It has been a while…. There have been many reasons for my lack of writing, both personal and professional, but that yearning is returning.

We are in the process of completing our Round 2 application for the National Secondary School Computer Fund. We’ve crunched the numbers and have calculated that we will be offered 41 Computers. Now all we need to do is work out where they will all go, and how to connect them in to our existing network, and the list goes on.

So do we:

• Laptops or Desktops?
• Build new Labs (a 20 & 21, 2x 15’s and an 11 etc.) in our existing 4 GLA classrooms?
• Wireless of Copper LAN?
• How does our existing Infrastructure fit?
• Professional Development, how do we squeeze this in?

Add to this our plans for going full steam ahead in our 1:1 rollout for Stage 3 in Middle School for 2009.

It becomes very obvious that we’ve got a lot to think through.

Previously I have spoken of our struggles with a lack of Internet speed and throughput. This has made it very difficult for our Teachers to plan lessons that use the web in any of its forms.

Well today was our first day of actually having some speed. Compared to what some of you would have, are be able to get , this has been a huge step forward for us. Rural Australia really does struggle with a lack of Infrastructure, and this makes it particularly difficult for us "Educators" and we have to be thankful for these little increases that we get. 

Here is the original test:

And today’s results:

Check out the tests above, thanks to http://speedtest.net, and maybe let me know how it compares to what you are getting.

It’s interesting how things come back to you at the right time. In January Kim wrote a post about Moving Teachers into the 21st century. At the time I must have skimmed over it and not given it much thought, but this weekend I was drawn back to it. Could be the week we’ve had, from Lemons to Lemonade, and then back to being sour Lemons again.

It is refreshing to see that others have gone through the same issues, and continue to do so. I cant help but think our previously mentioned “Scope and Sequence” document will end up being a catalyst. I would hope that having a structured aproach to where Technology MUST be used in subjects can only improve things, but alas we will have to wait and see.

Thanks for your Words of Wisdom Kim, we will see where we can take this advice. That is once we’ve taken a deep breath, sighed, and prepared for the next battle.

Can anyone recommend some good “Technology in Education” conferences in South-east Asia? I know Kim Cofino is kept quite busy with occasional speaking arrangements, so we’d like to find more information of what is out there.

We probably won’t look at anything before 2009, but any pointers you can give would be great.

Thanks in anticipation.

Andrew.

We all know the up’s and down’s of trying to push the use of Technology in our Schools. This week has been a classic example of going round and round in circles and not really pushing in any direction.

LG summed up the start of it in her Making Lemonade post, and in the comments you’ll see the after effects of an intense discussion in our ICT Committee meeting.

We belong to a Multi-Campus College. It was decided some time ago to create a “Scope and Sequence” of how Technology needs to be integrated in all of the subject area’s, both to meet Curriculum requirements and those to be expected of 21st Century Learning. All in all this will be a good thing, as all Teachers will see what the expectations are for the use of Technology in their lessons.

A sad reality was brought to the meeting when our Head of Senior School mentioned that this draft of the document made her angry, and that the anger was that none of the requirements were currently being met. She felt that a lot of her staff were going to struggle with the integration of Technology in their lessons, as they have been teaching without for so long etc.

Now this is where LG and I should come in…. We should be creating the support plan and running short training sessions as part of our Teachers’ Professional Development, except we are drastically understaffed. LG has a full teaching load, and I have help only on 3 days a week. Add to this dilemma the comment that funding won’t be available to cover these issues in the near future and it all starts to look a little bleak.

On the other hand, if we look at the Scope and Sequence as becoming a mandatory requirement of our teaching, the College is going to have to put this Professional Development first. This Scope and Sequence could be the catalyst for the change that we have been fighting for.

While this is being sorted out, we’ll just go round and round in circles.

Well our new E1 connection is still not connected, and the Internet has been at an all time slow this week. I had a call late Friday afternoon and it looks like Monday could be the day!!

I know a lot of people that can’t wait for this to happen.

Bring on Monday.

According to several sources, including this one, end users are having several issues with Windows XP Service Pack 3.

I’m scared now. Do I roll this out to our 300+ computers?

Can anyone let me know how they have gone with this upgrade? Maybe one of my 31 day Comment Challenge friends…

Well today was the day that our 2 Meg E1 connection was due to be connected. I hadn’t heard anything and was starting to wonder, then at 2:45  this afternoon I go t a call asking me to plug the new equipment in and they would do the cut over from our 2 512K SDSL links to the E1.

At last we will have Internet that is usable (not compared to Ewan McIntosh) and that our Teachers will be able to do all of the wonderful things that they have wanted to do for so long.

Then came  the phone call at 5:45, we’re having difficulty doing the “this and that” and cant reach your Server, I’ll have a look over the weekend and we’ll have another look on Monday.

Oh well, we’re getting closer. At least the E1 link light is now glowing.

I found these on eBay and was wondering has anybody seen one being used.

The EeePC has been seen to be very useful Schools, both due to its size and weight, and that it is priced so well to be affordable for many of us.

Add to this a Touch-Screen and Tablet like functionality and my mind is racing at the possibilities.
I’d be willing to buy one and the kit just to see how it performs. Now getting Asus to like the idea of these being modified, and retain warranty might be a major stumbling block. But, they might also see this as the way forward and integrate this technology into future products.

I for one will be keeping my eyes open.

Picture linked from the eBay advert here

1. Answer the following questions:

• How often do you comment on other blogs during a typical week?
  • Usually 1 or 2 a day.
• Do you track your blog comments? How? What do you do with your tracking?
  • Prior to finding CoComment No. Just manually watched conversations evolve as required.
• Do you tend to comment at the same blogs or do you try to comment on at least one new blog per week?
  • Mostly the same ones, unless I was pointed to an interesting post by someone else.

2. Now review Gina Trapani’s Guide to Blog Comments and ask yourself how well you’re doing in each of the different areas. Are there any specific areas where you think you need to do some work? What do you want to do to address these issues?

Stay on topic.

Most of the time I can manage this.

Contribute new information to the discussion.

I always like to add an extra thought to a conversation, though with a few selected friends blogs I have been known to post to be noticed.

Don’t comment for the sake of commenting.

Often guilty of this one.

Know when to comment and when to e-mail.

Been caught out here too.

Remember that nobody likes a know-it-all.

Good, luckily I’m not one.

Make the tone of your message clear.

Most of the time. Sometimes I do waffle though.

Own your comment.

I always comment as TFT. I’m not scared of owning what I say.

Be succinct.

Generally, but have been known to stray at times.

Cite your sources with links or inline quoting.

Generally do. I always link to sites I’m obtaining information from.

Be courteous.

Always. I hope.

Don’t post when you’re angry, upset, drunk or emotional.

Oops. Not letting on which one though.

Do not feed or tease the trolls.

Gulity.

Summary: reasonably happy with where I’m at. I need to stop commenting when I really don’t have much to say, or want to be a “smart bottom.”