March 26, 2012 - March 30, 2012 and catching up

Monday - Office
Tuesday - Texarkana, Etherscope
Wednesday - Texarkana, Etherscope if needed
Thursday - Office
Friday - Office

Last week (March 19-23) was Spring Break. I was out of the office the whole week, though I worked during that time on a couple server issues. I also worked on moving TIE modules from the "old" PDF format to the new Moodle format.

March 5 - Visited with Prescott regarding NETS/ISTE Tech Support Index.
March 6 - Arch Ford Co-op for state section meetings, tech coordinator meeting
March 7-9 - Work on network security and monitoring.

March 12-15 - Continue network security and monitoring, meet with staff.
During that week, I also made two trips to Lafayette ECH to work on computer issues.

January 30 - February 3, 2012

Monday - Office
Tuesday - Office
Wednesday - Saturday - TIE Conference - Technology professional development

Monday's notes:

Monday, Monday, Monday...

Man, the advantage to focusing most of my attention on one project is that I got a bunch of it knocked out. Still a long way to go and a short time to do it (oh, I know what you THOUGHT I was gonna say). Converting revamped technology training modules into our new Moodle format. Whew!

Looks like overtime will be calling my name tomorrow evening! At least I should be able to finish things up from the house.

Why "most of my attention?" Spent the day swapping emails and phone calls with Sharon and Cari on various tech issues. CRAZY DAY! Despite it all, I am very glad to be employed! Oh yeah, and Verizon's area-wide blackout didn't help. Haha!

I helped Sharon at Blevins with various Tech Plan questions, E-Rate questions, and a few other technical issues.

I helped Cari with Exchange issues - her server ran out of drive space, so we freed up space and remounted the Exchange Store.  We also worked thorough some Active Directory problems as well.  We also covered E-Rate bids, RFP's, and other technical issues.

Verizon had a major network issue with their wireless network in our area this morning, so I spent some time on the phone with their support folks.

I am working on the Co-op's Tech Plan and the State Tech Coordinator Grant Proposal as well.

So, what'd YOU do today?!

January 16-20, 2012

Monday - CLOSED

Tuesday - AM - Office (Meetings), PM - Bradley

Wednesday - Office (Meetings)
Thursday - Office (TIE projects)

Friday - AM - Office (Conv w/ Debbie Coffman), PM - Moodle (Facilitator Training)

 

Tuesday - Meet with USAble, TIE Meeting, then Bradley in the afternoon

Wednesday - Work on TIE Projects, E-Rate, etc in AM then travel inservice at 3pm

Thursday - Work on TIE projects, then other projects as time allows

Friday - 9-12 Conversations with Debbie Coffman, then Facilitator Training (Moodle Course) and other projects in afternoon

January 9-13, 2011

Monday - Office
Tuesday - State Tech Meeting
Wednesday - Office/Open
Thursday - Office/Open
Friday - Office

Monday: I spent the morning working on several projects.  First, I helped get our bookkepper's office back in order after the floor waxing over the weekend.  Yes, I did that last Monday, too. Only this time, we had a different set of rooms to set back to rights because the floor guy didn't realize his key would open all the doors.  I started working on our Moodle server to add content (create a course).  During that, my Director came in and wanted help with her iPad2 - FaceTime, accounts, etc.

I went back to Moodle to finish creating the course I am working on.  We are moving the TIE program modules from word/pdf handouts to a mixed-mode enviroment for in-class/asynchronous professional development.  Basically, the courses are taught in a classroom setting and we use Moodle for content delivery and online discussion during the course.  The State requires 6 hours of "seat time" for professional development, so this is a way to get the physical requirement taken care of while letting the participants have the freedom to complete many of the tasks at their own pace.  During the course of the day (most are 1-day sessions), the facilitator brings the group back together for in-class discussion.  This is the first time we are trying this arrangment, and I'm anxious to see how it all plays out this summer.

While working on the Moodle course (we will have dozens uploaded/modified before a February meeting), I met with our Early childhood coordinator about Apple Volume Licensing.  We bought some vouchers, and now just have to wait for them to be delivered before we can redeem them.  Seriously!? In today's age of full-on electrnic purchasing, why on earth does Apple may you buy phyiscal vouchers to redeem!?  Ugh.

After that was done, I returned to the Moodle module.  One area of concern raised up as forums and discussions.  As it turns out, "Guest Access" is not available for those sections.  There are two solutions: 1) Require each user to sign up for access, or 2) do not hold online discussions and make them in-class only.  We're not sure which route we're taking yet.  The whole state has several statewide Moodle-based rollouts, and requiring participants to register on each of the Moodle servers is a bit much, in my opinion.

Oh, I forgot, I also worked on a user's Google Calendar.  The events would show up on her phone, iPad, etc, but not in the online calendar.  The problem? It was hidden online.  In "My Calendars," the user has de-selected the default calendar.  I reselected the box, and everything showed up. Awesome!

Now, lunch break and the rest of the afternoon (for Monday)!

While working on modules for Moodle, I encountered a few .pages files that were created on a Mac.  I am using a PC and my MacBook doesn't have Pages on it, so I was a bit stumped as to what to do (short of asking the author to export them as PDF).  Instead, here is a solution:  change the extension to .ZIP and open the files with Winzip or whatever.  Inside there, you will find a folder called "QuickLook." Inside Quicklook, you will find a PDF of the .pages document!  Bingo!  Copy and paste the content, and you should be good to go.

Moodle Monday

Phoebe asked me to generate a list of TIE modules with their authors/editors as we move into a new phase for the TIE program.  The modules will be retooled for a hybrid environment using the Moodle CMS program.

Last Friday, I installed Moodle on a server we have and then I spent time on Monday working out kinks.  The main one being mail delivery (or the lack thereof).  I installed Moodle on a Windows server.  The included mail subsystems with Moodle would not play nice with our Google Apps account.  So, I finally managed to get that working after quite a bot of tinkering with ini files and php configs.  I do need to make a couple of tweaks for security, but that should be a simple doing compared to the hoops I had to jump through in order to get mail working.

I suppose there are more effective ways to get mail delivery working, but my way works and I could not find a comprehensive solution online.  I wrote up my solution and posted it to our locally held techblog: techblog.k12.ar.us

I also made a tech support visit to the early childhood program in Hope.  Not sure what was going on, but they had intermittent Internet connectivity issues.  Possibly weather related. 

Tuesday, I have a presentation project to finish for Phoebe.  I also have a phone call with George Lieux scheduled for the morning regarding the new direction of TIE, and possibly a call with Harry Dickens and  Kevin Honeycutt regarding the upcoming AESA conference.

The offices are closed Wed-Fri for Thanksgiving.

So much for that...

Well, today's agenda was SUPPOSED to be upgrading the 2003 Active Directory to 2008 in preparation for the new server. Turns out, I have an old/dying DVD drive in the old server and had to order a refurb/used one. So, until that comes in, I won't be upgrading AD any time soon.

I did get a Moodle Server up and running (can't remember if I wrote about that or not), and the domain works. So, on to other projects!

Moodle: Day One

The state techs attended a Moodle training on Wednesday, part one of a two-day event.  Wednesday was all about the teacher/student side of the online learning management system.  Each participant walked through a series of examples, demonstrating the various types of forums, quizzes, resources, etc that can be used in the Moodle environment.

The biggest advantage to Moodle over other LMS set-ups: Moodle is free and open source.  There is also quite a large community of developers and installations. 

The biggest "issue" with Moodle (in my opinion): the interface.  The way units (or whatever you choose to call them) are laid out, everything is in blocks on the screen, giving the user a distinctly utilitarian feel for things.  Even with a custom skin/theme (we were shown some custom examples), the basic layout is the same.  Then again, maybe I am just growing weary of the "two-column" and "three-column" layout we seem to find everywhere online these days (just take a look at your Facebook layout, or heck even this blog's layout).  With Moodle, though, at least you can hide certain blocks until the appropriate time.  This allows for limiting the number of class units displayed, keeping things a little tidier.

I see Moodle as a way to complement the other online professional development offerings the state of Arkansas has: ArkansasIDEAS, iTunesU, and the new Digital Sandbox.  Though, the Sandbox is not really for PD, it is for teachers and students to conduct online collaboration in a closed environment.  ArkansasIDEAS currently structures its PD in a self-directed, self-paced manner.  A Moodle implementation would allow for facilitated (and/or blended) online professional development.  It would not surprise me if ArkansasIDEAS moved to a facilitated (again, and/or blended) course offering.

How would that work in our state?  Well, teachers are required to have so many hours of "seat time" (as it is called).  With a blended environment, teachers could take a 6-week course (1 hour per week) and get 6 hours of seat time credit.  It wouldnt even have to be that stretched out.  Let's say the course was designed for 6 days, one hour each day.  Still, the teacher received 6-hours of seat time.

Eventually, I see a hybrid model for PD where earned credits are tied to the course and material and not tied to how long someone sits in a chair.  Well, that's my hope, anyway.

Thursday's Moodle training takes us to the administration side of a Moodle environment.