The Gap

In this country, public education is for everyone. The “haves” and “have-nots” are both entitled to go to public schools. Because schools are organized around local school boards and communities, sometimes there is an economic disparity from one school community to another. This isn’t news to anyone. But when we talk about the gap in technology, the economic gap plays heavily.

I work in a suburban, middle class, blue-collar community. The school is the focus of a lot of activity, arts, athletics and academics, and we are very proud of our school. Financially, our school doesn’t carry a lot of debt and our facilities are well kept. We vote to pass our budgets each year, and we are competitive with other schools of similar size and demographics. So, on the whole, we are in pretty good shape. But we still have a gap.

Computer technology is very expensive. You could argue that the prices have come down considerably, but the truth is they never get down to zero. Schools have a tendency to purchase computer equipment in spurts. We get a grant or a bond issue, and we buy a lot of computers and then we coast for a couple of years. Depending on the economy, the tax rate, the local politics, sometimes we coast for longer. Then we get the Technology Gap.

The Technology Gap is the difference between what we have currently, and what we should have. Notice I did not say what we would like to have. The truth is we computer people always want something new, something faster. But what we actually need is usually less. Unless we have coasted too long.

You can tell if your school has coasted too long. If the technology that students are bringing in from home is better than what you have at school, you have coasted too long. If your faculty has better machines at home than they do at school, you’ll know. Network people hate this because suddenly they are being inundated with calls to allow people to connect their personal machines to the school network. Of course in the private sector you would be taken out and shot for that, but schools are a different story.

The truth is that teachers buy stuff for their students and classrooms all the time. Sure we have a budget, sure the school provides us with materials and equipment. But sometimes we buy things because it is the path of least resistance. Even computers. I know two different teachers, in my building alone, who bought their own data projectors just so they would always have access and not have to worry about whether someone else had signed it out or not. These machines are not cheap! But the gap between what the teachers needed (or wanted…) was greater than the school district could afford at the time.

In my district we are starting to see a gap with our operating system. I mentioned in a previous column that I purchased a new gradebook program that was native to OS X on my G4 laptop so I could escape from OS 9. The gradebook program is great and every bit as good if not better than what our administrative computer network has. But I still needed to support myself on the Mac platform.

Our school network gap is between Windows 2000 and Windows XP. The district uses Windows 2000. But, almost every student in all my classes uses XP at home. I mean every single one!

When we migrated from Mac to PC’s, one of the reasons often cited was, “We need our kids to use what they are using out in the Real World.” The fact that we were already using M$ Office was kind of lost in the shuffle. So we use Windows & Office 2000. But, the year is now 2006. Some of the things we are trying to do cannot be done because we are not up-to-date with our software, things such as bringing work back and forth from home. I believe this will all change soon, and we will move up to the next OS and Office Suite. But, when you coast, the gap grows.

There are other gaps too. There is a gap between what kids think they know about computers, and what they really do know. Of course, that is where we educators come in. We de-bunk myths, we educate, we raise the consciousness level. It’s a good job.

Kids Today Got It So Good...

A while back I wrote a column about how I wasn’t in a hurry to have my daughters getting on the Internet. My rationale was that as long as they had better things to do, there was no sense in rushing things.

I have been a two-Mac user for years. I had a desktop at school and a laptop to carry around. But when you move from classroom to office to home a lot, it becomes a pain to remember where all your files are. Yes, I could synchronize my files using my .mac account, or even other programs, but I was using the account space for other things and didn’t really want to use it up with just documents on the iDisk. Also, frankly, I was relying on the Powerbook more and more and just doing maintenance on the desktop. So I decided to set the desktop up at home for the family. How magnanimous…
We put the computer in a “public” area rather than in one of the girl’s bedrooms. Our thoughts were that we could supervise it and restrict use if necessary. Our internet isn’t filtered and also we don’t want them on it all night. Plus, there would be a fight if it was located in one bedroom and not the other.
At first the kids just used the computer to play some games they found buried on the hard drive. Then one day I was burning a music CD from iTunes (all legally paid for…) and the girls saw that. Next thing I know I am burning CD’s for them for their dance class and they are using the computer as a jukebox. I added some Altec Lansing speakers with a big sub-woofer and they had a nice stereo. This was pretty much all right with me, because all the music was from my collection anyway, so I was passing along the music of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s to my daughters… (no disco, no country…)

Our local cable provider runs counter to prevailing public opinion about the cable company. They are always nice to me on the phone and I seem to always buy the next service they offer. We already have a big cable TV bill, and my wife was looking at me with disgust. So I did what any nerdy gadget driven guy would do, I signed up for digital phone service. The people who come to install these things are very tech oriented and I always have great conversations with them. Nerd bonding…

Well, as you can imagine, it was only a short leap to give up dial-up and get cable-based broadband. As I explained it to my very patient spouse, “We’re saving money because now we have TV, Phone, and ISP with the same company!” We probably are saving money, but I admit it isn’t my biggest motivator…

The Cable Woman (Gal sounds pejorative…) told me to run down to Radio Shack for a LinkSys Router and I would have a physical firewall and be able to split my internet connection to both my desktop and laptop computers. I considered going wireless, but because I had gone cheap when purchasing both computers, neither had a wireless card. So we’re wired. Maybe next time…

I did have trouble setting up some sub-accounts so everyone in the family would have separate email. Time-Warner has an on-line feature where you can chat with a support person. It worked great and the problem was solved in about 10 minutes. I am a big fan of this type of support.

The girls were on the internet in about a New York minute! All of a sudden there was stuff to look up for school. My oldest was very involved in looking up stuff for the election. It amazed me that a 12 year old was that interested. There were recipes to download from cooking shows. Emeril and Rachel Ray are the current favorites. We got some books from Amazon, and bought some presents on eBay. Because my younger daughter and I are on a Hot Air Balloon Chase crew, we check our crew schedule and the weather all the time. We also post our pictures from balloon festivals.

So now we have a fast connection, each kid has email, and we’re in the new age. I printed up little business cards for the kids to take to school to hand their email address out to friends. We need to have a training session about not giving our email address out to servers on-line, but so far I am the only one who has broken that rule (see last post…) Our kids still read and do well in school and we aren’t having to fight to get them off the computer. Just waiting for the other shoe to drop…

It Can Happen To The Best Of Us…

A couple of months ago I switched to a cable-based internet service provider because I needed speed and bandwidth. Also, there was a pretty good deal going with digital cable and digital phone. We gadget guys… I had to have it.

The first consequence was I immediately needed to buy a switch to split my signal from the cable modem to two computers. No problem, it wasn’t that expensive and had the added advantage of acting as a physical firewall. Not that I worried too much, my Mac is immune to those “virus thingees.”

The new speed was great! I could see pages much faster, didn’t find myself giving up on a page that loaded a little slower, I could download updates and large files from home and not worry about doing it at work. It was the perfect solution to modern man’s short attention span.

But the best consequence was, by leaving my old email address behind, I left behind all the spam I had been getting! We had been using that old email address for about 10 years. In that time a lot of spammers had added me to their lists. I simply sent out a notice to everyone in my address book that I had “moved” and things went pretty smooth. It was nice to have a “clean” In box everyday. Can you almost hear the other shoe dropping through the air?

But, I am stupid. I was on a site that I go to everyday. I read their columns, participate in forums, all Mac stuff. Don’t ask me which one it was, there are a half dozen on my browser button bar that get read everyday, and I am not sure which one it is. Anyway, I clicked on something that said I could win a free iPod. About halfway through refusing to sign up for a bunch of ads and free trials, I realized my mistake. I backed out and attempted to erase all my data. Too late.

Okay, I know you are all laughing at me. I know better. I teach this stuff in a class for heaven’s sake. Why did I do it? Nobody’s gets stuff for free, nobody gives away a free lunch. Not even to Mac people on Mac-oriented sites. Really.

I guess I thought because it was on a site I had been going to regularly it was legit. When I realized it wasn’t, I tried to undo and thought I had. The very next day I started getting spam from the site. I made a Junk Mail Rule. But it is too late. The stuff is coming in from so many different places. I even considered trying to email the site and asking them to take me off the list. Then I thought, “What, am I crazy?” I am thinking of changing my .mac account information. I don’t even know if I can, and it would be a pain. I never knew how good I had it until it was over…

Learn from me people! Sure this makes a good story. I can use the experience to teach others. But I want my In Box BACK!

Web Blogs and Me

The day I joined Mac Using Educators was the first day I ever did anything with a Web Log. I didn’t even realize the difference between a web page and a “blog.” After a few months of writing for Bill Palmer, I created my own blog page too. A lot of us have done that. Once you get started you just can’t help yourself.

At first, I just wanted a blog for my own articles. When you put your column up at Mac Using Educators, it gets mixed in with all the other people’s work. If I refer a friend, or ask my class to read a column that I have written, I have the option of sending them directly to my site. That way I don’t get, “I went there, but I didn’t see your column, but maybe I just didn’t scroll down far enough.”

Immediately there were problems here at school. Public schools get money from the Federal Government for internet access. But, we cannot have that money without strings attached. We are required to filter our internet access. What schools in our area do is subscribe to a central filter service. We decide what general categories are blocked and then students cannot do online gambling and the like. But, blogs were blocked. I couldn’t read columns and I couldn’t post them.

We have a process to appeal a blocked site and I used it. I can post to my blog, my students can read it, and everything is fine. Well, almost everything. We just had Spring Break, and somebody, somewhere, changed something. Now BillPalmer.net is blocked… What do these filters know about Bill that I don’t?

I hate censorship. Whenever I go to a site that is blocked, I am annoyed. I hear stories from my colleagues all the time about legitimate sites that are blocked. Yes, you can get sites un-blocked, but the process never can happen in a time frame that is convenient. If you spend days setting up a Web Quest by doing research at home, you may find that it won’t work in school because you have to wait a couple of weeks to get the sites unblocked. Talk about a buzz kill…

People use blogs for a ton of different reasons. Some blogs are personal journals, some are photo essays. Our Pediatric Parent Advisory Council at the hospital (parentadvisorycouncil.blogspot.com) has one for parents and families of children with chronic health problems. We set it up while talking on the phone one evening. We had three pieces up in a half hour. Now we can use it as a resource when we give presentations. By the way, I can’t see it at school, it is blocked…

On the other hand, if we don’t filter, we don’t get the government subsidy for internet access. Also, our students look at porn. That would be bad.

The truth is, I would like to do web logs with my students. I would like them to be able to write a web log, work on it together as a class, and post it. I might be able to do it too. But I will have to jump through a whole bunch of hoops first. These are the kinds of issues that make teachers give up. I haven’t given up yet, but I am being realistic.

The Generation Gap in Technology

There has always been a generation gap in Technology. The younger generation has always been a little more comfortable with whatever the next big thing is. Don’t believe me? Spend some time with students and talk about technology. The first thing that will scare you is what they don’t even consider to be technology. They take iPods, laptops, and cell phones in stride. These are not really new and cool to them. These things aren’t even really tech to them, just a natural part of their lives.

I feel this gap, boy howdy do I feel it. I was born in 1960. So microwave ovens, personal computers, laptops, cell phones and iPods are all cool gadgets to me. The whole personal computer revolution took place since I was in high school. Steve Jobs isn’t even that much older than me. When I teach about the history of computers and a good portion of it took place in my lifetime, it makes me feel old.

When it comes to technology, I am just as dependent on these gadgets as my students are. I take them for granted. Too much. When our microwave oven stopped working this past week it was a major crisis. Forget to charge my cell phone? Ouch! Don’t even get me started about the garage door opener…

My daughters have never known a world where Dad didn’t have a Macintosh computer. They have always known how to use a mouse, a cd player, any gadget. We even broke down recently and got a broadband cable internet service provider, and digital telephone service. So they know what a router is too. They are on the net all the time. Which means we have to supervise that now too…

Recently my youngest came home and created a Powerpoint slide show all about herself for class. I teach this in my course in school so you would have thought she would have come to me for advice. Nope. She just up and did it. I only got to help with the saving and transferring stuff. Her teacher, who is stuck in an elementary classroom where they are using old PC’s the size of motor homes, told her to bring her project in on a floppy. She came home and asked me what a floppy was. When I explained that Macs didn’t have them anymore she went back to school and told her teacher that nobody used them anymore. I sent her to school with her project saved on a USB keychain drive.

But the age gap isn’t the only gap and it isn’t even the worst. The worst gap in any organization is the gap between the user/consumers and those who are in the management position where decisions are made about technology. This Generation Gap is between the older generation of technology and the Next Generation of technology. Don’t believe me? Answer these questions: Is your school network locked down so that you can’t do anything on your network? Can you even use the machine without a password? Do you have any say in how much storage you have on the network? Have you ever tried to open a web site that you thought was innocent and couldn’t because of a filter? Ever try to install a printer or other piece of hardware and couldn’t? Who makes these decisions? Is it the end-user? You know it isn’t. It’s “them.”

Almost all organizations, school or otherwise, use security as the excuse to diminish the functionality of the machines we use. Maybe they have good reason. I’m sure they do on Windows networks. But those of us who use the computers every day, are annoyed. We want a computer system that is robust, that is still useful and secure at the same time. Do security and efficiency have to be mutually exclusive?

I’m pretty sensitive to this because my school district is changing from the Macintosh platform to the PC platform. I still use my Macintosh Powerbook for everything but I teach on a Windows 2000 network. About once a week someone comes to me to solve a problem that they cannot handle with a PC. I always brag when the Mac comes to the rescue.

It is especially difficult if you are one of those Early Adopters of Technology. You know who you are. You don’t just have a USB drive, yours is one of those Tiki ones with the light up eyes. You have twice the RAM that anyone you know has. You usually have the next new thing before anybody else has it. If your organization is slow to adopt any new tech, you are in pure pain. “We’ll need to have a committee study that,” are words you hear all too often. Hang in there, you are still a good person.

It’s hard to be cutting edge when you are always being beat down by “the man”…

Everybody Is Still Doing It!

Last year I talked with students in my classes about the issue of music downloading from the Internet. At that time it was the hot topic. The RIAA was suing people, Apple and Pepsi were advertising iTunes, and “Kazaa, Morpheus, Limewire, Gnutella” and many others were the hip words to know. Plus, we received a note from our school’s district office encouraging us to discuss it with students.

When you get a note from up stream in the food chain, you pay attention. But I didn’t just want to tell my students not to steal music. First, I wanted to understand what they thought about it. Was it even illegal in their minds. If they did download music without paying for it, were they nervous? Second, I wanted to have a dialogue with them where we discussed and came to the right conclusion. I can’t help myself, I was a Philosophy major in college, and the Socratic method always worked in the book...

What I found out did not make me or the Recording Industry Association of America happy. Not only did the lawsuits have no effect on my student’s decisions to download music, they didn’t care if it was stealing or not. Basically, their opinions ranged from, “I don’t download enough for the RIAA to care about me,” to “So what? My parents download more than I do.” Nobody was worried about getting caught.

I don’t think Plato himself could convince teens today that downloading music, and movies for that matter, is stealing. Why wasn’t this a topic during the election? Isn’t this a Red State vs. Blue State moral value? Shouldn’t there be outraged parents screaming about the decay of our society? It isn’t. And why is that?

First of all, let’s look at the lesson of the market place. I have learned this lesson, so let me share it with you. I hate going to the mall. So what do I do when I want to buy something? I buy it on-line. My wife discovered the internet for Christmas shopping and loves it. We are busy people. We don’t always have the time or inclination to go to the mall looking for that perfect gift. The internet is open 24 hours a day and you don’t need a baby-sitter to go to it. Or a ride...

Music CD’s and video DVD’s cost money. A lot of money. Kids know this and have found a shortcut. If they can download the music for free, why should they pay for it? If you can get some obscure track from a live concert where your favorite band sings a duet with your other favorite band and it isn’t on any album you know about, you download it. Is it stealing? Hell yes! Is it wrong? Hell yes! But the RIAA has not listened to the chief complaint of kids. Music costs too much. The RIAA has not listened to the lesson of the market.

Even if you buy music legally from iTunes I’m sure you’ve read that the music companies want to raise the download price. We all know Apple isn’t making a lot of money off each song, they are using it to sell iPods. Quite successfully, I might add, as I look at the numbers of iPods I see around school. I completely get why the kids are annoyed with the prices.

But that doesn’t make it right to steal. How can a Conservative get elected president in a country where so many people are ignoring basic moral issues? So why aren’t mom and dad stepping up to the plate here? Why?

Here is why:
1. Mom and Dad are not supervising their kid’s internet access and are not aware that the music is being downloaded. You have to have a wideband ISP to do it anyway, so it goes so fast that nobody is being inconvenienced. Why don’t we parents notice? Because we are busy. Because we are not informed. Because we have good kids who would never do that. Only other people’s kids steal. If it doesn’t appear on our radar, we don’t know it is going on.

2. Mom and Dad don’t have to shell out as much money for their kid’s music, music they don’t really want to listen to anyway, so they are looking the other way. There aren’t huge stacks of LP’s around. We don’t even notice album art on a CD. Most of our kid’s music is either already installed on some kind of MP3 player or on some generic CD that says, “Manny’s Mix.” The music goes directly from the machine to the ear through tiny ear buds. We never have to hear it. The music isn’t appearing anywhere in our consciousness. We aren’t so much ignoring it as not even aware of it. We are not asking questions.

3. Mom and Dad are downloading music too. Yes, the apple (sorry Steve) doesn’t fall far from the tree. Or as my friend always says, “Ducks have ducks.” If Mom and Dad curse and swear around the house, little Johnny learns that it is okay. If Mom eats grapes in the produce aisle and Dad speeds on the expressway, their kids learn that. The excuse my students gave most often for why they downloaded music was, “My parents don’t care.”

Now, I know that with teenagers a certain amount of that just isn’t true. Their parents do care. But the parents cannot care about what they do not know about. Once again, parents don’t usually go looking for problems. Many wouldn’t even think to ask about music downloading. Maybe not until the subpoena arrives.... The kids also believe there are so many people stealing music that they cannot possibly get caught. How can it be bad if so many people are doing it?

Don’t believe me about the numbers? In just two classes, with around 30 people total, kids had downloaded over 9,800 songs. Some more than others, some none at all. The kids say the trick is to not download too many at one time and to not leave them on your computer. You have to burn them to a disk as soon as possible, then erase them. They really believe this prevents them from getting caught. I tried to explain that this will not protect anybody from liability, but until somebody they know gets sued, I am wasting oxygen.

It gets worse. Not only do kids download songs illegally, they turn around and sell them to their friends for a small profit. There are people who make money downloading and selling CD’s to their friends without broadband. Don’t get me started about downloading movies...

I assign students articles, columns, and web logs to read on this topic. Here are some questions students asked that would stun the RIAA:

“What is the RIAA?”
“What is the Recording Industry Association of America?”
“Why would they care what I do on my computer?”
“Isn’t downloading included in the price of my internet?
“Are you sure it isn’t in the price, my mom says it is.”

So then we talked about alternatives to stealing, like iTunes.
“What is iTunes?”
“Doesn’t that cost money?”
“Why should I pay when I can get the same song for free?”
“Why should I pay $.99, that is too expensive!”

The truth is that these are nice kids. They don’t get into trouble, they get good grades, their parents are involved here at school. You can try to explain right and wrong until you are blue in the face. They still look at you like you are from another planet. Forget Red States and Blue States, we need to get our PLANETS to talk to each other.

Interview With Today’s Tech-Savvy Teacher

I have finally reached the point in my career where I am not one of the “new, young, teachers.” It happened suddenly and I wasn’t prepared for it. We computer teachers always like to think of ourselves as cutting edge. Well, if you are any kind of educator, you realize that you are also a lifelong learner. We still learn from the kids and we know good ideas when we steal them.

Melissa Julian is a young English teacher in my building. She does things with technology in her classroom that put me to shame. Why? Not because she can do this stuff and I can’t, not even because she thought of it and I didn’t. Because it comes so naturally to her.

We have a lot in common, Melissa and I. We both like our students, we were destined for this profession, we both like to try new technology. I decided to interview Melissa for a couple of reasons. One, she represents the new wave of teacher in our profession. Two, what she is doing in her classroom is interesting and holds the attention of teenagers, no mean feet. Third, we can all see aspects of ourselves in her. Finally, I’m hoping to recruit her to write articles for this web site. So, for the record, here goes:


J: What was your college major?
M: “Syracuse University Dual Major in English and Textual Studies and English Education. BA and MS in Instruction Design, Development and Evaluation.”

J: Why did you become a teacher?
M: “I knew I wanted to work with kids from working at summer camp.”
J: Did you always want to be a teacher?
M: “I taught my sister to read when I was little. We read together and I taught her how to look at letters.”

J: How long have you been a teacher?
M: “4 years.”

J: You use technology in your classroom quite a bit. Why?
M: “One, it provides an opportunity to go to new places on the internet that kids could never go to on their own. For Example, The Globe Theater.” (Melissa has created a Powerpoint show all about Shakespeare’s Globe Theater.) This is something that is a self-paced, narrated (for students that need it)and that draws students into the realm of Shakespeare. Students get it faster through visuals that touch all of their modes, as opposed to just being lectured. Students answer questions and get take a quiz. The whole experience is in a third of the time! By including links to web sites it is a web quest, An Interactive Powerpoint.
Second, kids teach you, you get to play with cool stuff while you are teacher.”

J: What are some of the ways you have integrated technology into your classroom?
M: “Web quests, Powerpoint Jeopardy Game for a review for each novel, and review for the final exam. Kids like games, it increases student interest. It is more fun, interactive, and students do better on quizzes. Even students that didn’t read the book can review this way.”

J: How do students respond to this way of teaching?
M: “Kids like using Inspiration to outline their essays better than straight outlines. They like the pictures (icons) They see the important elements, organize it, see the relationships, turn the Inspiration Concept Map into an essay. Inspiration is perfect for Food Chains in Science, classifying rocks, etc. Inspiration allows an easy change to outline. Also, it transfers easily into MS Word.

J: Have you met with any resistance from students, colleagues, or tech department?
M: “None from students, it is second nature to them to use computer. They prefer it to writing on paper. Not resistance from colleagues for what I do, but reluctance to try it themselves. Some teachers are having some “wow moments.” The hardest part is lack of technology available in the classroom. I’d like laptops for every student because the lab is booked too often. Students could come into class and log on.”

J: What obstacles have you overcome to teach this way?
M: “I don’t think any. I grew up in a district that had tons of technology. To me it was just second nature to use it in my classroom. I first taught 7th graders, and they are squirrels. That helped me redesign how I would teach. Technology draws them in and captivates them. It is second nature to them to point and click.”

J: Now that you use technology so much in your classroom, could you give it up at this point?
M: “No, I would invest in my own equipment and bring it in. I have had to forego some things I would like to do. I can’t get into the computer lab all the time, so some web quests had to be book research papers. It is just hard sometimes to get to the technology. I set up stations in the room so that kids could rotate through.”

J: Would you do things in a different way knowing what you know now?
M: “I would have gone into Business and become a computer teacher instead.”

J: What advice would you give to other teachers who are integrating technology into their teaching?
M: Try it, Just try it. Take one assignment or project and turn it into a piece that has a technology component. You will have excited kids, you will be talking about it with other teachers, you would get hooked on it.

J: What are the trends you see in education technology in the near future? How will teachers deal with these new ways of doing things?
M: “More handhelds, because they are cheaper and more efficient. We will move away from bulky computers and more towards Alpha Smarts, palm pilots. They look cool. A Palm Pilot with the reading software and you just download your books. Cool!

J: You are moving on and taking a new position. Can you describe your new job?
M: “Instructional Technology Specialist at the Secondary Level at Baldwinsville. I will be helping Teachers take their pieces of curriculum and integrate more technology into it. I will also be working on curriculum and standards and standardized tests. Also, helping students and teachers achieve “real world” skills that include technology. I will also research new equipment.”

My New Year’s Resolutions

The truth is I usually do not make New Year’s Resolutions. It is probably because I know I would break them, so why make a list that will only frustrate me. But, I do believe in setting goals, so you could look at this like a set of goals. Goals are good.

1. Buy a faster Mac. Okay, this is probably on everyone’s list. My wife says that every once in a while I get a case of the “I wants.” But, this is more like the “I needs.” I have the same problem as Bill Palmer has. I am outgrowing my current Powerbook G4 12in. I want more memory, a bigger hard drive, a bigger screen, a Superdrive. I want a G5 processor and OS Tiger. As long as we are being honest, I kinda want that really cool backlit keyboard too.

2. Back Up My Files. In the best of all worlds, I would have a machine that did a lot of this for me. I would own enough .mac real estate to back everything up with iSync. I would own a huge external firewire drive that had copies of both my computer’s hard drives on it. But I don’t. Sure, I back up a lot of my most important stuff, but I really just wish I had a mirror image out there of everything I own. Then I might feel safe from the terrorists...

3. Organize My Photos. I was one of those people who maxed out the capacity of iPhoto and applauded when the next version came out. It could still be faster, and I suspect I am not using it in the most effective way. I need to organize my photos in a way that lets me access them easier, and use them more. I post little 48 picture slideshows on my .mac account every once in a while for my friends and family. I print a lot of pictures. In class I am always looking for some sample photos to use for demonstration purposes. But all these pictures should have meaningful names and be categorized. But they don’t and they aren’t.

4. Delete Old Versions. Old copies of memos that I don’t need, Excel budgets from 5 years ago. Songs I downloaded from iTunes and didn’t like. Software that I downloaded, tried, and just don’t use. I loved Konfabulator for six months, even paid for it. But I got tired of the widgets being in the way on my little 12 inch screen. Of course, if I had more screen real estate...

5. Clean Out My Hard Drive. Would you back it up, then clean it up or the other way around? Probably both... I know I have multiple copies of stuff. I know it and I even know there is a program that is designed to help me solve that. I really should do it. Really...

6. Renew My Anti-Virus Software. On a Mac? Why? Because I share a network with PC users and I don’t want them to ever blame me when, not if, the network becomes infected. So, I run the same anti-virus software they do. Renew my software? Did it! Did you?

7. Get My Wife A Great Christmas Present Next Year! Yes, I got her a great present this year. But she surprised me and got me a 20 gig iPod. Shocked me in that I had absolutely no clue and was blown away. I haven’t been that happy with Christmas morning since I was a little kid. You wouldn’t believe how easy it was to get it up and running. Another friend gave me an FM transmitter dongle that allows me to listen to it in the car. iPod? Big Fan!

Radical Ideas that will never happen because of money or power.

Radical Ideas that will never happen because of money or power.

“I have a dream.” Martin Luther King’s famous speech was about freedom and equality. My dream is partly about that too. I want freedom from the bonds of old computer “rules.” I know that most of this cannot come true because we are a capitalist society and things cost money. Also, we know that the “Powers that be” would never let us have some of these things because they would lose their hold over all man kind. But still, I do have a dream. I dream that one day...

•All files use the same format: I call it Universal Computer Format, or UCF. Text would be compressed so much that a document might take up less than one K. You can get a complete illustrated Bible and the complete works of William Shakespeare on a 256mb flash drive.

•All electronic appliances must run on the same voltage or amperage or whatever. So all power bricks are compatible. In fact, you cannot even have a brick any more. Just make the stupid cord a little thicker. I know, I know... then it won’t fit through the hole in your computer desk. The brick doesn’t now!

•Everyone who sells computers and parts has to take back old ones for recycling. I have to do that now with tires. I am not a chemist, but I suspect there is more toxic material in a computer in a landfill than a tire in a landfill.

•It is illegal for people to donate computers to schools that will cost them more than $100 to make usable. When schools take this stuff in we have to pay to get rid of it. Also, it makes it difficult to ever get anything new because we have so many computers that are, “Good enough for the kids.” If you don’t want it because it is junk, we don’t either. Let’s move on people.

•Printers have so few moving parts that they cannot get jammed. It becomes cool to only use recycled paper. This results in extra trees. I am on record as being “pro tree.”

•Laptop computers have built in solar cells that constantly keep them charged. Perhaps the keys/cover could be where the solar cells are. For $50 you can have a hand crank that will give you 2 hours for every 10 cranks. This is not far fetched at all. I recently read an article about using the chlorophyl from spinach to generate electricity to make cell phone batteries last longer. Finally, a use for spinach...

•Battery technology gets to the point where they can make them in any shape and they last virtually forever. Also, they are very light weight. This causes cars to get great mileage. The price does not drop however...

•Homeland Security decides that all operating systems in the United States must be able to stop spam and viruses. Microsoft protests. Steve Jobs testifies before Congress. If you thought Watergate and the Iran-Contra hearings were exciting to watch...

•Homeland Security also decides that insufficient technology in schools puts us at a long term security risk. The government decides all school age children should have a computer. They pay for this by canceling 3 missile and 2 tank programs. The military gets the missile and tank programs back by buying cheaper MRE’s. Think soy...

•Telephone calls become free to everyone. There is no such thing as long distance. Also, cell towers have to look like trees. Trees are good. In a related story, the price of a telephone jumps to over $1,000...

•The major car companies design vehicles that run on sea water. I was going to say sand, but it just gets into everything...

•Apple makes an iPod Micro that is so small it fits in a watch. Or a hearing aid. It holds every song ever recorded, including some that shouldn’t have been. Wal Mart refuses to carry the product unless it carries a Parental Guidance sticker for the naughty songs. Steve Jobs thumbs his nose at them. Wal Mart reconsiders when Steve points out how many Pixar videos they sell each day.

•In an attempt to boost market share, Apple produces a G5 Powerbook and decides to give them away as a free trade-in to anyone who owns a laptop of any kind. You have to pay for shipping. For an additional $50 (plus shipping) you get an iPod Micro. It comes loaded with the complete works of William Shatner. Hey, there is no such thing as a free lunch here people...

Catch Phrases Around the Computer Classroom

Teachers answer the same questions over and over. Usually it is a different student or teacher that asks, but not always. This is why we are a little batty and have much less patience at the end of the day than when we went off to work in the morning. Having a snappy comeback or a catch phrase can come in handy and help you keep your perspective. You might find situations where these could be useful. After all, there are so many teachable moments every day...

I am a wise-ass by nature. My motto is, “First, entertain myself. If other people laugh, that’s good too.” It started in college with witty banter between friends and roommates, and seems to continue on to this day. People who know me have heard many of these. I don’t always say them out loud, but I think them...

“Save early and often.” I often tell the story of the 1960 presidential election after saying this. Kennedy won Chicago because so many people voted “early and often.” Yes, students roll their eyes. I usually follow it up with:
“You must be Saved!” in my best imitation of a big tent preacher.

“Could be worse, could be raining.” This is a direct quote from Mel Brook’s Young Frankenstein. Marty Feldman says it in answer to all the complaining Gene Wilder is doing. Remember, plagiarism is wrong.

“Are you left handed?” There are some people that can screw up a computer just by looking at it. This was inspired by NPR’s Tap-It Brothers who often ask what color the car is while they try to figure out what is wrong with it. Tell me you don’t know a computer Jonah?

Students ask, “Do we have to turn this in?” To which I reply, “Only if you want a grade.” I just like to watch the facial expressions...

“If you don’t give it to me, I can’t grade it.” This is my other response to, “Do we have to turn this in?” I plan to move to more of a drop box on the network plan to save trees. Trees are good.

“Trees are good.” It was worth saying again.

“Don’t print twice if it didn’t print once. You don’t have to hit your head on both sides of the brick wall to prove that it will hurt do you?” This is to prevent me fixing a printer and then spitting out 15 copies of each person’s work. This has mixed results. Many students will claim that it doesn’t really hurt...

“Don’t tell me too late.” If you want my help, ask early in the problem. If only I could take my own advice on this. I must not be fully grown up yet...

“You are making a career decision here.” I say this to the student who says, “I hate Macs!” You cannot let that kind of ignorance go you know.

“No, the computer is not messed up, it’s just misunderstood.” Why does everybody blame the computer? I think it is because they use PC’s...

“Please police your area.” I say this to get students to clean up the lab. They don’t get it though, my lab is still a mess.

“Mr. Electricity is our friend.” Any day you can quote the Muppet Show, and explain why a computer would work better if it was plugged in, is a good day.

“Hardware doesn’t bounce.” Have you ever seen a teenage boy attempt to dribble an external hard drive? It is not pretty.

“Government Jobs.” These are all the little extra favors computer people do for all of our friends. We know, we know, even if we didn’t do favors you would like us anyway...

“If you block the vent, your computer cannot breathe.” What can I say, I was once an elementary teacher. Sometimes the simple explanation is the best.

“Get off the internet!” I suspect that I am going to be saying this the rest of my career.

“Do not get back on the internet.” You didn’t see that coming?

“And don’t just minimize it on the Task Bar either!” Under my breath, “Because I am not an idiot...”

“I don’t want to get any phone calls from your mom.” That is why we have filters on the internet connection...

“His parents must be so proud...” This is one that I think and don’t say.

“It needs to be appropriate enough that I could read it to my grandmother over the phone.” Because I don’t have time to drive to her house and read it to her in person.

“Did you tell anybody your password? Nobody at all? Are you sure? Just those two?” The answer to why all of their stuff is missing from their home directory.

“Don’t become an Astronaut, you don’t get second chances.” I save this one for people who do not listen to directions. Teenage voice, “Houston, um, was I like, um, supposed to push a button or something? Houston? Hello?” Every day is Career Day in my class.

“I should have been a dentist, because this is like pulling teeth.” As I said, every day is Career Day in my class...

“You didn’t save it? You never lose anything? You are an Egyptian Crocodile. Because you are living in denial (de Nile).” Okay, it reads lame, but once you start saying it around your school, I guarantee your coolness factor will go up. Really.

“I am like a beach, sooner or later everything washes up on my shores.” Because everyone ends up in the computer lab eventually, I get to hear all the school gossip. Plus I don’t mind listening, so people feel free to vent.

“Just part of my job.” I say this modestly if everything works out. If it doesn’t, I slink away quietly and try to recover my dignity.

“You wouldn’t have that problem if you were on a Mac.” I love to say this. I relish saying this. I would say this even if it weren’t true. But it is true!

The Paperless Classroom (Or how to kill trees one ream at a time)

For many years pundits have been talking about the concept of a “Paperless Office.” The concept is simple really. Instead of passing paper memos by interoffice mail, everything goes by email. Documents are all stored on the office server which is backed up off site. (Not really, but we all know it should be.)

Schools are all about paper. We are probably responsible for the death of more trees than anybody except Congress. We believe in handouts. We handout everything. We handout the rules, and then hand them out again later when too many people have broken them. I don’t mean just students either. In my career, I have even received memos on paper that scolded the faculty for making too many copies. To be fair, sometimes those tirades were delivered on a half sheet of paper, so I guess that was a good thing.

At one school district I worked at, all the elementary teachers were given a secret code to type in to the copy machine. We soon realized that it wasn’t very secret, all the teachers at the same grade level had the same number. It was pretty divisive when we would spend time at lunch arguing about who used up all our copies for the month. It wasn’t me.

This also forced us to be resourceful. When the secretary in the main office was out sick, we gained access to the copier code list. We knew where it was, and when she wasn’t there to guard it, we stole it. We passed it around and that month the Bus Garage, who had not made any copies in three years, was the number one user. They made every single copy, according to the report. The principal didn’t acknowledge what happened. She just issued all new numbers. And the printing went on.

Everybody hates it when the copy machine goes down. Especially the tech department. We know that all those ink jet printers that are out there in the classroom will begin churning out class sets of handouts because teachers cannot use the copier. We will be making the rounds to replace the ink cartridges. We mark each cartridge with the room and the date. This helps us to keep track of usage so we can order enough during budget time. But the real reason is so we can laugh to see that people actually steal each other’s ink cartridges.

The ink in those printers is very expensive. The printers are not. I once bought a name brand printer at WalMart for $29.95. When I went back to get ink for it, the ink cost $29.95. I was very tempted to just buy a new printer. We try everything to keep ink usage down, but nothing really works. Not even a memo.

Every year I have heard the lecture on paper and ink cartridge usage. Every year I know our schools are spending more on paper. We are not using less. We do not have a “Paperless School” mentality. I have tried to help. I like to think I am environmentally conscious. I recycle in my classroom. I once gave bonus points to my students if they printed on both sides of the paper. Now, I just insist on it. I argue with the custodians who dump recycling bins into the regular garbage can. I plant trees at school and at home. What will it take to make progress?

My current school district is moving on this slowly. We do send emails for a lot of communication where we used to send interoffice envelopes. But we still send a lot of those. There are people that print out their email like Dilbert’s pointy-haired boss. I get some memos by email and by snail both. Part of the problem has been that with the way our network was deployed, not all teachers had equal access. Some had email, and some did not. The teachers who don’t have network access are being phased in, but that takes time. “Dead Tree Time.”

This year, our high school is going to an electronic attendance procedure. We have already been piloting it in some homerooms. The administrative program that we use has struggled with this new process and we had to throw money at the problem. We needed to update our software and address some hardware issues. Not to mention there are still some teachers out there that don’t like, trust, or want to use a computer. As time goes by there are fewer of these. Peer pressure and retirement weeds out the Luddites. Also, they got a memo from the office telling them they had to do it this way...

There is also a movement to centralize to big laser printers and remove the dozens of ink jet printers on desks in classrooms and offices. They are expensive to keep operating, hard to fix, and not meant for the load they are often called on to carry. You can imagine that removing them is meeting with resistance. I hate having to walk down the hall to get my printout. I left that behind years ago when I dropped off my deck of cards and picked up my “run” later. Already there are some privileged few who can print directly to the copy machine. Not me, but others. I bought my own printer. ($29.95)

With my .mac account and other network access at work, I can move information pretty fast between all the computers I use. I automatically iSync my documents and then what I want is always there. I just wish that storage on .mac wasn’t so expensive.

Currently, I don’t hand out many papers. I either project on the wall with a data projector, or I place handouts and slideshows in a public file that all students have access to. I plan to use a drop box on the network for students to submit more of their work. They will still have to print some assignments, but this will save a lot of paper. This will be more of a hassle for me because I can grade hardcopy papers pretty fast, but I am committed. I’ll let you know how it works out.

The View From Summer School

Teaching Summer School is not for everyone. I have done it for years, not so much because of my dedication to my career as because I needed the money. Sure, I have painted houses, what teacher hasn’t. I don’t think there is a painted house in Upstate New York that doesn’t have at least one coat put there by a teacher working his summer job. I don’t really like roofing either. Summer School is at ground level.

I will admit to being a little spoiled compared to my summer colleagues. Where most of their students might be repeating a course for a passing grade, I have students taking my course to get ahead. Time passes quickly when you have motivated students. I have a good time.

When you are a teacher, you are also part actor, part orator, part entertainer. You grab the attention of your audience and then you give them information. No attention, no learning. That is true all year round, but very true in the summer. Therefore I try to make my assignments more interesting. I often use summer school as a testing ground for a new assignment I want to use during the fall and spring semesters. My summer school students are the test pilots.

Because my course has so much word processing, it really could be called a writing course. Students compose and edit right at the keyboard. I use a writing process in my classroom that involves peer editing. Students each have a partner, their “editor.” Before they print something, they are supposed to have their editor read it and point out errors. When they turn in an assignment, they have their editor initial it too. When I call a student up to my desk to go over errors and show how to make corrections, they bring their editor. This makes things go a little slow in the early stages, but much faster later on.

I am very picky. I take off 5pts for every single mistake. I do allow students to make corrections and resubmit for a higher grade during the first marking period, but after that they are supposed to have the rules down. No “Do Overs” after the first report card. My feeling is that they are leaning a real-world process by having others look over their work. Also, by reading other student’s work, they hone their proofreading skills. Hopefully they internalize this skill. The desired outcome is that the student learns to be critical of his/her own work.

In summer school you have a much shorter time to cover the same topics. I go from a semester course with three 6-week marking periods to a 6-week course with two 3-week sessions. The hardest part is deciding what to cut out. But I don’t have to cut out everything. I make assignments where I can layer on new skills instead of a whole new assignment. Computer courses are great for this, because you simply call up the old assignment and add to it.

One of my favorite writing assignments is an essay I call, “Super Powers.” I am sure many teachers have used this one. Student are to write about what super power they would like to have. They must answer such questions as, “What is your power? Do you have a weakness like Superman has to Kryptonite? How does your power work? Do you have a secret identity? Do you use your powers for good or evil? Do you wear a spandex costume?”

This is a fun assignment. The first question is always, “Can I have more than one power?” Boys generally want to have x-ray vision. I try to point out that being able to diagnose a girl’s fractured rib isn’t as sexy as they might think. Girls want to be invisible or be able to read minds. They say it is so they can find out what people are really saying and thinking about them behind their backs. There may be a little paranoia there. Twice as many girls choose to be evil as boys. Draw your own conclusions...

I introduce the rules of typing as I am teaching Word. Two spaces here, one space after a comma there, indent here. We make extensive use of the Show hidden characters toggle. As we go along, I layer on new skills like Clip Art, Word Art, Draw and Paint. We will take an essay and illustrate it with both clip art and original drawings. This is where I miss AppleWorks the most. Word does all this stuff, but it just isn’t as smooth. By the way, even though I teach Word, and have the real nice Mac version, I write this column in AppleWorks.

Summer school is more about Mastery Learning. I don’t try and do four assignments to illustrate a particular concept or technique. I just do one and try to make sure kids master it. Let me remind you though, I believe this works because of the mix of students I have. During the regular school year my students are not this highly motivated. Not dumber, just not focused. I count my blessings that I am not teaching math in summer school to students that didn’t pass it during the “regular season.”

My favorite assignment in Excel is a Budget. We make a monthly budget spreadsheet that includes as many expenses as we can think of in class. The assignment turns out different every class depending on what students brainstorm. I like the fact that it changes and I don’t get too hung up on making it highly accurate.

Some monthly expenses we research, some we guess at, some we use a formula for. We have formulas for retirement, insurance, child care and others. Usually it is a percentage of another number. I like to play “What if...” on the taxes and dependents.

I usually don’t introduce taxes on the first day. I like to hit them with that after they have everything balanced. Later in the week we incorporate a spouse, possibly a spouse’s income, and children. Each student rolls a die to establish how many dependents they have. I guess you could say, “Life is a Crap Shoot....” Sorry Forest Gump!

What I like about the assignment is how it gets the discussion going. We have debates about taxes and tax rates, dialogue about spouses working or staying home, talk about the merits of new versus used autos. I have students go home and talk about it to their parents. Some parents will tell their kids that this is none of their business, and even call me to complain! We then have a teachable moment about not asking adults how much money they make. For some reason they feel free to ask me how much I make though...

One summer I took this assignment and added another layer. I have students go out on the internet and find an entry level job. Then they have to get a house and car that they can afford on that income. I show them how to use a loan calculator on a bank site to figure out their monthly payments. They really get into it. Usually they will spend more on the car than the house if they can get away with it. The rule is that you cannot have a negative balance in savings after you pay all your bills and subtract from your monthly income. You can have a zero balance, just not negative. I have this spreadsheet saved in Excel. If you want it, just write.

You could make this assignment even more accurate. You could look up tax rates for where the house is. You could adjust income tax rates by which state the house is in. You could have to find a daycare provider on the internet. I did finally make a rule that you could only have an entry level job because everyone wrote down these high paying jobs that just were not realistic. Still to this day I argue with boys who absolutely insist that they will play professional sports. I say, “If you don’t pass this class, you can’t graduate and go to a good college. Then you won’t be a high enough draft pick to make that money.”

In the summer time I often end up back in my role of technical support, mostly because people see me. I hand out print cartridges, un-jam printers, email the real tech support people with questions about logins and software for summer teacher workshops. I try to read more in the summer. I take my students to the library and practically force them to get out a book. I am friends with the librarian and like to make sure she gets some extra business.

So, summer school isn’t that bad. The lab is air conditioned. My students are motivated. I’m gainfully employed. I make better money than I would if I was doing landscaping or construction. Just being around the building I am more aware of what is happening. Fewer surprises for me in September. I am having fun. I give it two thumbs up.

Depriving My Kids of the Internet

Do you know anybody who doesn’t have a television? I mean somebody who deliberately chooses to not watch TV? Or if they do, they only watch PBS. Maybe they only let their kids watch two shows per week. This is a philosophical choice they are making. In some ways I admire people like that, but I also do not believe this is the life for me. I’m not a vegan either.

I read the papers. I know that studies show that too much television is bad for my students. Obesity, lack of creativity, low test scores, you name it. It makes me feel guilty for watching as much television as I do. I realize that TV may be bad for me, but there is nothing like the rush of watching the pilot of a new science fiction show that is really good. It’s a rush dude!

I don’t smoke. I don’t really drink. Wine on Thanksgiving and Christmas and half a flute of Champagne at the end of one of our hot air balloon flights keeps me from being a t-totaler. I don’t drink coffee, not a “slave to the bean.” But I do eat. A lot. Too much. I have watched my friends and family members try to quit smoking. I get that addiction is tough to beat.

Therefore, I am not in a hurry for my kids to get on the Internet. Yes, I really did say that. I am a computer teacher, and I don’t even let my kids surf the net. In fact, for the most part their email goes through my wife and I. Are you outraged? Am I a bad parent? I don’t think so. I think I am helping my kids grow up at a nice pace. A pace that won’t kill me...

Okay. Here’s the thing. My girls are pretty creative if I do say so myself. They are 10 and 12 and they get along really well. They play together a lot. They play school. They play store. They play Spina Bifida Clinic. (My 12 year old is handicapped.) They play summer camp. They play horses and dolls. They play all kinds of stuff that they make up themselves.

No, I do not understand all the rules or all the roles. They borrow the walkie-talkies. Calculators become cash registers. A coffee cup is needed because that is what the teacher in school uses. Apparently their teachers do drink coffee. But the minds are working. My girls are using their imaginations. I like that.

Both girls read. That is good, because almost everyone in my family is a reader. My wife and I certainly model that behavior. We read newspapers, magazines, books. I read a lot on-line. Palmer, Cringely, BBC News, MacPulse. We read to the kids. We buy books as gifts all the time. We talk about books and we discuss what we’ve read. We have no complaints about their report cards either. My personal belief is that this will all pay off later in the form of college scholarships...

It isn’t even that I am actively preventing them from getting on the internet. We have dial-up. Oh stop clucking. I work on a high speed network all day at school. I just don’t want to spend my time at home on-line. So, we check email and then surf minimally. Mostly my wife. If the kids had an assignment that required internet access, by all means. But they haven’t yet. Their schools have access and I am reasonably sure they use it in class occasionally, but I am not hearing about big projects in the computer lab. In short, there just isn’t a demand yet. Maybe it is because their schools use PC’s...

Meanwhile I am eyeballing that eMac Bill keeps hawking. I like the price. I know we won’t be able to stay dial-up with both girls on-line. Cable and DSL represent a significant upgrade in speed, but also more cash. Right now we are spending that money on dance lessons, soccer camp, flute and piano lessons, and books. Yes, we do take books out of the library, so no, that won’t save us sufficient funds. These activities need no defense, but I will say that Becky walks better due to taking dance classes, and Sarah seems to do better in math now that she is playing instruments. I submit that we are investing in the girls future.

My students are a different story. They play computer games all the time. They instant message each other constantly. They surf whenever they can get away with it. My friend who is the head of the Journalism department at a local college says he has similar problems with student on laptops in his college classes. The time isn’t as constructive as you would hope.

But ask kids to write a creative essay or use the Internet for actual research and you get the look. You know the look. The one that says adults are idiots for making us work. For them the Internet is a big game that they can play for hours on end. Heck, I couldn’t tell you how many hours I have lost to the Internet with nothing to show for it. The course I teach is aimed at countering this. I try to teach my students how to use the Internet for productive purposes. I am just as glad my own children are playing other games. Okay, stop reading this and go turn on Stargate Atlantis.

Variations on a Theme by Scott Adams

I love iTunes! I have downloaded hundreds of songs. I got some of them free from the Pepsi promotion and my friends have given me gift certificates. Sometimes I download the free song on Tuesday. I went through the entire Billboard Lists from when I was a little kid and made a Shopping Cart full of songs I want to purchase when I have more disposable income.

Somebody is always asking about a song for this or for that. This is a great place to find them. When I need a song for a slide show, something always seems to fit. If none of my songs work, that is an excuse to go shopping at my favorite on-line music store.

You don’t have the equivalent of three days worth of music stored on your computer and just let it sit there. I listen to my music whenever I can. I have a set of speakers and a subwoofer that sounds pretty good. I play the music mostly at low volumes, so having that third speaker for the base is nice. Being a gadget man, I also bought one of those Griffen Power Mate knobby things to use for the volume. $49 is a lot to pay for a knob, but what other vices do I have? Did I mention the cool blue glow?

The lights in our cubicle office are on one of those motion detectors. If you don’t move around, or of the motion detector doesn’t see you, the lights go off. They go off all the time. At first it was kind of annoying. But now I have this cool blue glow from the bottom of my volume controller....

I play music in my classroom too. There are studies that show that students respond well to music. Duh! This is called a “learning style.” Of course, to be fair, the studies are mostly about classical music, and my students want to listen to rap and hip-hop. So, we compromise, we listen to what I want to listen to. What I call, “The Best Music From the Life of Mr. Nichols.” Take it or leave it. Sit down, be quiet or I am going to play more songs from The Carpenters!

The desktop Mac in my cubicle at school plays music almost all the time. My friends in our department cubbies have said they like to listen even when I am not there. So, I leave it on. I refer to my cubby as “the radio station.” When the latest version of iTunes came out with Party Shuffle, I was impressed. It was perfect for programming a nice mix of songs for the whole day. While having a cubicle had always made me think I was sort of living in a Dilbert Cartoon, turning my cubicle into a radio station solidified it.

Oh, there were some adjustments. I have a bunch of Christmas songs on there, so I just took them out of the playlist. Don’t get me wrong, I could listen to Charlie Brown Christmas every day, but my listeners don’t share my taste. We at “WJON, the voice of cubicle G14 -2” try not to alienate our neighbors. I try to be a good neighbor, I turn it down if I know somebody is on the phone. I also encourage everyone to turn it down or off if it is bothering them, but nobody really has complained. They seem to be resisting the blue glow...

This next part is what probably separates me from the rest of the herd. I couldn’t leave it alone. Once I got to thinking about my little cubicle radio station, I had to have more. The next step was obvious. I needed a DJ. I needed to make announcements, dedications, hip DJ stuff. The possibilities were endless.

Since I couldn’t be there the whole time, I realized I needed to record my voice and save it as an MP3. I had an external microphone in a big wad of cables in one file drawer, because that is what we computer guys do. I had played around with iMovie a little and knew I could make a voice over track for a movie. Then I could export that. I even had an article about how to do that. But, I didn’t really need a movie, that was overkill. I remember thinking, “This is Apple, there has to be an easy way of doing this.”

I do not play music. I do not read music. I only play my stereo. I have no reason to want to record my own albums. But still I was able to use GarageBand in about 3 minutes to record my own voice and export the track to iTunes. I made joke announcements. I made long distance dedications. You know, from cubicle one to cubicle three... I did some news and weather. Weather is easy here in Central New York. Mostly cloudy, chance of precipitation. I had fun. I put them all on the play list and they just come up in the course of the day’s programming. It was too easy!

That is the power of a “killer app.” Something so powerful you didn’t even know you needed it. Even people who don’t think they want it, need it. Is that cool or what? The guys at Apple deserve some sort of reward for seeing into the head of John Q. Public and giving us stuff we didn’t even know we needed, cool tools to use with our cool toys. And a tip of the hat to the folks at Griffen. Now if I could order a Powermate that glowed green...

Found: Five Security Flaws in the Apple Powerbook G4!

Some of you no doubt have been the victim lately of the latest security breaches in the Macintosh operating system. By now you have already heard of the malware that, after you read about it, decide you wanted a copy of Microsoft Office that was less than 200 megabytes, downloaded the file, ran the script, it erased your home directory. Fortunately, I dodged that bullet myself. Caught a lucky break there...

Possibly you were a victim of the DoItYourself Virus. You know, the email reads, “This is the DoItYourself Virus. Step one: Please drag all the files from your hard drive to the trash. Step two: Empty the Trash. Step three: “Mooo Hoo Hoo, Haaa Haaa Haaa!” I’ve heard Norton Anti-Virus doesn’t work on this one.

Perhaps you have been unfortunate to have fallen for an even more personal affront. In this instance, a person will come up to you, point somewhere under your chin and say,”What’s this?” Then, when you look, they drag their finger up your face and say, “Gotcha!” Don’t retaliate, or the terrorists win.

I have been using a 12 inch Powerbook G4 for over a year now. While in the process of keeping student grades, editing a union newsletter, writing articles for Mac Using Educators, making Keynote presentations at conferences, showing photo slideshows of hot air balloons, and playing all my iTunes songs, I have encountered a few “Security” problems that I think everyone should be aware of.

1. Drop Dead Looks! Because this computer is so cool looking, everyone wants to check it out. I am so busy showing off all the cool features, it sometimes prevents me from getting my work done. Productivity goes down. That can’t be good for the nation. Why can’t those people go back to playing solitaire on their PC’s....

2. Promotes Chaos! The computer is too easy to use. It is so easy, I tend to put things off for later knowing I will still have time. Making a computer that can be used by just about anyone puts too much computing power in the hands of amateurs. Amateurs can be a little too creative, if you know what I mean.

3. Open Borders! Too many ports. I can plug a ton of stuff into this machine. It is just a matter of time before someone figures out how to control a weapon of mass destruction through one of these usb or firewire ports. I am already patenting the iBomb, so don’t even think about it.

4. Flight Risk! Access is too easy. Using iSync and my .mac account, I can easily sync files and use them on my Powerbook anywhere I have internet access. I could share information with anyone I want to, anywhere in the world. I could travel anywhere I wanted to and still use my account. Anywhere in the world! Anywhere that has a local television station that carries Star Trek. I could easily go underground and move clandestinely around the country. I have always wanted to move clandestinely. Of course I might have to lose a few pounds first...

5. Security Breach! Because my Powerbook is portable, it is very vulnerable to being carried off! I have to keep an eye on it every minute! You can’t leave it on the front seat of a car, you can’t leave it on your desk! Somebody with bad intentions toward our country could steal it. If anyone ever managed to steal my laptop, figured out what my password was, logged on, then sent emails to all my friends, they could conceivably take over the world! The reason that I haven’t taken over the world is out of courtesy. My mom raised me to never take over the world...

Why You Should Use A Gradebook Program

When I was a little kid, my siblings and I would spend a couple of weeks in the summer visiting my Grandparents. We mostly played outside, but if it was raining, we took over the enclosed back porch and played school. Grandma was a school teacher and she had tons of cool stuff for playing school. Our only technology consisted of some controls Grandma had cut off an old electric blanket that we pretended were desk intercoms. We would play for hours and only break for meals.

Both of my parents are retired teachers and one of my sisters is also a teacher. You could say I went into the family business. When we all get together school is all we talk about. Anyone who has ever stumbled into a group of teachers quickly realizes that it is hard for us to talk about anything else. Oh we try, and sometimes we do succeed. But given a choice...

What do teachers talk about? One of our favorite topics is how things are so different now than way back when we first started out. We all agree that we work harder and do more paperwork now. None of us believe our students will want to be teachers because of how difficult the profession has become. But the truth is we are wrong. Teachers worked very hard back “in the day,” and kids still grow up to be teachers. We must be making a good impression on them!

Education has changed, and we aren’t going back. There is a greater emphasis on student testing and achievement exams these days. There are regulations for students with special education and disability needs. There really is a lot of paperwork. But on the flip side, we have new technology that can help. One of the best innovations is the electronic gradebook.

We all keep grades. We all do it differently, but we all keep grades. We use many different systems to arrive at the final average, but in the end, we put a grade on the report card. Some people use convoluted systems that weight some assignments, other people do just the basics. Regardless of your method, an electronic gradebook can help you.

Now, I am the first to admit that being a computer teacher and having a laptop gives me computer access that not all teachers have. If you are one of the lucky people whose school district provides you a laptop or a computer on your desk, then you are a step ahead. Buying your own computer might not be in your budget, but if you can get yourself a machine by hook or by crook you won’t regret it.

When you are making the decision to switch to a computerized grade keeping system, the first decision you have to make might not even be your own. Some school districts require you to use a paper gradebook that you have to turn in. The district’s chief concern is that they don’t want you to lose your student’s grades if something should happen to the computer. That is a valid point, but not a deal breaker. You just have to show how you would back up your files. After all, most schools keep all their student records on computers, so they must have a plan for backing them up. Let’s put it another way, if you don’t make backups you are flirting with disaster.

You want to have accurate averages, and you want to have them at your fingertips. A student wants to know what she is missing? Print her a report. A parent calls and wants his son’s average. You don’t have to calculate the average, you have it in front of you. Need to go to a meeting about a student who is having difficulties? Go prepared with a nice looking printout.

The next question that a lot of people raise, (mostly math teachers) is, “Why use a canned program? Why not use a spreadsheet?” Anyone who is handy with a spreadsheet can create their own electronic gradebook. I even do this as an exercise in my course. It definitely is a step up from the paper book, because it automatically computes the grades for you and saves you hours of time pushing the calculator buttons. But it doesn’t get you all the way there. Remember all the paperwork and documentation? Gradebook programs don’t just compute grades, they give you reports. Very nice reports. The kind of reports that principals are impressed with. The kind of reports that you can take to a meeting with the guidance counselor or the special education teacher. The kind of reports that you can send home to parents.

My current gradebook program is pretty powerful. I think I would have had more difficulty learning it if it wasn’t the fourth or fifth one I learned. It does almost everything I could think of and some things I didn’t. But best of all, it is intuitive. That is important. Remember, you don’t want the process to get in the way of the product.

Here are the features I looked at in choosing an electonic gradebook program:

1. I wanted the ability to break assignments into my own categories. This is especially handy for elementary teachers who have to give a separate grade for Reading, Spelling, Writing, etc. for the same student. In older grades, many schools like to see a Participation grade as part of the formula. A good program will let you print out a grade for each of these categories.

2. I wanted the ability to take attendance. My program not only lets me keep attendance records, but I can customize it just like the codes our Attendance Office uses. One neat thing that I really like is that attendance is also part of the Seating Chart. I can just click on a student’s desk and mark them absent or tardy. I print out the report and keep it in a binder. I do keep a back up paper record at the same time because we have to have a list of who is there when we go out for fire drills and I don’t want to lug my machine.

3. Reports! This program will print all kinds of reports. I can print individual lists of assignments either all together or by category; missing assignments, attendance and seating, and class summaries. I print out lists of assignments for the class every two weeks. I send reports to special education teachers, guidance counselors, parents, and anyone else who requires one. Sometimes a coach wants to know how a player is doing for eligibility reasons. Reports are formatted nicely, they have my name on them and look very professional.

4. Ease of Use. I have used several different programs and I read reviews, so I knew a little. I also was able to download a trial version. Usually trial versions have a limitation, like you can only enter 10 students or something like that. I tried it out and liked it. This program has lots of shortcut icons and point and click capability. It is OS X native too. I can keep more than one class open at the same time, which I discovered I needed one day after school when I had fifteen kids from five classes all trying to make up work. Also, and this is a very big deal: The program lets me automatically save a back up copy in a separate location. I use my iDisk, but I could just as easily use my school network account. Backing up is critical!

5. Price! Our school will purchase software for teachers. The program the school supplied was pretty good, and it was for both PC and Mac. The problem was we weren’t using the latest version, for example it lacked the attendance module. Also, the web site said there were no plans to make an OS X native version, and I was tired of the printing problems I was having every time I printed from OS 9. The school wasn’t going to pay for the one Mac guy to have a new program, so I bought it myself. I don’t regret it. By hook or by crook...

For those of you wondering, I started out using a spreadsheet in AppleWorks and then Excel. Classmaster was the first program our district bought us and it was very easy to use. Our school currently uses eClass Grades which is a version of Grade Machine. I liked it and might have just upgraded if there was an OS X version. The program I am using now is called Easy Grade Pro and I like it very much.

Once you go electronic gradebook, you will never go back!

In Defense of Computer Games

I know most of you are reading this because you just couldn’t believe your eyes. A teacher who is in favor of computer games? This guy has got to be kidding! This is crazy! Games are the biggest time wasters in school computer labs! But maybe he has a good argument and I can stop feeling guilty when I play them myself...

We teachers who work in computer labs fight a never ending battle to keep students on task. When you put a computer in front of a person and then attempt to give them directions, you are fighting with that machine to hold their attention. I have done everything I could think of to win that battle. I have disconnected mice. I have told them to sit on their hands. I have turned off monitors. I have used software that allows me to disable their screen and only shows what I want. Thanks Apple for Remote Desktop! I may win the battles, but the war never ends.

Computer Games can make this war even harder. Sometimes your students are just playing Freecell on the local machine, sometimes they are playing a game against many players on the Internet. Our school network does block out most games sites, but there is always a way around. My students discovered that some game sites have foreign language equivalents and went there. Some students used proxy servers so the network filter was clueless. Eventually we catch them and stop them, but it never completely stops.

So what can I say that is positive about computer games? Well, first and foremost, games are a great way to teach absolute beginners how to use the graphical user interface or GUI. You set someone up with a nice game of Solitaire, and they are moving the mouse around and clicking in no time. It is a very user friendly introduction to “mousing around.”

I am not talking about little kids here either. Kids seem to know inherently what to do with computers. No, I am talking about my adult education classes. These are people, many retired, who are taking night school courses on Windows, Word, Excel, and the Internet. They did not grow up using a computer, or if they did, it processed big piles of cards or spit out information on a Teletype machine. They have trouble using a mouse. I give them credit though, they are there and they want to learn. First lesson, Solitaire!

Second, I believe computer and video games are a major factor in Computer Innovation. They are the Indy cars of the computer world. They require faster, stronger, more robust computers to run on. The manufactures make more memory, better video and sound cards, faster networks, and generally better computers because these gamers are constantly nipping at their heels. Better screen resolution and more memory are good for all of us. Faster is better!

Yes, we could all get by on slower computers. Really, how fast can you type? But would you want to go slower? Not me! Our New York State motto is, “Onward and Upward!” I drool over the machines in the catalogs. This computer is less than a year old and already I have the “I wants” for a new one. I am saving up, and someday I plan to contribute to our tech economy. Gamers are patriotic, they are always defending their country from invaders, saving the planet from aliens, and contributing to the economy. Thank you gamers.

My high school students tell me that they like to play computer games because it keeps them out of trouble. Computer Games as the Anti-Drug... Okay, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on that one. However, they aren’t allowed to do either in class. Sometimes if it is a day before a vacation, and everybody has all their work done, I let them play. Then I don’t have idle hands in the lab. We have rules you know...

Third, I like to play computer games as a break from the day. Before school, during lunch break, during commercials of my favor science fiction show. Tell me you didn’t see that coming... I play games like Mahjong, Free Cell, Snood, and Spider Spades. I don’t really try to get the top score and I don’t really keep playing a game until I have mastered it. I am not much for shoot-em-ups. I like all my violence to be on television where it belongs.

Brain exercise. We keep reading in the newspapers about obesity and getting physical exercise. What about the old frontal lobe? Actually, I am not sure which part of your brain is most stimulated by playing computer games. There is an entire branch of mathematics dedicated to game theory. I take that to heart. When I taught fourth and fifth grades, I would teach my students how to play chess. By getting them to think a couple moves ahead on the chess board, I found it was easier to show them math problems that took multiple steps to solve. Articles have been written that say if you want to stay sharp in your old age, you need to stimulate your brain. Use it or lose it.

We say that the United States is a republic, a representative democracy. But it is also a capitalistic society where competition in the market place is key. Games are all about competition. In many schools we have gone out of our way to cut down on competition. We do a lot of team building exercises. We do a lot of things that have come to be seen as inclusive or politically correct. Not that there is anything wrong with that per se. Okay, maybe we aren’t training The Last Starfighters... But even though we fight it, competition is the American Way. Playing games is the American Way too.

Okay, red four on the black five...

Talking With Teens About Ethics

One of the biggest stories in the news this past year has been the RIAA’s lawsuits against people allegedly downloading music to their computers (MP3’s) without paying the artists. There has been a lot written about the issue on both sides. Many of the people sued were students at colleges and universities and some much younger than that. As a teacher, I thought this would be one of those “Teachable Moments” where something important is happening right now, and it could be an excellent lesson. We used to call it “Current Events.” What a great topic for discussion in class. But, I was not prepared for how this was going to come out.

All the classes I teach at our high school are taught on computers in a computer lab. That adds an extra layer of planning to my day that some of my colleagues in the so-called “core” courses may not have. I have to make sure that all of the computers are working, the printer works, the data projector, etc. In addition, because we are on a network, we have issues like log-ins, network hard drive space, and the biggest issue of all: Proper Use of Academic Computers.

At some schools the code of conduct for computer use is set by School Board Policy. Others do it at the Building Principal level, still others leave it up to the Network Administrator or the people who run the computers labs. Sometime, there is even a committee involved. (shudder) However it is done, no school leaves the computer lab open without rules about who can use them and under what circumstances. A lot of that is to prevent viruses that disrupt the system, especially on Windows based networks.

Our school is no different. We make rules about what students can and cannot do. If they download songs anyway, we take away their computer privileges and we attempt to adjust our network to not allow it. We filter the sites, we block programs, we try to do a better job of monitoring student activity. We talk about what is good, bad, right, improper, moral, wrong constantly. Don’t anyone tell you schools don’t teach values, we do.

I want everyone to know, I am paying for my music. I love iTunes! I love the instant gratification it offers. But I also feel that if I am going to teach students, I need set a good example. So, I don’t steal music and I encourage others not to.

The effect of all this Ethical Discussion? We are always playing catch-up with our students. We block a game site, they find a way to play it on a German site. We block a gambling site, they use a proxy server. We take away one kid’s computer access, three others step up to take his place. It is constantly us verses them, and I had the feeling that the students were not coming around to our way of thinking. They were not buying into the values I was pushing for in class. So, the stage was set for a rousing discussion about what was right and what was wrong.

The assignment was to read an on-line computer columnist and write a summary and response. I assign columnists like Bill Palmer and Bob Cringely all the time. I feel if you are learning about computers, you need to keep up with what is happening out there right now. I admit it, I primed the pump by talking about plagiarism ahead of time. I brought in an article from the local newspaper and read it aloud to the class on the Illegal Downloading of Music. I mentioned how I use iTunes and we talked about other programs like Gnutella, Kazaa, Napster and Limewire. Everyone had to find a news article on the internet about Music Downloading and write about it. We discussed how artists could be hurt if they didn’t get paid for their cd’s. The students wrote their essays and turned them in.

Their opinions? “The RIAA is stupid.” “It is only illegal if I get caught.” “I don’t think stealing is right, but I don’t think downloading music is stealing.” “I think downloading music is stealing, but the prices are too high anyway, so it is okay.” I argued with them. “What if it was your music? What if you weren’t getting paid?” That had little effect.

When it comes right down to it, they don’t really think of this as a problem. There is a real disconnect. As far as they are concerned, this is an “adult” problem, not a “kid” problem. These were good kids. These aren’t kids who are in trouble and in the office all the time. But they weren’t intimidated by the threat of lawsuits. It just wasn’t their issue.

They had me second-guessing myself! Was I the one who had everything wrong? I agreed with them that cd prices have been way too high. Making the price of downloading part of the ISP subscriber fee does make sense. Especially if you download a lot. People who never download music could just pay less. Then I thought, maybe they don’t see it as a problem because they aren’t involved at all. They don’t get music that way. Oops, wrong again!

We took a poll of which students in the class had downloaded music and how many songs they had. The answer I got from my students was incredible! Some had almost a thousand songs! Of course, some kids didn’t have any, some had only a few, but most of those that had songs in the hundreds! Here I am thinking I have the most with a couple of hundred, I came in near the bottom of the group.

So were the songs legal? Most kids thought that if they were paying for the internet, then they were paying for the songs. Some insisted they only downloaded them from “free” sites. Others felt it was legal as long as you didn’t share. The “sharing” thing was big. The consensus was that it was okay to take songs, but you shouldn’t put songs up to be downloaded by others. Of course, this was mostly because they felt this would make it easier to get caught. Yikes!

Some kids said they stopped downloading and erased the songs off their computers once the lawsuits started, because their parents made them do it. We teachers always say that parental involvement is huge, so I asked about what their parents said. But none of the kids had a discussion with their parents about whether or not it was legal or illegal, they just didn’t want to get sued by the RIAA.

What conclusions can a teacher draw from this? I wish I could say there is a happy ending and all my students came around to believing that it is wrong to steal music. But they didn’t. I have been serving on our school’s discipline committee for a number of years. We discuss a lot of issues, and the dress code is a hot topic. One thing I know for sure is that the students and the faculty are not in agreement about what can be worn in school. I am afraid the same may be true of the music downloading. We do not see eye to eye on this. But I am not giving up. I still bring the topic up for discussion. I still read the articles to my students. We talk about it all the time. I hope we’re making progress.

The Reasons I Prefer to Teach on a Mac

When you have been teaching for any length of time, you start to see the cyclical nature of education. Not just the new beginnings of September and the milestones of annual testing, but the longer scope. You begin to see how ideas in education come and go. Call them fads, or the “Next Big Thing,” some are by choice, and some are forced down your throat. I am a Macintosh person by choice, and now I am using a Mac for my “stuff,”and teaching my classes on PC’s. Not by choice.

I was not always an Apple person. Oh, they were around, I just didn’t use them. I started with the very first IBM PC’s. In fact, I bought one labeled as an AT&T that was actually made by Olivetti. I read the DOS 1.1 manual, and was so happy when they moved to DOS 2.0. It didn’t have the same hoopla as moving from Windows 3.1 to Windows ‘95, but it still was a big deal at the time. In those days, as is still the case today, schools would buy whatever they could afford. If Apple //e was cheaper, that was what they bought. If they had a grant from IBM, then it was PC’s. Nobody really worried too much about being compatible with a network or the internet because we didn’t have a network. In the beginning, you were an Apple person or IBM person based on what your school had. Not much has really changed in that regard.

Even when the IBM PC became the machine that every business had to have, schools were slow to change. Computers are a very large capital investment for a school. Not just in the hardware and software, but in the training. If your school’s computer person liked Apple, then they would push that with the school administration. If the computer person advised them that they needed this or that piece of hardware or software, that is usually what was purchased. School Principals and Superintendents tend to rely on their computer people for a lot of things. Administrators don’t have time to become experts on tech. Fortunately, Apple has always seemed to understand what we need in education and has maintained good relationships with schools. So, along we go... The crisis would come when the old computer guy left and the new computer guy came in.

One side benefit of the principal relying on the computer person is Innovation. The computer person could usually manage to get that new piece of hardware or software and try it out. Then they would show other people how to scan, or make banners, or print in color, or burn a cd, or video conference. Everybody liked to see students doing those high-tech things at Open House. Principals take good care of their computer people because they work hard and they keep the rest of the “herd” moving along in a forward direction, technology-wise.

The first and foremost reason I prefer to teach on a Macintosh has to do with that Innovation concept. I really believe Apple puts out a product that is innovative. I agree with Steve Jobs that the better computer and more elegant machine, is the one that is easiest to use. I like it when the process doesn’t interfere with the product. OS X Panther is wonderful!

You can’t talk about the platform issue and not touch on ease of use. I am mystified by those that claim Windows “is easier.” Obviously they are used to Windows and don’t really want to learn another way. Fine, I like what I know too. But, when you are trying to teach a classroom full of students a new concept, you want a streamlined interface and software that is intuitive. It is one thing to teach yourself something, it is another to teach a room full of people that same thing. Don’t believe me? Try teaching 16 year old students MS Access.

People are always telling me how great Microsoft Word is. I use it every day on both platforms. The Mac version is better. I teach it to high school kids, and to adults. Believe me, if you want to teach basic word-processing, Word has way more than you will ever need. Sure, they all eventually learn it, but the amount of time it takes to get twenty freshmen through making a newsletter is way more than it needs to be. Use a template? Okay, but then how do they learn how to make templates? Use MS Publisher or a wizard? It isn’t really a learned skill if somebody else does it for you. (and does it their way...) Give me AppleWorks any day!

Don’t be afraid to bust me for being a teacher who is about “me.” Yes, I admit it, I have an ego and I like it when my classroom runs my way. It has taken a long time for me ease over into letting students have more independence. It is a slow change from the John-Centric universe I used to have. The first step is admitting I have the problem...

When I was teaching in our junior high school, I had a lab of iMacs running OS 9.1. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t miss OS 9 at all, Panther has spoiled me. But one of the things I would do was troubleshoot problems in the building. I liked that fact that the Mac operating system is organized. Preferences go in one place, applications in another. Control panels and Inits in another. It was pretty straightforward to troubleshot problems because of that structure. I don’t find Windows to be that straightforward. I guess it is like cooking in someone else’s kitchen: You know they have what you need, you just don’t know where they keep it.

We often brag about the fact that our Macs don’t crash as often. Big deal. Shouldn’t I expect my computer to work? Is that asking too much? I use Panther and I find that my machine doesn’t crash. It just doesn’t. Frankly, the machines in my computer lab running Windows 2000 don’t crash much either. When they do, we just reboot. To me, the bigger thing to brag about is the “Kewl” factor. You should see the looks on my student’s faces when they come to my desk to check their grades on my 12 inch Powerbook G4. I keep lots of applications open at once, and I use Exposé to change between them. “Wow, that’s kewl!” (Kids don’t say “cool,” they say “kewl.” Personally, I don’t hear the subtle difference in inflection, but they seem to...) I like that my computer has aesthetic appeal. Thanks Apple Designers!

I read about viruses all the time. This worm, that spyware. Trojan horses, denial of service. “Mr. Nichols, Sasser got my computer this weekend!” I feel sorry for those people. Our school district uses a Windows Network. It is used for record keeping, attendance, grade reporting, and then all the academic classwork. We have spent tons of money fighting viruses, not just in software, but in the occasional downtime. I am always wishing for the old days when our network was Apple based. When there is a problem everything can come to a screeching halt. It doesn’t happen all the time, just when it is really inconvenient.

Macs just don’t have that problem, especially on OS X. I run Symantec’s Norton Antivirus because I hook up to our school network. The real reason is so that nobody can ever point the finger at me and say that I let a virus in because my machine wasn’t protected. But, in the last five years I have only ever had one virus reported. Norton killed it and told me about it. It came to me attached to a Word document. From a Windows User. From a school principal. I had a good chuckle about that.

How am I doing? Well, because I have given up a lot of responsibility for computer repairs to our Network Administrator, I have more time to do other things. I spend that time playing with all my OS X software and hardware. I get frustrated by Windows, but I am using it and I don’t get physically ill or anything. People still ask me for computer help and tease me that they will pry my Mac from my cold dead fingers... I often think I could do more if they were all on my platform, but I am getting over it. After all, the universe doesn’t revolve around me... anymore.