Author: Troy (Page 11 of 40)

52Frames

I completed the sixth challenge for the 52Frames Photo Challenge.

Super Bowl Sunday

This was mostly a lazy day. I did a bunch of web updating, application updating, website backups (remember to create your backups), and a little bit of reading (Adam Grant’s Hidden Potential).

The game wasn’t all that great. The one thing that did strike me though was that the Lions have looked like they belong in the top tier of teams. This is the first time in my life that I’ve actually been able to say that.

Jokes

I set up a new Moodle Course. The main purpose right now (there will be other uses coming) was to create a Random Glossary Block of Jokes. I’d like to do something similar in WordPress, but I’ll need to figure out how. Moodle was simple.

Grocery shopping

I did the grocery shopping this week as D1 was over. It still amazes me how one gets used to the way that a particular place is laid out to navigate. Our local grocery store is still closed because of the flooding on December 15th. The store that I shopped at has a very different layout. I’ve been there before, but I’m still getting used to the layout.

This reminds me just how important the visual look and feel of a web resource is. I’m hoping to do a bit of revamping of my website soon. I’ll need to remember to make navigation as easy as possible. I also want to add some features, so I need to make those easy to use as well.

Google Appointment Slots

I worked with a fellow employee who wanted to add an application to the work calendar. The application has refused to sign the student data privacy agreements that we now require. So, I asked what the person was trying to accomplish. That person explained. I opened Google Appointment Slots and walked them through the process. “WOW, this does the same thing. How is xxx going to stay in business?”

Moving From One Island to Another

Some of the Tech Integrators I follow on a list serve were complaining about Quizlet. Apparently, there are student data issues and cost issues. Lots of posts were about moving to another provider with similar concerns:

• Knowt
• Kahoot
• PearDeck
• Quizizz
  My observation is that many are going to move from one island to another. The island looks good until you realize that you are captured. Incredibly, instead of asking about an island where you aren’t “captured”, many are moving to another island owned by a venture capitalist who is going to want/need to make money from you soon.

I shared Study State which was created as an open source project by a high school senior. This is a project that scratches the itch of an individual. Thus, the concern is if that individual moves on.

Randy Rainbow

We went to see Randy Rainbow this week as well. Good show. Very much what was expected. It was a fun night.

I was a bit surprised that not many people I chatted with the next day know who Randy Rainbow is.

Earlier Posts:

• Enshittification and Owning Your Land
• 52Frames Week 6 Challenge: Shoot From Above

That’s it for now.

Moodle Login

This was a great week for Moodle work. I’ve fixed the Moodle Login Page so that it looks and functions so much better (see write-up for details).

Apple iPad Training

I participated in a training for using Apple’s iPad with early learners. It was too generic for me. In order to really use iPads proficiently, teachers need training. Training is a rare and extremely valuable resource in education.

Friend Chat

I had the opportunity to have a great chat with a friend. We chatted about some educational things (he works in the district that I worked in for many years), photography (we’re both doing the 52Frames Challenge), families, and how to be better people. I always enjoy chatting with him.

Dog Walking

I was watching D1’s dog this weekend. I took her for a wonderful walk (well, 75% of the walk was wonderful). She did all the things (cleaned up after her), plus she got some really good sniffs in. This seemed to be especially the case where a set of tracks let to the woods.

However, on the way back, a dog came barking and running after us. The black dog attacked D1’s dog. They locked in, biting each other around the snout. D1’s dog probably had the better of the situation. The couple came running and we were able to get the dogs disentangled. They apologized a couple of times, but I was most concerned to get D1’s doggie home to see how she was. Fortunately, she had just a little scratch on the bottom of her jaw.

Please folks, know and watch your dog.

Costco

We made our first trip to Costco in several years. This is due to Costco opening in Maine. Naturally, we picked up a few things.

Joplin

Just a quick note about Joplin. I use Joplin as my main note-taking app. I’ve added a couple of plugins that make it even more useful.

• Journal – this allows you to quickly create a Journal entry for any day.
• Note Tabs – this allows for multiple Joplin notes to be “open” at once.
• MacOS Theme – just a visual thing.

Joplin syncs to all my devices through Dropbox. This means that I’m not dependent on any other service. (I could set up a NextCloud instance on my web server, but that isn’t necessary at this point.)

It works really, really well. This is how I write blog posts and many other things as well.

Followers

I am but an imperfect vessel.

I’m afraid I got caught up in who if anyone was following my online scribbles. I don’t really think that there are many people who follow my writings, and I do write for me. I have found that future me really appreciates when present me documents some things that I’ve done.

Still, it is nice to get some feedback every once in a while. It’s nice to know that there is someone reading. So, I posted about asking for subscribers to my website. Thankfully, the wonderful Ben Werdmuller commented that some people follow on RSS. A bit of embarrassment for asking, and a reminder that I follow lots of people via RSS as well. I really should shoot some of them a note of appreciation.

Moodle

The version of Moodle that I installed turned out to have an issue with the Lesson Module. I use Lesson extensively. This was part of our Annual Training course, so I needed to fix that. A bit of research showed that the Lesson issue had been identified and resolved. So, I installed the lastest version. Except, either I didn’t uninstall a plugin correctly before updating or there was an issue with some plugins during the update process. In checking the Tracker, there was an issue with some plugins, which may or may not have partly my fault for not running the plugin update prior to the Moodle update. I’m not sure if I did or not, but I totally agree that I could’ve missed that step – lesson learned. Anyway, the update resulted in being stuck at the install level. I was able to troubleshoot and re-enable acces that site, but I couldn’t install new plugins. Thankfully, the issue was fully identified and resolved with the next weekly update. So, once again, Moodle is up and running. Everything has been restored. A lesson has been learned. A reminder that the Moodle community is awesome.

Weather

We’ve had some winter weather lately as well. We had a two hour delay to starting school on Thursday due to ice. Last Tuesday, the district scheduled an early release due to impending weather. Since notice went out early enough, I was able to work remotely. This allowed me to get a specific project completed.

52 Frames

So far, I’ve submitted something for each week of the 52Frames Photo Challenge. I still would like to spend more time on some of the submissions, but I’m taking the submissions themselves as a win. I also really appreciate some of the feedback that I’ve gotten on photos posted.

Lions

I’ve long been a Lions fan (which by definition also means I’ve been a long suffering Lions fan.) It has been quite the thrill to see them winning. They have been playing entertaining football and really seem to have found the right combination of leaders. So, Go Lions!!!