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Darktable

September 23, 2023 / Troy / 0 Comments

I’m a big fan of open-source software. One of the open-source projects that I like a ton is Darktable. Darktable is basically an open-source replacement for Adobe Lightroom. Darktable is very powerful.

I’m still learning the process of good photo editing. There are lots of support documentation and Youtube videos on using Darktable, but I’m still looking to find a really good, basic photo editing class/tutorial.

Recently, I found an issue with Darktable not fully displaying menu popouts. However, since this is open-source, there are lots of supportive folks out there. I found that someone else was also having that issue. They had a fix.

A quick download, and, uh-oh, it won’t open. Again, there is a lot of support. The fix is to allow the application in Apple’s Quarantine list. So, open the Terminal, and paste the following;

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/darktable.app

Now I’m all set. Darktable once again displays full popout menus. I don’t have to pony up my $10-$50 per month to Adobe.

Weekly Update 2023-06

September 17, 2023 / Troy / 0 Comments

Well, it’s been a summer. I have once again failed at keeping up on posting a weekly update. Hopefully, with the restarting of school, I can return to regular updates.

In the meantime, here is a quick overview of the summer.

Kayaking

I only got out a couple of times to kayak this year. In one trip, I watched some of the Sturgeon jumping on the Kennebec River. It is an amazing sight.

That trip was cut somewhat short as while attempting to pull Hazel back into the kayak, a nice little wave hit, and I capsized.

This led to the realization that I was not fully prepared with kayak re-entry procedures.

Bird Removal

Part 1

While dog sitting for my eldest daughter, I arrived to find a robin hanging out in the attached porch area. It took a good bit of broom work, the robin kept flying up to the ceiling fan, but the robin was eventually freed.

Part 2

A hummingbird decided to enter our mudroom. It is interesting how incredibly still they can be. Anyway, a bit of collaboration between my wife and I, and one hummingbird was returned safely to the wild.

Kitchen

Painting

The kitchen is now mostly painted (still a bit of touch up work to do). The difference is phenomenal. The kitchen looks so much better.

Floor

Tiling the floor turned into quite the project. A friend, Joe, and I ripped out the tile to see if the floor below was redeemable to be refinished. It turned out not to be a good path forward.

So, I had the kitchen measured to have someone else tile. Originally, I was going to do the tile, but there’s a story. Anyway, the measuring guy “forgot” to say that the floor really needed to be leveled. The tile company said to get a general contractor to level the floor. Now, to be fair, I’m not really looking for the floor to be level, just not quite as far off level as it currently is. For example, when we bought a cabinet that was about four feet wide, it sloped down 3/4 of inch over those four feet. Anyway, Joe and I went to work to make the floor flat and closer to level. It was quite the job, but I’m happy to report that the floor is now flat and close to level. It took five sheets of subfloor and about ten bags of leveling cement. Oh, and about 500 screws. Anyway, it looks good. Hopefully, we can get on the tile schedule soon.

Oh, redoing the floor meant a few weeks of applicances out of the kitchen. And, of course, we had to grind one section down, so dust is now present throughout the entire house.

Tech In Education

August 11, 2023 / Troy / 0 Comments

Background

I’ve long been using Technology in education. I was an early adopter. I clearly remember having one of the first WiFi access points in our district (an Apple “UFO”). I integrated Technology into my classes early on. The students were highly motivated, novelty of technology was high. At the time, I was teaching in a lock-up facility for teenagers. The students had lots of challenges. It was a great place to learn to teach.

I learned how to create worksheets that were easy to change, modify, and adapt. I learned to create quizzes that were different for different students. I had a wide range of student abilities in my classes.

I learned how to differentiate not only the quizzes but the instruction as well. I became a Constructivist. I learned to adjust the pathways so that the students could reach the same standards, but using different materials.

I worked with a variety of teachers who did similar work. Sometimes it looked very different, but many (most?), started including technology into their skill set. It was early on, but there was hope that most teachers would add some technology tools to their skill set.

Administration

I moved into school administration. I took some of my tech skills with me. I leveraged some of those skills to work with others.

For example, I can’t tell you how frustrated I was with calendars for example. We would get updates on calendars about weekly. Let me be clear here, we would get an updated paper calendar through interschool mail weekly. At the time, I kept my calendar on a PalmPilot. (side note, that was a great device, only really replaced by the iPhone – eventually, not the first edition). So every week I had to sit down and do a full review of my calendar. Did this event change? Nope. How about this one? Oh, look, one has been added. I begged the Administrative Assistant responsible for the district calendar to Please use a shared calendar.

I worked with several teachers to implement some laptop programs. We started a laptop program for our sixth graders. We brought in lots of computers for students and staff to use.

I started an after-school program to teach computer skills, with a technology integration focus. These were pretty well attended.

We shared differentiation strategies, actual classroom use, and more at Staff Meetings.

I moved from school administration into district administration as a Technology Director.

Technology Director

I spent about a decade as a Technology Director. I worked to bring in technology use throughout the district. I created a Technology Coach position (with two Technology Coaches) for the district. Together (with more Tech Team members), we focused on how to use technology for student success.

We had bits of success here and there but failed to institutionalize the growth. There were always lots of roadblocks. Lots of misunderstandings.

We did get a program where every teacher was at least expected to create a blog. No, this is not the greatest instructional use of technology, but it did help some teachers move to develop some tech skills. Even more importantly, it increased communication with our parents and community.

iPad Story

I clearly remember having lots of discussions about iPads. When the iPad was first introduced, it was, at least partially, targeted at schools. Several people were pushing how iPads were going to revolutionize education. There was a school in Ireland that went all iPads. Fraser Speirs was widely lauded for his work. Lots of media pushed the possibilities of the iPad. Los Angeles famously signed a billion-dollar iPad program (which promptly crashed and burned).

I was always of the belief that the iPad would never be a really successful product in education UNLESS there was a massive amount of professional development. I’m talking about the kind of professional development that we’ve never done.

Fraser Speirs ran the iPad program for almost a decade. In 2019, Fraser Speirs switched his one-to-one program to Chromebooks.

And, finally, the ultimate switch: moving the world’s first 1:1 iPad school away from iOS to Chromebook. Writing here in 2020 under Coronavirus lockdown, I can honestly say this was the most prescient thing I have ever done.

There was a time where Fraser Speirs argued that the iPad was a content creation device.

This is not meant to be critical of Fraser Speirs. There were several things that just didn’t catch on (like iTunes U), or never really were supported very well.

COVID

COVID hit and everyone went full-on technology. Zoom was purchased by tons of school districts. Learning Management Systems (LMS), or those that pretended to be an LMS – Google Classroom, were brought into schools. Teachers were NOT prepared for this. I posted about this early on, Learning Is Messy. Teachers did an incredible job of adjusting. Naturally, learning looked very different based on the teacher. Generally, though, COVID did not bring great technology implementation. COVID brought some use of technology.

Now that COVID is “over” (it’s not over, but we are acting like it), there is a huge backlash to technology. One of the most popular things I’m hearing is all about how we need to “limit screen time”. (This is actually nothing new. There was pushback about screen time prior to COVID shutting schools down.)

The optimistic side is pushing that teachers will “use the new skills that they developed during COVID”. I’m afraid that I’m not really seeing that. First of all, COVID was a different structure for education. Secondly, I’m not sure that educators were supported much in really using technology.

Technology Understanding

Michigan had a Teachers Technology Initiative (the TTI program) right about 2000. (It’s tough to find information about the program, so I’m going to mostly rely on my memory.) Here is a bit of a write-up from MacWorld:

The Teacher Technology Initiative (TTI) is a voluntary program designed to support teaching and learning in Michigan’s public schools and public school academies through a one-time investment in Michigan’s K-12 teachers. You can learn more at the TTI Web site. The initiative is managed by the Michigan Virtual University, a private, not-for-profit Michigan corporation established in 1998 “to meet the specific workforce development education and training needs of Michigan businesses and industries and their current and prospective employees through the innovative use of electronic learning technologies.”

The idea was to prime every teacher to develop technology skills by providing them with a computer (either a Mac or a Dell). So, lots of computers were purchased and handed out.

Maine has had the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI) since right about the same time. Maine has a different focus and has continued.

Teachers now use technology every day. Email is the prevalent communication platform. Many (most?) teachers use a computer every day. Grades are probably entered electronically. Maybe they post assignments on a blog (or Facebook or Instagram).

Yet, for many teachers, there hasn’t been a fundamental change. Sure, the worksheet is now typed up on a computer and printed on the copier. Or maybe the worksheet is shared electronically. But, it’s still a worksheet. (*Note: there is nothing wrong with worksheets. However, if that is the only form of assessment, or the educator isn’t clear about why a worksheet is used, well….).

Writing Across the Curriculum

Recently, I was reading Curmudgucation about Writing Across the Curriculum . Part of the point of the article was that not all teachers were prepared and trained to be writing teachers. And that got me thinking.

I think that technology is much like writing. Teachers still don’t have the requisite training, background, and knowledge to fully implement technology in their classrooms. We don’t really have universally implemented models of education with technology. (Yes, I’m aware of the work with Blended Learning Models. I believe in lots of them and am critical/hesitant/thoughtful about some of them. Blended Learning has been around for quite a while.)

EdTech

EdTech has long been a popular(???) topic in some circles. Different technology tools were going to completely revolutionize education. These tools were going to make teachers obsolete in some cases. Frequently, these were based on Adaptive Learning methods. This is where the software would adjust which lessons/material would be presented next based on what the student was doing or answered on a quiz.

Heck, even Khan Academy was going to take over at one point.

Now comes news that may EdTech is seeing a bit of withdrawal: EdTech is No Longer a Funding Fave.

Future

So, what is the future? Will we start to really investigate how we can make school reflective of student choice? Will we create opportunities for students to differentiate how they learn or prove that they have learned something? Will we help develop teachers to be the best that they can be?

Novel or Boringly Effective?

July 5, 2023 / Troy / 0 Comments

The school year has come to the end. As is traditional, we had a nice, short meeting with all the staff and lunch. The lunch was fantastic – BBQ.

The short meeting included a brief reflection from each department. The reflection was tied to a success during the year. This is a great strategy and a good time. Each of the departments shared a success during the year. Generally, what was shared was a “big event”.

This though is one of the things that strikes me with Technology. Everyone seems to be looking for the big splash. This is one of the reasons that so many paid programs become so popular. They advertise great things.

I get it. As humans, we have a natural predisposition to “shiny” things. The “ordinary” takes less and less of our attention. The novel grabs our attention. Thus, technology vendors push the “new” (i.e. the novel) constantly. Their job is to make money. To get people (or organizations) to give them money, they need to stand out.

Educators go to conferences, follow famous educators, read books, etc. They see something shiny and want to implement that too.

Meanwhile, we have some terrific technology that is fully implemented and available. This technology has become “boring”. Students could very easily be taking advantage of these tools. However, frequently, educators haven’t figured out exactly how. Part of educators not having that figured out may relate back to the amount of time that educators have to learn new things and how to use those things.

Let’s get a bit more specific. Basic skills of computer use are frequently missing for educators. Things like connecting to a projector and troubleshooting if the screen doesn’t immediately display can be frustrating for many. This should be really, really basic. Projecting is crucial because so many teachers rely on projection as a method of communication. Projection can also be crucial for students to share what they know. How about basic spreadsheet use? Spreadsheets can help students understand facts. Spreadsheets can also help understand charts and graphs. Students should be able to create and understand charts and graphs. Students should also understand how data can be misused. This includes misusing charts and graphs. This is really about critical thinking. Yet, many educators are confused by spreadsheets. Educators may not understand how to create good spreadsheets. By educators not understanding spreadsheets, it makes it difficult for students to learn, develop and grow those critical thinking skills.

Having decent technology skills would help enable educators to differentiate instruction. There are several ways differentiation would be empowered with technology skills.

For starters, these skills would open up opportunities for students to show that they know things in a variety of ways. Having core competencies with technology means that educators could feel comfortable having students create an audio program (frequently called a podcast), create a video, create an interactive presentation, create a website, etc. Students need assistance in the how to do those things. However, once students have those skills, they can utilize them in multiple settings.

Once educators have strong technology skills, other avenues also open up for them. Educators can take advantage of Learning Management Systems to time shift. Those educators can create multiple pathways for students to learn material. This takes work and is probably not very “shiny”. However, this can make huge differences for a wide variety of students.

Mentors

June 17, 2023 / Troy / 0 Comments

I’ve been thinking about Mentors a bit lately.

Part of this is due to a write-up from the brilliant Bob Harrison. Bob wrote a blog post entitled “Leaving Dearborn: A Tribute to Heroes, Visionaries, Friends, and Students”. I’m honored to have been included in Bob’s post.

I wasn’t sure how to respond. I’ve always felt privileged to discuss and debate with Bob. I tried to create a strong, diverse team. I didn’t set out to be a “mentor”.

The more I think about it though, the more I realize that mentors should be picked by the “mentee”. I started thinking about my mentors. My mentors include Terry Campbell and Gail Shenkman. I doubt either one of them consciously decided to be a mentor for me. Yet, both were absolutely instrumental for me. Terry believed in me as a younster. He shared so many thoughts, so much practical advice. He firmly believed in kids becoming successful even if they weren’t successful in traditional settings. He had a sense of humor and a pragmatic streak.

Gail Shenkman was very, very different than Terry. Gail was a no-nonsense educator. Although most people say that they are in education for the kids, Gail lived it. Every decision was made with kids in mind. She wasn’t afraid to tell it like it was. She pushed me to make decisions that were based in what was best for all learners. For example, we pushed to have students accepted at the Magnet School-based not just on a single test score on a multiple choice test (we absolutely knew the impact of that – students from the “rich” side of the city would make up the entire population), but on fair and balanced criteria. We pushed for equal respresentation. Funny thing, the students from the lower SES areas ended up doing just as well, if not better, than the students from a higher SES background.

I’ll be forever indebted to these two people.

Still, when Bob posted a tribute and included me, I didn’t know how to respond (so, I responded badly – i.e. not all). What I should’ve done is simply accept the honor. I should’ve said, “Thank You”. Indeed, I do feel honored. I’m not sure that I “earned” that, but I guess it’s really not up to me.

So I’d like to say the following to Bob. I’m hoping that this isn’t too late, but “Thank You”. I’m thrilled to have worked with you. I’m honored to have played whatever small role I’ve played. Keep fighting the good fight.

Plea for Action

June 5, 2023 / Troy / 0 Comments

This is a plea for action.

A friend came to me asking for help. This friend’s Facebook account has been hacked. The hackers are now asking for money using the compromised account. This is particularly effective since this is an account that lots of people have interacted with for quite a while. So, friends and relatives are responding to requests for money. Since this is a “known” account, the request has more import. The hackers are benefitting since people are sending money.

This is not a famous person. This person is not “rich”. There isn’t really anything extraordinary (that others would know, the person is a really, really good person). There aren’t any keys that would say that this person is a high-value target.

Looking into fixing this is complex. The hackers have since added MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) to the account. Thus, working through the Facebook recovery process is unsuccessful (since MFA is on, the hackers get the code to recover).

We’ve walked through all the steps, and now await a response from Facebook. Luckily, access to the email account used to set up the Facebook account. However, we are now at the step where the only way to recover the account may be to upload a copy of identification (driver’s license, passport, etc.). So now, the friend is faced with the decision of giving Facebook even more information (copy of legal documents) or losing the account. The friend has sent an email stating that there is a violation of privacy terms, so we’re hoping that will prompt action.

I haven’t used Facebook or Instagram in quite a while. So, I decided to follow my own advice and check to see if I had MFA turned on. Guess what? I did not. I do now.

So that’s the plea. Check your accounts to make sure that you have MFA (2-step authentication) turned on. Check those old accounts that you don’t really use. Do a full audit of all accounts. Don’t wait until it’s too late.

Web Site Prophecy

May 15, 2023 / Troy / 0 Comments

Long ago (apparently 2014), I registered https://troypatterson.me as my “home” on the web. When I registered it, I tried to get troypatterson.com.

However, there is a famous writer named Troy Patterson (who registered the domain troypatterson.com in 2010). Interestingly, the domain automatically forwards to troydpatterson.com.

At the time, I tried to get troyrpatterson.com as well. That was also taken by the aforementioned Troy Patterson. It does seem to be available now, but I’m happy with my little spot on the Internet.

So, I ended up taking troypatterson.me. Little did I know that in a way, that would turn out to be prophetic. See, now I live in Maine, where the state abbreviation is ME. So, I guess I now have Troy Patterson of Maine as my website address.

Week Note 2023-05

May 1, 2023 / Troy / 0 Comments

Well, technically not a week, but a “weeks” note. I apparently fell off the posting regularly wagon once again.

AI

AI continues to dominate the thoughts and news (around education and in general). Some are saying that this will bring about as big of a change as mobile phones did. I’m not sure that I’m there yet, but I do think that there is “something” there. Currently, I’m thinking that AI will be more and more integrated into other tools. We are already seeing a good bit of that.

Mother-in-Law Visit

My Mother in law visited for a couple of weeks. In order to increase her comfort level, we’ve added a day bed to our setup. I think that she had a good time visiting a variety of places.

Continuing Redecorating

We headed off to the Vault and ended up picking up a couple of lamps. The original goal was to pick up a desk and chair that Rm had previously spied.

Rm also found a cabinet for the kitchen. That one was the result of the trip to see D2 at D1’s house. The real struggle was getting the cabinet (two pieces) into the Bronco. Ultimately, we failed. D1 came and took the top half of the cabinet.

Indictment

One of the biggest news pieces this week has been the indictment of Donald Trump (which he referred to as being “INDICATED”, in all caps of course). There were tons of people (especially politicians) coming out in defense of Trump before the charges were even revealed. Trump is, of course, using this as a fundraising opportunity – (Hey, I’m a billionaire who is really business smart, and you make minimum wage, but I need $47 from you for my defense).

Principal Fill In

Due to the Principal and Vice Principal being out, I did some duties as the Administrator. The challenge for me has been the difference in culture. The most important thing in filling in is to support the vision and culture existing in the school. Some of my expectations and requirements are very different from what is in place.

BookWyrm

I’m exploring Bookwrym as a reading tracking site.

Lock Down Exams

April 6, 2023 / Troy / 0 Comments

Recently I was asked to create a Lock Down environment for students writing essays. This is definitely a direct response to ChatGPT and similar tools.

I’ve set up Moodle with Safe Exam Browser. This is well supported by Moodle. However, I had to make sure to add a “Quit Password” to the assignment. It is also easiest to let Moodle take care of the configuration. It is absolutely crucial to set a “Quit Password”.

Next, the teacher wants two things:

A Word Count for students
Indented paragraphs

The good news is that there is a plugin for the Atto Editor called Word Count. Not surprisingly, that provides a Word Count feature directly within the Atto editor. Once you add that plug-in (AND add “count = count” to the Toolbar config within the Atto Editor settings – this makes the button visible), students have access to see how many words they have written with the click of a button. This is AWESOME!

I’m still trying to solve the indenting a paragraph issue. Since hitting the tab key moves to the next component for websites, that is a no-starter. However, I’m reviewing some plugins that may help. I’ve tried Components for Learning (c4l), but that doesn’t have what I need. It is a great plugin, just doesn’t solve this issue.

Currently, I’m taking a look at the Atto Editor to see if there is anything there that I can do.

*Padlock image by Roy Harryman: www.RoyHarryman.com

Google Sheets Sign-In Form

March 14, 2023 / Troy / 0 Comments

I was approached about helping to organize the volunteer sign-in sheet. The Admin Assistant had already created a Google Form to collect information. There was a Google Spreadsheet set to collect the information from the Form. Then, there was a tab per day to copy and paste to. (* Copy and pasting is rife with unintentional error possibilities.)

What they really wanted at the end was a sign-in sheet that could be printed. As the volunteers come in, they could physically sign in. There are also additional forms that need to be in place. So, the desire was a sign-in sheet that looked something like this:

Google Spreadsheet tab with the following columns:
Time In ,Time Out,Classroom/ Teacher,Last Name,First Name,Volunteer Awareness Training Completed,Volunteer Registration Form Completed,Criminal Background Check Completed,Event,Volunteer Signature

Since I prefer for these things to be automated, I started by creating an additional column for the Date. This date is auto-populated from the spreadsheet. By using Data Validation, this can then be a drop-down. No more additional tabs for the spreadsheet, simply pick the date and print.

We now have two tabs:

Form Responses – where the Form Responses automatically go
Print Date – this is the printable sheet.

I selected the “Print Date” tab. To set up the Date, I clicked into Cell A2 (this is where I want the pickable date). Then, I went to Data | Data validation. In Apply to range, I chose ‘Print Date’!A2 (note the single quote marks – they encapsulate the name of the tab). In Criteria, I picked “Dropdown (from a range)”. Now it’s time for some magic. I used the formula: =’Form Responses 3′!$L$2:$R. Let’s break that down. The equal sign (=) denotes a formula. The ‘Form Responses 3’ (again, note the single quote marks), indicates the sheet to pull the information from. The bang (!) is crucial to using a different sheet. The dollar signs ($) go row by row. The L2:R is the range.

(* Quick side note. They had asked if this was a one time volunteer situation or recurring. However, they didn’t want to make the Form too complex, so it is a Start/End date question. I moved the “Start Date” to the end of the columns, then added six addtional colums. The Admin Asssistant will have to add dates if recurring into those columns.).

So, now the Print Date tab has drop-down menu of dates (from Form Responses) that will automatically update with dates.

Next is to pull the Volunteer information into the Print Date tab. I tried a FILTER function, but that only will test one column. That’s a problem since I want to check multiple columns (columns L-R).

After a bit too much overthinking, FILTER is the correct answer. There just needs to be multiple FILTER criteria involved.

In Cell D2; the following formula does what we need:

=FILTER(‘Form Responses 3’!F2:K,(‘Form Responses 3’!L2:L=A2)+(‘Form Responses 3’!M2:M=A2)+(‘Form Responses 3’!N2:N=A2)+(‘Form Responses 3’!O2:O=A2)+(‘Form Responses 3’!P2:P=A2)+(‘Form Responses 3’!Q2:Q=A2)+(‘Form Responses 3’!R2:R=A2))

Let’s break down that formula a bit. FILTER is the command. The FILTER function goes like this: =FILTER(range,condition1, [condition2,…]). We only want one condition. But, we want that one condition to apply to multiple columns.

Range: ‘Form Responses 3′(again, note the single quotes and their location) refers to another tab. The first part of this is pulling the information that we want copied (F2 through K – this equates to Teacher Name, Volunteer Last Name, Volunteer First Name, Awareness Training, Volunteer Registration, and Criminal Background).
Condition – The next bit is wrapped in paratheses since we are going to have multiples. We add a plus sign between each condition. You’ll note that the only thing that changes in each of these conditions is the column reference.

Google Spreadsheet tab with the following columns:
Date,Time In ,Time Out,Classroom/ Teacher,Last Name,First Name,Volunteer Awareness Training Completed,Volunteer Registration Form Completed,Criminal Background Check Completed,Event,Volunteer Signature

I then turned Columns G, H, & I into checkboxes. (* Otherwise these will report as TRUE/FALSE since they are checkboxes on the other tab – Form Responses). This is simply selecting the columns (Command-click on the headers to deselect those) and choosing Insert | Checkbox.

Finally, I deleted most of the rows so that printing the tab Print Date will only print one page.

I advised the Admin Assist to turn on Notifications so that they know when Form has been completed. They can then add additional dates if needed (Columns M-R). They click the appropriate checkboxes for the required information:

Volunteer Awareness Training
Volunteer Registration Form
Criminal Background Check

The Google Spreadsheet the accepts Form Responses. Shows the heading columns (Timestamp,Time Volunteer is Coming...,Is this a one time occurrence?,Which days of the week will the volunteer be coming?,If this volunteer will come on a repeat basis, please indicate the end date of their volunteering.,Select your last name from the dropdown menu. ,Volunteer LAST Name,Volunteer FIRST Name,Volunteer Awareness Training Completed,Volunteer Registration Form Completed,Criminal Background Check Completed,Date Volunteer is Coming,Additional Dates).

Now the usage is pretty simple. In the morning, the Admin Assistant opens the Spreadsheet. That person clicks on the Date dropdown in Cell A2. If that date doesn’t appear, there are no volunteers. If the date does appear, they print out that sheet and post it. When the Volunteer arrives, they can sign in and add the time of arrival.