This year I am offering a technology course for faculty and staff to earn one PLU credit.  I took a survey to determine the topics of interest and developed a course to meet after school ten times during the year for a hour.  Topics for the class include using United Streaming and YouTube in the classroom, creating a blog, podcasting, basic and/or advanced features of  PowerPoint, advanced features of FirstClass, digital photo editing using GIMP, and using Photo Story 3.  If you are interested in taking the class, make sure to sign up through MyPDC by the deadline of August 10th.  Dates and times can be found on page two of the attachment below.

Course Info

To celebrate the new compilation album Handcancel Presents Sampeloco, collectible U.S. First Class Sampeloco Stamps are now on sale from our online Merch booth. 

First Class Production

Proceeds go to the imaginary island of Sampeloco- the same desert island people imagine themselves stranded with their favorite albums, the one featured in many one frame comics such as The Far Side, and considered the ultimate destination for music fans worldwide.

This morning, I got an early start and hit the hotel Starbucks for coffee and their yummy banana nut bread.  While I was there, I spoke with Andy Duncan briefly before I returned to my room to pack and head off for the airport.

I had to wrap some of my books in newsprint to keep them safe from bumps and bruises in my carry on duffle bag.  Considering that I didn’t go to the awards dinner, I still made out with a great selection of bought and free books.  I purchased Nalo Hopkinson and Uppinder Mehan’s So Long Been Dreaming anthology (signed by Hopkinson), New Dimensions 1 edited by Robert Silverberg, New Dimensions 2 edited by Robert Silverberg, and The Best SF Stories from New Worlds 6 edited by Michael Moorcock.  I received for free Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine (September 2007–includes Ted Chiang’s The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate), Brian Aldiss’ New Arrivals, Old Encounters, Suzy McKee Charnas’ Dorothea Dreams, and Philip K. Dick’s Voices From the Street.  I’m glad that ICFA has such a great book room, and I really appreciate the donated books for conference participants.  

While I waited outside for the airport shuttle, I met the SF author Terry Bisson.  We talked about teaching SF for awhile, and then we boarded the shuttle.  After settling in at the back of the bus, James Patrick Kelly joined us for the short jaunt to the airport.

Luckily, I had enough time to browse around the Kennedy Space Center gift shop where I picked up a NASA baseball hat and some t-shirts (I discovered when I got home that their sizes run large, so be warned).  While I was in line, Dewitt ambled in, and we talked awhile about the conference and the impending SFRA conference in June.  He and I both have to get our proposals to Lisa and Doug before the end of the month.  I don’t want to give away his paper idea, but I think it is brilliant for the theme and location of the conference.

I was able to use some miles to upgrade my seat from economy to First Class (making this my second foray into the airline class privileged section of the aircraft).  While sitting there and looking outside from my first row window seat, I jotted down these notes:

I’m sitting in First Class, seat 1F right now, writing my post in my Moleskin reporters pad.  Outside the Boeing 737-800 I see so much activity–the activity at all major airports.  The ground crew members are dutifully slinking along under the concrete magnified heat of the Spring Florida sun.  Even thought I’ve seen the magnificent work of the ground crew on many occasions, it never ceases to awe that they facilitate the safe and efficient travel of multitudes of people crapping to get from here to there.  I am thankful for the care of the airline ground crews as well as the professional and dedicated efforts of pilots, and stewards and stewardesses.  

During our initial climb, it is so quiet except for the constant high pitch drone of the engines behind me.  The jet engines sound like muffled remote controlled nitro-fueled cars.  Actually, it is an enjoyable sound.

I see that there is a nuclear power plant near the airport–that would make for a fun ICFA outing in the future.

During the flight back to Cleveland, I saw four nuclear power plants, the Golden Isles Speedway (a dirt race track between Brunswick and Hortense, Georgia), and a number of other airplanes above, below, and to the side of our path through the sky.  In fact, I probably took as many pictures of the ground from the plane as I took pictures at the conference.  Thankfully there were such clear skies.

Thinking back over the past few days, I can honestly say that I had a good time in Orlando.  Ritch was an excellent roommate, and I’m glad to have had the opportunity to catch up with A.P., Gerard, Melissa, and everyone else.  All of the SFRA conference fliers, brochures, and bracelets were eagerly taken away, and all of The Postnational Fantasy CFPs were whisked away.  I am glad that I got to talk to so many folks about The Postnational Fantasy project, and get feedback on the publication process from others.  Of course, there are many things that were left undone, and folks that I would have liked to talk with, but the time compression built into a conference is the joy and bane of academic meetings.

I know this was a rambling post–thanks for bearing with me.  I’m ecstatic to be home with Yufang and Miao Miao.  There have been naps, playing, vegetarian dining, and World of Warcraft in the hours following Yufang picking me up from the airport this afternoon.  Tomorrow it’s back to work, but I’m going to hold on to ICFA’s fantasyland time just a little bit longer.

Shitty pun aside, here’s a gem gleaned from the hallowed halls of the FirstClass Classifieds forum:

To whom it may concern,

I pay (well, my father pays) forty thousand dollars a year for me to attend this school, before costs of food (you can’t expect me to eat at the Dining Hall), books (paying to read?), and clothes (Ralph Lauren, of course).  For this amount of money, the luxuries Furman affords are few.

I will cut to the metaphorical chase.  It is cold outside.  Being a child of the south (God rest its soul), I am not accustomed to the bitter weather we have been experiencing as of late.  In exchange for its expectation that I attend class, I expect that this university facilitate my ease of transport.  This has been done to a large extent with footpaths that snake the campus, and for that much I am appreciative.  However, when the weather turns inclimate, these paths are turned into frigid arctic trails, replete with wind and hardship but having a distinct lack of sled dogs and Inuit.

So help me if it rains…

I have several propositions.

The first is a series of covered, walled, and heated hallways built over the existing footpaths.  These could be built of glass (to keep our campus blight-free, and glass, additionally, is 100% recyclable (GO GREEN)) and easily converted with air conditioning units in the summer to encourage the wearing of full pants and skirts by the more risque of our student body.  This would, of course, include path extensions to the chapel parking lots (with bridges (with elevators)).

An alternative to parking lot paths is valet parking for the academic and residential buildings.

The next proposition, which could be used in conjunction with the aforementioned, is heated recliners instead of plastic chairs for classrooms.  This will accelerate the warming process and, of course, facilitate learning.

Please let me know how this strikes you, or if you have anything to add to my proposal.

David White

David White, you may not know you’re being featured on this humble website. You may not even know we exist. You may cook meth in a basement lab using freshman chem knowledge. You may even be Republican. But sir, we don’t care.

In fact, we salute you. Well done!

Curious how to change the icon next to your name in FirstClass?

 

Watch this short video to find out how. 

When enrolling on this course, i was interested to see exactly how the distance learning would be organised and delivered. The use of Plone and FirstClass make the idea of “distance learning” a very feasible reality.

Plone is very simply a course management system that acts almost like a student manual to the course and a reference point for curricular activities, but what i have been incredible impressed with so far is FirstClass.

I had never heard of FirstClass before this course, and it took me a while to see its potential. The best way i can describe it is as a thin client enclosed in an application. It allows users to upload work, e-mail each other, upload and store files and chat in real time along with many other features. I say “thin client” as everything you do in FirstClass is mirrored across every computer it is installed on associated with your account, so if i do my work (which primarily i do) on my work laptop, which is a MacBook Pro, i can come home and use my Windows Vista machine (which i rarely use) to carry on where i left off. Everything is synced server side including icon size and even the background on your home screen.

All of this really makes for a fantastic experience of learning with Anglia Ruskin University, and i look forward to the future now with this fantastic course.

Resizing Columns in Excel

In Microsoft Office Excel, you can resize multiple columns to different widths so that you can see all the text in your spreadsheet.

1. Select the columns where your text appears by clicking the column headings. Select multiple columns if necessary.
2. To resize the columns to fit, double-click in the column heading, exactly on top of the border that divides any of the two columns you selected.

Wie fühlt man sich wenn der Regenguss nach 5 Stunden immernoch anhält?
Sehr nass.
Durchgehenden Wind hatten wir leider auch nicht, jedoch zwischendrin gute 3-4 Windstärken.

So segelten wir also in Ölzeug, wie echte Segler, durch das Nass auf dem Untersee zwischen Öhningen und Horn.
Den Weg zur Wendeboje, knapp unter der Reichenau, mussten wir uns durch stetiges Kreuzen hart erkämpfen.

Der Wind drehte zu unserem Vorteil, sodass wir unter der schweizer Uferseite gute Windverhältnisse vorfanden, jedoch die Schiffe auf der deutschen Uferseite in Flaute, dem Regen und dem Frust komplett ausgesetzt waren.

So hatten wir also einen recht guten Lauf, haben die Regatta jedoch, sobald wir den heimatlichen Bojenplatz sehen konnten abgebrochen, weil der Regenguss einfach nicht aufhören wollte – der Wind jedoch schon.

Obwohl das Wetter unter aller Sau war, hatten wir trotzdem unseren Spass. Die FirstClass 8 ist einfach toll zu segeln.
Da ich aus Protest leider das Unterwassergehäuse für die Fotocam nicht mitgenommen hatte, gibt es nur Bilder als es mal kurz nicht regnete. Mehr als diese zwei bescheidenen Bildchen konnte ich gar nicht machen. Das soll was heißen ^_^

So I’m finally posting this from the Ubuntu client at ACST.  It’s not connected to the network yet, just running on DSL for faster internet.  I just configured Edubuntu, Flash, MP3 playback, sound, internet, DOCX support for OpenOffice, First Class and a bunch of other stuff.  I just installed the Dansguardian parental controls through Synaptic.

Everything’s going well.  I just need to test Suspend/Resume and hibernate, though those are low priority systems.  I would like to change the boot order, though.  If the person who turns it on just leaves it, it’ll boot into Windows.  I know it can be done, but how?

I’ll run Ubuntu Update right before class is over

Just got WINE up and running.  It’s nice that it’s now Wine 1.0 RC1.  Maybe things will start working reliably.  I just hope that the school doesn’t have any apps that need Windows support that don’t have Open Source/Linux alternatives

My wonderful girlfriend, Yufang, drove me up to the Cleveland Airport so that I could catch a plane headed back down south to IAFA in Orlando, FL. I flew Continental Airlines, and I had a First Class seat. Normally I don’t fly First Class, but I waited too long to purchase my ticket and that’s all that was left for non-stop flights between Cleveland and Orlando. However, the price was more expensive, but the First Class experience (my first) was well worth it! I had a spacious seat, three glasses of red wine, a snack that included more wine, cheese, meat, crackers, and cookies (as opposed to just a packet of mixed nuts), and a fellow non-First Class traveler as my next-seat mate (a produce supply chain manager–not sure about his official job title, but it his work sounds interesting–though I had more questions than I was comfortable asking regarding modern farming and displacement practices).

After arriving at the Orlando Airport Marriott, I ran into Lisa Yaszek and Doug Davis who were on their way out to the pool. Later that night, I talked to two long-time IAFA-goers, Tim and Brian, at the opening reception. Then, I ran into Karen Hellekson and Craig Jacobsen, co-editors of SFRA Review. We all moved outside and had an enjoyable talk out on the dock behind the hotel on a large pond. While enjoying the night breeze, Taryne Jade Taylor joined us. If she’s representative of Florida Atlantic’s MA in English, SF and Fantasy track, then they must have an outstanding program! After the first exodus of bodies, Aidan-Paul Canavan lurked into the darkness under the gazebo. It was great seeing him again (he’s in the PhD program at the University of Liverpool).

What a great arrival to the conference–enjoying time with old friends and new!

3 december 2007: Malmö stads Lokala PIM-tillägg är en webbplats med studiematerial som går igenom de grundläggande funktionerna i SELMA och PedNet. SELMA är ett gemensamt mediesystem för Malmös skolor och PedNet är skolornas e-post och konferenssystem. Båda systemen är viktiga redskap för skolpersonal i Malmö.

Studiematerialet innehåller
- texthandledningar med bilder
- instruktionsfilmer
- studiekort
- övningsuppgifter

Malmös Lokala PIM-tillägg kan fungera som en fortsättning på det nationella PIM. Det finns dock ingen examinationsmöjligheter knutna till Malmös Lokala PIM-tillägg utan är tänkt att endast fungera som ett studiematerial. Malmös Lokala PIM-tillägg kan användas av enskilda lärare som på eget initiativ vill lära sig grunderna i PedNet och SELMA eller gör gemensam personalfortbildning ute på skolorna. Vidare kan Malmös lokala PIM-tillägg fungera som ett uppslagsverk när man behöver vägledning i stunden. Webbplatsen Malmös Lokala PIM-tillägg är uppbyggd på samma sätt som de nationella PIM-handledningarna för att pedagogerna ska känna igen sig och inte behöva sätta sig in i ett nytt sätt att navigera mellan sidorna.

Malmös Lokala PIM-tillägg är skapat av it-pedagoger och bibliotekarier på Pedagogiska centralen, Malmö stad.

Du kan besöka Malmös lokala PIM-tillägg på
www.pedc.se/pim

Nun habe ich bereits das Lernpensum für die 2. Woche geschafft und werde heute vielleicht noch mit der 3. Woche beginnen. Im Moment habe ich für die 1. und 2. Woche zusammen nur ca. 7 Std. benötigt, obwohl ca. 12-15 Std. angegeben sind. Ich denke, dass das die nächsten Wochen aber deutlich mehr in Richtung 12-15 Std. gehen wird. Das erste Kapitel wurde – obwohl es nicht besonders umfangreich ist – auf zwei Lernwochen aufgeteilt, während das bei den nächsten Kapiteln nicht der Fall sein wird.

Das Thema ist im Moment Identität, die verschiedenen psychologischen Theorien dazu (Erikson, Marcia, Tajfel, usw.) sowie einige Methoden, die in der Identitätsforschung eingesetzt werden (den sog. “Twenty Statements Test” von Kuhn/McPartland, das “Semi-structured Interview” von Marcia). Außerdem habe ich heute mal das EPoCH-System getestet, das im übrigen offen zugänglich ist. Es handelt sich dabei um so eine Art Auflistung aller bekannten Psychologen, psychologischer Methoden und Strömungen, die anhand einer Zeitlinie dargestellt werden, mit ein paar biographischen Details zu den Personen und kurzen Zusammenfassungen zu den Themen, Methoden und Konzepten.

Ich hatte mir eigentlich gedacht, den Inhalt von Kapitel 1 in einer einzigen Mindmap darzustellen. Wie man sieht, ist das alles andere als übersichtlich, was wohl bedeutet, dass ich die Mindmap noch aufteilen werde (ob das mit Freemind wohl auch automatisch geht?).
(Grafik anklicken, dann erscheint sie größer.)

Meine Tutorin hat sich mit ein paar Anmerkungen zum Studium per E-Mail gemeldet, bisher sind nur zwei weitere Studenten (eine aus Deutschland, einer aus Spanien) im Tutorforum aufgetaucht. Ansonsten empfinde ich das allgemeine Forum zum Kurs (an dem wirklich alle Studenten aus allen Regionen und von allen Tutoren teilnehmen können) extrem unübersichtlich. Ich habe zwar schon die Einstellung “nur ungelesene Mitteilungen anzeigen” aktiviert, aber es ist trotzdem sehr schwer, dem Gesprächsverlauf zu folgen. Irgendwie empfinde ich die FirstClass-Foren gerade nicht als Hilfe und habe eher den Eindruck, dass dort die verschiedenen Beiträge mehr verwirren als dass sie helfen.

AstraSync has been chosen by Ottawa-Carleton District School Board to provide enhanced over-the-air synchronization between their servers and BlackBerry smartphones.

The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board is the largest school board in Ottawa, Canada, and offers students and parents a world of choice for education, growth, and achievement.  They employ over 4000 teachers and administrative staff across 150 schools.  To ensure the best possible learning experience the School Board uses Open Text™ FirstClass as a district wide communication platform.  FirstClass is used as a collaboration tool as well as email, calendar and contacts for all School Board executives, teachers and ancillary staff.  AstraSync has been integrated with the FirstClass Messaging and Collaboration Suite to deliver the same ActiveSync-compatible functionality to BlackBerry smartphones that is built-in to the new Apple iPhone 3G.

“Having a stable reliable communication tool is critical to any organization” said Rex Vollans, PMP Project Manager for the School Board.  “AstraSync is just that, once you have an established wireless connection and completed the initial calendar and contact sync you just leave the program running in the background and don’t have to touch it.”

“We are delighted that Ottawa-Carleton School District Board is benefiting from AstraSync’s close integration with FirstClass Messaging and Collaboration servers”, replied John Davies, President and CEO of MailSite.  He continued “AstraSync’s effortless real-time syncronization will help ensure that the Board’s students and staff have access to the right information at the right time, wherever they are.”

The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board is the largest school board in Ottawa and offers students and parents a world of choice for education, growth, and achievement. Our 150 schools offer a wide range of programs to promote learning excellence and meet the individual needs of students, parents, and the community at large.  All schools are teaching communities where our principals, vice-principals, teachers, and support staff nurture and challenge students to achieve their best in academics, the arts, athletics, and technology.

Open Text™ is the largest independent provider of Enterprise Content Management software and solutions.  The FirstClass Division of Open Text is a leading provider of cost-effective, highly scalable, and feature-rich messaging and collaboration solutions that enable education organizations and businesses to connect people and content within secure online communities.  Over 3,000 organizations and 9 million users worldwide are currently using FirstClass.

AstraSync

Autofill your FirstClass User ID

Save time by Auto-Filling your FirstClass User ID so every time you log into FirstClass you don’t have to fill in both your user ID and password. 

On the FirstClass login screen, click the Setup button.

In the User ID field, type your user ID.

Click Save. Note: It’s not a good idea to auto-fill your password. By auto-filling your password, you make it very easy for anyone to access your email.