Ryan Collins

🕹️ Do Something Great! 😄

Author: ryan

  • T3 – June 20, 2013 – Stop using should

    The Problem with “Should”

    Jon Spencer lays out the problems with using should.

    See, the problem with “should” is that it places all of teaching into rigid, binary, either/or, right/wrong boxes. It takes away the individuality, the autonomy, the creativity and the contextual knowledge required to teach well.

    Why you SHOULD stop saying SHOULD

    Julia Suppa lists Why you SHOULD stop saying SHOULD.

    You get my point. Should is really a useless word – it implies that there’s a better way to do something, and you’re not doing it. It also places blame – either on yourself or on someone else.

    Why You Should Stop Saying ‘Should’

    Why You Should Stop Saying ‘Should’

    It puts the focus on what you’re not doing instead of all the things you are doing. Not recognizing your successes and achievements keeps you on quest to fulfill impossible standards.

  • T3 for June 13, 2013 – Subversion, writing, and McDonalds

    Is subversion the only way?

    Doug Johnson writes about the decisions one must make when deciding what to do when your vision doesn’t align with your organization’s goals.

    Writing vs Speaking

    John August brings us a TED talk by John McWhorter titled Txtng is killing language. JK!!!. Mr. August discusses the various differences between writing, speaking, and elaborates on Mr. McWhorter’s take on texting.

    McDonald’s Theory

    Finally, Don Bell uses what he calls the McDonald’s Theory to jump start the decision process with groups.

  • The PirateBox is going Bezerk

    My PirateBox was basically the MK802 Android mini PC with the top part of the case removed. This was to allow better wifi reception. Since I’ll be taking the PirateBox to Cedar Point, I thought I better make it a little be more secure. I stuffed the guts into an Atari 2600 Bezerk cartridge (don’t worry, this was a spare so I can still play Bezerk. I also kept the inside of the cartridge so I can even play this on if I want).

    Before:

    And after:

  • T3 June 6,2013 – Quitting, the box, and a font

    In Pursuit of Happiness

    First up is an impassioned teacher’s resignation video. Her speech won’t be a revelation for teachers. I’m posting it for those out there who feel the same way, You’re not alone.

    One fascinating aspect of watching this on Youtube is the number of I quit videos from other teachers listed in the What’s related section.

    Embrace the box

    Stephen Ransom shares a TED video in which he reflects on how teachers use limitations as a reason not to do something.

    Font Awesome

    This font came up on Twitter from RichLewis007. It’s a font like Wingdings, but with icons like you see in apps and on websites. It would make a great addition to your computer, especially if you are creating help sheets for students or teachers.

  • A PirateBox to call my own

    In a couple of weeks I will be taking part in the Great Ohio Bike Adventure (GOBA), a week long bike ride through several towns in Ohio. As I was planning on how to power everything, somehow I was reminded of the PirateBox.

    A PirateBox is a self contained hotspot that runs a webserver, allowing anyone within range to connect to it and upload or download files. It also has a chat box on the front page for simple chatting needs and a simple image board. The PirateBox grew out of David Darts need to share files with his classes at NYU.

    I first stumbled upon the idea either from Alan Levine or Ars Technica and promptly forgot about it. With low cost computers easily accesible, I thought, why not make a PirateBox for GOBA and see what happens. As I was planning to order a Raspberry Pi (most PirateBoxes are made with a wireless router, but I like doing things the hardway) I was reminded of my Mini MK802 Android 4.0 that I already had. Here was a computer a little larger than a pack of gum with 1GB of RAM and wifi. I installed Debian on it (requires a network adapter since you have to use SSH to control it) and then used these directions to finish setting it up. On caveat, you have to apt-get install python since that isn’t in the Debian image.

    After a restart, it didn’t show up as a hotspot, so I started digging and came across these directions on setting up an access point on a Raspberry Pi. After I replaced the hostapd program with the one from the website and changed the /opt/piratebox/conf/hostapd.conf config file to match the directions, the PirateBox was in business. I also added a 16GB flash drive for shared file storage. It’s formatted FAT32 so I can easily update it from my computer.

    I’ve been carrying it around with me, although I don’t think anyone has connected to it that I hadn’t told yet. On my trip to Cedar Point I’ll be bringing it along to see what bored people standing in line will do with it. It currently has some creative commons works on it (Cory Doctorow book, some Jonathan Coulton songs) and I’ll need to load more before I go. One problem that I have with it is that as soon as I leave wifi, my iPhone latches onto the PirateBox and then nothing works. I end up turning off wifi for now, at least until I come up with a better idea. One other thing I need to do is come up with a better name. I can’t have PirateBox showing up in the wifi settings when I’m in the school.

    Now I’m brainstorming what else I can do with it. I have a 1GHz machine with 1GB of RAM (it’s only using 56MB of RAM) running in my pocket at all time. What neat things can I do with it?

  • Dictionary of numbers Chrome extension helps the understanding of large numbers

    Dictionary of Numbers is a neat extension for Google’s Chrome browser that gives you examples of large numbers in terms that could be easier to visualize. For example, it’s easier to visualize 100M as the height of the Statue of Liberty than just as 100M.



    via: Lifehacker

  • Scheduled posting with Pelican

    After my switch from WordPress to Pelican I realized that there was one feature that I really was missing, the ability to schedule posts in the future. When you have an itch, you scratch it. By using my Linux box at home (you could use an OS X machine also) and Dropbox, I can now schedule posts.

    Prequisites

    On my server I set up Dropbox. There is a script on the Dropbox site that allows you to set it up on headless servers (a server without a monitor, keyboard, or mouse). In my DropBox folder, I created a folder called ToPost.

    The script

    You’ll need to adjust the path to TOPOST and to the SITE.

    #!/bin/bash

TOPOST=~/Dropbox/Elements/RyanCollins.org/ToPost/*.markdown
SITE=~/Development/ryancollins.org

shopt -s nullglob

YEAR=`date +%Y`
NOW=`date +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M"`

for file in ${TOPOST}
do
    DATELINE=`cat "${file}" | grep "^Date: "`
    if [[ ${DATELINE#* } < ${NOW} ]]; then
        mv "${file}" "${SITE}/content/${YEAR}"
        cd "${SITE}"
        make rsync_upload
    fi
done

    Scheduling

    At the command prompt, run crontab with the -e parameter so we can add a scheduled job:

    ryan@serverbot:~$ crontab -e

    and add a line to our script to run it every 15 minutes:

    */15    *   *   *   *    /home/ryan/Development/ryancollins.org/dbupdate.sh

  • Thursday 3 for May 16, 2013

    Forecast.io

    I read about Forecast on Macdrifter. This isn’t your everyday weather site. A couple of things make it unique. On the main website there is a time machine button, which allows you to look at what the weather was in the past. The other neat feature is that if you visit it from an iOS device, it asks you to install it as an HTML5 app. Nice, functional and free.

    IFTTT

    An oldie but a goodie, If This Then That – IFTTT lets you automate web services. For example, I use the Pocket read it later service. I also want to keep a copy of anything sent to Pocket just in case something happens to Pocket, so I have an IFTTT recipe that saves to Dropbox anything that I Pocket.

    f.lux – Better lighting… for your computer

    f.lux changes the whiteness of your computer after sunset, giving it a yellowish hue. This is more pleasing to the eye in the dark and could help you sleep. Availble for Mac, Windows, Linux and jailbroken iOS devices.

  • Ohio Goes Google conference notes #ohiogoesgoogle

    On Tuesday I had the pleasure of attending my first Ohio Goes Google Conference presented by ITIP Ohio. The sessions I attended were very informative, I picked up quite a few different tips and ideas. (I’ll emphasize my thoughts like this.)

    Keynote speaker – Jennie Magiera @msmagiera

    Google Moderator

    The Google Tool that nobody uses was big. Jennie Magiera talked it up, and then Sean Beavers led a session at lunch on it. Google Moderator allows for classroom participation in which the participants can post ideas and vote on these ideas.

    Slides

    • Thomas Edison, Elton John, Peter Jennings all dropped out of HS
    • Competitively College Ready
    • 7 out of 8, 72 out of 100 universities have gone Google
    • Docs story builder
    • Google Forms now has images, dates
    • youtube.com/mathademics
    • blog.mrmeyer.com

    Top five skills

    1. Critical Thinking
    2. Complex Problem Solving
    3. Judgment and Decision Making
    4. Active Listening
    5. Computers and electronics

    Resources

    • http://www.google.com/moderator/#15/e=209e48&t=209e48.40&f=209e48.6adb7c&o=30

    From Jennie: “Here is a copy of my keynote: (PDF) https://sites.google.com/site/­magierapresentations/ohio-goog­le-keynote And more info at my Twitter profile: https://twitter.com/msmagiera”­

    Jennie was a very engaging keynote speaker!

    Becoming a GMail Ninja – John Sowash

    Slides

    • bit.ly/sowash-PD
    • GTD
    • Inbox Zero
    • Priority Inbox
    • Canned responses
    • To do lists

    Resources

    Google Apps in the Office and Beyond – Wes Weaver – principal

    Slides

    • It’s about teaching and learning
      • Share resources
      • Best practices
      • Conference notes
      • Staff meeting accountability
    • Use Sheets to keep track of office tasks
      • students
      • budgets
    • Guidance Dept
    • Use Google Form for student sign off of forms
    • Track major initiatives
    • Calendars
    • E-mail
    • Forms
      • Self-assessment
      • Feedback & input

    Questions

    • Don’t you feel like you’re on a device all the time?
    • Is your secretary available?

    Wes had several examples of where his secretary took the initiative and created Google Sheets documents to make her job easier. Pretty impressive.

    Resources

    Lunch

    Speaker from Google

    I missed his name. 🙁

    • How do we prepare students for a future we can’t see?
    • The web is changing how we learn

    Sean Beavers – Google Moderator

    Sean gave real world examples on how he had used Google Moderator in his classroom, along with a picture of him in shorts.

    Using Google Scripts to Automate Your Life – Jennifer Magiera

    • Doctopus
    • Goobric (Doctopus extension)
    • FormMule (Calendar merge)

    I had not used FormMule before, looks like it could be very handy. Especially for dealing with input into Google Forms.

    Resources

    A must have Google Chrome Extension!

    Changing Google from Bland to Beautiful – Eric Griffith

    • Use Google Drawings
    • Object based, objects can be linkable
    • Use the built in Web Clipboard to copy/paste multiple shapes
    • openclipart.org
    • softicons.com
    • Drag and drop between tabs in Chrome
    • Presentation will be available on YouTube through the Ohio Goes Google web page

    This was a very cool session. A lot of complaints I hear about Google Docs is that fact that it’s hard to lay things out in the document. By use Google Drawing objects, you can add pizzazz to those boring Google Docs documents.

  • HS student decides he’s had enough

    I’m not sure how to take this rant of Jeff Bliss, high school student:



    On one hand, this is obviously a student that values his education and is tired of doing worksheets. Could he have handled it better? Probably. In the follow up video it shows that he is thirsty for knowledge and wants something better for his life:



    It will be interesting to see how the school deals with the situation. What other ways could the student have expressed himself?

    (And just say no to vertical video!!!)