ElasTECHlearning

We are about two weeks into having a fully deployed fiber optic network across the district. Depending on who you are and what you do you should experience improvements that are obvious to ones that are subtle. I know that when we move data around the network we have sometimes shaved tens of minutes off the process. I know streaming content is more fluid. I know we can download large data files, like updates, in a reasonable time frame.

That’s not to say that the network is perfect – there is still work to be done. Things inside the district that might slow you down are:

• Old machines
• Old Airports (yes. Airports.)
• Bad wiring

We also have a bottleneck getting out (and back) from the Internet. We can now use our entire allotment of 13 Mbps down from the Illinois Century Network, that is still a pretty narrow pipe for 2000+ machines looking for access. (FYI – before our new AT&T fiber network was installed we had a grand total of 4.5 Mbps network access. Now we have 13 meg to the Internet & 100 Mbps in between buildings.)

All of these things we are working on, and some will show results earlier than others. The first four buildings to be rehabbed in the Master Planning Process for instance will be outfitted with new network cabling, wifi access, hard-wired ports & some new switches. Also, there are some options for us to increase from our existing 13 meg access, and as always we are looking for ways to upgrade machines.

Have you noticed a change for the better? What change do you still want to see?

A good, eye-opening read.

Measuring 21st-century skills Articles – ISTE unveils new tech standards for teachers.

• Northern Illinois Computing Educators – Welcome

  tags: illinois, education, ice, nice, conference

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Chicago can seem like a big scary city. There are a lot of great and fun things to do, but it is also easy to get off the beaten path and find trouble. The Internet is a lot like that. It can be an amazing resource for knowledge, creativity, research, and fun, but you can also find trouble. Just like you wouldn’t allow your child to wander around a big city like Chicago unchaperoned, so to should you monitor your child’s activity on the Internet.

If you don’t spend a lot of time on the Internet discovering it’s many secrets may seem like a daunting task. It doesn’t have to be, and it might lead to greater communication between you and your children. Here are some basic safety tips.

• Educate yourself
  • Find out what goes on at Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites. Find out how chat, IM (instant messaging) and file sharing work.

• Communication
  • Talk to your children about protecting their identity online. Stranger danger exists on the Internet too – the false sense of safety on the Internet might make it seem all right to give out information to strangers. Don’t!
  • Find out what sites your children visit. Start a conversation about why they are drawn to them and what makes them exciting.
  • Talk to your children about pornography and other inappropriate content and what to do if they come across it.
  • Talk to your children about bullying and hate speech. Give your children options on how they can talk to you about these difficult subjects.
  • Manage your children’s time on the Internet. The Internet can be an appropriate place to work and play, but young people shouldn’t have free range at all times.
  • Keep computers out of children’s bedrooms. The best places for computers in homes with young children are out in the open where usage can be monitored.

The Internet is enormous and ever expanding. No one person can know all of it, but if you start to educate yourself now you can begin a healthy conversation with your child about staying safe.

We have compiled some links to start your conversation about web safety. Head to following web address to check them out: http://tinyurl.com/62websafe.

The Administration Building & Algonquin Middle School are up & running on the new AT&T fiber-optic network.

We are planning on turning on three more buildings Tuesday November 3; Forest Elementary, Central Elementary, & Building & Grounds.

Stay tuned for more.

In case you haven’t heard, our transition to AT&T’s fiber optic opt-e-man network was successful. Currently the Admin Building & Algonquin are up and running. We are confidant that the whole district will be switched over by Thanksgiving.
We are experiencing a real increase in speed, resources that were not open to us before are now available, and we can download… stream, you name it! This is exciting.

Just want to let you know that I appreciate being allowed to talk at your staff meeting. And again, if you think I can help out with tech integration in your classroom don’t hesitate to email me. We’ll always have YouWho.

Here’s a link to my Diigo account, specifically the tag Education. That long list of blogging educators, Support Blogging, is in there.

Sonoma Underground,
originally uploaded by sethbowers.

I shot this pic the last week of September with my iPhone. I am standing in the administration parking lot and Forest Elementary is in the background. In the foreground are workers from Sonoma underground. They are boring underground to install conduit for our new fiber-optic network. We are still on target for a 2009 install!

Wiki.com is very cool. Think of it as Google for wikis. The site let’s you choose to search all wikis, just Wikipedia, all "indie" wikis, or just encyclopedia style wikis.

• Wiki.com

  tags: wiki, search, web2.0, searchengine, wikis, tools

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Since the FCC has just put the kibosh on telemarketing robocalls (see New York Times article) I thought it might be helpful to post a link to the National Do Not Registry for all kinds of unsolicited telemarketing.

If you want to call to sign up for the Do Not Call registry the number is 1-888-382-1222.

To register online or to register multiple numbers at once head to www.donotcall.gov.

For more information about cell phones head to the Federal Trade Commission’s page here.

And yes, I’ve registered!