posted Jul 18, 2011 5:02 AM by Nate Schmolze
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updated Jul 18, 2011 7:06 AM
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Well at least that's the fear with a recent MMSD email,
A notice came up and said that the administer for my account(MMSD) may want to add some google apps. (or something like that) I'm wondering does this give the district the ability to see what I google at home?? Should I no longer check my e-mail at home? I guess the district loses if this is the case because I certainly will not.
One district employee added a signature to all outgoing email as a response,
Subject: Out of Classroom
The new MMSD mail system interferes with internet use, in that there is confusion about what is done with the work account and what is done with personal accounts when used on one's home computer.
To avoid any mistaken appearance of using my work account for personal business, I will not be accessing my MMSD mail from home any more. This means that I will rarely be using MMSD mail over the summer.
I will be back in the classroom regularly after August 22. If you need to contact me in the mean time, I can be reached at my home phone number (listed), or my home email (which most of my personal contacts and colleagues already have).
Sorry for the inconvenience. Have a great summer
This MMSD update is two fold. This past year because certain Google services were not available some employees created accounts such as xxxyyy@madison.k12.wi.us. This update makes such accoCunts no longer possible and migrates the other account into the district one. The main Google service that motivated the creation of a second account was Picassa which the MMSD choose not to add. This is a mistake because it forces teachers to locate district data on non district accounts. The second aspect of the upgrade is Google services (not the right ones) that previously were unavailable are now available under the district account.
So, what is the good, the bad, and the ugly of this upgrade.
The good is there are services and options available to you that were not earlier. One new service I noticed was Wave which would allow meeting like activities online. Staff Meeting sitting home at the computer anyone? The most important change with the migration is you can now access / download district email on your phone or home computer. For example, by using my district address (Not B # as username) and password I was easily able to add MMSD email to my Android. I Phone has a similar app, just download Gmail. Even more than the mail, having the calendar on my phone is great.
The bad is MMSD has chosen to cripple certain services. Some of the services not included are Picassa, Groups and YouTube. Why shouldn't I be able to create a list serve with Groups for Tuesday LMC or 4/5 teachers. Or why should I have to create a whole new Google account to share school pictures with students, teachers, and parents. Just because MMSD cripples access for certain services does not mean the educational need for those services go away. It would seem to me that it is in MMSD's best interest to keep MMSD data in house.
The ugly gets to the heart of the two quotes at the beginning. One teacher complained about a message that you can't access you tube on your Google Apps account. This was a good thing because if she did all of her activity would have been on her district account. Even though Google tries to be very transparent, unlike Facebook, computer and human (you) mistakes can happen. For example you open your personal gmail in one tab, and work in another, you decide to do a search or go to your favorite website, which account will that happen on. Google offers multiple sign on which seems convenient at first, but leaving it off forces you to log off your personal account before logging into your work account. That of course assumes you are logging in at Google rather than the district sign on you used during the school year.
Confused, worried? Here are a few tips.
- Do not use multiple sign on (even though I do). If you do make sure the correct address (work or home) is at the right side of your Google page.
- Do your business and log off.
- With this upgrade, migration etc. you can now rather simply download your email into your favorite client (Endora). I would recommend Thunderbird http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/. It should be pretty automatic. You set it up as a standard Gmail account with your full email as your username and your password.
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posted Jan 14, 2011 4:10 AM by Nate Schmolze
Data shows the tickets can cost a family as much as $500. DISD issued a statement on the report, saying “The district’s number one priority is safety and the learning environment should never be compromised. The vast majority of our students are not disruptive. Those who do receive tickets are hopefully learning that their actions have consequences.”
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posted Nov 18, 2010 4:57 AM by Nate Schmolze
You may find you want to use a Google service such as Picassa or YouTube with your district account but are unable to. What you'll need to do is create a regular Google account that is associated with you MMSD one.
Note: This is not the same as creating a personal account, but simply one that will give you access to all Google services. You will be linking this account with your district one.
While you are logged in to your MMSD email go to Picasa or YouTube and you'll be forwarded to a Google log in site. The natural tendency will be to put in your district email an password, Don't. Click the create an account link.
From there, use your MMSD email for your current address, select a password, and fill out other required information. I would choose the same password as your MMSD log on, but that is up to you. Lastly you'll create an account.
Some things to keep in mind. When you log on to your MMSD account it is your B # and password, but when you log on to your Google account it will be you district email (xxx@madison.k12.wi.us) and password.
The sharing for Google services have commonalities. For example there is public and private with private being limited to specific email addresses. If you are sharing this with a few friends this would be the way to go. There are two setting for public, for the web and and anyone with a link. If you want to share with families or school wide I would use the anyone with a link setting. This means it is not indexed by Google and can only be accessed by someone who has the link. To rephrase the old saying I am indexed, therefore I am. |
posted Nov 2, 2010 3:15 AM by Nate Schmolze
posted Oct 10, 2010 5:57 AM by Nate Schmolze
Made it through the first week of Gmail without too many major issues. Well, yes there is that minor issue of none of your emails from Groupwise.
One thing I have noticed that may be problematic is sharing Google Doc links. Like labels, Google Docs, shifts how you are used to interacting with documents. In Groupwise you typically would have attached a word file to another teacher or group without worrying about the permission of that file. This may have worked ok in Groupwise, but becomes riskier in an always on, online environment.
Google Docs allows you to share files by controlling permissions. The default for most widely shared files should be MMSD which will allow anyone signed into their district Gmail account to view. There have been several cases in the last week where a document was not viewable although I was logged into Gmail. The most likely scenario is the GDoc was was set to private but assumed to be sharable throughout MMSD. When you are in the document look next to the title, that is where it lists who the document is shared with. It should state Madison Metropolitan School District if it is shared district wide.
Private is only viewable by you unless you have share it directly with an email address. This is great for collaboration or for sharing it with a few people. For example, you write up a document for the K/1 Team, you can select members of your team so it is only editable or viewable by them. There is even a function where you can save those members as a group for future sharing. If you share the document as edit you are giving those members co-ownership of the files. Sharing the file as read only allows member to view it.
Here is a scenario, you get an email from a member of the K/1 that is shared with all team members. You decide it is pertinent to the Speech Teacher, but after you forward the link she says she can't open it. As the owner (created it) of the document you need to be aware that read means only those with permissions can read the document. This is great for confidential documents you would not want forwarded or shared with others. If, for example, you would like those who you've given permission to be able to give other teacher's access set it to edit. Edit allows those with permissions to edit, and share, but not delete the document.
Share the file, then the link. It is not a good practice to grab a Google Doc link and forward it on. The file could be accessible to a few people, a school, or district wide. A better practice is to click on the link and open Google Docs and share it from there. Since district wide files do not show up in Google Docs there are advantages to sharing individually. When I view the document in Google Docs I may find out I only have permission because I am on a tech committee and that permission is only to read the document. If I forward this on it will only be viewable by teachers on the tech committee.
Another advantage of sharing documents this way is attachments become a thing of the past. After you share the document you can email the link, or simply remind the teacher you shared a document with them. Files that you share will show up in the Google Docs of the person you shared with. In this way Google Docs not only allows you to view the files you created but all the files you have access to. Email becomes a way to notify a particular person of a shared file, not to share the file itself. You no longer have to search your email for that attachment, just go to Google Docs and find it there. |
posted Sep 28, 2010 4:55 PM by Nate Schmolze
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updated Sep 29, 2010 4:44 AM
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Filters and labels go together like peanut butter and jelly. Filters operate in a similar fashion with labels as with folders in Groupwise. The only difference, in addition to Gmail's search capabilities, is the emails are not moved anywhere. The emails themselves always reside in all mail which is important to keep in mind because filters (search) are never perfect. Your email does not reside in the label you designate in a filter, it is simply a label you give a group of emails.
Creating filters in gmail can help you organize email and utilize labels better. For example you can search (filter) by subject, keyword, to field etc. and label them to a particular label, delete them automatically (spam), or mark as read.
Here is what it looks like in action.
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posted Sep 28, 2010 4:52 PM by Nate Schmolze
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updated Sep 29, 2010 2:24 PM
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In Group-wise all of your email goes to the inbox until you physically send it somewhere else. For example, you may move a group of emails from the inbox to a Schenk folder. The important thing to remember is in a folder based email system you are physically moving emails from one location to another.
Gmail is different. In Gmail you use labels that come with Google's great search engine. Labels are not folders. It may help to think of labels as tags such as with blog posts and social media. Labels are relational whereas folders are hierarchical. Unlike folders you can use one or multiple labels. When you use labels it is like tagging emails, but its physical location never changes. In fact, the inbox is simply a tag for new mail. All of your mail will always reside in all mail.
Rumor is all of your current folders will be migrated over as labels. This can be both good and bad. Since labels are not folders there can be confusion if you expect them to as as folders. Remember when I said folders are hierarchical as in folder - sub folder - sub sub folder, that is where the confusion will start. You don't have sub labels like you do with folders, but unlike folders each email can have multiple labels. So if you had folder A and sub folders A1 and A2, you would just label emails as A (main folder) and A1 or A2 (sub-folders) depending on the email.
One last tip. Some of you may have been used to in Groupwise dragging email directly into a folder. Well you can still more or less do that. If you select an email or group of emails (check box) you can pull than right into a chosen label. You will first need to create the labels as shown in the video below. One thing to keep in mind is Gmail auto hides folders so if you think a label is gone click the more link.
Here is a video that shows how to set up labels.
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posted Jun 11, 2010 6:53 AM by Nate Schmolze
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updated Jun 11, 2010 7:07 AM
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A Traditional Malcolm Shabazz graduation. Here are two video clips of Nate getting his diploma.
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posted May 31, 2010 1:15 PM by Nate Schmolze
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updated May 31, 2010 1:34 PM
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posted May 16, 2010 7:12 AM by Nate Schmolze
A few years ago Alpha Smart and its co-writer were the rave. Alpha Smart was primitive yet focused writing tool. It allowed one to write but not do much else. Co-writer was a set of applications such as word prediction, spelling, and thesaurus to help facilitate writing.
Write Type does a good job at taking that concept and putting it onto a writing focused word processor. Write Type has an expansive word prediction library, spell checking, and customizable word replacement.
On my little test drive I was very impressed. There are no fancy gadgets just a simple text writing area with a word prediction pan on the right side. Right clicking will give you a spell checker and since its open source it is totally customizable. It also has text to speech capabilities so any text can be read back to the student.
Windows - Zip You will need to extract the zip and run the .exe file in the bin folder.
Here is Write Type in action on Linux Mint 9rc.
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