Some Great Web Sites to Explore

   A new school year is about to get started.  For school people everywhere, the start of school is our other New Year's Day, a day that marks the beginning of another annual cycle of a school year.  At all schools, there's much to do as teachers ready their classrooms and curricula for students.  At GSB, this school year is a bit busier; there's also a new KnightSite to learn.  But somehow, someway, all of the plans and tasks fall into place as the students arrive, and everyone begins the process of another year of learning.

   I thought as an initial blog entry this year I'd offer to teachers a few web sites that I find useful and/or interesting. Each comes with a brief annotation.  I hope in your spare minutes you'll take a look at sites that look promising to you.

http://geoguessr.com/ - This site is actually an interactive geography quiz that utilizes Google Earth maps.  Players are offered a scene. The scene can be manipulated; views can be changed, images enlarged.  On a world map, the viewer places the scene. Answers are given, and the closer you are to the location (in miles), the better your score.  It is guaranteed to test your knowledge of geography and sharpen deductive reasoning skills.


http://www.smallmeans.com/new-york-times-infographics/ - Infographics marry artistic design with data-driven information.  I believe infographics can make great project assignments for students of virtually any age.  They can be fun to do and can help students learn about a topic. The NY Times is one of the only news agencies with a department devoted to infographics. See their work archived at this site.


http://www.hbogo.com/ - Do you get HBO at home? If you do, you have access to a wide variety of their content at this website. Here, content is organized for your convenience. Of special interest to many teachers is the wide array of documentary films available. This content can be accessed on your computer; there is also an HBOGO app for mobile devices.


http://www.gutenberg.org/ - The Gutenberg Project is taking non-copyrighted written material and making it available as digital content. A great many books, especially literary classics, are available free here.  The site is user friendly when it comes to downloading content to your device of choice.


http://www.pbslearningmedia.org/ - I believe I have mentioned this site in a past post.  PBS has built a site for educators that brings together thousands of instructional materials for teachers of all disciplines and ages.  The site navigates easily and it's virtually guaranteed any teacher can find useful resource material here.


https://www.dropbox.com/ - Dropbox (and similar sites like box.net) utilize Cloud technology to offer remote storage to users.  Dropbox users get several gigabytes of free storage. More is available with subscription charges. The end result? You can store files in your dropbox account and access these same files anywhere there is internet service. There is a mobile app as well with full syncing capabilities.  It's convenient, safe and efficient.  No need to email yourself documents again.


http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ - National Geographic Magazine has been around for a long time because it has offered consistently interesting articles and stunning images.  The web site continues the journalistic tradition.


http://www.online-convert.com/ - This site, and others like it, won't be used every day, but when you need the service, it's priceless.  Here, you can take a file in one format and convert it to another format.  Have an MP3 audio file that you want to convert to WAV? Have a MPEG-1 video file that you want to convert to a video file format for an iPad? Have a TIFF image file you want to convert to a JPEG?  This site does the work free and seamlessly.


http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/  The Mindshift blog is hosted by KQED, a public media outlet that comes from San Francisco.  The KQED site is interesting and there is plenty of education-oriented content, but the Mindshift blog in particular regularly offers much for any educator to consider.


http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/flash/ - The Newseum site is also loaded with plenty of fascinating content. This linked page is particularly timely. Here, you can see the front page of hundreds of today's newspapers.  We might be familiar with what The Star-Ledger and the NY Times have on the front page, but what about The Bismarck Tribune (North Dakota) or The Lima News (Ohio)?

When the Lights Go Down

   This year, I taught a semester filmmaking class during the first and second semesters.  (An earlier post on January 22, 2013 highlights some of the student work that came out of that class.) For the Unit, our two week program in late May, I again found myself involved with film. Teaching with Gina Wendell and Fred Corona, our class of 15 students examined film from a variety of perspectives. The class was titled "When the Lights Go Down," but in truth the course delved into areas of filmmaking that occur well before a final screening. We looked at script development, story boarding, shot-making, lighting and sound. We also looked at post-production processes including the editing of scenes, sound and color correction.
    It's fair to say the class went well. I know that because through an assessment survey, our students uniformly told us they enjoyed the class and learned plenty.  A key reason for our success? Adam Aresty.

Adam Aresty, on site in Hockenbury 201, working with a couple of students.

     Adam, GSB Class of 2003, is in the film business.  Leaving GSB as an enthusiastic film hobbyist, he enrolled in USC's film program.  Perhaps his filmmaking Unit in 2002 offered him a head start to the success he found at USC.  Coming out of college, he settled in southern California determined to make a living in the ultra-competitive film industry.   He felt his strength was in writing and so he began working on scripts while extending his professional network.  Finally, this year, he sold a script to a production company. The film, Stung, is currently in production.  It will be shot in Germany on location in the fall.  (It's what I would call a fairly graphic, somewhat grotesque horror film. More on that later.) Not surprisingly, it is occupying much of Adam's time and attention through this year.
     And yet, when, earlier this year, I emailed with Adam and asked if he'd like to visit this Unit class if he was going to be in NJ, he jumped at the chance to be involved. "Involved" doesn't begin to describe his immersion in the teaching process.  I thought we'd be lucky to have Adam in class for a day. He committed to four days. I hoped he might walk students through the transition from script to shoot.  He did that, and plenty more. He provided the class with scripts, storyboards and films to illustrate key concepts.  He provided guides to viewing films, designed to help students get beyond plot lines. He steered students into script writing. And though relatively young, he is accumulating the anecdotes only available to insiders.  For students and resident teachers, Adam's stories were fascinating.  
    Most importantly, Adam was able to convey to our students what it means to work in a field you love. His enthusiasm for films as wide-ranging as Jaws, Groundhog Day and Psycho was contagious.  Simply put, he was a real key to the success of our class.
     What are the lessons to be learned? It's as simple as 1-2-3. 
     1) Great teaching - and the learning that invariably follows - begins with an enthusiasm for the subject.    
     2) At GSB, we should think more often about our ever growing body of alumni as a source of expertise. Alumni generally won't think to help out unless asked. When asked, however, the response is almost always "How can I help?"
     3) Our students learned that the people who work on horror films can be personable and intelligent.  It would be hard to find two more apt words to describe Adam. 
    

Virtualization at GSB

  

 

   At first glance, there's nothing unusual pictured on the desk above. There's a computer screen with a keyboard and mouse, and a phone as well.  Look a little bit closer and you might observe the phone seems a bit different than other phones as school.  But all in all, the set-up seems ordinary in our work environment.
   The truth, however, is that this picture represents a major change in our network. 
   Since the onset of computers at GSB in the mid-1980's, all computing, whether on PCs or Macs, has been done on stand-alone machines.  In other words, the CPU (central processor unit) has been housed in each unit. Each device was capable of independent computing.  By the 1990's, these independent computers were linked together in a network but still, each device was capable of independent computing.
   Now, in the business offices of Henshaw Building, desktop computers have been replaced by Thin Clients.  That's a thin client device pictured above.  So what's the difference?
   Our thin client stations have no CPUs. Rather, they link to software that is being run on the server in Hockenbury.  What a user will see on the monitor screen is identical to what he or she would see if using a computer, but all software is housed on the server.  The whole approach to computing is called virtualization.  Our Business Department is now working in a virtualized environment.

   In our set-up, it's the phone that houses the thin client hardware.  Yes, it still functions as any other phone in our system.  But this device also houses the components for our virtualized system.  The back of the phone shows that users still have the capability to connect USB-supported hardware and connect to external monitors.  The picture below shows the back of the phone.

   Why implement virtualization? Are there advantages? The answer is that there are several advantages, and each is significant.  The cost of each thin client work station is cheaper than the equivalent purchase of a stand-alone computer.  Additionally, they use less energy and break down far less frequently.  They have no moving parts, so there's no fan and therefore no noise. They have a life expectancy of about 7-8 years, versus 3-4 years for a computer.  Because the software is housed on our server, upgrades and installs can be done once in a planned, efficient way.  Users can still log in to their account from any work station, but the load time will be quicker. Thin clients can run the same software that computers run. They can access the internet.  But without an attached optical disc drive, they cannot play CDs or DVDs.
   It's easy to see that virtualization offers considerable advantages over traditional computers.  But configuring for virtualization was no easy task. Credit Ryan Roque for his tireless efforts to see the project through to completion.

   Admittedly, this is a quick overview of virtualization. A quick web search will give you plenty of additional information if you are interested.  But my intent is simply to let readers know that our school's computing environment is in transition, and moving forward, we'll being seeing an increased presence of virtualization on campus.  The end result will be a mixed environment with both computers and thin clients in evidence throughout campus.
   

GSB Upper School Technology survey

   Over the last couple of weeks, GSB Upper School students have had an opportunity to self-assess their technology skills.  I've created and used an online survey students can complete and submit to gather data.  When final results are tabulated, we'll have more detailed information about the technology skills our students have and the missing skills that need to be addressed.
   Here's a look at part of the survey:

   Several of the questions (#2-5) ask students to assess their comfort level with systems or software.  In each of these cases, there's an assumption that students are familiar with the listed topic.  Though comfort level can be hard to quantify, patterns of comfort or need should be quickly evident as results are examined.

   Questions #7-17 get at more specific skills.  A highly competent technology user would answer "yes" to each question.  It's unlikely many students in the upper school will feel fully competent in each of these areas, and it's really not expected either.  But these skills are broadly used across many academic disciplines and students will be well served to have a strong technology skill set at their disposal.

   When the survey is complete and results are examined, our next step will be to look for what we see as the largest problem areas.  If, for instance, 75% of our students said they did not know how to use file sharing software and did not know how to create an infographic, I would start by addressing the lack of file sharing understanding.  It's a more basic skill.  

   Following an identification of skill shortcomings, it makes sense to work with faculty to decide how best to integrate technology skills into the curriculum.

   Moving forward, the Middle School and Lower School can be similarly assessed.

Web Sites - A Few That May be New to You

   The May, 2013 issue of PC World has an article entitled "101 Great Web Sites You've Never Heard Of."  I went through sites that seemed promising for their utility and came up with eleven I'd like to share.  Some may be prove useful for the classroom, and others may be of personal interest. 

http://www.bookish.com/home - A recommendation search engine for readers.  Recommendations can be accessed by entering known titles, and likely recommendations appear.  

http://www.shorpy.com/ - This site archives vintage photos, thousands of them.  Back-stories are related along with additional information supplied by readers.

http://blankonblank.org/ - Interviews that journalists have done are re-mastered and re-worked to provide an enriched listening and viewing experience.  There are many great interviews archived on this site.

http://www.fastcoexist.com/  - All sorts of new, interesting ideas are presented with a bright, vivid user interface.  Additional tabs on the site are pages for design, creation and cutting edge computer code lab work.  

http://maps.google.com/intl/en/help/maps/streetview/gallery/ - Google’s street view gallery offers a catalogue of street views. Not all the views are of streets however; pictures of the Grand Canyon and the world’s highest peaks are included.

http://laphamsquarterly.org/ - Scholarly, eclectic and engaging; this quarterly publication is curated by Lewis Lapham, long associated with Harper’s.

http://www.mnh.si.edu/vtp/1-desktop/ - Take a virtual visit of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.  You can visit exhibits, room by room. The clarity is stunning.

 

http://stackexchange.com/sites - Have a question? This aggregator site brings together over 100 Q & Sites to allow you to get help with any question you may want answered.

http://www.languageisavirus.com/ - A great site for creative writers.  There are all sorts of prompts, games and exercises.

http://ctrlq.org/screenshots/ - This site takes screenshots of web pages and offers a downloadable file ready to save to your desktop.  It’s a very convenient way to save a full web page image.

http://www.printwhatyoulike.com/ - This site can work hand-in-hand with the one above.  It allows you to modify a web site image so you can print any parts of a web site you’d like.  A little experimentation lets you see the power of this site.

http://publicdomainreview.org/ - Every day, plenty of media content enters into the public domain. These materials can be freely used by educators, and there is plenty here to choose from. It’s a quirky and interesting site, and potentially curricularly valuable.

Technology Skills: What will be needed by GSB graduates?

   I've been giving some thought as to what technology skills GSB seniors should have as they make the transition to college.  As I began to create a list, I realized it's surprisingly difficult. The difficulty, of course, rises from the the rapidity of technological change coupled with my inability to accurately predict the future.
   If, for instance, I was creating this list in 2009, I would not have included an ability to manage a cloud storage account.  Four short years later, it seems to me that this is a very important skill to have.  In fact, it was only in the year 2009 that I first heard the term "cloud" used in a technology context.  
   In no particular order, here's my working list as of today:

   1. Create and edit digital audio content
   2. Create and manage a blog
   3. Create an infographic
   4. Create a film that you have edited
   5. Create a screen capture tutorial
   6. Create a screencast
   7. Use polling software to create a survey and analyze results
   8. Use file sharing tools to share documents with remote users
   9. Create a multimedia presentation
   10. Create a web site
   11. Create and manage a cloud storage account


   What's left out? Those skills that I believe are easy fairly simple for most students and those that are largely for the tech aficionados.  The simple skills include using a touchscreen tablet, maintaining an email account, completing a Word document, etc. Skills that may be a bit too challenging for an expectation of commonplace usage include code writing and working with software to create interactive visualizations.

Care to weigh in? In terms of technology skills, what do you believe will serve our students well as they look ahead to life after GSB?  Feel free to post a comment below.

  

Team Chaos 2013

   GSB is a busy place.  It's hard to keep track of the all the activities our students and faculty engage in.  I'd like to use this post to highlight one activity - robotics - that is not particularly well known. It's a shame.  Robotics is a terrific activity; in fact, it's virtually the poster child for what has come to be known as 21st century learning.
   What's involved in 21st century learning?  Among the skills commonly associated with the phrase are collaborative learning, the utilization of digital technologies (hardware and software), problem solving and critical thinking.  Robotics utilizes all these skills in a competitive environment that helps students strive to do their best.
   Our school's team goes by the moniker "Team Chaos."  It's a tip of the hat to the world of robotics, a somewhat frenetic place where on-the-fly thinking is necessary and where the the competition arena can seem like a cross between a championship basketball game and Mardi Gras.
   The work begins months before the competitions when teams learn about the year's challenge.  This year, teams needed to create robots that could accomplish two skills: throw frisbees through an opening and lift themselves off the ground onto a sort of pyramidal jungle-gym.  Our team, using newly created space in the art barn, got to work.  Two faculty mentors, Len Grabowski and John Taeschler worked with upper school students and volunteer engineers.  Designs were examined and scrapped. New designs were drawn. Models were built. Tests were done.  Months later, Team Chaos, also known as Team #2458, had a working robot.
   This year's first competition was held at Mt. Olive H.S. the week-end of March 23.  Over two days, team members competed in the arena and worked in the pit area, constantly adjusting and refining the robot's mechanisms.  I stopped by on Saturday to watch the competition. The following video will give you a sense of what a First Robotics competition day is like. 

    It's worth a mention that one team member, senior Ben Brown, built an iOS app for the GSB team.  The app is searchable in the iPhone app store as "FRC 2013."  The app gives information about the First Robotics organization and specific information about GSB's robot #2458. Here's the home page:

Computers and Mobile Devices: Keeping your Device and Your Data Secure

   Let's forget about the school environment for a bit and think about your digital life outside of school.  Strong possibility there's a computer at home, or maybe two.  Could be a tablet as well.  And for most readers, there's a good chance you own a smartphone too.  All of these devices can contain sensitive, important information. Contacts, data, documents, etc. are generally important to users and not meant for public dissemination. Your devices should be secure.
   Generally, people think about the security of their computers and other mobile devices only when there is a reminder that bad things can happen.  Maybe a friend's computer was hacked. Maybe yours was infected with a virus. Maybe you lost your phone and worry about who will access the data. Or maybe, in a coffee shop, you look around and wonder if someone can use the public wireless network to somehow access your hard drive.
   Why not think about digital security now, when there is no emergency?  Here's a short list of steps you can take to practice safe, secure computing.  This list is by no means complete.  It's meant to be a place to start.  But every suggestion is easy, free (or relatively inexpensive) and important.
   Let's start with the creation of a log-in password.  All your devices should require a password to access the operating system.  Some people don't want a password on their home desktop thinking "It's only me using this computer." True....until a burglar enters. Creating a simple 4-character password will not slow you down but will slow down unwanted intruders.  (A more complicated password that has at least 8 characters and mixes letters, numbers and symbols is ideal, but may slow you down a bit.)
   Mobile devices can utilize an antitheft locator tool.  iPhones, for instance, have a "Find my iPhone" tool. Similar tools exist for android phones and tablets.  These sorts of software tools, utilizing GPS, can be very helpful to locate lost or stolen hardware.
   Run security checks on your PC. You may have third-party software designed for this purpose, or you can use Microsoft's software that is part of the operating system. In Windows 7, for instance, find the System and Security section. In the Action Center, check the security prompt. It's also a good idea to review the information in the Windows Firewall and Windows Update sections. Working with a Mac? In Systems Preferences, check the Security & Privacy section and be sure your Software Update is checked as well.
   Even modest digital consumers begin to acquire an unwieldy list of user names and passwords.  It is important to vary passwords. Additionally, passwords to access important data such as banks, credit cards, etc. should be complex.  But invariably, users realize it's virtually impossible to remember needed user names and passwords.  How can this problem be solved? There's no single solution, but one is to create a document of user names and passwords.  A spreadsheet would work well.  Then, it can uploaded to cloud storage; www.dropbox.com will work nicely. Dropbox is free up to 5 gigs of storage and is accessible with Internet access. It is password protected.  A second layer of security can be implemented by password-protecting the document with a different password.  Even if an intruder got into your Dropbox account, a second password would still be needed to open the document.  Though not perfect, it's far better than writing passwords down and putting them on a post-it under your keyboard.
   One last tip: check your antivirus software. Make sure it is relatively recent and comprehensive. I mention "recent" because newer software products have special features designed specifically to protect you while using social networks. A few top security software suites include F-Secure Internet Security 2013, Norton Internet Security (2013) and Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security 2013.  Prices vary, but generally figure about $50 a year. $1.00 a week for peace of mind is probably worth it to most users.
   Paying attention to basic security can help to insure a better digital experience.

Infographics MOOC: Final Thoughts

   My foray into the world of MOOCs concludes this week. Guided by professor Alberto Cairo, I have found that I have learned quite a bit about infographics and data visualization over these last seven weeks. I began the course with a familiarity of the topic garnered solely through looking at infographics in newspapers, magazines and web sites. I regularly read the NY Times and they have a large infographics department. The online version of the paper offers many fine examples of infographic and data viz materials. (Check this blog entry for some information on the work found in the NY Times.) But you'll notice, if you are looking, that infographics appear in many media quite regularly.
   For this course, the goals were to learn the theory behind the the creation of an effective infographic, to be able to apply that theory in critiquing the work of others and to create infographics from data sets.  For those who were ambitious, materials were provided to learn more about two software products used in the profession to create static and interactive graphic materials. The software products, Tableau and Adobe Illustrator, were supported by a series of video and .pdf Help Guides.
   The course's final project asked each student to take a data set and create an infographic.  There are thousands of students enrolled in the class from all over the world, and not surprisingly, final projects covered a wide variety of topics.  I chose to utilize data from GSB's Admission Department.  Looking over enrollment numbers going back over 10 years, I tried to discern patterns that might provide useful information. In short, I was looking for a story.  What I ultimately decided on was an interactive infographic that would visually show the towns our students came from year after year.  You can take a look at the infographic as a .pdf or check the screenshot below. 

 

   

   Final thoughts? This MOOC offered what I was looking for. I learned a lot. I enjoyed the flexibility to work when it was convenient to me. I liked not having to commute to class. When I queried the professor with a question or concern, which I did three times, a response was offered quickly and in a thoughtful way. A considerable part of the learning structure was built around peer feedback. This part of the course was least satisfactory. Some feedback was excellent, some less helpful. But peer-to-peer interaction utilizing online forums is frequently found in MOOCs and other online coursework. It substitutes for class discussion and I suspect many find the trade-off frustrating.  Overall, I will say I was pleasantly surprised at how well this course was administered and how much I learned simply by following through on the readings, videos and activities. As in any course, the professor deserves a lion's share of the credit for its success. Thanks, Alberto, for shedding light on a new area of learning.