technologicalontogeny

Got a Charge Out of This One

danriles — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 02:31:01 +0000

I am making my way through some of the last of my paper magazines as I move over to digital reading. I turned down the page corner when I first saw this, and I still think it is cool.

PlugBug

Grommet

danriles — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 00:36:06 +0000

I installed the grommets in the tables I am using in my computer lab. Drilling holes with a hole saw and popping those in was very satisfying. The grommets have flexible fingers instead of rigid plastic inserts. This is great because they have a greater capacity to deal with different sized cables, they hold the cables for me as I poke them through from underneath, and they won’t pop out of the hole. I love it when a plan comes together.

Cable Management

danriles — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 03:10:09 +0000

I am reconfiguring the computer lab at my school. I am doubling the number of computers from four to eight, I replaced the tables with ones that can be height adjusted for the smaller students I usually teach, and I installed cable management!

After looking long and hard, I found the Signum cable management tray at Ikea for $10 a pop. I was going there over the last weekend for some furniture, so I picked up six of these to put two on each table. I installed them today, and I am very pleased. Good price, good product.

Summercore Day 1

danriles — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 22:29:38 +0000

Today we talked about web 2.0 and Google Docs. There were many things I already knew, but there were plenty of things I had not seen before. In addition, the teaching about docs was priceless as I will be doing the same at the beginning of the school year with the faculty of my school. Great to see it done while wearing this lens.

A tagxedo word cloud of this blog

Posted with Blogsy

Temporary Stage in Transition

danriles — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 00:56:52 +0000

I am in the process of moving my school to Google Apps, and today was supposed to be the day to flip the switch by directing mail to Gmail rather than the highly frustrating email service we currently use. Unfortunately, that was not to be. Instead I, and the awesome consultant from OunceIT, worked all day to create forwards from that service to the temporary gmail address. Why did it take all day? Well, I am also standardizing the three naming schemes, so there were many users who had to have aliases created in both Google and in the old service, and those aliases had to be forwarded to Gmail as well. Of course while doing this, the interface would require several clicks to get back to the screen that allowed us to make changes. This was an enormous investment of time for something that will be meaningless in about a week.

On the positive side, the mail transfer started with only one small hiccup.

Conferences & Projects

danriles — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 00:58:19 +0000

Today I got the confirmation that I will be presenting at the 2012 MassCUE conference. Yay! Another project to work on over the summer.

I also registered for Edcampblc. Yay edcamp!

Speaking of projects, the new website for my school is moving ahead full steam as well as the transition to Google Apps. And I thought I’d be heading to summer break with a light load. I think I’ll be at school more than not over the summer, but I am jazzed by this productive and positive movement forward.

MIT Workshop Day #2

danriles — Mon, 21 May 2012 00:03:48 +0000

Today, I completed the second and final day of the sewable circuits and accelerometer workshop at the High Low Tech Group at MIT. It was great. I got into programming in Java to make the movement of my decorated glove control the action of an object on my computer screen.

I also spent some time decorating the glove with felt strips. There were two major troubleshooting opportunities; these are where the biggest learning occurs. First, I had a very flaky reading from my glove that was finally diagnosed as a loose connection on the – pin on both the accelerometer and the LilyPad board. After sewing those both tighter with conductive thread, that problem was history.

The next problem arose when I started tweaking the base program given to us to control the object. Of course I wanted to make it my own, but I knew no syntax for Java. I have plenty of mathematical logic and some programming in Pascal and Basic, but I have not really played with Java, C, or any of the modern languages. This was a crash course in coding for me, but the tangible results and workshop atmosphere were perfect conditions for me to dive in.

Overall, this was an amazing experience. I met some very amazing people, I got to play with electronics and coding while also doing crafts, and I spent two days just focusing on learning and playing. It was a much needed mental refresher.

Sewable Circuits

danriles — Sun, 20 May 2012 01:02:08 +0000

Today was the first of two days at a workshop hosted by the High-Low Tech Group at MIT. The objectives of this event for educators it to explore sewable circuits, accelerometers, and the LilyPad Adrduino controller.

My first project was a simple circuit with a batter holder and an LED. I decorated it to look like a flower.

My next project that will be continued tomorrow is a glove with an accelerometer attached to an arduino processor. I am loving this workshop!

Tech Integration in a Steampunk Musical

danriles — Sun, 13 May 2012 03:42:23 +0000

The Peace Ray above and the audience dancing to the sounds of Walter Sickert and the ARmy of BRoken TOys after the show.

I just saw the closing show of 28 Seeds, a steampunk musical. Telling the story of how the apocalypse happened, 28 Seeds had great music from Walter Sickert and the ARmy of BRoken TOys. Besides being lots of fun, the production did a very nice job of using tech. From the QR codes on the many monitors facing the audience and a live twitter feed that featured actors during the performance, there was quite a bit of modern tech sprinkled amongst the the more recognizable steampunk accents. Loved the brain in the tank!

Last MEMSET for the year and perhaps forever!

danriles — Thu, 10 May 2012 01:00:59 +0000

Well, that is a bit dramatic, but true on one level. The Massachusetts Elementary and Middle School Educators using Technology (or Educational Technologists) met for the last time today at BB&N Middle School. It is amazing to sit in a room of teachers and tech specialists talking about independent elementary and middle school technology topics.

One thing we recently ran up against was that the acronym MEMSET has been taken, so we can not get the com or org domain. We need to rebrand to move forward. Thus, MEMSET will be no more. We will be another group next year–the group formerly known as MEMSET.

Tonight’s discussion covered benchmarks/standards, how they are integrated in the classrooms, how they are reported, and how different constituents are held accountable for them. Then over dinner, we had presentations from different members on tech integration projects. One particular one struck me. A third grade project using conductive thread to create circuits on a quilt echoed the many articles I have been seeing on wearable electronics.

I look forward to this group, under its new name, continuing the great work next year.