FINALLY!- New Flash Player for Linux... BETA of course

This just in from slashdot... Flash Player 9 for Linux has been made available in beta. This is big because many of the web 2.0 applications are flash dependent.

YouTube and many of the video hosting sites come to mind.

I'll be beta testing asap.

Tags: Linux, Flash, web2.0, paccio

Google SMS- True Story

Was out at the local steakhouse this evening. A young man approached the table wearing an athletic jersey of the New York Jets' Chad Pennington to announce that he would be our server. My wife, an avid Jets fan, asked him if he was following the game that was currently on.

He said that it wasn't on the local channel but he was following the score. He continued to tell us that he could get the score for us in an instant. He pulled out his cell phone and texted the word "ny jets" to GOOGL and in a flash the score was on his phone.

New generation, new ways of thinking. I had the car radio on AM so I could follow the game. I'm certain that he never even considered that medium. Why would he?

What other research can be done with sms text messaging. Head on over to Google SMS page and you'll be AMAZED. Driving directions, nearest hospital phone number...
Educators REALLY need to connect with this new generation. There's another world developing.

For what it's worth...

Tags: sms, google, texting, paccio

Netvibes and Pageflakes have both relaunched

It's ironic. Jim Gates over at the Tipline and I have submitted a proposal an online conference event concerning RSS. Our plan was to highlight Bloglines (of course) and touch on Netvibes and Pageflakes. Now both of those tools have issued a re-launch so I'm fairly confident that our proposal will be accepted.

Only where will I find the time?
And what tool is best for screencasting on a Mac??

KP

Tags: K12online06, rss, netvibes, pageflakes, techcrunch, screencasting, paccio

Response to "... ditching Linux for Windows"

Chris of Open Source Classroom has posted some interesting questions about school policy vs. classroom needs. He has procured some older computers and would like to deploy them with Linux on the desktop. The problem comes in the form of school policy. It seems that his school prohibits computers on the network that do not contain the district standard Windows image.

I see points on both sides of this issue. They are mutually exclusive and that's the tough part.

Here's one thought that may be a gray area.

Take your district computer and turn on Internet sharing. Add an extra NIC and 5 port switch. You're not DIRECTLY connecting the Linux boxes to the network, you're just sharing your Internet connection from your teacher workstation.

Is Internet sharing the same as "connecting to the network?" Chris doesn't really want their network resources like file servers and printers. He really wants Internet access.

I think it's sufficiently gray to get you what you want and also meet the high moral standards that Chris obviously adheres to.

I'm looking forward to following responses to his post.
Good discussion.

KP

Tags: policy, k12, Internet, paccio

Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech � Personal Laptops in Schools

Dean Shareski at Ideas and Thoughts talks about the challenges of allowing personnally owned technology to the district network.

The idea raises many questions. Few of the solutions are clear.

When a student or staff asks to connect to the district network the following questions come to mind:

1. Can you guarantee with 100% certainty that your computer is virus and spyware free?
Most answer yes to that question. We most certainly cannot afford the quarantine methods used by colleges.

1.5 Can you guarantee with 100% certainty that your computer is/will not run any program that will negatively impact District network operations?

2. Are you willing to hold the district harmless if your computer becomes infected while using the District network?

3. Are you willing to be held liable if your computer infects the district computers with a virus or spyware either intentionally or accidentally? My technology department is bare bones and short staffed as it is. Cleaning up infections from personnally owned computers is WAY out of our range of services.

4. Are you willing to provide the district with administrative access to your computer to check for inappropriate content? I’m really not interested in accessing the computer but should an incident happen…

A staff member, after considering these questions once asked if there was ANY way he/she could get connected. I said, “SURE. Just donate your computer to the District. We’ll get it cleaned up, certify the software, and issue it back to you with our network (and security) settings in place.”

There is one element that I worry about that I’m sure is coming our way. Wireless broadband cards. Suppose a student or staff member has a laptop with wireless broadband (Verizon, Sprint, Cingular all offer them.)
We certainly can’t comply with CIPA, COPPA, FERPA under those conditions.

Get your policy committee ready because it’s coming.

Great discussion, Dean.

Tags: policy, Internet, spyware, paccio, wireless broadband