Tuesday, January 27, 2009
What is Design? Cool Youtube!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
A New Year Arrives!
Let's review some of what happened in 2008:
- We had a very large turn-over in school webmasters. There were quite of few new webmasters who needed training to start off the school year. By the way, they are doing a great job!!
- Scores of hours in 2008 were spent in VNC. Sometimes I spend 3-4 hours with VNC to school webmasters in a single day. This made it very convenient for both me and the school webmasters.
- Many schools started using the ASP Web Calendar which dynamically works with a database. Of course, with any free resource, there are vulnerabilities. Some vulnerabilities were discovered early for which Brannon Carter (Bryson Middle) created a fix. Unfortunately, since our databases were out in the open and the passwords are housed in the database, this was hacking opportunity waiting to happen - and it did around Thanksgiving. Fortunately, we've now moved our databases to a nonpublic location on our server which vastly enhances our security.
- Several schools in 2008 converted to ASP so that the great majority of schools are now ASP. I plan to offer some classes on the Power of ASP to help those who need a better understanding. The few non-ASP school websites will hopefully move to ASP in 2009 to take advantage of the ease and convenience of managing your sites.
- Several schools in 2008 implemented a new flash menu system, replacing the DHTML menus which are still widespread in our schools.
- Some schools have taken advantage of data-driven capabilities that many other schools possess, such as a faculty directory, Announcements, News, and Events. This capability enables the webmaster to pass off responsibilities to other people at there school without the need to use FrontPage or FTP.
On a personal note, 2008 brought me a new grandson, (grandchild#5), a motorcycle (lovin' it!!), another child to complete high school, and 26 years married to the same wonderful woman.
Some of the goals I have for 2009 are as follows:
- All school websites converted to ASP - not mandating, just on my "wish list".
- All school websites using the benefits and conveniences of data-driven capabilities (ASP calendar, directories, annoucements, news, and events). Of course you can only do this if you actually use ASP at your site.
- More workshops and training offered as well as a face-to-face meetings.
- More individual school visits.
- Provide more online tutorials.
- Develop a better game of pool so that I can beat John Woggon. Last week I met John for lunch. We played at least 8 or so games and John completely demolished me!! He always asks about you guys and I sense that he misses you all.
- Blog more. This is obviously not yet a habit, but I'd like to incorporate tutorials into my blog.
Thanks to all school webmasters for the time and effort spent in making our school sites "top-notch". I often get comments that our schools sites are much better than other schools sites not only in other districts in SC, but also throughout the US. This is a testimony to all of your hard work over the years. Thanks for all you do.
Happy 2009!
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Mid-Life Crisis
Mid-Life Crisis?
Some people might call it a "mid-life crisis", but I've always wanted a motorcycle for as long as I can remember. Up to now I either could not afford it and/or could not convince my wife. A friend owned the bike - a Kawasaki 1000 Concours - and was trying to sell it After some "wheeling and dealing" and a visit to the credit union (and some concessions to my wife), I purchased the bike! For some of you, this might bring back thoughts of John Woggon, retired district webmaster and mentor to us all. Well, I actually consulted John about the motorcycle before I bought it to get his opinion. Thankfully, his "thumbs up" was the final push in making the purchase. John wanted to see the bike so I stopped by his house after work one day last week to show it to him. He gave me some gear (I had nothing) and sold me some gear that he had and we set a lunch get-together.
I have met John for lunch several times since his retiring just to keep in touch and get his feedback on the changes to the site. We always meet at Baily's on Laurens Rd. This is a pool (billiard) hall. John and I play several rounds of pool over lunch, and I don't mind being John's victim (he's quite good and I'm pathetic!). It's always a good, relaxing time. He always asks about the school webmasters. Working with the school webmasters was the most exciting and rewarding part of the job for John, as I concur with him that it is the same today with me.
Many have asked about the onscreen tutorials that I had promised. I have actually made some tutorials, but have had some synching issues with Camtasia and have not been happy with how they turned out. This summer working on the curriculum portal and with everything esle since school has started (including the demon-possessed teacher website upgrade), the schedule has been very full, but I hope to get some time soon to resume and resolve the problem with the tutorials.
I usually get at least two or three calls daily from webmaster with questions. VNC is a wonderful way to resolve issues and I recommend those of you who have questions, to call and let me VNC to your computer. I prefer talking you through issues rather than resolving them myself so that it is a "learning experience". Please don't hesitate to call if need be. I can usually drop what I'm working on and help.
Well, back to my vacation projects - and maybe some piddling on the bike. Regards.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
School Website Winners!
Bronze
- Elementary - Greenbriar and Chandler Creek
- Middle - Woodmont
- High - Greer
- Elementary - Mitchell Road and Brook Glenn
- Middle - Northwest
- High - TR
- Other - Roper Mountain Science Center
- Elementary - Alexander and Oakview
- Middle - Bryson
- High - Mauldin
- Other - Fine Arts Center
Congratulations on the winners. I have your certificates and will have them at UTC tomorrow. I'll send by courier those who do not pick them up.
Due to suggestions during our session (Dee Jacobs), I've decided to offer specific training sessions in late July - early August rather than general sessions like last year. The purpose is to come to a session and leave with a newly implemented tool working on your website. Topics will include. ASP Calendar, Dynamic Faculty Directory, Flash Menus, and Spry Accordion. I'll set these up on the portal and let everyone know. I'd prefer to meet at a school for these. If anyone is able to host these sessions, it would be easier for connectivity to be at a school rather than at our office.
Hope to increase blog post frequency!!
I have two sessions tomorrow entitled: "Technology Tools for Teachers: Curing the Content Conundrum". Perhaps I'll see some of you there.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
A New Blogpost - This is NOT an April Fools Joke!!
The temptation of course is to pull some sort of April Fools joke on you guys, but since my blog posts have been so rare and sparse, I thought I would try to make this post useful and profitable for you all.
First, if you are a prankster, you can get some ideas about how to add excitement (or anxiety) to those at your school. Here's the link - Top Ten Harmless Geek Pranks.
Now to something that may be useful. Adobe has released a free version of Photoshop - Adobe Photoshop Express. If you've always wanted to play with photoshop but couldn't afford it, here's the link for a new free version.
If you need some new icons, here's a link to a free package of 60 icons that you might find useful.
Now, on to some business. I will be sending out a form to the web committee that was designed earlier for judging school websites. They will be judging websites based on the criteria that has been established in years past. The specific criteria will be as follows:
- Site content (15)
- Design (10)
- Navigation (10)
- Timeliness (10)
- Parents (10)
- School Calendar (10)
- Staff Directory (10)
- Student Work (10)
- Student Resources (10)
- Legal Guidelines (5)
There will be one gold, one silver and one bronze for high schools and middle schools. There will be two of each for elementary schools. This year there will be no "Best of the Web". The four gold winners will receive $1000, silver winners will receive $500, and bronze winners will receive $300. This will not be a cash award but credit toward the purchase of technology or professional development. The winning school webmasters will select the technology or professional development of their choosing.
Lastly, I'll be soon sending out directions for selecting top teacher websites from your school. I know that you all are insanely busy, so don't spend an inordinate amount of time on this. This will be somewhat "low key" since the criteria has not been published. I'll attach a copy of the criteria that you should use. You may share this with your faculty if you wish - I hope to also have something on the teacher area of the district website. This year there will be no awards - just recognition (as in times past). In the future we will attach an award of some sort. There will be a total of 20 elementary teacher sites, 10 middle and 10 high teacher sites which will be recognized (fewer than in years past). I'll send a link to a form (as John did in the past) to make it easy to submit. We'll need to do this by the deadline that I'll send so that the web committee can select the winners. Thanks so much for all your help.
Reminder - Upstate Technology Conference will be held at JL Mann this summer (June 24-26). Please consider presenting. We will have some great presenters and fantastic keynote speakers - Ewan McIntosh and David Jakes. These are nationally know speakers who speak at the major technology conferences. I'll be presenting some preconference sessions geared specifically to Greenville County Webmasters. The UTC website is http://www.greenville.k12.sc.us/utc/
Monday, February 25, 2008
Webmaster Tool Chest
PageRacer - This site will simulate your website loading with a 56K modem.
Google's Webmaster Central - Great place to get webmaster resources and "best practice" information.
Sitepoint's CSS Reference - This is a great resource for CSS coding.
Enjoy.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Thank You!
Donna Jones the webmaster of Teen Parent just unveiled her new site today. She's using the new menu system. Great job, Donna. Thanks also to Brannon Carter from Bryson Middle School who developed the fantastic video tutorial on installing the new asp calendar at your site. His step by step tutorial makes it a synch! Take a look at his school site and you'll be impressed!
There are so many more of you that I can mention, but time forbids. I sincerely thank you for the fantastic job that you all do and the time and dedication you put in making a top quality site.
The teacher website tool has been a pain. Two weeks ago a new "upgrade" was pushed out. Shortly thereafter, glitches were discovered - missing hyperlink button, pages requiring logins, and other strange things. The contractors finally had to revert back to the previous version which is the current situation. If you have teachers who still have a login screen coming up on their normal web pages, this is the fix: Go to the RAD editor; for all hyperlinked documents or pictures, "right-click" on each and change the link property from "http://staff.greenville..." to "http://teachers.greenville...". This should fix the page.
For the argument: "it really doesn't matter about file size; most people have broadband anyway", look at this link and take note.
Do you have someone you want to feel special? Use the following url to make your recipient feel like they are greatly appreciated. The following address will send a personalized message Webmaster.YouAreMighty.com. Simply replace "Webmaster" with the name of your special friend.
Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving break. I'm looking forward to an overdose of tryptophan! Best regards!