  You may have noticed, as I have, that some Twitter conversations involve someone making a pithy remark that gets retweeted ad nauseum. That’s not a bad thing, but it reminds me of a movie where one bird clucks and the others take up the call.


                                    One of the clucks, or valuable tweets, that was oft-repeated in the EDCHAT Sarah refers to is this one that appears to have originated with Cybraryman:

                                    RT @cybraryman1: The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires. #edchat

                                    Isn’t that a great quote to pass along? But not much discussion about the how of accomplishing these various stages of teachers engaging students. In considering the EDCHAT, I notice this summary statement:

                                    Content experts are a necessity, but there is no excuse to be media illiterate

                                    What!? This is an ongoing debate that’s been around for years. Even as content continues to be King, the question is, with content changing so rapidly and embedded in new media, aren’t we as educators foolish to disregard media? It’s obvious that educators who are content experts, technology illiterate ARE relevant in today’s schools. The medium is the message…technology continues to be irrelevant to how we learn in schools today because learning happens in spite of its presence. But is it the learning that our students need and they wake up every morning with breathless expectation to grasp? Some might answer that with a simple, “Who cares?” Who cares if children or learners want to learn something or not, they must adapt to how the learning is doled out.



                                    It seems such an old argument but it’s playing out again and again as veteran educators and those on the sidelines are having to re-evaluate what they think. And, if you take a look at the whining about Facebook’s changes, we can see that the reality is many folks just don’t want change.

                                    The Internet, an ever-changing tool molding itself to the mind of its users, now forces reading, writing and communication to be as changeable as the technology it is dependent upon.


                                    The connection between reading, writing, communication and new literacies is multi-modal, engaging everyone as learners as a result of its constant, transformative nature. Multiple modalities go beyond traditional ways of communicating—such as pen and paper, keyboard and mouse—to combine old literacies with new ones. This results in increased usability, increased experience that engages learners (Source). 




                                    We disregard this, or forget this, at our peril. When I read about the conversation in #edchat, I wonder if we have forgotten it. Tom Whitby reminds us, though:

                                    RT @tomwhitby: How we teach often reflects how we learn. New learners have new tools. Many teachers learned & teach with old tools. #edchat

                                    But what media tools do you focus on? And, should we be experimenting with these new technologies in schools at a time when the world perceives American education to be in peril, even if that perception may be a construct by those seeking to negate America’s social contract? I still remember Doug Johnson’s question from 2006 (wow!), Is Experimentation Ethical?:

                                    Should a teacher experiment rather using established best practices? (A medical doctor who “experiments” on his patients would be considered unethical – that job is for specially trained research scientists.) 

                                    In the face of compelling research and best practices, should educational technologists capitulate? We don’t have enough money to equip every child with technology. Only the elite few will have that opportunity. Not every teacher can buy their own equipment and stay in touch with a global network of educators who tweet, facebook, and google+ into the wee hours. For fun, some questions to ponder:
                                    • Do we really need to focus on teaching students how to communicate a la current approach and make them experts in that, or focus attention on content acquisition? 
                                    • Are we simply trying to satisfy our need to reinvent the work we do to make it more exciting and fun?
                                    • Is our experiment, our pilot use of technology in schools, an education experiment that has come to an end?
                                    Consider Mark Ahlness’ response to Doug’s question back in 2006…has anything changed in this discussion?

                                    why should teachers be allowed to experiment rather using established best practices?This one I love. Because established best practices are not getting us anywhere right now. Because established best practices are dated, are dead in the water right now, are slow to develop and spread, are built on tools and methods of instruction dating back at least a century. 

                                    If I teach my current third graders using established best practices, then I am not preparing them for the future, I am teaching them information and skills they may never use, and I am wasting their time. If I experiment, communicate with others around the world, collaborate on developing new approaches, and pass this on to my kids – well then, I might be making a difference for them.


                                    Any educational technologist has hundreds of tools at his or her disposal, between web-based and free open source tools (as well as commercial ones). As a young writing teacher, I would have killed to have access to the tools I now use every day to facilitate writing and reading instruction. But when I look at the lock-step curriculums, a part of me swears–and I don’t swear–that I will never go into a classroom today that does this. If teachers lack the freedom to experiment, to facilitate student-powered communications and collaborations using technology, then public education is a fly-encrusted corpse. And, you know what that makes the education reformers, right?
                                    As Walter McKenzie points out in this entry, That’s Why They Play the Game, there is pointed discussion about what is happening in schools today…but it is often irrelevant to what actually happens in that classroom.

                                    So…stop listening to the pundits. Get your game on, get back out there and give it everything you’ve got. Don’t let the voices on the sidelines get in your head. Sure they can have their say. But in the end, it’s up to you. You own the endgame.

                                    Walter’s advice, quoted above, invites us to forget the blather of education reformers, political pundits, Arne Duncan, the President, and many others who have sought to destroy public schools, raise up private schools. I couldn’t agree with him more. 


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                                    Timeline Web Sites

                                    22 Thursday Sep 2011

                                    Posted by mguhlin in TechTips, Web2.0

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                                    Although not much of a timeline afficionado, I do remember my first experience with a great timeline program–Tom Snyder’s Timeliner. Wow, after that experience, would anything ever measure up again?

                                    Someone recently asked, Is there any free software to make your own timelines? In an effort to keep track of the responses, here’s the list:
                                    1. Dipity.com
                                    2. XTimeline.com
                                    3. TimeToast.com
                                    4. Here’s a short list from Squidoo (well-worth visiting this list!):
                                      Time Line Generator

                                      Create a horizontal or vertical timeline with this quick and easy to use timeline creator.

                                      Create a Timeline of a Person’s Life

                                      Create a timeline of someone’s life that you can customize by placing in important dates or events that happened in their life. Timeline displays custom dates you entered along with dates of important worldwide events that happened during the person’s lifetime.

                                      Timeline Generator for

                                      Timeline generator that uses hCalendar or vCalandar to create the timeline. If you don’t know what hCalendar or vCalendar is, I suggest trying a different timeline generator.

                                      Create an Interactive Timeline

                                      Create an interactive timeline with audio and visual effects. Great for instructors.

                                    You can also find web sites with pre-made timelines….
                                    • Timelines from Internet4Classrooms


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                                    Obstacles For a Reason

                                    21 Wednesday Sep 2011

                                    Posted by mguhlin in Education, Leadership, Transparency

                                    ≈ 3 Comments

                                    Oh, my curmudgeon self must be manifesting again. This video cartoon seems so appropriate for education today that is micromanaged from the top down, as the video suggests. Simply, the main obstacles to any innovation–technological or not–boil down to our failure as leaders to base change on needs rather than what we think will be great. It is a failing I suffer from but, fortunately, I get reigned in periodically by caring folks around me. For example…

                                    • Wouldn’t it be neat if we had an electronic, rather than paper, gradebook system?
                                    • What if we could track professional development registrations online instead of paper and fax?
                                    • What if students could publish their work on the web using easy to edit wikis, content management systems instead of complex web page editors that requires years of expertise?
                                    • Wouldn’t it be neat if teachers could create a closed virtual space that allows them and their students to share ideas and information without having to participate in a global conversation?
                                    • How can we easily allow global conversations to happen within our classrooms without having to buy expensive technologies for every teacher?

                                    Those questions are double-edged, so be careful.

                                    In watching this cartoon, it occurred to me to ask, how would this cartoon would be different for those of us who are early adopters and embrace new “tools” to use in classrooms?

                                    I recently had the opportunity to listen to a presenter that I disagreed with. Rather than dazzle his audience with Prezi presentations, engage us with videos, his presentation was a bit “old school.” Every slide in his presentation appeared on his paper handout, yet I found myself shaking my head in disagreement.

                                    The presenter was someone I’ve quoted in this blog before, so you might imagine how perturbed I was that he was sharing ideas I found oppositional to my thinking. One of my favorite quotes from the past had to do with Collins’ Stop-Doing List, which the presenter referenced in one of his articles:

                                    Results will require tough but intelligent decisions from us. To gain the results we want will require that we systematically review and eliminate unnecessary, ill-wrought goals and committee work, that we abandon ineffective but so-called “research-based” programs and strategies. (Source: Up and Away)

                                    In fact, after listening to him, I was inclined to take him off my list of favorite authors! Given a few days of reflection, though, I asked myself, “Maybe you’re wrong. Maybe it’s time to take those technology-rose colored glasses off and get back to the essence of what it means to be in education. Problem is, what is the essence?”

                                    Mike Schmoker–quoted above–makes some great points in his published writing, as well as the talk I had the opportunity to listen in on. Some of those points are paraphrased or quoted from his presentation below, especially the parts I found myself agreeing with:

                                    • People are freelancing…because there is no curriculum. We all got pretty decent evaluation when we taught this way [freelancing]. What percentage of time kids spend on worksheets? (Response: 50+%).
                                    • In some cases we waste 6-7 or 7-8 years doing this. We don’t have a resource crisis. Time is our most precious resource, but the real issue is, what are we doing with time? If you said only 25% is spent on worksheets and Texas Legislature passed a law and outlawed worksheets, “We’ll pull your license,” then have kids reads novels. That’s 9 weeks of reading = 25% of the curriculum. What would happen? We’d have the largest spike ever in test scores if we just did that. There are very few things more powerful than having kids read for an extended period of time.
                                    • Gene Bottoms – We have systematically to reduce to zero that a kid has to read to be in school and get ahead. It’s like somehow that kids read less in school than they have in our history. We have to fight the system and the institutional inertia that puts us in this situation.
                                    • Three things that are so fundamental to a good education…when we do these things, we will see something amazing for kids.
                                      1. Get teachers to teach lessons.
                                      2. Lots of reading.
                                      3. Put curriculum in place.

                                    • 20% of our kids hit college and only 1 out of 5 can read college material. Prepare a kid for college? Have them read lots of what they would read in college. This is best delivered in a good curriculum.
                                    • Simplicity/Less is More: First things+clarity+ceaseless reinforcement=guaranteed results.
                                    • “Foxes pursue many ends at the same time…Hedgehogs see what is essential , and ignore the rest.” – Jim Collins, Good to Great.
                                    • We keep adding more…
                                      • methods/strategies
                                      • workshops terms
                                      • programs, requirements, technology, classroom arrangements 
                                      • BEFORE we do “first things”

                                    We keep adding more technologies and web-based tools before we do first things. Of course, again, what are those first things? What’s the essence?


                                    Here’s the part I found trouble with in Mike Schmoker’s presentation…highlighted items are what we have to get down cold:

                                    We have to get these 3 down cold before anything else will make a difference.

                                    • Laptops for all/smartboard in every classroom
                                    • Common, content-rich curriculum
                                    • All commercial math/literacy programs
                                    • differentiated instruction
                                    • smaller classes
                                    • cold calling (& other “checks for understanding”)
                                    • various small/school within a school academies
                                    • 90-120 minutes of purposeful reading and writing per day
                                    • turnaround strategies (new faculty; school designetc)
                                    • Cognitive/concept mapping; graphic representations.
                                    Of course, you notice that laptops and other technologies aren’t among the top 3 items. I can see it now…school leaders might take Schmoker’s points below to mean, technology isn’t going to make a difference until we handle these 3 things first. That’s a problem because I think technology and what we do are indivisible at this time in history. Consider this perspective from Tom Whitby (it’s worth reading the whole thing):

                                    I was always intrigued by the saying, “I taught him everything he knows, but not everything that I know!” I always thought that was a pretty clever saying. It was also true of educators in years gone by. They were the content experts. If you wanted knowledge, these experts had it. People paid good money to travel to the places where these content experts delivered their wares, universities, colleges and monasteries. Knowledge was a commodity and, if the expert held anything back, a student’s only recourse for more, was to search the libraries. Ah, the simplicity of the bygone days. As public education came about we had many more content experts and many more libraries. That was the model, listen to experts and read content in books housed in academic or public libraries. Since all of education was based on print media every teacher was media literate, if they could read and understand.

                                    …Technology tools are no longer an option left to a teacher’s discretion. Students without a digital literacy will be handicapped as learners in their own lifetime. 

                                    Source: Tom Whitby, No Defending Illiterate Educators

                                    Is a content-rich curriculum a phrase that signals we’re living in the past, a past bereft of media and technology?

                                    Unfortunately, I found myself agreeing with the rest of Schmoker’s presentation about simplifying what we teach (sheesh, who can teach all the stuff they’ve piled into the state curriculum?!?), what we put in the curriculum, and dumping all these extraneous programs brought in by central office administrators (of which I’m one)….

                                    It’s tough talk that would certainly free up dollars for schools and time for teachers. But a part of me keeps asking, have we picked the right essential things to get down cold?

                                    A slide from my “Embracing Technology for Positive Change” presentation quoting the
                                    eminently quotable David Warlick.


                                    The more I reflect on this, the more ignorant I feel. As I recall the experiences that were most efficacious for my students, those included:
                                    1. being open to life and people as the curriculum, 
                                    2. checks for understanding that were problem-based, engaging students, and 
                                    3. as much reading for pleasure and purpose, as well as writing as possible.
                                    Technology certainly plays a key role in each of these areas that *I* believe we need to do daily. It may be that we’ve crammed the classroom and our expectations with too many initiatives and programs.

                                    I don’t see MY experience of a classroom surviving at a time when we cram it all full of this or that expensive program (I won’t make a list for fear that the vendor will assault me in some way, interrogate me at the next conference or my email box will fill up), or even when we cram it full of neat things we can do online.

                                    In his presentation, Schmoker says the following is laudable in a school district, what the HR folks say to any candidate for a teacher position:
                                      1. You will not be hired unless you teach the curriculum and we monitor the curriculum.
                                      2. You have to teach according to strictures of Madeleine Hunter, her basic elements of a decent lesson…not a hundred things, just 5-6.
                                    Well, it’s been too long since I looked at Hunter’s work…but as soon as I looked, I remembered:  

                                    When designing lessons, the teacher needs to consider the seven elements in a certain order since each element is derived from and has a relationship to previous elements. Also a decision must be made about inclusion or exclusion of each element in the final design–NOT ALL SEVEN ELEMENTS WILL BE INCLUDED IN EVERY LESSON. It may take several lessons before students are ready for guided and/or independent practice.

                                    When this design framework is implemented in teaching, the sequence of the elements a teacher includes is determined by his/her professional judgment.

                                    1. (Learning Objective) Select an objective at an appropriate level of difficulty and complexity, as determined through a task analysis, diagnostic testing, and/or congruence with Bloom’s cognitive taxonomy.
                                    2. (Anticipatory Set) Motivate instruction by focusing the learning task, its importance, or the prior knowledge/experience of the learners.
                                    3. State the lesson objective(s) to the students.
                                    4. (Input) Identify and teach main concepts and skills, emphasizing clear explanations, frequent use of examples and/or diagrams, and invite active student participation.
                                    5. Check for understanding by observing and interpreting student reactions (active interest, boredom) and by frequent formative evaluations with immediate feedback. Adjust instruction as needed and reteach if necessary.
                                    6. Provide guided practice following instruction by having students answer questions, discuss with one another, demonstrate skills, or solve problems. Give immediate feedback and reteach if necessary.
                                    7. Assign independent practice to solidify skills and knowledge when students have demonstrated understanding.

                                    Ah, judgement. The teacher’s judgement. I often see that as the greatest casualty of education reform, high stakes testing, legislating education “success–” we no longer believe that teachers have professional judgement to exercise.

                                    In looking at this information, I do remember it. It was the process I followed when I taught every lesson. Since she preceeded me by several years in education, and knowing I was a person who needed visual cues, my wife had an illustrated chart made that summarized the steps for me (she was, and is, an excellent teacher), laminated and posted in the back of my classroom.

                                    Somewhere, I have that old, laminated poster as a digital image. I’m so grateful I kept it. If only teaching were that simple.
                                    ;->


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                                    Useful SQL Queries for #Moodle

                                    20 Tuesday Sep 2011

                                    Posted by mguhlin in Moodle, MoodleTip, MySQL

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                                    Some time ago, I had the opportunity to share some of the MySQL tips I had discovered in my work with MySQL, and Moodle, in particular. You can find some more neat stuff below….
                                    1. Useful SQL Queries – here is a list of the neat stuff you’ll find there:
                                      • counts up the modules added to a given course
                                      • a basic report with a row per course, counting the amount of students, student course views (hits) and the average view per student
                                      • Select users who have not logged in for over 180 days
                                      • Delete users who have not logged in for over 180 days
                                      • Select users Who have NEVER logged in
                                      • Delete users Who have NEVER logged in
                                      • list number of views (hits) per student in a course from 2010. just change 1965 to your course id number.
                                      • count for resources and activities in a given course
                                      • lists all the resources and modules available and makes a count for a given course for those resources or modules that course contains.
                                      • see permissions overides on categories
                                      • show totally opened courses (visible, opened to guets, with no password)
                                      • find all information about instructors and the courses they are enrolled in
                                    2. Custom SQL Queries Report

                                    Also check out this Custom SQL Queries administator tool and Configurable Reports. Do you know of other neat resources for Moodle?

                                    Here’s one contribution by Doris Johnson–with my modification in bold to get an alphabetical list–via the MoodleMayhem email list:

                                    This query will make a list of all students that are not in a course: 

                                    From phpmyadmin, I selected my database name. Then I selected the SQL tab. I copied and pasted the following query in the sql box. 

                                    SELECT `u`.`id`, `u`.`username`, `u`.`firstname`, `u`.`lastname`, `u`.`email` 
                                    FROM `mdl_user` `u` LEFT JOIN `mdl_role_assignments` `r` ON `r`.`userid` = `u`.`id` 
                                    WHERE `r`.`id` IS NULL AND `u`.`deleted` = 0
                                    ORDER BY `u`.`lastname`, `u`.`firstname`;

                                    Here are the links to my Moodle Mayhem workshop stuff:

                                    Overview of MySQL and Queries Possible

                                    1. Introduction to MySQL
                                      • Example #1: Updating how Moodle User authentication
                                      • Example #2: Disabling Student Emails en masse
                                    2. Creating MySQL Databases
                                      • General Settings for a new database:
                                        • UTF8
                                        • General_ci
                                      • How To Create Your Database with…
                                        • phpMyAdmin – Tutorial (external link)
                                        • SQLYog
                                    3. Backing Up Your Moodle database using Free, Open Source Tools
                                      • Backing up with phpMyAdmin (web-based)
                                      • Backing up with SQL Yog (Windows only)
                                    4. Restoring Your Moodle database
                                      • Restoring from Backup with SQL Yog
                                    5. Resetting Your Moodle Admin Password via the MySQL Database Interface
                                      • Ever find yourself unable to login with your admin password to Moodle? This may mean you need to repair a corrupt Moodle database (see below). It could also mean you forgot your password.
                                      • To change the admin password, go to a Moodle database for which you know the admin password. Copy the password (usually encrypted). Then, go to the mdl_user table, and find the admin user and replace the contents of the password field with your previously copied password.
                                    6. Other questions?

                                    Miscellaneous Tips

                                    • Optimizing Your MySQL Tables
                                    • Turning Moodle Messaging ON/OFF
                                    • Repairing a Corrupt Moodle Database
                                    • Repairing MySQL Database Part 2
                                    • Goofing Around with PHPMyAdmin
                                    Moodle Custom SQL Queries

                                    • Custom SQL Queries from Moodle
                                    Other Fun Stuff

                                    • Updating User Accounts


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                                    Job Posting – Instructional Technologist Position – Closes September 19

                                    17 Saturday Sep 2011

                                    Posted by mguhlin in Education, JobPosting, Texas

                                    ≈ Leave a comment

                                    This is a position that closes on Monday, September 19, 2011, so don’t wait too long to apply! More information online at Northside ISD (San Antonio, Tx)

                                    SALARY:  $43,378 – $65,935

                                    JOB ANNOUNCEMENT 

                                    ORGANIZATION & STAFF DEVELOPMENT (OSD) INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGIST 
                                    Organizational and Staff Department 
                                    CLOSING DATE:  September 19, 2011 
                                    JOB DESCRIPTION
                                    The OSD Technologist, under the joint supervision of the Director of OSD, will be responsible for development, implementation, and support of a 
                                    variety of OSD initiatives that focus on online training and development services for campus and district staff. 
                                    EDUCATION AND CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS
                                     Minimum of 60 college semester hours (emphasis in computer courses a must).  Bachelor’s Degree in Management Information Systems, 
                                    Computer Science or related area preferred. 
                                     Three years documented experience in training adults on various computer software applications in either a corporate or educational 
                                    environment. 
                                     Two years documented experience in project management related to technology staff development. 
                                     Specific experience with all of the following:  (a) web page design tools, (b) Audio and video creation and editing, (c) CSS and HTML, (d) 
                                    Java Script, (e) relational databases sql statements, (f) php programming skills, (g) drupal or other content management system
                                     Documented evidence of Digital Media products including: (a) web site design/development and programming and/or Intranet development, 
                                    (b) video productions, (c) best practices for graphic and instructional design of online learning modules. 
                                     Ability to resolve hardware, software and/or file compatibility issues. 
                                     Ability to work independently and perform a variety of complex activities simultaneously to meet deadlines. 
                                     Thorough knowledge of most of the following computer software applications: Windows/Mac operating system, Microsoft Office, and
                                    Dreamweaver. 
                                     Presentation skills (oral and written) for end-user training and application documentation.
                                     External candidate must have satisfactory outcome of fingerprinting check. Non-refundable fee (approximately $50.00) paid by employee 
                                    DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
                                    1. Meets regularly with OSD and Technology Services (network administrators, instructional technology specialists) to develop and implement 
                                    web-based learning solutions to meet the goals of the district. 
                                    2. Design, develop, and implement a comprehensive technology staff development program for all OSD staff. 
                                    3. Assists Technology Services staff with the implementation of OSD information and workflow solutions. 
                                    4. Designs, creates, and publishes online content including Websites, web pages, online learning modules, online tools, and online courses for 
                                    district staff. 
                                    5. Design and produces multimedia content including presentation slide shows, video production, and print materials for a wide variety of 
                                    audiences. 
                                    6. Coordinate the design, development and use of staff development materials to support OSD staff development. 
                                    7. Provide special technology assistance to senior staff to develop and complete high priority district projects. 
                                    8. Provide “just in time” training to assist OSD staff in completing technology related projects. 
                                    9. Create and deliver intermediate and advanced training to OSD staff on particular computer software applications. 
                                    10. Provide first level technical support, software installation, and conduct network related training to OSD staff. 
                                    11. Provide technical support for the District Electronic Professional Development Registration System. 
                                    12. Research additional technology applications, tools and upgrades to meet department goals and district needs. 
                                    13. Maintains records of staff development data, and prepares reports as needed. 
                                    14. Perform other duties as required by the Director of OSD. 
                                    WORKING CONDITIONS
                                    Mental Demands/Physical Demands/Environmental Factors:  Maintain emotional control under stress.  Frequent District-wide travel. 
                                    TERMS OF EMPLOYMENT
                                    SALARY:  $43,378 – $65,935                                            PAY GRADE:  C30                                                          WORK DAYS:  226    

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                                    Shopping for a New Mac

                                    17 Saturday Sep 2011

                                    Posted by mguhlin in FreeSoftware, MacOS

                                    ≈ 2 Comments

                                    Source: http://www.apple.com/macbookair/specs.html

                                    Ok, considering my Macbook from 2007 is getting  a little long in the tooth and I need a new machine, I’m wondering what kind of machine I want to get. After seeing a Macbook Air, I’m enthralled but want it to run GNU/Linux flavor…this post is essentially instructions on how to get it done (read source post and conversation):

                                    – Install rEFIt so you can boot into your linux partition, before doing anything:http://refit.sourceforge.net/– Make a new partition you want to install linux on with disk utility in os x– So far, I have not been able to get the 64-bit version to work, so I recommend using the 32-bit version (monitor just goes blank, without options to fix). The only issue with the 32-bit is that it will only recognize up to 3gb of ram, so if you can find a way to get the 64-bit version to work, let me know!– Upon booting your disc or flash drive, make sure to hit F6 before selecting the try or install options, and enable “nomodeset.” If you don’t do this, your monitor will go blank during the install has the linux CD will have no way to access your video card.– Format your new partition to ext2 or 3 format and install! Make sure you selected to install 3rd party drivers, or your wireless won’t work upon first boot. This is important because you’ll need to install the nvidia drivers over wireless upon first boot.– Upon first boot, you’re going to need to enable “nomodeset” again, or you’ll have the same issue with your monitor going blank. Hit e in grub, replace “quiet and splash” with “nomodeset” and hit ctrl+x to start up.– Immediately, install the nvidia drivers by going to System > Administration > Additional Drivers. Once installed, reboot into linux!– Now, in order to get multitouch, volume keys, sound, brightness keys, fans, etc. to all be working properly in Ubuntu, I recommend you check this page: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookAir3-2/Meerkat
                                    Once you follow the instructions there, you’re macbook air will be a fantastic portable linux machine! So far, I have everything working 100%, get great battery life, and am enjoying all of the OS X niceties like multitouch, etc. Definitely happy, but it takes a bit of work to get it all setup correctly. I also recommend the mac-fuse + ext2-fuse tool: http://sourceforge.net/projects/fuse-ext2/ to have your linux partition accessible in OS X.

                                    I’m looking at the 11-inch model. Anyone else using this model and happy with it? Is it an awesome presentation machine?


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                                    Goals That Matter @lparisi #edchat

                                    15 Thursday Sep 2011

                                    Posted by mguhlin in Blogging, CommentHoisting, Education, Writing

                                    ≈ 1 Comment

                                    Image Source: http://www.patagoniapubliclibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/becoming-a-writer1.jpg
                                    Ryan–a student in Lisa Parisi’s class–wrote the following:

                                    I’m starting a new school year and I have lots of goals. One of those goals is to be a better reader. I will do that by reading more. Another one of my goals is to be a better writer. I will do that by writing neater, by practicing more and by coming up with ideas quicker by doing more interesting and exciting things. My third goal is to have better self control. I will do that by controlling my actions, listening better, and not going near people I know Ill get in trouble with.  I have many goals this year I am going to try to achieve every single one of them.

                                    Here’s my comment on his blog post…why don’t you go leave your own comment on his post, as well as those of other students?

                                    What great goals–reading and writing! More than anything else, achieve those goals and you will always have a job, no matter what kind of work you decide to do. As a 4th grader, I was a terrible writer; I can tell you are a better writer than I was. I actually didn’t get into writing until I started writing book reports as movie reviews.

                                    When 12 years old, I remember sitting in a darkened living room–you know, the one with the couches only visitors to your house get to sit on–watching Bob Polunsky, movie critic, and then, closing my eyes, and assuming his voice as I wrote my book report.

                                    Eventually, that movie critic’s voice disappeared, whether absorbed like a sugar lump in a cup of hot coffee or discarded like training wheels, I don’t really know. What I do know is that when I started writing about what I was teaching and learning in my East Texas third grade bilingual classroom, and getting published, I remembered the writing I did for school.

                                    Since you’re starting earlier than I, I’m excited about what you will be doing at twelve years of age, then much older. The one thing I remember is that writing has always been my way of understanding the world, what I read, what I experience.

                                    Wishing you well on your goals,
                                    Miguel Guhlin
                                    Around the Corner-MGuhlin.org
                                    http://mguhlin.org


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                                    MyNotes – Comparison of Online Versus Traditional Instruction

                                    15 Thursday Sep 2011

                                    Posted by mguhlin in Education, HigherEducation, MyNotes, OnlineLearning, Research

                                    ≈ Leave a comment

                                    Source: http://www.snead.edu/distancelearning/images/OnlineLearning.gif

                                    Remember those long nights at your local university? Or, how about working all day and then going to school? Those times are quickly becoming a memory…and research studies like this one highlight what’s happening.

                                    The results of this study are straightforward–no significant difference between online and traditional instruction. What’s that mean? Simply that students can learn as well online as they can face to face, raising the question, why bother with the face to face?

                                    MyNotes:

                                    JOLT – Journal of Online Learning and Teaching

                                      • A Longitudinal Comparison of Online Versus Traditional Instruction  by
                                        • Suzanne C. Wagner Niagara University Niagara University, NY14109 USA scwagner@niagara.edu  
                                        • Sheryl J. Garippo Niagara University Niagara University, NY14109 USAsgarippo@niagara.edu   
                                        • Petter Lovaas Niagara University Niagara University, NY14109 USA plovaas@niagara.edu
                                      • Colleges and universities are promoting growth in online course offerings in an attempt to combat economic and enrollment decline.
                                        • Studies of online learning versus traditional classroom learning have focused on many aspects of learning including the effectiveness of technology (Schenker, 2007), knowledge transfer (Hansen, 2008), and student engagement, learning, and satisfaction (Rabe-Hemp, Woollen, & Humiston, 2009). Studies of online courses have provided insight into the use and effects of technological innovations such as interactive software usage for e-learning (Pena-Sanchez, 2009) and the creation of interactive learning environments (Everson & Garfiel, 2008). Research has also considered the evaluation of information technology integration in traditional courses (Christou & Dinov, 2010).
                                          • Hybrid instruction was found to be superior to traditional approaches for undergraduate students (Vernadakis, Antoniou, Giannousi, Zetou, Kioumourtzoglou, & Efthimis, 2011).
                                            • In an effort to measure the difference in student performance in online versus traditional instruction over time, this study analyzed student performance in a single course offered in multiple sections by the same instructor over several academic years. The method of instruction for the course consisted of eleven online sections of the course offerings and nineteen traditional sections of the course offerings from 2001 to 2010. The instructor was the same for all of the traditional and online sections of the course. Additionally, all course syllabi, course assignments, and course exams were developed by the instructor using the same criteria and standards. Grading was done by the same instructor for all sections.
                                              • Based on the review of the literature and the presumption that online courses can substitute for traditional courses, it is expected that student performance will be the same for the online courses and the traditional courses.
                                                • it appears that today’s students are able to succeed in an introductory business applications course in an online format or a traditional format.
                                                  • If online students are given the proper materials (online lecture notes, multimedia presentations, clear instructions, reasonable assignments, a quality textbook, and access to an instructor via website or e-mail), they appear to do as well as those students who engage in a traditional classroom using the same materials guided by an instructor.
                                                    • males may not perform as well as females in online courses.
                                                      • Further research should be conducted to investigate the extent of gender differences that may occur in online and hybrid course delivery methods.
                                                        • as younger members of society become further integrated into the use of technological communication tools, the questions about presenting materials in online formats will likely diminish.
                                                          • Manuscript received 10 Nov 2010; revision received 22 Feb 2011. This work is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share-Alike License For details please go to: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/


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                                                            Giveaway – Discount on #Moodle MS Office Self-Paced Learning #edchat

                                                            15 Thursday Sep 2011

                                                            Posted by mguhlin in Education, GiveAway, MoodleConversations

                                                            ≈ Leave a comment

                                                            Click on image to view full size
                                                            Ever ask these 3 questions about staff training focused on maximizing their productivity?
                                                            1. Need low-cost, web-based, accessible MS Office product tutorials at a discount price?  
                                                            2. Want to see those self-paced tutorials in a Moodle environment that can be deployed as your learners need? 
                                                            3. And, deploy a professional learning solution that you don’t have to implement by yourself?  
                                                            You’ll want to keep reading this blog entry.


                                                            Call PC PAL SOLUTIONS.com at 800-310-9089, mention you found out about it at Around the Corner-MGuhlin.org, and you’ll get a discount on total cost of services!
                                                            As I shared in this blog post (full disclosure), one of the products I’ve had experience working with is PC PAL Solutions‘ suite of CD-based tutorials for MS Office products. They have recently just announced that they have developed tutorials that are SCORM modules and Moodle accessible!

                                                            PC Pal tutorials offer you the flexibility of learning at your own pace, in your home, office or classroom, without spending the high costs associated with other forms of training. The Discover Microsoft Office 2010 training suite consists of 17 self-paced tutorials filled with hours of engaging instruction in an immersive learning environment. Each interactive tutorial is approximately 3 hours long and is usually divided into 3 lessons….because the tutorials are fully interactive, users will be asked to perform actions throughout each lesson. 

                                                            The benefit of SCORM modules is that they can be placed on web sites for viewing, embedded in a wide variety of course management systems (e.g. Moodle). For example, one scenario is making these rich media tutorials available to parents and community members who perceive a need to hone their work with MS Office.
                                                            Here is a quick overview of each section available:
                                                            1. Microsoft Outlook consists of three self-paced lessons that help you discover how to manage email, connect with people, and access vital information.
                                                            2. Microsoft Excel 2010 consists of 5 self-paced tutorials that help you quickly achieve proficiency on Excel 2010, as you learn how to efficiently model & analyze data.
                                                            3. Microsoft Powerpoint 2010 consists of 3 self-paced tutorials that teach you how to use Powerpoint 2010 to bring energy and visual impact to presentation, captivate audiences with transitions and animations.
                                                            4. Microsoft Access 2010 suite consists of 3 self-paced tutorials that teach you how to quickly build databases and create more impactful forms and reports.
                                                            5. Microsoft Word 2010 training suite consists of 5 self-paced tutorials that will teach you how to use Word 2010 to create visually compelling documents as you gain “hands-on” experience in a simulated environment.

                                                            Call PC PAL SOLUTIONS.com at 800-310-9089, mention you found out about it at Around the Corner-MGuhlin.org, and you’ll get a discount on total cost of services!


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                                                            Great Video/Audio Conversion Tools for #UbuntuLinux #PeppermintOS

                                                            14 Wednesday Sep 2011

                                                            Posted by mguhlin in AudioTools, FreeSoftware, TechTips, VideoConversion

                                                            ≈ Leave a comment

                                                            If you have to deal with the DVDs of your daughter or son’s choir recital–you get the idea–you realize that you’re going to want to rip those and keep the digital copy somewhere. But how?

                                                            MakeUseOf.com has a very nice list of video/audio conversion tools worth checking out. Some of my favorites include the following:
                                                            1. Video/Audio Conversion: 
                                                              1. WinFF – On Peppermint Two, or any Ubuntu linux distro, this is just a great video/audio converter. 
                                                            2. DVD Ripping: Handbrake – Great for ripping (or digitizing) a DVD you may have. I also like dvd::rip. You can download the “*86” version (DEB file) of Handbrake here; I hope the link will save you some hunting.
                                                            3. Make DVDs: Looking for a tool that will let you make DVDs from digital videos on your computer (e.g. make DVDs out of your FLIP video camera)? DeVeDe will get the job done. (Get the DEB file).

                                                            BTW, you can read a longer post I wrote on DeVeDe here.


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                                                            Pounding Hooves – #Moodle 2

                                                            14 Wednesday Sep 2011

                                                            Posted by mguhlin in CommandLine, Moodle2

                                                            ≈ Leave a comment

                                                            Source: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3076/3161725377_00f7452a5d.jpg
                                                            AttributionNoncommercial Some rights reserved by Mohammed Nairooz

                                                            What a joy it was to work yesterday on a new RedHat Linux server! I always enjoy learning new things and how to manipulate a RHLinux server as I was setting up various Moodle instances was a lot of fun.

                                                            As an avid Moodle admin, I have been eagerly awaiting the day I’d have an in-house server that could run Moodle 2.0. It’s one thing playing on this on your computer (although to be truthful, I must have a Moodle 2 server on every computer I’ve touched over the last few months!), quite another to have a full-speed, “beefy” server with 24 gigs of RAM and what appears to be unlimited storage on it!! My organization’s technology department set it up, setup an admin account for me, and then said, “Here’s your server.” Wow, I felt like a kid who’s been given the set of keys to the fiery steel stallion in the driveway. 
                                                            Some of what I did recently on the new server:
                                                            • Created a new Moodle 2.x instance for our Sandbox. Remember, I still advise waiting until as late as possible to make the transition to Moodle 2.x. or at least, until you’ve got a better handle on it.
                                                            • Setup Moodle 1.9 instances that were copies of ones I had on our “old” Mac server. That was a lot of fun given the following stats:
                                                              • 52 gigs of stuff in MoodleData
                                                              • 900+ megs of stuff in the SQLDump file
                                                              • a few problems in the transition with specific blocks/mods that just didn’t seem to work well on the new server with the version of PHP we had installed (e.g. Book, Questionnaire, Certificate appeared OK).
                                                            Folder permissions, OK?

                                                            Working on a GNU/Linux server is a bit of a different experience, of course, than doing so on a Mac. On GNU/Linux, everything is command line driven, a fact that can be mitigated using various tools…unfortunately, those other options just weren’t available.

                                                            Folder permissions, OK?

                                                            To give you an idea of the fun, here are some of the commands:

                                                            TERMINALssh user@host 

                                                            RESTARTING APACHE WEB SERVER/etc/init.d/httpd start
                                                            /etc/init.d/httpd status 

                                                            VIM Commandshttp://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Search_and_replace&nbsp;

                                                            CREATING MYSQL USER AT COMMAND LINEmysql> CREATE USER ‘mguhlin’@’localhost’ IDENTIFIED BY ‘PASSWRD’;
                                                            mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO ‘mguhlin’@’localhost’ WITH GRANT OPTION; 

                                                            IMPORTING MYSQL DATABASE VIA SQLmysql -u mguhlin -p -h localhost newdbasename < olddbasename.sql

                                                            CHANGING GROUPSChgrp –R apache directoryname/ 

                                                            DIRECTORY LISTING WITH HIDDEN FILESls -la 

                                                            COPYMore info: http://www.computerhope.com/unix/ucp.htm
                                                            sudo cp -r ~/zips/moodle19/mod/* /var/www/html/mstateks2010/mod/
                                                            sudo cp ~/bkups/configs/config_mstateks2010.php config.php
                                                            sudo cp -rv /var/www/html/itech/* /var/www/html/mstateks2010/

                                                            Fortunately, my experience in GNU/Linux over the last few years came in handy! I had a lot of fun working at the command line to get things done and look forward to recreating some larger Moodle instances this weekend!
                                                            For the meantime, I guess I’ll just have to wait…sigh.

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                                                            Schools Up to One of a Kind Work? – TurnItIn and WriteCheck

                                                            12 Monday Sep 2011

                                                            Posted by mguhlin in Education, Writing

                                                            ≈ 1 Comment

                                                            Image Source: http://byphaeth.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/oneofakindfriend.jpg

                                                            Turnitin is the leading academic plagiarism detector, utilized by teachers and students to avoid plagiarism and ensure academic integrity. Source: https://turnitin.com

                                                            Fascinating conflict of interest for TurnItIn?

                                                            Students are being scanned as well to make sure that the words in their papers were not swiped from other sources.  Scanning papers began a decade ago when anti-plagiarism software was created to compare the phrases of student papers with other sources.  The leading anti-plagiarism software is Turnitin, which compares student papers with academic journals, Internet web pages and its library of previously submitted papers.  On its home page, Turnitin quotes an instructor as saying, “I used to spend hours on Google searching for unusual wording when I suspected that the paper was not written by the student. Now, I can search quickly with Turnitin!”
                                                            Read the rest of David Harrington’s blog entry via Slashdot

                                                            David Harrington points out that another service TurnItIn offers is known as WriteCheck, and helps “authors” create content that won’t be detected as having been plagiarized by their TurnItIn product. 

                                                            Developed by the creators of Turnitin, WriteCheck helps students check for plagiarism and correct grammar, style and spelling errors with user-friendly reports and helpful resources to improve writing.

                                                            Hmm…a bit problematic.
                                                            David’s whole piece is worth reflecting on as educators, but from a teacher perspective, the money quote is this one:

                                                            One of the best ways to suppress plagiarism is to come up with creative assignments that are literally one-of-a-kind. 

                                                            At a time when encouraging one-of-a-kind work is critical for an economy under siege by outsourced knowledge workers, why aren’t educators doing this more?

                                                            Maybe, we need to issue magnets to teachers?

                                                            Estonian researchers claim that magnets can either force you to lie or make it impossible. Subjects in the study had magnets placed at either the left or the right side of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and the results suggest that the individual was either unable to tell the truth or unable to lie depending on which side was stimulated. From the article: “Last year, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology also used powerful magnets to disrupt the area said to be the brain’s ‘moral compass,’ situated behind the right ear, making people temporarily less moral.”Source: Slashdot on Magnets and Truth-telling

                                                            Where’s my magnet collection?


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                                                            Loading Peppermint Two on Macbook 2,1

                                                            11 Sunday Sep 2011

                                                            Posted by mguhlin in MacOS, PeppermintICE

                                                            ≈ Leave a comment

                                                            Image Source: http://www.everymac.com/images/cpu_pictures/apple_macbook_white.jpg

                                                            It had been a long time since I’d pulled my white Macbook 2,1 out of its faux leather travelling bag and upgraded it, so I decided that midnight on a Saturday might not be too late. This is the same Macbook that Wes Fryer encouraged me to buy back in early 2007 at TCEA Conference, that travelled with me to New Zealand, that I’ve used for my keynotes, and continues to do well for me. Keynote remains my favorite presentation tool, although I have hopes that LibreOffice will someday allow easy embedding of videos.

                                                            I’ve decided not to invest in OS X Lion, having stopped my Mac’s journey with the Snow Leopard upgrade. And, I run very little on the Mac side anymore. I’ve stripped out quite a bit, keeping only what I need for presentations. But I did decide that  I needed to repartition the hard drive and load Peppermint Two on it. I’d been running Peppermint ICE, but have come to enjoy how wonderful Peppermint Two is on other machines and wanted the same look-n-feel, as well as a bit more room.
                                                            My first step was to backup the Mac side with Carbon Copy Cloner, which did a great job, onto an external 120gig hard drive. Since the Macbook only has an 80gig hard drive, backing up wasn’t a problem. I was reminded of the need to buy a new hard drive for this machine when I realized how quickly the backup finished!
                                                            Then, I booted off the external drive (holding down the option key to choose my startup device) and choosing the external drive, I ran Disk Utility (One article about this). I used that to re-partition the 80gig drive, 3 partitions…one for Mac, one for Peppermint Two, and a swap drive. Partitioning process wiped out all my data, so I was grateful for my backup.

                                                            Afterwards, I restored my Mac drive from backup, then booted off Peppermint Two CD (USB boot just didn’t work) and installed it on the partition I’d set aside for it.

                                                            When I restarted the Macbook, the Mac side came right up. I installed rEFIT  (http://refit.sourceforge.net/), a program that allows you to choose whether you want to boot to Mac or Linux (or Windows). I had to do the installation through the Terminal.

                                                            That was pretty much it, except for additional customizations that I normally do with Peppermint Two. The Mac side continued as always, working without problem (thank goodness!).

                                                            One of the best points to read on the Ubuntu site is this statement:

                                                            Anything not mentioned here probably already works out of the box.

                                                            Find out more online. Oh, what fun I haven’t had in time.


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                                                            Deleting Resistant Files on #Windows – Solutions

                                                            08 Thursday Sep 2011

                                                            Posted by mguhlin in FreeSoftware, TechTips, WindowsOS

                                                            ≈ Leave a comment

                                                            Source: http://www.tech-faq.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/delete-deleted-files-permanently.jpg

                                                            Earlier today, helping a colleague with their computer, I ran across a fascinating problem that involved deleting a file Windows 7 would not allow me to delete, even as an administrator. That scenario is similar to the one below, shared by an Oklahoma Technology Director.

                                                            Question: 

                                                            I have a number of files on my Windows server that need to be deleted. Some of them are virus infected files that none of the four AV solutions I’ve tried can clean or remove. Some of them are just files I need to get rid of. When attempting to delete these files I get the error, “You need permission to perform this action.” I have disabled UAC and taken ownership of the files and am logged in as an Administrator. I have scoured the forums online and these are the only solutions I can find offered. Does anyone have any suggestions?
                                                            Also, I cannot empty the recycle bin on this same server.

                                                            Responses from Oklahoma Technology Directors:

                                                            1. Use a linux boot cd or key … mount the drive and remove the files.
                                                            2. Download a program to delete these files. Use http://eraser.heidi.ie/
                                                            3. YUMI MultiBoot – http://www.pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/
                                                            4. Tuxboot helps you to create a bootable Live USB drive for Clonezilla live, DRBL live, GParted live and Tux2live

                                                            Wow, I’d never heard of options 3 and 4! I’ll have to explore those in the future.

                                                            In my situation, I opted for approach #1 listed below in the responses. Here are some ways to get that done:

                                                            • Using Peppermint Linux
                                                            • Mobile Revelations
                                                            • Make Your Own Bootable Flash Drives on Mac

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                                                            #Texas TEE – Technology Enhanced Education Group #txlege #edchat #txschools #edtech

                                                            05 Monday Sep 2011

                                                            Posted by mguhlin in Education, SAnews, Texas, texascto

                                                            ≈ Leave a comment


                                                             Join the TexasTEE – Technology Enhanced Education–group on Facebook and share your questions, ideas, and comments on tech in Texas Education!


                                                            Welcome to TexasTEE! The idea for this group is a state-wide group of folks committed to  

                                                            enhancing education through the strategic application of technology to teaching, learning 

                                                            and leading. It’s a venue where we can share what we need to know, what we know, and 

                                                            what we’re learning. 


                                                            I hope you’ll share your questions and ideas here, as well as invite others to join the group.

                                                            http://www.facebook.com/groups/texastee/ 



                                                            Please visit and LIKE the TexasTEE page at:

                                                            http://www.facebook.com/pages/TexasTEE/257751487589709



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                                                            #OER at South by Southwest Education Conference

                                                            03 Saturday Sep 2011

                                                            Posted by mguhlin in Conferences, Education, OER, Texas

                                                            ≈ 1 Comment

                                                            Anyone want to co-facilitate a session at this conference with me?

                                                            I’m sure you know of the South by Southwest (SXSW) music, film, and interactive shows — now there is also SXSWedu. 
                                                            This year, SXSWedu is including an OER strand in their conference. To my knowledge, this will be one of the first K-12 OER conference strands at a major conference. We are hoping to get lots of participation and to make this a significant OER event. Most of the participants at the conference will not have heard of OER before, so we have a chance to really raise awareness.
                                                            We would love to see you present at this event. The conference is March 6-8, and presentation submissions are due Oct. 1:http://www.sxswedu.com/content/edu-panelpicker
                                                            If you have questions, let me know. And please spread the word to anyone you know in OER who might be interested.

                                                            If you’re not sure what OER is, my best guess is that it’s Open Educational Resources. And, when you read the definition below, I’m sure you’ll agree that there is ample room for discussion!

                                                            Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that you may freely use and reuse, without charge. Open Educational Resources are different from other resources a teacher may use in that OER have been given limited or unrestricted licensing rights. That means they have been authored or created by an individual or organization that chooses to retain few, if any, ownership rights. 

                                                            For some of these resources, that means you can download the resource and share it with colleagues and students. For others, it may be that you can download a resource, edit it in some way, and then re-post it as a remixed work. OER often have a Creative Commons or GNU license that state specifically how the material may be used, reused, adapted, and shared.

                                                            Source: http://www.oercommons.org/about#what-are-open-educational-resources-oer 

                                                            For example, all the content that I create online here at Around the Corner and MoodleMayhem.org is shared under Creative Commons ShareAlike-Attribution-NonCommercial Copyright. . .in looking back, I suspect I may have erred in the “noncommercial” aspect. My goal was simply to make content available and prevent businesses (e.g. like one vendor who created a portal school districts paid to access for my articles MANY years ago) to make money off my work. I wanted my work to be available for educational uses by other educators.
                                                            Stephen Downes shares a fascinating conversation about OER here…well-worth reading!

                                                            Also check out other conversations taking place via Twitter.

                                                            I’m still not sure where I stand in all this, if a bit confused. Is OER a subject I could facilitate a session on? Thoughts?
                                                            Image Source: http://businesscriticallearning.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/jefferson.png


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                                                            Let There Be Spaces – Contemplating TEC-SIG Renewal

                                                            03 Saturday Sep 2011

                                                            Posted by mguhlin in EdTech

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                                                            Image Source: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_8X1eccQl4fI/TDtGoaZBAKI/AAAAAAAAAIU/
                                                            bTRFCL1xo2Y/s1600/expired.jpg

                                                            Some time ago (08/02/2011), I received the following note from the Texas Technology Education Coordinators Special Interest Group (TEC-SIG):

                                                            Dear Mr. Miguel Guhlin,As a member of TEC-SIG, you have benefited by:Information Sharing on:
                                                            Legislation developments
                                                            News from the Texas Education Agency
                                                            Upcoming grants
                                                            Technical support
                                                            Emerging trends in educational technology
                                                            Collaboration with technology coordinators from across the state via the TEC-SIG listserv.
                                                            Professional Development at three yearly meetings on leadership and emerging technologies.
                                                            Leadership opportunities that influence the use of technology in schools across Texas.
                                                             Your membership in TEC-SIG has or will expire on 08/23/2011  We don’t want you to miss any of these benefits, so renew for only $20!

                                                            Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to reflect on the value of TCEA TEC-SIG membership and how fun it’s been to connect with friends and colleagues on that list. Although it’s Friday, September 2, 2011 and my membership–as of today–has yet to be cut off even though I haven’t renewed, I’ve decided to drop off the list for now.


                                                            Source: http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lji8owR44e1qfvq9bo1_r1_500.jpg
                                                            In the meantime, I hope you’ll join the TexasTEE – Technology Enhanced Education–group on Facebook and share your questions, ideas, and comments on tech in Texas Education!

                                                            Welcome to TexasTEE! The idea for this group is a state-wide group of folks committed to enhancing education through the strategic application of technology to teaching, learning and leading. It’s a venue where we can share what we need to know, what we know, and what we’re learning.
                                                            I hope you’ll share your questions and ideas here, as well as invite others to join the group.

                                                            http://www.facebook.com/groups/texastee/ 


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                                                            Embrace Encryption

                                                            02 Friday Sep 2011

                                                            Posted by mguhlin in Education, Privacy, Texas

                                                            ≈ Leave a comment





                                                            Update 01/3/2012: I now recommend the free, open source AESCrypt in lieu of AxCrypt as a simple, easy to use cross-platform encryption tool. Find out more here.

                                                            Enigma…encryption tool.
                                                            Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/belenko/4295901360/

                                                            Isn’t it sad that the same thing that happened in a large school district in Texas recently–hackers working their way past District protections–and to the State Comptroller of Texas also just happened in Birdville ISD?

                                                            Two students from Birdville schools hacked into a school district network server and downloaded a file with 14,500 student names and Social Security numbers, officials said… “Everything I’ve seen does not give the indication that they were specifically seeking anything. They came across these files and when they did, they downloaded them,” Thomas said. “They did it from outside of the district.
                                                            Read more: Star Telegram

                                                            Let’s review…unencrypted social security numbers placed on a server accessible via the Internet accessed by school district students.

                                                            39% of the teens surveyed think hacking is “cool” and 16%, or roughly one in six, admitted to trying their hand at it. Only 15% of the entire sample has either been caught or knows someone who has – particularly disturbing considering 7% of young hackers reported they did so for money and 6% view it as a viable career path. (Read Source)

                                                            Isn’t it time organizations implemented more strict data encryption protocols? How many more data breaches will it take before school organizations realize that the way they “secure” confidential data is out of date? Consider the past….

                                                            Two students of ‘Riverside High School’ launched a hacking intrusion into the computer database of the ‘Durham Public Schools’. The young hackers downloaded the ‘Social Security numbers’ and personal information of numerous school employees, the ‘Durham Sheriff’s Office’ said on 14th December 2006. (Read Source)

                                                            After all, when students can connect to a server–I seriously doubt that they “hacked” anything–and download social security numbers from 2008-2009…well, that clearly says the people who made the data available didn’t take advantage of GPG/PGP, TrueCrypt, NCrypt or any of the technologies that would have made encryption a simple reality.


                                                            Let’s stop, take a breath before we throw more kids in jail for hacking, and ask ourselves, how long will it take for school organizations to embrace encryption?


                                                            Time for more modern encryption tools.


                                                            School districts and anyone who deals with confidential data, here are some suggestions to get started….
                                                            • Encrypting School Confidential Data
                                                            • TrueCrypt encryption for Windows, Mac, and Linux computers
                                                            • Ncrypt encryption tool for Windows and Linux computers
                                                            • Safeguarding Your Logins and Passwords
                                                            • A Laundry List of Privacy Tools
                                                            It’s easy for folks to get angry about lost confidential data. It takes only moments to use one of the approaches above to secure it. If you have confidential data on your computer, at the very least, use TrueCrypt to protect your data. Try the other solutions to go further.


                                                            Finally, it’s important to consider that “hacktivism” is on the rise….

                                                            “Hacktivism is the cross between hacking and activism, so they’re out there to make a statement against people who have taken a stand against them,” said Evans.
                                                            Evans said anyone, from individuals to government and corporations are potential targets.

                                                            Source: KSAT 12 News – Law Enforcement Officials (Texas) Victims of Hacking

                                                            If you encrypt confidential data on your computer, and hackers bypass your organization’s security protocols, your data is still safe.


                                                            Similar Stories:

                                                            • TRS Confidential Information Fiasco
                                                            • Wiping Free Space on your Hard Drives

                                                            • Insult to Injury? Texas Educators Info No Longer Confidential


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                                                            Book Review: #Moodle 2.0 eLearning Course Development

                                                            02 Friday Sep 2011

                                                            Posted by mguhlin in Book, Moodle2, PacktPublishing, Review

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                                                            Find out more

                                                            Note: This blog entry includes my reflections and my notes about Packt Publishing’s Moodle 2.0 eLearning Course Development book by William Rice. In the interests of full disclosure, please be aware Packt Publishing has provided ample no-cost access to their ebook titles. That said, my reflections are my own and I share what I think about the books (as any blogger should).

                                                            Sitting down with a 313 page tome by William Rice can be daunting. Having read Rice’s work before, I have high expectations for top-notch work! The title of this book has set certain expectations for me. What are my expectations for the book? That it will teach me something new about eLearning Course development rather than be a walkthrough Moodle 2.0. I am ardently hoping for a book that blends those principles that I learned in various online facilitator training courses into Moodle course design and development. Alas, it was not meant to be, but an author like Rice can take you where you weren’t planning to go and you enjoy it!  Fortunately, that’s exactly what happened!
                                                            Rice explains what his book is about in the preface:

                                                            Moodle 2.0 E-Learning Course Development shows you how to use Moodle as a tool to enhance your teaching. It will help you to analyze your students’ requirements, and come to an understanding of what Moodle can do for them. After that, you’ll see how to use every feature of Moodle to meet your course goals. Moodle is relatively easy to install and use, but the real challenge lies in developing a learning process that leverages its power and maps effectively onto the established learning situation. This book guides you through meeting that challenge.

                                                            What Moodle’s help files don’t tell you is, when and why to use each feature, and what effect the feature will have on the students’ experience. That is what this book provides. 

                                                            That’s a pretty powerful statement, isn’t it? The effect that Moodle’s feature-set will have on students’ experience, both individually and collectively. As a result of that, I began to look for answers to questions like those posed in research and connections to Moodle. For example, consider the following:
                                                            1. What are the underlying processes of collaborative of discourse and how can Moodle help support those processes?
                                                            2. How can you use Moodle to ensure collaborative work is relevant and learners understand the relevance?
                                                            3. How can Moodle facilitate establishment of learning teams who can work on projects?

                                                            As I worked my way through the book, I had to revise my expectations. Rice does a phenomenal job approach Moodle 2.0 from an administrator perspective looking out for teachers, course creators and the other roles, but I kept wanting to see him hit these types of questions shown above a bit harder. I found myself sympathizing with that vision of Moodle administration.
                                                            Once I shed my expectation that this was about course development, how to facilitate online learning, it was easy to see Rice’s latest work as a must-have book for Moodle administrators. Rice goes into exquisite detail on the right things to focus in on.
                                                            One of those details is a question that often arise with “new” Moodle instances; here’s an actual issue. Rice deals with this is simple, understandable language. It is a model of straightforward, approachable explanations…and he does it again and again through the whole text.
                                                            One of my favorite examples is his use of Workshop Content pages to highlight William Wallace’s life:

                                                            In this content page, each link could be an aspect of Wallace’s life: historical achievements, personal beliefs, family, and the world in which he lived. At the beginning of the lesson, the student would choose a branch to explore. At the end of each branch, the student would choose between going back to the content page (beginning of the lesson), or exiting the lesson.

                                                            My Notes:
                                                            These are my notes, take-aways and questions as I read the book. They are intended to pull out parts I find interesting and ask questions.
                                                            1. The phrase “online learning experience” connotes a more active, engaging role for the students and teachers. It connotes web pages that can be explored in any order, courses with live chats among students and teachers, forums where users can rate messages on their relevance or insight, online workshops that enable students to evaluate each other’s work, impromptu polls that let the teacher evaluate what students think of a course’s progress, and directories set aside for teachers to upload and share their files. 
                                                            2. …the My private files page doesn’t display files that the student has uploaded to specific courses. The files here are, literally, private. However, when the student submits a file to a course, the student can select a private file and submit it to the course.
                                                            3. Rice does a great job of quickly providing a tour of Moodle, discussing server side stuff in a way that’s not intimidating and is straightforward. I especially like his discussion of Fantastico and one-click install options offered by web hosting services: “hosting services simplify the installation and thus provide a fast, inexpensive way to get a Moodle site up and running. Automated installations are not always the latest version. Check with your hosting company to determine when they roll out new versions.”
                                                            4. Rice discusses web hosting, providing some screenshots of how things look. I haven’t seen this in other books, so kudos to Rice for raising this topic and addressing it. His screenshots involving cPanel control panel use to manage a Moodle are really essential for many folks. Often navigating cPanel is a maze depending on your web hosting service provider and Rice helps users understand it.
                                                            5. Mentions http://www.nonags.com to get no-cost software.
                                                            6. Treasure trove of great information regarding interacting with a Moodle instance.
                                                            7. In previous versions of Moodle, a Group existed only in the course in which it was created. Now, Moodle enables you to create site-wide groups. These are called Cohorts.
                                                            8. Rice’s background in Moodle Administration comes through loud and clear but he’s hitting the essential points for overcoming time-outs and upload sizes. 
                                                            9. Discussion of the CRON job (BTW, I notice a typo in a heading. “SETING UP THE CRON JOB” has “setting” mis-spelled.
                                                            10. This is a must-have book simply for Moodle 2 administration information it shares right up through page 128.
                                                            11. Chapter 6 is where Rice finally gets into Assignments and Lessons for creating an interactive course. The journey has been pleasant, wading through Moodle Administration and server-side topics, but where’s the eLearning course development connection?
                                                            12. “You might want to use a label to indicate that the assignment is something that the student should do. You can also label the individual activities with an imperative, such as “Read about the plants around you” or “Answer a survey question about your experience with edible plants.”
                                                            13. Typo on page 192…usage is spelled “usag” in sentence 1 under the heading of “The flow of pages”
                                                            14. Use of lessons to add interactivity, taking the place of static material. Great walkthrough of Content Pages in a lesson activity:
                                                              For example, Wallace’s historical achievements would fit well on a timeline. But a timeline might not be the best way to teach about Wallace’s personal beliefs and religion. Wallace’s family might fit well on a timeline, but background information about the culture and society in which he lived might not. A straight-through lesson might not be the best way to present Wallace’s life. Instead, you might use a content page.
                                                              In this content page, each link could be an aspect of Wallace’s life: historical achievements, personal beliefs, family, and the world in which he lived. At the beginning of the lesson, the student would choose a branch to explore. At the end of each branch, the student would choose between going back to the content page (beginning of the lesson), or exiting the lesson.
                                                            15. Using the CHOICE activity: …useful for having a structured, ongoing conversation between the students and teacher. If you publish the results of the Choice, then you can then choose whether or not to publish the names of the students who have selected each response. In the example at the beginning of this section, Privacy of results was set to Publish full result, so a student completing the Choice could see who had already selected each response.
                                                            16. Moodle does not have a module specifically for sending email announcements. So when you want to send an email to everyone in a class, you can use the default News Forum that is automatically added to every class.
                                                            17. On wikis: Making a wiki editable by only a single student appears to turn the wiki into a personal journal. However, the difference between a single-student wiki and a journal is that a journal can be seen only by the student and the Teacher. You can keep a single-student wiki private, or, you can open it for viewing by the student’s group or the entire class.
                                                            18. Workshops: A workshop provides a place for the students in a class to see an example project, upload their individual projects, and see and assess each other’s projects. When a teacher requires each student to assess the work of several other students, the workshop becomes a powerful collaborative grading tool.
                                                            19. Four questions Rice encourages you to ask and provides some examples…not a bad way to get Moodle course designers thinking! 
                                                              1. What will you have each student do? Create a file offline and upload it to the workshop? Write a journal entry? Participate in an online chat? Perform some offline activity and report on it via email or Wiki? Although the workshop window allows the student to upload a file, you can also require any other activity from the student.
                                                              2. Who will assess the assignments? Will the Teacher assess all assignments? Will students be required to assess other students’ assignments? Will each student self-assess their work?
                                                              3. How will the assignments be assessed? You can determine the number of criteria upon which each assignment is assessed, the grading scale, and the type of grading.
                                                              4. When will students be allowed to submit their assignments and assessment? The assignment becomes available as soon as you show it. However, you can require students to assess an example before being allowed to submit their own work, and you can also set a deadline for submitting assignments.
                                                            20. In his chapter summary on blocks, Rice makes the following point: Experienced web surfers are adept at ignoring information they don’t need (when was the last time you paid attention to a banner ad on the Web?). If your students are new computer users, they may assume that the presence of a block means that it requires their attention or interaction. 
                                                            Image Reference
                                                            William Wallace. http://www.flickr.com/photos/roger_g1/4287735836/


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                                                            Educators and Students’ Confidential Info – Hacked!

                                                            02 Friday Sep 2011

                                                            Posted by mguhlin in Education, Privacy, Texas

                                                            ≈ 2 Comments

                                                            Source: Office of HIPPA Privacy and Security

                                                            Update 1/1/2012: Use AES Crypt to encrypt files. Read about it here.


                                                            Update 09/02/2011: It just happened again to another Texas school district. Read more here.

                                                            Source: Social Engineering: The Basics


                                                            “Psst…Hey, you wanna a new credit card? How about a new social security number?“

                                                            Time and again, confidential data is put into the hands of hackers by unsafe privacy policies, human negligence (or ignorance) about data encryption, social engineering (it’s glorified, isn’t it?) and a mix of variables some find too difficult to predict. The end result, though, is the same–people’s private information ends up in the hands of criminals…or young adults. And, often, simple encryption strategies would have prevented the scandal, the thousands of dollars in identity theft privacy protection that will now be spent. 

                                                            The private information of thousands of El Paso Independent School District students, teachers and other employees is at risk after hackers broke into the district’s internal computer network.
                                                            The security breach was discovered Wednesday when a computer security company noticed hackers bragging on a website about breaking into the EPISD system.
                                                            EPISD officials confirmed that the district’s internal network (myepisd.org) was infiltrated and that hackers gained access to information such as names, birth dates, addresses and Social Security numbers of district employees and students.

                                                            (Source: El Paso Times)

                                                            How does private data on a school district’s “internal network” end up in the hands of hackers? One of the eye-openers is that breach of encrypted data need not be shared. That is, if your confidential data is encrypted, and someone steals it, the organization who was hacked need not say a word. They only need to notify you IF the data was unencrypted.


                                                            This is the equivalent of the State Comptroller of Texas leaving Teacher Retirement System confidential data for Texas educators (inservice and retired) UNENCRYPTED on a server earlier this year.

                                                            School organizations are victims, sure, but they also can be seen as careless when they break one of the cardinal rules of securing confidential data, a lesson all the more clear since the State Comptroller’s debacle earlier this year:

                                                            The hackers also claimed to have students’ Social Security numbers. “And yes, the ssn’s are in plain text. I’ll not disclose any of that tho,” the hacker stated…”It does seem the Social Security numbers were not encrypted, and that is not a smart practice,” Titus said. “The Social Security numbers were not posted on (the hacker’s website), but we know the hackers have access to it. We don’t know if it is being traded on identity theft networks. The frustrating part is that preventing identity theft for kids is very difficult.” (Source: El Paso Times)


                                                            Kinda scary, huh? Unencrypted data floating around on school organization networks…why aren’t we all learning digital citizenship lessons and learning to ENCRYPT our data better?

                                                            Describe and practice strategies for securing wireless connections (e.g., connect to only legitimate wi-fi hot spots or turn off wi-fi, turn off file share mode, encrypt sensitive data/ information, use and update anti-virus software, use a firewall, update operating system.

                                                            Source: Digital Security B, CyberSecurity iKeepSafe.org Curriculum Matrix

                                                            Would school administrators PASS cybersecurity requirements defining how to assure personal protection of confidential data in the iKeepSafe CyberSafety curriculum? I doubt it…and I doubt most network specialists would either.


                                                            And, before these organizations–and their vaunted IT Security Admins–say, “These are free, open source tools that couldn’t possibly be implemented enterprise-level!”–which, not surprisingly, I’ve heard before–let’s remember that the use of ANY ONE of these free, open source tools would have eliminated the negative publicity, voided the effect of a confidential data breach, prevented the tarnishing of the District’s public image.


                                                            Whether you pay thousands for encryption solutions, or use free open source encryption solutions suggested below, it’s long past time to use them.


                                                            School districts and anyone who deals with confidential data, here are some suggestions to get started….
                                                            • Encrypting School Confidential Data
                                                            • TrueCrypt encryption for Windows, Mac, and Linux computers
                                                            • Ncrypt encryption tool for Windows and Linux computers
                                                            • Safeguarding Your Logins and Passwords
                                                            • A Laundry List of Privacy Tools
                                                            It’s easy for folks to get angry about lost confidential data. It takes only moments to use one of the approaches above to secure it. If you have confidential data on your computer, at the very least, use TrueCrypt to protect your data. Try the other solutions to go further.

                                                            Similar Stories:

                                                            • Embrace Encryption
                                                            • TRS Confidential Information Fiasco
                                                            • Wiping Free Space on your Hard Drives

                                                            • Insult to Injury? Texas Educators Info No Longer Confidential

                                                            Image references

                                                            Identity Theft – http://delawareemploymentlawblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/idtheft.jpg


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                                                            Planning the Right Experiences

                                                            02 Friday Sep 2011

                                                            Posted by mguhlin in Leadership, Transparency

                                                            ≈ 1 Comment

                                                            Source: http://cityism.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/CowParade-1024×613.jpg
                                                            http://cityism.com/blog
                                                            In a hilarious blog entry, Doug “Blue Skunk” Johnson writes:

                                                            It’s tough dropping old presentations from my oeeuvre. They are like old shoes – comfortable, familiar, reliable, and still of value since I update each talk every time I give it. But I euthanized a few this weekend*.

                                                            What I would like to know having ruthlessly obliterated my “keynotes” folder is, how do you grow calves into cash cows?

                                                            The thought comes to mind as I begin asking myself, What do I want to facilitate a keynote about a year from now?
                                                            The answer to the question may come a bit easier than I imagined. In my Dale Carnegie training, oh so long ago when I was a 17 year old, one of the questions that would come up when planning a talk was, What have you earned the right to speak about?
                                                            Dale Carnegie writes in his book, The Quick and Easy to Effective Speaking, the following:

                                                            Speak about something you have earned the right to talk about through experience or story.

                                                            For me, that translates into yet another question: Am I planning the right experiences for myself so that I will have earned the right to speak about it?


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                                                            Google’s Redesign Garners Praise

                                                            02 Friday Sep 2011

                                                            Posted by mguhlin in Blogspot, GoogleApps

                                                            ≈ Leave a comment

                                                            Source: http://goo.gl/Igeff

                                                            Clif Mims (Clif’s Notes) points out that Google has redesigned their look for their products:

                                                            In the past few days I’ve noticed that the new Google toolbar (the dark box across the top) has pretty much gone live across all the Google services I use. Google has never been known for their graphic design prowess, but I’d say the update is an improvement. I especially dig the redesign of the Google Docs interface.

                                                            Some have complained that the GoogleDocs looks is kind of plain:

                                                            And, at first glance, it is. However, this approach at simpler design look is appealing over time…it has grown on me and I’ve come to prefer it to the look of other productivity tools with their crowded toolbars, etc. 

                                                            Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.The simplest way to achieve simplicity is through thoughtful reduction.Source: The Laws of Simplicity by John Maeda

                                                            With that in mind, I have to admit I love the new blogger compose window:
                                                            As I reflect on the new look, it’s all more manageable somehow. Instead of clicking on all these tabs–the old look–scattered across the top of my screen, I now have an easy place to compose and manage blog entries. Contrast this look with the one WordPress blogs have, where all your space is taken up with this or that…as you can see from the image above, the focus is on content creation.
                                                            Thanks for the update, Google!


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                                                            Learning Conversations about #Moodle

                                                            02 Friday Sep 2011

                                                            Posted by mguhlin in Moodle, Moodle2, MoodleConversations

                                                            ≈ Leave a comment


                                                            Source: http://www.jarche.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Informal-Learning-Conversations-400×336.png


                                                            One of Moodle’s neatest features is being able to pull usernames and passwords from other places that can be used to login to Moodle. This works between Google and Moodle, external databases that you may have created and, of course, LDAP.

                                                            On the MoodleMayhem.org email list, someone asked the following:

                                                            We are currently using Moodle 1.9.11+ with a shared hosting Moodle partner. In the past year, our students were creating their own login accounts using their email accounts. We would like to switch to the Active Directory authentication which would allow kids and teachers to log in using their traditional network user name and password. I have no problem losing the accounts or old work files that are currently stored. We were using Moodle as a pilot last year and have not started using it for the 2011-12 school year.  Can anyone think of any “gotchas” to switching over, or the process? I assume we can use the same courses and simply add the teachers new account name as the teacher. Any help, concerns or words of wisdom would be happily accepted.

                                                            Some of the responses included some great advice:

                                                            Rusty Meyners (Eustace ISD): I don’t think it’s near as bad as it sounds but that may depend on a few things. You don’t actually have to lose personal work IF you don’t mind some minor adjustments on each individual account, so that would probably depend on how many people you are talking about. Pretty sure you just have to make sure the username matches the one in Active Directory and then change the Account Type from Email based to LDAP based. I’m saying this off the top of my head so forgive me that I can’t remember for sure if you can get away with adjusting a username that doesn’t currently match the AD account to where it does. If the usernames happen to already match, you may be able to switch the Authentication Type in bulk, but don’t hold me to that yet.
                                                            The real question is, are you still going to be hosted by a Moodle partner and will they support the Active Directory connection? For all I know they specialize in that but it’s the last thing you want to assume in this matter. As a network guy (among the many hats I wear) I sometimes take it for granted that I can do anything I want to with my firewalls and domain controllers but I’m of the understanding that many don’t have as much cooperation from their server people. Even a reasonable network/server admin might balk at authenticating services and opening ports to an outside vendor, and as I say, neither can you assume the same from your Moodle host without first checking.


                                                            Miguel Guhlin (MoodleMayhem.org): I don’t see any problems with Active Directory authentication in our setting (everyone, staff and students authenticate via AD). Here’s how it works (or my understanding of how it works, so correct me if I’m wrong):
                                                            1) People go to Moodle and login using their Active Directory/Exchange Email username (e.g. mguhlin) and their email password.
                                                            2) The act of logging in creates an account in Moodle. That account has authentication that is set to LDAP server.
                                                            The only hiccup we have users running into is when they haven’t logged in for a year, or if they’ve changed their password in AD recently, and then try to login to Moodle. At that point, we have two options:
                                                            1) Switch Moodle account authentication from LDAP server to MANUAL and update the password (I don’t like this approach)
                                                            2) Delete the account then have the person log in with their “new” username and password so that the Moodle account matches the AD account.
                                                            As to switching authentication in bulk, you can do that in a tool like PHPMyAdmin. I had to do that once or twice before we switched to LDAP authentication for students.
                                                            Some SQL commands to find and update user authentication:

                                                            • SELECT * FROM `mdl_user` WHERE auth=’manual’
                                                            • This will give you a list of everyone who has authentication set to manual. You could switch ‘manual’ to ‘ldap’ and get corresponding results.
                                                            • UPDATE ‘mdl_user’
                                                            • SET auth=’ldap’
                                                            • WHERE auth=’manual’
                                                            • This update command will change everyone who is LDAP authenticated to manual. If you switch ‘ldap’ with ‘manual’ you will get the opposite result.

                                                            As always, while it’s fun to play with MySQL commands, make sure to make a backup of the mdl_user table (SQL dump) before starting down this road.
                                                            Rusty raises a great point about Moodle partners. As nice as the folks are at different Moodle partners, the two I’ve spoken with are out to nickel and dime you to death. Simply being able to do SQL commands like the ones shown above just aren’t allowed, and I couldn’t imagine what you’d have to do to get authenticating services setup. In my district, there are prohibitions against doing AD authentication outside of the firewall. That’s one reason why we have to host our Moodle inside (and I wouldn’t want to pay a Moodle partner the exorbitant rate).

                                                            Ken Task (TCEA Moodle Expert Extraordinaire):  Since it’s remotely hosted, consider the possibility that there could be times where the Moodle server is *not* talking through the ISD firewall to LDAP/AD.  Result: NO ONE can login to the Moodle IF *ALL* accounts are set to authenticate via LDAP.  While connections are, for
                                                            the most part, reliable, one may not be able to claim 27/7 access, which, in the case of an app like Moodle, kinda defeats the purpose of having web based.

                                                            IMHO, Administrator level users on the Moodle server should NOT be set to LDAP, so be careful about using splat MySQL commands or global imports of all users.   Consider giving teachers the option of setting up their accounts on Moodle via LDAP or EMail based authentication (manual).  If there is a hickup during the school day, at least the Teacher can access and use the content on the Moodle like a PowerPoint (ugh!).  Whatever the teacher chooses, they should login that way everytime.  If the LDAP account is different from their Manual account and they login with the LDAP credentials, they are no longer Teacher in their own course.

                                                            In setting up LDAP authentication, on the LDAP Authentication form in Moodle (at the very bottom) there is a section on data mapping where one associates the objects of LDAP to Moodle DB fields.   Among other
                                                            things, Moodle requires ‘City/Town’ or users are thrown into editing their profile upon initial access to ‘tell more about themselves’. One cannot use a ‘substitute’ value in the Moodle form … ie, for the City/Town field cannot use “Victoria” … must use the object ID in LDAP (‘l’ – or whatever object is in LDAP).  Same for country (‘c’ –
                                                            or whatever object is in LDAP).  Do students have EMail addresses? Are those entered in LDAP/AD? (for students not allowed to use EMail that has to ‘look like’ an addy – user@somenet.net).

                                                            Consider setting key fields for ‘On Every Login’ for Moodle to pick up on any changes to existing LDAP accounts.   Would NOT consider setting up Moodle such that editing Moodle profile updates LDAP.  Moodle
                                                            retains LDAP user information mapped with exception of password.

                                                            Make sure the ‘bind user’ (user account in LDAP that is used to query the LDAP to look up student/teacher logins passwords) works! Changes to that account in LDAP or in-correct info in Moodle could render the entire site in-accessible IF all users are set to authenticate via LDAP.

                                                            AD/LDAP server 2003 or 2008?  May not affect you as you are remotely hosted, but a large ISD using LDAP in ONE Moodle experienced issues with inability to use LDAP sync via CronJob due to ‘pages’/data transfer limitation in 2008 server (2003 server had a GUI setting ability – 2008 server [according to the server tech I was working with] does not). File: /moodle/auth/ldap/auth_ldap_sync_users.php has comments in it
                                                            worth reading.

                                                            While one can order the authentications (which one is first), I’d leave EMail based atop LDAP and set Allowed email domains to the ones used by teachers and students.  Example: ISD Teachers use @isd.net.
                                                            ISD Students use @student.isd.net.the most part, reliable, one may not be able to claim 27/7 access, which, in the case of an app like Moodle, kinda defeats the purpose of having web based.
                                                            IMHO, Administrator level users on the Moodle server should NOT be set to LDAP, so be careful about using splat MySQL commands or global imports of all users.   Consider giving teachers the option of setting up their accounts on Moodle via LDAP or EMail based authentication (manual).  If there is a hickup during the school day, at least the Teacher can access and use the content on the Moodle like a PowerPoint (ugh!).  Whatever the teacher chooses, they should login that way everytime.  If the LDAP account is different from their Manual account and they login with the LDAP credentials, they are no longer Teacher in their own course.
                                                            In setting up LDAP authentication, on the LDAP Authentication form in Moodle (at the very bottom) there is a section on data mapping where one associates the objects of LDAP to Moodle DB fields.   Among otherthings, Moodle requires ‘City/Town’ or users are thrown into editing their profile upon initial access to ‘tell more about themselves’. One cannot use a ‘substitute’ value in the Moodle form … ie, for the City/Town field cannot use “Victoria” … must use the object ID in LDAP (‘l’ – or whatever object is in LDAP).  Same for country (‘c’ –or whatever object is in LDAP).  Do students have EMail addresses? Are those entered in LDAP/AD? (for students not allowed to use EMail that has to ‘look like’ an addy – user@somenet.net).
                                                            Consider setting key fields for ‘On Every Login’ for Moodle to pick up on any changes to existing LDAP accounts.   Would NOT consider setting up Moodle such that editing Moodle profile updates LDAP.  Moodleretains LDAP user information mapped with exception of password.
                                                            Make sure the ‘bind user’ (user account in LDAP that is used to query the LDAP to look up student/teacher logins passwords) works! Changes to that account in LDAP or in-correct info in Moodle could render the entire site in-accessible IF all users are set to authenticate via LDAP.
                                                            AD/LDAP server 2003 or 2008?  May not affect you as you are remotely hosted, but a large ISD using LDAP in ONE Moodle experienced issues with inability to use LDAP sync via CronJob due to ‘pages’/data transfer limitation in 2008 server (2003 server had a GUI setting ability – 2008 server [according to the server tech I was working with] does not). File: /moodle/auth/ldap/auth_ldap_sync_users.php has comments in itworth reading.
                                                            While one can order the authentications (which one is first), I’d leave EMail based atop LDAP and set Allowed email domains to the ones used by teachers and students.  Example: ISD Teachers use @isd.net.ISD Students use @student.isd.net.

                                                            Rusty Meyners: Good info to which I would only add that I believe there is a setting to tell Moodle not to cache the password which should avoid the problem when people change their password. Makes Moodle check against AD on each login.
                                                            Below is a screen shot of my setting and the entry in the Moodle Doc for that page.  

                                                            Confession: When I got here I found mine set to No and have put it back on Yes, which does not seem intuitive until carefully reading the explanation and the Moodle Doc – at least I hope that’s right, now that I’ve put it out here! 

                                                             

                                                          •  EISD Moodle
                                                          •   
                                                            • / ► Administration
                                                            •  

                                                            •  / ► Users
                                                            •  

                                                            •  / ► Authentication
                                                            •  

                                                            •  / ► LDAP server
                                                            • (note that the “Yes” is not intuitive to the wording of the setting until you carefully read the explanation)

                                                            • / 
                                                            • ► Administration 

                                                            •  / ► Users
                                                            •  

                                                            •  / ► Authentication
                                                            •  

                                                            •  / ► LDAP server
                                                            • (note that the “Yes” is not intuitive to the wording of the setting until you carefully read the explanation)

                                                            image.png
                                                            http://docs.moodle.org/20/en/auth/ldap#Bind_settingsimage.png
                                                            http://docs.moodle.org/20/en/auth/ldap#Bind_settings

                                                            You know, if you’ve followed this far, Rusty’s sharing at the end here takes care of a problem we had been aware of and hadn’t known exactly how to handle. Amazing, huh? That’s the power of learning conversations…even when they happen on email lists!!


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                                                            Full Disclosure – PC PALS SOLUTIONS

                                                            01 Thursday Sep 2011

                                                            Posted by mguhlin in MGuhlin.net

                                                            ≈ Leave a comment

                                                            Image Source: http://odd.gonzojenny.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Full-Disclosure.jpg

                                                            In the interests of full disclosure, I have to let you know that I’ve added a new section to my disclosure page (well, I haven’t yet but I will this weekend). As some of you know, I am able to help out school districts with Moodle administration, provide keynotes, facilitate professional learning opportunities, among other things. 

                                                            Over the last few months, I’ve had a few opportunities–less than a handful–to help out businesses as well. Most of those contacts have been short-term, one time contracts for folks that needed to be dug out of a hole quick (oops, we upgraded our Moodle but it’s not working! What do we do now?) rather than spend the time to learn how to dig themselves out. 

                                                            I love these kinds of challenges because they bring fresh questions and problems for me to solve, and it’s fun to try to answer those. 

                                                            Recently, I was approached by PC PALS Solutions, a company with various interests and product lines. I knew them from several years ago when they were kind enough to sponsor the TCEA TEC-SIG meetings when I was vice-president of that organization, and submit to an interview during my crazy podcasting penchant. You can still listen to the interview online via the Internet Archive. 
                                                            One of their product lines involves MS Office. They had developed interactive modules that were available only on CD-ROM. This made their product nice back when, but as everything moved online, I pointed out to them (and so did many others), “This would be great to have online so we could post it.” It took awhile–years, in fact–but they finally moved all their content into SCORM modules.
                                                            Whether you put those modules in a wiki or a Moodle, all their interactive tutorials are now available for online deployment. 
                                                            DISCLOSURE
                                                            Since the Company knew I was into Moodle, they approached me recently about helping them as an consultant with Moodle deployment in various settings, as well as making special deals available to the folks I share information with (essentially, if you’re reading this, you’re the audience). 
                                                            PC PAL Solutions has offered a referral commission; that is, if you mention my name when you contact them about purchasing one of their products, I will get a small percentage.
                                                            After “recusing” myself from making purchasing decisions in regards to their product, I accepted. So, in the future, expect to see the following:
                                                            • Tales of adventure sharing how the PC PAL Solutions tutorials have been deployed in various settings.
                                                            • Coupons that defray the cost of PC PAL Solutions
                                                            • Blog entries that may describe the PC PAL Solutions products

                                                            To review, I am now working as an occasional consultant with PC PAL Solutions focused on Moodle. That affiliation has benefits for you since it will garner a discount for their services, and result in a referral bounty (I like the bounty hunter image) for me. Through it all, I will tell you what I think of the product and I’ve made it clear to PC PAL Solutions that I will not write anything I don’t see as accurate. Integrity is more important than money.

                                                            Image Reference
                                                            Star Wars bounty hunter. http://www.swtorbountyhunter.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Star_Wars_Bounty_Hunter_34200525740PM30.jpg


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                                                            Book Review – Science Teaching with #Moodle 2.0

                                                            01 Thursday Sep 2011

                                                            Posted by mguhlin in Book, Moodle2, MyNotes, PacktPublishing, Review

                                                            ≈ Leave a comment


                                                            Note: These are my reflections  on Packt Publishing’s Science Teaching with Moodle 2.0 by Vincent Lee Stocker.  In the interests of full disclosure, please be aware Packt Publishing has provided ample no-cost access to their ebook titles. That said, my reflections are my own and I share what I think about the books (as any blogger should).


                                                            Find out More

                                                            Goals of the Book

                                                            1. “Being able to give students access to course materials 24/7 in a controlled environment, so that learning can take place anywhere.”
                                                            2. “Monitor the progress and keep records of your students learning.”
                                                            3. “Extending the classroom by providing online discussion, testing, activities, and…allowing collaboration and communication….”
                                                            4. “Make use of exciting multimedia, 3D interactive molecules, and web-based content, allowing pupils with different learning styles to access the curriculum”
                                                            5. “Helping science teachers collaborate, share, and store teaching resources….”


                                                            Overall Reflections:
                                                            If this book had been titled, “Teaching with Moodle 2.0,” that would have been a more accurate description of the contents. In fact, How To Use Moodle 2.0 might have served even better. Stocker’s book–Science Teaching with Moodle 2.0— approaches introducing new teachers to their Moodle courses by doing a walkthrough of all the neat stuff (e.g. activities, modules, etc.).


                                                            As you might guess from my suggested adjustment to the book title, there is a lot to like in this book if you are a person in the “Teacher” role and new to using Moodle. Stocker spends a significant amount of time going through the Moodle how-to–which isn’t too unexpected since this is, after all, a Moodle 2.0 focused book–and providing flashes of science and learning theory. Don’t get this reviewer wrong; Stocker’s book is eminently readable and worthy of finding a place on your bookshelf, whether it’s a digital shelf or not.  I just don’t think that one chapter focused on Science add-ons is enough to say this book is about science teaching with Moodle.

                                                            In his chapters dealing with quizzes and the gradebook, how to handle groups, wikis, Stocker does an expert job of helping the reader understand quizzes, gradebook settings. In his section on wikis, he provides some pointed ideas for how to best use them, such as the following:
                                                            • Wiki activity sequencing jumbled up instructions for doing an experiment
                                                            • Mix-and-match information, for example, results of chemical reagents to reactions
                                                            • Have pupils watch a video and convert the information into a wiki
                                                            • Build a wiki page about flame tests including embedded video.
                                                            He also makes a connection between wikis and glossaries, pointing out that if you want to control content in a wiki, then you need to be using a glossary. He points this out in the transition from wikis to glossaries section:

                                                            One thing about wikis is that any change goes live immediately. What if you want to approve something before everyone can view it? This is where glossaries come in useful.

                                                            Stocker’s exploration of lesson activity planning, like his discussion of Workshops as activities that involve the use of rubrics in Moodle, will certainly help folks “get it” lesson planning in Moodle. This book is chock-full of how-to descriptions, illustrated with screenshots, etc. So, in the how-to department, Stocker’s Science Teaching with Moodle 2.0 is a yotta-joule and enough to reach boiling point.

                                                            Image Source: http://www.energeticforum.com/renewable-energy/5952-capacitive-sink-hole.html



                                                            Yet, if I may be blunt, I wanted to get a charge about using Moodle by “idea induction” and less hands-on with Moodle, as evidenced by screenshots and technical writing. That expectation was set by the title, and less so by the goals of the book.


                                                            Just as I was ready to split and invest my energy elsewhere at the detailed, illustrated explanations of setting quizzes, gradebooks, workshops, embedding images into labels, using tables to organize content so it’s more appealing, Chapter 7: Using Mathematical Equations, Animated Molecules, and Creating ‘Live’ Graphs established an agostic interaction.





                                                            When you consider the power of this particular chapter alone, you realize everything else was just a pre-quel. I so wish we didn’t have to cover the same ground time and again in Chapters 1-6, instead go straight to the meat of Chapter 7. Consider the objectives for Chapter 7:

                                                            1. Embed 3D molecular structures using Jmol (a filter you can add to Moodle) that your users can zoom in on and rotate. How’s that for interactive science?
                                                            2. Create a page of equations using TeX notation.
                                                            3. Build equations using the DragMath equation editor (the author, by the way, can be found on MoodleMayhem.org email list).
                                                            4. Display “live” graphs that auto-update
                                                            Stocker goes on to provide some nifty suggestions and web sites that no online science teacher should be without.  This chapter, chapter 7, makes the book worth the price for science teachers interested in creating molecules, graphs and allowing student interaction. Tools like GeoGebra, GoogleDocs are discussed as well. My only critique–aside from the appearance of non-American idioms, which was fun–is I wanted more science teaching with Moodle. Instead, the book is more focused on how-to and covering all the great modules, blocks, etc. that can be embedded.

                                                            Image Source: http://kcmblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/buy-or-not.jpg



                                                            So the question is, would I buy this book for science teachers? Yes. I’d buy it because it could double as a primer on Moodle and includes enough “science stuff” in Chapter 7 to get interesting.



                                                            A suggestion for the Packt Publishing – get a conclave of Moodle using educators together that have written these books and come up with the “killer” how-to book. Then, write (a) companion volume(s) that address(es) using Moodle in the classroom or within content areas. 





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                                                            Bulk Updates to User Authentication in #Moodle

                                                            01 Thursday Sep 2011

                                                            Posted by mguhlin in Moodle, MoodleConversations, MoodleMayhem

                                                            ≈ 1 Comment

                                                            Image Source: http://wamsoftinc.com/images/authenticate.jpg
                                                            Wondering what steps to take to change the way users “authenticate” in Moodle from LDAP to Manual or vice versa? Sometimes, it’s necessary to do mass updates to your users that you don’t want to do one by one and/or the bulk update tool isn’t appropriate.

                                                            In the screenshot above, notice that “auth” column reflections how users are authenticating in Moodle. You can change that authentication in one fell swoop rather than going one by one…this is handy when you’re dealing with more than 20 users.

                                                            To switch authentication in bulk, you can do that in a tool like PHPMyAdmin. I had to do that once or twice before we switched to LDAP authentication for students.


                                                            Some SQL commands to find and update user authentication….
                                                            To FIND users (the WHERE command is critical since what you find is what you can update):
                                                            • SELECT * FROM `mdl_user` WHERE auth=’manual’
                                                              This will give you a list of everyone who has authentication set to manual. You could switch ‘manual’ to ‘ldap’ and get corresponding results.

                                                            To UPDATE users, you can use the command below. Notice that the WHERE command should be identical to the one you used to FIND users. This helps ensure you’re not accidentally wiping out other users.

                                                            • UPDATE ‘mdl_user’
                                                              SET auth=’ldap’
                                                              WHERE auth=’manual’

                                                              This update command will change everyone who is LDAP authenticated to manual. If you switch ‘ldap’ with ‘manual’ you will get the opposite result.
                                                            As always, while it’s fun to play with MySQL commands, make sure to make a backup of the mdl_user table (SQL dump) before starting down this road.


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