Just finished an interesting article from Mashable and video from TED.

There is nothing new in the idea that the Internet is allowing fringe groups and eccentrics to cluster together on the Internet. You can argue whether that is a good or bad thing, but it was interesting to think about how our own preferences searching with Google are being tailored to our tastes without our knowledge.

In a world with unlimited information we are coming to so heavily rely on search to help us find things. What can we done to prevent the “wool” from being pulled over our eyes by our own choices and preferences?

I often find inspiration in the odd article that challenges my thinking or shows my something that is way outside my “normal” worldview. Can I have a tab that allows me to see some of the articles that Google doesn’t think I’ll like?

In a recent blog post by Saul Kaplan he observes:

“Everywhere we turn, it seems there are experts claiming that the best path forward is to engage people with elements of competitive play.”

The article is a good overview and summary of some of the emerging conversations around the area of worker motivation and productivity.

Anybody who doesn’t think this has huge significance in education is asleep at the wheel. Just the thought of gaming, both video and paper/board based, bring back fond adolescent memories of every from D&D, Sonic the Hedgehog, BattleTech, Street Fighter, etc… I can actually see how many of the games I played as youth shaped my critical thinking and problem solving skills.

Most importantly this goes beyond merit badges and silly point boards. There is an honor and prestige to being the first solve a difficult game or find an unexpected hack/bug. This should and can be transferred to learning and exploring.

I think we all need to go read, “Reality is Broken“.

So, I think we all have delusions of greatness when it comes to coding. I recently wrote a PHP script that allowed to batch edit over 20,000 wiki pages at once and I thought I was the king of the world. Of course it took me 4 hours to research and write the damn thing but it work, no matter how inefficient it might be.

In today’s world, I believe there are to many folks that just don’t know anything about programming or basic computer programming concepts. This limits there ability to leverage computers for simple and repetitive tasks. Plus if all you’re doing is spending time doing those tasks, maybe you should be replaced by a computer.

With that in mind check out these great tutorial and programming links that have come through the blogosphere lately:

• Waterbear, easy javascripting
• Free Ruby Books, from ReadWriteWeb
• Learn to Code Online, Mashable
• 3 Books on jQuery, from ReadWriteWeb

It seems like everything we do today is tied to data. On the front this seems like a good thing, but what about when you’re measuring the wrong thing?

As pointed out in this great blog post by Adam Richardson, you need to make sure that your metrics and rewards actually contributing to the desired behavioral change.

I think it is also important to reflect on Albert Einstein’s genius:

“Not everything that counts can be measured. Not everything that can be measured counts.”

To often we pat ourselves on the back because we measure something and the number we get back is what we are looking for, but do we always spend enough time thinking about what we measure in the first place?

Good article form ConnectedPrincipals:

http://www.connectedprincipals.com/archives/3367

The flipped classroom model was some really interesting components. What I love most is that it implies that low level cognitive tasks should and can be mastered alone. It also forces a focus on tight, well-planned direct instruction and an increase of application of concepts in the classroom. Sounds pretty 21st century to me.

It was a much nicer day today. It began at a small non-Starbucks coffee shop were I was able to get a brilliant vanilla latte and berry scone. The way a day should begin!

First up was an 8am session on brain research for teachers. This is an Ed Meme that seems to be growing. At least two books I’ve read in the last 6 weeks and several of my ASCD sessions have mentioned neural plasticity. This session actually dove into some of the specifics about the brain.

Key points from the various wonderful presenters:

• We tend to know things two ways by Brain Patterns and Brain Programs:
  • Brain Patterns are the larger thinking or reasoning schema that allow us to connect and interpret new concepts of ideas.
  • Brain Programs are the tasks or behaviors that become easier with practice
• There are many myths about the brain.
  • We actually use 100% of our brain or our bodies natural functions would prune the unused parts.
  • Learning can continue at any age
  • Right and left brain are silly archaic notions. The brain normally works in concert with both hemispheres of the brain.
• Genetics is less significant than environment when it comes to brain development or potential.
• Information must be used/processed by our higher order executive functions or it will most like be pruned by our brain and forgotten.

Many great bits about how brain basics could be considered in education and well-being.

Next was the general session with Peter Reynolds. It was good but not what I was expecting. I felt like he spent to much time showing us products that could be purchased from his company and that the story is one that we have been told many times. While it was a bit cliche there were some good points:

• I loved the idea of “Twinergy”. It is sooo true!
• I agree that visualization is a critical skill that allows us to demonstrate complex ideas in a much easier to understand way.
• One caring teacher can change a life.
• It was exciting to see the possibilities of igniting a students  innate gifts and giving them the chance to shine.

After a wonderful sushi lunch with the curriculum crew, I headed  to see Doug Fisher.

Without even getting into the content of the presentation Dr Fisher had one of the best actual presentations of the conference. He modeled the concepts he discussed and used visuals in a highly effective manner. It was a pleasure to watch.

As for the content:

• Use questioning to uncover and prevent student misconceptions.
• Remember that scaffolding is supposed to be a temporary structure in the classroom.
• Remember to continue using appropriate questioning strategies with students that are struggling.
• To make a student stop thinking….just give them the answer.
• Student struggle is a good thing, give them a chance to think and struggle. Don’t just give answers.
• Then my battery died, but their were a few great tweets that help me stay in the conversation…..

Finished the afternoon with an amazing eclair from Papa Beards Cream Puffs. SOOOOO GOOOODD!!!!

It started out a dreadful day. Raining with a ridiculously long line for coffee. Skipped the coffee so I wouldn’t be late for Gary Stager.

The session was about 20 things that he had learned about 1-to-1 education. He made/had a few great points/quotes:

1. Does the child learn to program the computer, or does the computer program the child? – So relevant in the context of the book I’m currently reading.
2. Laptops tend to be amplifiers of a teachers ability, for better or worse.
3. Using computers to do the previously impossible should be the focus, not flashcards (i.e. AR, Study Island, Education City, etc…).
4. The focus of computer has been shaped by the limits of a once a week 40min block of time. This is very much a similar message voiced by a friend and college Matt Federoff in his presentation, “The Death of the K-5 Computer Lab.”

Next was the general session. There was an incredible student ensemble playing. George Lucas did a taped intro, super LAME! The Chip Heath did his presentation on the topics of his book , “Switch“. Great book which I had read a while back. Good read on change theory with an interesting neural plasticity twist. Key points:

1. Do students and teachers have a 1-click solution to learning?
2. Beware  Fundamental Attribution Error
3. Change is possible if you can appropriately apply different logical and emotional appeals.

Finally, I check out a best practices in social media session. While the presenter was very passionate, the content was a little too generalized. I get that much of what is available with social media is easily self-taught, but it would have been nice to have a few more concrete examples. The stories were a good example of how a doer can achieve some interesting things in a “flat” world.

My other may take way from today, is that I’m finally starting to understand how Twitter can be a useful tool. I’m still a bit skeptical but I’ve seen in used in some powerful professional ways today.

So, there has been a lot of interest in how to build your own school services such as blogs, wikis, and social network. This session is dedicated to understanding the basics of how you can setup a basic social networking sites for your class, school, or district.

To accomplish this task we are going to need to learn about a few things:

1. Server Virtualization
2. DNS basics
3. Linux LAMP
4. WordPress and Buddypress

Server Virtualization

Basically virtualization is software/hardware that allows you to run a complete operating system on an existing machine as through it is a different physical machine. This allows a systems resources to be maximized and for an end user to interact with an operating system independent of the underlying hardware.

We are going to use Virtualbox by Oracle an open-source virtualization tool for this session. It is quit easy and can be used on Windows, OS X, and just about any variety of Linux.

1. Install following the directions in the user manual.
2. Configure Example VM settings
   1. Copy Example.VDI folder to your VMMachine Directory
   2. Adjust VM settings to suit your machine
   3. Start it up.

VM Setup after install:

1. Update Current Modules
   sudo apt-get update
2. Upgrade your server to latest software and patches
   sudo apt-get upgrade
3. Install openSSH server so that you can use a terminal to control server
   sudo apt-get install openssh-server
4. Open terminal session your platform of choice and ssh into the box
   ssh bpadmin@<your-ip-address>
   (You’ll be prompted to add the RSA Key, type “yes” and then input your password.)
5. Setup Webmin on your server using APT repositories
   1. Add Webmin APT repository to server APT sources
      sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
   2. Add Comment and Webmin URLs
      ##Webmin Repositories for web-based server administration
deb http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib
deb http://webmin.mirror.somersettechsolutions.co.uk/repository sarge contrib
   3. Fetch and install my GPG key with which the repository is signed
      cd /root
wget http://www.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc
sudo apt-key add jcameron-key.asc
   4. Update your repositories and install webmin
      sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install webmin
   5. Test your webmin install by navigating to https://<your-ip-address>:10000
   6. Your get an untrusted certificate warning (This is normal unless you purchased a 3rd party certificate, which is totally unnecessary.)
   7. Accept it.
   8. Login using admin user info.
6. Configure local DNS using Hosts file
   1. Server DNS
      1. Set up an entry for host server in the /etc/hosts file
         sudo nano /etc/hosts
      2. Add line with server reference to end
         <your-ip-address> buddypress
      3. Check your DNS by pinging your URL, it should have the IP in the response.
      4. Save
   2. Client DNS
      1. Setup an entry on your client machine, this various depending on the flavor of your OS.
      2. Check your DNS by pinging your URL, it should have the same IP as the server
7. Begin our LAMP (Linux, Apache, MSQL, and PHP) server setup (Adapted from HowtoForge.com)
   1. Install MySQL database server
      sudo apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client 
      1. Set up a strong root password
      2. Check MySQL in command-line
         mysql -u root -p
         (enter password)
      3. We’ll check the status of the server with a sql command (the semi-colon is critical)
         show status;
      4. Exit MySQL Shell
         exit;
   2. Install Apache2 server
      sudo apt-get install apache2 
      1. Open your web-browser and check your apache server at both IP address and buddypress URL. Both should work.
      2. Configure apache2 settings and modules in webmin
         1. Log into Webmin @ https://<server-ip-address>:10000
         2. Click Servers
         3. Click Apache Webserver
         4. Click Global Configuration Tab
         5. Click Configure Apache Modules icon
         6. Make sure rewrite is enabled and save
         7. Stop and start the apache server using the hyperlink in the top right corner
   3. Install PHP5 to use with Apache2
      sudo apt-get install php-5 php5-suhosin 
      1. Restart Apache
         sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
      2. Create a phpinfo file to verify PHP settings
         1. sudo nano /var/www/info.php
         2. Add the phpinfo function to file
            <?php phpinfo(); ?>
         3. Save
      3. In your web-browser navigate to http://<your-ip-address>/info.php
      4. Verify PHP settings.
   4. Add additional useful PHP extensions
      sudo apt-get install php5-mysql php5-gd php5-imagick php5-curl
   5. Your webserver is now ready to rock!

Setting Up WordPress with SVN

1. Install SVN client for linux
   sudo apt-get install subversion
2. Change to web directory
   cd /var/www
3. Use the guide provided by WordPress.org
   sudo svn co http://core.svn.wordpress.org/tags/3.1 .
   
4. Now prepare a database for wordpress install using Webmin
   1. In your browser navigate to https://<your-server-ip>:10000
   2. Go to >Servers>MySQL Database Server
   3. Login using root and root password
   4. Click Create a New Database
   5. Give it an original name (“wpbp”), set character set to (“utf8″), and set collation to (“utf8_bin”)
   6. Click Save
   7. Create wordpress DB user to limit server permissions.
   8. Under Global Options click User Permissions
   9. Click Create new User
   10. Give it a name (“wpdb_user”), a complex password, and give it the following permissions (“select, insert, update, delete, create, alter, and drop”)
   11. Click save.
   12. Now your DB and DB user are ready for the installation
5. Make sure that your wordpress files and directories are read/write for install and default html is removed.
   sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www
   sudo rm /var/www/index.html
6. Configure mod_rewrite in Apache so that you can use pretty URLS
   1. In Webmin go to >Servers>Apache Webserver
   2. Click on virtual server
   3. Click Edit Directives
   4. Find options and make sure that it includes FollowSymLinks
   5. Find AllowOverride and make sure that it include FileInfo or ALL
   6. Save
   7. Start and stop Apache2 server
7. Navigate to our webserver in a web browser and follow the directions.
8. Verify successful wordpress install at your URL.

Setting Up Blog Network and Buddypress

1. Create blog network following directions @ wordpress.org
2. In terminal edit the /var/www/wp-config.php file as described in the article above by adding
   define(‘WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE’, true);
3. Log in and go to >Tools>Network
4. Select sub-directories
5. Follow directions on the “Enabling Networks” page by using copy and paste with terminal
   1. Create directory
      sudo mkdir /var/www/wp-content/blogs.dir
   2. Correct folder permissions for upload folder
      sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/wp-content/blogs.dir
   3. Edit /var/www/wp-content.php
      sudo nano /var/www/wp-content.php
   4. Edit /var/www/.htaccess
      sudo nano /var/www/.htaccess
   5. Log out of WordPress and then log back in.
   6. You should now have a “Network Admin” in the top right corner.
   7. Now we need to make sure that our site permissions are correct with CHMOD
      1. For most installations the following should suffice
         sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www
      2. If you are interested in setting a more hardened WordPress install check out this article
   8. You are ready start building blogs and installing Buddy Press.
6. Install Buddypress plugin
   1. Login in as admin if you haven’t already
   2. Click “Network Admin” in the top right corner
   3. Go to > Plugins > Add Plugin
   4. Search for Buddypress
   5. Click Install Now link
   6. Click the Network Activate link
   7. Make Buddypress theme available to main blog
      1. Go to Sites
      2. Click the edit link under “/” blog
      3. Click theme tab
      4. Enable Buddypress default theme
   8. Go back to main blog admin page by clicking Site Admin link
   9. Click > Appearance > Themes
   10. Activate Buddypress theme
   11. View site

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41468747/ns/technology_and_science-security/

Stalking is always scary, but maybe his view of privacy will finally mature. One can hope.

So, we regularly convert our teachers keynote files to PowerPoint of our partner school districts in Beyond Textbooks. We come to realize that many of the newer templates don’t convert correctly. I have not quite figured out the reason, but the problem is easily resolved by changing the Keynote theme to one of the compatible themes.

Here is the matrix of ’09 Themes and whether or not they convert correctly.

Keynote-Template-Compatibility