boosting laptop wifi reception wherever you are

http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-WIFI-Antenna-Reception-Booster/

For those of you who are even marginally mechanically inclined, I have put a link up that directs you to a variety of cheap and easy projects you can create to boost the wifi reception capabilities of your antenna for your laptop. If you are stuggling to pull in a weak signal, these easy to do projects can boost your reception exponentially. copy and paste the link above into your address window. Try it it's fun! They really work!

The Digital Divide/Challenges and Solutions

In examining ways to reduce the digital divide for students who do not have computers at home, I believe the answers come down to individuals. I have received no end of responses from businesses that would be happy to donate older computers as they replace them with new ones. However, here is the catch. Microsoft and Apple have proprietary rights to both their system and productivity software, which is licensed to the individual who buys their computers and pays for this software. Legally, we could (or a company could) be held liable for piracy/theft by donating these old computers with this software on them. I believe I have found a solution to this problem. As older operating systems become unsupported by the computer giants who created them, they no longer care about the sharing of this software. It is outdated and cumbersome to use.

I think if individual teachers donate older computers to students, that have outdated operating systems and productivity suites, we could increase the number of students with computers at home. Be sure to erase all of your previous information/data, so that the student starts with a clean drive. If they intend to use the internet, it is important to let them know that in order to protect their computer, they will have to invest in a good anti-virus/spam software protection system like Trend microvirus. they would, of course, have to pony up for their own internet service, and dial up is awfully slow, but it still works, and can be found for only $10.00/month.
This would at least get them into the loop, even though it wouldn't be with the newest technology. If on in two teachers in St. Paul was able to donate an older computer to a student, we could increase the number of computers available to students at home by 2,000 computers. Many of our students have siblings at home, so our penetration of 'have not' households would increase even more. It's just a tought-but it comes down to you, as an individual, making a difference in a student's life; and bridging the digital divide.

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RPC

I think this is a great resource, but it needs some upgrading. I think the reminders are something that won't work for my students because half of them don't have computer access at home. I also think the rubric generator could be more robust. It is limited in scope. The research i do is usually shorter in nature than science or social studies; and I think I've finally (after ten years) refined the process to lead my students to great success. I personally won't use the RPC because of accessibility issues for my students, but I can see it as a useful tool for new teachers. What I REALLY like is the citation machine attached to the resource links page on the highland website. I have found this tool to be hugely helpful in citing resources. I think the kids will use it all through college.
bc

Widgets - the last thing i need

The last thing I need is useless technology that takes up more of my time. Sorry, but this was not helpful information.

Streaming Video

With all of the hours I've spent looking for video streaming that would benefit my LA instruction I can safely say there is precious little available anywhere online that is useful for my needs. I think if I were teaching either science or social studies, there would be a lot of good stuff I could use - but not for English.
bc

Public Library

So far, this has been my most useful tool. I've always had a library card, but being able to access the catalogue online and order materials I'd like, i find this extremely efficient. I've used my library access more than anything else we've covered in this class. I always said-"If I learn one more thing that can save me time and effort in this class it will be worth it.

RSS feeds

This is not something I can use. I have a large volume of bookmarks that allow me to find whatever I need-but i find that the more technology I use, the more time it all takes-and for teaching English, I don't find that it is something i will use.

Delicious

Learning about delicious today was something I can actually use. I am working from three different computers, and this is a nice way to combine all of my bookmarks in one place. Now I just have to bookmark delicious on all three computers.
bc

Mind the Gap

In the most recent issue of NEA Today, there is an article entitled, Mind the Gap, which is an article about the very discrepancy we've been discussing between our students who have computers and access to the internet, and those who don't. While the things we are learning in this class are applicable in the classroom, I can't help but think of the 50% of our students who are being left further behind each day as technology continues to develop. It makes me want to really focus on how we can get these resources to our students who are on the losing end of this explosion in technology. I have some ideas about how we could help/like donations of computers from businesses who are upgrading-but I have no idea where we could get funding to support 'wiring' our students throughout the city. Does anyone else see this as an increasing difficulty in educationg our students?

Complete Booklist for IB English now avaiable

This post is for my colleagues at Highland and any other school in the district teaching IB English classes. We finally received a complete list of books and authors for IB English. It seems many schools were using books not apprved by the program, and were therefpre not in compliance. Highland has been in compliance, but we have been charged with the task of coming up with new curriculum to update our program and make it more accessible for the students. I will copy, and distribute these book lists so we can begin our discussion of changing books for the upcoming years.

Final Word on Accessing Blogger With Dial up

I finally got an email from Mozilla regarding the issue of difficulty connecting to Blogger using the Firefox browser with a dial up connection. Mozilla DID design Firefox for MacIntosh computers, and it does not support dial up connectivity with many sites well, if used with a PC. They suggested using Explorer as a browser, as I discovered, if having these issues.

IB Training ELA Updates

For anyone interested in IB training, or is thinking about implementing it in their schools, I just came back from level 2 training in New York, and have a great deal of materials that explain the various written and oral exams students need to do in their junior and senior years in high school. I'm not going to put the link for their page on this blog because it is very confusing and hard to navigate-but if you are interested in the information on testing outcomes I would be happy to share some materials with you.

battery problems with your laptop?

Has anyone else noticed that battery life in your laptop goes from full to half after just a half hour? The bottom of my laptop also gets so hot I have to put a magazine under it so it won't burn my leg? Is this normal? Is there a problem with the heat sink? I know that is how the heat is dissipated instead of using a fan. Our ex-building tech sent me a page for uploading a battery check and a 'fix' for the problem, but it turned out to be a blind link to an inoperable page. Does anyone have a link that works?
bc

Are there any free wikis out there where we can uploand folders?

I've been trying to create a wiki at PBwiki, but it appears yu can't upload folders, only create individual pages. Does anyone know of anything available to use where we can uploand entire folders for sharing? The PBwiki folks say that is coming soon-but will we have to pay for a premium service to take advantage of this? So far, this is not conducive to creating a shared cache of lesson plans. It seems we can still only upload one document to a page. Just to upload curriculum for one class, there would be well over 100 pages that would have to be uploaded separately. There has to be a better way. What have others found out?

District H.S. English wikki

Now we're talking. This was the most useful piece we've done in class, as far as I'm concerned. They are still not as easy to use as bulletin boards, but they are simpler to set up. What they did with Central's English is exactly what I've been trying to do at Highland. Unfortunately, I'm not getting much buy in from the rest of the English Dept. What if we take things one step further? Why not create a wikki for the entire district for high school English that anyone who contributes can access? We would be able to select from a wide variety of lessons and units for all the literature we teach, including IB and AP. Why should we continually have to reinvent the wheel each year when we get assigned all new classes? The work has been done numerous times already. How handy would it be for all of us to access pre-written lesson plans, unit maps-and all aligned to the standards? Is there anyone out there who is interested in trying this? I think it would be powerful in so many ways-and it would help us all to standardize the high school curriculum as the district is pressing us to do. Who's with me?
b.c.