Word on the Street… Don’t sleep on Sony!

Yes…they are about to release a LittleBigPlanet (Portable) on the PSP.

Hey… It gets better (I think)… Keep reading.

 

 

 

Smarter Computer Troubleshooting… How?

Parents, do you have a teenager that has your computer wrecked with I-DONT-KNOW-WARE on your computer? Please continue reading this post to help you solve your problems. Well, at least learn a technique to address the issue.

I have a side hustle where I work on computers. I have one client that has a son that BSODs their laptop at least once every six months. I am not knocking my steady business, but the madness must end.

I suggested the parent to “sandbox” their computer. What is sandboxing? It is a way to configure your computer to not keep newly installed programs after the machine restarts. The concept is kinda like a real sandbox. When you are finished playing, you clean/smooth out the sandbox to leave it the way you found it.

So I referred the parent to use sandboxie to install on their machine and try it out for another six months to see if it makes a difference.  There are other sandboxing programs out there. Raviratlami’s blog (8/2006) has shed some additional light on the subject. I really hope that this resolves the issue… If not, there is always SecondChance by PowerQuest.

The Ultimate Puzzle For Your AS—

-PIRING thinkers!

I ran into this puzzle at the last NCTM conference in DC. The company called YMIR Inc. allowed teachers to attempt to solve this puzzle within five minutes. If you were able to solve it, you were able to take it home from free. Great hook, eh? Well, I didn’t solve it there, however I was able to purchase two puzzles for my students to figure out.

Another teacher and myself (as displayed in the picture) was able to solve the puzzle within 10-15 minutes.  The goal of the puzzle is to assemble a 16-piece square with all smooth or rough edges.

I was told that there were at least 200 solutions to this puzzle, so what makes it so difficult to solve? There are no pictures on the faces, and the pieces must interlock with no gaps. Great challenge for those students with good perception.

 I was also told that this puzzle was created by an Estonian and was brought here to keep us entertained. Good job, homie! Will have to work on lowering my rate of completion. I heard that some people has solved it within five minutes or less. Those folks must really must be mensa certified. Anyway, if you are looking for a challenge, let the ultimate puzzle your next victim.

High-Stake Assessments + Brain-dumps

Disclaimer: What I share on this blog are my views and do not necessarily reflect the views of my school district.

Just a thought…

When I was once in the IT field, one was once stressed in passing tests such the series of MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer), A+, and CSA (Certified Solaris Administrator) certifications. To these and other tests, there exsited a dark-side that people (usually desperate) tend to gravitate. What I am speaking of are braindumps. Please follow the link to Wikipedia where it gives a more definate explaination. There is a negative connotation to them because one is supposed to gain IT knowledge through classroom experience, however braindumps alleviate that need for official training. 

Knowing that this exists, I wonder if students or just students in jeopardy will become hip to the previously mentioned IT trend of retrieving large relevant chunks of information in preparation for these high-stake assessments. With the stress of passing the test, is this what high-stake assessment vendors push on teachers to push on students to make the grade?

Your thoughts please…

f2f + moodle = hybrid classes

I tested the waters last summer with hybrid classes. My students and I enjoyed it so much that I will offer the resources of Moodle again this year.

I could post a quick quiz for student to access and they would immediately see their results after its administration. Students learned (as I constantly reminded them) that they needed more practice in posting quality dialog in the forum.

Last year, I ran Moodle from a Window box which was sporatic and hiccuped due to the load. However, now I have it installed on a more reliable & stable Ubuntu box. I really do not expect any technical difficulties this year.

I am in the process of creating two online courses from scratch which I will integrate into a face to face (f2f) course again this upcoming summer. Details will be forthcoming!

Real World Math Problem #3: Clovers

If you have a green thumb, you should know the difference between shamrocks and clovers. The picture to the right would be an example of clovers. Actually, many people discourage their growth, due to their classification as weeds. Many people do not care as long as their lawn is green! However, let me get to the point.

This picture is a great example to strike a conversation with students when introducing the topic of probability (not only in March!!!). Asking students questions as, have you ever found a 4-leaf clover? How long did it take you to find one? It would be really cool to have students to go outside and find at least one in a set duration of time and the person that finds it has no homework for the week! Now that would really be lucky!

Also, besides probabilty in nature, students can research to read more about clovers and shamrocks and possibly write what they learned about them and possibly link some math to the topic. Believe it or not, there is a Four-Leaf Clover Finders guide (PDF) that reports that there is 1 four-leaf clover in 10,000 clovers. You may want to wait to share or let the students discover that fact. Happy hunting!

TI-83 Goes Color!

Well… not quite yet officially from Texas Instruments.

However, through modification, you can refurbish your $89 paperweight (BROKEN TI-83/84). This hack can be done by following the instructions on Mark Bowers’ blog. I may try it out if I can pick up a GameBoy Color unit at the local Good Will at a decent price.

Book Spotlight: Sir Cumference & the First Round Table

In the spirit of high-stake testing…

Nowadays, it is recommended for math teachers to integrate reading into their discipline. Believe it or not, literacy skills are very important for student success involving word problems. So I’ve decided to spotlight some great math related books on my blog from time to time.

I wish to start off with sharing the first book of the of Sir Cumference series. The book Sir Cumference and the First Round Table by Cindy Neushwander is a great tale of how a medival dude solves a problem with King Arthur’s meeting table.

I’ve found this book great to introduce or have the discussions about the area of rectangles, the properties of circles, and some neat constructions. If you own an document camera, it would be a great idea to use it to blow up the awesome illustrations by Wayne Geehan. The book is a great read and I will share the others in the series later!

Generations & Technology

As I go along my way in this age of technology, I am still amazed in how little people know about the Internet and what it has to offer. For example, if you have not AT LEAST heard about MySpace, Facebook or Twitter by now, you must really have your head in the dirt.

I ran across some information from a past workshop that I attended long ago that discussed the generational differences.The generations were broken down as traditionalist, boomer, genX, and genY. It is very interesting to see the comparison between them especially when it comes to technology.

Traditionalist – Uncomfortable
Boomer – Unsure
Gen X – Unable to work without it
Gen Y – Unfathomable if not provided

It is also interesting to see people operating out of their expected technology window. For example, my grandmother that is 82 years old expressing great interest in learning how to send an email. No… not happening; Or a twenty-something year old asking for directions when they are available via GPS, or on cell phone.

After further thinking about this topic, it also dawned on me…what would be the ‘killer app‘ of each generation.

Traditionalist – Radio
Boomer – Television
Gen X - Between the Sony Walkman and the video game system
Gen Y - Cell phone

The above hints to further discussion… much later.

Monstrous Uniform Resource Locators

Can you believe that a teacher (not calling out any names) or teachers still have students enter monstrously long URLs as displayed above? Don’t you know that by the time the students enter all of the letters CORRECTLY and actually get to the assigned website, that have the class period is gone?

Redirectors or URL shorteners are here to save us (especially students) from the headache from receiving repeated 404 errors/page cannot be displayed errors due to one incorrect character. My personal favorite are tr.im & bit.ly… There are many, many more; in addition, these sites are NOT blocked (for now) by school’s web filters.

So…If you are still posting URLs from hades, shame on you!