No, I have not gone into the business of selling recreational pharmaceuticals. One way or another, a malicious entity got access to both my MySQL database as well as FTP access to my server. The links have been removed, the files restored, and (with luck), this will not happen again.
Should you encounter anything wonky or suspicious, please let me know by mailing theartguy [at] gmail.com.
(For the curious, I actually used this post by another victim to help fix my problem.)
Monday, January 09, 2012
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Reaching A High Score Presentation
Last year I rewrote my curriculum to make it into a game, and doing so helped my students master the content. This is my presentation on what I did, as given at this year's Powering Up With Technology Conference.
PUWT Conference
Presentation (Hosted on Google Docs)
Class page
Apologies for the poor audio quality, I was projecting (using my "teacher voice") to the participants and that tended to overwhelm my mic every time I was next to the computer.
PUWT Conference
Presentation (Hosted on Google Docs)
Class page
Apologies for the poor audio quality, I was projecting (using my "teacher voice") to the participants and that tended to overwhelm my mic every time I was next to the computer.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Paper Laptop
Naturally, the first thing I thought of was the first grade kids I had been planning to teach!
Now, most of them are able to log in on their own, but most is not the same thing as all. I could have them do an online lesson, but instead I pulled out a project I had my students do a few years ago back when I didn't have a computer lab to call my own.
With some construction paper, a little glue, and some markers/crayons/colored pencils, we'll be making our own laptops. The point of the lesson will be to talk about how computers are used to communicate with others online. The end result will be a neat toy laptop to call their own.
You can do the lesson too, if you want. The printable keyboard template (2/page) is below.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
5 Rules* For Working the Social Net
*In this case, these "rules" are not unlike the "Pirate Code" from a popular movie series. They're guidelines, meant to be followed when it's convenient for you. For the most part, they've been convenient for me.
With the advent of Google+ there are a lot of people thinking (and not thinking) about how to properly use a social network. The typical behavior when a new network is discovered is to dive in headfirst and find every person you've ever known that's currently using the service.
This is completely normal. It's akin to showing up at your class reunion and scanning the room for familiar faces. You don't want to be the awkward person that's all by yourself, after all.
What's not such a good idea is what brings me to my first rule:
While the top image is relevant to this rule, the bottom one is even more telling. Mr. Dembo's a very smart person with a lot of Web 2.0 savvy and a job that centers around community building. He could theoretically surf social networks in his office and honestly say that's part of his job description. If he says something is too much, it's too much.
If you want a social network to be social and not just a noise machine, there is a definite limit to how many people you can follow and still have a conversation. On Twitter (the social network I've spent the most time on, historically), my personal limit is somewhere between 50-100 people depending on how active they are and how much time I have to read posts. Your own mileage may vary, but when I see someone following over 100 people I begin to seriously doubt that they could be following any of the conversations.
Of course you can still use your network as a megaphone to broadcast things, but that just requires more people to follow you - not the other way around.
Minecraft creator Notch is doing things right, at least by my standards. The mystery person... not so much.
A good social network is an asynchronous one. With the exception of a newly created account, you should always have more people interested in what you have to say vs. the other way around. Following a grossly disproportionate number more than you have following you - particularly when it's over 100% or 100 followers more - makes it seem like you're playing the numbers game.
What's the numbers game? That's when you've decided to treat your social network like a game and your follower count like a high score. A "cheap" way to get that number up is to break Rule # 1 and follow everyone you can. A percentage of those will follow you back out of gratitude. You then unfollow everyone and repeat the process until you're happy with how many people are following you.
(Except they're not really following you, because if they follow everyone who follows them then they will quickly have all meaningful conversation drowned out by noise and spam.)
If you see someone like the censored picture above, chances are they've no interest in what you have to say. Following them is a waste of your time and a reinforcement of their negative behavior. I tend to block people like that.
The above account was also following 18,514 people at the time I took the screenshot. It started following me while I was writing this post, and I blocked it before I took that screenshot.
There seem to be a lot of people who feel the "block" feature on a social network is meant for accounts that are vile, profane, or promote illegal activities.
It is.
It's also useful for helping to police social networks. Any network that's reached a "critical mass" of users is far too large to be adequately regulated by that network's paid staff. They have to crowd-source that responsibility to their user base.
There's a reason why Twitter has a "Report Spam" option. It acts the same as the "Block" option, except that if enough people report that account the staff will look into it to see if it should be shut down.
Don't be content to allow spammers to follow you. Report/block them, and you'll end up helping to make that social network a better place - one click at a time.
(Which of these two accounts do you think might be more interesting? I know which one I'd pick.)
OK, enough about not following - let's talk about who to follow - me!
Just kidding.
Who you follow is totally subjective and depends on only one person: you. Life is too short for you to spend all your time scrolling past posts that don't hold your attention. Every person you follow should be interesting to you. Frequent posts about mundane activities (I'm going to bed! I'm getting sandwich! I'm studying!) might be interesting to you if you are particularly close to that person, but if you're not, they're noise.
Follow people who frequently post things that make you sit up and take notice.
Yes, I finally caved in and posted a screencap of my own posts. Relevant, I guess....
Chances are that if you want to actively participate in a social network, you want to find people who have interests similar to your own. If you post things that you think are interesting, the (non-spammer) people who follow you will most likely be interested in the same things. It'll take a while for the network to build up, but it will build up.
And you won't have to agonize over what to post next or whether or not something will make you lose followers, because they're already following you for being you.
Hopefully, being you comes naturally.
With the advent of Google+ there are a lot of people thinking (and not thinking) about how to properly use a social network. The typical behavior when a new network is discovered is to dive in headfirst and find every person you've ever known that's currently using the service.
This is completely normal. It's akin to showing up at your class reunion and scanning the room for familiar faces. You don't want to be the awkward person that's all by yourself, after all.
What's not such a good idea is what brings me to my first rule:
1. Don't follow everyone!
While the top image is relevant to this rule, the bottom one is even more telling. Mr. Dembo's a very smart person with a lot of Web 2.0 savvy and a job that centers around community building. He could theoretically surf social networks in his office and honestly say that's part of his job description. If he says something is too much, it's too much.
If you want a social network to be social and not just a noise machine, there is a definite limit to how many people you can follow and still have a conversation. On Twitter (the social network I've spent the most time on, historically), my personal limit is somewhere between 50-100 people depending on how active they are and how much time I have to read posts. Your own mileage may vary, but when I see someone following over 100 people I begin to seriously doubt that they could be following any of the conversations.
Of course you can still use your network as a megaphone to broadcast things, but that just requires more people to follow you - not the other way around.
2. Have more followers than you follow!
Minecraft creator Notch is doing things right, at least by my standards. The mystery person... not so much.
A good social network is an asynchronous one. With the exception of a newly created account, you should always have more people interested in what you have to say vs. the other way around. Following a grossly disproportionate number more than you have following you - particularly when it's over 100% or 100 followers more - makes it seem like you're playing the numbers game.
What's the numbers game? That's when you've decided to treat your social network like a game and your follower count like a high score. A "cheap" way to get that number up is to break Rule # 1 and follow everyone you can. A percentage of those will follow you back out of gratitude. You then unfollow everyone and repeat the process until you're happy with how many people are following you.
(Except they're not really following you, because if they follow everyone who follows them then they will quickly have all meaningful conversation drowned out by noise and spam.)
If you see someone like the censored picture above, chances are they've no interest in what you have to say. Following them is a waste of your time and a reinforcement of their negative behavior. I tend to block people like that.
3. Block people!
The above account was also following 18,514 people at the time I took the screenshot. It started following me while I was writing this post, and I blocked it before I took that screenshot.
There seem to be a lot of people who feel the "block" feature on a social network is meant for accounts that are vile, profane, or promote illegal activities.
It is.
It's also useful for helping to police social networks. Any network that's reached a "critical mass" of users is far too large to be adequately regulated by that network's paid staff. They have to crowd-source that responsibility to their user base.
There's a reason why Twitter has a "Report Spam" option. It acts the same as the "Block" option, except that if enough people report that account the staff will look into it to see if it should be shut down.
Don't be content to allow spammers to follow you. Report/block them, and you'll end up helping to make that social network a better place - one click at a time.
4. Follow interesting people!
(Which of these two accounts do you think might be more interesting? I know which one I'd pick.)
OK, enough about not following - let's talk about who to follow - me!
Just kidding.
Who you follow is totally subjective and depends on only one person: you. Life is too short for you to spend all your time scrolling past posts that don't hold your attention. Every person you follow should be interesting to you. Frequent posts about mundane activities (I'm going to bed! I'm getting sandwich! I'm studying!) might be interesting to you if you are particularly close to that person, but if you're not, they're noise.
Follow people who frequently post things that make you sit up and take notice.
5. Post things that are interesting to you.
Yes, I finally caved in and posted a screencap of my own posts. Relevant, I guess....
Chances are that if you want to actively participate in a social network, you want to find people who have interests similar to your own. If you post things that you think are interesting, the (non-spammer) people who follow you will most likely be interested in the same things. It'll take a while for the network to build up, but it will build up.
And you won't have to agonize over what to post next or whether or not something will make you lose followers, because they're already following you for being you.
Hopefully, being you comes naturally.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
I don't assume that all these rules apply to everyone. They're my rules that I'm trying to follow myself. That said, I've found them to be very helpful to me.
If you're testing the waters of social networking - or you feel like you're drowning in the deep end - perhaps some of these might work for you as well.
Wednesday, June 01, 2011
What I intend to do this Summer*
- Take more photos.
- Clean my apartment more thoroughly than ever before. (Vampires shouldn't sparkle, but that kitchen counter WILL, so help me...)
- Write that children's book that's been in my head for 4 years.
- Write that other book that's been in my head for 2 years.
- Get a working draft of that board game design I've been toying with.
- Make more shirts.
- Lose more weight.
- Make fewer lists of things I intend to do.
*Assuming I don't get sidetracked by 50 million other things like I always do.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Academic Aesthetic 177: 404 VOICE NOT FOUND
This episode of Academic Aesthetic is brought to you by antibiotics and cough drops. You see, early last week a combination of lots of talking (occupational hazard of teaching), and post nasal drip caused by a sinus infection made me lose my voice. It's better now, but can only talk so long before my agonized squeaks become a source of amusement for all around me.
So submitted for your approval is an interview of me done by Dr. Kavita Mittapalli, someone whose name I most likely just mispronounced horribly so I won't try to say it again.
The good Doctor visited one of my 1st grade classes last week, before the whole AWOL voice incident, and recorded a conversation with me afterwards. I rambled on, and then made the bad decision of requesting a copy of the interview.
And I still haven't learned, as I'm now making another bad decision and playing it for you. Enjoy.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
#MSET 2011 Tuesday Keynote Notes
As usual, my conference was full of fun, excitement, and learning - so much so that I forgot to take proper notes! I did not, however, forget to post on Twitter up through the end of Tuesday's keynote, so rather than reinvent the wheel I thought I'd copy/paste the highlights here.
The keynote itself was presented by Chris Lehmann (Website) (Twitter), principal of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, PA.
-=-=-=-=-=-
theartguy Aaron Smith
- Up at 4:30 / Whose bright idea was this? / Oh yeah, it was mine. #haiku #mset11
theartguy Aaron Smith
- At the conference / No one at Registration / Opens at seven. #haiku #mset11
gwynethjones gwynethjones
by theartguy
- Excited about the #MSET11 conference today! I'll be in room 336 & the Digital Sandbox all day & come by & say hi! YAY!
theartguy Aaron Smith
- @gwynethjones My coffee's finished! / Waiting for that caffeine rush / And Registration #haiku #mset11
theartguy Aaron Smith
- Dilemma! @gwynethjones and @thetechtiger are both presenting a Session 1! What do I do?!
theartguy Aaron Smith
- @gwynethjones It's not personal / I just thought I'd use #haiku / Because it's awesome. #mset11
theartguy Aaron Smith
- All good Lutherans / Come early to an event / And get a back seat #haiku #MSET11 #Keynote
theartguy Aaron Smith
- And yes that means I'm sitting in the back next to a power outlet for my laptop. #MSET11
theartguy Aaron Smith
- Listening to @chrislehmann at the #MSET11 Keynote. I like what he's saying so far.
thetechtiger Selena Ward
by theartguy
- lousy data = lousy decisions #MSET11 keynote
theartguy Aaron Smith
- "We don't know everything we need to know about education" Said RE: 7 students not graduating. #Mset11 keynote
theartguy Aaron Smith
- "Deliver pizza, not instruction" "We need to reclaim the language." "We TEACH." #MSET11 keynote
thetechtiger Selena Ward
by theartguy
- http://twitgoo.com/2390kj deliver instruction? #MSET11
theartguy Aaron Smith
- "Don't ban cell phones. Why deny them the tools if you can't afford the tools?" #MSET11 keynote
theartguy Aaron Smith
- "They're going to use them anyway." "[So teach them how to use them!]" #MSET11 Keynote
theartguy Aaron Smith
- "What are our own personal slide rules?" What are we teaching that is now outdated? #MSET11 (Depressed that he said HTML is outdated.)
theartguy Aaron Smith
- del.icio.us: ENGINEERING.com | Games & Puzzles http://bit.ly/gUTpSW
theartguy Aaron Smith
- del.icio.us: Computers For Learning - Home Page http://1.usa.gov/fG8K6n
theartguy Aaron Smith
- "Classrooms should never be defined as 4 walls & a floor." #MSET11 keynote
theartguy Aaron Smith
- Question for @chrislehmann In drama you don't break the 4th wall. In teaching should we even HAVE them? #MSET
theartguy Aaron Smith
- Totally amused how @chrislehmann says the word "Awesome." Definitely shows the level of enthusiasm expected for the word. #MSET11
theartguy Aaron Smith
- "If you get 30 copies of the same thing you didn't give a project you gave a recipe. Let them own it." #MSET11
theartguy Aaron Smith
- "When was the last time you took your kids to a pencil lab?" Tech should be everywhere. #MSET11 keynote
theartguy Aaron Smith
- #MSET11 Keynoter @chrislehmann is using some slides from Library of Congress' Flickr account. I'm amused.
theartguy Aaron Smith
- I think the former English teacher just invented a new word with "Probmematize Everything" #MSET11 keynote
thetechtiger Selena Ward
by theartguy
- declarationofeducation.com #teaching #MSET11 Please join the movement.
theartguy Aaron Smith
- It occurs to me that I've seen no fewer than 3 #MSET keynoters advocate for cell phones in school but so many schools still ban them.
-=-=-=-=-=-
And then I went to see 2 presentations by Selena Ward, but I'll save that for my next post.
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