A new home for my website and blog

I did it. I bought myself a domain name and I have moved my professional website to a new location. I would like to welcome you to Shawn Wheeler’s Digital Portfolio located at www.shawnwheeler.name. This site will serve as a home base to the many projects I find myself involved as well as hosting my blog Shawn Wheeler’s Thoughts on Education & Technology which is now located at http://shawnwheeler.name/blog/.

Thanks for reading and have a Happy New Year.

Shawn

End of an era

I have been in the technology side of education my entire career. First in the classroom with 7th and 8th grade students and now I work with adults. During the past ten years, I have seen a number of changes, including and probably the most significant, the explosion of the internet. When I first started, fewer people had access to the internet and there were even fewer web pages. We created pages in raw code using simple text or note pad. Finding a location to host a site was even more of a mystery and finding people who knew how to run a web server was nothing short of finding a needle in a haystack. These skills soon became a job necessity.

Like most educators, I found resources (people and books) to help my educational process. When high-speed internet service came to my neighborhood, I signed up. I built a server (from parts) and began running a web server. Over time, I learned more and more about web servers, building web sites and how to bring web pages to the classroom where teachers could rule their own web site. In fact, I went so far as to document the process for others to learn from (See The World Wide Web and Your School District). I soon found myself as a network administrator in my own home.

For eight years, I have operated a web, email and DNS servers from my home. Why… Because I could and it was fun. Overtime, these little humming machines transformed from learning tools to maintenance projects. Time for a change.

-DISCLAMER- This is not a paid advertisement and I am receiving no compensation for this post.

I began looking for new location for my web sites to live. I hit the jackpot with this little local company named GoDaddy. Through this company, I was able to move my domain registration which included DNS management for less money than I was paying to Network Solutions. (Check one, service I don’t need to run in my home.) I also discovered they would host my email service for $19.00 a year. (Check two, services I don’t need to run in my home.) Finally, I was able to move all of my family and new professional web and blog sites to Godaddy for $7.00 a month. (Check three, services I don’t need to run in my home.)

With all of this content running on someone elses equipment, I no longer need a business class DSL service in my home. A phone call to Qwest netted me a six times faster connection to the web for a savings of $40.00 a month.

I have no regrets for running all these machines in my home for so many years. They were great teachers and I have taken a wealth of knowledge from them. Don’t be afraid to try something just for the sake of learning and don’t be afraid to say thank you to one teacher and move to the next subject.

Notice: Shawn Wheeler’s Thoughts on Education & Technology has a new home. Visit the new blog site at http://shawnwheeler.name/blog/ or subscribe to the RSS feed at http://shawnwheeler.name/blog/?feed=rss2

Shawn also has a new home for his digital portfolio. Visit his new site at http://www.shawnwheeler.name/.

Reading and Learning on the GO

On occasion, I sit down and read a real book. You know the type with pages that you can turn, hold, smell and sometimes even injure yourself. However, most of my reading comes in the form of web sites, blogs, PDF files, email etc… A few years ago I bought an iPod so I could become a podcaster. (Shhh don’t tell anyone but you don’t need the ipod. Click here to see what you really need.) Not long after that, I discovered Audible.com. Having been a longtime fan of books on tape this was a perfect fit for my new tool.

Last month I went to the doctor for my annual physical. The doctor walked in, chatted with me for a few minutes then told me what I knew. Shawn, your blood pressure is up, your weight is up and I am betting so is your cholesterol. I can give you meds for you blood pressure but I think you can fix it if you would do something about it! In not so many words, my doctor told me to get off my fat (insert word here) and exercise. He also told me to push away from the table a little sooner. To think I paid for this abuse.

I live a little over a mile away from one of the Phoenix Mountain Preserves where my daughter and I occasionally ride our bicycles. This past week, I tried something new. I went for a hike in the preserve and it is beautiful. However, my mind often runs 100 miles an hour and exercise doesn’t help slow it down, that is until fatigue kicks in. Then I start thinking about how tired I am as well as the pain in my legs, back and chest as I try to suck in more oxygen. Then my thoughts turn to stopping, heading back to the car. I know, I will walk to that next cactus. Did I mention I live in the desert!

To combat that little voice telling me to stop, I put on my iPod. As I trek through the pristine urban desert, I occupy my mind with audio books and podcasts. Remarkably, I have found myself walking even further and further. Could it be I am getting in better shape or is my mind better occupied?

If you are wondering, my iPod does have music on it but what would be the fun in that.

Notice: Shawn Wheeler’s Thoughts on Education & Technology has a new home. Visit the new blog site at http://shawnwheeler.name/blog/ or subscribe to the RSS feed at http://shawnwheeler.name/blog/?feed=rss2

Shawn also has a new home for his digital portfolio. Visit his new site at http://www.shawnwheeler.name/.

Web Filters getting you down?

Web Filters getting in the way of YouTube and Google Video content.

Now, I would NEVER tell you to circumvent your schools web filter or violate copyright. However, there really is some good content out there that has not been added to TeacherTube YET.

The other day I stumbled onto a Windows application that will download YouTube or Google Video content and allow you to convert it into different formats. From there, you use the video in an educational setting. Cool don’t you think!

Check out http://youtubedownload.altervista.org/ to download this application. There at no directions, that I have found and I have not created any. With that said, it will take you about 3 minutes to figure it out. It is cool.

Go Ahead… Make My Day!

And that is just what Chris Smith of Shambles fame did today.

We all know a friendly or memorable URL can make or break a web site and let’s face it, there was nothing friendly about goodbaduglyoftheinternet.wikispaces.com. In fact, after I set up the site, I started looking at the URL and even called myself a few choice names thinking I should have come up with a name that would roll of your tongue. Thanks to Chris Smith, we can now do just that. Can you remember www.thegoodbaduglyinternet.info? (The Good Bad Ugly Internet .Info) You sure can and guess where that address will land. That is right. Smack dab on “The Good the Bad and the Ugly of the Internet” Wiki site.

So… What should you do now?

• Click the link www.thegoodbaduglyinternet.info and of course book mark it.
• Those with a del.icio.us account please book mark it there as well.
• If you are apt to blog about it, I am asking Bloggers to use GBUI as the tag for the site.
• Join the www.thegoodbaduglyinternet.info Wiki and help build a resource we can all benefit from.
• Last but not least… Tell your friends about www.thegoodbaduglyinternet.info.
  
  Education, K-12, Shawn Wheeler, Chris Smith, Shambles, GBUI, Web 2.0, Web 2

Welcome to the Good the Bad and the Ugly of the Internet

Recently I was reading a few of my favorite blogs when I came across a post on the blog site John Evans (http://nlcommunities.com/communities/joevans) titled RSS Information where John spoke about the newly create Image Wall on Bloglines.com and his concern over some of the content on this site. Fortunately Bloglines.com listened to the many concerned people who use this site and created a new domain name for the image wall (http://www.bloglinesimagewall.com/). John published another post titled A Bloglines Update which got the two of use talking. Our comment went something like this:

John said:
Thanks Shawn for the heads up on this. I hope this
implementation by Bloglines does what they claim it will do. I have yet to test
it on our school filters. What still concerns me is the fact that while it may
be blocked by school filters, the Image Wall is still accessible from
non-filtered computers such as their home computers. It brings to the forefront
our need to educate our students and their parents on the safe use of technology
in their daily lives.

Shawn said:
John, I think you hit on the most important part.
Filters serve a purpose but the most important thing we can and need to do
it educate our children and I am beginning to think their parents about the
internet. Sure, they know about the web but can they (students and
parents) discern factual information from exercises in creative writing?

I know most of us have enough items of our plates, but
what would a community service class for parents and students on internet tools
look like. Call it “The Good the Bad and the Ugly of the internet.
How to find the roses among the manure” content could include searching
strategies and techniques, Web 2.0 tool, Social Network site etc…

Random thoughts before I head off for work.

Shawn

John said:
Shawn, You have the beginnings of a great idea. Wonder
how we and others could collaborate on a session such as that? Perhaps put it on
a wiki or find something that someone has already done. I know Wes Fryer has
done many workshops with this theme included in them.

John

Later that day, a new Wiki was born. I would like to invite you to view and participate in “The Good the Bad and the Ugly of the Internet” Wiki.

This site is JUST coming out of the ground so we are looking for people to contribute to the space.

K-12,Shawn Wheeler, John Evans, Bloglines, Students, Web 2.0, Web 2, Filtering, On-line Safety

What is RSS ?

One hot August afternoon last year I was catching up on some of my blog reading when I came across a post from David Warlick “What is RSS?” where he gave his 2-Cents on explaining RSS to people who are still trying to understand it. Of course I chimed in with my comments as did several others. In fact, I chimed in with a post of my own on this blog, [see In response to David Warlick’s post (What is RSS cont.) ]

Prior to posting that entry, I like many others knew we needed a better way to introduce the topic of RSS. Being an educator, there is nothing I enjoy more than a live audience. Give me a room full of students and computers, we would live RSS. Remove the computers, okay, I can demonstrate. This works as long as I have time, location and an audience… Now you see the problem. Those three components don’t often line up.What I needed was a video. Well, it only took a year but it is done. Below you will see the video created to help PUSD community members learn about RSS and how the Peoria Unified School District is using RSS in our schools.

If you would like to download a copy this video is available in both:

• Windows Media WMV
• Quicktime Media MP4

I want to publicly thank Dave Collie, for his time and creativity. I had an idea what I wanted this video to look like. Dave delivered a video that is beyond my wildest dreams. Thank you Dave!

Technorati
Education, K-12, Shawn Wheeler, David Warlick, PUSD, RSS, Web 2.0, Web 2