tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61117372316119827512024-10-25T02:02:03.419-06:00This is a simple blog about my tech life at a high school in Northern Alberta, Canada. We have PCs, Notebooks, iPods, Moodle, and other disjointed pieces of technology. Somehow they all play together. This blog is about that sandbox.Jonathan Konradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08533904587245682958noreply@blogger.comBlogger81125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111737231611982751.post-66951939546408740232014-04-17T17:06:00.000-06:002014-04-17T17:06:36.582-06:00

I actually stopped posting to blogs a few years back since I transitioned to being a principal. I was concerned how much expressing my opinion might come back on me. I still worry about that as life in administration is much more political than as a teacher. That said, I have a keen interest in keeping technology valuable to education and I'm wondering what is new out there? Since journeying away

Jonathan Konradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08533904587245682958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111737231611982751.post-68313068763035594442011-10-21T14:00:00.000-06:002011-10-21T14:00:06.873-06:00

I know I dropped this blog, but I just purchased a Macbook Air. What a dreamy machine. Sure I love the iPad I used for the last year, but for a my work flow this is so much better. It's small and light enough that I slip it into my regular folder. It is also good enough on batter that I do not need to bring my adapter around during the day. Finally it runs OSX. I've been windows now for so long I

Jonathan Konradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08533904587245682958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111737231611982751.post-68565657201522901012010-05-26T00:39:00.000-06:002010-05-26T00:39:58.925-06:00

It's been a great run. I've learned and shared much about technology and our small school in Northern Alberta. However, times are changing. I'm off to work in the town of Myrnam as the principal of their k-12 school. I'll miss writing about technology, but I just will not have the time to do it justice. Thanks for checking in, and perhaps we'll visit again on a blog about administration???

Jonathan Konradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08533904587245682958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111737231611982751.post-57532598763772996372010-04-26T22:26:00.000-06:002010-04-26T22:26:03.760-06:00

iPod touch and iPhones are rapidly becoming useful tools for education. Here are a few apps that can help you be successful on your educational journey here at BRHS. Homework Organizers myhomework - an excellent homework organizer - FREE! Science TCT Lite - good and free Periodic table of elements - FREE! TCT Full - a full featured Periodic table of ellements - $0.99 Units - a simple unit

Jonathan Konradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08533904587245682958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111737231611982751.post-47233762997388390232010-01-02T16:34:00.000-07:002010-01-02T16:34:27.083-07:00

Christmas break is a wonderful and needed rest for educators everywhere. It always helps me clear my mind and be able to focus again on the daily challenges in the classroom. This break I found myself pondering the question of a digital life. OK, that's not quite the concept, but it will have to do. I am wondering about just how much ownership, awareness, and organization students and teachers

Jonathan Konradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08533904587245682958noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111737231611982751.post-33552396147025126892009-12-16T10:46:00.000-07:002009-12-16T10:46:10.539-07:00

I know, I know, it's like sacrilege to recommend a proprietary product when there is a good open source player in the field (VirtualBox), but wow, the new VMWare player is solid. I've installed it on Ubuntu x64 and Windows 7 x64. Each did so with no complaint. Then I created an x64 guest on each with the other as the OS. So I have Ubuntu 9.10 x64 as host with Windows 7 x64 as guest and vice

Jonathan Konradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08533904587245682958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111737231611982751.post-58746171509133745392009-12-10T00:03:00.000-07:002009-12-10T00:03:54.199-07:00

About every two months I get an itch to mess up my world. I'm not sure where this masochistic tendency comes from, but it's impossible to deny. Just when my computer is working perfectly, I format and install a new OS. Lately, this is not as satisfying as it used to be. Now, the install of the OS goes very well. Nearly all my important stuff shows up instantly. What's with that? Oh for the days

Jonathan Konradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08533904587245682958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111737231611982751.post-80705429662699305252009-11-06T17:28:00.000-07:002009-11-06T17:29:19.148-07:00

So several of us have iPods in class. Sure we can each connect to online content, but how can we share content with each other directly?I think that is a key step to making iPods an excellent part of daily use.Thoughts?- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Jonathan Konradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08533904587245682958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111737231611982751.post-45708968246156993002009-11-01T16:48:00.002-07:002010-01-02T16:53:55.714-07:00

Well, I've had the device for a few weeks now and I still can't get enough. How am I using it? Here is an email I sent a colleague earlier on that very topic! PIM apps Right now, just the built in ones, but they all sync to google. So multiple calendars and all my contacts go back and forth between google and the ipod I'm considering this since it also works with google and toodle, which i've

Jonathan Konradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08533904587245682958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111737231611982751.post-11613011801158655212009-10-18T21:35:00.000-06:002009-10-18T21:35:29.856-06:00

This young lad makes a great case for iPods in classroom. I know I'm all for it. I wish our kids bought these instead of the TI83s we force them to in Math.

Jonathan Konradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08533904587245682958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111737231611982751.post-51521625150668547872009-10-17T14:00:00.000-06:002009-10-17T14:00:14.699-06:00

I love Moodle. Use it daily. Now I have an iPod, and love it too. It's time to get this great piece of hardware together with this awesome software. I've posted as much to moodle.org, but I'm not getting any traction. So if you have an ipod/iphone please let your voice be heard, run over to moodle.org and post your opintion. Here is the thread where I've been posting these thoughts; moodle

Jonathan Konradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08533904587245682958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111737231611982751.post-32579632730445936622009-10-13T21:11:00.000-06:002009-10-13T21:11:15.107-06:00

I've used a lot of picture apps over the years. Most do the job. They organize, create folders, do small touch ups, and add tags. Picasa has always been amoung the best. Add free and an easy way to upload and share over the web, and I've been using using it as my main stay for years. One thing I've been meaning to do though is to tag my pictures with the names of who is in them. Now I have no

Jonathan Konradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08533904587245682958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111737231611982751.post-74500777572971702712009-10-07T15:46:00.000-06:002009-10-07T15:46:58.049-06:00

I usually endorse free or open source. However, these guys recently earned any endorsement I can come up with. Here is the story; About 2 months ago I finally purchase the NIV study bible for my PALM. I had been using various free bible packages and a very old one I purchased years back, but none of them had the NIV. Then i purchased an iPod touch and said goodbye to my LifeDrive (a very tough

Jonathan Konradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08533904587245682958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111737231611982751.post-91461052410354584022009-09-16T09:26:00.002-06:002009-09-16T09:35:15.682-06:00

Look no further than Digsby. This program really is an all-in-one wonder. I have lots of digital friends, or friends that are digital. One problem I have though is that they are all on different networks. So a program like Pidgin or Digsby helps me run only one program and still get in touch with all of them. A nice touch with Digsby is that by creating a Digsby account, I only have to enter my

Jonathan Konradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08533904587245682958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111737231611982751.post-20590789323117909382009-08-15T12:18:00.002-06:002009-08-15T12:21:44.590-06:00

P.O.D's are personally owned devices. No one is sure how they will affect traditional education, but one thing is for sure, they keep coming!Our school has great and open wifi, but then most teachers do not allow ipods or data phones in class. We're missing something. Perhaps this fall is the time to start the discussion.Check out this fantastic presentation if you have not already done so. Again

Jonathan Konradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08533904587245682958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111737231611982751.post-86724618582867522122009-05-26T21:17:00.004-06:002009-05-26T21:47:39.550-06:00

OpenDisc - Education versionMany schools have a tight budget. That is often the reason given for them to consider Open Source. However, there is more that Open software than price. Much more. Lately I've found better tutorials, and a better online user base for Open Source alternatives to mainstream software. I would also like to suggest Open source is a better way for all software to go. Even if

Jonathan Konradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08533904587245682958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111737231611982751.post-44255103764751593112009-05-11T15:08:00.002-06:002009-05-11T15:11:33.869-06:00

I've been using this over over a year and it's easy to forget that many teachers may have missed this one. What is it? Well, it's an easy to use online equation editor. You can add it to your iGoogle home page (as I've done), use it in place at www.sitmo.com/latex or ebedd the code into any website.After you build your equation you can download the .png graphic file or copy and paste into just

Jonathan Konradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08533904587245682958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111737231611982751.post-62082418156996400642009-04-06T23:20:00.003-06:002009-04-06T23:24:47.781-06:00

I'll need to come back to this after a few weeks of really benching this service. However, out of the box it simply expands what I do with delicious. All the usual tagging and sharing tools, but adds on page comments and better social networking tools. If I can get enough people from my PLN to use this, it will really take off.Also, you can have it auto bookmark to Delicious as well. Perfect.

Jonathan Konradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08533904587245682958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111737231611982751.post-43315152889580510272009-04-06T09:17:00.002-06:002009-04-06T09:32:47.680-06:00

I'm just experimenting with this, but looks to solve one of my number one issue with Moodle. If you've used Moodle (a fantastic open source LMS), you may have run into the problem of courses that scroll on forever. Moodle seems to be ok for a short course, but once you've grown a bit, the students seem to do nothing by scroll and scroll.Enter Patrick Thibaudeau's tab display. Essentially this

Jonathan Konradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08533904587245682958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111737231611982751.post-40547573360765491012009-04-03T15:23:00.002-06:002009-04-03T15:27:49.909-06:00

Not enough time to post something significant, but having a great time connection with good people down here. Check out MoodleMoot.ca for more information. If you wish to pick up the flavour of the conference, hit search.twitter.com and look for canadamoot

Jonathan Konradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08533904587245682958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111737231611982751.post-6518536476633419682009-03-12T14:29:00.002-06:002009-03-12T14:37:27.909-06:00

Twitter actually arrived sometime last year, but this is when it arrived for me. For most of the world, they are not using Twitter to follow famous people or interesting people for fun. While cool, I don't seem to have the desire or time to do that kind of stuff. So twitter remained a novelty. No more.I'm down in Calgary at the ADETA conference. Some very cool people here and, as usually happens

Jonathan Konradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08533904587245682958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111737231611982751.post-1508944722349441402009-02-19T13:48:00.002-07:002009-02-19T13:52:32.827-07:00

I played around with Ning a while back and could not get my head around why I would want my own social network. I guess a lot has changed in the past year. Many starting networks have really taken off. Which is good, but also a problem. It's a little harder to stay in touch with just a few people in a specific area. I think that's where Ning can really fit in.A small group can stay in touch or

Jonathan Konradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08533904587245682958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111737231611982751.post-40276943688757122822009-02-15T18:53:00.002-07:002009-02-15T20:01:53.001-07:00

The USB key. Everyone has one .... or should ($7.95 for 2GBs at the local tech store). But are we using them well? Two sites I use that helps the lowly USB key come alive. First, http://portableapps.com/It's really amazing what you can carry around with you. All the essential apps and many niche ones too. The top of your list should be from this site though:http://allwaysync.com/

Jonathan Konradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08533904587245682958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111737231611982751.post-28685616548155772202009-02-09T15:10:00.003-07:002009-02-09T15:15:28.356-07:00

I love the concept of this device, but sadly, I have not laid my hands on it. I have been reading books on electronic devices for years, and this looks dramatically better than anything I've used. The size, the contrast, the easy of access to a library all looks very good. Unfortunately, who has this kind of money lying around for books? or rather, just to access books. This brings up a major

Jonathan Konradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08533904587245682958noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6111737231611982751.post-62037600726273554622009-02-06T13:38:00.001-07:002009-02-06T13:38:36.758-07:00

If you are a tech junkie like me, you probably already have a nokia tablet. If not ... what are you waiting for? These devices are dropping rapidly in price and who doesn't want a linux based PC in your pocket?In case you somehow missed what this device is, it's basically an underpowered notebook to-go. It has a beautiful 800x480 touch screen, slide out keyboard, mini-SD slot and a built-in mic/

Jonathan Konradhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08533904587245682958noreply@blogger.com0