WPMU Easter Egg
By Tom | December 18, 2008
So I’ve installed WPMU on one of our externally hosted servers and with Jim’s patient assistance have been trying to get it in shape. One of the things I needed was the theme editor. So I was going through the steps to get it installed and things are looking good when . . . I hit the theme editor tab and the video below happened1.
In all honesty, the first time it happened it scared the hell out of me. I frantically thought of all the vague warnings I’d received, reconsidered what I’ve done with file permissions, wished I’d backed things up 2.
I’ve since been wrestling with the .htaccess file and other fairly dreadful nerd stuff. Unfortunately, this server is running both PHP 4 and 5 and has some custom .htaccess stuff set up to password directories down the line. This has led to all kinds of hassle for me (and as a result hassle for Jim 
who has insisted I blog about the easter egg so he can reblog it3).
1 and happened every single time I hit the theme editor tab
2 and then realized I already had
3 Isn’t the Internet a weird place
Topics: Blogs, Wordpress | No Comments »
Untitled
By Tom | December 14, 2008
I found out this morning that one of my former students, Hakeem Witcher, probably shot and killed another boy on Friday.
I taught Hakeem and his sister. I knew their little sister. I knew their mother. I called her all the time. I spoke to her when she’d pick them up from school. I remember trying to help her when she asked what to do one night. She was overwhelmed enough to ask for help from some stupid first-year teacher who didn’t even have kids of his own.
After I left New Bridge, I saw his mom a few more times. She said Hakeem was up in New Jersey with his dad- that she just couldn’t control him. It didn’t sound good. At some point I saw Hakeem as well. I can’t recall exactly where or when now. He’d started to harden some, a hint of a mustache growing on his face, but that kid who really wanted to please was still there. He wanted to know why I left New Bridge. I probably said something about money. It’s an easy cop out.
I really just remember how much I liked Hakeem, how much I hope that there’s still that reachable core of good in him. I know there’s a poor boy who’s dead here and family that’s grieving for him. I know that. There’s also a boy who’s 18 and likely to go to jail for murder.
The thing is we’ve had a number of students killed and shot but it didn’t hit me quite like having one who might be the killer. Bad things can happen to good kids, but it’s much worse to think about that good kid, the one you knew you connected with, doing the one of worst things possible.
What’s sad is I don’t see much hope for change here. I don’t see our schools as being equipped to deal with this. I don’t see our government handling it. I don’t see myself doing anything that matters either.
Topics: Lost | 14 Comments »
Apple Distinguished Educator Applications Open
By Tom | December 8, 2008
Applications for the ADE class of 2009 are now open. Get over there and apply.
I’d highly recommend it 1.
1 I think I’m in the shot above somewhere.
Topics: Apple | 2 Comments »
Zombie Vocab - Castigate
By Tom | December 1, 2008
I know I should stop but I’m just so easily amused.
Image source - Neat Makeup by Doviende
Castigated zombie
Topics: English, Vocabulary, Zombie Vocab | 5 Comments »
Zombie Vocab - Reticent
By Tom | November 30, 2008
As long as one other person is mildly amused, I might as well keep entertaining the two of us.
Reticent - WOD Nov. 24th
Image source- Doviende
Reticent Zombie
Topics: Creative Communication, English, Vocabulary, Zombie Vocab | 1 Comment »
Zombie Vocab - Accentuate
By Tom | November 28, 2008
My wife informed me that these are too violent to use in classrooms (she said something about “blood soaked” being a little inappropriate). I’d have used them but then again she taught in a very different environment.
Accentuate the positive
original image source
Accentuate- WOD
Topics: English, Vocabulary, Zombie Vocab | 3 Comments »
Zombie Vocabulary
By Tom | November 27, 2008
So in the theme of restrictions creating creativity and my own desire to be doing things more directly related to the classroom- I have decided to start Zombie Vocabulary1. I’ll take a few words from Merriam-Webster’s word of the day and create a zombie2 themed use of the word that I’d use with my students (if I had them).
So to start things off here’s facetious- WOD from Oct. 14th.
Facetious Zombies
1 Why zombies? I like zombies and I like the CC zombie pictures available in flickr and saw so many I wanted to use that I needed to make a reason to use them.
2 I may switch from the zombie theme if it gets boring so other theme suggestions are welcome.
Topics: Creative Communication, English, Examples, Vocabulary | 4 Comments »
So Long and Thanks for all the Fish
By Jim Coe | November 24, 2008
[cue Tom Petty's "Time to Move On"]
For those who haven’t already counted me out, now’s the moment you’ve been putting off for months. I’ve enjoyed my erratic posting on Bionic Teaching over the past couple years. Tom, thanks for letting me ride along with you for awhile. I’m continuing my professional development work at Varina High, but I’ve decided to dedicate my personal time to other explorations and exploits. You can find me at my newly renovated home, Cynical Idealists. Expect nothing less than what I’ve always provided: Everything from the heart, and nothing on a timeline.
-Jim
Topics: goodbye | No Comments »
WordCampEd 2008
By Tom Woodward | November 23, 2008
I got the opportunity to go to WordCampEd at George Mason this Saturday. Special thanks to Dave Lester- our host and the organizer of the conference (blog and twitter)
It was pretty interesting to me in a couple different ways.
One, I got to meet (in some cases just sit in the room with) a lot of interesting people and add their various feeds into my aggregator. There’s something interesting about these type of conferences. There really small and intimate. They are full of people who really want to be there, and that are passionate about the topic.
Two, I’m really convinced that HCPS needs to go to the WPMU model. We’ve got all sorts of schools doing their own thing with tons (relatively) of individual blogs. This means individual updates, individual theme uploads, individual plugin uploads and most importantly no community outside the school and little interconnection within the schools between blogs.
I think that’s what most people don’t get. In my opinion, Jim Groom has done such interesting things at UMW because he has worked hard at connecting the individual blogs, at creating community. He makes comments, he brings key posts to the forefront for attention. He’s made a unified whole. That’s where the power is and it’s interesting power because it’s exponential. We saw evidence of that in the usage stats for UMW Blogs. You get people on there, you get classes communicating and you’ve built something that draws others in, that inspires other professors and students. The technology isn’t inconsequential but it sure isn’t the focus.
I want to see that being done in HCPS. We’re much larger and our courses are much more homogeneous so we should be able to get even more out of our community. I want classes from different schools working together. There’s also power in being able to see how much activity is going on. I’m reading a book on persuasion right now 1 and the first thing they talk about is how much impact the actions of others has on what we decide to do2. So if I can show lots of other teachers using blogs I have a powerful tool to convince others that it’s worthwhile.
That’s gives me an interesting segue into what Patrick Murray-John is doing with Simile 3 and using it to mine the data being produced by the blogs to reformat the information in ways that change how you might discover relationships between blogs authors and classes4. I usually feel the more ways you can look at information, the better.
We also got a chance to look at what WP 2.7 was going to look like and there were some really beautiful options that’ll make life much more pleasant for me- including-
- internal browsing and installation for plugins
- internal upgrades for WP itself
- and a re-designed interface
It was pretty good stuff and Automattic was kind enough to send Jane Wells to talk to us about it. She did a great job and even took the time to see if Jim was really as crazy as his posts to the WPMU mailing list made him appear5.
I got lots of ideas, large and small, from all the presenters. Once I actually do something with them I’ll make the posts and give the credit but it makes sense to me to put up before jabbering on. Supposing my classes make enrollment I’ll be teaching three edtech classes at the Univ. of Richmond in the next couple of semesters and plan to do them entirely in WordPress. I’ve now taught two courses in Blackboard and have tired of punching myself in the face every time I use it.
1 yes, my goal is to totally manipulate the world and logic sure doesn’t cut it
2 solid research on this- we are all just lemmings
3 we all know how much I like Simile
4 reminder to self- blogs don’t connect, people do
5 he’s not by the way- I couldn’t convince him to attack anyone the night before the conference
Topics: Lost | 4 Comments »
DIY Doctorate?
By Tom Woodward | November 19, 2008
I’m looking at doctoral programs and not really finding what I want. I see lots of things that will lock me into what others think I need to know, lots of chances to end up stuck in a program I hate.
I’ve had a number of people say to me “It’s not the program, it’s what you put into it.” Yeah, I know but, you see, this program is going to take time away from what I’m already trying to learn, so it needs to be worth it. I’m going to have to do whatever work they require no matter how useless, mundane or repetitive it may be. I already did that to get a master’s degree2. I got some good out of it but there was lot of wasted time and energy3. That’s time and energy I could have used to do things on my own, to learn things.
What I want to learn about is that area where design, cognitive science, advertising, data visualization, gaming (mainly ARGs) and education overlap. Where’s that program? Who would let me build that program? I don’t care about EDD or PHD or whatever. I just want a few people around to help guide me and talk about things. I want the stupid letters checked off so they don’t stop me from doing something I may want to do in the future.
I want a program that is flexible and focused on the real-world intersection of education and technology. I want to be able to set my own goals and play a major role in deciding what I need to learn in order to accomplish them. I’m not an ego maniac, I’d love to do this in an environment where I consult with people better and more experienced but I want that experience to based on more than writing obscure papers or playing tenure games.
Am I screaming “where is my jet pack?” or do I have any hope of a program like this?
1 Photo credit - Jennifer Buehrer
2 and to graduate from college and high school for that matter
3 Granted probably half of that was me ranting and raving about what a stupid waste of time it was but still.
Topics: Lost | 11 Comments »