Standing up for public education and public school employees

First rally I have ever been to. I stand in solidarity with the people of Wisconsin, where Republicans want to strip public employees of their collective bargaining rights.

Old and New

Multimedia from MatuliSurfboards on Vimeo.

Video I made using a G5, a Canon t1i, a turntable, a whiteboard, a LCD projector, a 8mm film with projector, showcasing some of my projects.

Human Movement Input Computer Interaction

Trying out rear projected human controlled interactive computer. My students helped me test and calibrate. System used a Laptop, a LCD projector, a Nintendo Wii remote and Bluetooth adaptor and Johnny Lee’s whiteboard software. Johnny’s software is free at his website.

http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/

TEST

Photo Attribution:

Original image: " IMG_0729"
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-rpKrb_28yVn64myM9LghpZGkx7s7Khc_bNuHWC2m0zsu91Jhyf8DfqBab2lkX-uZBjSfd4GE0FdP9jYjdniQkTVz0gh6A4hhhmKtY1BQaAI781qn_0pnCVXK8lDxC79ENn0SG_R3ewNQ/s912/IMG_0729.jpg
by: Joe Matulis

Released under an Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/

I take a lot of pictures. I really didn't think much of other people using them until I started to talk to my photo journalism friend. He was really upset that some of my pictures were being used by a city without giving me any credit or even asking if they could use them.

I post a lot of pictures on facebook and about once a week I will get a message from facebook telling me that a fried of mine has used one of my pictures as their facebook profile picture. This does not include those who first download the my picture and re-upload it to facebook. I don't really mind. If I wanted to keep more restrictions on my photos I could use a sight like Flicker. At the same time any picture that is viewable can be stolen. I post pictures for my friends to view. I am not trying to make money off of them. ...more later

Safer web surfing

Organizing your desktop:

A lot about making new folders to organize your desktop. Documents, applications, photos. Sort files and move to the correct folder.

Adding buttons inside folders in windows for frequently used folders.

I use a Mac most of the time so a lot of this info was not very interesting or useful to me.

Safer web surfing:

Using Firefox instead of internet explorer. For its privacy options.

I learned Firefox can save passwords and they can be viewed by anyone using your computer if you do not increase privacy settings.

Avoid popup and popunder ads.

Wireless network Safety:

Make sure you change your routers default password.

Use WEP as your encryption.

Disable ssid so people can not see your network.

Radically Really Simple Syndication

Stories about Egypt seemed to take over my RSS Google reader this week. That is why I made this posts picture about Egypt. I read an article in my reader about how Social Media was shut down in Egypt for a while and people who wanted to transmit information had to via a fax machine.

I am on Gmail all the time, so I decided to use the Google reader. It was easy to add different feeds to web sites I commonly visit. Instead of going through my bookmarks each day I can open up Google reader and see what has been added to my favorite sites.

Google reader allows users to share articles by clicking a share button. If you would like to see what I have shared you can go to http://www.google.com/reader/shared/970surfboards

Trends allow users to see what when and what you are reading. I think Google uses this information to supply you with relevant ads and to make recommendations for specific users. It looks like I do most of my reading on the weekends.

I did not find too many feeds specific to P.E. I did subscribe to sport news sites. I can always uses stories about sports to inspire students or to help students think about topics like sportsmanship.

I made some comments on my favorite surfing blog. For more info you can read the earlier post. I used the comment feature to reader commenting on President Reagan’s Lifeguarding.

I just learned about Social bookmaking. I found a bunch of new, to me, P.E. web sites. I first bookmarked my favorite P.E. site then by looking at other users who also bookmarked that site. I then looked at other bookmarks that other users bookmarked. You can see my bookmarks at http://www.delicious.com/matulisj

Twittering

After my first few weeks on twitter I can see what it is all about. I do not really see myself using it all that much. It reminds me of facebook status posts. My brothers made fun of me when they saw me using it. I did not let it bother me, it was kind of funny. I like how you can post right from your phone using a text message from anywhere.

Getting Things Done

I teach at 4 different schools. This means I have 4 different offices, 4 different principals, 4 different physical inboxes, and 4 different secretaries. Each school has its own events and schedules. On top of all this I have a work voicemail and a work email.

Before working on my process I read Kelly Forrister’s blog post on GTD. I started to think of what I carried to school with me and how I could implement some of David Allen’s ideas. The only think I always have with me is my cell phone. I also have computer access at all of my schools and at home.

Collecting seems like a difficult task when I am always on the move. I want to get everything into on inbox. All of the school mail gets routed through one building and then out to individual schools. I could talk to the mail room and get all of my mail routed to one signal building. I know that this would not reroute the local in-school mail but it would streamline most of my mail. I am going to make my School Gmail account my only inbox. All my mailboxes have a copy machine that can scan a document and email it. So when I collect something I plan to process it goes to my Gmail.

I also found out that I can Email myself through sms on my phone. So if I have a task to process I can send it right to my inbox.

Processing. The main thing I learned from this section of Kelly’s blog was to make decisions about things when things first show up. If the task takes less then 2 min do it.

When things are in my inbox I can than organize them. I made different folders in Gmail where I can send tasks. Using the ideas from Kellys Blog.

Reference - no action, you just need to hold on to it.
Someday/Maybe - no current action, but you want to incubate it for possible later action.
Projects - a list of your current outcomes that require more than one action to complete
Next Actions - one list or sorted by context, to manage your physical, visible next steps (project related and not)
Waiting For - actions that require you to track that you are waiting on someone or something.

Steps Review and Do just fall into place by looking at my new gmail folders and deciding how much time I have.

I do think this process will help my mind rest a little knowing that I have everything in on place and I will no forget about things. One problem, I just realized about my system, what happens if Gmail goes down?

My first time through everyone was wondering why I was using the copy machine. I think I will get my mail later in the day when Everyone else in their classrooms except me so I don’t have to wait in line to use it. Also, coworkers keep wondering who I am always texting.

I could see my self sticking with this. The more you do something the easer it gets.