chronobits

Learning on the Periphery

Matt — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 20:47:34 +0000

I’ve been like a remora this week. I’ve been cruising in the slipstream of a Great White, waiting for the tasty bits that have been filtered behind. Two major educational conferences BLC10 and CMK10 are wrapping up this week. While I (and my school) did not have the money to attend either, I’ve been lucky to pick up the filtered nuggets of wisdom that have come out on the web pages, Twitter hash tags, and individual blog posts. It is a different experience participating in these conferences in person. The energy, enthusiasm, and influence is taken down a notch when it is experienced through a computer screen. My first takeaway, is that we have no excuse to start implementing the conditions that will help our students learn. Cost should not be a factor: if you can’t find a free alternative to a tool you need, you aren’t looking hard enough. Administrative approval shouldn’t be factor: if you can’t demonstrate how this will help kids learn, you are probably doing it wrong. The time for navel-gazing is over, it is time to get off our butts and do something.

My second takeaway is a bit of a rant, worthy of it’s own post. So tune in next time.

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Printing on the iPad

Matt — Sun, 23 May 2010 17:05:30 +0000

I have been putting the iPad through its paces. I am turning to it more often to access information like email, rss feeds, and other media. One of the iPad’s unrefined areas is document management and printing. Luckily there is an app for that (sorry I couldn’t resist). GoodReader is a great way to manage apps until Apple figures out a better way to manage it (going through iTunes is just plain silly). It allows you to connect to server file shares, and will even connect to cloud services like google docs and dropbox. The downside is that it downloads a unique copy that would need to be reuploaded (is that even a word). GoodReader allows me to send docs to a shared folder share on my MacBook. This folder, using a Automator action, will automatically print out a copy to my printer. It is a little clunky, but it works for now.

Hmmm

Matt — Thu, 13 May 2010 01:14:17 +0000

The test post from ye old iPhone.

Posted via web from mattcronin’s posterous

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To iPad, or Not To iPad Is Not the Question

Matt — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 17:10:03 +0000

I like to think of myself as a cautious early adopter. I purchased the first iPhone on the day it was released. I eschewed the 3G and 3GS models in favor of the 1st generation model; the same model I still use. I enjoy how it brings together many of the services that I have come to depend upon (ex. GMail, Evernote, Simplenote, Dropbox, iTunes). I am in love with the ubiquitous access to mail, notes, pictures, and music. I am skeptical of new hardware unless I can see how it will significantly improve how I run my life.

Along comes the iPad which quickly throws the technology world in a tizzy. Proponents and detractors alike seems swept up in an almost religious-like fervor. Some of this is Apple’s doing when they call the iPad “magic.” Some of it is the technology echo chamber’s desire

My take is that no one has decided what the iPad will be. This idea of a blank slate (Tabula Rasa) confuses the heck out of prognosticators. They try to evaluate what it is (no camera, no 3rd party apps) instead of seeing what it might be. The real question isn’t about the iPad, but the about whether or not Apple and developers can invent the apps that could make the iPad into the indispensable piece of hardware.

Tryin’ Street

Matt — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 23:20:40 +0000

Just changed my theme to “Street.” I like the large headings and the color scheme reminds me a little of Copyblogger’s bold, clear style. Now the fun part…playing around with da CSS.

Pardon the Appearance

Matt — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 02:56:21 +0000

Please excuse the mess around here. I’m using this blog to test some themes and other plugins. I expect a few things to get broken while I play around. Hopefully my new project, fuelforstudents.com, doesn’t distract me too much.

Large Hadron Collider Presentation

Matt — Sat, 30 May 2009 13:45:43 +0000

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ScratchDay @ MIT

Matt — Mon, 18 May 2009 21:35:24 +0000

I attended ScratchDay 2009 @ MIT on Saturday May 16th. I’ve been an advocate of Scratch for about a year and a half. I love the low barrier of entry, programming / science_single skills, and sandbox-type environment. We got play around around a little bit and connect with other educators. Some new sites are going to be cropping up to help educators implement Scratch. Look for ScratchEd (headed by Karen Brennan) to appearing soon. The new version of Scratch (1.4) will also be able to interact with Lego WeDo motors and modules.

However, Scratch aside I was really excited to get to poke around the MIT Media Lab and Lifelong Kindergarten area. If I were to redesign our computer lab. I would do it around something like the Lifelong Kindergarten room. Couches, work areas, modular furniture, organizing bins, and organized chaos as far as the eye could see. It was the kind of place the invited you to work. Now I just need to find the naugehide couches.

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Zen and the Art of Hard Drive Failure Part 2: Life in the Cloud

Matt — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 00:22:24 +0000

When my hard drive bit the dust, my immediate worry for was my data. I knew how difficulty and expense of data recovery. With this in mind, I approached my Apple Genius Bar with little hope. After talking with Carl the Genius, I had two options: data recovery or complete hard drive replacement. I went with the latter.

After getting a spankin’ new hard drive, I went about the business of reconstructing my data. My first impression was how much of my data exists in the cloud. Through email attachments, web posts, Flickr accounts, Google Docs, and web servers I was able to download almost all the data for my current projects. I was also using CrashPlan and Mozy to various other archived files. The big chunk of data that were missing was iTunes Library. Senuti was essential for retrieving my iTunes Library from my iPhone and iPod.

I was lucky in the fact the much of data exists off my laptop. In the future I’ll be thinking of my hard drive as a rest stop for data instead of its final destination.

Zen and the Art of Hard Drive Failure

Matt — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:33:59 +0000

Last week I heard a violent clicking noise coming from my laptop. When I rebooted and saw folder with question mark emblazoned on it, I immediately knew my hard drive was screwed. I powered down my MacBook Pro hoping in my heart that the next restart would bring it back to life. My colleagues watch at an increasing distance as I muttered and spat obscenities at my machine. It is not a pleasant site when the IT director’s hardware turns against him.

About 3 hours into this ordeal something miraculous happened. I accepted that the hard drive was toast and moved on. Data had been lost; files, workflows, and applications would need to be replaced, but world was still spinning. I may have set a land speed record for moving through the stages of grief. I backed off and realized that the worst part of the hard drive failure was hoping that there was some way to fix it. Now I know that there were sectors of that disk that had undamaged data. I also know that the files I could have rescued would have been the blurry pictures that should have been deleted from iPhoto and ABBA’s Greatest Hits. The time, energy, and emotion spent trying to rescue a gigabyte or two wouldn’t have been worth it.

My big takeaway from the big crash of ‘08 is that disasters strike everyone. Wishing a disaster didn’t happen often prolongs misery and delays resolution. Wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth rarely results in a constructive recovery. When a disaster strikes, calm and perspective are the two qualities most needed and the most difficult to achieve.

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