Flashmeeting seems to be all the rage lately among some of the folks in my learning network. I agree, it’s a great service that I’ve had the pleasure to see in practice. It works well, and provides a free solution that works nicely.

I seem to recall having had a “booker” account that doesn’t work any more. I emailed Kevin and in his response was this paragraph. I am posting it because the information is also found on their website if you dig a bit, so I’m not violating any personal ethics.

Flashmeeting accounts on our server at the Open University are used for research purposes. Within this context all the accounts we host on our server have to fit within our research agenda with regard to use etc. and all activity (i.e. including video and audio) on the server is recorded for potential use in research publications etc.

Which makes me wonder what I’ve said will turn up in a research journal. Grant you, I may not make my display name my actual name, but there is still a clear record of it being me that said whatever was said.

Not sure I am actually concerned, but I did feel this was an interesting point to bring up, for those of us concerned with privacy.

2 Comments »

So I saw this post by lifehacker some time ago and as is my habit, I marked it to view later and decided to check into it when I had some time.

Today, I had a little time.

I have figured out (after reading page 2 of this article) how to create password-protected pdf files using a free script and Automator. Here is how I did it…

NB: I am not a command-line junkie, so I went with the automator scripting style, if you love the command control, read here for how to work that out.

Start by downloading this script.

Then just double click to extract the installation package and double click that to install the package itself.

Easy, right?

Next you need to hit up Automator to set up the workflow. Check out this giant skitch’ed screenshot of how to set it up. It should be fairly straightforward, but let me know if it’s confusing. (click pic for full size)

So try it out once you’ve got it set up! It worked great for me once I tweaked it like you see it.

I also have the workflow here for you to download, set up just like I have it, if you’d like.

add_password_to_pdf.zip

So the simple, easy set up works like this…

1. Download pdfauxinfo. Install same.

2. Download my Automator workflow.

3. Run the workflow, select the file, and click run. Done.

On a side note, I did try this on both my mac and my pc, and both platforms ask for a password before opening and limit access, depending on how you configure it.

I am not calling this method foolproof and I am sure it is easily hacked. Truth is I am happy to have learned more about Automator. Have fun!

All screenshots are done using Skitch.

3 Comments »

I took this quiz over at McAffee and look how I did!

You go take it, and tell me how you score.

Link credit to lifehacker.

5 Comments »

Doug Belshaw said it so well, I am just going to repost what he said and add my full fledged support!

You will remember that a worldwide group network of teachers, including myself, got together at the start of this year to communicate, collaborate and work together to explore the next generation of teaching and learning. This network, brought together by Chris Craft is called NextGen Teachers. The next stage has started - we’ve got a social network, and we want you to join in! Read on…

The problem that any group or network of teachers face is time. As full-time teachers or educational professionals this is one luxury we do not have. Consequently, our communications and collaborations have been somewhat sporadic. What has kept going throughout, however, and has served as a touchstone for our nascent collection of renegade educators is NextGenTeachers.com. This site pulls in posts made on a variety of member blogs to create a ‘river of news’. Anything we post on our blogs with the tag nextgenteachers shows up over there. If you haven’t subscribed to that RSS feed, I’d do so now!

Now, using the excellent ning.com, we’ve got a social network which we’d like YOU to join. Almost 500 people subscribe to this blog, and I want every single one of you to go over there, sign up and get involved!

We’d like to see useful YouTube videos uploaded, pictures of conferences, your classroom and diagrams from Flickr added, discussions on possible projects and collaborations in the forum section, and so on. So, get involved and connect with like-minded people around the world!

Here’s to the resurgence of NextGenTeachers! Thanks, Doug!

1 Comment »

I am trying to find out how many courses are being taught predominantly in Second Life. For this paper, I am defining course as a class that lasts for at least one collegiate semester, is taught by at least a Master’s level instructor, and counts for some sort of degree-seeking college credit. This naturally rules out anything dealing with the SL scripting language, and the like.

Boy is this ever hard to come across!

Any ideas?

I’ve sent emails to the SLED list, so far to no avail. I am trying to locate someone at Linden Labs to help, with no success.

I have seen the Sim Teach list of Universities and Organizations but not all of them actually teach in SL, seems like more of an advertising and marketing venture to me.

So I find myself at a loss. Pathfinder…wherefore art thou?

No Comments »

I have spoken with Sarah “Intellagirl” Robbins on a handful of occasions, and have always found her to be nothing short of wonderful. She is a doc student at Ball State University and teaches a few courses in Second Life.

Her local paper did a nice write-up. Go check it out here.

And if you need a good laugh, zoom into the photo and look what the sticker in the upper corner of her laptop says. I don’t like the language at all (warning: cursing) but the fact that the paper didn’t notice is a bit funny.

The part of the article I find most interesting is when Sarah says this:

“In 20 minutes we get about 10 to 20 pages of
dialogue,” she said. “We have great discussions that extend beyond what
we’d be able to do in a traditional classroom.”

I have to wonder about the quality of the dialogue. Part of me says that it would be more flowing because students can tend to be more comfortable in an IM-style environment, whereas they might tend to be a bit more cautious about how they form sentences, and possibly a bit more thoughtful about what they say in a more traditional literary circle (or generic classroom setting). I dunno.

I’d be curious to see these notes pages. Maybe I’ll ask her…

I also just learned she has her own page in Wikipedia. Wow.

Technorati Tags: christophercraft, intellagirl, second life

3 Comments »

Each time a student is absent for more than a day or so, I get an email asking that I send missed work to the front office for pickup so the student can catch up. I usually fire off a copy of the slides in handout form and a little note, and go on about my business. In talking with a few other teachers, I have come to the realization that my little note to my absent students (always handwritten by the way) is a bit different than others’. Here is an actual note, without the student name at the top. I wrote this just this morning, and I thought you might like to see it!

I hope you can read that ok, I wasn’t sure of the size. In case it is illegible, here is what it says…

“Spend some time on the Moodle if you can. You have a test on Friday, which you can take from home. You’ll see it in the Moodle on Friday, called Huge Test. It covers Colors, Numbers, and Days & Months. All the slides are online. Let me know how I can help! Mr. Craft”

I’ve been thinking about Alan November’s scenario of bird flu hitting our area and then no one being able to come to school.

Me, got it covered.

I am saying this not to be a punk, but I am using lots of cool tools to keep my kids up-to-date when they are at home.

Maybe a future post about what tools I use inside my moodle and on our class website, but not now. And please, spare me the discussion of authentic assessments , tests serve a good purpose and are to help learn vocabulary, a core function of any foreign language. We do lots of other asssessments, too!

So, how’s my note?

3 Comments »

This is a presentation I gave to the College of William & Mary, for Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, who is teaching the class. She gave me a list of topics, and I chose one that I am particularly passionate about, presentations. I use PowerPoint and others regularly, and have some strong views on it. Here is my presentation…

Here are the notes, taken from the W&M wiki page on me.

Stock Xchng - www.sxc.hu
Garr Reynolds - www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/slides.html
Slide Share - www.slideshare.net/cmcraft
My presentation on Slideshare (or watch it above) - http://www.slideshare.net/cmcraft/dont-read-to-me-a-presentation-on-presentations/1

I recorded the audio portion and will be posting it as a podcast soon, maybe later today!

No Comments »

I am posting this from a public computer located in the Department of Education of my University where I am awaiting a 5pm class. I’ve been walking around campus for the last hour or so, quick bite to eat, and some low level sociological observations, which are always fun. What follows are my observations, and surely I will augment some opinion. Take it for what it’s worth. Hat tip to Jeff Utecht, who is constantly talking about how much he loves conversation partly due to it being such a source of learning for him.

I had to keep reminding myself that these students were recently answering “here” in the context of k12 education. Most of them looked like kids to me, albeit I am but 29 years old. Maybe it’ s me, but they looked young.

A great number of kids seemed to be involved in their own world and intentionally closing off the outside world. I do this as well, since this is my only time during the week to walk around with an iPod in my pocket playing catch-up with all the podcasts I have been meaning to listen to, as well as just veg out to some music. This observation is worth making because when I was in college the first time, in 1995, cell phones, the Internet, and connectedness in general was not nearly as widespread.

Students spent the time immediately following a class talking about the shared experience. They either continued the learning or just commiserated about the course.

When I went back to undergraduate (after a few-year haitus the atmosphere had changed entirely. Not only did students not talk to one another following class time, they all pulled out cell phones and began dialing. This blew me away!

They wanted familiar connections, not new ones.

They wanted connections made in the context of fun, not class.

They didn’t want to connect with me.

I’m a talker. I love to have long conversations where both parties get to wax rhetoric about deeply philosophical topics, ranging anywhere from existentialism to education. Nothing lights up my day like a conversation with someone who challenges my thinking. I like it when my thinking is rocked, because it either changes or is strengthened.

Do undergrads crave that any more? Not from each other, it seems.

The mess hall ( do they call it that any more? ) showed a different scene. There were a couple of folks studying individually and a few others chatting. Since it was 3:30ish, there weren’t many folks around. The conversations I did overhear (read: eavesdropped) were about circumstance. Who did what, who went where, and with whom, etc. All par for the course. What I did notice that further irked me is that half of the people having face-to-face conversations were also chatting with someone via cell phone.

Is that what we’ve taught our kids? That people do not deserve our full attention?

Do I do that to my daughters? Do I ever give her more than one ear while I am typing away?

Am I teaching her that one ear is enough?

A professor of mine remarked, following a 3 hour rich discussion on some of the more basic learning theories that freshmen cannot handle such a discussion because is requires more attention than they are used to having to allocate.

Am I teaching my daughter to allocate attention to two things at once?

Is my drive for productivity sending her the wrong signal? Hmmm..time for some self-check analysis.

Truth is, this whole post has been written whilst listening to Brave Saint Saturn on my iPod, which means, to be honest, I have only given it half my attention.

Ouch. Reality checks hurt…

3 Comments »

So the upgrade to Wordpress 2.1 went flawlessly! All my plugins work, although I am having an odd issue with Akismet that I have yet to solve. No worries, I use Spam Karma 2 so Akismet was really just a second line of defense.

I followed the instructions to the letter, and backed up EVERYTHING just in case.

I don’t see a major change, but do like the ability to change the front page to a static page, although that was possible using a plugin before.

I am avoiding upgrading the NextGenTeachers blog for now because of an issue with FeedWordpress. It’s patchable, but with our first show coming out soon I don’t want to risk a meltdown.

No Comments »