Moving.

I have discovered what I believe to be the source behind the lack of posts on this site: It's too hard to keep up with half a dozen blogs. It's that simple. I've tried to keep my professional blog here and my personal blog separate, and that led to frustration, guilt over not posting, and a general lack of quality over all, though mainly on here.

So, I am moving the posts from here to my regular blog: www.poppedinmyhead.com in order to keep myself consistent and accountable.

The old posts will remain here, but all new posts will appear on poppedinmyhead. In order to help you find posts relevant to my work, I will tag the posts as "work life" along with other tags as appropriate.

I appreciate anyone who has come by, and I encourage you to follow me in my move.

Thanks for reading!
--David

Not yet half the day

Not yet half the day has gone by, and I feel as though I have accomplished quite a bit. For starters, we have Michael J. Graham in the house! He is the author of "Google Apps Meets Common Core" through Corwin Publishing. Of course, around here, we've known him through his connection to and participation in the TIE program we host.  It's been fun listening from another room.

Why another room? Because I have been setting up a new set of laptops that we will use as a portable station to move throughout the building to various workshops as needed. I think this is a great move on the co-op's part to help provide technology to areas where that technology has been lacking.

I sent my request for my replacement Nexus 7. Let's just hope everything goes well. For whatever crazy reason, mine will not come on. Not even the "Hold power for 30+ seconds" trick works with this one. I can also hear a weird buzz coming from the back when I plug it in. Sounds to me like the battery is shot. The warranty does not cover a power spike, and so far as I can recall, it hasn't suffered one of those.  We'll see how the Google team responds. I have enjoyed my Nexus.

I've also been working with the Director and new Teacher Center Coordinator on a few in-house projects, and that always presents different challenges to solve various problems. It is one of the reasons I enjoy what I do. Sometimes, we are given a challenge that forces us to think differently or to grow professionally (and sometimes personally).

So, the day is not half over yet, and it is time to get back to the grind before lunch!

Learning Lessons

This year, I am heading up several projects in addition to my regular duties. These additional projects are beyond my 'normal' work hours, but require some special TLC to get them going. It's a new opportunity for professional and personal growth, for sure.

Yesterday, I realized that my old way of keeping up with various needs, programs, projects, etc, just isn't going to work. What was the old way? I'd simply remember what was on the 'do to' list.

For now on, I will make use of my note-taking apps on my phone (since I carry that with me at most times) to keep track of projects, rollouts, etc.  Sure, most folks have that figured out already. But, I had always been really good at keeping everything in the space between my ears. Over the years, that space has been getting fuller and fuller.

I think the key to any success is recognizing when things aren't working and then being able to adapt. In education, the saying is "monitor and adjust." I am doing just that.

Getting back up to bat

It is the start of a new fiscal year for us, so I am going to try posting here more often. I discovered, I think, the reason behind the sporadic, lackluster posting on here: purpose.

When I started this blog, I did so because I needed a place to record my activities as part of the grant that funds my position. Frankly, it was a chore to write things every day. And, so I did not write every day. In fact, I got to where I loathed writing here. It was too much like work itself, and I keep busy enough with my actual job to add this to the list of things I "have" to do.

So, this year, I'm taking a different approach. I am going to use this space as a means for journaling what I learn, what I'm not learning, and where I am (or not) growing.  I'm hoping this new perspective will keep my writing about my work without feeling burdened by the process.

The past few days, I have been working with the DL Coordinator in replacing an old piece of CIV equipment. That involved pulling out the old cameras, cabling, and codec. Then, we installed the new cameras, cabling, and codec.

The toughest part of the job, though, was pulling everything out of an old Smart Sympodium we have. You see, that cabinet not only houses a PC for presentation purposes, but also houses the codec used for CIV conferences. Over the past decade or more, that cabinet has seen all kinds of equipment come and go. Each time, it appears that new wires were simply added instead of using what was already in there. It was a mess. Now, it is MUCH cleaner and neater.

Since this is Wednesday before the long 4th of July holiday, there won't be much going on. I am starting the day by meeting with the Prescott tech folks to look over a classroom in which one of our early childhood programs will occupy. We're going to look at network drops, Smart Board placement, etc. After that, I'll be headed to the office.

There is no telling what I will learn today!

Hanging Out in Google

On Wednesday, I had the privilege of joining several folks in a Google Hangout as part of a presentation to a group at the Arch Ford Co-op.  While I was in Hope, we had folks connected from all over the country to talk about Google Apps and the various add-ins that make it fun to use, great for real-time collaboration and more.

Much of the day Wednesday, I worked on various projects and provided tech support via phone and email to several schools - some of which were not in our service area.

For example, I worked with a tech regarding E-Rate and web hosting in conjunction with scoring rubrics for their RFP. We came up with a few ideas, and ultimately reached out to other techs in the state for more information, sample rubrics, etc.

The key takeaway for Wednesday: No matter what business you are in, no matter what position you hold, it is vital that you (and by YOU, I mean ME as well) be willing to lend a hand, offer advice when asked, and know when to say, "I don't know, but let's work together to find out."

Troubleshooting and Workarounds

(image from colourbox.com)

Spent part of the day today working at one of our early childhood sites.  The teacher had two main issues to be addressed: the IEP program (SEAS) was acting erratically and she had a computer in another classroom that needed to be able to print to the multi-function imager in the main classroom.

I upgraded Adobe Reader, which is what the IEP software is based on. We had switched her to Firefox earlier because IE was having issues with SEAS (computerautomation.com). In my opinion, the folks at SEAS need to get away from using Acrobat forms online as their primary tool. It's an ugly mess.  In any case, I updated java as well, just for grins.  The issue with Firefox appears to be that the program wants to open the PDF but it also wants Reader to open the file. Either way, it's ugly.

So, I switched her back to IE until that breaks. Not pretty, but it works.

The other issue was supposed to be straight forward: install a printer that resides on the network.  Popped in the CD, ran the install, and came to a screeching halt.  The installer acted as if I didn't have permissions to install, but never quite came out to say that.  I checked the user permissions, and this user is a local admin on the machine.

Time to regroup.

I opened the CD and found the 'CLIENT' folder. Inside, I found the various flavors of printing languages.  I opted for PCL6 since that is what we usually run.  In that folder, I found my friend, SETUP.  I ran it without incident. After printing a test page, I confirmed that everything was working as planned.  Why I had to run the setup for the specific language, I have no idea.

I spent a pretty nice chunk of time on the phone with one of the area school techs. One of the services I provide is that of sounding board. I have to say, it is a great feeling to know that the people I work with in varying capacities trust my input and insight. I think it is partly due to my ability to think of ideas and possible solutions in ways most folks never dream. Some would say, "Thinking outside the box." I prefer to call it, "Thinking outside of the ballpark."  That is, sometimes, I approach problems from such a wild direction that the ideas actually make sense once they are brought to light.  Naturally, this is not foolproof. There have been plenty of times where the "idea from left field" flies very far foul.  I am very blessed that the folks I work with often see those mistakes as "learning opportunities" and/or discovering ways NOT to do something.

Blevins

I spent the day at Blevin school district today. We worked on a couple of things. We reinstalled the operating system on one laptop, worked on a few issues on the server, and installed new time clock software. After we installed the new time clock software, we created a group policy to push out the shortcut to the desktop. That works great for Windows 7 machines, but windows XP machines are not as easy. So, we decided to just hit every single room and verify that the shortcut copied or we created shortcuts for the xp users.