Richard on August 24th, 2010

Apple’s flimsy cases have caused us grief again. Out of our 280 student machines, we are sending 60 to Apple for case repair. Pictured below are half of the boxes and some of the computer being prepared for mailing. You can imagine how long it takes to complete the paperwork and mail 60 boxes. Meanwhile, [...]

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Richard on July 13th, 2010

I led a training session the other day to further integrate social media into our admission and development work. We considered a range of new uses: student bloggers, a dedicated Facebook page for applicants, Flickr and YouTube channels. Some potential initiatives were certainly exciting to consider. Here’s the problem. None of the new ideas made [...]

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Richard on July 8th, 2010

We are discontinuing our satellite TV subscriptions, which brought French, Spanish, and Japanese television programming into the classroom for the past seven years. Web video has largely replaced the need for live television. A teacher who wants to present students with authentic vocabulary, regional accents, or international current events need only visit a country news [...]

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Every kid there is on Facebook, like here. Many of the kids bought phones just for the two week stay — lots of texting. Our Facebook page helped engage fans at the rate of 50 interactions per week. The students, however, didn’t post on our wall. All of the electronic event bulletin boards in the [...]

Continue reading about What I learned about technology from a Botswana marimba band

Richard on April 16th, 2010

I will be away from the tech world until May 2 while supporting the Maru-a-Pula Marimba Band tour. This group from Botswana will play in Seattle, Portland, Eugene, Ashland, and Berkeley. Come on out and experience this amazing group! http://mapmarimba.org Maru-a-Pula School Promote Your Page Too

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Richard on April 11th, 2010

Barbara Cohen graciously shared examples of elementary and middle school student work using technology applications. .prezi-player { width: 550px; } .prezi-player-links { text-align: center; } USF Presentation on Prezi

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Richard on March 2nd, 2010

Last week, I noted some interesting developments involving Drupal and secondary schools. New Schoolyard NewSchoolyard launched at NAIS, promising inexpensive school Drupal sites built on a template. This fills a hole in the school website market between buying an expensive product, hiring an expensive developer, and doing it completely yourself. In addition, New Schoolyard offers [...]

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