Category: Weekly Review (Page 1 of 7)

Moving Day

After a good bit of thinking, I decided to move from Hostgator as my web host. Essentially, there were two deciding factors:

1. MySQL stuck at version 5
2. Frequent notifications that my website(s) were offline

I did some research and decided upon Bluehost. I was hopeful that this would be a smooth transition (*hopes were dashed). Bluehost has a transfer process where they have scripted moving your website. This only works for WordPress websites, so I had no expectations of my other websites (mostly Moodle).

Here is where my hopes were dashed. Bluehost creates temporary URL’s and directories. These seem to cause lots of problems. I ended up spending parts of two days on support, live chat, for a total of probably six hours. However, I think that now things are resolved well enough that I can fix things up as needed.

I will still need to go in and verify some things. However, the majority of the work is now done. Bluehost should be in play for the next three years. Whether that is enough time for forget the pain or not will be answered in 2029.

I did end up saving some money on the hosting fees. I also have some tips:

• Bluehost installs an additional WordPress plugin. This may cause some issues.
• Note that Bluehost uses “temporary URL’s” for the transferred sites. I’m not sure if this is common, but I think that this caused a ton of issues.
• Moving email is a pain.
• Bluehost provides Help Documents, but they are not correct. For example, the Help Document on moving email mentions nothing about the email that is not in your Inbox, but is in a folder.
• I will give props to the chat team. Even though I feel like I had to point out some issues, there wasn’t any pressure to end the chat without resolution.

Anyway, my websites are now back up and accessible. If you get any additional RSS entries, I apologize.

52 Frames

I spent most of my weekend working on the hosting transition. However, this is also the first week of 52Frames. The first week is always a self portrait. I took a couple of images on Thursday, but the focus wasn’t great. I also learned that my external flash is limited to a slower shutter speed (around 1/125).

I took a couple more shots today (Sunday) after getting the web stuff sorted. The flash worked fine for a couple of pictures, then decided to stop working. Thus, the self portrait that I ended up submitting wasn’t what I really wanted, but I’m tired of trouble shooting at this point. This issue is really that this is the image for your account for the year.

Portland

My wonderful wife and I did head down to Portland (Maine) for an afternoon date day. We stopped in to some nice stores, did some shopping and hit the grocery store. We had some appetizers and refreshments at Rosie’s, visited a Comic store, and picked up some things for Hazel.

URL Structure

I’ve been running Middle School Matters for since February of 2007. When I set the site up, the guidance was to use permalinks based on a plain URL structure (where post end up with a number). I had been thinking about switching to the much more modern structured URL (day and name). However, I wasn’t sure if I would break anything (like the podcast XML links).

However, I hit an issue where the RSS feed wasn’t resolving correctly. Basically, one should be able to add /feed/ to the base URL to get an RSS feed. Thus, https://middleschoolmatters.com/feed/ should’ve (and now does) result in an RSS feed. It didn’t.

After a bit of research and work, too much research and work, I’ve made the change. My original research took me into a couple of paths, it’s a theme issue, functions.php is not ended correctly. I reviewed those. Finally, I came across a post that suggested plain URL’s were the issue. TaDa! Switching to Day and name URL structure meant that everything magically starts working.

52Frames

I completed the 52Frames challenge again this year. I missed posting one week, I had an image, but had decided to wait to see if I could get something “better” during a Sunday hike. I then forgot to post on Sunday. Lesson learned. I also learned that you can “edit” (i.e. change) the image submitted. So, from now on, I’ll post an image that I have and replace if I like something better in the future.

This was the second year of 52Frames for me. Some weeks are definitely just “take a picture”, but the challenges do help me think about photography during the week.

I plan on participating again in 2026.

Web Host

I’m considering switching my web host. I’ve been with HostGator for many, many years. However, they have me stuck at MySQL 5. I need MySQL 8 for the latest version of Moodle. As a side benefit, it looks like a may save a few dollars for the first few years.

I’m looking at Bluehost. In the end, I would also end up with a bit of extra storage space as well.

Ben Werdmuller

Ben Werd (Ben Werdmuller) is one of my favorite follows. He always posts interesting stuff. If you are interested in news, deep thinking, and interesting writing, consider following him.

The Rise of the Lemmings

The People Outsourcing Their Thinking to AI ($) is a fascinating article. (Sorry, this one is behind a paywall. It’s important to support news gathering.)

The article starts with someone worried about the “Google Maps-ification” issue. That is, people don’t have a construct of the world or where they are. They simple plug in the directions to Google Maps and away they go. The same person fears becoming dependent upon AI. He uses it up to eight hours a day. He takes advice on marriage and parenting as well as just about everything else from the AI chatbots.

I fear that this will continue to grow. I’m especially concerned for our students. They currently are “growing up with AI” and it’s very much normalized for them. The real question will be how do they react/interact with the AI. Do they know how incredibly delusional it can be? Do they understand what is really happening (i.e. how AI actually works)? Will students forego the hard working of learning and cognition? Will Idiocracy become a prediction rather than just a satiric movie?

The article continues with an educator who teaches AI realizing that he had become “reliant” on ChatGPT. Instead of actually thinking, he had become reliant on ChatGPT. Another interviewee relates how she can’t start “meaningful work” without first consulting AI.

Yet another interviewee relates that while out with friends at a club and having not heard from them in a bit, she asked AI “What’s the probality that they are OK?”. She frequently asks AI questions that she knows it can’t possibly answer correctly, but she wants “reassurance”.

According to the article, ChatGPT is working on designing features that discourage the use of ChatGPT to outsource thinking. Yep, no conflict here (sarcasism).

AI isn’t going away. What it will become, and what impact that it will have will be up to us. I’m not really a doomday sayer. We’ve heard throughout history how one thing or another was going to destroy the world. (* One of my favorite sites is the Pessimists Archive).

Hall of Fame

Sorry, if Jeff Kent has been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, they’ve only pointed out the agregiousness of not having elected Lou Whitaker.

Web Host

I’m considering switching my web host. I’ve been with HostGator for many, many years. However, they have me stuck at MySQL 5. I need MySQL 8 for the latest version of Moodle. As a side benefit, it looks like a may save a few dollars for the first few years.

Application Update

I use MacUpdater to keep my applications up to date. This is a great service that will, sadly, be coming to end at the end of this month. Thus, I figure it’s a good time to really go through all my applications. The idea is to make sure that each application is up to date. During this process, I either confirm that the application is up to date, update or delete each application.

I’ve found Latest which performs a similar function. It is open source.

Latest is a free and open source app for macOS that checks if all your apps are up to date. Get a quick overview of which apps changed and what changed and update them right away. Latest currently supports apps downloaded from the Mac App Store and apps that use Sparkle for updates, which covers most of the apps on the market.

It doesn’t look quite a full featured as MacUpdater, but I’m giving it a go.

Bronco

Time for the Bronco oil change and tire rotation. While rotating the tires, a nail was discovered in one of the tires. The nail is right along the edge of the tire, thus can’t be patched. Because of the wear on the tire, if the tire can’t be patched and has to be replaced, it means replacing all four tires. Fortunately, upon pulling the nail, it hadn’t breached the tire.

Curiosity Course

I signed up for the Now I Know Curiosity Course. Mostly, just to support Now I Know. If your aren’t subscribed, Now I Know is a great little newsletter. There is one interesting story per day (Monday through Friday).

America’s Declining Test Scores

Michael Pershan has An interesting write up on test scores – I Don’t Know What to Think About America’s Declining Test Scores and Neither Should You. Pershan points out the incongruity of the standard tests – some up, some down. Everybody talks about the effect of the pandemic on academic achievement, without the follow up of how important teachers are.

I honestly think that this is a huge issue right now. Apparently, not being school has a detrimental effect on students. We haven’t taken this opportunity to understand just hwo important teachers are. Nor have we taken the opportunity to celebrate what a difference teachers make. Rather, we just kind of skip through that part.

Back to Pershan. He makes some points about how the weakest students are impacted the most. He makes a few references to “No Child Left Behind”. He even brings in Social Studies and civics.

Pershan also brings up declining scores for adults. Literacy and numeracy declines were even seen in the 55-65 year old age group.

Maybe it’s the phones? Or maybe not. Maybe it’s just an America thing?

Head over and give it a read.

The past couple of weeks have been spent dealing with the passing of my mother-in-law. I’m aware of the classic mother-in-law jokes, but we actually had a positive relationship.

Things went much faster than anticipated. I had originally flown out to Michigan with the idea of staying four days. I had figured that we’d get some things arranged (my wife had flown out a couple of days earlier), and then I’d fly back. Quite frankly, I figured her passing was coming, but that we probably had a month or so. However, I ended up staying for almost two weeks. (Special thanks to my Superintendent for his support.) While I was able to do a good bit of my job while away, I focused on the really crucial things, as my mindspace wasn’t really conducive to working full days.

I also have a couple of observations. My kids drove out. Since I thought that I’d be flying back, I hadn’t brought a suit. It quickly became clear that things might not go as expected, so I asked the kids to bring my suit. So, I went out to grab the suit from the kids’ car and put it in mine. Upon approaching the car, I noticed that the right rear tire looked “odd”. Upon further examination, it was low. Upon closer examination, there was a large screw in the tire. Great. I look at my watch. 16:30 (4:30 p.m.) on a Friday. I quickly look up tire stores around me. (I want to note that 40 years ago, this wouldn’t have been possible, so, yeah, technology.) Anyway, I see a couple of shops close, but then I think that I’ll check to see if a Belle Tire is close. Thankfully, there was. I head off to Belle Tire. The counter tech (who turns out to be the Store Manager) reassures me that they can get it taken care of right away.

I did notice that when he asked for my phone number, I hesitated at the area code. See, in Maine, there is only one area code (207), so I’m in the habit of saying “area code”, then waiting as they delete out the 207. However, I was in Michigan, where they have lots of area codes, and don’t assume one. It was then that I realized that I didn’t really have a sense of place. I had been in hospitals and the hospice center and had really lost where in the world I was. If anyone had asked me to go to spot in Maine, I would’ve thought that we could just head there. Same with Michigan (though that would work).

My mother-in-law passed away. There is tons of work to do. Clearing out a lifetime of stuff, even if it has been sorted down a few times by moving from a house to an apartment to another apartment, can take a while. Doing this while not living in the same spot can be that much more overwhelming.

I’m so extremely proud of my wife. She managed to take care of so many things while dealing with her own grief. I’m so glad that I found her.

There are still some things to do. However, the things that are left can mostly be accomplished from anywhere.

This is a reminder for me to better prepare for my own end of life. I want to make things as easy as possible for my wife and kids.

Post Update: Idea Board (Padlet Alternative)

I’ve updated the last Weekly Review to include the examples of Idea Board. I’ve also added it to one of my Moodle sites so that I can start playing around with ideas.

Josh Ritter

I Believe in You, My Honeydew is now available. My copy arrived last night. I listened to it on the way into work this morning. Solid album.

I strongly encourage supporting local artists. There are tons of really great artists out there. Go see a show. Buy an album if you can.

novelWriter

I’m checking out novelWriter. It seems to be similar to Scrivner, but open-source.

There is nothing wrong with supporting good, commercial software. I have purchased Scrivner, though I don’t use it much. It was worth the price.

I also believe in open-source software. This may work out well for you.

iOS 26, Mac OS 26

I’ve updated to the newest OS for all of my devices. I have to say that much of the interface looks a bit “fuzzy” to me. That is, the icons and text are just not a clear and crisp as they use to be.

I do kind of like the visual structures (rounded rectangles), but the clarity thing is bothersome.

Naturally, my main iMac decided to go into convulsions. It seems that when I update the iMac, I need to unplug the external drives that are attached. Of course, I forget this until there is an issue. While simply unplugging the drives usually returns the update process activity, this time I had to invoke the DFU process. This means dragging another Mac to put next to the iMac, connecting them up with a USB-C cord and following very specific instructions.

Fortunately, all is well. Middle School Matters was recorded and published on time.

Our Past, Their Future

It’s long been a question to be answered in my educational career,

Are we preparing kids for our past or their future?

That question has been persistent for me.

This has come up again as the discussion around phones and screens is one of the hot topics. It’s something that I’ll be continuing to think about and discuss.

“Padlet” in Moodle (H5P)

Oliver Tacke has created a wonderful resource in H5P that mirrors some of the functionality of Padlet. I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet, but it looks interesting.

Here is a basic example:

The second example shows the different types of boards.

Joplin

I accidentally double-clicked on a note in Joplin. To my surprise, the note opened in an additional, separate window. This is awesome!

The latest update (or maybe before that and I missed it) includes Markdown row highlighting. Joplin keeps being a really, really good choice for me.

Power of First Impressions & Tech

We know the power of first impressions. I was thinking of first impressions in troubleshooting. Sometimes, people get frustrated about Technology not working. (I get that, I get frustrated too.) However, the blame is frequently passed along that the thing (could be a site, hardware, etc) isn’t working (e.g., I need a new computer because this one won’t…) and the thing is the problem. Then it turns out that the user hasn’t restarted the computer in months. A restart fixes the thing. However, that first impression sticks.

COVID

Maine is currently requiring a prescription to receive the COVID vaccine, unless you are over 65 or have certain health conditions. Maine law requires a vaccine to be on recommended list from the CDC. I feel for the doctors and pharmacists who are now being put into a very uncomfortable position.

So, I checked the State of Maine’s website on Covid Response. Apparently, I’m not allowed to view it.

Trip

I’m planning on taking a trip to Ireland and Scotland next year. I can either spend lots of time trying to figure out how to get around, where to stay, etc. OR I can book a tour.

So, I’m currently looking at CIE tours. The reviews seem good. Does anyone have experience with CIE tours? Do you know of another option that you would recommend?