iSean

Ubuntu is going just swell. the biggest annoyance of switching over is that i didn’t have all of my bookmarks and i had to set up my mail account in evolution mail . . . and none of my contacts were there. this stuff is no different than getting a new computer. if i had wanted, i probably could have exported my contacts and imported them into my new email. and, i could do the same thing in Firefox. as annoying as it was to not have that stuff, starting from scratch gave me a chance to cut the fat. my kids have used it and they have no clue that they’re not even using a Mac . . . it’s just a computer and it’s doing what they want it to do.

in other news, i borrowed a netbook — ASUS Eee PC running linux. this is a small little machine at 8.9″. i was borrowing it to see if i wanted one. i used it for about 10 minutes and realized that this is not the machine for me. i am not a big guy by any stretch, but this tiny keyboard is nearly impossible for me to use. i can’t make it more than 2 words or so without a typo. the keys are just too tiny. i gave it to my kids and my 7 year old son just absolutely loves it. perhaps this would be a way for schools to save money??? at least in elementary schools while the hands are still small.

so, i have a family site, a personal website, a blog, and various class websites. oh, i also have a generic domain pertaining to integrating technology where i hope to host my wiki-based free textbook. but my point is that i have a lot of websites and each one has its own domain name. when i set these sites up, i have been spending time trying to find the best hosting services (shared hosting, it’s what i can afford). many years ago, i used tigertech.net. my family site was small and tigertech met my needs. well it didn’t take long to realize i wanted to fiddle with databases and tigertech wasn’t set up easily for that. so i found iPowerweb. they were great back then. i hosted all of my class stuff with them as well as my personal website. eventually, their cheap rates and need to add more and more customers caught up to them. after sitting on tech support for over 40 minutes, i immediately sought a new solution. i found bluehost and they were great until i had all of my students use one of my tools at the same time — crash. that wasn’t good enough. so i’ve now found lunarpages. whew. i am keeping bluehost and lunarpages for now. i like to run a ghost backup of each of my class sites. each week, i download my class discussion forum database and restore it on the other hosted site, which is hidden. if something were to happen to my main site and it went down, i could quickly switch to my backup in a matter of minutes. i didn’t do that for my first 6 years of teaching online sessions and classes, but i was stupid back then. heh.

anyway, i also still have my family site on the tigertech.net hosted servers. i have 11 days. i have a family blog that has entries back to 2000 hosted there. it’s now in wordpress so i have easily moved it to bluehost. however, i also have all family photos in a tool called Gallery 2. it was a great tool many years ago in the days before Flickr and other online photo sharing sites. well, this is where my problem comes into play. to move my family site, i’d have to also move this Gallery database of years and years of photos. unlike Wordpress and just about every other mySQL database / open source solution, Gallery does not have an easily transferrable method. i cannot transfer the photos from the old site to the new site easily. i cannot import the photos from the old to the the new either. there are very difficult directions to move the database, but my initial attempt failed. so now i am 11 days away from being forced to stick with tigertech for another year. i have already started the transfer process to bluehost, but i will not complete it unless i get the new site up and running first. my students took their final exam today for the spring summer class i was teaching so i guess i have some thesis students and time on my hands. if it’s possible for my feeble mind, i’ll be down to just 2 hosting services (and save $$$ along the way) in the next week. fingers crossed!

well i have certainly been enjoying the spring thus far. my kids are 8 and 6 and we are turning into bike riding fools. we’ve also taken a liking to geocaching as i noted last summer here. the more we seek treasures and find them, the more i see educational uses for geocaching. when we started last summer, i was pretty much the guy in charge. i controlled the Garmin 60CSx GPS unit and did all of the precursor work finding which caches we’d hunt, etc. I now allow my kids to use the GPS unit to follow the compass and map built into the unit as well as help plan the route we’ll take on our bikes and once we get off of our bikes. they are learning how to read a map and how to use the map. When we get home, we can transfer the data from the GPS and load it into Google Earth to show others the exact path we covered from home back to home (the GPS drops virtual breadcrumbs ever 30 seconds — that’s the settings we use). yesterday we headed downtown along the river next to my office and found a few caches. here is an example from the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum grounds of how one might be hidden:

the rock that my son’s hand is on was actually covering the cylinder. once the cylinder is opened there is a peanut butter jar inside with the cache. we signed the log book and removed a golf ball and left a little something for the next geocacher to find it. we then carefully placed the rock back over the closed cache and headed off for the next find.

some of the caches can be hidden so cleverly that it can take a long time to find the cache even when you know the exact coordinates. this one above took us about 5 minutes once we arrived. you can’t see it here, but there are small trees and evergreens all around us so i spent much time looking up. there are many rocks larger than the one seen here and my kids scurried around looking to and fro.

i recommend signing up to use the website geocaching.com. it’s free; though, you can pay about $30/year for some special search features and an email alert for new caches, etc. i think it’s worth paying just to support the site as it’s quite well done. i like searching for caches using Google maps as shown here from my area:

and then you find one and you can narrow in on it and even have the website send the information directly to your GPS (at least with my Garmin this works):

you can see the difficulty is 3 stars out of 5. look at the photo far above and you can see how this might be difficult to find. sometimes the caches is very easy once you arrive. my kids are getting to the point where we like to look for 3 stars and above for difficulty, but we’ll make exceptions if the terrain is at least 2 stars or so. our favorite caches are the multiple-stage caches. these typically have many steps to find the final treasure. since the steps along the way don’t have a treasure, the hiding places can be much more difficult. for example, last year we did one where the first 4 stages were just giving us the coordinates to potentially find the next coordinates. the creator was able to put these coordinates in creative and hidden places. for example, here was a stage that had the coordinates hidden behind the number 5 on a signpost along a path. the 5 was hanging on by a nail and it was sheer luck that we figured it out (you can barely see the black writing under where the 5 rests):

and another showing the final prize hidden in an ammo box that is stuffed in a cement base from a thrown out pole in an area with a lot of trash and debris. this was hard to find as well because you just don’t think that there’d be a hollow area in the cement base until you roll it over:

anyway, this has quickly become a favorite hobby for my kids and me. i like getting them out on their bikes and getting exercise while also exercising our brains to solve problems, etc. highly recommended.

holy gee whiz, you wouldn’t believe the hosting/server issues i’ve had over the past week+. i am using 4 different hosting services for various domain names i manage. 2 of the 4 hosting services have really failed me this week. first, the domain i have for my courses went down the day before classes started. this included all of my phpBB forum installations. doh. these were on a site using iPowerweb (no link as I don’t want to promote them). to make matters worse, here we are almost a week later and they still haven’t resolved the issue. i talked with various people and tried online chats, email, etc. to no avail. they are working on it. apparently, they moved me to a new server and missed about 60% of my content so everything was broken. i tried to copy stuff over for them, but the mySQL database stuff was all broken. i quickly registered the .net version of my .com site for my classes and set up everything with a new host. really crummy that i had to do this at the last second — the setup time alone took me probably 10 hours that i had already spent on the old and broken site.

but that wasn’t my only issue. this site has been down for nearly a week as well. this site is hosted with bluehost (again, no link). they’ve been pretty good until now, but this outage is far too long. this site hosts my blog, but also some class stuff (e.g., drupal installations for class content). i don’t really have this stuff backed up and i have another week’s worth of material due to my students on Monday. I have been doing it from scratch and i hope to have it ready by Monday but i’ll be working late tonight, tomorrow and Sunday night unless Bluehost can get my site working again (and, if this is posted on Friday night then they got it working and i was able to post this draft — EDIT 2:15 Saturday and it’s working). okay, they have things mostly working again, but my blog has a mySQL table missing and that’s causing an error. apparently, they upgraded PHP and Apache recently and my site has been down since then. so both issues with hosting companies is because of an upgrade. i never upgrade any tools i use during a semester, but i couldn’t stop the hosting companies from upgrading their equipment, etc. crummy that this all hit at once.

the worst thing about iPowerweb is the length of time it takes to get someone on the phone. i had old phones, but i was on the phone for over 1/2 hour without getting a person and my phone died. i ended up ordering new phone set on Amazon with overnight delivery and now i have 17 hours of talk time. watch out tech support, you’re now going to hear from me . . . and i can sit on hold for a long time. doh. i should point out that Bluehost had me talking with tech support in about 5 minutes of holding. that’s world’s and world’s better than iPowerweb. i think i’ll drop iPowerweb ASAP. i just have to figure out how to move a phpBB database from one phpBB installation on one host to another phpBB installation on a different host. if i can do that then iPowerweb will soon be dead to me.

Technorati Tags: blogs, hosting, mySQL

man oh man has the you know what hit the fan. i have written previously about writing a wiki-based textbook (here) and even started thinking about it back in July of 2006 (here). i even started an effort at one point here. this effort never really took off. i presented on wiki-based textbooks this past year at MACUL and generated a bit of interest. unfortunately, the effort never took off (and, that’s a subject for my sabbatical request being turned in on Monday). however, my wiki site has not gone unnoticed. i login every 4 – 5 months just to check on things. imagine my surprise when i arrived today and found that spammers started invading and creating page after page after page on my wiki. they started in august and it looks like they’ve added about 1000 pages of spam. and mediawiki (this is the wiki that drives Wikipedia as well) only allows me to delete 1 page at a time — and it’s a 2 – 3 step process even at that. egads. i shouldn’t be too surprised as my blog is using software (a plugin) that has stopped 24364 spam comments. wow!

you can see samples of my wiki’s spam by visiting the main page and click on ‘Random page’ on the left side menu. as you can see, the vast majority of my spam is written in Chinese with the Chinese characters and all. for all i know, it probably has a bunch of spam and then adds a sentence to say how dorky sean is. heh. i took some time to ban any users who have edited a page this month and then i turned off the ability to create a new account. but i have still have hundreds of users . . . errrr, spammers who have accounts and who i need to ban when i get the time. i wish i could get a user list with check boxes next to them and i could select all at once and hit Ban. i also wish i could revert my wiki site back to how it looked in early August since nothing productive has happened since then, but these options don’t exist. i searched Google and found a help site that explained how i could turn off allowing new users — but this forced me to go into a php file on the server — not for the non-geeky, that’s for sure.

i was pretty high on Mediawiki until this happened. egads it’s a pain. the only plus side is that i am no longer going to use this site and have a whole new domain site planned for the actual wiki-based textbook that i potentially write if i am granted a sabbatical. but, this certainly helps me decide to not make the site open unless potential authors are invited or send me a request so that i can check credentials. i still learn some lessons the hard way, unfortunately.

Technorati Tags: ed tech, mediawiki, spam, textbook, wiki, wikitextbook

i largely avoided linux for the vast majority of its history. i tried it on an old Mac at one point and quickly abandoned ship as it wasn’t ready for prime time. but, when Parallels for Mac came out and i upgraded to a Macbook last year, i purchased Parallels and quickly installed Ubuntu, which is an open source linux build that just happens to come with other open source solutions preinstalled. i have to say that i was amazed at how mature this operating system is. it really is ready to be used by the masses. the next version is out in 15 days and the snippets i have read lead me to believe that anyone who can get this OS installed is ready to use it . . . obviously, the getting it installed part is the hard part. using the OS is a breeze once it’s installed. and, Ubuntu does some things better than Windows and Mac OSs. at the very least, i hope some folks reading this (all 2 of you) give Ubuntu 7.10 a test drive. you might just be amazed enough to consider it over the more costly solutions. i’d love to see the elementary school where my children attend switch to Edubuntu. but, i doubt it’ll happen any time soon. they’re none too happy to spend big $$$ on Windows.

Technorati Tags: open source, linux, Ubuntu, edubuntu

i am a big fan of open source tools. i like the whole open source movement . . . mostly because i am in education and acquiring the funds for expensive commercial applications is not always possible. supporting open source, on the other hand, ensures that quality products are available for all of us. but how do you know whether an open source product can work for you? for one, you first need to figure out what needs you have. if you know what you need then you can seek solutions. but merely reading about various tools is not enough to make a big decision as to whether the tool is going to work. you could download the tool(s) and test it on a computer or on a server. downloading products to your computer is easy. if you want to test the open source browser called Firefox then you download and install and you’re up and running in a matter of minutes. easy.

but what about web-based open source tools? even if you can create a database and download and then upload the files, there is a lot of time involved in doing this. i updated a family photo gallery the other day and even on broadband, i bet it took me about 20 minutes to get all of the new files for Menalto’s Gallery uploaded on top of my current installation. there’s no way i’d take that time just to test drive a potential tool. fortunately, there are solutions. the one i’d recommend is called OpenSourceCMS and it’s free to use. the website provides users with access to many of the most popular open source tools that are web-based (which means that they most likely require a MySQL database). here’s an example of their menu where i’ve opened the folder showing the open source e-Learning tools:

if you click on Moodle, for example, you are presented with an information page about Moodle. the page provides readers with direct links to the test a Moodle site’s Front Page and Admin Login. the login information is also supplied:
Username- admin
Password- demo

once you login, you can have near full administrative access to really test the behind the scenes goings-on for each tool. they also provide a plethora of user feedback to help you save time and learn from others. neat tool and well worth exploring the next time you have a problem and want to try seeking an open source solution.

Technorati Tags: CMS, ed tech, open source, technology in education

i am having all sorts of problems with setting permissions on the Drupal site i have created. i want to make student blogs public so that i can pull them down with an RSS news reader and so that their blogs on my Drupal site can be read by the world. i also want to keep all course content and information private so that only students can view it. so far, i have accomplished keeping my blog private where i make course announcements, etc. however, the links i have at the top of each screen (i.e., course links i created) are showing up on the restricted page that anonymous users see and it’s the login screen for students. i would rather have these links show up after students get logged in. hmmm.

phpBB is also forcing me to spend a lot of time learning the ropes. as i mentioned previously, i have upgraded from version 2 to version 3 and this is a HUGE upgrade. all of the administration tools are new and permissions are vastly different. i ended up figuring things out, but i actually had to change the way i set things up to get it to work. i was pretty frustrated after spending the hours i spent. i am typically a pretty good guy at trial and error and figuring out how to tweak, but this stuff was boggling. i can’t imagine a teacher who isn’t very astute at using technical technology tools even hoping to use these tools if they have to set them up in the first place. that’s discouraging to me because i really want to be an open source cheerleader.

but, i think it’s sometimes nice to see that even geeks run into troubles using technology. heh.

Technorati Tags: drupal, ed tech, phpbb, open source, technology in education

i don’t think i’ll typically talk about a Firefox extension, but i’ve found one that i particularly like and that i think has a nice role to play in education. the extension is called Firedoodle and it can turn any webpage into a virtual whiteboard. and, if you create an account with the firedoodle site, you can save any webpage you’ve marked so that your “doodles” are there the next time you visit. this is nice by itself, but this isn’t all. you can also mark your place on long pages. so, if i am reading an interesting article on one of the many online journals now in existence but i know i won’t finish, i can use firedoodle to mark my place and then easily return and continue some time in the future. not only that, but i could add markers in many places throughout an article — e.g., important segments of text that i want to revisit, etc.

as i explore how best to present an online textbook (e.g., wiki-based, drupal, etc.) i have been troubled that students in the online world can’t highlight text and make notations like those students who have a paper-based textbook. this plugin appears to bridge this gap. i know i can’t require students to use Firefox browsers or to have this plugin installed, but i can certainly encourage it and promote it, which i think i’ll do.

my big concern with Firedoodle is that they save your information to their servers. i am leery of web 2.0 startups as i don’t trust them to be around in the long term and i’d fear losing all of my highlighted and manipulated text, etc. hmmm.

i also have Zotero plugin installed. Zotero is really made for educators and helps educators with citation of information found on webpages. it also allows the user to store PDFs, files, images, links, and webpages, but it doesn’t turn the pages/files into whiteboards; rather, any notes the user adds are external to the page/file. i think the reason i haven’t really started using this is that i am scared that a bunch of PDFs and other files being stored in the Firefox infrastructure would bog the browser down. perhaps someone who has played with it more can comment on whether it’s at all disabling.

in any regard, both tools are now free and they both provide little demonstration videos on their sites.

Technorati Tags: plugins, firefox, zotero, students, teachers, firedoodle, web 2.0

i have been hearing more and more stories about people who are using virtual reality in their teaching. now, when i use the phrase, ‘virtual reality’ i used to immediately think about about a person putting on a VR helmet and a glove with sensors all over — the helmet would contain the virtual word and your eyes were covered so you could only see the VR world inside the helmet on the screen. while that technology is still emerging and being developed, it’s not something that is even remotely close to being common in any classroom. that being said, there is a VR world that is much closer to being realized — Second Life. Second Life is something I first heard about from my buddy Robert. Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. i am now a resident.

i should clarify, i think i am a resident. i have created an account and updated my appearance for my avatar. but i have not paid any money as i am content to use the free version for now. the virtual environment is free to use, but i am sure there are perks when you start spending real $$$. i believe you need to spend $$$ to make money in this world. and money is used. for example, many people have their own houses and other inventory items, etc. and that brings me to my first experience.

Second Life starts you on a tutorial island which i completed fairly rapidly. actually, i jumped in a car at the end and sort of drove off of a bridge. the car tipped sideways and got stuck. i couldn’t get out and the car wouldn’t move, so i gave up and quit. i came back a few days later and i was automatically on another land/island with a lot of people around. i started bumping people, but everyone ignored me at first. then, someone saw my name “Jayhawk” and asked if i’d went to the University of Kansas (i had) and he explained that he had gone there as well. come to find out, this guy was 67 years old. he found out i was a newbie and offered me some documents to help me get going. he then added me as a friend and i did likewise — figuring the jayhawk family was good enough for me. all good. he wanted to show me his complex that he just built/purchased, so i allowed myself to be transported. this guy had an elaborate office building complex. and, i soon found out that he ran his own consulting business delivering speeches about changing attitudes. people actually use Second Life for business purposes. hmmm. this guy had a few rooms full of chairs and he could actually get folks there and then speak into a microphone and the real people could hear him do his real job in this virtual environment. amazing. well, it’s amazing until i realize that this guy is seeing me as a potential customer. that’s when i decide to end my second session . . . again stuck. doh! heh.

this guy wanted to continue his spiel so i took about 5 – 6 days off. i then logged in and quickly dropped him from my friend list and made sure he couldn’t see when i was logged in. whew! safe again. i made some island greeting point my home since i have $250 to my name and i am sure land costs well above that. in S.L. you can fly, which is pretty cool. so i took off and just headed in one direction flying. after a few minutes, i crashed. apparently you can buy airspace above your dwelling and property and block it off from regular folk like me. so, i headed back to land to walk around. i swear i landed in a XXX zone because there were scantily clad women pictures posted everywhere. i entered a building and it was clearly about sex — like a strip club. i wondered if people were really playing these parts or whether this was some sort of creation by one person using bot characters, etc. hmmm. i wondered whether people paid to watch their avatars (read: cartoons) do things that . . . never mind, i didn’t want to know and i quickly left. i then encountered a casino with nobody in it. yet, i could walk up to a table and gamble if i wanted — i didn’t. interesting, but i again left and kept flying. i eventually came to a neat house with open doors. i went in and nobody was home. i decided to make myself at home and fiddle around. it was pretty nice.

i don’t see the education application in my own experiences thus far, but i am not really looking yet as i am just trying to figure out how to best navigate the environment. i do know that one of our students at GVSU has created a museum (she’s an art teacher) and she’s placed paintings in this museum. her students can go into the museum and click on a painting. the painting will tell all about itself and help the kids learn more about the art. the teacher can cater the message being heard to help meet the course objectives, etc. that’s something that appears to be ideal for this environment. i am sure i will figure out much more in the near future. but, i am really trying to pace myself. i think i’ll make this my sunday evening experiment and that’s it. ;~)

Technorati Tags: Virtual Reality, Second Life