"An invisible elephant?"

March 24 Tech Blog Entry

by P Thomas

March 24, 2008

In the X-Files second season episode agents Mulder and Scully are faced with something strange happening at the zoo. An elephant (invisible that is) runs amok, and ends up dead on the highway. A tiger escapes from its cage (its locked cage) with deadly results. And a gorilla, signing frantically, speaks of a '"white light." My thought for you is that the title of the episode "Fearful Symmetry" or the book "Tiger, Tiger" (and don't forget Blake of course who we can thank for these titles) is more of a harbinger of issues we face in K12 education and Web 2.0 than you might realize. (The X-Files is the property of Ten Thirteen Productions and 20th Century Fox. No copyright infringement is intended.)

Heads Up

There have been several machines that have “lost their desktops,” from what I can gather so far it seems to be related to still using IE6 and having Microsoft Live addins. So if your machine has IE6 (from the “Help” table select “about” and it will tell you the version) please let me know so we can get IE7 going on it asap.

Another issue that is only going to become more common is the problem of opening Office 2007 files with Office 2003, the good news here is there is a simple converter install available to assist with this effort. Also for those of you that have upgraded your home machine to Office 2007 there is a simple option change to have it default to save a file in a form that Office 2003 and older versions can open without needing the converter.

One other tidbit, is that if you are looking for an alternative for Office or need to create PDF files OpenOffice is a free and comparable alternative.

Outlook Tip: Here are a couple of links that you might find handy for you daily use.

How to create a rule to handle common emails that clutter up you inbox.
Outlook Rules

How to add a signature to your emails
Outlook Signatures

EdTech Trek

Are you interested in Web 2.0 and using it in your curriculum, before you get too involved a word of caution: "DOPA"

Do you know about DOPA? Do you agree or disagree with DOPA? Are you planning your curriculum in preparation for DOPA?

If you can answer these questions through an understanding of DOPA and its potential impact then you are ahead of the game, if you can't you run a risk of the game leaving you out of the dance.

So what is DOPA? DOPA is the Deleting Online Predators Act (PDF DOPA text) of 2006, no wait, of 2007, no wait, of 2008? (do you get the idea it is not going away?).

I leave it to you to make up your mind what you think about DOPA, but I remind you that it is tied directly to E-Rate funding, (remember CIPA, it took a few years but we have it and must follow it or the purse strings get cut).

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Here are some links related to DOPA

From PBS.org "lifting the hood on dopa jr"
Saveyourspace.org
Discussion: MySpace and DOPA
Business Week: No Space for MySpace?

RFCs

Why do I still use paper handouts and worksheets instead of posting electronic forms?