Amazon Cloud Drive @amazon #cloudstorage

Source: http://wp.appadvice.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/music-cloud.jpg

As much as I like my Google storage space (80gigs), my SugarSync (20 gigs free), Dropbox (4 gigs free), I have to admit that cloud storage is a bit scattered. I'm obviously overpaying Google ($20 a year for 80+ gigs) since I only use about 10 gigs. But if I were able to interact with Google the way I do with Dropbox, I'd easily use it a LOT more. Darn, I sure wish Google storage was a bit more like Dropbox or SugarSync...hmm.

Enter Amazon Cloud Drive. Some of the benefits jumping out at me?

1. 5 gigs free to start with. That's my entire music collection (well, I don't listen to all that much)...or about 1200 songs
2. 20 gig bump when you buy an album of music from Amazon (gee, how much is that?)
3. Songs purchased from Amazon don't count against your storage on Amazon. 
4. Amazon Cloud Player which is like iTunes in the cloud...wow! I didn't like iTunes because 1) It's proprietary; 2) It's computer-based...I float among different operating systems and computers in my work by necessity. Sitting on one machine would be crazy. Cloud storage works and I don't have to carry portable hard drives around (although they are great).
5. If I want to listen to music, I can catch it anywhere via the Amazon Cloud Player.
6. The music has to be DRM free. That means I can upload all my DRM free music!
7. I can listen to music in the cloud via my Android phone. Neat!
8. I can upload music (MP3/AAC formats only) from my computer. Too bad...all my songs are in OGG format.
9. You can buy more gigabytes at a $1 per year. Hmm...let me think about that.
10. Doesn't work on IOS, but to be honest, I'm Android.

via this great article by David Pogue.

Some of the drawbacks?

• Lacks an easy interface to use to do mass uploads of documents, etc. I really miss Dropbox's simplicity, or even SugarSync's Magic Briefcase. Too bad there isn't a desktop app (Amazon, don't forget GNU/Linux when you're designing it, ok?)
• A 2gig file limit per file? C'mon, give me a break. You're running this on GNU/Linux servers I bet, so why can't the individual file size be bigger?
• How easy it is for me to move files accidentally uploaded from one folder to another? Say, I accidentally upload 100 documents to my Video folder.
• Is it really going to take 8 hours to upload these files? What happens if I want to go to sleep (or the computer does)? Will I have to restart in the middle? how will I know where the middle is?

Answer to that last question: Not 8 hours. My browser--Chromium on Peppermint ICE--just quit with 7 hours remaining to the upload. Oh well.

Here's part of the letter from Amazon when you visit their site today....

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Get Great #SAT Prep for $45 from @kaptestnews #edchat

Note: Be sure to take advantage of the offer below making Kaplan's SAT/ACT prep available at a fraction of the total cost.

A few months ago, I shared that Kaplan had asked me to review their Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) online preparation course. I wasn't that enthused about reviewing test prep, until my brain woke up and made a connection--my daughter, Aida, was going to be taking the SAT in Spring, 2011. My perspective changed...wouldn't your's as a parent?

So, after checking with my daughter, I let Kaplan know, "Sure, let's try it out." And, that led to the following series shared at the end of this blog entry. My only regret? I wish I'd know about their PSAT Prep; most of you probably know that PSAT scores are used for National Merit Scholar consideration. One of my favorite stories is how, after one student scored very well on PSAT, they started receiving invitations to accept "full ride scholarships" from big universities. Looking for a full-ride is exactly what we're doing in Aida's college search.

That said, the following announcement from Kaplan regarding low-cost Test Prep is a boon to many students who will be pursuing higher scores on SAT and ACT assessments:

In support of the Texas Education Agency’s continuing to make the SAT and ACT free this spring for all public high school juniors, Kaplan Test Prep, for the second straight year, will provide SAT or ACT prep to every Texas high school junior registered for the May or June 2011 exams for a nominal fee of $45 – just enough to cover instruction and materials costs and only nine percent of the normal $499 comprehensive course tuition.  The Kaplan offer is available to all juniors, whether enrolled in public school or private school or homeschooled, now through April 30.    

Find out more at http://bit.ly/eAcmlT

AIDA'S JOURNEY

You can find Aida's "journey" through Kaplan's SAT online Prep course below as a series of podcasts. We just received her March, 2011 SAT scores and saw an improvement of 310 points from her diagnostic test to actual SAT scores in composite score (Math+CriticalReading+Writing). The main improvement--100 points--was in Mathematics and, in Writing, improving by 90 points.

Listen to the series (more to come):

1. Episode 1 - Overview and First Impressions from a Teenage SAT Prep Student
2. Episode 2 - Getting Started with Diagnostic Tests
3. Episode 3 - Finding Out What the Classes are Like

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Top 5 Reasons to Reject CSHB1 #txedbudget #txlege

anyone have a video like this for Texas?

The Impact of Budget Cuts in Education from WNDR News on Vimeo. via Clif Mims

Note - Get the PDF of this document online at the Center for Public Policy Priorities. Here is the text and it's well worth reading. Thanks to CPPP for putting it together!

1. The proposed budget is totally inadequate to meet the needs of Texas.

As we explain in our Overview of House Budget Proposal (CSHB 1) for 2012-13 and accompanying Summary Charts, the House Appropriation Committee’s budget proposal for 2012-13 is 23 percent below the $214 billion needed in All-Funds to merely maintain  the state’s already lean  current services. The proposed budget makes damaging cuts to public education, higher education, and health and human services.  It does not meet our state’s needs. 

2. The proposed budget damages our economy in the short run. In the short run, as the Legislative Budget Board explains in its dynamic economic impact statement, under the proposed budget, Texans will have 335,244 fewer jobs and make 1.7 percent less money in 2013. Cuts will hit every community in the state as our county-by-county estimates show.  

3. The proposed budget damages our economy in the long run. In the long run, the proposed budget damages our economy by dramatically reducing the investment in education that are necessary to prepare our children to be tomorrow’s entrepreneurs, innovators, and workforce.    

4. For public education, the proposed budget offers a pig in a poke. Because the budget is coming to the House floor before the school finance bill, no one has any idea how the cuts to public education would be distributed or what each school district would receive. Because districts are not equitably funded right now—some have much more than others—how the cuts are allocated may produce wide variation in who gets hurt the most. 

Lynn Moak, a leading school finance expert, provides a district-by-district illustration of the dramatic differences the details of school finance can make to individual districts.  The  budget’s  bottom line for public education  shouldn’t be approved without knowing what it means for the children in individual school districts.           

5. A balanced approach is a better choice. The state can minimize the damage from its $27 billion revenue shortfall with a balanced approach that spends the entire Rainy Day Fund and adds new revenue.  Yet under the Calendar Rule that governs consideration of the proposed budget, 

legislators can’t even offer amendments that increase spending from the Rainy Day Fund. When you are fighting a fire threatening the family home, you don’t hold water back.   As we explain in  Using the Rainy Day Fund to Ensure Our Recovery and Prosperity, the state needs to use all its $9.4 billion Rainy Day Fund to foster economic recovery.  While our state does have a structural deficit, saving the Rainy Day Fund won’t solve that problem.  The state needs to use the entire fund.  Additionally, the state needs to add new revenue through fees, closing loopholes, or enacting healthy Texas taxes such as increasing the cigarette tax. The cuts-only approach taken in the proposed budget—which adds  cuts on top of 

cuts—should be rejected. Instead, the state should take a balanced approach to meeting the needs of Texas.     

 Contact: F. Scott McCown, mccown@cppp.org

900 Lydia Street • Austin, Texas 78702-2625 • T 512/320-0222 • F 512/320-0227 • www.cppp.org

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#Moodle Mayhem Meet-Up at TCEA 2011

Read current issue

Thanks to Dr. Richard Smith for sharing his reflections on the MoodleMayhem members meet-up at TCEA 2011 in February, 2011! Wow, that seems like an eternity ago! Lots of great questions were asked and some day (sigh), I'll find where I saved the audio recording of that meeting. For now, we can read Dr. Smith's reflections in his publication from the University of Houston at Clear Lake!

Once again, attending the Texas Computer Education Association Conference (held February 8 – 11, 2011 in Austin, Texas) proved to be worthwhile. One of the more interesting sessions I attended was a quickly arranged meeting of the Moodle Mayhemmembers. Founded by the peripatetic Miguel Guhlin, Moodle Mayhem is entirely focused on the non-commercial sharing of Moodle ideas via its listserv and website. This meeting gave many of the members their first opportunity to meet in real time. The meeting was quite productive and a real opportunity to make contacts.

If you were there, why not share your impressions?

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Unetbootin on Mac Update

A little while ago, I wrote about Unetbootin on Mac. The response from Rezuan Asrah:

Rezuan Asrah said...
I have just tried unetbootin for Mac on 10.6.6 and it didn't work. Hanged when trying to set the bootloader.

I just tried it and the process appeared to fail at the exact same place as Rezuan's comment indicated...here's what it looked like:

Note that with an Ubuntu app, you can preserve files across reboots...sounds like persistent USB!

This was humming along!

This point took forever.

Success! Note that it won't boot up a Mac, but will do a PC.

I've yet to see if this is a persistent USB or not, but I will let you know! In the meantime, it's great I was able to take Peppermint ICE ISO and make it into a bootable USB Flash drive! What a time-saver not having to boot to GNU/Linux or Windows to make this happen! And, if persistence is possible, wow.

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Last Minute - PBL Homework Assignment Help

Source: http://www.organisinganevent.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/last-minute.jpg

Over the weekend, someone sent me the following email asking for last minute help:

I thank you for putting your problem based guidelines on the web. I am a teaching student and I must try to pull together a pbl lesson plan by saturday. I will be using the topic of the lack of parental involvement in middle schools. we have to start at the problem, go through the research, using technology and media to present our position and come up with real life possible solutions. I am going to try to use your guidelines to make this happen. I am scared to death. Do you have any pointers to help make this happen in only two days?

I'm guessing this person was referring to my posts on Problem-based Learning. Although I was on the road when the request came in, I took a moment on waking up on Saturday morning to write down the following...it came pretty quickly since I can almost do this in my sleep:

Saturday? That's today...less than 24 hours. I wish you all the best!8-> 

Seriously, this may be helpful to you:
http://itls.saisd.net/pbl/links/documents/PDF/problem_flow.pdfhttp://itls.saisd.net/pbl/links/documents/word/Unit_plan.doc 

When creating your problem, follow these steps:
1) Map out your problem...these are questions about the problem you want to see students answered.
http://itls.saisd.net/pbl/links/documents/graphics/Immigration_map.gif 

2) Connect curriculum to your map. What curriculum standards/objectives do you want to connect to specific questions. Questions that don't lead to curriculum objectives can be identified as areas to cut out. This is called "Curriculum Map"
http://itls.saisd.net/pbl/links/documents/graphics/Immigration_cmap.gif 

3) Craft a problem narrative that introduces students to the issues that will lead to curriculum objectives. This is called "Meet the Problem" or problem engagement:
http://itls.saisd.net/pbl/links/meetproblem/index.htm 

4) Now that you have this done, follow the Problem Flow with your students (the first column, Strategies and Tools). It looks like this: 

a) Give students the narrative or project it on the wall. Have them read it together. 

b) In order to help the person/people in this problem, based on our reading of the problem, what do we KNOW for certain? These are "in the text" questions that help us list the facts...save guesses or hunches for the next step. You could use a KWHL chart for this, too.
http://itls.saisd.net/pbl/links/documents/word/KWHL.DOC
--What do we know based on our reading of the problem? (K)
--What do we want to know about this? (W)
--How are we going to find this out (H)
--And, after the activity has moved on, what have we learned about this problem? 

c) Ask them, "What hunches do you have about this problem? What guesses do you have?" Write those down on the board or type them up in a column called "Hunches" 

d) What do we need to know about this problem that we don't know? Use your map of possibilities to help guide YOUR understanding (as teacher). List all the questions.
Prioritize these questions as most important to least important. 

e) Now students, who are the stakeholders in this group, the people to whom this matters? Obviously, there's the person suffering the problem. But there are also others. Tease out of the discussion who these stakeholders are and write them up on the board/chart. 

f) Ask students to help you sort questions--need to know--into the different stakeholder groups. "Ok, now we're going to divide up into these stakeholder groups so we can develop a solution from a stakeholder's particular perspective."
Finally, before turning the groups loose to do the research on their solution to the problem from a stakeholder's perspective, you need to help them understand HOW to do the research. What are some ways we can find out the information we need to solve the problem? 

This is where the 2nd column of the Problem Flow document comes in handy, allowing you to use an information problem-solving approach like the Big6 for Middle to adult students, or the Super 3 (Plan, Do, Review) for K-5 students. 

This is just a quick overview of the process but short of actually speaking to you and guiding you on the phone, it's the best I can offer via email! I hope you'll take advantage of the Problem Flow as a "planning document" to guide you, as facilitator of problem-based learning, through the process. 

I encourage you to read 5 Steps to PBL-Enhanced Professional Development to provide more background for you:
http://www.mguhlin.org/2010/08/remembering-pbl.html

How would you have responded?

The response that came back was fun to read:

OMG. This was awesome. I will let you know how I did on the project and how your email helped me.

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#DIY - Make Your Own Bootable #USB #Flash Drives on #Mac

http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

There's a new button on the UNETBOOTIN web page...you can now use UNETBOOTIN to create bootable flash drives on Macintosh! This is a great step forward and exciting. Until recently, you couldn't use Mac to create a bootable flash drive of a GNU/Linux distribution easily with UNETBOOTIN (see how I qualified that? sigh). I explored the lack in the articles linked in this blog entry.

Although I've created bootable flash drives using UNETBOOTIN, as well as USB Universal Installer, none of them worked on my Macbook. I always had to create a CD from an ISO file...and booting from CD takes such a LONG time, as compared to a USB flash drive (about all I carry these days).

Although I don't have time to try it now, I'm looking forward to trying it sometime this weekend, creating a bootable flash drive that will work on Mac. Keeping my fingers crossed!

http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

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#iPad Browser Experimentation with #Moodle

There's an iPad sitting in my office at work, and I'm loathe to try it out. But, I must since it will be a key part of a new initiative (grant-funded, I hope). Of course, accessing Moodle via an iPad is important. Although the latest version of Moodle 1.9.11 allows for a more friendly HTML editor to browsers like Google Chrome, etc., and I've already effected an upgrade, I was thrilled to read the following tip from Jon Fila:

1. Download the Terra browser. It's free. It looks better than Safari (more like Chrome).

2. Click on Settings, it looks like a cog just like on the homescreen on the top right.

3. Click Identify As

4. Select FireFox 3.6

With Terra browser on iPad, apparently you can take full advantage of the HTML editor in Moodle. I'm not sure if Safari on iPad would work with HTML editing on a Moodle 1.9.11 site, but it appears Jon's solution will regardless.

I'm looking forward to giving this a try sometime next week! In the meantime, anyone else tried it?

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