TechIntersect

Yesterday I had lunch with Dr. Chris Sorensen, who calls himself a “simple country physicist” but in fact is Kansas State’s 2007-08 University Distinguished Teaching Scholar. His list of accomplishments during his 30+ years at K-State is quite long, and some of them I cannot even pronounce. But certainly not the least of these is Outstanding Doctoral and Research Universities Professor of the Year.

So why would such a distinguished professor take the time to have lunch with and visit with me, a very junior and nontenured assistant professor from a different campus?

Because I asked him to!

One of the most important things I have done since I began my career in higher education is developing a network of mentors. You could think of it as old-school social networking. There is an old saying that goes something like this: “People who matter don’t mind, and people who mind don’t matter,” and I have found that it’s usually true.

Last spring, Chris was to give a talk at K-State called “A University Without Walls“. I had never heard of Dr. Sorensen before the talk was announced, but I became so excited when I read his abstract calling for a more interdisciplinary approach I e-mailed him to tell him I was coming. He must have thought I was some sort of nut, but he was gracious and suggested I introduce myself at the lecture, which I did.

These things often have a strange way of progressing, and I wound up running into him a number of times in unexpected places throughout the year, and he always remembered me! I don’t know if he’s read Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, but he lives it because he learned and remembered my name.

So What Did I Learn Yesterday?

I think it is absolutely vital that as teachers we all find someone to talk to every once in a while; someone who resonates with us and shares our outlook on life. Even though I’ve only known Chris a very short time, and only been able to visit at length with him once, I feel like we do have similar philosophies in spite of our different backgrounds.

For example, we discussed our respective military careers and how the experience shaped who we are today. Chris said because of his, he can eat a lot of $!&@. Hmmm, I thought. I’ve eaten a lot of $!&@ too. In fact, nothing that the university has been able to serve up compares to that which the Navy provided me with, but sometimes I forget to remind myself of that fact. Talking with Chris, and having that shared experience helped me to see things in proper perspective again.

We talked for over an hour. He seemed to be interested in my presentation at K-State’s Faculty Exchange for Teaching Excellence next month. I will be presenting a talk called “Teaching In The Intersection: Playing In The Street Without Getting Run Over” and our conversation seems to be stimulating some ideas for that.

Don’t Isolate Yourself

I guess the point of this post is to encourage you to seek out others where you work who can help you become better at what you do. Don’t be afraid of the “movers and shakers” because so often they benefit from knowing you as much as you benefit from knowing them. But you must be sincere in your efforts, and not superficially choose to interact with people just because you think it might be helpful in advancing your career. I seek out people with whom I have a genuine interest in knowing. Usually there is something that they have said or written that sparks an interest in my learning more, and it develops from there.

Tags: networking, professional development

While I rarely read a fictional novel, I will sometimes read biographies and other works of non-fiction for entertainment. This week I’m reading Alan Alda’s “Things I Overheard While Talking To Myself“. The book caught my eye in the school library because I’m a fan of the TV show M*A*S*H, in which Alda starred. I wasn’t really expecting to find much there to write about in my blog, only something interesting to read.

But I had forgotten that Mr. Alda hosted the PBS series Scientific American Frontiers and has a keen interest in science. While reading his book, I discovered a new brother– someone who appreciates both art and science, and constantly looks for connections between the two. I discovered a kinship with someone who shares with me a similar view of the world and of life. He writes:

Allowing this childish curiosity to continue on through my whole life has given me satisfaction and maybe even a sense of meaning. It stimulates a part of my brain that registers pleasure; and whether it has meaning or not, it feels as though it does. No matter how old I get, I have the feeling that if I can keep this curiosity flame lit, I’ll see the world in a way that never gets stale…

That’s it! That is precisely how I feel! I never want to stop learning and I don’t care if what I am learning about has a practical value or not as long as I am enjoying what I am learning. How can I convey this love of learning to my students? I can certainly identify with having apathy. I wasn’t always an eager student. It took me many years in the “University of Hard Knocks” to discover that I did have what it takes to be a successful student and an eager learner. How can I help my students bypass the drudgery and get to the love of learning straight away?

Interestingly, in a graduation speech (Alda’s book is full of graduation speeches) to a group of CalTech graduates, Alan Alda has some recommendations:

I’m asking you today to devote some significant part of your life to figuring out how to share your love of science with the rest of us…

Like the young man so head over heels about his sweetheart, he can’t stop talking about her; like the young woman so in love with her young man, she wants everyone to know how wonderful he is… show us pictures, tell us stories, make us crave to meet your beloved.

Don’t just tell us science is good for us and therefore, we ought to fund you for it… be lovers!

Look, we’re accustomed in our culture to know when a commercial is coming. We know how to turn it off. But love we can’t resist. (read the full text of his speech here)

This is where so many teachers go wrong; it’s where I’ve gone wrong. We get so caught up in being taken seriously. We want to be viewed as the expert. We want to wow them with our knowledge, and we forget to show them our love and our passion for what we are doing.

I have decided that to show my passion for what I do, I will no longer be afraid to have a little fun and to be a little silly to make my love for my subject known to my students. If I lose some credibility with some because of it, I’m not worried because I am being my genuine self. I am a little silly, I do like to have fun, and I do love learning! I want my students to see that the stuff I teach doesn’t have to be tedious and boring. I think we can have deep, serious learning while still being a little silly at the same time.

It is an interesting paradox. Recall the young man and young woman in love that Mr. Alda speaks of– few people are sillier than when they are first enjoying a new love, but few people are more serious at the same time. Somehow if we can only convey the romance, the excitement, and the true joy of learning, how can we fail as teachers?

One of the things I most enjoy is discovering relationships between art and technology, and one such relationship exists in Pointillism. Each year I do a Pointillism project with my students , with some pretty cool results as they discover the process by which a digital camera makes a photograph by recording thousands of tiny little dots of color.

I really think it is fascinating that Georges Seurat explored the possibilities of optical blending of color in his Pointillist paintings over a hundred years ago, and our most modern of technologies, the digital camera, uses a similar concept.

I will never forget standing in front of the “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte” painting by Seurat at the Chicago Art Institute staring in amazement. It is so big, and powerful; it sucks you in. It is posted online, and they have a tool with which you can zoom in to have a closer look, but you really must see it in person to fully appreciate it.

I do my best to convey a sense of appreciation for the past while exploring technology in these Pixel Pointillism projects. When we make these pictures as a class, it is always fun to watch the students as the pieces come together and they attempt to identify who or what is in the picture.

Marilyn and Mt. Rushmore were drawn by hand with paper and pencil, while Elvis and Jack Nicholson were printed on a laser printer from a computer. All projects are composites, with multiple students contributing a piece of the work, not knowing what the end result would be. I think the paper and pencil ones are more distinctive and interesting because while each person has an individual style and interpretation of how the pixels should be drawn, when all of the parts are put together, it still works out nicely.

Tags: art, digital photography, Pointillism

I marked this day on my calendar a year ago because I didn’t want to let the occasion pass without pause and reflection. On November 12, 1987 I entered into the realm of King Neptune, in hopes of gaining the title of “Trusty Shellback”. For those unfamiliar, a “Trusty Shellback” is one who has crossed the equator aboard ship and successfully endured the acompanying ritual hazing.

(This cartoon by my friend and shipmate Eric Thibodeau sums up what was going on at the time. Check out his fascinating website if you have some time. His career and personal development are nothing short of amazing!)

Lengths of firehose were cut and fashioned into a “shilleleigh” with which the initiators could beat on “slimy polywogs” or sailors who hadn’t yet crossed the equator. In 1987 on my ship the USS Cochrane, the old-style intiation was still administered with a few concessions such as permitting knee protection to be worn by ‘wogs as they crawled around on the deck on hands and knees, but after it was all over, my backside was sore for days! A few years later, as Thibodeau points out, the captain of the USS Missouri wisely limited the initiation to non-physical abuse.

At the time, I remember feeling cheated because I had endured much more than what we were allowed to administer on my second Equator crossing. Looking back, that was just immaturity and our captain was showing great wisdom and leadership by re-writing the rules of the game.

If you think about what was going on at the time, personal camcorders were coming into widespread use. Although these were expressly forbidden during the initiation on the Missouri, our CO A.L. Kaiss knew that anything that happened under his command could wind up on CNN.

The tradition of the “crossing the line ceremony” is an old one, and at times the hazing certainly has gotten out hand. Participation was voluntary, although it was not without peer pressure and chastizement if you elected to sit out.

Perhaps this new world of information in which we live is forcing us to treat each other better. People who behave badly are often exposed on the Internet for the bullies that they are, although some relish the attention.

Handling the Bullies

I think it is important that we help kids understand how to deal with the world’s bullies. I have learned a lot on the subject from the Love and Logic institute. It has really helped me to teach my own kids how to handle teasing.

Last summer at Wakonse, in a room full of 200 people, I cracked up the room when I quipped a quote I picked up at a Love and Logic conference. The audience had just witnessed a tense role-playing exercise involving a stressful faculty interaction including tenure, race relations, and a big bad bully. I suggested that you can disarm a bully by answering crazy talk with crazy talk. Look them straight in the eye and say:

No thanks, I just had a banana!

The room erupted because it is a silly response to a silly situation. Sally Ogden has a great video about teaching kids how to handle the bullies in this way. If only I had known this one-liner, maybe I could’ve talked my way out of the initiation twenty years ago…. Naw, probably not

I just spent an amazing evening with a group of Kansas science and math  educators. After a formal presentation by Kenneth Wesson on brain function and cognition, an impromptu group of interested educators met last evening to discuss how to implement some of the things we have been learning in this conference. Ken is an amazing man, and easily the best conference speaker I have heard in a very long time. He is also the first speaker I have ever seen who was willing to come back for an informal impromptu session with conference participants after the formal sessions had ended! (I heartily give the thumbs up for this man if you need a conference speaker on brain research.)

As the teachers spoke, I began to grasp what is wrong with our education system in this state; perhaps even what could be changed to improve education throughout this country.

Aha! We need to promote innovation.

If there is one thing that we could change to improve the education system, I think it would be to encourage more innovation in the classroom. Our system is designed to encourage conformity. We want our students to conform to the status-quo, and heaven help the teacher who tries to branch out and implement some new instructional methods. There is no support mechanism or reward system in place for innovative teaching. Doing it the same, safe way is what is rewarded, while those who try new methods are ignored at best, and possibly are even punished for their efforts. The end result is our teachers feel powerless.

Human beings have an innate urge to control their environment. Take away all control and you will either have a depressed or confrontational human being. Teachers feel as though they have little control over how and what they teach in the classroom. I recently asked my daughter’s teacher about the science curriculum in the first grade. We don’t really have much time for science with the emphasis on math and reading, was the reply. What?!? We are in a time of tremendous upheaval and opportunity in the world today! We are living in the most amazing time in human history, what do you mean there’s no time for science, I thought to myself. But this notion was echoed by the science teachers I heard last night. Apparently, one cannot teach reading and math while at the same time teaching science.

In listening to the science educators last evening, I got the impression that those who are trying to engage their students in experiential learning activities often go unsupported and unnoticed. If we are expecting improvements in academic performance, this isn’t how it should be. We should reward those teachers out there working hard on professional development, who are learning how to teach better and setting an example of leadership and innovation in their schools.

If I were an Obama advisor.

The time is ripe for change in this country. President-elect Obama ran his campaign on the theme of change. Mr. Obama, I have a dare for you. I dare you to unshackle teachers for a period of one year to unleash their creative solutions on the problems that plague this nation. This means a freeze on formal, government run assessments. Leave the assessment of student learning up to the professionals that we have trained and hired to teach our young people. In other words, LEAVE THEM ALONE for a whole year! Just let them teach! Good teachers pay attention to what they are doing and learn through experimentation. That is the essence of assessment. Finding out what works and what does not work.

Of course, this is a pipe-dream, and Obama doesn’t have the authority to implement what I propose. The real authority comes from our local and state elected officials. The state legislature, which allocates the funding for our schools has the real power to bring about change.

I suggest that a one-year moratorium on state reporting would be sufficient to bring about a radical change in how we teach in this state. It would free up so much time for professional development of our teachers, we would have an an amazing time of innovation in our schools.

Of course, such a proposal would meet stiff resistance. How would we have teacher and school accountability without state reporting. How could we compare our school with the one down the road?

I would argue that the model of freeing up time just to think and create is exactly the model followed by some of the best and most creative companies in the world.

Look at how the best and brightest companies treat employees. Businesses which innovate best do not weigh down talent with burdensome reporting in the name of accountability. Instead, they do all they can to encourage a release of creative energy.

For example, in my week internship at the Wichita Boeing plant (now Spirit Manufacturing) a few years ago, I participated in a weekly staff meeting. My team spent approximately 15-20 minutes on accountability where each staff member brought the team up to speed on the progress made toward personal goals. The rest of the hour meeting was spent brainstorming on ideas of how to reinvent the new company that was forming. What an amazing concept. A quarter of the time spent on accountability for the staff, and three quarters spent on innovation ideas. That was one hour out of a forty hour work week. The rest of the week, the workers were pretty much left alone to do their jobs and do them well, because they are professionals.

Can you imagine if the accountability process for teachers involved a one hour meeting once a week in which groups of ten teachers met with a team leader to discuss the goals they had set for the week?

Little Susie scored an “A” on the math test this week. She’s been really struggling, but things are finally making sense to her. To me, that is a report worth making, because it would provide an opportunity for immediate feedback from colleagues. High fives, congratulations, the works!

Instead we are obsessed with standardized achievement tests, and endless reports that rarely provide any direct, meaningful feedback to the teachers doing the hard work of teaching.

We are in the most amazing of times. The earth is flattening through technology. Paradigms are shifting. Indeed our whole notion of how to be successful through teamwork and collaboration are changing how we do work. These changes need to be implemented in our educational system if we want to prepare our students for the world in which they will live.

I have no illusion that the standardized assessments and government reporting will discontinued at any time in the near future. But I do believe that the time has come to encourage our elected officials and school administrators to start finding ways to reward creative, innovative and effective teaching.

Last night I began to consume Don Tapscott’s new “Grown Up Digital” book with great interest. I was a big fan of “Growing Up Digital” when it was published around a decade ago. I was curious to learn what he has discovered since then.

After only a couple of chapters I can tell that this book will be a fantastic read, telling me much about my students who have reached adulthood completely immersed in digital technology. One thing I find interesting is my own kinship with the Net Generation, even though technically I’m not counted among them.

I was born somewhere between the end of the Baby Boom generation the beginning of Generation X, yet I identify with many key aspects of the current Net Generation. For example, Tapscott talks about the popularity of making mashups… selecting video and audio content created by others and repurposing it into something new. As a high school student in 1983, I remember doing this very thing, albeit with far simpler technology, mashing Bugs Bunny together with Judas Priest on our VCR.

I have always been a fan of recorded media, but what kids today have that I lacked was a global network through which I could share my creations.  I was also using slower, less flexible analog technologies. But I completely understand what is compelling about digital media, and why young people want to be involved with it.

Another thing I share in common with the Net Generation is an openness to diversity and people from other cultures and perspectives. I have to say that this comes less naturally to me than it does my younger counterparts. Having grown up in rural Kansas where the population was composed of nearly 100% Christian Caucasians, joining the Navy and traveling around the world did more to change my perspective than anything.

The current generation is more accepting of differences than any generation before it, and I think that is fantastic. This generation is also more skeptical, and this is no surprise to me. When digital technology allows John McCain to dance like Elvis, I can certainly understand where an attitude of healthy skepticism comes from.

One idea Tapscott mentioned that I found very interesting was the notion that the dynamic of the family is changing. Before this generation, parents were the authority on virtually everything in the household, and the children passively followed the lead of the parents. With the rise of the Net Generation, children are able to know things and be the authority on some aspects of family life; particularly those aspects dealing with technology.

This notion of shared authority also applies in the classroom. As a computer teacher, I have long understood that I will have students who know things about computing that I do not know, and I should be comfortable with sharing authority on the subject. Not every teacher is comfortable being in this postition, but for me it would be disingenuous to behave as though I have all of the answers and know everything my students know.

We live in truly amazing times. I am writing this in my living room easy chair, typing away on a wireless laptop, sharing my thoughts with anyone who is interested from potentially every corner of the Earth. What is even more amazing to me is that I am far from any city or population that could remotely be considered cosmopolitan, yet I regularly converse with people from all over the world. No wonder the current Net Generation is full of hope and optimism; they have been doing this stuff their entire lives!

Tags: millenials digitalmedia

I just read an interesting article on the Chronicle of Higher Education website today entitled “Generational Myth: Not all young people are tech-savvy” by Siva Vaidhyanathan. The article seems to confirm my suspicion that all of the talk of digital natives and digital immigrants isn’t entirely accurate.

As one who teaches digital technology courses on a regular basis, generalizations about this generation’s facility with technology has left me a bit confused since many of the so-called digital natives seem to be as bewildered by some of the technology concepts as their non digital native counterparts.

Vaidhyanathan writes, “I have taught at both public and private universities, and I have to report that the levels of comfort with, understanding of, and dexterity with digital technology varies greatly within every class.” I couldn’t agree more. Some students seem to be truly digital natives, charging fearlessly into the unknown and acquiring new skills with incredible ease, while others can’t quite ever seem to get off of the ground. To make generalizations about “digital natives” ignores the fact that people are people with incredibly diverse skills, interests and abilities.

In recent years, I have been requiring nearly all of the homework assignments in all of my classes be submitted in webpage format, viewable in a browser. My belief is that all students studying computer technology ought to be able to communicate using the language and formatting of the world wide web. You would not believe the grumbling and resistance I have met since making this a requirement.

As long as it’s not a web development course, I don’t even care if they use MS Word and save their document as HTML, as long as my browser can read it as a native web file. But the grumbling comes when I ask students to secure a web host, even a free host such as AwardSpace or 50Webs. Many don’t have the first clue how this should work, even when I provide step by step instructions how to do it, and many really do not seem to have an interest in learning anything about it.

This semester, I’ve permitted students in some of my classes to go ahead and use a Wordpress blog if they desire, while still encouraging them to make their own website. Most elected to use the blog.

I’ll admit that to some degree, I had bought into the mindset that all young people, being “digital natives” would want to learn using technology tools. But my experience in the classroom after implementing some of these kinds of activities made me quickly realize that students today are no different than previous generations. They are a diverse group with many preferred ways of learning.

Vaidhyanathan also writes, “Once we assume that all young people love certain forms of interaction and hate others, we forge policies and design systems and devices that match those presumptions. By doing so, we either pander to some marketing cliché or force an otherwise diverse group of potential users into a one-size-fits-all system that might not meet their needs.”

This semester in addition to teaching, I am taking a course called “Principles of College Teaching.” One recurring theme has been a discussion of preferred learning styles and the different ways of reaching students who can learn better with different approaches.

A question that I raised in class about this as a computer teacher is: Is it possible to recognize the fact that students are diverse learners, each preferring to learn in different ways, and still emphasize certain teaching and learning methods? Professionals in the field of computing have certain ways of learning that are most often employed, and I wonder if students who come to rely on classroom methods that are not available in the workplace will be at a huge disadvantage.

If I always develop digital media-rich methods of teaching computer technologies, am I hindering students who will eventually be expected to teach themselves new developments in computer technologies, often using nothing more than reference books or reading tutorials on websites?

I believe truly great teachers will use everything in their teaching arsenals to communicate the important concepts. But I also think they should be aware of how the life-long learning will continue once students have moved from the classroom into the workplace.

When I started learning about computer technology in high school in the 1980’s, we learned about computer programming, in part because commercial software wasn’t as widely available as it is today. Schools today often completely bypass the subject of software programming. I think we should take a hard look at this development in education. Are we really teaching computer technology if programming isn’t included?

If you have read this far, and are tired of being a Web 2.0 wimp, then I challenge you to do something about it and learn a little about programming! Download a free copy of Alice, and work through the tutorials. (I plan to write more about Alice in the near future.) At least then you will have a rudimentary understanding of how computer programming works. It’s fun, and you will have knowledge that 99% of the rest of the world knows nothing about.

I have challenged my Visual Literacy students to think about the question of where creativity comes from. What things do creative people do to be creative?

At SXSW Interactive 2008 earlier this year, I sat in on a presentation by Jim Coudal, of Coudal Partners on his personal Theory of Creativity. The reason I’m telling you about this presentation is because it was here that I first began to consider what I do in my classes that I teach, in particular those course in which I expect a degree of creative expression, such as the “Visual Literacy” course.

In the past, I have been diving in with these students, many in their first year of college, expecting them to be creative from the start. Part of the problem, however is that I have been giving assignments that are too open ended. Many of my assignments are very open-ended with very few constraints, but according to Coudal, creativity comes from having constraints and limitations to work within.

There is nothing more intimidating to a beginning artist than to stare at an empty canvas and wonder what to paint. The same goes for the beginning blogger who wonders what to write. Experienced creatives know how to set up their own boundaries and constraints to work within. My students usually lack this experience and need to have some of these put in place for them, and need to be taught how to make their own boundaries and constraints within which they can work.

Coudal also suggests that creativity comes from finding a connection between the known & unknown. This is a fundamental principle of learning. Students learn by connecting their known experiences to the new information. So too, creativity does not materialize from nothing; it must have a foundation from which to arise.

Fill your tank

I encourage my students to read all they can and to see as much work of other designers as they possibly can. For my own personal reading this past summer, I began working through a list of books suggested by Chris Crawford in his fascinating book On Game Design. I find it interesting that Crawford recommends to would-be game designers to seek higher education outside of the USA, because American schools are much too narrowly focused to prepare for the work of game design. Thus comes his voluminous recommended reading list, in case you cannot for some reason swing a well-rounded European education. Last year I worked with the librarian at K-State at Salina to make sure we had most of Crawford’s recommended reading available to K-State students. Now if they will only take advantage of it.

Our library also has begun subscriptions to several exceptional periodicals dealing with creativity. Two of my favorites are Communication Arts and Make magazines. I will be encouraging my students to check these resources out as well.

No, this semester we won’t be diving in to being creative right off the bat. I think the students need to fill their creativity tanks up first before they attempt to do anything creative. In the words of the Monty Python doctor replying to the pregnant woman asking what she should be doing, “You’re not qualified!”

Students who haven’t yet examined where creativity comes from, and who don’t have an understanding of getting inspiration and ideas by exploring the work of others are simply not qualified to be creative.

For me, I am at my most creative during times of great stress and/or oppression. After my grandfather died in a tragic accident, I created a digital postcard of a girl playing cards and entered it into a contest in which the juror selected to be included in the Kansas Artist Postcard Series. When I was in the Navy and feeling put-upon, I would often write little sarcastic songs or poems to make me feel better. One time, I created and sold an entire line of t-shirts mocking the weapons officer’s attempts to drive away all enlisted happiness from the ship. They were a popular item for a time with my shipmates. (I hope I am a bit more mature now, but sometimes my orneriness persists!)

Of course you cannot always expect to wait for adverse conditions to be creative. That is why you always must fill your tank with new inspiration. You never know where ideas will come from, but one thing is certain– they do not come from nowhere. Being creative is hard work. Creativity comes from taking talents and abilities that you are born with, and then while exploring the ideas of others, expanding and connecting with new ideas to come up with something entirely new.

I have only been blogging for a few months but I have noticed that I have been less inclined to post since I am working a non-teaching job this summer. Perhaps I have less to say, but I think it is mostly that my thinking has not been as much in the educational realm as I want this blog to be.

My thinking has been very much in the technology realm, however. You could say that much of what I’ve been doing is working as a software engineer/analyst and technical consultant. Officially, I am a faculty intern at the local telecommunications company. I’ve never been that hung up on titles as long as the work I am doing is interesting.

You would think I would have plenty to write about, and I have learned a great deal this summer. Mostly I’ve been re-learning things I’ve gotten very rusty on. I’ve been so busy learning, I haven’t been keeping up with writing about it. I thought I’d take a moment and update you on some of the things I’ve been working on, and how they might be of benefit to a teacher interested in technology.

One of the first things I did was take an old eMachine pc and turn it into a Linux box I could experiment with. I had used primarily Red Hat Linux in the past, but also some Mandrake Linux. It has been over eight years since I have worked with these OS’es. I wanted to try something new, and I’ve heard a great deal about Ubuntu Linux so I downloaded that and gave it a try. The install was easy and friendly, but it had more of a feel of an end-user machine than a server, which is what I was after. Ubuntu looks like it would be an excellent place to start if you’ve been curious about Linux but afraid to take the plunge.

Debian Linux

After a little research, I learned that Ubuntu is a derivative of Debian Linux. The thing that impressed me right away about Debian is it’s lack of corporate affiliation. Back in 1999, my wife’s mother gave us $500 to invest in the red hot tech stock market, something I knew little about. I put it all in Red Hat stock (much like putting it all on Red-7 at a roulette wheel.) I quickly turned that $500 into about $10 when tech stocks tanked. (I learned a good lesson about investing, and no longer buy single stocks of any kind.)

Anyway, I found fully Debian very refreshing in that it is run by volunteer effort in the true sprit of the open source software movement. So I downloaded the installer and went to work building my system. I was after an automatic method of backing up router configuration files, and I had discovered RANCID, the Really Awesome New Cisco confIg Differ. (Anything with “Awesome” in the name has to be good, right?)

After getting my Debian system set up, I went to work getting RANCID working on it. It was a process of trial and error, reading everything I could find on the web about running RANCID on Debian. I’ll admit it wasn’t a simple process, but I was able to finally get things working properly.

Web Server

So, if you aren’t into backing up multiple Cisco router configs, what else with Linux might be of interest to an education technology person? One great thing you can do is set up a web server, which I did on my machine. I installed Apache web server with PHP and MySQL. PHP allows me to write server side scripts (computer programming) and MySQL is a relational database (MS Access is also a relational database, but it’s not free!)

With these tools, I began working on a project that involves looking up addresses in a database and allows potential customers to sign up for the different services offered by the company available to that address. I’m still working on this, but it works pretty slick.

If you want your students to learn about the technology driving Web 2.0, a great place to start is with a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) installation. All of the software you need for free is hard to beat!

Java

I taught Java a couple of times about eight years ago, and then also in the fall of 2007. I had a project this summer that allowed me to write a Java program to automate a task. I wrote a program that read through all of the e-mail accounts on the mail server, finding the ones that have not been accessed for a specified period of time and deletes them, saving a lot of manual administration time.

Newtek Video Gear

I spent a significant amount of time reading up on video gear, since the company provides IPTV video to it’s customers and wants to begin producing local content. Probably the most exciting thing I found was the Newtek Tricaster video studio in a box. If you want your students to have access to some amazing video technology, you might look into a Tricaster. This thing is a video mixer, compositer, editor all rolled into one. I think the live virtual sets is what amazed me the most. If you have ever tried to render a green-screen matte using Adobe Premiere or similar editing software, you will appreciate the live compositing available with the Tricaster. The software in this thing can make it look like you are standing on a million dollar set, when you are really in a small room. That’s the power of a virtual set. I’m hoping my school will purchase one of these things, it’s that amazing!

Teaching

One of the most fun things I did this summer is give one of my networking lectures to the telecom technicians. Most of them have no background or training in computer networks, but they are installing cutting edge FTTH (Fiber to the Home) in all of the communities they serve. It’s amazing technology, and I had a great time explaining an overview of the seven layer OSI model that shows how what they do fits into the larger picture of computer networking.

If you’ve ever had a lecture on the OSI model, you know how painfully dull that can be. I go to great lengths to make my talk funny, interesting and relevant. It was great practice for me as a teacher to make a presentation to this audience. There is another group of techs in another city and I may get the chance to practice with them as well.

It has been a fruitful summer for me, and I’m eager to get back in the classroom next month with stronger technology muscles.

I’m a new fan of science guy Steve Spangler. I had not ever heard of him until someone posted a tweet on Twitter recently about his appearance on the Ellen show. In the Ellen video, Steve fills a bathtub full of cornstarch & water, which creates a sloppy, soupy mixture similar to cake batter. Ellen has an audience member run across the top of the mixture.

The demonstration caught my attention because our chemistry professor at K-State at Salina did a miniature version of the same idea at our school open house last April. She explained that with non-newtonian fluids if you move slowly, the mixture will let you pass, but if you hit it quickly, it will resist you. That is why the young lady was able to run across the top without sinking in.

So of course I had to read more about Steve Spangler. He has a website where one can purchase supplies needed for numerous science experiments, including the famous Diet Coke and Mentos geyser experiment. His patent pending Geyser Tube takes the guesswork out of creating a soda pop geyser. I’m planning to get a bulk pack of those things!

Perhaps one of the more interesting things I learned about Steve Spangler is his Science in the Rockies “boot camp for K-5 teachers who need creative science integration strategies.” It looks like a fun and engaging way for teachers to learn about science, and it looks like it starts today. I will have to book mark that site and try to encourage some of our local elementary school teachers to attend.

Well, I’m off to do some science experiments with my kids!

Tags: science