Growing Communities of Scientists

Knowledge Building tools

2011-12-05T17:43:00.001-06:00

I've done some more reading on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) literature today and need to do a brain-dump (with the help of my notes).

What is a tool

A tool is something to help us solve a problem.
Scaffolding is a tool or assembly of tools designed to decrease the cog. load required to do an activity.
Procedure vs. Principles: Procedures and routines help students learn how to do something new/complex and can help transition activities. However, as those introductory things are mastered, it becomes urgent to develop new, more flexible scaffolding (is this like the gradual release of responsibility?). The community needs to reference itself and its operations to the principles of KB, not to procedures simplifying KB. As they say, "The challenge is to ensure that idea improvement rather than the completion of a specific task or routine is at the centre of the educational enterprise."
Innovative learning environments need to support individual as well as collaborative learning, yeah, and KB as well.

Kinds of tools

Wow! lots out there. The Chinese have created something called Learning Village (LV) which I believe is a MP game and specially scaffolds KB.
Molecule Workshop is somewhat similar to PhET but some differences: It is a series of 'slides', each one can have interactivity to it, also can have questions/answer space embedded into it. it can do more things, is more involved, not so easy/appealing. BUT, there's a tool you can use to create your own 'slide-show' simulations of whatever you want!!! Also, the tool is open source and you can save your simulations on line! http://mw.concord.org/modeler/index.html
An

Use of tools

One group of researchers compared a group of students making concept maps on evolution with another that collaboratively corrected a few, pre-created concept maps with specially designed errors in them--these errors relate to common student misconceptions of evolution. They require less time to gain somewhat superior gains in dealing with the misconceptions, supposedly.
With respect to using computer interfaces, it also is known that as cognitive load increases with task difficulty, users spontaneously shift to interacting more multimodally. Thus the need for cmaptools-like apps.
The affordances of tools are not always appropriated the way one expects. And that affects how KB interact.
The concept of ‘affordance’ asserts that learner and tool are mutually constitutive and inseparable (Gibson, 1979).
It's helpful to think separately (also) about the interaction of learners with the tool and interaction of learners with each other via the tool.

Random but interesting thoughts

Some roles in a KB dialogue are more productive of KO and of learning.

What is the difference between Religion and Science?

2011-11-18T13:28:00.001-06:00

As a science teacher, and a teacher of biology where we of course educate students about evolution, it is important to consider the difference between religion and science. Some might say, science is just a myth--a story that explains how things work, just as is religion, and I would in part agree. But if that is so, some ask, why should we give science special authority in our lives?

Well, I wouldn't say one is intrinsically more important than another, importance depends on values, goals, and beliefs. There are, nonetheless essential differences between the two. One thing that sets science apart from most all religions is the fact that scientists are constantly trying to improve the content of science. Religious leaders and practitioners however do not attempt the same type of improvement--that isn't their goal. Their goal is instead to strive to understand and interpret and follow the teachings/beliefs of their religion.

Thus, the scientific idea of how species developed (the theory of evolution) is qualitatively different than a creation story -- a religious idea of how species developed. In science we are constantly examining evidence around us, all kinds of evidence, to see if our ideas of evolution should be improved to be more consistent with that diverse body of evidence. I think in religion it would be considered blaphsmous to try to improve on it's creation story. However, it would be very appropriate to improve ones answer to the question, "What does that story mean to me in my life?"

Therein lies the power of science: it's drive to constantly improve its knowledge, to make them more consistent with what we see around us, to make the explanations better at solving more and broader problems. And, that's why it's important to not equate religion and science--each domain is designed to answer different kinds of questions, solve different kinds of problems. In short, if you want to know where the huge diversity of species has come from, look to science for an answer.

Managing menus in Edubuntu for LTSP fatclients

2011-09-29T13:55:00.001-05:00

While one might imagine it would be a simple thing to delete a few games from the computer menu, such was not the case. One solution that was great but is currently full of bugs is Sabayon--it needs constant update and it doesn't get it. A solution that was more efficient but just designed for menu management is Edubuntu menu-editor is working in Lucid, but appears to not work well with the Games menu for specific reason. The approach I used successfully and document below is a combination of edubuntu menu-editor and deleting applications. Thanks to Hyperbyte for a great link, mgariepy for help with menueditor and alkisg for help deleting files (not as easy as it sounds).

Using Edubuntu menu-editor with fatclients
This is difficult because one has to use the menu editor while sitting at the fatclient, create the profile, associate it with the group you want it associated with, and finally unpack the tarred profile into the chroot in the right place and more the .listing file to the correct place as well. [arg! the following is white background because it was copied from my googledoc I use as my tech log--oh well.]

At the fatclient opened Applications/system/Edubuntu menu editor and made a profile where no games were active, called the profile mrgg.
Went to System>Administration>Edubuntu menu editor--Profile manager
Imported the mrgg profile and associated it with the group: testg1.
I edited the /etc/desktop-profiles/testg1-mrgg.listing and removed the group name from the top and bottom (XDG_DATA and XDG_CONFIG) lines. I did this since I wanted it applied to ALL users, irrespective of their group. just left the semi-colons delineating the fields of info. Looks like this (note the ;; this had the group name testg1)

XDG_DATA-testg1-mrgg;XDG_DATA;/etc/edubuntu-menueditor/mrgg/share;10;;#This file is managed by ProfileManager, Do not edit by hand
XDG_CONFIG-testg1-mrgg;XDG_CONFIG;/etc/edubuntu-menueditor/mrgg/xdg;10;;#This file is managed by ProfileManager, Do not edit by hand

Still on the fatclient I cd’ed to the chroot with cd /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/edubuntu-menueditor/ and made a folder in which to untar the profile: sudo mkdir mrgg
Then I cp the mrgg tar to /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/edubuntu-menueditor/mrgg and extracted it while in the .../edubuntu-menueditor directory with: sudo tar -xzvf mrgg/
I cp the profile.listing file (testg1-mrgg.listing) to the chroot: sudo cp /etc/desktop-profiles/testg1-mrgg.listing /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/desktop-profiles/
updated the image, rebooted and the education and internet menus were as I had configured, presenting a simple list of necessary apps and nothing more--very nice!...
but the games menu was untouched! Next to get rid of the unwanted games...

Deleting the games

To remove the games I got this command: "sudo apt-get remove gnome-games-common gbrainy" from here. It worked great, however...
that still left 2 games “Potato Guy” and Ri-Li so I tried entered the chroot with: sudo ltsp-chroot -c -p and typed: sudo apt-get remove ktuberling (the package name of potato guy) BUT, this also wanted to remove ubuntu-edu-secondary. Not good. I knew there were a lot of apps I liked in that package.

Removing individual applications that are part of a package

Instead of removing the apps I could have made them non-executable with chmod -x $(which ktuberling)
Another approach is to find out what the package ubuntu-edu-secondary contains, then by “installing” all these apps separately will mark them all as “manually installed” so removing the package ubuntu-edu-secondary will not remove any of the apps. Finally, I just need to remove the 2 games, leaving everything else. This is what I did:

apt-cache show ubuntu-edu-secondary | egrep '^Depends|^Recommends'
and it will show: Depends: dia-gnome, inkscape, kalgebra, kalzium, kbruch, kig, kmplot, kstars, ktouch, ktuberling, kturtle, kwordquiz, marble, parley, qcad, ri-li, step, vym
apt-get install dia-gnome inkscape kalgebra kalzium kbruch kig kmplot kstars ktouch ktuberling kturtle kwordquiz marble parley qcad ri-li step vym Marks them as manually installed.
Now I can sudo apt-remove ktubering, and even though it also removes the package ubuntu-edu-secondary, it removes none of the included apps.
And finally I also sudo apt-remove ri-li and I am done! All menus are as they need to be!

Using sch-scripts (Classroom Administrator) on a fatclient

2011-09-15T10:12:00.000-05:00

sch-scripts was designed to be run on the ltsp server, but can also be run on its thin clients as well. So, to make it work on fatclients one may use the 'new' ltsp command: ltsp-remoteapps. But, it needs to be used as a superuser and the ltsp-remoteapps doesn't forward back the authentication prompt i.e. you can't say: ltsp-remoteapps sudo sch-scripts. Here is the corresponding part of the #edubuntu dialog:

: dgroos: I want to install sch-scripts into the new fat client on which I'm working.
: dgroos: The image is on the server I used last year though I did delete the thin client image.
: dgroos: I already installed the client and am wondering about the server sch-scripts app.
: dgroos: How can I launch it if I can't gain super-user permissions?
: dgroos: (I saw you say on a forum that you can't sudo with fat clients).
: alkisg: dgroos: the sch-scripts client connects to the sch-daemon network service through a server socket in /var/...
: alkisg: A fat client doesn't have access to that socket
: alkisg: So, even if you could sudo, you wouldn't access the sch-daemon, so sch-scripts wouldn't work
: alkisg: So the teacher needs to either sit on the server, or on a thin client
: alkisg: The sch-scripts GUI won't work if it's ran from a fat client
: alkisg: So, the best you can do, is to ssh -X or vnc to the server, and run sch-scripts from there. Or to use a thin client for the teacher. Or something similar.
: dgroos: That was it--I thought you were running it from a fat client but it was from the server...
: alkisg: Or to use remoteapps
: alkisg: Maybe that last is the best option
: dgroos: hmmm remoteapps--I'll look it up. Thanks! I'll come back with a question, perhaps
: alkisg: dgroos: markit wants to sponsor an i18n sch-scripts version, we may have a new i18n sch-scripts version soon
: dgroos: congrats and great and thanks!
: dgroos: alkisg: and, if I can help with the translation en_us let me know, I'd like to help.
: alkisg: dgroos: very nice, I'll tell the other dev doing the i18n to send you the translations for proof-reading
: alkisg: As our english of course are not good enough for main language
: dgroos: also, I could help during the end of Dec with Spanish as I'll be with my Guatemalan-inlaws who could help.
: dgroos: I say again yer English is good very! than mine.
: alkisg: Sounds good too, but it might be better for the first spanish teacher that actually uses the program, to do the translation too
: dgroos: sure.
: alkisg: (translations need maintanance over time, as anything else in the software world)
: dgroos: (as I experienced! Just let me know)
: dgroos: I've had no luck finding any info on how to use ltsp-remoteapps. Do I just type: "ltsp-remoteapps sch-scripts"?
: alkisg: You also need some lts.conf setting about remoteapps
: alkisg: Let me find the exact name...
: alkisg: REMOTE_APPS=True
: alkisg: And you'll need to do something about the sudo part
: alkisg: (sudo sch-scripts, might not work with remote apps and need to edit sudoers instead)
: dgroos: In some list-server e-mails Todd O' wrote the following about using fat clients: "I was able to get root access by doing:"
: dgroos: $ sudo chroot /opt/ltsp/amd64 passwd -u root
: dgroos: $ sudo chroot /opt/ltsp/amd64 passwd
: dgroos: and setting the password.
: dgroos: does that relate?
: alkisg: dgroos: the clue here is "you almost never need sudo on fat clients"
: alkisg: Let's start there. WHY do you need sudo?
: dgroos: Quoted from above: "alkisg: (sudo sch-scripts, might not work with remote apps and need to edit sudoers instead)"
: alkisg: On the server
: dgroos: just trying to make sense of that statement...
: alkisg: Ah ok let me explain more
: alkisg: If you were sitting on the server and tried: sudo sch-scripts, what would happen?
: alkisg: You'd get a password prompt
: alkisg: Remoteapps unfortunately won't allow a text-based prompt etc
: alkisg: So you'll need a way around that problem
: alkisg: With sudoers, you can configure certain users or groups to be able to run "sudo sch-scripts" without the need of a password
: alkisg: All this on the server
: alkisg: So, when you try "ltsp-remoteapps sudo sch-scripts", you won't get a password prompt from the server, and it'll just run
: alkisg: Makes a bit more sense now?
: dgroos: got it. So how might I find a how to about setting this up?
: dgroos:
: alkisg: Let me give you my greek page, I think google translate will be enough...
: dgroos:
: alkisg: http://alkisg.mysch.gr/steki/index.php?topic=3211.0
: dgroos: Thanks! (of course our district has a filter on that page because of 'proxy avoidance' but I'll find a work around!)
:alkisg: Basically it's this:
:alkisg: sudo VISUAL=gedit visudo
:dgroos: interesting--I put it into google translate and it went through
:alkisg: And in the end of the file:
:alkisg: teacher ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/sch-scripts
: alkisg: Haha google rocks
: dgroos: so I can put this line several times: teacher ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/sch-scripts but just using a different name for the different teachers? Do you think there will be issues if teachers are using this concurrently?
: alkisg: You can use a group there instead if you prefer, but yeah of course you can put it several times
: alkisg: I think groups need a % in their name (syntax-wise)
: alkisg: The sch-scripts daemon is designed to have as many GUI connections as you like
: alkisg: So not a problem for concurrrent users
: dgroos: I'll put this dialog on my blog for future reference, thanks
: alkisg: So it would be:
: alkisg: %teachers ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/sch-scripts

Making Lucid authenticate via district LDAP/Active Directory servers and make home folders

2011-09-12T21:12:00.002-05:00

Success! After years of effort (semi-literally), students now authenticate while sitting at their LTSP fatclients to our district LDAP! The first time they log in, it also creates a home directory for them on the local server. Here's what I did (but don't follow these directions blindly--it would be a bummer if your system was different and somehow you got locked out of your system and you had to open things up with a live disk and then troubleshoot).

I spent several days reading up and testing on a test setup at my house. I did try winbind and I did try webmin and though the latter was very good, it wouldn't take me all the way, therefore I finally ended up using likewise-open which worked great. Of course the following description doesn't tell the few-day long side journeys I made. So, based on my long-journey success (thanks go out to Doug Roberts with the MPS!) I then set out to make this work on my other server. As you can see in the following notes it didn't go via simple recipe but it wasn't too hard, just long.

I started by following the CLI directions on this page: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LDAPClientAuthentication. It was very easy for me to follow, though it didn't include directions on how to make the file (just use the command sudo touch) nor that most all of the commands should be done with sudo. I also added a few notes to give more details as needed...

While installing the files mentioned in the first directions on the page referenced above, a package configuration screen--"ldap-auth-config" showed up, this is how I answered each screen:

(As recommended on various web pages, I deleted the default ldapi:/// set value on the first page to ldap://
Next I set the search base to the tree containing the students: OU=Buildings,DC=education,DC=mpls,DC=k12,DC=mn,DC=us
I guessed at the LDAP version as 2... (later changed to 1)
I said "No" to make local root Database admin
I said "No" to 'does the LDAP database require login'
There was no 6... but I did get a warning which I ignored: update-rc.d: warning: libnss-ldap start runlevel arguments (2 3 4 5) do not match LSB Default-Start values (none)

Oops, recognized I made a typo and had to redo the ldap-auth-config 5 steps above with: sudo dpkg-reconfigure ldap-auth-config
To make the home folders I continued on the instructions on the above mentioned page...

After making the page/script and running sudo pam-auth-update it took me to another package configuration page and I made sure that every item had an asterisk before it, EXCEPT: "Winbind NT/Active Directory authentication". The AD authentication will be done soon with likewise-open. This step makes sure that all of these methods would be used in the authentication process.

For local groups I checked what a non-privledged user had on my server and made sure to include them all on the last line of the /etc/security/group.conf file, suchly: *;*;*;Al0000-2400;adm,fax,tape,dip,video,plugdev,fuse,audio,cdrom,dialout,floppy
That is all the further I needed to go on that page, skipping everything after "LDAP Host Access Authorization".

To get the most correct likewise open I added the likewise key with: sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys AAFDD5DB, the sudo apt-get update the sudo apt-get install (arg! I found later that I should have done:

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude safe-upgrade

I followed the very good directions on this page: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LikewiseOpen

did sudo apt-get-install likewise-open

again it went into the package configuration screen and...
I just left the screen blank as I don't need kerberos...
It went through a verbos process that didn't mean any errors, no worries...

then did sudo apt-get install likewise-open-gui
I double checked that /etc/ldap.conf had the correct base (about 10 lines down) and it did.
The main command to interact with the likewise software is: /usr/bin/domainjoin-cli
So, to join the district's domain I:

sudo domainjoin-cli join education.mpls.k12.mn.us FLEetc@business.mpls.k12.mn.us (that's all on 1 line...)
When asked I typed in the user's password.

I got the message: SUCCESS (you should reboot before going on...) so I did...

Now I did some likewise-open configs to make it so that:

students can log in with just their username and not DOMAIN\username
Change the automatic location where the home directories will be created.

Follow the directions here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=9320266&postcount=16. This explains a bit the process of updating the .reg (aka registry) file (skip the install--we already did it). It uses .reg files instead of .conf files like the previous versions of likewise-open. Thus, the .reg files have to be checked out, edited, then checked back in.

in the post the person describes how to make it so that a person can log in with just their username, not needing DOMAIN\username (with setting, in two places: "AssumeDefaultDomain"=dword:00000001) But before saving this and doing the 2 commands after that, instead...
Change the line from: from likewise's default location.... "HomeDirTemplate"="%H/likewise-open/%D/%U" to: "HomeDirTemplate"="%H/ad/%U" (I had to change this in 3 or 4 places.) The %D means the domain name.

And... logging in with just username didn't work. So, I checked out the /etc/ldap.conf file with the working machine, found discrepancies, and changed them to the good setting:

current had: uri ldap://10.99.1.42 and the good had uri ldap://10.99.1.42:3268/
current had: ldap_version 2 and the good had ldap_version 1

Current didn't have values for so change to good values: nss_initgroups_ignoreusers avahi,avahi-autoipd,backup,bin,couchdb,daemon$
binddn FLEetc@business.mpls.k12.mn.us
bindpw [my ldap password here]
scope one
tls_checkpeer no
Still didn't work so then I purged winbind via NX and synaptic... then restarted, still didn't work, then...
check step 2 above--didn't do the upgrade thing! figured that after adding the new ppa, then updating then upgrade it would get me the new likewise-open but had to follow directions as shown in parens in step 2! but that didn't work. next...
I went to webmin, clicked on unused modules, then clicked on "LDAP_Client", clicked on configure, set the file to /etc/ldap.conf and saved it.
Then, clicked on the last icon, the LDAP Browser and it said: The LDAP browser cannot be used : The Net::LDAP Perl module needed for talking to the LDAP server is not installed. Click here to have Webmin download and install it now
yes I did this, (and in webmin changed the tree depth to entire tree but don't think that was it since the other setup doesn't require it...
AND IT WORKS!

The new 4-computers per table design...

2011-09-05T16:41:00.001-05:00

Ideally, the tables support 4 students with independent access to computers, ie, 1 computer per student. Therefore, this shows the idea on how to place all the hardware in the space of the table. This is a top view showing the SFF computers (those are the smaller 'squares').

The next larger square, the one centered in the middle, is a piece of masonite, 2 ft square. This hides all the cables in the middle, and also supports the flat panel displays. The 5 inch diameter hole in the middle serves as an escape route for the heat generated--it will probably need a fan built into it to let sufficient heat escape.

The flat panel monitors rest exactly above the computers.

dell optiplex gx270 pxe boot does not work with LTSP on Lucid.

2011-08-25T22:20:00.001-05:00

Many hours were wasted by me and others because I didn't know this about the optiplex gx270 sff computers. I went on many sites, some by Dell, trying to make them pxe boot into ubuntu 10.04 via LTSP, but while I could follow the directions easily and rechecked many times, they didn't boot often and only by going the F12 in the BIOS. So anyway, FYI, dell optiplex gx270 pxe boot does not work. This is the first Pentium 4 I've found to not work.

Here's the bios info:
phoenix rom bios plus version 1.10 A03
Dell System OptiPlex GX270 Series
Bios version a03
www.dell.com

Other mapping tool ideas

2011-08-04T16:28:00.001-05:00

Here's a cool site: paste in a page of text or so and it makes a 'tag cloud' of it. http://www.wordsift.com/ is also will give a vocab/meaning map of any selected (or typed in) vocab word. Very cool.
http://www.visuwords.com/ is the page I had been looking for. This tool has 2 biggies-- it is has the cool 'wiggle-factor' and it gives more info by the color of the word (green is verb for example) and the links are also coded by shape/color to show part of/kind of relationships. Looks like the software that powers the site is related to this: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html however that site is referenced here: http://www.linux.com/archive/feature/114337 though that is an older page.
This looks like #2 above but isn't so open/free: http://www.visualthesaurus.com/ though it seems to use the same wiggle-engine.

backing up wordpress database with phpMyAdmin 2.10.3

2011-05-17T22:10:00.001-05:00

To backup the fle4 WordPress sites requires 2 steps, first is the backup of the database of comments etc. The second is the back up of all of the files on the server which are inside the database folder, in my case, "blog".

Backing up the database with phpMyAdmin 2.10.3

Go to the dashboard of the base site, go to Tools menu on the side and select phpMyAdmin.
Scroll to the top, click on the "export" button.
On the next page in the "Structure" section check the 2 boxes: "Add DROP TABLE" and "Add IF NOT EXISTS"
At the bottom make sure the "Save as File" box is checked.
If the database is very large use some kind of compression method otherwise simply click, "Go" and the backup file will be downloaded and saved onto your local computer.
The name of the backup is "database name.sql" since my database name is "blog" the backup was called, "blog.sql". The name of the database is perhaps the name of the directory that holds all of the files for the instance.

Step 2: Scroll to the top and select the "Export" tab.

Steps 3 and 4: Check the additional boxes as described and shown above.

Backing up the files in the database:

Find the location of the directory that holds all of the database files on the server--my were in: /var/www/html/blog/.
So then I downloaded them: scp -r username@ipaddressofserver:/var/www/html/blog ~/Desktop
And 1,802 files later they were in the folder "blog" on my desktop!

I got the base of this info from: http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Backups#Simple_Backup

WordPress 3.1--uncommon tasks

2011-05-13T15:34:00.007-05:00

When a student changes periods/class, one must change his/her FLE4 site. There are (at least) two ways to change a student's class/site. (UPDATE! ONLY 1 WORKS, THE OTHER MESSES UP THE SITE ADDRESS! "Solution 2" below does NOT work!) The easy way to do this is to go to the site dashboard to which you want to move the student. Then, click on the dropdown on "users" and select "add new". Then, in the "Add existing user", type their username into the box, click in the "Skip Confirmation email" box and click save.
Solution 2 (bad--don't do--this changes the url of the site, it doesn't change which site a student belongs to): go to the "Network Admin" button at top right, then click on "users" and find the user and the link on the far right of that interface to sites. If the user belongs to a site in addition to the base site, then there will be a link to that site as well. Hover over that edit link, click on it and edit the line that says "path" so that it shows the route to the correct site.
The easiest way to restart wordpress (so to say) is to restart the server. I should have done that after the update I did on the server last night since in P1 today the fle server became unresponsive and I couldn't even reboot it--had to have Doug restart the VM.
Make sure that you go to each site's dashboard, go to settings, then privacy. Select, "I would like to block search engines but allow normal visitors".
Then make "Blog Public" = 0. Also, comments per page = 100. Also, allow for 8-deep comments.

Giving away computers to my students

2011-04-28T18:23:00.001-05:00

The district is big. It's always updating computers somewhere and thus getting rid of others as well. Currently they are pulling out Pentium 4, 2.4--2.8 GHz machines, refurbishing them and distribute them to students who are most in need. I have jumped in and participate in this by offering the computers to MY students, but instead of offering these refurbished computers with Windows XP, with the help of Logan, an 11th grade student, we install Edubuntu on them. Here Logan explains a bit of the process with clonezilla:

Together we've given away Edubuntu-bearing computers to 35 or so student, with maybe 20 more to give before the end of the year. I thought I would wait till after Natty came out to give them the brand new system!

I've been using bit torrent to download the 2.3 GB iso since it was released this morning, and it should be done in less than an hour! Can't wait to load it on a computer, set it up, create the image, blast it onto the waiting student computers and get them to the kids. They really love it.

FLE4-- how do you create the "Big Questions" that initiate the knowledge building?

2011-04-24T11:43:00.002-05:00

This post is not about setting up the FLE4 server software. This addresses the much more difficult task of creating the initial questions, AKA "Big Questions". These big questions need to inspire students to engage in a progressive inquiry, building knowledge objects and motivating them to learn important science knowledge and skills. There are several criteria these Big Questions must meet:

Ideally, the Big Question must require the standards-mandated concepts and skills to solve them.
These Big Questions must engage students. Bereiter says that we need to give problems that are of authentic interest to our students. Knowledge objects need then be marshaled and created as needed to solve these problems/answer these questions. Students learn to value knowledge objects as tools, and gains skill in the use of these tools in solving problems in their lives.
The Big Question can't be to general or too specific. As I have found from experience, if the question/problem is too overarching, to general, I as a teacher have a hard time managing the long and complex spiraling inquiry that is required to build a series of knowledge objects needed to adequately answer the Big Question. Likewise, if the Big Question is too specific, little inquiry is inspired/required.

State mandated concepts and skills
The current unit of study is Evolution. The over arching, "sub standards" provided by the state for evolution are:

Genetic information found in the cell provides information for assembling proteins, which dictate the expression of traits in an individual.
Variation within a species is the natural result of new inheritable characteristics occurring from new combinations of existing genes or from mutations of genes in reproductive cells.
Evolution by natural selection is a scientific explanation for the history and diversity of life on Earth.

(You can see in the third big idea above where it says, "... is a scientific explanation..." is a nod by our ex-governor, Pawlenty to part of his constituency the anti-evolution lobby, here in Minnesota.) At the bottom of the post I've listed the, "benchmark standards" that tells what students must be able "to know and do".

Big Question must engage students
I've used various strategies to create student buy-in to the KB process as well as find questions which students truly want to answer. I'm still searching for an ideal method though there might be none. Several years back I created 5 Big Questions that addressed the range of knowledge required by my students. For example, "What causes earthquakes?", "How do humans decrease the destruction caused by earthquakes?" and more. This was easier and turned out to be fairly effective and was a good way for me to start to use KB in my classroom. However, it's often good to have students do this hard, ambiguous collaborative work. Therefore...

I've also presented students engaging material, such as eyewitness accounts and videos, of the phenomenon and had them record questions that came to their mind as they viewed this engaging material. Students then wrote these questions on sticky notes and then organized them into groups. From there I've gone in 2 different directions:

I've looked at these groups of student-created questions and created that initiating question for each group.
I've had students create the overarching question for each group of questions.

And in either case I've used the student-generated questions in 2 ways. First, I just told students to start engaging in the KB and they could add their specific question under the appropriate Big Question if they wanted. They ususally didn't and their initial questions were usually lost. The other way I've advanced is, upon engaging in FLE4 KB, I've directed students to type in their own, initial questions under the corresponding Big Question. This was not good, however, that while it was logical, it was too circuitous and disconnected and did not lead to a good discussion.

This time, I'm not creating an overarching question (which often is not a student's question but is instead a synthesis of their question), but instead choosing one student question to represent each group. I then type all the rest of the questions in that group in the description for the post. I'm careful to attribute the questions to specific students by including their first names next to their questions.

Big Question can't be too general or too specific
While I've created many appropriately-leveled Big Questions, I erred on the side of 'too general' last year with the question, "Where do Humans and the other about 1.8 million described species on Earth come from?" One class had over 200 posts to this question--it became too ungainly for most students to really get a grip on it. We'll see how students deal with the questions I've selected in the current round of knowledge building to serve as the Big Questions. For my period 6 class they include:

Ben -- how are new organisms created?
Thalia -- how do they know when a skull comes from a female or male?
Marilu -- how do we know that evolution has happened?
Xavier -- when they say, "2 million species" do they mean like a regular cockroach and a Madagascar hissing cockroach being 2?
Somsanith -- why did Darwin choose to study nature?

Normally I would have carefully crafted the wording, but what I loose in precision by quoting student questions I more than make up on student buy-in, I believe.

starting and stopping plone instance and enable color

2011-04-09T11:32:00.000-05:00

If I have it installed as a root install I would have to use sudo, otherwise don't!

To start it...

cd /home/dgroos/plone-3.2.3/
./bin/plonectl start
to stop or restart or check status use bolded word instead of "start".

To enable color as per the bottom of this page:

To the Style Whitelist box, add color & background-color.
Click Save.

Starting to Concept Map

2011-04-04T16:03:00.001-05:00

Eddie and Christen are coming today for an hour to prepare to launch into using CmapTools. While neither of them have used it yet with their classes, in addition, Christen's students are also just learning how to use the computers today.

Go to the http://concept-maps.blogspot, log in and make a new post.
Thoughts worth noting include...teacher first-use in class, glitches, uncertainties, questions...
Open CmapTools and do setup with sheet.
Setup online structure of folders.
Instructional suggestions:
First use of CmapTools: students open CmapTools (Applications-->Graphics-->CmapTools) and the splash screen will open and the registration screen opens behind it! You then grab the top bar of that window and move it out from under the splash screen. Students fill in the registration info as shown here log in just do user account setup (use school username and their new district password). The second video down shows the process on this page: https://wiki.mpls.k12.mn.us/groups/gcos/wiki/b43f4/install_CmapTools_.html. Once everyone has that done, then log off and do a non-related activity. That will be enough! NOTE: CMAPTOOLS HAS A "WINDOW MANAGEMENT BUG" as can be seen that that the registration window appears under the splash screen. Another manifestation of the bug is that students might not be able to click into any fields in the registration window! Simply hit the space bar and this will allow you to click into the fields in the registration window. Silly, I know.
Second time Students use cmaptools have them do some fun, 'follow the path' assignment. This is a core skill they need. For example, "What is the name of the 3rd folder (not file!) located at: Teachers/Mr. Groos/aaRHS/bbRHS09/P2/Individual student folders/?" After they have been introduced to this, give them to directions to the specific folder in which they make their own Personal folders. Then give them a copy of this flowmap for detailed directions. See below for copy.
Third time students use CmapTools, make first cmap file: Possible task: "Make a bubble map on science in one of the partner's student folder". Their learning objectives would be to learn/get better at: a) navigating views window; b) connecting bubbles with lines; c) make un-broken connecting lines; d) make broken connecting lines; e) make arrow heads always appear; f) create a bubble map. May want to skip objectives d and e as these can be a bit too much for the first time.
Fourth time use of CmapTools, students in partners make a double-bubble map comparing themselves and partner. This requires additional skill/knowledge: on how to make a double bubble map. If students are fairly familiar with the double bubble thinking map then you may want them to work directly in their cmap file. Otherwise, you may want students to plan out their map first in the notes, then copy it into their cmap file.
A further activity (for another day) might be to change the look of this file to show additional knowledge, like each person has a different color of bubbles but the bubbles showing what they have in common could be a blended color. Show student bubbles on the overhead when people are done!

Notes about using Edubuntu first times...

Add the blue logout button to the panel--easier for students to logout and makes Classroom Admin close more gracefully.
About Classroom Admin--may have to quit it and restart at the end of each class.

Example lts.conf file for Ubuntu 10.04 LTSP system

2011-04-03T09:30:00.001-05:00

I just set up a new server that is running localapps. The following is the start of the /var/lib/tftpboot/ltsp/i386/lts.conf file I used.

[Default]
SCREEN_02=shell
SCREEN_07=ldm
LDM_DIRECTX=True
LOCALDEV = True
LOCAL_APPS=True
LOCAL_APPS_MENU=True
LOCAL_APPS_MENU_ITEMS = firefox,CmapTools,/usr/lib/IHMC_CmapTools/bin/CmapTools,totem,vlc,gstreamer
[00:02:A5:8F:6D:D4]
HOSTNAME=g-1a
[00:02:A5:90:59:98]
HOSTNAME=g-1b
[00:02:A5:90:56:FB]
HOSTNAME=g-2a
[00:02:A5:90:95:ED]
HOSTNAME=g-2b
[00:02:A5:16:66:5B]
HOSTNAME=g-3a
[00:02:A5:90:59:B1]
HOSTNAME=g-3b
[00:02:A5:90:96:18]
HOSTNAME=g-4a

[00:11:85:82:06:C1]
HOSTNAME=g-teacher

etc.
By declaring the hostname of each client I was told they boot or login more quickly AND it identifies them relative to the seating of the classroom when I use the Great Greek sch-scripts.

Cloning 10.04 server with clonezilla fails unless...

2011-03-29T17:03:00.000-05:00

There seems to be an issue with cloning my Ubuntu 10.04 server and clonezilla. When I tried to create a backup image of the disk I get the: "Something went wrong" message. On line I found that the problem is probably with the i-nodes and the easiest way to solve this is to use clonezilla with the fsck option.

Start like one normally does when cloning, but don't choose 'beginner mode' instead choose 'expert mode'. Then you'll go though some similar screens but then you'll get to the advanced screens. Always choose whatever option it defaults to, but one of the screens will have lots of options, one of which is "-fsck-src-part", select that and continue on and... things invariably work.

I wish I had recorded this on my blog the last time I had to solve it, but got it now!

Developing alkisg's idea of synching table-servers, and no network cables...

2011-03-26T20:48:00.001-05:00

I just got off of #ltsp with alkisg. I needed further details on the hoped-for solution for next year set-up which wouldn't require using network cables but would require using at least 1 fast wireless access point and... The following is a slight bit abridged (to remove extraneous content).

[3:44PM] dgroos: I'm wondering if you've had further thoughts about your idea on clustering over wifi.
[3:47PM] dgroos: Having 8 recycled P4's as elements of a cluster, connected via wifi, then each of these elements would be connected via ethernet to a few computers at the table.
[3:50PM] dgroos: Thus, the fat clients would be able to boot via cable as they are designed to do, but they wouldn't need network cables leaving the tables.
[4:09PM] alkisg: Took a bit more :) reading...
[4:10PM] alkisg: dgroos: sounds reasonable
[4:10PM] alkisg: And you would have 1 authentication server and a common nfs home for everyone?
[4:10PM] alkisg: Or local nfs homes on those clusters?
[4:12PM] dgroos: I wasn't sure if one would want 1 powerful server as the backbone so to say of all of the low-power servers in the cluster, and...
[4:12PM] dgroos: if there would be memory limits since the p4 elements are 32 b arch.
[4:13PM] alkisg: The fat client servers don't need CPU. A bit of RAM, to cache parts of the fat nbd image, and a fast network
[4:13PM] dgroos: or, if there would be compatability issues with a 64b machine along with several 32 b machines.
[4:13PM] alkisg: No, it doesn't matter at all, the fat client servers are only serving an nbd image etc
[4:14PM] alkisg: They could even be... mac or arm
[4:14PM] dgroos: Wow--so I could get some very small hardware to do the job--fits in the table better.
[4:16PM] dgroos: Would I even need a strong server in the cluster? I'm thinking of storing the home folders there--is that how you would recommend it?
[4:16PM] alkisg: Do the kids change places? If you can force them to use the same cluster each time, then yes, I'd recomment putting both authentication + homes there
[4:17PM] alkisg: And only use wifi for internet access
[4:17PM] alkisg: I.e. 1 cluster == 1 independed fat ltsp setup
[4:17PM] alkisg: Of course you can clone the servers for installation
[4:19PM] dgroos: Kids would definitely change places several times throughout the year--practice in working with new teams etc.
[4:19PM] alkisg: Then you'd need /home over wifi
[4:20PM] alkisg: Or some clever way of moving /home/username every time a student moves to a different cluster
[4:20PM] dgroos: OK that doesn't sound like it would generally be an issue. Would it get loaded locally on the fat client when a student logs in?
[4:20PM] alkisg: The fat client would access /home/username with sshfs by default, or if you prefer with nfs
[4:21PM] alkisg: That's over wifi
[4:21PM] alkisg: So for 10 students trying to access /home over wifi the bandwidth would drop a lot
[4:21PM] dgroos: 'k
[4:21PM] alkisg: How many students using a single wifi access point? And what speed? 50 mbps?
[4:21PM] alkisg: (seats, not students)
[4:22PM] dgroos: I suppose we would use n networking standard, not sure where it's at...
[4:23PM] alkisg: That would suffice for a lot of seats
[4:24PM] dgroos: And, I wonder if I could put a couple of access points, at least 15 (for 2-1 ration) or better yet 30 separate users at any time in a classroom.
[4:25PM] alkisg: I think I'd implement the other option, the "syncing /home/username locally when the student logs on"
[4:26PM] alkisg: locally == in the cluster server
[4:26PM] dgroos: Would I need a regular (dual-core xeon) server if I had all home folders on it and was using pentium 4 fat clients?
[4:26PM] alkisg: No, you wouldn't need a big server at all
[4:26PM] dgroos: OK, I wonder how difficult some script like that would be?
[4:27PM] alkisg: Not very much, writing such a script + debugging it should take less than a day
[4:27PM] dgroos: would this work with sch-scripts, that fancy program coming of that famous app-shop? ;)
[4:27PM] alkisg: (it would be best if it only synced when the student actually changed cluster, not every time)
[4:28PM] alkisg: Hehe
[4:28PM] dgroos: sure.
[4:28PM] alkisg: Each cluster could have its own versions of sch-scripts, you'd need a master one?
[4:29PM] dgroos: When you say each cluster, you mean each element of a cluster?
[4:29PM] alkisg: Would be possible too, but it would need some tweaking with the different servers
[4:29PM] alkisg: With cluster I mean a table consisting of 1 fat-client-server and 4-8 fat clients
[4:29PM] alkisg: Maybe not the right word, I can call it "table" from now on :)
[4:30PM] dgroos: OK I was thinking that each of the 'servers' at the table would unite and be part of a single 'cluster'--I didn't have the under-the-hood visualized, however.
[4:31PM] alkisg: Maybe you want to have a look at ltsp-cluster? Never looked at it, don't know if it'll suit you
[4:32PM] alkisg: I'd just use 1 master server for central authentication and for nfs homes, which would be rsynced locally when needed
[4:32PM] dgroos: That's what I was imagining when you said cluster!
[4:33PM] alkisg: I.e. the fat servers on the tables wouldn't have any user accounts at all
[4:33PM] dgroos: And the fat client images would be at the table-servers...
[4:34PM] alkisg: Right, just for speed
[4:34PM] alkisg: You wouldn't need to maintain those, you could maintain the fat image on the master server, and copy it to the table servers when updated
[4:36PM] dgroos: Right, so as you say, the entire master server (master server? sounds paradoxical!) would have all the table servers rsync to it for everything BUT the home folders...
[4:37PM] alkisg: No, not for everything. They wouldn't need /opt/ltsp/i386
[4:37PM] alkisg: They'd only need /opt/ltsp/images/i386.img
[4:37PM] alkisg: They wouldn't need ubuntu-desktop or even X
[4:37PM] alkisg: But they'd need some gigabytes for /home, for the students that connected there
[4:39PM] alkisg: So, ltsp-update-image on the server should also rsync /opt/ltsp/images/i386.img to the client,
[4:39PM] dgroos: OK, right, each night or whenever, I could rsync the master home directories with the home directories on the table-server (for just the students who sit at that table).
[4:39PM] alkisg: and a login script should rsync /home/username to the table server
[4:39PM] alkisg: *sorry I said client above, I meant table server
[4:41PM] dgroos: This is almost sounding like a done deal (ignorance is bliss :D ).
[4:41PM] alkisg: The syncing part is a bit more complicated than that
[4:42PM] alkisg: I.e. when logging off, the local copy is more recent than the "master" on
[4:42PM] alkisg: So I'd prefer to use a login syncing script, which would sync from the last logon server
[4:43PM] dgroos: Isn't there an option with rsync to take the most recent version?
[4:43PM] dgroos: "last logon server"?
[4:43PM] alkisg: Kid sits on table A
[4:43PM] alkisg: The next hour he sits on table B
[4:44PM] alkisg: Describe to me how you got his documents transfered to table B :)
[4:45PM] dgroos: At this point in the project that senario wouldn't happen (they've only got this in their science class) but I see your point. So,
[4:47PM] dgroos: are you envisioning when a user logs out the changes get exported from the table server to the home folders on the master server, then when that student logs in the next day or at a different table they get updated back at the table server?
[4:48PM] alkisg: (1) how often would kids change tables? and (2) do you keep daily backups for /home?
[4:50PM] dgroos: 1) every couple of weeks in my class but in come teachers classes it could be almost every day and in others 1 time a month. 2) I haven't kept daily backups but I could I guess.
[4:51PM] alkisg: Based on your answers, I'd use the "last logon server" solution I described above,
[4:51PM] dgroos: I didn't really get that solution...
[4:52PM] alkisg: In that solution, there is no /home on the "master server". All /home/usernames are local to the tables
[4:52PM] alkisg: So the kid logs on to table A, and gets his /home/username folder there
[4:52PM] alkisg: The next day he logs on again to table A. No syncing happens at all. Very very fast.
[4:53PM] alkisg: The next day he logs on to table B.
[4:53PM] alkisg: The script sees that the last logon location was on table A.
[4:53PM] alkisg: So it rsyncs directly from table A to table B, and updates the entry about the most recent login, which is now on table B.
[4:53PM] NeonLicht: And what happens if tablet A is off/broken/lost?
[4:54PM] alkisg: Then a clean folder is used, or, if an old one is available, the old one. But the user should be prompted on that case.
[4:55PM] alkisg: The same would happen with the "master server" /home too, it's not something specific to this solution
[4:55PM] alkisg: And it's even better with /home over wifi/nfs, because now there's at least the option for the kids to work in case the "master /home" would be down
[4:56PM] alkisg: (and faster too)
[4:56PM] alkisg: *better than, not better with
[4:56PM] dgroos: So, there would be a complete set of home folders at each table-server, however, the only ones up-to-date would be the home folders of the students who last logged in at that table,
[4:56PM] alkisg: Exactly
[4:56PM] NeonLicht: The master can use a NAS, with RAID, or ZFS.
[4:57PM] NeonLicht: A sync back to the server after use could be a good idea, I think.
[4:57PM] dgroos: and when a student moved from one table to the next there would be updating of the student's new table-server home folder. Slick!
[4:58PM] alkisg: dgroos: are you planning on frequently moving the tables, i.e. is the possibility of the "last logon table missing" high?
[4:58PM]
dgroos: NeonLicht: The NAS would be for backup purposes then?
[5:02PM] alkisg: Being a teacher that also doesn't backup every day... It would be enough for me to have a backup from last week in table "A", even in the case where the hard disk in the most recent logon table "B" was destroyed

Overview of the Growing Communities of Scientists system of tools

2011-02-21T18:48:00.285-06:00

Joe Purvis just sent me an e-mail looking for further information with which to educate his administrator on GCoS. He, along with James W. and Andrea E. from Anwatin Middle School are planning on building their own set of computer-embedded tables this summer. As I was responding to his request for information, I realized that I ought to do it right and put it out here in the public domain. So here goes.

THE BIG PICTURE
Embedding computers into students' normal workspace--a shared workspace--is the key innovation. It is this that brings all the other tools to the table. Under the leadership of a skilled science teacher, these tools enable a classroom of students to grow as a community of scientists. Here are some pictures of the 4-person, computer-embedded tables in action.

The computer tables function as simple science tables

The computers supply clear (teacher-created) instructions

TOOLS FOR STUDENT WORK
Here are some of the tools that I use with my students. Am I using them systematically to their maximum capability--for sure not. Yet. Nonetheless, many exciting and important things are happening already including increases in student metacognition, science conceptual learning, learning scientific inquiry, closing of the 'digital divide' and ownership of their own scientific pursuit. It also transforms of student-student and student-teacher relationships, allowing for authentic student discussion of science ideas--and in their own words, with their own questions. For an example of this last point, note the FLE4 in the link in number 4, below.

Access searchable knowledge objects such as static web pages, instructional videos, Simulations, Flash content.
Individual Creation of shareable resources such as Vee Maps, Thinking Maps, Blogs, Concept maps.
Collaboratively create and improve Knowledge Objects such as a wiki, web page, Vee, Jigsaw project, thinking maps, concept maps.
Scaffold communication around objects of inquiry such as FLE4, voice thread.
Digital Resource centers such as a scanner station and printer station.

TOOLS FOR TEACHER-WORK
These are just a few of the tools a teacher will use in the GCoS classroom. Below are a few examples of these tools. These tools are used within larger frameworks such as knowledge building and progressive inquiry. This link provides a solid introduction from some brilliant researchers in Finland who have been working on this for years. They are also the creators of one of our tools, FLE4.

Find online learning objects such as... (see links above in "access searchable knowledge objects")
Create and organize curriculum such as this flow map I'm currently working on. To go to a link on the flow map, click on the icon, then click on the words that drop down. This concept map show the conceptual organization of the unit I'm currently planning. It is based on the district supplied list of required vocabulary words for the topic.
Create and organize and present daily lessons such as this one and this one. Note that by clicking on the, "Also available in presentation mode..." at the top of the page, the web page becomes a 'powerpoint' presentation. They are accessible from home.
Create and share learning objects with students and other teachers such as these ones that were used for the activity pictured above to the right.
Create and share and improve lessons such as at the LeMill site.

Logan checking connections.

Making a team concept map with cmaptools

Example of a graded concept map. Green=Good; Yellow=Partly Good; Pink=Bad.

Another good concept map albeit with less visual organization

Adjusting iptables

2011-02-17T15:07:00.000-06:00

Here's some info on how to make sure the web service can get out of the server. The server might well have iptables setup by default so to change the default settings...

Here's the location of the config file:

/etc/sysconfig/iptables

Here are commands to turn on and off the filter do:

sudo /sbin/service iptables start
sudo /sbin/service iptables stop
sudo /sbin/service iptables restart
sudo /sbin/service iptables status

Reflections on LabQuest

2011-02-06T09:36:00.000-06:00

-I’ve used LabPros for several years so it wasn’t a big step for me to use the 'new and improved' LabQuests which have the display built into the interface--no more need for connecting calculators or computers! However, even though I had this prior experience, it took a while to be able to use the LabQuest fluidly. They are a great tool and students loved them I used them at least 1 time every 2 weeks with different lessons. The 9th grade students, including my ‘sheltered’ students (ELL), got pretty good at using them.

-I had to deal with some issues as they came up this year including how to organize them along with the power supply, Ed and I designed a special carrying case just for them. Also, they were freezing up so until I upgraded the firmware, that was a problem I had to deal with.

-Students loved to use them and seeing data on a graph as the experiment is happening is a powerful learning experience.

Really, all went great and I expect to continue to use them in classes and share them with my science colleagues. Here's some background info I've created:
•    Concept map telling overview of the parts of the LabQuest System (with images).
•    Concept map that puts the LabQuest in a larger context.
•    Flow map that explains the steps for a good LabQuest introductory activity called, ‘hot hands’.

Making Fat Client

2011-01-16T12:10:00.000-06:00

Followed instructions on: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuLTSP/FatClients and used the .conf install.
Since I already had a working LTSP server working I skipped step of creating one--seemed fine.
Next made backup of /opt/ltsp/i386 with cp -r -p /opt/ltsp/i386 (into my Documents folder).
Had to rename the current i386 to i386-thin
Then did the install, just changing the option to install the edubuntu-desktop (from ubuntu-desktop).
Seemed to work fine.
Made the script file to ease of install of other programs into the fat client chroot.
Installed htop and locate seemed to work fine (sudo apt-get install htop, for example)
Used the script and installed the loggerpro from http://www.vernier.com/soft/lpl/. Pretty much went fine, just some mime type error messages but should be ok.
Then tried to install CmapTools--downloaded, changed .bin file to executable: sudo chmod +x, with another terminal window moved to the chroot then ran: ./LinuxCmapTools_v5.04.01_10-28-10.bin but it didn't work with familiar looking errors:

root@gcos-server:/# ./LinuxCmapTools_v5.04.01_10-28-10.bin
Preparing to install...
Extracting the JRE from the installer archive...
Unpacking the JRE...
Extracting the installation resources from the installer archive...
Configuring the installer for this system's environment...
nawk: cmd. line:6: warning: escape sequence `\.' treated as plain `.'

Launching installer...

Invocation of this Java Application has caused an InvocationTargetException. This application will now exit. (LAX)

Stack Trace:
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError
    at java.lang.Class.forName0(Native Method)
    at java.lang.Class.forName(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.GraphicsEnvironment.getLocalGraphicsEnvironment(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.Window.init(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.Window.(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.Frame.(Unknown Source)
    at java.awt.Frame.(Unknown Source)
    at com.zerog.ia.installer.LifeCycleManager.g(DashoA8113)
    at com.zerog.ia.installer.LifeCycleManager.h(DashoA8113)
    at com.zerog.ia.installer.LifeCycleManager.a(DashoA8113)
    at com.zerog.ia.installer.Main.main(DashoA8113)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at com.zerog.lax.LAX.launch(DashoA8113)
    at com.zerog.lax.LAX.main(DashoA8113)
This Application has Unexpectedly Quit: Invocation of this Java Application has caused an InvocationTargetException. This application will now exit. (LAX)
root@gcos-server:/#

So anyway, looks like I'll have to use my old post to install this: http://groosd.blogspot.com/2009/07/install-cmaptools-in-chroot-for.html
I'm going to try on Tuesday to copy lts.conf stuff from old chroot into this, also copy the resolv.conf stuff. And...?

How to install into the ltsp chroot

2011-01-15T22:37:00.003-06:00

This works to install openoffice into the chroot of lucid:

sudo chroot /opt/ltsp/i386
mount -t proc proc /proc
export LTSP_HANDLE_DAEMONS=false
apt-get install openoffice.org
umount /proc

To install firefox it's simply:

Sudo chroot /opt/ltsp/i386 install firefox

I tried to install SmartBoard software--SMART Notebook Software with Drivers 10.package--into my ltsp chroot. This problem was compounded by the software that installs this type of package, the .package format, is called "AutoPackage" or some such. Unfortunately it doesn't work on 64 bit systems without certain libraries (which I didn't install) and my server is 64 bit. However, its successor, "Listaller" does work on 64 bit systems.

First I installed Listaller in the regular root, then I installed it into the chroot and entered the chroot with sudo chroot /opt/lits/i386 then started the listallmgr-gtk program but then wasn't able to make Listaller run the .package file. So finally I went to Veli-Menti solution which was to install it on a regular 1386 system then use his cool script to convert it into a .deb file which is easy to install into a chroot.

This page explains how to do that: http://www.opinsys.fi/en/smartboard-software-on-ltsp-fat-clients. I did it in a Virtual box and the install went great but there was an issue upon running the script. Hoping that Matti will get back to me about that...

Issue: when in the ltsp chroot one can't use the new command (since Karmic): "add-apt-repository" because the command is missing. Thanks to alkisg I found out you have to add the following libraries in the chroot first:

apt-get install python-software-properties

Then apt-add-repository works!

Getting from Pre-Testable Question to a Testable Question

2010-12-18T17:19:00.074-06:00

I started classes by showing a pre-testable question from period 5, specifically chosen by me for its relevance to the interrelationship between plants and animals, specifically the carbon/oxygen cycle. The title of the lesson was this question: "How are Plants and Animals related?"

I call this pre-testable because it asks about a relationship but needs to be more specific to actually be useful. This can be turned into a more-specific, 'testable question' through a process of creating a hypothesis, and creating a question (i.e. testable question) to test that hypothesis

Thus, a pre-testable question is too general to be useful but can inspire hypothesis which then lead to a usable testable question. The example above, "How are plants and animals related?" leads to many hypothesis. I've highlighted hypothesis in yellow then indented testable questions indented under each hypothesis. While I've included some more natural-language questions, others use the more explicit, "Focus Question Template" of, "How does ___ affect the ___ of ___?". This template is powerful, learn to use it and create experimental questions at will! I've also stated some questions in both forms.

Animals eat plants.

What's the favored part of a birch tree for deer? or... How does location on tree affect deer foraging?
How does species of plant affect foraging by cows outside of Guatemala city?
What part of anacharis do snails prefer to eat?

Snails favorite part of anacharis to eat is the youngest part, the growing tip.

How does age of anacharis part affect feeding by snails in aquarium?

Plants use animals for seed dispersal.

Which animals are most important for seed dispersal?
How important are cows for the dispersal of Guanacaste species?

Animals require the oxygen that plants produce.

How does species affect the amount of oxygen produced by plants?
How does amount of leaf surface area affect amount of oxygen produced by banana plants?
How does light intensity level affect the amount of oxygen produced by spider plants?

It is evident as shown in hypothesis 1, question 3 above that there is a possible spiral relationship between hypotheses and questions, gaining specificity at each cycle. Through this process of developing testable questions, students created many different questions and experiments, all to gain further insight on the carbon-oxygen cycle.

Setting up the design of a wordpress 3 multi site for Knowledge Building with FLE4

2010-12-14T21:20:00.001-06:00

It has taken a bit to come to grips with the WordPress 3 system of sites, most of the trials and tribulations haven't ended up on this blog, thankfull :). In this post I intend to present organized tips on setting up a WordPress site for knowledge building with the FLE4 plugin. I've already given some advice on setting up the site: initial installation and optional customization of FLE4 plugin and further first steps: setting up 'sites' i.e. blogs, for each teacher (1 site/blog per class). The advice below addresses various other issues of setup and using it for knowledge building.

Use a standard theme. I do recommend using the WordPress 2010 theme: it's simple, nice looking and works and if you need help troubleshoot issues on the forums at wordpress it eliminates a bunch of possible issues.

Create a naming system for your multi-site installation. I've come up with this formula for naming the sites: teacherpx. Where "teacher" is the Teachers last name, and "x" is the Period number. For example: groosp1, groosp2, groosp4... and turnerp1, turnerp2, turnerp3 etc. Note the use of lower case: that is more standard for web addresses.

Use and set up of a site (remember, 1 site per class)
One strategy (not 'the best one' just one of several that can be made to work) for each science 'unit' such as 'Structure and Function of Cells' is to create a few essential questions centered around the major concepts and skills used and issues addressed by the scientists who research that particular area of study. For this unit on cells I've used:

What do cells need?
Why is knowledge of cells important?
How do cells interact with other cells?
What kinds of cells are there?
How do we learn about cells?
How do cells work?
What are the relationships between an organism and it's cells?
What is the structure of a cell?

Each of these questions becomes the title of a separate post. Next, groups of students volunteer to 'champion' one of those posts, that is, take primary responsibility that that particular question or problem gets answered/solved. In my class, groups correspond to tables of 3-4 students.

Add navigation custom menus for each unit. It was awesomely difficult to find instructions on how to create custom menus to navigate the posts on the blog but there they are :). Specifically, I create a new category for the unit, such as "Cells", then associate this category with each of the unit-specific posts (corresponding to the 8 questions mentioned above, for example). In the example below you can see I've made 2 menu items, Cells and KB. By adding this category to the menu, when someone clicks on the menu cells, then it will take you to a page that has only those posts that are associated with the Cells category.

Note the menu item, "Cells" under the heading image.

Next, you add the posts you want to appear in the menu. Follow the direction on the link to the how-to given above. Then, when you hover over the menu all those items appear. Below is an example of when one hovers over 'Cells' the post:

I also edit the widgets to get rid of Non-essential visual info, only leaving the 'search', 'meta' and 'recent comments' widgets.

And for the base blog site the only widget I use is a custom one. In the menu section in themes I create another menu and call it "Classes". Then I add custom urls that direct to the dashboard of each site. Thus, when a student clicks on it he or she is taken directly to the login page for his or her site. Below is a screen shot showing how my main site looks, showing the 'search' and 'Login to your Class' Site' widgets.

These are most of the edits I make. And you probably saw I uploaded a custom header--I like papayas :)

Troubleshooting plone 3.2.3 k-12 buildout

2010-10-30T22:55:00.000-05:00

Of course at first I didn't know that the problem I was having was due to the buildout. It sure was great having a professionally constructed buildout, but open source is also synonomous with DIY so... The following are excerpts from e-mails I had sent out to plone supporters of GCoS.

I thought I'd let you know about an issue I've been struggling with for a few days. In my new 3.2.3 plone site from the buildout I can add all content types available, BUT users with member status can only see 9 of the 14 content types, including they can't see Vee's.

Another issue is that even though I explicitly give permission to logged in users to edit pages (vee pages) in a folder, they can't edit them. While I googled and went on #plone, I wasn't able to get anywhere.

I created a fresh site at root level. I then created a 'member' level user. I then went to Add Products in Site Setup and added (just) the Vee product--nothing else.

When I logged back in as a member, I was able to add Vees, showing the problem wasn't with the Vee's product, or at least, not totally.

I then Added all the 3.2.3 products from the buildout, some 20-30 of them. Again logging back in as a member I tried to add a Vee and saw that the Vee had disappeared from the list of available content types.

I then went through a process of uninstalling all the products, several at a time, each time loggin out afterwards and re-logging in as a member to check if the Vee product was available. It never was. Even when I had uninstalled all products except the Vee, it still was unavailable. I even then reinstalled the Vee but it was still unavailable as a content type.

Conclusion, some one (or more) of the add on products that are on the buildout messes around with content type adding for members (not for managers as I could always add it). I also guessed that the issue may well be connected with the permissions issue I was having.

A couple days later...

Well, I just finished a good bit of testing and found that I could add literally every product in the add-on section in site setup EXCEPT uwosh.timeslot.1.4.7 and all content types would be 'addable' by member-level users. BUT, upon adding uwosh.timeslot.1.4.7, not mattering if it was the second addon (after adding the Vee product) or as the very last addon (after adding all 30 some products), several content types would immediately go missing (including the Vee).

And several hours later...

Good News! By comparing the security settings between a good site and affected site, esp. paying attention to the timeslot column, I found that the row, "add portal content" was checked in the uwosh_timeslot_ScheduleManager and not checked in the Contributor, Manager and Owner columns. So I reversed that on the 'broken' site and things instantly... work again add Vee's

I haven't checked the permissions issue yet but I'll let you know as I find out more.

And finally a bit later (post midnight...)

Couldn't resist testing permissions issue :) sharing a folder now works properly :).

Ah... the taste of success :)

Superman--the silver bullet for education?

2010-10-17T12:38:00.001-05:00

About 21 years ago I learned that teaching was A LOT harder than it seemed. Over the next 5-10 years I learned convincingly and in detail that there is no secret, clever, innovative or 'we should just...' solution to the complex challenges of education. I've been there and tried a lot :) and learned some of the complexity on different levels of analysis.

Generally I don't post other peoples writing even if it's great stuff because well, it's out there already. However, I'm entering the fray over this new movie, "Waiting for Superman" though I'm well into my second decade battling to 'improve' education. The topic of education in general and perhaps especially public education is a political football and part of that has to do with there being such a widespread state of 'not-knowing-that-we-don't-know' about teaching and therefore about education.

Most of us know that we can't fix a modern car, we can't take a computer apart and fix the components, decompile a computer program and improve it, design and build a house, make a great perfume, carve a sculpture, etc. But, the funny thing about teaching is that, in our private hearts, many of us believe we can teach OK with just a bit of practice. OK, so maybe it was just me before I started teaching (but there is the saying that 'if you can't do, teach').

A good teacher makes teaching look just like smiling, talking, pulling out the occasional evil eye, directing people, answering some questions and calling on people and telling people to 'turn to page...'. Most of us can do that. But, of course, 'the man behind the curtain' is busy! It's a well documented fact that the profession of teaching requires more decisions-per-day than practically any other profession. And every decision a teacher makes in (and out) of the classroom has it educational consequences, good or bad...

All I'm trying to say is that when/if you watch "Waiting for Superman" please add some background knowledge/alternative perspectives to their story. I hope you find this long but interesting letter worthwhile.

This was written by Rick Ayers, a former high school teacher, founder of Communication Arts and Sciences small school at Berkeley High School, and currently adjunct professor in teacher education at the University of San Francisco. It's posted on different parts of the web such as at the Washington Post.

"What 'Superman' got wrong, point by point.

By Rick Ayers
While the education film Waiting For Superman has moving profiles of students struggling to succeed under difficult circumstances, it puts forward a sometimes misleading and other times dishonest account of the roots of the problem and possible solutions.

The amped-up rhetoric of crisis and failure everywhere is being used to promote business-model reforms that are destabilizing even in successful schools and districts. A panel at NBC's Education Nation Summit, taking place in New York today and tomorrow, was originally titled "Does Education Need a Katrina?" Such disgraceful rhetoric undermines reasonable debate.

Let's examine these issues, one by one:

*Waiting for Superman says that lack of money is not the problem in education.
Yet the exclusive charter schools featured in the film receive large private subsidies. Two-thirds of Geoffrey Canada's Harlem Children's Zone funding comes from private sources, effectively making the charter school he runs in the zone a highly resourced private school. Promise Academy is in many ways an excellent school, but it is dishonest for the filmmakers to say nothing about the funds it took to create it and the extensive social supports including free medical care and counseling provided by the zone.

In New Jersey, where court decisions mandated similar programs, such as high quality pre-kindergarten classes and extended school days and social services in the poorest urban districts, achievement and graduation rates increased while gaps started to close. But public funding for those programs is now being cut and progress is being eroded. Money matters! Of course, money will not solve all problems (because the problems are more systemic than the resources of any given school) - but the off-handed rejection of a discussion of resources is misleading.

*Waiting for Superman implies that standardized testing is a reasonable way to assess student progress.
The debate of "how to raise test scores" strangles and distorts strong education. Most test score differences stubbornly continue to reflect parental income and neighborhood/zip codes, not what schools do. As opportunity, health and family wealth increase, so do test scores. This is not the fault of schools but the inaccuracy, and the internal bias, in the tests themselves.

Moreover, the tests are too narrow (on only certain subjects with only certain measurement tools). When schools focus exclusively on boosting scores on standardized tests, they reduce teachers to test-prep clerks, ignore important subject areas and critical thinking skills, dumb down the curriculum and leave children less prepared for the future. We need much more authentic assessment to know if schools are doing well and to help them improve.

*Waiting for Superman ignores overall problems of poverty.
Schools must be made into sites of opportunity, not places for the rejection and failure of millions of African American, Chicano Latino, Native American, and immigrant students. But schools and teachers take the blame for huge social inequities in housing, health care, and income.

Income disparities between the richest and poorest in U.S.society have reached record levels between 1970 and today. Poor communities suffer extensive traumas and dislocations. Homelessness, the exploitation of immigrants, and the closing of community health and counseling clinics, are all factors that penetrate our school communities. Solutions that punish schools without addressing these conditions only increase the marginalization of poor children.

*Waiting for Superman says teachers' unions are the problem.
Of course unions need to be improved - more transparent, more accountable, more democratic and participatory - but before teachers unionized, the disparity in pay between men and women was disgraceful and the arbitrary power of school boards to dismiss teachers or raise class size without any resistance was endemic.

Unions have historically played leading roles in improving public education, and most nations with strong public educational systems have strong teacher unions.

According to this piece in The Nation, "In the Finnish education system, much cited in the film as the best in the world, teachers are - gasp! - unionized and granted tenure, and families benefit from a cradle-to-grave social welfare system that includes universal daycare, preschool and health care, all of which are proven to help children achieve better results in school."

In fact, even student teachers have a union in Finland and, overall, nearly 90% of the Finnish labor force is unionized.

The demonization of unions ignores the real evidence.

*Waiting for Superman says teacher education is useless.
The movie touts the benefits of fast track and direct entry to teaching programs such as Teach for America, but the country with the highest achieving students, Finland, also has highly educated teachers.

A 1970 reform of Finland's education system mandated that all teachers above the kindergarten level have at least a master's degree. Today that country's students have the highest math and science literacy, as measured by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), of all the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member countries.

*Waiting for Superman decries tenure as a drag on teacher improvement.
Tenured teachers cannot be fired without due process and a good reason: they can't be fired because the boss wants to hire his cousin, or because the teacher is gay (or black or.), or because they take an unpopular position on a public issue outside of school.

A recent survey found that most principals agreed that they had the authority to fire a teacher if they needed to take such action. It is interesting to note that when teachers are evaluated through a union-sanctioned peer process, more teachers are put into retraining programs and dismissed than through administration-only review programs. Overwhelmingly teachers want students to have outstanding and positive experiences in schools.

*Waiting for Superman says charter schools allow choice and better educational innovation.
Charters were first proposed by the teachers' unions to allow committed parents and teachers to create schools that were free of administrative bureaucracy and open to experimentation and innovation, and some excellent charters have set examples. But thousands of hustlers and snake oil salesmen have also jumped in.

While teacher unions are vilified in the film, there is no mention of charter corruption or profiteering. A recent national study by CREDO, The Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University, concludes that only 17% of charter schools have better test scores than traditional public schools, 46% had gains that were no different than their public counterparts, and 37% were significantly worse.

While a better measure of school success is needed, even by their own measure, the project has not succeeded. A recent Mathematica Policy Research study came to similar conclusions. And the Education Report, "The Evaluation of Charter School Impacts, concludes, "On average, charter middle schools that hold lotteries are neither more nor less successful than traditional public schools in improving student achievement, behavior, and school progress."

Some fantastic education is happening in charter schools, especially those initiated by communities and led by teachers and community members. But the use of charters as a battering ram for those who would outsource and privatize education in the name of "reform" is sheer political opportunism.

*Waiting for Superman glorifies lotteries for admission to highly selective and subsidized charter schools as evidence of the need for more of them.
If we understand education as a civil right, even a human right as defined by the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, we know it can't be distributed by a lottery.

We must guarantee all students access to high quality early education, highly effective teachers, college and work-preparatory curricula and equitable instructional resources like good school libraries and small classes. A right without a clear map of what that right protects is an empty statement.

It is not a sustainable public policy to allow more and more public school funding to be diverted to privately subsidized charters while public schools become the schools of last resort for children with the greatest educational needs. In Waiting for Superman, families are cruelly paraded in front of the cameras as they wait for an admission lottery in an auditorium where the winners' names are pulled from a hat and read aloud, while the losing families trudge out in tears with cameras looming in their faces - in what amounts to family and child abuse.

*Waiting for Superman says competition is the best way to improve learning.
Too many people involved in education policy are dazzled by the idea of "market forces" improving schools. By setting up systems of competition, Social Darwinist struggles between students, between teachers, and between schools, these education policy wonks are distorting the educational process.

Teachers will be motivated to gather the most promising students, to hide curriculum strategies from peers, and to cheat; principals have already been caught cheating in a desperate attempt to boost test scores. And children are worn out in a sink-or-swim atmosphere that threatens them with dire life outcomes if they are not climbing to the top of the heap.

In spite of the many millions of dollars poured into expounding the theory of paying teachers for higher student test scores (sometimes mislabeled as 'merit pay'), a new study by Vanderbilt University's National Center on Performance Incentives found that the use of merit pay for teachers in the Nashville school district produced no difference even according to their measure, test outcomes for students.

*Waiting for Superman says good teachers are key to successful education.
We agree. But Waiting for Superman only contributes to the teacher-bashing culture which discourages talented college graduates from considering teaching and drives people out of the profession.

According to the Department of Education, the country will need 1.6 million new teachers in the next five years. Retention of talented teachers is one key. Good teaching is about making connections to students, about connecting what they learn to the world in which they live, and this only happens if teachers have history and roots in the communities where they teach.

But a recent report by the nonprofit National Commission on Teaching and America's Future says that "approximately a third of America's new teachers leave teaching sometime during their first three years of teaching; almost half leave during the first five years. In many cases, keeping our schools supplied with qualified teachers is comparable to trying to fill a bucket with a huge hole in the bottom."

Check out the reasons teachers are being driven out in Katy Farber's book, "Why Great Teachers Quit: And How We Might Stop the Exodus," (Corwin Press).

*Waiting for Superman says "we're not producing large numbers of scientists and doctors in this country anymore. . . This means we are not only less educated, but also less economically competitive."
But Business Week (10/28/09) reported that "U.S. colleges and universities are graduating as many scientists and engineers as ever," yet "the highest performing students are choosing careers in other fields." In particular, the study found, "many of the top students have been lured to careers in finance and consulting." It's the market, and the disproportionately high salaries paid to finance specialists, that is misdirecting human resources, not schools.

*Waiting for Superman promotes a nutty theory of learning which claims that teaching is a matter of pouring information into children's heads.
In one of its many little cartoon segments, the film purports to show how kids learn. The top of a child's head is cut open and a jumble of factoids is poured in. Ouch! Oh, and then the evil teacher union and regulations stop this productive pouring project.

The film-makers betray a lack of understanding of how people actually learn, the active and engaged participation of students in the learning process. They ignore the social construction of knowledge, the difference between deep learning and rote memorization.

The movie would have done a service by showing us what excellent teaching looks like, and addressing the valuable role that teacher education plays in preparing educators to practice the kind of targeted teaching that reaches all students. It should have let teachers' voices be heard.

*Waiting for Superman promotes the idea that we are in a dire war for US dominance in the world.
The poster advertising the film shows a nightmarish battlefield in stark gray, with a little white girl sitting at a desk in the midst of it. The text: "The fate of our country won't be decided on a battlefield. It will be determined in a classroom."

This is a common theme of the so-called reformers: We are at war with India and China and we have to out-math them and crush them so that we can remain rich and they can stay in the sweatshops.

But really, who declared this war? When did I as a teacher sign up as an officer in this war? And when did that 4th grade girl become a soldier in it? Instead of this new educational Cold War, perhaps we should be helping kids imagine a world of global cooperation, sustainable economies, and equity.

*Waiting for Superman says federal "Race to the Top" education funds are being focused to support students who are not being served in other ways.
According to a study by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under Law, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., and others, Race to the Top funds are benefiting affluent or well-to-do, white, and "abled" students. So the outcome of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top has been more funding for schools that are doing well and more discipline and narrow test-preparation for the poorest schools.

*Waiting for Superman suggests that teacher improvement is a matter of increased control and discipline over teachers.
Dan Brown, a teacher in the SEED charter school featured in the film, points out that successful schools involve teachers in strong collegial conversations. Teachers need to be accountable to a strong educational plan, without being terrorized. Good teachers, which is the vast majority of them, are seeking this kind of support from their leaders.

*Waiting for Superman proposes a reform "solution" that exploits the feminization of the field of teaching; it proposes that teachers just need a few good men with hedge funds (plus D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee with a broom) to come to the rescue.
Teaching has been historically devalued - teachers are less well compensated and have less control of their working conditions than other professionals - because of its associations with women. For example, 97% of preschool and kindergarten teachers are women, and this is also the least well-compensated sector of teaching; in 2009, the lowest 10% earned $30,970 to $34,280; the top 10% earned $75,190 to $80,970. () By comparison the top 25 hedge fund managers took in $25 billion in 2009, enough to hire 658,000 new teachers.

----

Waiting for Superman could and should have been an inspiring call for improvement in education, a call we desperately need to mobilize behind.

That's why it is so shocking that the message was hijacked by a narrow agenda that undermines strong education. It is stuck in a framework that says that reform and leadership means doing things, like firing a bunch of people (Rhee) or "turning around" schools (Education Secretary Arne Duncan) despite the fact that there's no research to suggest that these would have worked, and there's now evidence to show that they haven't.

Reform must be guided by community empowerment and strong evidence, not by ideological warriors or romanticized images of leaders acting like they're doing something, anything. Waiting for Superman has ignored deep historical and systemic problems in education such as segregation, property-tax based funding formulas, centralized textbook production, lack of local autonomy and shared governance, de-professionalization, inadequate special education supports, differential discipline patterns, and the list goes on and on.

People seeing Waiting for Superman should be mobilized to improve education. They just need to be willing to think outside of the narrow box that the film-makers have constructed to define what needs to be done.

Thanks for ideas and some content from many teacher publications, and especially from Monty Neill, Jim Horn Lisa Guisbond, Stan Karp, Erica Meiners, Kevin Kumashiro, Ilene Abrams, Bill Ayers, and Therese Quinn.

Scaffolding for teachers: Managing Progressive Inquiry possible--V2

2010-10-12T18:19:00.000-05:00

Here is an improved version of a process to make practical a scientific-inquiry-based unit in science class. Please add comments or thoughts at the bottom of this post.

#plone helps solve user import issue.

2010-10-09T12:54:00.001-05:00

One of the key functionalities I need from plone is to be able to import a batch of users as at the start of each year I've go a fresh crew to install (3-4 hundred users this year). While I wish there were some way that I could set my authentication to the district AD servers and when someone logged in for the first time it would set up new local accounts on my plone server, able to be managed locally, it doesn't look like that functionality is around.

So, I went on #plone at the suggestion of my WebLion friends and I've gotten some good direction. The dialog below shows the second time I visited the chat room for help on this topic. In the end (now almost 2 weeks after the below dialog) I've given up on this for a variety of reasons related to my lack of knowledge and time to gain it (couldn't get a fresh install with same buildout to work).

So, over this last week I have had students join as 'new users'. This is always a painful process with incorrect login names (though of course I liked that God became a user on my site ;)) but now have my students in my plone site. They can now make and edit and review content...

(04:54:39 PM) dgroos: Anyone here have a not-too-difficult solution to batch-add about 350 new users to a plone site?
(04:55:04 PM) dgroos: I teach, don't code, sorry.
(04:55:30 PM) dgroos: Hi dahoste: I'm back for another try...
(04:57:45 PM) dahoste: dgroos, :) I did look over my stuff after we chatted, and I've factored it into like a dozen function calls and, and it's all pretty embedded into the custom policy product in which I'm using it. You'd be as well of (or better) starting from that tutorial blog post you mentioned as from anything I've got.
(04:58:57 PM) dgroos: dahoste: thanks for continued consideration on this need. :)
(05:02:31 PM) dgroos: Dahoste: Here's the page on the plone.org site: http://plone.org/documentation/kb/batch-adding-users.
(05:02:38 PM) Moo--__: dgroos: here is some more
(05:02:41 PM) dgroos: Would you take a quick gander and tell me if this is something that *should* be able to be adapted to plone 3.2?
(05:03:20 PM) Moo--__: https://svn.plone.org/svn/collective/collective.developermanual/trunk/source/members/member_basics.txt
(05:03:37 PM) Moo--__: dgroos: it works on plone 3.x
(05:03:40 PM) dgroos: If it looks doable I'll see if I can get some enthusiasm going :D
(05:03:48 PM) dgroos: Hi Moo--_: :)
(05:04:06 PM) dgroos: I'll check it out, thanks.
(05:07:03 PM) dahoste: dgroos, that script is literally the bare minimum for making a new user account. The regtool.addMember() call. But yes, that call looks fine. The devil in doing robust batch processing is all the stuff that script doesn't do. Checking against existing userids, sending account notifications, etc..
(05:08:08 PM) dahoste: dgroos, but it would technically do the job, if you have a known good set of user data, and you were pushing it into a known clean plone instance (or you otherwise felt confident that the userids wouldn't collide). And you didn't need account notifications.
(05:09:00 PM) dgroos: Thanks for checking it. It's an almost empty site and I can be careful about the info I put into the csv AND I don't need account notifications so...
(05:10:14 PM) dahoste: dgroos, then it sounds like a match made in heaven. :)
(05:10:24 PM) dgroos: Are you saying that it looks like it might work as is with a 3.2.x site? I'll make a new plone instance then and give it a try.
(05:10:27 PM) dgroos: :)
(05:11:09 PM) dahoste: dgroos, note that the little dictionary he uses to pass the other user properties in, can be extended with anything you see in portal_memberdata/Properties in the ZMI.
(05:12:00 PM) dahoste: dgroos, sure, the only Plone piece is really that regtool call. And that function signature likely hasn't changed.
(05:13:24 PM) dgroos: Are you saying that it might not be too hard for *someone-in-the-know* to make it so that it also adds people to a particular plone group?
(05:14:19 PM) dgroos: In the article that Moo--__: referenced, there is a section about adding users to a group...
(05:15:05 PM) dgroos: Thanks dahoste--I'll be giving this a try :D
(05:17:13 PM) dgroos: (getting out my note sheet...) Thanks!
(05:18:24 PM) dahoste: dgroos, have fun storming the castle. If it's a new plone instance, just wipe it and try again as you're vetting the script.
(05:19:11 PM) dgroos: Great, will do. I'll let you know next week or sooner how it goes.
(05:19:17 PM) dahoste: partial success of the batch will have created as many new users as it gets through, so you can't just re-run the batch without taking that into account (or wiping things first).

Now to get back to the irc and let them know and maybe get some help with the javascript error.

And thanks again to Jamie

2010-10-09T11:52:00.002-05:00

Jamie Miley arrived at Roosevelt at 6:30 AM on Sept. 2 to help set up SAMBA sharing and make it so that the printers on my sub LAN got published to the building level LAN. This was necessary so that I could print in my room, from the laptop I often use, that is connected to the building's network. Somehow it just worked last year, but this year I couldn't get it to work, so after some hours trying to make it work I e-mailed Jamie. He had offered to help again and had said, 'Just let me know...'

He did several things (the details which I've lost!) and it worked!

It sure is nice to be able to print from any computer.

Framework to teach a topic via dialogic/trialogic scientific inquiry.

2010-10-08T22:37:00.004-05:00

So much has happened--Updates will occur in over the next few days in random order...

Today I was at the North Central Regional Association of Science Teacher Educators and met Morgan Yarker and Matt Benus from the University of Iowa. Their research along with their advisory, Brian Hand, is about helping in-service science teachers teach through inquiry methods. I really liked what they were doing since dialog is central to their approach. Seeing the words, "Claim and Evidence" on their poster shown above is what first caught my attention.

Matt helped me think about how to structure a unit so as to maximize student involvement, authentic inquiry and community meaning-making. I've created a very rough flowmap with some questions using CmapTools. Really, this is just the notes of what we talked about. I'll be providing details on this as I progress in developing this unit.

I really REALLY appreciated his distinction between Testable Questions and Researchable Questions. Testable questions (TQ's) provide an in-road to student experimental activity, the latter providing centers of meaning making that we expand to encompass the Big Ideas. I also like the idea of students assessing which TQ's would be most helpful to understand the Big Ideas of the topic. It's obvious to me how FLE4 will help with the RQ's and the on line Vees will help with the TQ's. I'll be developing how these tools/activities along with others will be integrated to provide a whole experience for the students. Here's the rough draft showing the development of the unit:

Alkis G saves the day... again

2010-08-28T18:47:00.001-05:00

I've spent *a lot* of time this summer setting up the classroom edubuntu thin client (LTSP 5.2) server, though to tell the truth, it was less than 25% of the time I had to spend over the previous summer and it has/will have lots more functionality, and I expect to 'go live' in class, sooner, to boot!

More than once 'alkisg' has helped me out, see previous posts. The last time was yesterday, my last day to prepare before students arrive and I'm spending 6 hours trying to beat the server into shape. Thanks to alkisg' help I was able to find that the problem was the resolv.conf in the chroot. The symptom was that, when I was chrooted, I was unable to update, all misses with 'apt-get update'. The problem was that the chroot had resolv.conf settings from my house this summer which is where I originally set it up. Upon fixing that, and ltsp-update-image all things were hunky dory. That gave me some time to prepare for my students arriving on Monday. Well, I had to come in today (Saturday) to do lots of the work and got most of it done--even my wife and son came in a bit and helped! Things are looking pretty good :-).

Fred prepares Christen's Classroom at Nellie Stone Johnson

2010-08-28T18:33:00.001-05:00

Thanks to Fred, NSJ science teacher is ready again to welcome her students with computers in place--all hardware working. Following are most of Fred's notes. One thing that I appreciate about these notes is that they are so thorough; it's easy to forget the detailed nature of technology in education:

Other problems found and fixed were:
The main problem was that most of the balls and rings from ball mice were missing. In the closet with the server there were extra mice so now there are only 4 of 16 computers without working mice.
server needed to be rebooted - (done)
one keyboard with stuck space bar (replaced)
various power, video, keyboard etc (not ethernet) connectors disconnected - (reconnected)
One DC monitor power connector (with hollow barrel) was disconnected and filled with gum (?) and pencil lead. I was able to clean it and get it working.
One computer case was partly open. The computers at this table had never been secured with screws.
Computer at another table was no longer secure with screws. (repositioned)
I was surprised at how few problems there were with network connections. (Only one connector and to be reseated; and that is all. It just worked when the computers were started.
One computer needed the date restored.
The floors and been re-waxed and the carpet pads on the table legs are now stuck in the wax. The row of computers near the windows were stuck in a position from which the power strip cords would not quite reach the outlets on the lab island. I did not see a way to get any slack on the cord from the furthest strip except by removing the final strain relief screw which I did. This allows the cords to "cut the corner" and barely reach to be plugged in.
Left to be done:
acquire and install 4 mice on table 6 & 7
further investigate power strip cords on row by window
Secure computers to back middle table
server upgrade
Possible improvements:
replacing mice by optical mice would be great solution to missing balls.
Ponder further the idea of cutting about an inch off corners of tables where the stick into aisles.
a better way of securing excess cable length in middle of table would be an improvement

Fred

As soon as Doug Roberts, the senior MPS internet dude, gets the LDAP authentication running on the thin client (LTSP 5) server for Eddie's and my room, I'll clone the server, copy it onto the other server that Ben and Cody supplied me with, and she will be on line. I'm excited to see how Christen develops these resources in her classroom, how she 'grows a community of scientists'. Here's a pict of Fred in the drop room we're using at NSJ...

Plone: redirecting logins to group-determined root page

2010-08-11T18:16:00.002-05:00

Chat from #plone irc channel:

[6:00PM] dgroos
: Hi I'm a teacher using plone. Any (easy) way to make it so that the page one is referred to upon logging in is determined by this users group membership?

[6:05PM] dixond
: dgroos: you probably need to customise login_next.cpy
[6:05PM] dixond: dgroos: it's in there that any redirect is traditionally done.

[6:06PM] dgroos
: dixond: thanks. is this fairly trivial or involved, do you estimate?

[6:08PM] Moo^_^
: dgroos: it is easy

[6:09PM] dgroos
: Thanks Moo^_^ and dixond, may the force be with you ;)

[6:09PM] Moo^_^
: dgroos: http://collective-docs.plone.org/sessions/login.html

[6:11PM]dgroos
: Moo^_^: thanks I'll note this for when the moment comes to implement it!

Pooling our knowledge--make an entry point for new Edubuntu-LTSP users

2010-08-11T15:39:00.002-05:00

Do you want to set up an LTSP lab? Know how to:

Install Edubuntu?
Install LTSP?
Install Media Plugins?
Create a Backup process?
Manage student permissions?
Setup a proxy server?
Control details of your students internet access?
Install programs into the Chroot?
Set up a printer?
Install software to control a lab full of computers?
And optionally LocalApps, Add users? Add a scanner? etc?

Well, I didn't and don't. I found out that even generalist, Linux-wise people can't do all of these tasks without some help. Thus was born the idea to make 1 page to rule them all or at least to coordinate all the how-to pages needed to do a basic (but complete) set up of an Edubuntu Lucid LTSP server.

I was moved by all the work that has been done on the Ubuntu wiki. So much has been created over the years and hopefully The "BasicSetup" wiki page respects this effort. Also, with a single entry point to the how-to pages for the set of critical setup tasks, it will be easier to know which pages must be kept current as new versions of Ubuntu are released.

Like all community projects, I can't (nor ought to) do this all myself. I don't have enough knowledge nor enough time. There are many dozens of people on the 3 main Edubuntu mailing lists. The Dev's are already tapped out with their work developing the software and answering higher-level troubleshooting questions so mainly my plea is directed to the Edubuntu-users list and Ubuntu-education list. Haven't made a page and not sure how to? Ask me and I'll help you get started. We need more people helping out our growing community.

Please take a look at basic setup page. Consider adding your knowledge to this page, improving this page or the linked how-to pages.

If there are existing how-to's that are appropriate for Lucid, note that and link to them.
If a how-to page needs to be updated for Lucid and you have the knowledge or are willing to gain it and update the page, please do so!
If you are going to perform one of the basic setup tasks and there already exists a page for this task, go to that page and test it out as you perform it and improve the clarity of the page
If you use one of the pages and need to ask for help, reference that page so it can be improved!

I'm willing to work to help create and coordinate this BasicSetup series of pages. Join me!

WebLion asking for plone users in K-12 for ideas on a buildout!

2010-08-10T13:13:00.002-05:00

Thanks to WebLion for providing this forum for educators to communicate about their experience and needs for plone. It seems like they are preparing to create a buildout they will share that is customized for educators!

I've used multitudes of products since plone 2.0 came out. The following list includes ones I'm currently using or would like to use. Of course not sure if they all still exist or if there are better updates of them. Anyway, here is the list with annotations:

CacheFu. I've used this along with Squid to speed up my site. Great though I needed help to get it set up.
TinyMCE (epoz then kupu were OK but fckeditor was better though when they made it easy to have colors in kupu and FCK was creating some problems I switched to use kupu again. Looking forward to see what TinyMCE can do.
ImageEditor. Upon reading about this in Jon Stahl's blog I had to try it and it IS the cat's meow. I've got no idea how difficult it would be to add the following functionality BUT I do know it would make it a 'killer App' for science education. What I would like it to do is to add editable-annotations to images. Imaging a student taking a picture of something/s seen found through a microscope, uploads that image to the specific place in Plone, then adds arrows with text such as a name of a part or of a specific creature or asks a question about a specific part of an image. Then, with that page being commentable, students could have a threaded discussion about that piece of comment. It would be important that the arrow with text were visible without requiring a mouse over or worse having to click on a link that takes you away from the image. I've looked for a good open source app to add text/arrows to an image with ubuntu, have found some apps but they aren't simple. If this annotation could be done on the web, edited by various team mates, improved over time (always with versioning available as a fall-back), well, that would be incredible)
PloneFlashUpload. I need something that will work. I've not been able to get this to work since Plone 2.5. I really dislike uploading 12 images, 1 at a time, after having used this add on.)
Something to translate the plone interface for kids. Last year I had kids from 12 different languages as their home language. I remember a Vietnamese student I had a few years ago (the last time I had multiple languages available for my plone site) who was quite literate in her own language but spoke virtually no English. When she set her home language for the plone interface (I think I had linguaplone installed then?) and I showed her about wikipedia in her own language and google translate she was so happy and it enabled her to study English within the science content I was teaching. It was hard to help her, though, as even though I knew about what buttons should be where on the plone page, when everything was in Vietnamese I had a hard time helping her as i couldn't understand anything! I guess an ajax mouse-over to convert the interface to English would have been great but I can't see that being of wide spread utility.
Ploneboard. An important part of my site has been a Q/A forum section and ploneboard was nice. Two useful features that would be great are having a couple of basic editing tools such as numbered/bulleted lists and tables available for comments. Another function that would be great is being able to create 'collections' of forum posts based on group membership. Imagine having generic posts for topics of interest to all students in a school, other posts relative to biology students there and still other posts being class-specific--all in a single page based on student group membership. I just remembered--it is important that WHILE commenting on a web page or as part of forum post, that all contents can be seen by just scrolling. It's frustrating making a comment and then forgetting some detail of a comment you were responding to and then not being able to see the previous comment unless you open the page in a new tab!
Vee content type. This is a completely unique content type and distinguishes my plone setup from our district's moodle server. Students create a Vee--a graphic organizer for inquiry--on line as a plone content type. It has the advantage of sharing editing privileges for team members, and is commentable encouraging class dialog on student research. Students can include web images such as concepts maps (mentioned below in item #8). A big plus with these images is that when a student updates her concept map, it is immediately shown in the Vee! Here's a very simple but nice example from a couple of my students showing the basic idea of a Vee. Unfortunately this content type isn't on plone.org site. I'd love to load it up there, though.
FancyZoom. For me, this is a killer app. Filling a folder with important images that are then displayed as thumbnails, allowing students to click on an image, seeing it almost instantly without leaving the page, is BIG! Something that would multiply its usefulness even further is if I could add an image to a page at a size that could be defined in settings, AND upon being clicked, this image located elsewhere on the web would ZOOM in the same fashion as when it was an image in a folder with fancyzoom selected as the display option. This would be hugely useful in many contexts, for example, I could embed an image of a concept map from my CmapServer and not have it take up too much space on the page, but when someone wanted to see the details they would simply click on the small image and it would quickly pop up without needing to leave the page (important for usability reasons).
Webcouturier dropdownmenu I've installed this and it would be a big time saver, but unfortunately it was inconsistent when it would work and looked weird with our theme.
webcouturier.icompany.theme I love this theme. I use it on a few sites. It might be nice to have a few that teachers could choose from.
Plone TrueGallery. Not had this working since plone 2.5, but it was really nice for the class I taught with inservice teachers. Looking forward to using it again.
LDAP authentication. I really need this to work with our districts AD LDAP server. Students and I spend too much time getting and working with accounts/passwords etc. Failing getting this working, I need a bulk-upload function that works (couldn't get Tomster's to work though he was/always is helpful.)
Group-Membership-based site root. I need it so that the students in my classes, upon logging in, are immediately taken to my folder with all content applicable to their classes located inside of that. Then, when a student in a different teacher logs in, since this student would be a member of this this other teacher's group, it would take him to that teachers root folder. I got this idea from reading about a plone add on (uwosh.something?) but couldn't make it work. This would be GREAT.
Ploneformgen. This sounds like it would have tons of uses to collect and organize student thinking. With some spiffing up this could probably become a decent way to create a portfolio.
Plone4Artists/ATVideo. I never really got this working well so was never able to do much in the line of videos but the district has been getting better tools for that so maybe I won't need videos, but it would be nice having the option...

Would Really Like but never used. Some of these exist, some are on the 'wish-list'!

Glossary. I used to try to get plone glossary working but never could. That would have been a great tool to build and assess class understandings. It would be great to have each class have their own root install so their definitions wouldn't overlap (or even be visible to each other?).
Some kind of a 'frame?'. It would be nice to have a collection (live folder) which would show content from several different pages or from different anchors on the same page. So, instead of it being a folder listing content with a particular keyword, it would be a web page showcasing (not simply showing links to) the content with a particular keyword.
Maybe use Timeslot at our school as a way to sign out computer labs--it's not super efficient right now.
I need to look into Easyslider...
Being able to simultaneously edit a plone page, like in google docs, would also be a killer app. I'm guessing that it's a pretty unrealistic wish at this time...

FLE4 commenting getting stuck?

2010-07-31T09:58:00.001-05:00

If, when you try to post a comment to a FLE4 KB discussion and it goes to a blank page and the web address of that page ends in: .../wp-comments-post.php then there is something to check, your site setup.

Go to your dashboard and in the Super Admin section click on 'Sites'.
Hover over the site that's not working and click on 'Edit'.
Make sure that "Path" is correct, for example: /wpblogs/teachers/
Make sure that "Siteurl" is correct, for example: http://x.x.k12.mn.us/wpblogs/teachers/ (I substituted the "x's").
QED (but why did it take me so long to fix it!!!)

Create FLE4 'sites' for teachers with WordPress 3.0

2010-07-29T14:27:00.001-05:00

In a previous post I describe much of how to set up FLE4 knowledge building using WordPress 3.0 (our district IT guy, Doug Roberts, set up WordPress 3.0 and did the LDAP integration with the Minneapolis Public Schools AD). This version of WordPress is especially important as it integrates much of the multi-user capabilities from previous WordPress mu versions. And this is important because it allows one to easily create new 'sites' (previous known as, 'blogs') on the fly. This is important because it allows one to invite more teachers into the world of knowledge building. The following describes how to create a new site and set it up for knowledge building for another individual.

The steps to create the new site are:

As the super-admin go to your dashboard and click on 'Sites' and look to the bottom to the section that is titled, "Add site".
Type in a short name (often lower case) to identify this site. Consider that a teacher will most likely want a separate site for each of their classes thus some consider adding something like, "p3" or "p4" to the end of the site name for period 3 or period 4.
Add a site title and add the e-mail address of the teacher.
Finally, click on the "Add Site" button below this.

The steps to update the teacher as the admin for the site:

This will take you back to the dashboard listing of your sites. Hover the cursor over the name of the new site and click on Edit.
Find where it says new user and put in the persons username. Give them Administrator role and click on 'Update options'.
Click on their name, give them a First/Last/nickname and click on update, again.

The steps to configure the new site for knowledge building.

Click on the "Posts" control panel and select "Categories".
In the name field I typed, "Knowledge Building", gave a quick description then pressed, "Add New Category".
Click on the "Settings" control panel, select, "knowledge building".
Under the "Knowledge Building" column I clicked on "Progressive Inquiry", then pressed, "Save Changes".
Then go back to the "Settings" control panel and select, "Discussion" then,
Put a check next to: Enable threaded (nested) comments levels deep, scroll to the bottom and select, "Save Changes".

Done! Repeat for each site you want. If there is an easier way... post below or let me know.

compiz problem in booting ltsp thin clients

2010-06-30T10:14:00.002-05:00

I worked for a few hours trying to address an issue on the new lucid server--I wasn't able to login to a thin client but it did boot. I jumped on the #ltsp and this is what I got (and again, thanks alkisg!!!):

(09:37:52 AM) dgroos1: Hi
(09:38:26 AM) dgroos1: I'm installing LTSP on an Edubuntu 10.04 setup.
(09:39:18 AM) dgroos1: the ltsp-server-standalone openssh-server install went well.
(09:39:39 AM) dgroos1: My DHCP is handing out addresses.
(09:40:13 AM) dgroos1: ltsp-build-client --arch i386 went well.
(09:40:53 AM) dgroos1: After reboot I attempted to boot a thin client and it successfully booted to login screen.
(09:42:56 AM) dgroos1: upon putting in user and password and enter, the screen alternates between the message: (process:211): GLib-Warning**: getpwuid_r(): failed due to unknown user id (0) (and the rest is off the screen)
(09:43:59 AM) dgroos1: and the other screen looks like a zebra on the top half: about 50 alternating black and white vertical lines.
(09:45:58 AM) dgroos1: Google hasn't helped me yet, syslog tells me: "gcos-server ldminfod[xyza]: connect from 192.168.0.21 (192.168.0.21)"
(09:46:18 AM) dgroos1: Any ideas what I can do?
(09:48:21 AM) dgroos1: and the syslog message above gets repeated almost exactly every 15 seconds.
(09:53:49 AM) alkisg: !compiz
(09:53:50 AM) ltspbot`: alkisg: "compiz" :: if compiz is giving you problems, one way to disable it for all users is: sudo gconftool-2 --direct --config-source xml:readwrite:/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.mandatory --type string --set /desktop/gnome/session/required_components/windowmanager metacity
(09:54:05 AM) alkisg: dgroos1: try this ^^
(09:54:27 AM) alkisg: About the zebra, try putting "nomodeset" in pxelinux.cfg/default
(09:54:33 AM) dgroos1: hi alkisg!
(09:54:41 AM) dgroos1: will do...
(09:54:41 AM) alkisg: hello :)
(09:57:04 AM) dgroos1: :)
(09:57:16 AM) dgroos1: I should say... :D
(09:57:41 AM) alkisg: Heh ;)
(09:57:56 AM) dgroos1: it works now. This doesn't seem to be documented anywhere or at least I didn't have the right search terms...
(09:58:32 AM) dgroos1: I'll put it on my blog. Thanks alkisg! Now on to localapps and fatclient chroots!
(09:58:53 AM) alkisg: dgroos1: you don't need to install ssh separately, it's installed along with ltsp-server
(09:59:48 AM) dgroos1: OK I'll note that... Any other advice? I was just going to use the instruction pages on the help.ubuntu and wiki.ubuntu.
(10:00:32 AM) alkisg: They should be OK - except for the localapps wiki page, which I hate...
(10:00:47 AM) alkisg: I think it's making it much much more harder than it is
(10:01:08 AM) dgroos1: there is a new localapps page for Karmic, I think I saw.
(10:06:11 AM) alkisg: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuLTSP/LTSPLocalAppsJaunty <== I mean this one, it's more complicated than it should.
(10:09:04 AM) dgroos1: I'm hoping this page will do the trick: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuLTSPKarmicLocalAppsFirefox
(10:11:05 AM) alkisg: Ugh, why isn't that under UbuntuLTSP? Someone should move it...
(10:12:00 AM) alkisg: Anyway, some hints, if you want to edit that page: sudo nautilus => not needed, gedit can create new files,
(10:12:16 AM) alkisg: LOCAL_APPS=True, SEARCH_DOMAIN, DNS_SERVER => not needed,

So anyway, the answer was at 09:53:50.

Installing Knowledge Building plugin "FLE4" on WordPress 3.0

2010-06-25T15:58:00.023-05:00

Once you have super-admin status on the WordPress 3.0 site you can add the Knowledge Building plugin, you can do it from the wp control panels you don't need server access. (Note: I've added comments where there are changes in WordPress 3.1. Where upgrading to WP 3.2 note the green text directions.) Here's how I did it:

I clicked on the Plugins panel, then "Add New" as this sub-menu.
In the Search field I typed in "Knowledge Building", pressed search and the top one that appeared was "knowledge building". I clicked, "Install Now".
And it did!
I selected, "Activate Plugin".
Click on the "Posts" control panel and select "Categories".
In the name field I typed, "Knowledge Building", gave a quick description then pressed, "Add New Category".
Click on the "Settings" control panel, select, "knowledge building".
Under the "Knowledge Building" column I clicked on "Progressive Inquiry", then pressed, "Save Changes".
[When you update your version of WordPress you must repeat steps 9-15] Click on the Appearance control panel (or in WordPress 3.1 in the upper right hand corner of your dashboard, click on "Site Admin", then click on "Themes" (in version 3.2.1 go to the upper right corner and select the dropdown menu 'Howdy, username' and select 'Network Admin'--note, it goes back and forth between Network admin and Site Admin)), then click on the "Editor" sub-menu.
I'm using the Twenty Ten theme--make sure it says the name of the theme you are editing where it says, "select theme to edit".
Under the Templates list on the right hand side, select "Comments" (comments.php).
Use Firefox's page search function and search for the following: "wp_list_comments( array( 'callback'' ) );" excluding the quotation marks. I find you want the Firefox window fairly wide so the lines of code don't wrap--easier to read.
I cut that and replaced it with this. Note, the content between the "/*" and the "*/" are ignored, I included this copy of the original code so that it would be easy to revert to it if necessary, by just removing the commenting-out marks.
knbu_list_comments();
/* wp_list_comments( array( 'callback' => 'twentyten_comment' ) );
*/
**remember to change the twentyten to twentyeleven so you backup works**
Then I pressed, "Update File".
Then go back to the "Settings" control panel (in 3.2.1 you have to go back to the Site Admin in upper right hand corner) and select, "Discussion" then,
Put a check next to: Enable threaded (nested) comments levels deep, scroll to the bottom and select, "Save Changes". Actually, I kind like 7 deep when I do the optional settings listed below (but in theme 2011 seems to not be necessary)... Also, scroll down to the bottom and select the "monsterID" it is fun! do Save Changes.

Optional settings (must also repeat steps 1-6 when WordPress is updated)
--I prefer to use more of the page on the comments and not the narrow space provided by 2010 theme so I made the following alterations:

Click on the Appearance control panel, then click on the "Editor" sub-menu. (In 3.1 go to the dashboard of any site and click on "Site Admin" (in 3.2.1 select "Network Admin"!) in upper right-hand corner. Then drop-down the "Themes" menu on the left side and select, "Editor".)
I'm using the Twenty Ten theme--make sure it says the name of the theme you are editing where it says, "select theme to edit".
Under the Templates list on the right hand side, select "Stylesheet" (style.css) near the bottom.
Use Firefox's page search function and search for the following: "=Structure".
In that section, change, "940" to "1140" as this will make the comment column wider.
Press, "Update File". You'll see that your discussions are wider, now.

--(And these steps must also be repeated when the Knowledge Building plugin is updated) I prefer to use the word, "Question/Problem" in place of the word, "Problem" in the knowledge type set. Also, I haven't found the sentence starters for each knowledge type to be useful, on the contrary, they are almost invariably deleted, so I also get rid of most of them:

Go to the proper dashboard, select "Appearance", then, "Plugins" then "editor" (In Wordpress 3.1 go to "Plugins" then "Editor").
Where it says, "Select plugin to edit:" select, "Knowledge Building" and press the "Select" button.
Click on the Plugin File: "knowledge-building/kbsets/progressive_inquiry.xml" in its name.
Do a Firefox search for: "Name="Problem"" (Don't include the 'outside' quotation marks here).
Then simple change "Problem" with "Problem-Question".
I also searched for the different sentence starters for each knowledge type, deleted the words and pasted in: "Name..." as a reminder for students to put the name/names of the authors of the post at the start of the post.
I also changed the for each knowledge type.
I posted my version of the file with the changes in wording.

Install Lucid Edubuntu from DVD but via netboot

2010-06-16T22:34:00.000-05:00

I need to install Edubuntu Lucid on a server that doesn't have a DVD drive and the Edubuntu disk only comes on DVD... Enter alkisg scripts... Here, for safe keeping, is a copy of an e-mail he sent to the usergroup explaining how to do it:

Alkis G

to edubuntu-devel, edubuntu-discu.

show details 12/27/09

Στις 23-12-2009, ημέρα Τετ, και ώρα 22:44 +0200, ο/η Jonathan C έγραψε:
> * alkisg: perhaps the liveDVD could be configured to install remote
> systems via netboot. This may need some further investigation. At the
> worst, a wiki page on how to configure it manually would be good. A
> script could be included to simplify things.

I found this wiki page which describes how to do it:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LiveCDNetboot

I made a script which hopefully completely automates the process.

To make the method more suitable for a live environment, I changed it to
use dnsmasq-base, which is already included on the live Ubuntu CD, and
which has the additional benefit that it can function as a proxyDHCP
server:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuLTSP/ProxyDHCP
...and whose tftp server works with symlinks, saving space/RAM.

So, the steps to netboot the client(s):
1) Boot a "server" with the live Karmic/Lucid desktop (ed)Ubuntu CD,
2) Run this command on the live session:
wget 'http://users.sch.gr/alkisg/tosteki/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=2525.0;attach=1421' -O /tmp/livecd-netboot && sudo sh /tmp/livecd-netboot
3) Then power on the clients and select "Boot from network", they should
boot off of the live CD that is published via NFS.

Internet connectivity is needed on the "server", because the script
temporarily installs nfs-kernel-server.
Also, make sure that you have an *external* DHCP server in the local
network (e.g. a router).
It's also possible (though not recommended for novice users) to run the
script in a normal Ubuntu installation (i.e. not from a live session).

Happy holidays to all,
Alkis

(And beyond... ed.)

reinstalling/updating CmapServer

2010-06-11T19:17:00.000-05:00

This is a big one as I update CmapServer no more than 1 time a year.

Download software on a computer within the district firewall.
Use scp to transfer it to the server:
scp /Users/admin/Desktop/LinuxCmapServer_v5.03.01_06-05-09.bin dgroos@10.x.x.x:/home/dgroos/ (and it works!)
This page tells how to export an x-session from a VE container through the internet: http://wiki.openvz.org/X_inside_VE
I put the .bin file in /srv/ and set the permissions with: sudo chmod 755 LinuxCmapServer_etc.bin
Then I run it by typing: sudo ./LinuxCmapServer_etc.bin and it works :)

FLE4 Assessment--How is it possible?

2010-03-30T14:33:00.001-05:00

It is immediately improbable, thinking about using a classroom discussion as a tool for significant assessment (read: grading) for individuals. What would a teacher look at to assess 'the standards'?

Number of posts? Artificial, though productivity is important, but not at the expense of significance of participation. I'd hate for students to try to up their post-count at the expense of quality/significance/authenticity of posts.
Types (that is, knowledge types) of posts? This is interesting, it attests to how a student can participate in a knowledge building discussion.
Concepts correctly used in posts? Well, on the surface this seems like a good metric. However, what really counts is how someone's idea, whether correct or not, initiates or advances a scientifically significant dialog. And, scientifically incorrect posts often start important knowledge-improvement dialogs. I don't want to discourage students sincere participation by not recognizing or downgrading these posts. Just as there truly are no, 'stupid questions' nor is there a 'stupid comment' as long as they are sincerely made. Not to say that there are no anti-productive comments that shut down sincere participation.
Range of correctly used concepts? While this is nice metric to know, and a student who knows a broad range of science concepts is an asset to a knowledge building community, is this our only or even highest goal for students in a community of scientists? Also, since assessments guide student participation, one must be careful about creating simple criteria like this--it would most likely restrict the range of participation as people look for opportunities to produce grade-increasing comments, not authentic knowledge building.
Bringing in personal question to the dialog? This is an important metric, but it is obviously hard to measure, and certainly isn't the most important factor.

Is it impossible to use this tool to 'grade' student knowledge? I don't think so but more must be considered...

Excerpt from actual FLE4 student discussion.

2010-03-29T21:09:00.000-05:00

I copied the last 13 (of 100 total) comments that students posted to the question: How do ‘children’ end up looking similar to, but still different from, their ‘parents’? mentioned in the previous post. I removed all student names and links to the discussion. This site doesn't get indexed by search engines, as well. Of the 12 some kids mentioned in class, there was only 1 girl (my program has an automotive/construction concentration).

There is nothing special about this selection, although it is from a section that was entirely produced during the 30 minute 'exam'. The only editing changes I made to this discussion were the ones mentioned above designed to remove identifying information. On the actual blog page, each of the 5 knowledge types: Problem (including questions), My Explanation, Scientific Explanation, Process Comment, Summary, has it's own representative color to visually distinguish it's role in the discussion.

Note that neither grammar nor spelling were mentioned as assessment criteria :) On a future post here I'll provide some thoughts on FLE4 discussions. Feel free to add your thoughts below.

Problem
FemaleA says:
March 25, 2010 at 10:07 am
I am interested in studying does the first words you say depend on what gene was passed down to you like did you say the same thing your mom say first or the same thing your dad said
- My Explanation
  MaleA says:
  March 25, 2010 at 10:09 am
  ithink that the your first words are influanced by what you hear around you and you get used to hearing that so you eventaly match the sound
  - My Explanation
    MaleB says:
    March 25, 2010 at 10:15 am
    i think the first words a baby will say is the one that you say the most the baby will remember then repeat it
Problem
FemaleA says:
March 25, 2010 at 10:10 am
I would like to find out is there a certain kind of habit you can get from your parents like smoking,biting your nails etc…
Problem
MaleB says:
March 25, 2010 at 10:11 am
if a dwarf is born is it because there parents are short or is it a genetic mutation?
Problem
MaleC says:
March 25, 2010 at 10:12 am
If a mother had twins does that mean that they would both get the same traits or diffrent?
- My Explanation
  MaleD says:
  March 25, 2010 at 10:14 am
  I Think That They Wouldn’t Get The Same Traits But Carry The Same Genes…
- My Explanation
  FemaleA says:
  March 25, 2010 at 10:14 am
  I think that…even tho they look alike that one of them my favor the tributes of their father and the other might favor their mother..
- My Explanation
  MaleB says:
  March 25, 2010 at 10:18 am
  if the twins were born identical they will have the exact same genes. faternal twins have diffrent genes
Scientific Explanation
MaleE says:
March 25, 2010 at 10:14 am
Each person in this world is unique. When parents give their traits to the child, two alleles are given, a Dominant and a recessive trait. There’s many combinations of all kinds of traits. For example, noses, height, bone structures, faces and other defining characteristics, and thats why each person is unique.
Problem
FemaleA says:
March 25, 2010 at 10:18 am
I would like to find out when a child is born and say if their parent they look up to is drug dealing does it most likely mean that their going to be doing it too..
- My Explanation
  MaleA says:
  March 25, 2010 at 10:21 am
  it could..but it has nothing to do with traits it’s what you row up around that will determan that not your traits
Problem
MaleF says:
March 25, 2010 at 10:19 am
how does a baby get a disease from their parents before being born?

FLE4 and assessment--initial thoughts

2010-03-27T22:32:00.024-05:00

My classes don't change up from one quarter to the next--it's a full year 9th Grade Biology course. So, I chose not to artificially interrupt the curricular pace to fit the end of this term. We were just getting a good start on our unit in Heredity and Genetics when the end of the quarter came. Since the administration requires an end of quarter exam I felt obliged to give one, the students were expecting one as well. So I gave a different kind of 'test', I had them continue their FLE4 discussion.

Briefly, FLE4 is a knowledge building tool coming from the Media Lab Helsinki University. With the computers built into the student tables students find easy access to the computer when necessary, like this assignment.

I told students that they will be continuing their knowledge building discussion started a few days ago seeking to answer the question: How do ‘children’ end up looking similar to, but still different from, their ‘parents’? The class I'm about to mention had I think 15-20 comments to this question previous made. For various reason there was only 14 students in this class period and I gave them 35 minutes for this 'test'. I told them I will be looking in the dialog for them to show:

how you use science knowledge to ask questions and to answer questions;
how you bring into the discussion knowledge not directly presented in class;
at a more 'advanced' level, how you can effectively summarize a thread/sub-thread and provide a full answer "when the time is right";
evidence that the the words are your own.

Each student had their own computer. By the end of the class, the students were tired and there was exactly 100 comments. I printed out the 'page' on 11 x 17 paper, taping these pages together to form one long page. Here's a picture of this long page held up by my neighboring science teachers, Ben and Ed:

Below is a detail of the looooong page...

More thoughts to follow...

iPod Touch as Personal Teachers

2010-03-09T15:57:00.002-06:00

The teacher next to me, Eddie Turner, is another GCoS teacher. He got the idea of getting a grant to buy a set of iPod Touch for his students to use in their classes. He's been working a lot these last couple of years in making short, 2 minute explanations of 'how to use Ohm's law' or 'How to use an electrophorous'. Yea, he's a physics teacher. So he puts these vodcasts into iTunes, synch's it with the iPods and then he's ready!

When it's time to introduce the activity he will show the video on the data projector. After that, if a student needs help help with how to do something they, out of habit ask him how to do it. We'll, he'll answer by handing them an iPod Touch with the day's video.

He has been doing this for a couple of weeks now. For the first few days he would ask students, 'How many times did you watch the video?' There was a range of 2 - 6 times! The mode was 3 times. These have been especially helpful in his ELL classes.

Yesterday a student was a bit put out with his answer to their request for help, 'Here, grab an iPod'. They asked why don't you just tell me? His answer is that it frees him up to address the kinds of needs that only a teacher can answer and the video will be sufficient. He didn't mention the other goal but we teachers are often aiming for our students to become more independent, more self-reliant.

Reluctantly, the student takes the iPod and starts on the activity. Eddie, knowing his stuff and liking to play a bit, went over to the student a few times in the period and asked the student, 'are you done yet'? I can take this back if you don't need it any more." The student apparently needed it throughout most of the class!

Today, he was in the middle of explaining about the activity for the day and a student raised his hand. "Mr. Turner, don't you have a video about how to do this so we can just get started?"

Kids. They get it.

Advice to a new (Science) teacher

2010-02-28T21:51:00.012-06:00

So Aaron T. wrote on my wall...

"I'm currently in the process of being hired for a position that would make me a Middle School Biology Teacher at a new school in Oro Valley AZ. This school is a BASIS school which have been ranked in the top ten public high schools in the nation for a couple years (to graduate students are required to pass a number of AP exams). Do you have any advice for a burgeoning middle school/ high school biology teacher? What would you do if you had to start from scratch? I know this is kind of unfocused right now but any advice would be helpful at this point.

Your student,
Aaron Tesch"

And I responded and copied it to here...

A tall order, Dr. Tesch!

I checked out their web site. I like their focus on content. It is important to focus on students and keep their needs always in sight. None the less, the center stage belongs not to you nor to your students but to the big ideas you want students to come to include in their lives.

As Parker Palmer says so eloquently, a teacher's job is to create a web of connections between everyone in the class, their lives and these big ideas of the discipline. If this is your focus you become neither narcissistic nor a counselor but instead a leader with direction who is still sensitive to those placed in your charge.

Another example of balance important for a science teacher is awareness of the balance between conceptual learning (explicit knowledge of concepts) and the daily practice (action/behaviors) of scientists. Novice scientists--our students--need a healthy dose of each.

And yet another balance or as Palmer would say (the last one was mine, I think) paradox, is the simultaneous awareness that we are a community, an organic unity whose whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and on the other hand we are individuals with unique strengths and needs. Focusing on creating a web of connections as mentioned above provides the real world context in which this paradox is honored.

I used to look at things from a constructivist view point, or I tried to, but taking the community nature of the classroom and the focus on connection and theory building in the forefront, I now look (try to look) at things from a knowledge building perspective which utilizes some constructivist thinking, however.

This is where the classroom is seen as a community of scientists whose goal, like that of an actual community of scientists, is to build knowledge objects. These are abstract things and they are built in the world of the students (they've already been built in the world of the professional scientists!). Of course, the wikipedia can be helpful with this.

I am concerned with BASIS schools not seeming to acknowledge the deep and broad knowledge required of teachers to teach well. (Though perhaps they were simply not respecting how teaching colleges teach teachers.)

An important though trivial example of simple, semi-generic knowledge required by a master teacher is the knowledge of classroom setup. What are physical arrangements of classroom furniture relative to the rest of the physical layout of the classroom (door, windows, overhead screen, fire extinguisher, telephone, shelves, cabinets, built-in tabletops, sinks, computers, etc and the different consequences this all has on traffic flow, focus of attention, efficiency of instruction, student to student interaction, whole and small group interactions and student/teacher comfort.

Teachers need pedagogical knowledge that exists only in their specific area of content. For example, you need the knowledge of which analogies are most useful in helping students to understand the big ideas like evolution, and the inadequacies and misdirections of each. (BTW, don't forget that you need to teach many students to think by analogy, I use a chart and compare an airplane (an example of an unknown from 100 or so years ago) with a bird (the known at the time).

Anyway, the above is not meant to scare you about what a teacher needs to know--it comes with years of study and practice--but a warning to those who believe that all a person needs is deep content knowledge and a passion to help students learn! And yes, I too was ignorant in that way when I started 21 years ago!

Finally, feed your furnace. Don't pull all nighters like I'm doing to complete my statistics homework! Exercise is better than coffee, and sleep even better! Have fun with the students but it is collegial relationships with other teachers that will sustain you through the hard times.

OK, now you got me rambling! I finished my statistics work and it's time to get some sleep, soon. Take care and you will do great. And, patience, it takes time to develop your magic...

David

Human Organ Systems Web Pages--The Project

2010-01-24T11:36:00.002-06:00

We recently finished our first 'Web Page" project. It was a useful project to capitalize on student interests, learn useful interpersonal and computer and research skills along with the biology content knowledge. It is of course not a 'silver bullet' to learning human organ systems and had it's ups and downs.
Important features of this project include:

Students worked (ideally) in groups of 3 or 4--that is, 'table groups'. For various reasons there was a 'group' of one and a couple with two students.
We all had studied the respiratory system together, thus, I was able to use this system to:

create a Sample Web Page to serve as a model for the project.
I also created a page in the same plone folder called, "Web Page Description" which described the information that needed to be included in each part.

The web page was on the human organ system of their choice.
The page was divided by 7 headers into sections, each requiring certain info. The headers used some color as a background providing color and structure to the page.
Upon choosing their system, each team got 7 sheets of 'scrap' paper, and at the top of each wrote the PxTy (Period x, Table y) identifying info and then wrote the name of each of the 7 headers from the web page. All group members then spent 2 days looking for information to put on those pages.

As information sources (besides the teacher and each other) they had 2 computers per table, and Biology text books, either in Spanish and also in English.
I provided the class with a page full of links, divided up into sections based on the particular organ system. I encouraged students to start with the links which involved more visual, engaging web pages. I needed to better label these links, though.
For the students with lower reading skills, I taught them to find an, 'introductory' text, read a paragraph, then re-read it and work to decide on which page that information could go, write it down in their own words (needed to emphasize this more!), read the next paragraph and repeat...
I needed to emphasize the page for collecting 'vocabulary words' for the concept map, more than I did to provide the concept mapper with the words needed. Maybe adding on a definition and page number/web address would have been great, too, yeah.

After the 2 days when all had researched and recorded info, the team divided itself into the following roles:

One student was the web-master
One student was the Concept Mapper
One or 2 students, as available, were the 'book researchers'.

Students spent the next 5 days doing their job, the web master creating the web page, the concept mapper creating the concept map which was then to be dragged into the web page by the web master; the book researcher continued to find info as needed to further fill out the 7 sheets, and help the other two team mates to do their job. At the end of each day, the team would collect the papers and I would stack the paper so they were easy to store and hand out the next day.
The web masters had several helper pages (flow map-ish looking page of stages and steps) showing them how to create, edit, share and tag their page. I had made a folder on our plone site: Home/Teams/Px/Table Projects/Organ System Web Pages/Tx. In other words each table had it's own folder in which to put their stuff.
The concept mappers had a helper page to get them started. They pretty much knew their job.
The book researcher had access to the text book, either in English or Spanish. Of course it would have been nice to also have it in Oromo and Somali as well :) The text book had a section on each organ system.
At the start of class I would often have a mini-meeting of all the web masters, for example, showing them some resource or some skill. I would do this with each group of people who shared a particular role. This worked quite well.
I spent much of the rest of the time helping people do their job, understand some concept, helping students resolve interpersonal issues, redirecting students, helping solve technological issues and always cracking jokes and encouraging!
Effort was assessed by:

individual and team rating of each person on the team. I should have made an '8th sheet' where a table containing individual and team ratings of individual effort was recorded daily.
I assessed individual effort by looking at the product each student created: Web page, concept map and team set of notes. The weakest assessment was of the book researcher role. I checked their contributions on the 7 note pages--I pretty easily recognize handwriting at this point of the year, but they also had a key role in helping the concept mapper and web master. Maybe I should have their individual effort grade been more based on the above-mentioned (13-1) daily evaluations?
A measurement of team success was represented by their grade on the web page. I graded each team's web page on meeting required criteria of complete and clear information provided in students' own words,

Overall, how did it work?

Kids thought this was a cool project, it was motivating and students pretty much had the system of their choice and that was important.
There was ample space for formative assessment each day. This informed my 'mini work-group' meetings at the start of the following days (and classes later on in the day!).
A technological issue cropped up in the middle where some student accounts became corrupted during their work (never found out why) and so they were able to work but if they had to use the menu to save their work they were hosed. It took me a few days to recognize this growing problem in the end there were about 10 affected students. I had a work around with some temporary student accounts. Thanks to the help of alkisg at #edubuntu I was able to solve it (after 4-6 hours of my time) by re-initiating all students gconf by putting a script in students xdg/autostart (I think it was) folder. Also, some web masters didn't get that to save the page they had to scroll to the bottom and click on the save button, not go to the file menu and select 'save' or 'save as'.
I needed to emphasize task completion. People and teams got really spread out and this was confusing and seemed to exacerbate this problem. A technique I figured out years ago for doing big team/class project (but seem to have forgotten in all the school-closing in which I've had the bad luck of being involved) addresses this problem. The idea is, work for 2 or 3 days in the week, maybe Wed. Thurs. Fri. on the project. Then, students need to do the work to catch up if they 'fell behind' over the weekend or if they didn't then they are required to stay after school on Mon and/or on Tues. to catch up to where they are supposed to be. This way (ideally) all students start together at the same place again on Wed. On Monday and Tuesday, students learn content/skills that further capacitates and motivates them to continue on with their project. This isn't a silver bullet either, but it helps and this accountability causes more serious effort on Wed-Fri!
I would have liked to have included a summative assessment on content specific to each Organ System studied by the team. This would require a lot of set up time but once all of the assessments were constructed, it would be great.
Overall, I feel like this project had a lot of room for improvement and am looking forward to teaching it next year. Also, I will build off the successes and lessons learned on this experience for our next project!

Role of teachers in the Edubuntu Community, and more...

2010-01-18T12:57:00.002-06:00

I'm not sure who I'm quoting from the Edubuntu list, but in some heated discussion, someone said, "Edubuntu is not software, it's a Community!". That stuck with me. Sure, it is also software and it has been the focus of the community, but still the best thing about Edubuntu is the community. Programmers, advocates in education, and advocates outside of education are key groups that make up this community. And, what a nice community: a community of volunteers and intellects and people who choose to work with children! All groups play separate and also extensively interwoven roles; each group is critical for the success of the whole.

Disclaimer: This post is not meant to be complete! It doesn't focus on the critical roles of the students, of the supporters of the technology environment, of the evangelists, of the family-based users of Edubuntu, of the philanthropic supporters of open source software nor of the district-level technology leadership. Nonetheless, it addresses a part of the puzzle.

First and foremost, there are programmers who may also be part of an educational enterprise. Some programmers get paid to develop but most don't; all seem to be volunteers to some degree as all develop the software beyond their work day. These programmers create the software and the documentation and often the wiki 'help pages'. Also, they are a backbone of support via the user list serve and irc for those who are the implementers of the software in the classroom. They are often the visionaries who know the software-context (ie the larger code environment and established social network) and lead the way to the future products. In conclusion, programmers are the producers of products, the producers of knowledge, the providers of help.

Teachers and other implementers of the software are the 'front-line' members of the community. They are often employed in this role though some are not. They all seem to be volunteers in the sense that successfully using Edubuntu requires work beyond their regular work day. These people provider meaning for the community--they are the ones who create the environment where students actually use the fruit of the labor of the programmers. In the communication channels of the community, the list-serves and the irc, these people (especially those most-novice users of the software) are mainly present when seeking help with software and hardware problems. Occasionally, these implementers of the software (I'll call them 'teachers' though it is broader than that group) give ideas for greater functionality and identify bugs in the software, providing a service to the programmers, however they usually represent themselves as consumers of the products provided by the programmers.

I'm seeing 2 issues and some possible solutions.

The first issue is that teachers are mainly present in the community as consumers of resources in the current communication channels of the community. in other words, it is rare that programmers 'see' the hundreds, the thousands of students in the classes who benefit from what they have made! In other words, programmers miss out on seeing the great things that their labors make possible.
Additionally, the professional knowledge of teachers is not shared, not developed in our community. How often do you see in the irc or list-serves questions about how to focus students attention on learning the main functionality of tuxtype, for example?

I'm NOT proposing that these questions enter into our current communication channels! What we have currently seem especially well suited for exactly what they are doing at this time. I'm proposing that teachers use 3 new channels of communication:

a new irc eg "#edubuntu-in-action",
a list-serve for teaching in Edubuntu-empowered classrooms where teaching challenges can be addressed,
and an already existent community resource where lesson ideas can be created, co-developed, and reused ie http://LeMill.net.

It is obvious how these additional channels would benefit the implementers of Edubuntu software, the 'teachers'. And, by improving the use of Edubuntu in the classroom it would indirectly benefit the community as a whole but it could also provide direct utility to the programmers by providing a window into the often invisible and private environment where the fruits of their labors are actually realized, where the resultant joys and needs can be more directly seen.

I'm also proposing a new 'member' that is, a new group of members in our community. I think our community would be more powerful, exciting and diverse if we also had educational researchers here, providing their interests and resources. The Finnish educational research team that created the LeMill software which powers the site mentioned above and other awesome open source software also produced this quote: "In educational research, software is the hypothesis". In other words, software plays a critical role in their work. We could use their (any interested ed researcher) ideas and knowledge and possible financial resources, they could use our ideas, knowledge and implementation of their ideas. And again, together we would be stronger.

I recently saw a comment on #edubuntu: "I love publicly funded [software] development!" I've also seen it said on the list-serves that, when major leadership of the Edubuntu community was provided by a financially-based enterprise (Canonical), the leadership and participation by volunteers atrophied. So, I've really got no idea how public software development monies could be positively infused into our community but at least the possibility is there. As a teacher who is not more than 2 years away from also becoming an educational researcher, I see much possible synergy between researchers and the current Edubuntu community.

What do you think? Should we expand our community with additional channels of communication specifically designed for 'teachers'? Should we seek to invite educational researchers into our community? Any proposal such as this is fraught with the dangers and benefits of change. What are the risks and what are the benefits as you see them?

GCoS Classroom using FLE4: reproduce or transform?

2010-01-17T23:21:00.005-06:00

How do the unique opportunities provided in a Growing Community of Scientists classroom affect relationships? For example, with seamless computer access (old, new) students can use specialized knowledge building software such as FLE4.

In using FLE4, for example, in what ways are traditional relationships simply reproduced (supported/kept-the-same) and in what ways are traditional relationships transformed (changed/destabilized)? Let's try a table, albeit a skinny one, on my blog :) In this post, I'll be examining the relationships between 'askers' and 'answerers' of questions. Further posts will examine other classroom relationships.

Relationship	In what ways Reproduced	In what ways Transformed
Teacher asks, student answers...	Teacher still creates questions that are directed towards students. Students are expected to attempt to answer this question. Teacher generally knows an answer to this question and the students are expected to stretch to answer it. In these situations, the teacher is the expert, the knowledge authority. The student is the seeker, the novice. The teacher has power, the student less.	Primarily, the big questions a teacher asks with software such as FLE4 will be to initiate a knowledge-building conversation. It's goal is to provide a focus question, an essential that provides a direction and thus some bounds to it. Assuming that the teacher has laid proper groundwork and carefully and sensitively created the question, it is intrinsically motivating to students. Also, the authority a content expert has in a community whose mission is to explore and grow in that topic is more natural. An open-ended question promotes exploration. This software allows other students to ask the smaller questions...
Student asks and teacher answers.	Students still ask questions of the teacher. Students don't know the answer to the question, teacher usually does.	In a FLE4 discussion, when a student asks a teacher a question, they aren't JUST asking for their own satisfaction or curiosity, they are on an information-seeking mission for their community. Thus students now not only ask questions of which they don't know the answer, they also become answerers of questions that the asker (a peer) does NOT know the answer. Also quite important here is that the student's role is as an interpreter of what the authority (teacher) says.
Student asks and student answers.	In classes where students work in pairs or small groups this peer to peer interaction happens. Using FLE4, this small group interaction still happens as student groups choose or are assigned to specialize on specific peer-generated questions.	Since GCoS is able to use software that allows students to discuss topics with each other, to create new knowledge within themselves and their community, this peer to peer interaction is common, not only in smaller groups, but as a whole, diverse, full class sized group. This is a significant change--would you rather answer a question to which the person asking it already knows the answer such as a teacher asking a traditional, 'confirmation' or 'narrow' question, or seek to answer a question to which the asker doesn't yet know but truly wants to know? Instead of a lackey (this is perhaps a bit degrading if you are an adolescent?) you are a producer of knowledge, a helpful person.
Active, 'asker-answerer pairs' and Passive 'listeners'	This is required in a traditional classroom you can't have everyone 'talking at once' (though expert teachers allow it when appropriate but really these are many 'side conversations' happening at one time, but students can't really access any conversation throughout the classroom that they want). In a FLE4-using GCoS classroom, this mandatory, "few people active and everyone else passive" does not happen except for the unmotivated or unable to read students--two situations that still require attention.	This is a key advantage to a FLE4-using, GCoS environment. Students can browse others' questions and answers and build on them to the degree that they are motivated. They don't have to 'wait their turn' which often translates to disengaging with the conversation, especially for 'visual learners' and 'kinesthetic learners'. FLE4 allows for "parallel processing" in community knowledge building. It allows ALL students to be active at all times, and not only with their small group, but also with the whole class. This affordance of a GCoS classroom is quite unique and highly motivating to students.
Student 'asks' and Authoritative- information- sources 'answer'	Students still use books to find information.	Often, students use the books in a more active, 'mission-fulfilling' manner. They are looking for the answer to a specific question that they feel a responsibility to their knowledge-building community, to answer. Students have many more sources at their command, not just 'the textbook'. They have access to fairly authoritative knowledge such as at wikipedia, they have computer simulations such as at the phet website. In the event that the teacher has set up relationships with experts outside of the classroom via e-mail, blogging, twitter, wikis, skype, irc's etc., 'Authoritative information sources' are further expanded.

Now trying scribefire AKA Learning to work with indented lists and html

2010-01-17T15:15:00.001-06:00

My Deepest Sender blog editor test just went flat--didn't work with blogger--that was a waste of my time :(

Now trying scribefire. First impressions:

I like the look of the editor and has nice wysiwyg editor BUT

I need to be able to do multiple levels of indent and a table would be great too. Wait...

What's that bar at top left... better save before I try it...
OK that didn't give more editing options.
Do I have to learn that piece of html? alas...

Add this level

Remove this level

What level is this at? OK, none

Is this level indented?

I didn't end the above with an end tag to the ul.

back to beginning?

start of ul--just indent, no markers

ended the above indent w ul endtag
Start

first line

second line

third line

Normal?

Still Normal?

first line
second line
third line, same indent

forth line, increase indent

fifth line, decrease indent

sixth line, no indent.
OK

now.

Good.

Also, Much more efficient way to work with/edit posts.
Good, clear, detailed, broad info from: http://www.tedmontgomery.com/tutorial/lists.html

More Shoutouts to come...

2009-11-22T15:36:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Jack U, Fred O, and Brian D-G. Nor do I want to forget to mention alkisg and sbalneav as well! More details to come!

Trevor Advanced GCoS this Summer

2009-11-22T15:34:00.000-06:00

Well, I've been quite lame at publishing posts to this project blog since July and am going about looking at some of the old ones polishing them a bit, then publishing them. One thing I want to do for a LONG time is recognize the efforts of Trevor Blanton throughout this summer, from the start of the summer when we first met in Professor Paul's office to the end of the summer when most everything was set up on the server.

Trevor biked over to my house a couple times every week, working for a couple to several hours each time, attacking and solving 1 challenge after another. I learned many things about the command line interface this summer from him, as well as learning more about Ubuntu and LTSP in general. Equally important to the intellectual aid was the morale support his determination provided. Neither I nor GCoS would be at this point if it weren't for his support. Thanks!

His setup got a bit friendlier as the summer progressed--at least better for his back!

Starting and Stopping the CmapServer

2009-11-04T07:08:00.058-06:00

One can stop CmapServer using AdminTool. To get AdminTool just download the CmapServer software from the IHMC site. The only thing you need from the folder is the AdminTool application.

Rodrigo from IHMC fame told me how to start the CmapServer and stop it from the command line interface. First ssh into the server running the CmapServer. Get to the right location and run the command mentioned shortly. To get to the right place I need to 'sudo su' since I installed as root. Here are the commands:

sudo su
cd /root/IHMC_CmapServer
nohup ./bin/CmapServer &
(then it replies:)
root@xyz:~/IHMC_CmapServer# nohup: ignoring input and appending output to `nohup.out'
(and inserts a blank line and it is then that I press the enter key again and I'm back to the prompt!)

And to stop it you need to first find out the CmapServer process ID, as a regular user:

ps -Af | grep -i CmapServer
(it won't be obvious which number is the PID. The first word of output will be 'root'. right after that is the PID#. Also, there will be a line for the actual 'grep' process--ignore that line.)

Then to stop it using the just-discovered process id:

sudo kill -9 PID (where you type in the process id # in place of 'PID')
(for example, 'sudo kill -9 1286)

To make configuration adjustments you need to first become root (because the directory containing all of these files in inside the 'root' directory), then open the file with an editor such as nano:

sudo su
nano /root/IHMC_CmapServer/bin/serverconfig.txt

To reinstall update cmapserver go to correct VZ: ssh -2 -c blowfish -X user@ipaddress, and:
   1. Make sure that echo $DISPLAY returns localhost:10.0 If it doesn't try running...
   2. set DISPLAY=:10.0; export DISPLAY (not sure if sudo or sudo su is needed)
   3. Then stop CmapServer
   4. Then run, sudo /root/IHMC_CmapServer/bin/update
   5. Then it should nicely do the x-term thing and walk you through it!

Hiding the 'user' and 'news' and 'events' folders in plone

2009-11-01T21:59:00.001-06:00

This was such a cool thing I've needed to do for a while on my Plone sites. Thanks to sfulmer for this info!

sfulmer: Member; From: New Mexico, USA; Registered: 2006-12-07; Posts: 27; Website

To hide tabs:

From the Plone Control Panel, go the the Zope Management Interface.
Click portal_properties, then navtree_properties
In the field 'IdsNotToList', enter the ids of the folders for which you do not want to generate tabs (one item per line). The ids of the folders I removed are: Events, Users and News are: events, Members and news, respectively.
Click 'save changes'

sfulmer also adds you can:
turn off automatic tab generation altogether and define tabs in portal_actions in the ZMI. To set a default page for a folder, use the 'display' content menu, click 'change content item as default view'

Process of setting up server--from start

2009-09-22T11:59:00.000-05:00

In case this is useful at some future point...

Boot from Alternate CD, at install screen, select F4, then from menu selected install LTSP server, Chose eth1 as the 100 MB NIC. Chose UTC time/Central, chose 'guided, use entire disk' for partitioning. Went through steps and restarted.
Booted into the new system, update manager, installed and rebooted.
Tested thin client boot and worked.
Added extra sources: https://edge.launchpad.net/~sbalneav/+archive/ppa
Added more sources: https://launchpad.net/~stgraber/+archive/ppa
Added more sources: https://launchpad.net/~edubuntu-italc-devel/+archive/ppa This last one I didn't yet install (kept boxes in sources 'unchecked'.
I did update with the "system/update manager" and there were install issues with the "ltsp-server-standalone" it didn't want to update well. Through irc stgraber said: try through the command line interface: sudo apt-get dist-upgrade. and things went perfectly. Really, I think the problem was the ldm.
I used Synaptic to install sun-java6-jre I think it was called, and then sun-java6-plugin. Looks like I didn't need to install this for CmapTools as CmapTools installs its own runtime environment. However, this was helpful for Flash. Next time go to Ubuntu/LTSP pages at help.ubuntu.com.
...

Install CmapTools in chroot for LocalApp

2009-07-29T23:20:00.015-05:00

This is a big accomplishment. Thanks to Ahmuck, ace_suares, mhall119|work and ogra, not to mention Tom Marble and 1 blog on the internet that I already lost track of. Here are the directions to install CmapTools on a chroot so that it works as a local app.

(First, move the .bin file to chroot root: /opt/ltsp/i386/ then make a directory there at /opt/ltsp/i386/IHMC_CmapTools. My permissions for that directory are 777)

Make X session work, type in terminal:

xhost +
sudo su
export DISPLAY=:0

Then to make it work for root, too.

This needs to be installed where the root that will be running the shell script is located--the root in the chroot. Use this, still as root)
cp /home/dgroos/.Xauthority /opt/ltsp/i386/root
cp /home/dgroos/.Xauthority ~/
exit (gets you out of the root account--this is important!)

Now you have to do some stuff to be able to install it in chroot--this is dangerous magic...

sudo mount -t proc proc /opt/ltsp/i386/proc
sudo mount --bind /tmp /opt/ltsp/i386/tmp
sudo mount --bind /dev /opt/ltsp/i386/dev
sudo mount --bind /home /opt/ltsp/i386/home
sudo cp /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/passwd /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/passwd.bak
sudo cp /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/group /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/group.bak
sudo cp /etc/passwd /etc/group /opt/ltsp/i386/etc
sudo chroot /opt/ltsp/i386/ su $SUDO_USER

and now you will be able to X-session in the chroot to hearts content. To install cmaptools I had already (before starting any command on this page) moved the cmaptools bin file into the chroot root folder (but can be done afterwards as well). So, I cd'ed into that folder and ran this command to initiate the install script: sh LinuxCmapTools_v5.03_04-07-09.bin. It launched the graphical user interface, I selected the "advanced" install and when it got to the page asking where to install it I typed in: /usr/lib/IHMC_CmapTools which remember is from the chroot's perspective. I also assigned the logs to go into /var/logs or something, but maybe that was wrong--I'll find out.

MAKE SURE YOU DO THIS WHEN YOU ARE DONE INSTALLING--DON'T FORGET.

exit (in other words, you've got to get out of being the root user)
sudo mv /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/passwd.bak /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/passwd
sudo mv /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/group.bak /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/group
sudo umount /opt/ltsp/i386/home
sudo umount /opt/ltsp/i386/dev
sudo umount /opt/ltsp/i386/tmp
sudo umount /opt/ltsp/i386/proc

Cool, Ay?

Finally, I added both CmapTools and /usr/lib/IHMC_CmapTools/bin/CmapTools in the lts.conf file with sudo gedit /var/lib/tftpboot/ltsp/i386/lts.conf. Finally, I rebuilt the image with sudo ltsp-update-image to get those changes I had done into the image that gets loaded into the thin client at boot time.

Next step is to get it to boot as a local app!
And typing this into terminal did it...

ltsp-localapps /usr/lib/IHMC_CmapTools/bin/CmapTools

or... put this in for the command in a launcher' properties:

xprop -root -f LTSP_COMMAND 8s -set LTSP_COMMAND "sh /usr/lib/IHMC_CmapTools/bin/CmapTools"

:)

Here were install options as shown in install log:
User Interactions
-----------------

#Installation Type
#-----------------
CHOSEN_FEATURE_LIST=Advance,Applica
CHOSEN_INSTALL_FEATURE_LIST=Advance,Applica
CHOSEN_INSTALL_SET=Advanced

#Choose Install Folder
#---------------------
USER_INSTALL_DIR=/usr/lib/IHMC_CmapTools

#Choose Link Folder
#------------------
USER_SHORTCUTS=Do_Not_Install

#Configuration
#-------------
AUTOMATIC=0
ONDEMAND=1
KEEP_USERIDS=1
DELETE_USERIDS=0
USER_PROFILE=
USER_MYCMAPS=
AUTO_RECORDER=1
NO_AUTO_RECORDER=0
STOP_RECORDER=1
NO_STOP_RECORDER=0
pki.enable=false
pki.enable_1=
pki.enable_2=No
pki.enable_BOOLEAN_1=0
pki.enable_BOOLEAN_2=1
LOGS=1
NO_LOGS=0
LOGS_PATH=%h/CmapToolsLogs
LOGS_PREFIX=CmapTools
LOGS_SIZE=5242880
LOGS_NO=3

Did get this error at very bottom of log (non-fatal):
Status: ERROR
Additional Notes: ERROR - java.lang.NullPointerException

Trevor at work

2009-07-22T14:50:00.000-05:00

The first job Trevor had this summer was to make the server you see here in my basement available over the internet so that people could work on it from afar. I had gotten a permanent ip address from Qwest for this purpose. Their tech people and web help pages were un-helpful and even discouraging--they said that I couldn't use the IP address for a web/ssh server. They were proven wrong by Trevor who did some port forwarding and now the server, which is on my home LAN, can be accessed via the internet. Trevor's giving a break to his back in this picture--ergonomics not quite what they ought to be :-)

Meeting with Professor Paul and Trevor

2009-07-12T21:41:00.002-05:00

As the summer wore on, so did the hours spent in front of the computer. Sure there was progress but extrapolating its trajectory wasn't encouraging. I knew I really needed Linux help... This is not to say that I hadn't been receiving tons of great help from the #edubuntu irc, edubuntu user and devel lists, nonetheless I needed something more.

I e-mail Paul Imbretson, a professor at the University of Minnesota to ask for ideas or support for the server setup, suggesting that perhaps he knew a U of M student who might be interested in a service learning project... I got Professor Imbretson's name from Haftom, someone I had met at a Teknie event. Long story shorter. I heard about their cool partnership with North HS Angela and her science class' partnership with a town in Nigeria where they are working on building relationships--and wind power. It ended with Trevor and I creating a quick google doc to organize and help coordinate our work. It has a grid of tasks to be done with related columns. It also has a log at the bottom to record efforts. This was hugely encouraging!

GCoS PD--Day 3

2009-07-11T17:04:00.011-05:00

We looked at Eddie's Standards web. It doesn't have the connecting phrased between the bubbles--just connecting lines--it isn't a concept map, instead it's a 'web'. In contrasting the colored bubbles with the blank background bubbles at the back, we discussed what words to use in these questions. We concluded that, by avoiding jargon (science vocabulary words) these maps of the standards can server as guides to students (and families) before studying a unit. In other words, a student can often get an idea of what they will be studying before having studied--not possible with the regularly worded standards. Here is how his web looked when he brought it in. I'll repost in a while when he has further-improved them.
Luckily, there is an instructional framework which one can use to grow a community of (novice) scientists: Progressive Inquiry. I introduced it with the help of this diagram which comes from this page, and overview of many of the ideas I've presented are on that page, with links to further pages. Lots of great work about knowledge building in science classroom comes from this research group.
I then introduced a software tool called FLE3 which scaffolds knowledge building in a classroom. This is a tool that has a fairly steep learning curve, so Eddie had the idea of making poster-sized printout of each of the pages students encounter, posting them in the classroom, making them ever-present and available for public reference as needed.
"To teach with a tool we need to be users of the tool." This statement is a general principle of GCoS classrooms. We are starting a FLE3 knowledge building discussion with the context (note we are using a question): What does a classroom community of novice, KB scientists act, look and sound like? We've posted some sub-questions (threads) such as: 1. What specific student behaviors are we looking for? (James); 2. What does KB mean? (Eddie); 3. What is the role of questions in a KB community? (me); 4. "Experimenting".
We learned about using FLE3. Numbers 6-8 below show some of the significant ideas we had...
... Start a Context (Unit of study?) with an essential-type question. It provides a rallying point around which one can assess if one is addressing the topic... or not.
... The very first time a class uses FLE3 the first thread ought to be one in which users can experiment with the FLE3 tool. Thus the thread mentioned above, "Experimenting". In this thread, users would not need to use any of their attention thinking about questions, answers, knowledge types, etc, but instead ask, 'what does this button do?', 'how do you get to this screen?', etc. Providing a space like this in the first (maybe second also?) context will decrease ineffective posts in the rest of the content-oriented threads.
... At the VERY first interaction students have with FLE3, I'd copy one from a previous year, add a generic student account and allow students to enter this copy of the FLE3 and explore it--seeing how it was used.

Our homework for the next meeting is to use the FLE3 from our home and build some knowledge about GCoS.

GCoS PD--Day 2

2009-07-11T09:24:00.003-05:00

We started by looking at Eddie's concept map of his 'values, mission and goals'. Our talk was split between the map and the use of the software, CmapTools. Considering that Eddie's been using CmapTools for over a year now and I've used it for better than 3, it's interesting to note that there's still much to refine in our practice.
When James arrived we continued the discussion of developing scientific habits of mind. (Here's a map of some. Please don't be dismayed with the security warnings your browser will give when trying to see this map--we have not yet purchased one of those, 'security certificates' which causes the browser to not give these security warnings.)
This was intertwined with our talk of Knowledge Building epistemology. I commented that a metaphor that comes to my mind when I think of knowledge building was a circle of people batting a beach ball around, each person adding their own spin to the 'knowledge object', seeking to improve it with each interaction. I said that this metaphor breaks down when you consider that the beach ball (ie the knowledge object) doesn't really change in important ways.
Then Eddie came up with the idea that you could do this activity in class but each person would add a sticky note with one of his/her values written on it! That was cool! We batted this idea around a bit more, each improving the idea. Here's the final state of this knowledge object (class activity): Each person gets a piece of masking tape, writes what he/she would like to propose as a shared value for our class, and as the beach ball bounces between all class members, slaps it on the ball, improving the object. After this, as a class we would analyze the entries (the second half of this post) on the ball and decide which ones we wanted for our community.
We practiced collaborative editing of concept maps. As we did this we discussed values and accomanying norms that follow from them while synchronously editing maps. James changed something on Eddies map of his values/mission/goals and we came up with the idea that one ought to be sensitive when changing another person's ideas! I shared ideas of the layout of bubbles on a concept map as I re-arranged the layout of Eddies map, though not changing what was written nor where the links were attached. Some of the principles of layout are: Group Clusters and have some white space around them, aim for palmate structure and not serial or 'chain' structure, avoid crossing lines...
Thinking about the tools we had to master as well as teach our students (ie novice scientists) to master, Eddie mentioned the need for a basic set of instructional flow maps, such as this one, that would tell how to use these tools. I need to identify this set of basic instructions...
Our homework was to create kid-friendly webs of the MN state science standards, converting each sub-standard into jargon-less questions such as this one on the nature of science that I made when I taught 8th grade.

GCoS PD--Day 1

2009-07-06T13:47:00.006-05:00

We're getting together for some professional development. I'm leading, we're all learning (creating knowledge in our community)

A major goal for this day was to initiate software tools-- joining and getting proper access to the GCoS site, this coming year's Class site, FLE3 and CmapTools on the CmapServer. This process was time consuming and a bit bumpy but also was successful.
A second major goal was to do the "epistemological discussion". Numbers 3-8 are the points covered in this discussion. I argued...
... That theories/models (such as Dalton's theory of the atom or constructivism) do NOT tell how the real thing works, just like the map isn't the territory.
... That as our theories/models/maps develop they don't become ever-more accurate descriptions of 'reality'. Not everyone agreed with this. I asserted that these theories/models become more successful at solving the problems we care about, using the tools and 'habits of mind' available to the community.
... That, for many (hundreds?) of years, at least in the western world, we've consider the mind like a container and knowledge as a thing to acquire: the "Mind as Metaphor" and "Acquisition Metaphor of learning". Both traditional "Transmitter-Receiver" and more modern "Constructivism" models of learning are within the Acquisition Metaphor of Learning.
... That in the last 20 some years another model of learning has been/is being developed that looks at learning differently. That it sees learning as 'authentic participation' in a community of practitioners such as plumbers or scientists. Knowledge in this view is not a thing, but an action w/in a community. This model has gained great favor these last years.
... That there has been a great argument between these 2 camps, the acquisition and participation groups. It has been somewhat resolved by accepting the, 'map isn't the territory' arguement. That, each metaphor or model of learning is useful to solve particular educational problem--of course neither handles all challengers.
... That more metaphors have been created that can be grouped together and called a, 'Knowledge Creation" metaphor. This theory of learning subsumes the acquisition and participation models. The version of this metaphor that I'm using as my main framework for Growing Communities of Scientists is the "Knowledge Building" model. Note, this Wikipedia article is becoming less useful and more ideological over time but it is an introduction.
Finally, we ending on talking about developing community values. We briefly looked at the AAAS site which shows Benchmarks--we looked at chapter 12, "Habits of Mind". Our homework was to make a concept map on the shared server of our values, goals and mission and then too read chapter 12, at the high school level, and start to consider a concept map showing shared values, attitudes and beliefs of the scientist community.

All in all, we got a lot done, did tons of talking/sense-making in the 3+ hours we were together. Yes, I was more than satisfied :)

Setting up a GCoS Edubuntu thin client server

2009-07-04T12:58:00.011-05:00

The GCoS Edubuntu Server needs a variety of capabilities. The following lists them . If you see ** at the start of the line, it shows that capability set up.

**Run Edubuntu on Jaunty Jackalope (9.0.4).
**Use the built-in thin client server--LTSP 5.
Use Gnome Watchdog to auto kill stale processes.
Use the LocalApps solution for the following programs: Firefox 3.5, CmapTools, JRE, JVM, OpenOffice Suite.
Use Webmin for management of server. It is necessary to install and change port number from 10000 to something like... PSM, before installing and configuring iTALC which also wants to use this port.
An effective replacement for the standard, "Users and Groups" system application.
Remote Desktop solution using NoMachine's NX Free Edition For Linux --DEB
Management of thin client machines with iTALC.
Management of users desktop environments with Sabayon (currently in Jaunty Beta)
Easy to use software to view user's Firefox 'histories'. The presence of an effective accountability system proactively discourages abuses.
Setup printers on local LAN.

The district has agreed to install or to consider to install the following capabilities:

Squid Proxy
SquidGuard to manage user internet capabilities. level1, level2, level3
LDAP integration with district AD.

Firefox details:

Java apps such as at the phet site, need to work well.
Flash content needs to work well.
Quicktime content needs to work well.
Firefox management program would be great--control things like not allowing students to erase history, change proxy settings, etc. It would be awesome to tie in this management system with the level1, level2, level3 permission management system.

Additional Resources

Edubuntu users mailing list archives
Edubuntu developers mailing list archives
Re-building the chroot
Curent LTSP on line admin reference guide
Ubuntu documentation on LTSP --lots of links to other pages, mainly.
LocalApps on Jaunty LTSP--this is a key doc. Refers to related page
LTSP user forums in sourceforge
iTALC site
iTALC on LTSP--pending
Sabayon
Gnome Watchdog

Hardware Description

Servers: 2, dual-core Xeon processors, 2.8 GHz, 3 GB RAM, RAID5, running Ubuntu Jaunty Server edition w/LTSP enabled.
Clients: 2 kinds: Pentium III 933 MHz, at least 384-512 MB RAM, 100 MB NIC/ Pentium IV, 2.4 MHz, 512 MB RAM, 100 NIC.

New server, new iTALC, new webmin... No! I mean...

2009-06-29T11:47:00.006-05:00

..."New server, new webmin (change port to something like 10010), then new iTALC". Learned my lesson, didn't I :-). I followed the instructions from the Ubuntu wiki on installing iTALC on LTSP, seems to work for jaunty as well as hardy. Also, didn't add root to any groups! Both iTALC and webmin seem to be working well.

::::Update--iTALC not working :(
YET.

Ways to think about homework

2009-06-27T14:25:00.005-05:00

I just finished reading Rick DuFour interesting post on thinking about homework. He commented on the ironic situation where someone learned all that was expected of him-her but then failed the class because of a refusal to do homework. He recommends that one decide the purpose of providing homework and go from there. The following is copied from his post though I recommend reading the whole thing:

Therefore, I submit the following propositions:

Homework should be given only when the instructor feels it is essential to student learning. If, for example, the teacher believes that by practicing a skill and receiving prompt and specific feedback students will learn at higher levels, homework is very appropriate and should be assigned.
The teacher then has an obligation to monitor the homework carefully and provide individual students with precise feedback based on their specific needs.
If the work is deemed essential to a student’s learning, that student should not have the option of taking a zero but instead should be required to complete the work. This necessitates a coordinated, schoolwide approach to responding when students do not complete their work because there are limits as to what an individual teacher can require. The schoolwide response should be timely, directive (non-invitational), systematic (not left to the discretion of individual teachers), and should never require the student to be removed from new direct instruction. (For examples of such a systematic approach, see Whatever It Takes: How Professional Learning Communities Respond When Kids Don’t Learn by DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, and Karhanek and/or Pyramid Response to Intervention: RTI, Professional Learning Communities, and How to Respond When Kids Don’t Learn by Buffum, Mattos, and Weber.)

How might I implement these ideas in my practice...? We'll I like the idea in his second scenario:

...that students will not be required to continue practicing each day when they have demonstrated they are mastering the content. There will be daily homework for all students for the first two weeks of school, at which time a unit test will be given. Students who earn an A or B on the test will not be required to complete daily homework during the next unit. For them, homework will be optional. All other students will be required to continue doing their daily practice.

The idea of the "Martial-Arts Metaphor"--which I'll develop soon--could work smoothly with this idea. Perhaps I would provide a pre-test of the skill, also, so students could opt out of the after-school practice if they had previously mastered the content in some other context. However, this undermines the coercive effects mentioned by DuFour: a student is motivated to do well on a unit/summative test so as to avoid required HW for the next unit.

Hmmm... thinking this through. Let's say someone doesn't pass the summative/formative 'test' of measuring mass, for example. Well, we are moving on to the next skill of making concept maps. Well, assuming that no one passes the concept mapping pretest everyone will have that HW to do. However, what intervention then does one use for the students who didn't master measuring mass? Additional HW? After-School-Required-Study? One can feel the workload creaking...

I agree with DuFour's perspective on being explicit on one's goals for HW, requiring it/or not (and not permitting "0's") and making it a useful learning tool by providing students with providing students with individually-useful feedback. Nonetheless, providing useful feedback on students' HW adds up to a LOT of time outside of class. I know this as I've attempted it sometimes. Adapting/creating good curriculum not to mention preparing materials for this instruction already is taking a lot of out-of-class time.

In addition to calling families, communicating/coordinating teammates, and all the administrative requirements to teaching, this HW concept is sounding questionable in the practicality dept.

Back to CmapServer issue--not found on 'list of Places'

2009-06-25T17:56:00.006-05:00

For some reason our CmapServer doesn't show up on West Florida University Directory of Places. It should. I've been working on this issue for a couple of months, back-burner style, and have gotten a few replies. I'm in the middle of trouble shooting it with Doug Roberts and Rodrigo Carvajal's help. Here are a couple of cool commands I learned to check out the status of network ports:

netstat -nat (This will list active internet connections, servers and established.
netstat -at |grep LISTEN ( This lists the ____ that have the state "LISTEN".
nmap -sT -O localhost (This determines which ports are listening for TCP connections from the network

The saga will continue...

NX Client and me

2009-06-24T21:03:00.007-05:00

NoMachine's remote access software is great, the best, to my experience. I can sit at any computer with NXclient and open a window from a remote computer that's running NXserver, and the experience is about as good as if I were actually sitting in front of that remote computer. This is is important for me so as I can access my server (soon to be servers) from at home or behind locked doors. Of course, I know there are people who prefer the (potentially) powerful, linear, command-line interface to the 2/3 dimension access provided by a Graphical User Interface. That's fine, I like my GUI.

As I mentioned in my last post, my NXclient access broke in working on the firefox localapp: advance on one front, retreat on another...

So, I spent 5+ hours today trying to regain access. I won't go into gory details but finally when I removed a hidden file from my file system

sudo rm -r Users/admin/.nx

as well as the 2, non-hidden main directories:

sudo rm -rf /usr/NX
sudo rm -rf /Applications/NX*.app

and reinstalled, I was able to gain access again. The, 'creating another system user' fix did not work nor did the re-doing and copying the access key.

[Also--I got all hidden files (the ones with . at the start of the file name like, .letter.txt), to show up on my file system by these 2 commands:]

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder

And make them hide again by setting the TRUE back to FALSE.

Localapps on Jaunty -- if it doesn't work...

2009-06-24T09:45:00.016-05:00

One of the main reasons I upgraded to Jaunty from the LTS Hardy was that localapps--running applications of your choice on the 'thin client'--is almost built into this version. However, like most things that are trivial to someone who really knows Linux, it can be an ordeal for one who doesn't. Thanks to pmatulis who first started answering my questions and then a huge thanks to alkisg who worked with me for over 3 hours to successfully get firefox running as a localapp!

I'm going to recreate the directions alkisg provided which supplement the fine directions at https://wiki.edubuntu.org/LTSPLocalAppsJaunty. In other words, do the instructions on that page first and if it doesn't work, then use these additional instructions, here. These directions are a 20-20 hindsight version, of course, not exactly as they happened.

I followed the directions at this above address, booted my client, opened firefox and wondered, how do I know if firefox is running in localapp mode? I now know that when firefox is working as a localapp it will say "Mozilla Firefox (on ltsp20)" or something similar, on the title bar of the window. However, one can also 'log into the client' (open console mode) and check there. If you have intrepid or jaunty you can do this:

open terminal on the thin client, type 'ltsp-localapps xterm' which gives a local xterm.
type, 'ps ax | grep fire' and check the output--a list of 'processes' that are currently running on the local client that have the text string, 'fire' in them. It will always show the, 'grep fire' process or whatever you 'grepped'. In my case, it showed that firefox was not running locally. What to do?

To try to open firefox as a localapp alkisg said to go back to the regular terminal window in GNOME and type:

ltsp-localapps firefox

I did and it opened up firefox as a localapp! However, the goal is to be able to just open firefox from the GNOME menu to launch it as a localapp. Since it didn't do that there must have been a problem in the lts.conf file I had earlier made. alkisg found the error--the top line of the /var/lib/tftpboot/ltsp/i386_w_localapps/lts.conf file needs to be exactly like this:

[Default]

Upon adding this, saving and rebooting the client, firefox booted from the menu!!! I've added this info to the ubuntu wiki page mentioned above.

The next step was getting firefox to be able to access the internet. Now that firefox was being run on client instead of on the server I had to set up NAT on the server to act as the 'middle man' between the client and the internet. (How does Squid/SquidGuard fit in here?) Now, alkisg had written a script that sounded pretty robust which would do all this stuff. However, since it has parts in Greek and well, Greek is unfortunately greek to me I couldn't avail myself of this help. I typed in the following commands at the terminal prompt on the server as root. (note this interrupts network access but is re-established. It did break my NX access :( and haven't been able to get it to work since)

invoke-rc.d dhcp3-server stop
invoke-rc.d NetworkManager stop
invoke-rc.d networking stop
sed -i -e 's/192\.168\.0\.254/192.168.0.1/g' /etc/network/interfaces
invoke-rc.d networking start
invoke-rc.d NetworkManager start
invoke-rc.d dhcp3-server start

(for further info on the 'sed' lines if you want, check out this page in the section: iptables Masquerading)
then I ran:

sed -i -e "s/^# By default this script does nothing\./# By default this script does nothing\.\n\niptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -j MASQUERADE/" /etc/rc.local
sed -i -e 's/^[[:space:]]*##*[[:space:]]*net.ipv4.ip_forward[[:space:]]*=[[:space:]]*1/net.ipv4.ip_forward=1/' /etc/sysctl.conf
sysctl -p
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -j MASQUERADE
ltsp-update-sshkeys
ltsp-update-image -a i386_w_localapps

--actually, I typed this last command as: ltsp-update-image which updated the original chroot, not the copy I had made per the instructions on: https://wiki.edubuntu.org/LTSPLocalAppsJaunty and that resulted in issues--I still couldn't log into my client after restart. to help troubleshoot the problem I added the following 2 lines right under the line that said [Default] in the above-mentioned lts.conf file:
SCREEN_02=shell
SCREEN_07=ldm
This allows me to open the console on the thin client by pressing Alt+Ctrl+F2 and back to normal screen by pressing Alt+Ctrl+F7.

After doing the "ltsp-update-image -a i386_w_localapps" command mentioned above, everything would have worked. I *would* have been able to get to the internet on firefox at this point but, upon opening the app, firefox automatically opened a saved tabs with Flash video content. Since the localapp doesn't have much in the way of plugins, firefox crashed. When I quickly closed all open tabs and went to Google.com it worked!!!

Which version of java for jaunty?

2009-06-20T18:38:00.006-05:00

I asked myself this multiple times in the last few days--some are saying that the java-6-sun version is better than java-6-openjdk. What does better mean? I just got a hold of the guy who got me started with Ubuntu and open source and planted the seeds for thin clients--Tom Marble. He worked for many years at Sun and was passionatly involved in the open-sourcing of java. He said that the java-6-sun version, as long as you have all of it's dependencies, is probably more stable. This was in response to, 'which is better'. He then led me through the terminal steps to set this up:

in terminal:

"sudo su" to become the root user.
"update-java-alternatives --list" to find out what java you have installed. I had both java-6-openjdk and java-6-sun.
"update-java-alternatives --set java-6-sun" upon which tons of lines started rolling by like, 'No alternatives for appletviewer', etc. He reassured me this was fine.
And then it ended. Then I typed, "java -version" and it said: "java version "1.6.0_13"" and that was great since in all my efforts to update java I'd never gotten it to say that advanced of a version (it always reported, '1.6.0_0').

I haven't checked much, but going to a couple of java test sites ( e.g. http://javatester.org/index.htm) and things are looking peachy. Next to the really challenging tests: CmapTools, a java based program that has brought my server to its knees with just 2 thin clients opening it over a 30 second period, and the java applets which are excellent science learning resources such as the dozens at this tremendous site: http://phet.colorado.edu/index.php.

I'll comment back when I've done more tests...

Scientific habits of mind

2009-06-17T18:39:00.006-05:00

AAAS--the American Association for the Advancement of Science has been an inspirational organization to me, or at least their publications have been. I'll share a secret--I'm not a scientist (one who creates knowledge within a community of scientists)--I'm a teacher of science.

AAAS in their 2 watershed publications, "Science for All Americans" and "Benchmarks" provided me with lots to think about the question, 'what is the nature of science, and what is it like being a scientists?' While I took lots of science classes in college and in high school--I've always loved science--I never was a science professional--really just a dabbler--not really even an apprentice--well maybe a bit.

While studying for my MA a brilliant Philosophy professor, Jonas Soltis, gave us students the following task for our final paper: "Imagine it is the last day of classes for your students and that they are walking out of your science class for the last time in their life. Describe what you want them to think science, is."

The Benchmarks dedicates chapter 12 to this topic of the "habits of mind" of scientists or more specifically, how it can be developed throughout grades K-12. Chapter 12 addresses "Problem Solving" unarguably one of lifes most important skills. It talks about this:

Quantitative, communication, manual, and critical-response skills are essential for problem solving, but they are also part of what constitutes science literacy more generally. That is why they are brought together here as scientific habits of mind rather than more narrowly as problem-solving skills or more generally as thinking skills.

To be continued...

Student Agency? Questions as meaning-making tools...

2009-06-14T14:10:00.000-05:00

(Most of this post was written on May 7--I'm finishing it up today)

A quiet, generally hard working 9th grader in class today wasn´t helping out his group. Today wasn´t the first time this has happened... He´s well liked and does his homework showing a well-developed level of responsibility (HW is a stretch for many of my students).

I had recently partially reconstituted this 4-person table, switching out a couple of students that needed a lot of support and added a couple of pretty active students to that table. These fairly active students joined 2 quiet and 'responsible' students. I did this about a week ago.

So now when I re-visited this table several minutes later, only 1 of the new boys was working. I quickly deduced that the main problem was that the 2 boys who were originally from the table didn´t know what to do and were being pretty passive about this. I chose the boy mentioned above to start with...

I asked him what their table´s experiment was about. I probably used a dangling proposition, then, too. He couldn´t tell me. So I went about asking several questions trying to see where his thinking was at. I quickly saw that he was lost so I changed my track. I said, OK I´ve got a deal for you, ask me any question you want to try and figure out what you need to know to help your group.

He couldn´t come up with a single question even with my help. Why? Was he on the spot and his mind shut down? I was rather matter of fact about things so I didn´t put him in a pressure cooker but still this might have been part of the explanation. Was he resisting my questioning and directions? In other words was he silent as a way to retain some control--AKA ´the silent treatement´? Maybe...but he wasn´t acting sullen or angry...

I didn´t know what was the deal but the group was ticked with him and he wasn´t helping so I asked him to step aside and that I´d be with him in a few minutes. I then helped the remaining members and they got up to speed, quickly.

About 3 minutes later I went back to where he was standing (I´ve got a huge room) and asked him if he knew what he could have asked me and he was silent then shook his head. I could see this wasn´t going to be a quick intervention so I asked him to stay after class to talk for a few minutes (I had prep next period). He agreed and went back to his table.

The bell rang; classmates cleared out. We sat down and I worked to understand why he hadn´t sought to understand things, just, ¨I don´t know¨. I certainly gave him plenty of prompts to ´ask me a question´. He said he doesn´t ask questions in any class. Our team of teachers know him as a good natured, generally hard working student that is sometimes frustrating to teach, too.

After more talking, I figured out that he doesn´t know how to use questions as a tool to dig himself out of confusion. This was a major revelation, I've been teaching many years and knew that sometimes students were so lost they didn't know how to work their way out of it, but I really think I need to focus more on this next year.

I've used "sentence starters" like, 'give me an example of what you mean', 'what are you talking about', 'why are we studying this', 'what does x mean' etc. I taught this student these and over the following days helped him practice them and indeed he did take a more active role in his group :-) including knowing what was going on more and being able to ask me questions. This is a start.

Many students may need extensive help to take control over their learning. What support in a GCoS classroom can I provide them?

How does this support look?
How can I include this support, especially at the start of the year, on a day to day basis?
How can I assess where students are at on this skill? Probably scenarios would be helpful.
Obviously many educators have created lessons and structures to support this. It would be nice not totally re-inventing the wheel...

building a culture (started 4-30, finished today)

2009-06-14T13:43:00.000-05:00

I've spent a little time each day on reviewing each classes posts to one another and also updating the class list of values. It has been cool doing activities and discussions in class as well as on line. I've been able to reference things students have said to our codified class list of values. Even students have referred to it a couple of times, including once when a student challenged another student saying that he wasn't adding anything new to the conversation, just repeating other people's stuff.

See the screen shots at the bottom showing Period 4's list and their comments listed below. This is an un-edited list, of course so you get what's there.

There is much to do in this area:

Don't have a list for each class, but have a single list of values that all of my science students and I can agree to. What's a process by which to do this that is effective and maintains all students buy-in? Is this possible while allowing for and developing the unique personalities of each class?
Bring professional scientists into this dialog.
Find effective ways to grow the culture--for example, start with just a couple at the start of the year and constantly re-visit the list, adding and improving and changing as the year goes on?
What are different strategies to bringing this to life in daily class? That is, what is scaffolding for both the students and I to help us develop the habit of mind of referencing what we do relative to agreed upon community values.
How do we keep this a living list?
Of course, all of the answers must be practical or they won't be used!

Here are 3 screen shots showing period 4's web page of values..

Minnesota Penguins Unbound Installfest AKA good times (this is a post started about 6 weeks ago)

2009-06-14T11:44:00.002-05:00

Today (4-25-09) I came to TIES where Brian Dolan-Goecke organized and hosted the semi-annual Ubuntu InstallFest. It's a good time for all, Linux nerd or wannabe. I fall into the latter category but am slowly becoming more of an asset to the community, I hope. In that spirit, I asked Jack Ungerleider to take some notes as he set about solving a pernicious problem with my Plone 3.1.4 PIL installation. In brief, the problem was that I could upload images eg a jpg onto the site (though there would be an error message) and then trying to use fancy zoom on them the expanding picture would be...nothing. Anyway, he got it working and here is what he wrote.

Tkinter support:

install python-imaging-tk
set TCL_ROOT in setup.py to "/usr/include/tcl"

Build PIL using python2.4 setup.py build
If Tkinter support ok then
Install PIL using sudo python2.4 setup.py install

He also gave some ideas about backup which I will address this summer.

Simple backup
tar -cvf /where/you/want/output/givenametofile.tar Root/level/of/source

(for external drive /media/disk-name)

tar -cvf /Volumns/UbuntuServerBackup1/4-25-09.tar

LoggerPro and Edubuntu and thin clients

2009-06-11T10:35:00.006-05:00

Hurray! Vernier Software recently released a Linux version of their super software, "LoggerPro". I'm installing it on my Edubuntu thin client server.

To get the software I went to this page and signed up for the public beta at which time they sent me a link to the software which I downloaded. I unpacked it into 2 .deb files. So I looked up and quickly found out how to install a .deb file on Ubuntu. You simply type:
sudo dpkg -i package_file.deb (where 'package_file.deb is the absolute path to the .deb file I want to install)
at the prompt as described on numerous pages. I installed the driver file and then the loggerpro file. However, the real adventure began as I tried to find the installed programs. I did a search using the 'find' app in the places menu typing in loggerpro and logger and all to no avail!

After spending a good time googling, "where are .deb files installed" "Ubuntu .deb files installed" etc etc I was getting frustrated. There was no 'finally'. However, on one page I read something about the admin program Synaptic which sparked an idea so I opened it, typed, 'logger' and quickly found the files were installed at: /usr/share/local/

I logged into a thin client and tried to open the 'startup.cmbl' file but nothing happened. I reasoned that maybe I should have installed the 2 .deb files in reverse order and did so. I restarted the server for good measure. Still clicking on the startup.cmbl did nothing. Then I dragged a copy of an experiment file I had saved on my flashdrive onto the desktop and double clicking on it did nothing. And, I just tried to start it on the server (remotely via NX Client) and while a window did pop up on the screen for a half second, it still didn't work.

I just got the idea trying to install it from the command line but that didn't work, either. Hmmm time to go to forum and ask for some help.

Using FLE3--Creating the context with the wrong question

2009-06-01T16:25:00.003-05:00

Note to self--When choosing the key question for the course context the question need be plenty big--if it is too specific--even if very profound--it won't easily allow for being broken down to smaller, specific questions. Of course students can ask parallel question but that's pretty difficult. Let students ask the specific question based on their activities.

re-creating the chroot

2009-05-17T11:37:00.000-05:00

nice command to make a backup, of instance 293 into a directory-to-be-created called instance 293backup:

sudo cp -a /usr/local/zope/instance293 /usr/local/zope/instance293backup

must copy the sources.list file from the root install to the chroot install:

sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/apt/sources.list

then update the package list:
sudo chroot /opt/ltsp/i386 apt-get update

and to upgrade the packages:
sudo chroot /opt/ltsp/i386 apt-get dist-upgrade

From page: https://wiki.edubuntu.org/EdubuntuLTSPUpgradeNotes

Also, to deactivate a source that isn't responding during update and then prevents the update process, go to the source.list.d directory, find the offending source (e.g. stgraber-ppa-lucid.list and stgraber-ppa-lucid.list.save) and open them up with gedit, add a "#" at the start of the line with the address on it, save and close. Do with both files (.list and .list.save). ALSO, do in the chroot (as described above).

Work around for Java on LTSP on Ubuntu 8.0.4.2

2009-05-17T08:10:00.008-05:00

Note to self--
Until Java is properly implemented on Ubuntu 8.0.4 LTSP I'll need to use the following work around as per this bug report. This is the second time I've installed this fix. The work around involves replacing the hardy libx with the gutsy libx.

Of course I got the update message that I had an old version of a file on the system and that I should update it. I did end up updating it a bit ago (thus the need to re-install this fix) because I needed the hardy version for another install I was doing.

Thanks to all the hard-workers out there for creating and communicating the work arounds. Since a lot of that is opaque for me, I'll record the essential elements:

Download this file to my desktop: libx11-6_1.1.1-1ubuntu4_i386.deb
Type this in at the prompt:
# sudo dpkg -i '/home/dgroos/Desktop/libx11-6_1.1.1-1ubuntu4_i386.deb'
It will give me a warning that I'm downgrading the xlib file as it installs it.
I just found something to let the system know that I want the old version of this file here and so it will stop telling me to upgrade it. At the prompt I type the first line of the following to make sure that the status of the file is 'install' and as you can see from the second line, sure enough, it is 'install'
# dpkg --get-selections | grep libx11-6 libx11-6 install
Next, I type the following command so that I have sufficient privileges for the 'hold' command:
# sudo su
Then I type:
# echo "libx11-6 hold" | dpkg --set-selections
... and now when I check the status of the file using the command from # 5 above, it says that the status is not, 'install' but is instead, 'hold'.
Nice, now when I run update on the computer it shows the libx file to update, but it is grayed out. I'm guessing that when I need to update this file I'll simply run the command on #9 above but instead of using the word 'hold' I'll type 'install'.

Aiming for a culture of scientific inquiry in our class community

2009-04-24T10:38:00.012-05:00

bzzzzzip! moving to present day, not catching up--just jumping in...

There is something special about communication that's in writing as opposed to oral. It is permanent, you can craft it more carefully than talking, and it takes more effort. Additionally, I'm guessing it happens in a different part of our brain and thus people will express things in writing that they wouldn't, orally.

Online discussions have the additional characteristics that they are searchable and in this case, once they are out there, you can't take them back... It behooves people to be thoughtful about what they say. These characteristics make an online discussion beneficial for a developing community of novice scientists.

Yesterday, for the first time, students accessed a page in their classes folder on the web, on our plone site. The page was entitled, "As a community of Scientists we value..." On the page itself was information to scaffold student thinking on values. For example, I wrote:

As a Community of Scientists we believe, ...

...that when you are trying to prove your point in a discussion...

It´s important to...
It´s important to...
It´s important to...

So, students brainstormed things like (these were their words, note the teacher-language in them):

It´s important to... speak loud and clear.
It´s important to... give details and evidence.
It´s important to... respond in a respectful manner.

Everything up to this point was done in a whole-group setting, and I was stretching their attention (mom and dad used to say, "No souls are saved after 20 minutes"--a small town preacher's saying). So, how do I make it so that everyone can simultaneously jump in and discuss, in writing, this topic of shared values? Step in the Computer-enabled science classroom! Students logged into their account, opened Firefox and went to our class website, managed on a CMS, Plone. I had prepared a page to scaffold this next step.

Since plone doesn't allow for simultaneous editing of a web page (and I don't think my students would succeed doing that, yet), I instead used plone's commenting feature. I had students either add a comment to the (bottom of the) page, or reply to someone else's comment. So I opened things up, and got some important (and predictable--I've been teaching for 20 years :) stuff.

Below is a screen shot of the first comment that was made in 1st period, along with a response made to it by Jonathon from 2nd period. The first comment by Basilio was a practice comment to make sure posting worked. The reply to the first comment was actually done during 2nd period, in other words, it was done after all (about 20) posts had been made during period 1.

On the second day, I projected these comments on the overhead screen. After clarifying that the first post was a test, I asked students if they saw something important for a class value in the second quote. The response was a chuckle and a predictable sense of "let's knock down the teachers idea". I carefully avoided responding to this tone and asked students what it was that they liked about this post. Rather amazingly a student responded that he thought it was important to be skeptical of things. I was impressed by the (9th grade) students sophistication and word choice. Maybe I should not have been... Hmmm...

This provided me with an opening so I then turned to the rest of the class and asked them if they felt it was important to be able to question or challenge what other people are saying. There was widespread agreement with that. The class finally chose this wording for this class value: "Disagree with someone when you think he or she is wrong." A person at table 1 wrote that value, recording it for our class.

Then, I asked if there was anything that people didn't like about this post. Marlon said he didn't think it was very respectful, and a few people agreed with that. So I asked, "So what are you saying is our value?" There was some back-and-forth between several members of the class, and DeAndrew succinctly said, "Disagree in a polite way and have reasons proving your disagreement." A volunteer at table 2 wrote that down as our second value.

With this process, together we are starting to codify a set of values for our scientific community. I only did a few, not wanting to spend too much time on this.

Much remains including further filling out this list which is now posted on line for each class, improving the clarity of the listed value and its presentation, and of course the big one of developing and 'privileging' these values in our community. This process needs to be done in the context of our class performing scientific inquiry. The nice thing about online discussions is that we can always analyzie and reflect on what was said.

As always reader (s?) comments are welcome.

First day of Spring, First day of Phase 2!

2009-03-20T23:17:00.005-05:00

:-)

The computers are working, students "stress-tested" them all day today--issues emerged, I created work-arounds and by the end of the day, they worked perfectly!

:-)

I'd like to thank my wife and kids who have put up with me these many months, even encouraging me on though they now have little patience for the word, 'computers'.

I'd like to thank friends, both new and old, for their support. I'd like to especially thank the more than dozen volunteers who volunteered dozens of hours (some several dozens) to get this project so far. Thanks to the many more people who heard the ideas of this project and have supported it with ideas or just encouragement.

There are those who have provided many thousands of dollars for this project, namely Medtronic Foundation and Minneapolis Public Schools. You all are part of this multi-dimensional, multi-faceted project. And I thank you. I'll keep this blog updated, still discussing technology but focusing now mostly on pedagogy (I hope!).

There are communities of scientists to grow!

iTALC's almost working...

2009-03-19T21:35:00.002-05:00

I had a lot of problems with iTALC and Webmin as both coveted port 10000 and I wasn't able to adjust them because the other interfered... So I uninstalled both, installed webmin, changed the port it listens on (and the one on which it 'speaks'?) to well, a different one.

Then I used this page to reinstall, and it went great till the very end when I get an error message saying that:

id: cannot find name of group ID 1021
id: cannot find name of group ID 1022
id: cannot find name of group ID 1023
id: cannot find name of group ID 1027

While there were several suggestions on how to deal with it, from "ls /etc/groups" to making sure the permissions of /etc/group and /etc/passwd were set to 644, none of this worked, for 1 thing the permissions were right already.

OK here's the cool thing :-) I was futzing around with the Ubuntu admin app, Users and Groups, and quickly found that the four wayward groups were the level1, level2, level3 and level4 groups I'd created as part of the Managing Group permission strategy. Well, when I opened up the /etc/group file it showed all of the groups and who was a member of each and I noticed, strangely, that these were basically the only groups in which 'root' was a member. I had added root to these groups because, not knowing exactly what I was doing, I wanted to hedge my bets.

So anyway, upon removing root from each of these groups, I no longer got that error and things ended swimmingly :-) This, by the way, is the first piece of original Linux computer-problem-solving-knowledge I've created and yes I'm proud--nice to be a producer, not just consumer. Now all I need to do is figure out how to make remote-control function work on iTALC...

By the way, here's a nice little post about the utility/need for iTALC management programs: http://itmoves.wordpress.com/2008/01/03/italc/

And thanks to Andreas Olsson!

2009-03-15T18:54:00.005-05:00

I mentioned in this post that there was another blog that presented my need for some software that aids a teacher in managing user permissions. In the Macintosh world this is done, along with many other functions, using Workgroup Manager. There had been a product to do this, Sabayon, but it no longer worked with the current version of Edubuntu.

One of the people that responded to that post (there's 36 comments to that post at this point) was Andreas Olsson a systems administrator from Sweden. He proposed an idea similar to what Jordan Mantha had proposed, to put users in groups and then adjust the permissions for different applications so that only members of group x could use this program. Also, he proposed creating a small Command-Line Interface (CLI) program that could work off a database of the programs and groups and make this permissions-changing thing happen.

Well... He made this program :-) and it works GREAT. I've added 40 applications to the database using his program. As needed, I can roll back the permissions to the original ones.

These apps now belong to one of 4 groups: level1, level2, level3, or level4. I've put all students in the level1 group. After a week of successfully using the computers with that level of permissions, I'll add them to the level2 group, adding on these permission, also. And so on... They gain permissions as they demonstrate responsible computer behavior. If they do the porn image thing etc then they tumble back to level1 and must again work up to higher privileges again.

So... looks like all I've got left is customizing squid and running last bit of cables... the latter is trivial, the former, not. but... SOON!

And now, squid launches!

2009-03-12T21:14:00.003-05:00

And thanks to Christopher and Gavin who, through (exactly) 20 e-mails helped me nail down the squid problem to which I have probably 10 hours of my life. Here is the 20th e-mail in the series:

This did it :-)

Using the following command provided by Gavin:
$ sudo chown proxy.proxy /var/spool/squid/ (but changing 'proxy.proxy' to 'squid.squid')
changed the ownership, then using the command provided by Christopher:
$ sudo /etc/init.d/squid start
simply worked. Thanks Gents!

Oh yea, and I was able to add the HP 8000 printer to the network and it too worked perfectly.

Short message: Server is locked in it's cocoon

2009-03-11T21:47:00.002-05:00

I now officially have no physical access to the server, but with iLO and freeNX and the NoMachine free clients I feel like I'm as good as touching it! So now I can try to plug in all the computers... and give them a boot test!

Gettin' lots of help lately...

2009-03-10T22:16:00.003-05:00

The following is a copy of a post I sent to the edubuntu-users list of which I'm a thankful member. There will be a few posts in the following days of shout-outs to different people for the help they've provided along with a bit of detail. The following involved a simple solution--the others are move involved...

Thanks Richard [Doyle],

Ecstatic would clearly describe my emotional state when I VPNed into the district intranet, freenxed into the server, opened the Terminal in the gui that appeared, typed 'sudo reboot', and then a few minutes later, I was able to freeNX into that server and saw the beautiful Edubuntu desktop once again!

All I did was, (from this page: http://help.ubuntu.com/community/FreeNX):
Open your apt sources list
gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
and append the two lines for the repository
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/freenx-team/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/freenx-team/ubuntu hardy main
I customized it to 'hardy' but any of the following that apply, work (it says): dapper, hardy or intrepid.

Then I tried to:
Save and then close.
Then Update Apt sudo apt-get update
After you add the repository, then install the freenx package (using Aptitude to install extra needed packages). sudo aptitude install freenx
But couldn't get passed the message that the keys didn't match or something upon doing step 2, above. So, I went to Synaptic (got that from another page), searched for 'freenx' and then selected the 'freenx' app for upgrade, applied it, ignored the security warnings, and installed it.

Then, I opened freenx, configured it (don't choose to disable the security encoding as it runs on port 22 and you will get an error message.) Then, I downloaded the client version for my mac laptop, configured it... and it worked :-).

One more barrier removed!

BTW--I recommend FreeNX to anyone using VNC currently, it looks a lot nicer and is smoother/more responsive.

David

Fixed: the network and thus the printer :-)

2009-03-05T20:39:00.007-06:00

I've been working on this printer issue (part time of course) for months. They have this saying in Guatemala: "Que vale el que sabe!", roughly translating to, "He who knows is valuable!" Well, this saying was proven true once again tonight.

Since I've got the network at my house so as to be able to work on it over weekends etc, Jamie came over here after work today and dived into the thin client network. It didn't take him long to find out that there were miscoordinated subnet IP addresses which, after a few hours, cokes and a wonderful pizza made by Maria, my wife, are now logically established. I probably mixed them up at some early point in the project, but it wasn't bad enough for the thin clients to go down.

It is rather interesting how Jamie got involved with the Growing Communities of Scientist project. He has a wife who works for Inetium, the company who made the web interface for the GetSTEM project, a service created by MHTA. GetSTEM connects 'science teachers in need' with Minnesota businesses who have help to offer. It works like this, as I teacher I went to GetSTEM and posted that I needed someone to provide some Linux help on a project I was doing (I referenced this blog). Employees of participating businesses, generally those that rely heavily on the Science/Technology/Engineering/Math (STEM) disciplines, browse the posts by teachers on this site. If they find a request that interests them, they can contact the teacher and work out things from there. This service is exceptional in that it is local, and very web 2.0ish: it provides an interface to allow direct-connect between Joe Teacher with Joe Tech Employee--no need to go through organizational filters/pathways on either side. Worked for me.

So... Jamie's wife saw a GetSTEM request (mine), showed it to husband, he contacted me and well, the picture below shows it all......the network is properly tweaked and printer are... WORKING!

Thanks to Jamie, Jamie-wife, and MHTA.

Things are getting nearer... Tomorrow I'm taking a personal leave day (it's officially a district wide-staff development day) to maybe get things to that, holy-grail state, that "Limpin' but live" condition!

A spiral curriculum

2009-03-05T11:28:00.006-06:00

Oh Oh--deviating from system set-up talk again... note to self--don't make habit of this...

In science education we often talk about a 'spiral curriculum' where the timeline of our activities instead of being a simple straight line is instead a spiral going up... (think Helix). This means different things to different educators. Look at this drawing (thanks to http://www.cut-the-knot.org/Mset99/spiral.gif):
This shows that as time goes on (in this drawing each loop is a full year), students repeat working on the same skill--addition--but presumable in more complex contexts. Another example of a spiral curriculum shows another aspect, how different 'sides' of the helix represent different concept or skills, as well as maybe how one might organize over the length of a unit, maybe 3-4 weeks or so:

(this drawing is thanks to: http://uwacadweb.uwyo.edu/CLAAS/Old%20stuff/bigspiral.jpg). In this example, Literacy 1 might be 'Graphing', Literacy 2 might be the concept of Heat Transfer and Literacy 3 might be the skill of 'searching on the internet'.

I've tried to plan a unit like this in the past using a spiral drawing but couldn't get it to work--I didn't really try that hard either. I think, however, that if there were some software that provided control over the spiraling time-line, mixing spirals, threads shown, snap-in placement, changing radius of spiral, adjusting colors of the vertical 'literacy's' well, one could have a powerful visualization tool for unit/curriculum planning. This would be a nice way to share our units and help practitioners (ie teachers) implement the curriculum. For those who aren't teachers, teachers have to be able to adjust from moment to moment what we are doing in the class to take advantage of the possibilities of the moment and meet the needs as they arise. All of this has to be done, of course, with the larger curricular goals in mind. Yes, so this tool could help one have those larger goals in mind.

Update: thought I would add this info here, as well:

By far the most interesting and useful spiraling model is called, "Progressive Inquiry". It is perhaps the most difficult spiral curriculum approach to implement as it is a distinctly different from traditional approaches. Interestingly it is organized and thought of from the perspective of the classroom as a community. This is the instructional model that we'll be using here at GCoS. Check this site for info. Here's a drawing they produced to help explain the approach:

Use Blog for Professional Development

2009-03-05T11:07:00.003-06:00

I know, I'm deviating from the Primary Directive (Phase 1--get everything working) but sometimes ya gotta pull a Kirk. I talk with Eddie daily about this lesson or that that we are teaching, insights and lessons learned (ours). I keep wishing for a system to channel this practical knowledge. So here is an ideal to weave several important thread together. The Threads:

nailing down our insights (our own personal blogs).
communicating our insights withing our community and get their feedback (sharing/commenting on each others blogs).
reflecting/sharing our insights in the form of lessons with others in the community where they can help shape the form and content of the lesson (LeMill server).
get credit for professional development (ProPay Skill Set)
provide public evidence of the vast knowledge base and skill set that teachers routinely use (our blogs).

The idea is that a group of people would sign up for a 'ProPay Skill Set' course for credit. This course might focus on such a thing as Gowin's Vee as a support for student directed inquiry. All teachers would open a blog on blogspot.com or where ever.

Teachers would daily or bi-daily blog on their experience with using the Vee in their class over a (say) 2 month time period. Occasionally, maybe 2 or 3 times over those 2 months, when they felt that they had polished a good lesson using the Vee, they would publish it on our districts LeMill server (which is being moved to a faster server at the moment). Others in the ProPay group would be expected to comment on other's blogs as well as try and (as appropriate) improve on the lesson posted on LeMill.

How could this idea be improved? Leave a comment, ay?

CmapServer configuring... more

2009-03-04T11:51:00.002-06:00

OK, so the server running CmapServer has 2 ip addresses (associated with that VM). Since I didn't specify the ip address on the config file: serverconfig.txt under /IHMC_CmapServer/bin/ it chose 1 of the 2, I guess. And, it chose the 'internal' ip address. So, I re-edited the above mentioned file and added the external ip address (the line had nothing on it), shutdown then started the server, and... it works :)

TODO list to reach the state of... "Limpin' but Live"

2009-03-02T19:17:00.007-06:00

Here's what needs to happen so as the class net can go live... even if it isn't completely done...

Get my admin user account to auto login on server startup, then screen lock. OR... somehow ssh and remotely login through the GNOME interface. This will allow me to use the iLO to remotely start the server and then to be able to VNC into it w/OUT having to be present at server side (I don't have 'on-demand' access to the room).
Make printer work on network.
Make it so that students can not edit other peoples files and folders.
I need to add all apps to the 'permissions-managing data base'.
add all students to the proper groups (Start in the level 1 group)
is there better "User and Group" software--that has a larger management window? that can sort users by alpha? that can see just a group of users and not the whole list?

A (minor) Miracle!

2009-02-17T21:11:00.003-06:00

After quite a few hours spent studying, a few e-mails to IHMC tech support, a couple of conversations with Jack and an e-mail from Brian D-G I was able to successfully install the new CmapServer on the designated virtual machine at the district! Finally!

Yeah!!!

3 down, 1 to go! Then, I'll be able to take the old server off line, talk to Go Daddy! to change the IP's of mpsscience.org to the new server, then start them and... no one will know the difference except the site will become quite a bit faster... Slowly but surely!

Remaining thin-client issues decrease by 1/2

2009-02-15T20:14:00.005-06:00

I'll never forget what I heard once: the people who die from eating poisonous mushrooms are the mushroom experts. While a little bit of knowledge may be dangerous, a lot of knowledge can be fatal. Not that I've got a lot of Linux/command-line knowledge, but I know enough to... dig more holes...

I couldn't get nice flash stuff like the one at the top of http://www.thinkfree.com. No, it wasn't simply updating flash which of course isn't simple. After updating I couldn't get firefox to use the new plugin--it insisted on using Flash 8, not Flash 10. Hours later... I solved that problem, encountered the issue with Ubuntu 8.0.4, Flash 10, PulseAudio and crashing firefox, and solved that mostly, with the help of http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=789578. Anyway, one can now watch videos on the web though it's not too smooth.

I tried to then see if the Java applets such as these physics simulations worked, but alas they still don't. I hope that dealing with the slowness of CmapTools (which is Java based) will solve this problem. But, from what I gleaned from this recent discussion is that the problem might be more in NIC issues than in Java, but that really it's unknown. "They're working on it..."

Again, thanks Jack

2009-02-14T21:10:00.000-06:00

Jack came over again today to work on Plone installation challenges. He has to come here because one can't ssh into the district server on which these are to be running, only via VPN access which is set up on my house computer.

Jack sloshed through many pages trying to find why the legacy Plone 2.1.4 site wouldn't work on the fresh install, finally finding the issue to be one of insufficiently installed PIL. Once he fixed that, then he quickly blew through the final hurdle and wow! This older site works! And, this is important because that is the only one on which FLE3 will work on. Also, it's nice to be able to show work from previous classes on line, such as it is.

Also, the new production plone site seems to be issue-free as Jack fixed another PIL issue. Images now behave well, great actually, on this new site! If I had some time I'd get it set up for public use, right this moment it's only used to coordinate/present question/directions/images for the lessons. Soon though students will all have accounts on it and will be creating content (ever the dreamer... :-)

I tried to do some more work on the CmapServer install but am still stymied by the lack of a GUI. But, I did find something on the openvz website that explained about X forwarding which I think means that all of the X11 feedback gets routed to the computer on which I running the console. Anyway, at least 1 unsolved issue still to get it to work.

Gained Access!

2009-02-13T20:11:00.001-06:00

Here it is... the fabled tech closet, and I'm in like Flynn! Sixteen e-mails and I gained access!

And, thanks to Cody from the district, the switch is now wired to all the drops in my science classroom. The server will be the bridge between my class LAN and the building LAN so the cheapo Netgear switch need never be seen by 'the network'.

Also Cody checked all of the Ethernet drops in my room, some were dead, but most live. It'll work...

Oh yea, I'm cool. well at least educatable...

2009-02-06T21:12:00.009-06:00

I can't believe all I've done today. I couldn't have done it that long ago. Today at random free moments, through the command line interface I've:

Checked the status of an apparently non-responding virtual machine
entered it as a root user from the host machine
navigated to /home and found the user wasn't dgroos but instead groos--got it!
sshed into the groos account, tried to sudo but couldn't as not a sudoer.
found how to add myself to the sudo group, tried to edit the sudoer list with vi but said I needed to use visudo or something. But, i found that there was a user in the sudo list called dgroos! but, there wasn't a user named dgroos so I adduser dgroos (as the root user, logged in from the host server), logged out
then sshed into the virtual machine, sudo mv the file to the /srv folder.
then tar -xvzf the plone installer, then reading the README.txt with vi.
sudo ./srv/InstallerFolder/install.sh (had to use the absolute path--I guess the command wasn't in the PATH or something).
But...got the error message that gcc wasn't present.
So figured out that I needed to install it so installed a bunch of useful stuff with:
```
apt-get install gcc build-essential
```
then tried to install plone but still no luck--still no gcc...
So found I needed to upgraded and did so.
but still no luck, so apt-got gcc ;-)
And then... Well at this very minute (minutes) I'm watching plone install... here's a screen cast :)

And now... it appears that it's all installed. I'll check to see if it is working...
it installed a zeo cluster? oops.
Checked the install script but don't really get it.
googled some more and remembered you have to write: sudo ./install.sh standalone
did that and it still installed a ZEO...
Hmmm... time to get some personal help, not just google help

The server room, gaining access

2009-02-05T16:44:00.004-06:00

One challenge of much of establishing this project is that many borders are crossed. For example, the best solution for server placement (read: saves thousands in wiring costs) is in the drop room. Great solution but the key to that room is a master key that has access to most all of the doors in our building. Understandably, giving me one of those keys sort of flies in the face of the system of limiting access to as few people as necessary. What I'm doing is (evidently) not considered necessary. I understand not getting the master key--let the principal sleep just a little easier at night.

I came up with another solution. Instead of having my own key, I could have someone else let me into the room when necessary. I asked. Access wouldn't be needed too much, I can use VNC/ssh. The reply was, "Well, I don't know, try and find another solution."

There really wasn't another (inexpensive) solution, so now people with more juice than I will explain the situation to my boss and hopefully that will help me gain access and get the thin client server in the room and... GOING! I'm getting close!

CmapServer on new server at district...error

2009-02-04T12:07:00.003-06:00

After about 6 hours of studying and trying to understand a specific configuration file, and with Jacks advice, I finally uploaded it to the server and ran the installer. No Go. Got this output which I sent to the IHMC Cmap people--hope they can help!

dgroos@cmap:/srv$ ./LinuxCmapServer_v4.18_06-09-08.bin f InstallCmapServer.properties
Preparing to install...
Extracting the JRE from the installer archive...
Unpacking the JRE...
Extracting the installation resources from the installer archive...
Configuring the installer for this system's environment...

Launching installer...

Invocation of this Java Application has caused an InvocationTargetException. This application will now exit. (LAX)

Stack Trace:
java.awt.HeadlessException:
No X11 DISPLAY variable was set, but this program performed an operation which requires it.
at java.awt.GraphicsEnvironment.checkHeadless(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Window.(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Frame.(Unknown Source)
at java.awt.Frame.(Unknown Source)
at javax.swing.JFrame.(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.LifeCycleManager.g(DashoA8113)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.LifeCycleManager.h(DashoA8113)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.LifeCycleManager.a(DashoA8113)
at com.zerog.ia.installer.Main.main(DashoA8113)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
at com.zerog.lax.LAX.launch(DashoA8113)
at com.zerog.lax.LAX.main(DashoA8113)
This Application has Unexpectedly Quit: Invocation of this Java Application has caused an InvocationTargetException. This application will now exit. (LAX)

Anyone get this?