Whoa, interaction via a blog comment… we’re “going old school.” I love it!

I’ve subscribed to your blog https://talkingwithmachines.com/ with my new instance of FreshRSS https://freshrss.org/ I’ve been playing with.

I hope we can continue more connections and conversations following the Civics of Tech Conference. I facilitate monthly webinars for the Media Education Lab on the 1st Monday of each month (normally) and today’s is on “Searching with AI.”
https://mediaeducationlab.com/index.php/events/searching-ai

I agree the conversations about what ‘responsible AI use’ is and can mean are very important.

via: https://mastodon.cloud/@dokas@mas.to/114801682427866716

I want to thank you for posting these travel tips about keeping your personal data private. I am a future teacher and avid traveler and find that these tips will be useful in my classroom to share with my students. I had no idea how much the government had access to while passing through customs. In the past I never carried anything more than a deactivated cell phone during my international travels. It is good to know what the government has access to while passing through customs because I know in future travels I will be more likely to bring a laptop or personal cell phone with information and accounts that I want to keep private. I plan to encourage my students to travel if they ever have the chance but I also want them to be aware of the concerns and safety and privacy they need to protect while traveling. As I encourage my students to travel, I will be sure to relay this information and your tips along to them! Thanks again for all these tips.

As a future teacher and avid traveler this post was very insightful. I had no idea all the access or checks the government could do at customs. In the past I’ve been a pretty low key international traveler when it comes to technology. I’ve never brought a lap top or personal cell phone on an international trip. All I ever had was a deactivated cell phone that I would use for maps and wifi. But I know as I get older and travel more, and with technology becoming cheaper and easier to travel with, I will likely find myself wanting to bring more technology with me. Your post is a great resource and I know I will be using many of the tips you provided. I know I will be encouraging my students to travel as much as they can, but I want to be sure I can provide them with safe and smart travel tips. Data privacy during travel is a completely new concept/issue to me and I am very glad I came across your post. It will definitely be a resource I use in my classroom to inform students how to keep their data and personal accounts private while traveling.

Besides that though, yes you can easily get 80% of the iPhone for 20% of the cost. It’s crazy. Even if you upgraded every year at the $200 mark, you’d still be under an iPhone upgraded every 3 years.

Now, I’ll be curious to see what pros and cons you experience. The updates on android are my biggest grief by far. Coming from iOS where things happen smoothly, that’s the hardest adjustment. But I won’t spoil any other glorious pros and cons. 😉

PS. my wife’s first smart phone was the 1st gen Moto E and it was

I shifted away from that and now focus on shorter things that reflect what I am thinking about on any particular day. That changed everything; I didn’t have to focus on the things that longer research represents. It’s now like sitting at a coffee shop having a chat with a friend about an issue of the day. These posts are far more satisfying and much easier to write. Of course, I still have two theme days “This Week in Ontario Edublogs” on Fridays and “Whatever happened to …” on Sundays. But they’re particular passions.

We talk about the power of inquiry and wonder with students; it’s not a leap at all to think that we would do it for ourselves.

Good luck on your reboot. I look forward to continued reading of your thoughts.

Thanks for keeping this archive alive. One of my favorite memories of Bob’s original site (beyond the amazing work) was reading a comment you left for one of his students pieces of poetry about snow. It was an example I used in a course I taught for pre-service teachers about authentic audiences. It was great to see someone from Texas (at the time) who would take the time to provide an elementary student in Maine some feedback about her poetry.

“”PHP: syntax error, unexpected $end, expecting ‘]’ in /opt/bitnami/php/etc/php.ini on line 1
383
DB connection error: No such file or directory (localhost:3306)”
– this was on Ubuntu and the DB connection was to MySQL

this message suggests to me that basic aspects of PHP & database connectivity had just become destroyed by whatever AWS did to the image. It broke not only mediawiki but it’s dumpBackup.php script therefore making it impossible to back up that wiki.

There was really no resort but to back up to a nine day older backup, losing files that had since been updated in the wiki, which should never *NEVER* happen & in a large organization would be beyond unacceptable and would end AWS use.

AWS should have flagged this as a BCH-created and BCH-managed image and not touched it, regardless of the request (which came from the ignorant client to resize it).

What I’m wondering is, does hosting BCH images on Google Cloud have the same or worse problems? BCH claims they can drop an image to your own management directly on AWS (or Google Cloud) any time, but if they don’t do this *BEFORE* a resizing or other modification, does that cause such chaos usually?

Thanks!

Molly

Have you posted any recent thoughts on this issue given the evolution of AppleTV, AirServer, Chromecast EDU, etc since your original post date? Have you seen successful examples of schools adopting this route?

Would love to hear your latest roundup of best practices for teachers creating interactive experiences through combo of projected computer and Mobile device(s). In my experience, students sharing work (tutorials, math, whiteboard content, annotation etc.) has been straightforward and transformational in this setup. However, I have not seen many teachers comfortably replacing live pen writing and touch functions SMART Notebook lessons with live use of iPad or other tablets. Issues could be writing with finger or stylus or ability to interact with content while standing being awkward. Wondering how you’ve seen this approached, or approach it in your own presentation work.

One baseline software/app setup I have recommended for replacing IWB interactive software features for treacher intruction is Google Slides for presenting info, switching to other apps when time for interactive elements involving writing, annotating or moving objects, Explain Everything as a base for writing over a white screen, browser, PDF or image, and creating and moving elements on screen, and beyond that any other app or website that accomplishes teaching objectives.

Again, would love to hear, particularly, about successful ways you’ve seen teachers leverage this type of setup (as an alternative to IWBs) for projected teacher-directed group lessons. (BTW I have seen some of your recent posts featuring student-centered mobile work with the added value of always-on ability to project, share and interact — e.g. “Show what you’ve learned” — thank you for those, and everything else you put out!)

A lot of the MVNOs resell Sprint service, which limits are choices more. Basically, it’s either PagePlus Cellular (MVNO for Verizon) or Tracfone (does Verizon and AT&T). Do you know what Your Karma uses for a network?

I’m pretty much going to stick with iPhone for the time being. Android is growing, but the app selection isn’t there yet. Plus, as you mention, security isn’t the best.

When I do switch from Verizon, I will miss my unlimited plan. 🙁

Thanks for sharing where you are with family smartphone plans and decisions, Ryan. I did take a look at the Pixel, but I can’t justify switching to it either for many reasons. Functionally my iPhone 6S is amazing, and while Google may advance faster than Apple with AI and it’s assistant relative to Siri, it seems hard to make that comparison now and we’re in very early stages of AI development for all companies. I also continue to read about Android security exploits, and while it seems keeping updated to the latest Android OS would be a good strategy (as it is with any smartphone or other computing device) I don’t think the potential disruption to my own app workflows and digital life would be worth it.

I’m very interested in what you’ve learned about the tracphone / no contract phone. I’m very glad to see US customers getting better no contract options, as phone customers in many other countries have had for years… At school this year our athletic teams have needed mobile cellular wifi, so we went with the no-contract, pay-as-you-go service https://yourkarma.com – So far after a couple months it’s been great.

Our family switched from AT&T to T-Mobile a couple of years ago and have been VERY pleased with the cost reduction and service for where we live in OKC. I definitely think it’s a good idea for families to revisit their plans and phones periodically and consider if there are good reasons (financial and otherwise) to make a switch.

My family is currently on a grandfathered unlimited plan from Verizon, but it’s getting to the point where it’s just not worth it. So I’ve been experimenting with pre-paid packages, and will probably switch all of us to Tracfone in the future.

I recently bought the $60 BLU phone from Amazon to get acquainted with Android. For a cell phone plan, I went with Tracfone. Fifteen months of service with a 1.2 GB of data, 180 minutes of calling and 180 texts comes to approximately $5.33 per month. Additional bandwidth is $10 a GB. Using Google Hangouts/Google Voice means I don’t need to buy any more calling minutes or texts, I’ll just need to add data every so often. This is the plan we use with our daughter, which gets her an iPhone 5 for about $15-20 a month.

I’m looking at upgrading my iPhone 6 plus to something in the next few months, but the Pixel is just too expensive, and the iPhone 7 doesn’t offer enough over the 6 for the price. And I’m not totally sold on Android, there a few apps (Workflow, Drafts, and Editorial) that are essential to me and don’t have an Android counterpart. The only reason I’m looking at upgrading is that my daughter’s 16GB iPhone 5 does not have enough storage.

For students in religious schools, we must take a tougher line. Jesus was crucified and in his resurrection, we see the triumph over evil and the Adversary even when we are beset with difficulty and/or slain. We have no hope of justice from civil authorities, fairness remains a dream that reality can only approximate by accident. Nor can we place our hope in evangelicals who are now revealed as hypocrites in support of a man no father with daughters would trust alone with them. While all have fallen short of the glory of God, in this election, we must remember Paul’s warning in1 Corinthians 1:18-31. Forgive me for remembering the comfort in the verses shown below:

“…the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men…God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty”

I place my trust that God will render justice, and with that in mind, I beg mercy for Trump, for the evangelicals, and, yes, you and I.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.