Other than several skill-building apps and educational games, the first app I bought for extensive use in the classroom is GarageBand.

I have often envied guitar playing teachers that can strum their instrument in their lap while singing the morning weather song or happy birthday, or even gather the students with a single chord.  I do play piano, but sitting behind an old upright while expecting the three-year-olds to sing along and follow the beat may be a bit much.

Enter GarageBand.

With the provided instruments and tools, I can:

• Record favorite books or nursery rhymes for students to provide an independent reading opportunity.
• Record favorite songs and create soundtracks for procedures, center activities and sing alongs.
• Record audio tracks for favorite songs and allow students to record their own attempts at lyrics.
• Create audio versions of social stories for students that need a little comfort during procedures or periodic reminders of how to interact with peers or complete an activity.

Once I create my songs with GarageBand, I can send them to iTunes, edit them further in GarageBand on my personal or school machine, or even email them directly to parents.

For a closer look at my GarageBand creations, download the PDF.

              

I’m beginning a new endeavor as a part-time preschool teacher this fall, and I’m taking my iPad with me.

Technology integration has long been one of my strengths in the classroom, and I have used labs and software and websites as a tool to enhance our learning and illustrate our application of skills and knowledge.  My previous teaching experiences, with students in grades K-5, have always had access to a computer lab along with classroom desktops and had scheduled computer lab time and measurable expectations.  My preschool classroom meets two mornings/week and has one classroom machine.

As a mother of two children (ages 3 and 6), I believe whole-heartedly in the importance of limiting screen time.  Netflix and iPods and online games are used sparingly, and most often in times when there is little opportunity for free play or meaningful adult interaction; car rides, long waits, Mommy’s treadmill time, etc.  But, as a teacher and a heavy-technology user, I see a large discrepancy in children who are familiar and comfortable with technology devices and those who have less experience, and I see the level of their technology skills impacting their education and career paths as early as their elementary days.

So, along with finger paints and dried pasta, blunt scissors and stubby crayons, I’m bringing my iPad.  I want to use the iPad as a tool to intensify our learning themes or add another opportunity for skill-building.

Knowing students and the novelty of iPads and similar devices, I have been tossing around several ways to promote equal opportunities for use.  In past classrooms, I have used ticket punching systems, name charts with clothespins, popsicle sticks and pocket charts.  There is no doubt that some students will gravitate toward the technology center and try to trade trinkets for extra turns, while other students will still display that behavior for a favorite baby doll or tractor as well!  Most often, the technology center will be a “can-do” center as opposed to a “have-to” center; students can choose to visit the iPad table or may skip it to have extra time for other centers.

Our preschool programs utilize Creative Curriculum and develop lessons, activities and centers to support two- or three- week themes.  Within the themes, we provide activities in: art, writing, math, science, sensory, fine and gross motor and reading. Planning often looks like this:

Preschool Theme Planning

Where will an iPad fit in?  I am trying to find an app or activity that fits with all of our themes so that the iPad (and maybe a couple iPod touches) can be offered as another learning center.  (for animal homes, I like the My First App/Eric Carle matching games and several easy readers) I also foresee several opportunities for adult use of the iPad as a on-demand tool for learning and record-keeping.  Computers and iPads are expensive additions to a classroom, and my limited teaching time with students is even more valuable.  Every activity we present weaves together with stories and songs and experiences to encourage growth and development, and the iPad must be no exception.

              

We work with numerous educational institutions. Like everyone else, they are finding creative ways to do more computing with less funding. Desktop virtualization and thin client computing is a trend we see increasing to meet the demands of lower-cost solutions for 21st Century learning opportunities. The goal of any desktop virtualization or thin computing project is to lower your per-seat cost.  While there are may ways to accomplish this goal, one of the lowest cost ways is to leverage solutions from NComputing.

X-Series terminals setup in Training Lab

To date, we have used two different types of NComputing solutions. The first, and most cost effective type, is their X-Series terminals.  In this setup, one or two PCI cards is installed in a host machine.  These PCI cards each support 5 terminals.  This gives each host a maximum of 11 terminals.  Traditionally, the host machine has a Windows Server Operating System.  Most recently, we’ve seen Windows MultiPoint Server 2010.  (Visit NComputing’s website for a guide on licensing Microsoft Windows in a multi user environment.)

The cost for this type of setup can be as low as $300 per seat, after you factor in licensing.  Like any solution, there are advantages and disadvantages.  The advantages of the X-Series are mostly related to its low cost.  Another benefit, though, is the fact that the devices are powered off of the PCI card.  This significantly lowers the required number of electrical outlets required to run a lab.  It also means there is less power consumed and a lower monthly utility bill.  Obviously with this low cost solution, there is a downside.  The devices handle low intensity applications well.  Web browsing and Microsoft Office work great.  They do not handle streaming media and Adobe Flash games well.  All of the terminals will run at the same resolution, so you’d want to have similar-sized monitors on each terminal. Typically we see 17″ LCDs.  The terminals are VESA compliant, so they will mount to the back of these LCDs for a very organized installation.  Keyboard and mouse connectivity is via PS2, so availability of these peripherals is lower.  Because these units are powered by the PCI card, there are distance limitations for connectivity to the host machine of 5 meters for CAT 5 and 10 meters for CAT 6 cables.

The second type of NComputing solution we’ve deployed is the L-Series terminals.  These units are similar to the X-Series, except that they connect to the host machine via a TCP/IP network connection.  Imagine cost savings similar to the X-Series, but the ability to deploy the machines throughout the network, as opposed to within 10 meters of the host machine.  The L300 series units perform well when using rich media.  They also support high availability.  If you have multiple vSpace hosts, the terminals can connect to a backup in the event of a failed primary host.  A vSpace host can support up to 30 L300 units per server.  These hosts can be either virtualized or physical hosts.  Each unit requires its own power supply but only uses about 5 watts of power.  In the future, it would be nice if they would incorporate 802.3AF Power Over Ethernet so the requirement for a dedicated power supply would be gone.  Along with the zero management capabilities of vSpace, this would make deploying these units a breeze.  We are currently testing ways to incorporate the L300 series units into our XenDesktop/XenApp infrastructures.

NComputing is not new to the education sector;  their website states that they are in 30,000 schools across 140 Countries.  Those are some impressive figures, backed by many satisfied clients and innovative offerings.  Recently the company announced their classroom in a box offering.

In addition to lowering your per seat hard costs, desktop virtualization solutions can be used to lower your total cost of ownership.  Pain points like application management, system imaging and patching can be alleviated by taking a desktop virtualization approach.  Like any technology, it is a good idea to start with a small proof of concept test before jumping completely into it.  At ITS, we have several lab environments that we lend out for such testing; contact us to see a desktop virtualization lab in action on your network or ours.

              

The desktop/laptop market is most certainly dominated by Microsoft Windows as it has been for many years now. This is especially true amongst business users as the overwhelming majority of business applications run on Microsoft Windows. However, the market share for Apple’s Mac OS is on the rise, and has been for the last 5-10 years. In the last year alone, Apple’s market share has grown nearly 30% and currently stands at 10.9% (Source: Ars Technica) And while Microsoft rules in the business world, Apple has always enjoyed a strong following amongst educational institutions.

Apple provides a robust suite of utilities in their iLife programs that many students use to create DVD’s, presentations, photo projects, web sites, etc. When students graduate and begin their careers, many will need to understand Microsoft Windows based applications as well in order to be competitive in the job market. So many schools are beginning to use mixed environments of both Macintosh and Windows based PC’s in their curriculum. This gives the student a good mix of both systems and better prepares them to be ready for whatever computing platform they may find themselves using when they start their career.

While this mix of computing is wonderful for students, it can wreak havoc on the technology administrators who have to maintain the computing systems. In many cases you find institutions that have separate usernames and passwords for both platforms and have varying capabilities in terms of desktop and user management. This type of scenario is a system administrator’s worst nightmare as they lose the ability to properly maintain the computing environment. So what is the answer? For many, Active Directory and Open Directory Integration.

Active Directory (AD) and Open Directory (OD) are two separate directory services based on the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. Both are responsible for storing user account information, computer account information, information regarding shared files and folders on servers, management settings for desktops, etc. AD is the directory service utilized by Microsoft Windows based servers while OD is utilized by Apple Mac OS Servers. In the past they were used separately which meant having your Windows computers and users tied into AD while your Mac OS computers and users were tied into OD. And since the two systems are incapable of synchronizing user account information, this meant two accounts for all users that utilize both systems. That has all changed in the last few years as work has been done to allow the two systems to integrate with one another making the job of the system administrator much easier.

So how does it all work? Generally speaking you would have at least one Microsoft Windows Active Directory server and one Mac OS X Open Directory Server. The Mac OS X server would be bound to the Windows AD server, and all Mac OS X clients are then bound to both directory services. Once setup and configured properly, this allows for seamless usage of the systems in your environment by the end users. A student can go to their Intro to Business class and login to a Microsoft Windows computer to run applications like Microsoft Office, QuickBooks, etc. and then go to Intro to Web Design the next hour and login to an Apple Mac OS X computer using the same account to run applications like Adobe InDesign, iLife, etc, making their life much easier!

What about the system administrator though? How does this benefit them? Well for starters they have half the accounts to manage! All user accounts are stored in Active Directory so no account management is necessary in Open Directory. This also makes setting up file shares and home drives much easier. Since the same accounts can be used on both Windows and Mac OS X computers, file shares and permissions only have to be setup once. The user can then access his or her files regardless of what operating system they are using. This also allows for the most thorough desktop management capabilities possible. The system administrator can utilize Group Policies to manage various aspects of the Microsoft Windows computers such as access to system settings, ability to install applications, etc. Likewise, they can utilize Managed Preferences in Open Directory to control the same types of settings on the Apple Mac OS computers. The end result is an environment in which both of the major computing platforms can be utilized seamlessly with minimal impact on the users or the system administrators.

Setting up this type of environment definitely requires planning and a thorough understanding of both Active Directory and Open Directory, but if the system administrator is willing to put in a little bit of time gaining an understanding of how to integrate these two technologies, Windows and Mac OS can most certainly co-exist peacefully in your environment.

Justin is a Lead Solutions Analyst at Infrastructure Technology Solutions, and blogs (from his Mac) at www.iowatechtalk.com

              

A month ago, Google rolled out its encrypted search option, which allows users exploring through https://www.google.com to seemingly search in stealth mode.

For public library and internet cafe users, bored private sector employees, and non-American Googlers, this news was heralded with great excitement and a flurry of key presses; nobody can see what we are Googling anymore!  (To be fair, I must also mention that Firefox also rolled out an extension last week called HTTPS Everywhere that encrypts data between users and sites whenever possible, but I haven’t had a chance to read more on the release.)

For many other users and network administrators, encrypted searches are a minor annoyance.

For example, our K-12 Education clients that rely on federal E-rate funding for bandwidth and internet related hardware must comply with the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA).  Adherence to CIPA policies requires that schools design and implement a policy that monitors the online activity of minors.  Allowing students to use encrypted searches, whether through Google or elsewhere, violates CIPA and a school’s qualifications for E-rate funding.  Google is aware of the issue, and recently changed the url of their encrypted search to https://encrypted.google.com.  Schools looking to block access to Google’s encrypted search engine should be able to do so within their URL filters or by blocking access to the above hostname.

Earlier I said that nobody could see what you were Googling when you used the encrypted search, but that isn’t exactly true.  Google still tracks and compiles that data, but webmasters and others that rely on analytics and search engine data to judge the effectiveness of their sites, products and marketing campaigns will no longer see what keywords led viewers to a specific webpage when using an encrypted search.  For many of our web hosting clients, this is dismal news.  Small- and medium- businesses typically depend on their website as the hub of their marketing presence.  If consumers are led to a site through an encrypted search, businesses will see the same statistics as if the consumer had simply typed the address in the browser without using Google’s encrypted search.

Many businesses will also find that encrypted searches are not allowed in their company Internet access/privacy policy.  We typically recommend that a privacy policy read something like this:

NO EXPECTATION OF PRIVACY- Employees are given computers and Internet access to assist them in the performance of their jobs. Employees should have no expectation of privacy in anything they create, store, send or receive using the company’s computer equipment. The computer network is the property of the Company and may be used only for Company purposes.  WAIVER OF PRIVACY RIGHTS- User expressly waives any right of privacy in anything they create, store, send or receive using the company’s computer equipment or Internet access. User consents to allow company personnel access to and review of all materials created, stored, sent or received by User through any Company network or Internet connection.  MONITORING OF COMPUTER AND INTERNET USAGE – The Company has the right to monitor and log any and all aspects of its Computer system including, but not limited to, monitoring Internet sites visited by Users, monitoring chat and newsgroups, monitoring file downloads, and all communications sent and received by users. Failure to monitor in specific situations is not a waiver of the Company’s right to monitor.  BLOCKING SITES WITH INAPPROPRIATE CONTENT-  The Company has the right to utilize software that makes it possible to identify and block access to Internet sites containing sexually explicit or other material deemed inappropriate in the workplace.

If Google’s encrypted search remains an optional tool, it will remain just a minor annoyance for IT staff.  But, if Google favors the encrypted search for its sole search engine, schools, webmasters and businesses may be Googling for a new search engine.

              

I was talking with a school administrator recently that is retiring from his Superintendent’s position this June.

Earlier this year, his School Board had been discussing and planning a 1:1 laptop initiative. The Superintendent is tech-saavy; he can knowledgeably reboot servers and run commands from terminal, but also knows how to make technology work as a tool and learning companion in his school. He felt obligated to inform me that because he, the technological innovator of their school community, was leaving, there would be no 1:1 initiative next year for sure.

I thanked him for thinking of us, and said, “To be honest with you, I’m glad they are delaying the 1:1.”

While he was surprised at my remark, he agreed wholeheartedly.

I continued to explain that often when we see 1:1 initiatives fail, the school has done their homework on hardware, policies, installation, etc., but hasn’t really thought about how to integrate these tools into their classroom. Instead of multi-media tools, students have a personal (and pricey) word processing device, calculator and entertainment vessel.

Researchers draw the same conclusion: 1:1 initiatives are only good when they are in the hands of teachers that are already innovators in lesson planning and collaboration, and in a school community where administrators set strong models for technology integration.  The administrator I was speaking to would have had great success with a 1:1 initiative next year, because his staff already knows how to get the best learning experience from the technology they currently have.

They place the technology in the hands of learners, create developmentally appropriate learning opportunities, and know how to drive value from technology assets.  It’s too bad that a 1:1 initiative wasn’t realized two years ago, giving the Superintendent time to implement the program before reaching his retirement this year – we all could have learned from their success.

              

Cloud computing and collaborative environments topped the 2010 Horizon Report of technologies to watch and expect in the K-12 arena for the coming year, and both private companies and publicly funded entities are creating and merging products to meet that expectation.

Infrastructure Technology Solutions serves 20+ K-12 education clients throughout Eastern Iowa with security cameras, consulting, web design, web hosting, firewalls and content filtering, and data backup.

Many of these K-12 clients are also one of 54 schools/districts served by Grant Wood Area Education Association (GWAEA).  There are ten AEAs throughout the State of Iowa, which are state funded and have no taxing authority.  Instead, they are funded via a per-pupil ratio determined by the Legislature and other governing bodies, as well as grant money and sale of services.

GWAEA provides a myriad of solutions and services for our local schools; lending libraries, child support teams, parent and educator training opportunities, graphics and printing, and managed/hosted services.

From hosting payroll and budget applications, to email and websites,  GWAEA serves as a model of how schools can use cloud computing to eliminate costs and increase efficiencies.  While some of the hosted offerings at GWAEA might be better defined as software as a service (SaaS), it is certainly exciting to see our public schools and associated bodies evolving technology right along with -or ahead of – the private sector.

Schools are no stranger to hosted services, and it makes sense.  When schools use hosted solutions (via GWAEA or elsewhere) for business and student management programs, schools can concentrate on integration of technology in the classroom and maintaining equipment used daily by staff and students for learning and growing.  Schools can also take advantage of local training opportunities when a group of schools use the same budgeting tools or student management systems, and have a larger support network.

As schools begin to take advantage of more cloud computing services, they will have the ability to grow their network space during times of peak usage.  Yearly events such as student registration, fiscal year planning, benefits enrollment and parent-teacher conference scheduling can burst into the cloud when needed, and shrink back to the original allocation after the usage has subsided.

With the advent of state-wide academic expectations known as Iowa Core Curriculum, Iowa and its AEAs have a tremendous opportunity to provide collaborative environments for students and educators as well.  Companies like Pearson, Google, Microsoft and ePals are rolling out new products to excite and engage students across the curriculum.

Education is evolving, and our Iowa schools and AEAs are right on track.

              

Before we built our data center and developed our consulting offerings, we built a lot of web sites for customers. With a guy to write code and a guy with a sharp eye for design, and we could roll out sites that showcased  businesses’ products and services fairly quickly.

The customers we worked with didn’t necessarily have a background in html, and couldn’t easily edit their pages without some sort of specialized software. Rather than encouraging clients to purchase Dreamweaver or Contribute, we wrote a Content Management System (CMS) that provided a user-friendly interface for inputting and editing information on the site.

Now, we turn to Wordpress.

WordPress helps small and large business alike have a website that’s easy to maintain by providing a built-in content management system.  While WordPress has several free themes to start you on your website adventures, a little knowledge of html and CSS will take you ever further.  Custom coding and sites can easily be developed to take advantage of all WordPress has to offer as well.

In addition to the CMS, WordPress is an open-source platform, which means that developers are constantly adding new plugins, themes and tools for other users and developers.  These plugins are snippets of code that run in your website to help you flash through photos in a gallery, connect clients to your social networking sites, provide a “contact us” form, or even count and track visitors to your new website.

A simple and secure WordPress login allows users to author, edit and publish pages on the website, depending on the amount of permissions given to them.

After converting our website to WordPress, we are excited to roll out our first client sites in the next few weeks.  We know that our clients are excited to have a web presence that is eye-appealing, user-friendly, and cost-effective.  And, we are excited to show you what a WordPress site can do for your business.

              

Apple’s iPad is finally here.

Amid the hype and speculation of its features and design are also the musings of educators seeking to enhance student learning experiences in their classrooms.

Educational soundboards everywhere are asking readers for ideas on how to utilize the new iPad in their classrooms.

More than finding ways to integrate technology into the classroom with the iPad, I’m interested to see how this will affect application development through the App Store, and, most importantly – whether it will drive change in textbook publishing.

Online textbooks are more readily available, and what better way to interact with your studies than to curl up with an iPad?  You can use your fingers to zoom, scroll and flip pages, and there are no library fines for dog-eared pages.

What we need, though, is the ability to annotate your textbook and make choices about learning.

Is reading text enough for you?  Or, do you need to doodle in the margins, underline and highlight words, or even jot thoughts down on a sticky note.  Maybe you need to hear the text, or see a video, image, or animation?  Perhaps you would learn best by interacting with an applet on your eReader and stacking up bricks to make a physics theorem really ‘happen’?

Going further, perhaps you think of a question while reading and want to leave it on the blog of an expert.  Or, you have finished reading your assignment and want to take the end of chapter quiz to check your comprehension – with immediate feedback, of course.   Maybe something you read catches your attention, so you record a sound file with your thoughts and tag it to a certain phrase from the text for pondering later.   There are also links to further reading, videos, websites, blogs and assignments, all provided by your teacher.  These textbook interactions are where education is headed.

In a study released last week by The Kaiser Family Foundation, groups of students were observed and surveyed in 1999, 2004 and 2009 about their media use.  Theses students, ages 8-18, are spending 8-10 hours of their day interacting with media devices like phones, computers, mp3 players, and TVs.  The study also reported that students with the highest number of hours media use reported the lowest grades, most discipline problems, and most feelings of boredom, sadness or fatigue.

I hear many educators discuss how technology integration – especially with devices like the iPad – will be the savior that our institutions need.  Collaboration and access to resources will increase, as well as enthusiasm and participation.  But if students are already spending all of their waking hours outside of school engrossed in some sort of media device, won’t teachers still be struggling to find new ways to captivate their audience, even if they do have a shiny new Apple?

              

An article in the NY Times earlier this week addressed the increasing gap in technology use and expectations among our youngsters today.
The article predicted that our current elementary students will be considered “Old Fogies” by the time they are in their 20s, based on the speed of new technology developments and the present gap in technology skills.

Researchers have often named generations as a grouping of people born in a span of 20-22 years (think Baby Boomers, Generation X, etc.).  When it comes to technology, though, students will see an evolution of technology every 5-6 years.  Researchers predict that there will even be a great divide among older and younger siblings in technology development, usage, comfort and purpose.
With new technologies developing this quickly, and students seemingly born with an iPod in one hand and a cell phone in the other, what is a teacher to do?
1. Let students teach.  When developing assignments and opportunities for independent practice, open the planning process to students.  Even if you don’t know how to create a vodcast on the Civil War, a student might be able to utilize software at home or school to illustrate their knowledge in the area.
2. Add online components.  Find a website or two that supports your curriculum, and try to utilize it daily in your class.  A good place to start looking is your textbook publisher – they often include links to websites and provide online learning tools. A blog or wiki would also be a great online piece to easily integrate.
3. Utilize your strengths.  Integrating technology doesn’t mean you have to create new lessons.  Instead, start with a favorite lesson or unit and incorporate a technology strand into the plan.  Perhaps in a study of Romeo and Juliet, students can create a comic strip (try Pixton or ToonDoo) that summarizes a passage or rewrites it into modern times.  When you are already excited about what you are teaching, it’s easier to add an unfamiliar component.
4. Become a student.  Utilize online learning opportunities through Atomic Learning at Iowa AEA Online if you are an Iowa Educator. If you are not in Iowa, or what you seek to learn isn’t available through Atomic Learning, look for online tutorials and handouts for educators through the software you plan to utilize.
5. Call in the professionals.  Ask students for input. What would inspire them in the classroom? What technology do they use daily? How do they envision that technology common to them could be integrated in the classroom?   You can develop a list of great ideas, and research them more with your curriculum team or turn them over to your technology director. Ask that technology director or mentor for help. Do they receive journals, magazines, articles or newsletters that you might find helpful? Are they trained in a software that they can demonstrate to your students? Are there other teachers in your building that could introduce a skill to your students while you cover their class, or even give up a prep period once a month? Can you bring your class to watch another teacher in the computer lab deliver a lesson, and then your students can have opportunities to learn from the other students as well? Don’t forget about parents and community volunteers – many of them are utilizing the same technologies in their offices that schools are using, just for different applications. Invite them into the classroom to share their experiences or teach students the ins and outs of a program.

With any of these ideas, do your research first.  You don’t want to turn your students loose on a new website or software program without knowing what to expect.  If using a website, see if there is a secure section just for educators.  Many of the popular animation and comic strip building sites now offer a separate atmosphere for student use, with more appropriate characters, actions, scenes, etc.

Also, run your ideas by a technology coordinator or administrator to see if you technology policy allows students to use the tools and programs included in your plans, and if your network/computer setup will support them.

And, remember that despite the increasing gap in technology knowledge between teachers and students, you are still in a position to greatly impact and inspire our future generations.  Embracing technology in your classroom only intensifies the interest and energy you can create with learners.