Thursday, June 30

We have been busy little bees.  This is what the switch room looked like at the beginning of our "project".

All the blue CAT 5 cables ranged from 3 feet to 7 feet.  The bottom portion are the switches and the top portion are the links to the classrooms.  There are black "cable organizers" between the classroom links that hold all the blue cable.  We took all the cables out, removed the organizers, and moved the switches so they are right under the classroom links.  Scott did have to purchase more switches so we alternated the old with the new.

So now that the switches are closer to the classroom links we are able to use the 1 foot CAT 5 cable and "clean up" the look of the room.

Our final steps include the colored cables that link all the switches to the main box which is the bottom right above and below.

The final step was Scott hooking up his lap top and doing a sync with the system and telling it "what to do", (I've learned alot, but it's a lot to take in and remember....sorry for the untechnical terms!)  This all took place at Centennial Elementary School.  Our next project is CreekWood High School which is twice as big and will take twice as long.  I'll keep you posted!!

Monday, June 27

I had the opportunity to do more "grunt" work today with IT.  Scott Malugin is preparing to update the switch boxes at several of our Dickson County schools.  Today we took the 1 foot CAT 5 cables out of their packaging.

We grouped the cables into piles of 24 and tied them together.  Scott was telling me about how the switches are grouped by 24, so it makes it easier to do the "change out" if they are pre-counted.

Wednesday I'll be helping him change out the old switches and put in the new ones.  This has been a great experience for both Scott and me.  We talk about how our different views and priorities conflict and how we can make communications between IT and teachers better. I'm amazed when he tells me something that a principal was suppose to inform teachers about and we never get the information.

Friday, June 10

Today I sat down with one of our older "seasoned" teachers to upgrade her computer skills.  This young lady is in her mid-sixties and struggles to do anything on the computer.  Her biggest fear is "messing up" the computer.  I've reassured her that she alone could not completely shut the internet down.  Today we set up a delicious bookmarking site for her and practiced using it.  She was so excited to find so many sites to use in her classroom.  That is ALL we did today, and I'm sure I'll have to work with her and Delicious again, but I'm awful proud of her enthusiasm and willingness to sit down and try to learn something completely foreign to her.

I also worked with the older students during computer lab time today.  They are enjoying Storybird and Isle of Tunes right now.  I've introduced them to my 19 pencils page so they have access to all the good sites anytime, home or school.  I'll share if they finish a project they are proud of.

Tuesday, June 7

I had a quick impromptu "lesson" today.  Mr. Pat Semore was walking through my building today, I was preparing my library lesson for Thursday, when I spotted him.  I asked him what he was up to, he told me he was replacing a power source for a mounted projector.  He suggested I follow along and watch, "You can do this next time there's a problem at Charlotte!"  So, yes, I watched, climbed a ladder, and now can replace a power source if necessary.  Not much to tell, but I put in my 30 minutes!! (hehehheehe)

Friday, June 3

Physical Labor
So, you mentioned that we are suppose to be free labor during 6000, well you'll be happy to know that they put it to full use.  We have a new technology supervisor coming to our school board and she wanted to rearrange the main tech office.  Scott Malugin (security and programmer for Dickson County) and Tammy Spicer (tech person) invited me to start my shadowing Friday during the move.  For the record, I WORKED HARD!  We moved computer towers from one side to another, we moved a counter top that was mounted to the wall from one side to another (still needs to be mounted again) we pushed shelves around, I even vacuumed.  We moved old towers from the office to the truck to be transported to be recycled and destroyed.

Mental Labor
So between the moving and hauling, we did have some great conversations.  Scott is upset that Microsoft is  now charging a yearly fee of $35,000 to license the program for the county.  We talked about moving our system to Linux, but the change in program layout would be very overwhelming for many teachers.  We even talked about how some teachers in this county REFUSE to use their computer and one guy won't even let them put one in his room!  How do you address this?  In one way, it's complete insubordination to refuse something the principal has told you to have, and the side of the coin, he is not comfortable with technology and chooses to flee from it.  


Scott showed me how he has been working with the high school on their elearning program for the summer and next school year.  The high school has many students who are completing elearning programs, but teachers are struggling with cheaters getting on the Internet or opening other tabs to cheat or play games during their lessons.  Scott has developed a security program that he calls "kiosk" that has totally eliminated the whole issue.  When student computers are turned on at the high school, they automatically boot up and log in.  What appears on the desk top is a single screen with 5 icons.  NO START BUTTON AT THE BOTTOM, AND NO OTHER ICONS ON THE DESKTOP.  2 icons are the elearn links, one is volume, and two others we did not discuss.  Students can click on their elearn icon and it takes them directly to their lesson, no World Wide Web available.  No instant messaging, no hacking, just good old American lessons without the distractions.  Teachers have to be loving that!


So this week, Scott is in Nashville at a computer security and other stuff conference.  Tammy is technically "off" for the summer, but with all the changes she has been coming in to help arrange and will be compensated during regular school hours.  Anyway, I told her to let me know what day she is working this week and I would help her out and learn some stuff from her.  We are planning on Friday.  I'm also working with our summer daycare program this week, helping students to use the computer lab for more than game playing.  OR at least show them other educational games they can play.  I really want to introduce them to Storybird , Boomwriter, ebooks, and Little Bird Tales.   For those students who want to be more creative I'm going to introduce them to Scratch, Isle of Tunes, and Fraboom.  So til I have more to tell, have a great week. :)