7 reasons to switch to Windows 7

Like many of you, I have a number of computers at home and work.  They are a wide range of vintages of processors and hardware.  I was lucky enough to be asked by Microsoft to host a Windows 7 launch party.  Despite the comments from my wife about being such a geek, Windows 7 has been a huge improvement in our computing at home and work.  If you are still contemplating switching over, here are some compelling reasons, and yes, this includes those of you using Mac’s, Windows 7 is simply the best operating system ever!

1. Homegroup.  Networking has never been so easy to setup and connect computers.  On Vista and XP I had a number of file shares for things like documents, music libraries..etc.  Windows 7 introduced a concept called homegroup.  Once I installed Windows 7 on a second computer at home it instantly recognized that I had a homegroup on my network, simply enter the supplied password and instantly all music, video, documents and even printers were shared.  The best surprise was last night when my wife was wanting to print to print wirelessly to a local printer on another machine, worked without any setup!
2. Libraries.  In XP Microsoft created folders called my Pictures, my Videos etc.  The problem was that different applications put pictures in other locations on the hard drive creating a challenge in locating them.  Libraries is a fresh new concept where any folder that contains pictures can be right-clicked on and added to that library.  Finding the 1000’s of pictures of my family vacations could be easier! In the graphic below there you can see that for each type of library you can see my personal documents and the public ones on this computer. 
3. Taskbar.  The revamped taskbar with live preview is amazing.  If you are like me, you typically have 5-10 browser windows and/or tabs open in addition to 3-4 other programs.  For example, right now I’m running Chrome, Live Writer (to write this), IE 8 with 4 tabs and Outlook.  Check out this graph of live preview of all my IE tabs.  Depending on your computer performance, the preview will even run videos.  It is now very quick to find each window and even close tabs that I don’t need any more.
4. Bitlocker  Vista introduced the idea of drive encryption.  While it is essential to think about the security of your data, especially on laptops that are more easily lost/stolen, most people didn’t use the encryption.  Bitlocker makes this much easier to implement.  The most amazing feature is BitLocker to Go.  This allows you to encrypt USB keys.  I always have a least one key in my work bag or pocket but rarely put much data on in the fear that I leave it behind somewhere.  With BitLocker I can password protect the drive in a way that I can make it read/write from another Windows 7 computer or read-only from XP or Vista.  It is easy to add a drive to Bitlocker.  From the control panel, select BitLocker Encryption, insert the USB key, turn on BitLocker, enter the password you want to use, click next and a few minutes later it is ready to go.
5. 64 bit operating system.  I’m a speed junkie, I really like to have a fast machine that is snappy to open files and programs when I want.  Windows 7 64 bit is much faster.  If you aren’t sure if your computer can run Windows 7 in 32 or 64 bit then there is a application that you can download and run.
6. Snap and JumpLists.  These fun features enhance the way many of us work.  With SNAP you can drag an application to the right side of the monitor and it will snap to be 1/2 the width of the screen.  Simply drag another application to the other side and it snaps to that 1/2.  Great way to compare document or do research while working in Word.  The JumpLists are an evolution of ‘recent documents’ from XP.  With XP you had recent document for all programs.  Now every program can show you the most recent documents or windows you had open.  Here is my jumplist for Internet Explorer.  
7. Performance.  I’ve been stunned at the broad range of my machines that are capable of running Windows 7.  In all cases, Windows 7 was as fast or faster on every machine.  Here is what I’ve tested so far:
1. Acer Netbook with 1Gb RAM with Windows 7 32 bit RC.  Ran as fast as XP.
2. Dell Latitude with 4Gb Ram (my work machine) with 32 bit, just waiting for my tech to get the 64 bit installed.
3. My main computer less than 6 months old with 4Gb or RAM is way faster with 64 bit.
4. Dell Inspiron 1525 (wife’s computer), 1.5 years old with 32 bit version is faster and homegroup is amazing.
5. Other computers I’ve tried out the Release Candidate (RC) without issues, it did a great job of finding all my drivers.

In the links above for each of the items there is a link to a video on the Microsoft site that demos how this feature is used.

Post a comment here and let me know what you think about Windows 7 or if you have any questions about if it is time for you to switch.

Hope. Future. Now. young writers.. voices for the world.

“I was looking for ways of using technology that couldn’t be done without the technology.  Way to provide a real audience for my students. There are certain things that I struggle to do in the walls of my classroom.  I hope to develop an appreciation of my student’s writing”

-Jen Whiffin

I was at an inspiring session with master teacher Jen Whiffin yesterday and had to post the information to my blog.  Here students are thinking, writing and reflecting on Social Responsibility and their global role and responsibility as citizens.  This is the broad umbrella of social responsibility including environmental responsibility…etc

Why it is so imperative that we let other educators know about this is that Jen is looking for an audience for her students.  As you can imagine, students are thrilled to have comments on their posts.  Take some time to read their writing and leave them a comment with your thoughts and perhaps a personal connection.

Her class is also looking for other students to join their community of of writers.  They will accept a story, a poem or even a drawing like the one above with a description.  Send your submissions to futurehopenow@gmail.com

photo by 9 year old –Grace

Interested in your comments or thoughts about blogging with students.

Educational Technology Conference – October 23rd, 2009

The Computer Using Educators of BC

Invite you to the largest

Educational Technology Conference of the year

Hosted in Surrey, BC at Sullivan Heights Secondary School.

Attend this year to find over 50 sessions (including a French strand), two keynotes, 2 mini-keynotes, vendor displays, Friday lunch, Thursday Wine and Cheese, networking with your colleagues, Saturday 1/2 and full day sessions and a CUEBC PSA Membership all included in the $100 conference fee.

List of Workshops

Conference Schedule

Register Now!

Conference Schedule Thursday 6:00 Registration Opens 7:00 Wine and Cheese 8:00 Keynote – Chris Kennedy - Assistant Superintendent of Schools for West Vancouver.

Friday (Vendor Floor open 7:30 to 2:00) 7:00 Registration Opens 7:30 Breakfast 8:30 Keynote - Steve Hargadon - Web 2.0 as the Future of Education – Founder of Classroom2.0 9:45 Sessions 11:30 Lunch / CUEBC AGM 12:15 FSL/Immersion Mini Keynote 12:45 Sessions 1:00 Changing faces of Distributed Learning – Mini Keynote 2:45 Thank you and Door Prizes

 

Saturday (Lunch on your own) 7:30 Registration 8:30 to 2:30 – Four All Day Sessions: Classroom 2.0, Quest Atlantis, 3DS Max and 9:30 to 11:00 SMART Notebook 10: Embedding interactivity into your Lessons 11:45 to 2:00 SMART Notebook 10: Best Practices for Digital Content Development

Register at http://cuebc.ca/horizons2009/

by September 30, 2009

to get the $100 Early Bird Rate.

Blog Birthday – great to be one year old!

Well today is the one year anniversary for my blog.  For those of you still thinking if you have enough time/motivation/content for a blog, I can tell you that it has been well worth it.

Reasons to have a blog!

1. Time.  While it does take time to write the blog, find pictures (what is a post without something to look at) and create the links it has been well worth the time. I’ve been a very modest blogger with just 27 posts in the past year.  My goal has always to just find about two topics a month to share.  In some ways it has been a time saver.  Some of the emails that I get about things like FREE software, can be responded to with a simple link the post.
2. Motivation.  It is great to have a consistent (albeit modest) daily hit count for my blog.  In the past year there have been readers from 43 countries.  Welcome to all, leave a comment and a link to your blog!
3. Content.  One of my beliefs is that we all have something to share.  To others, we are always an expert on something.  As an avid reader of 30 or so educational blogs and 100’s of news RSS feeds, I wanted to contribute after years of reading (and lurking).

If you don’t have a website hit tracker I highly recommend Google Analytics. Here are the stats from my blog.

Most viewed posts:

1. The Perfect Student Computer (November 2008)
2. The Perfect Student Computer (December 2008)
3. Free student and teacher software (December 2008)
4. What students have to say (January 2009)

Most commented posts:

1. Free student and teacher software
2. Blood donation
3. Twitter – two words

Map of visitors from 43 countries courtesy of Google Analytics.

 

Thanks again for reading, if you are still sitting on the fence then time to get moving, sign up for a blog and start writing!

Digital Immersion at Riverside Secondary

This morning I’m working with a grade 9 class at Riverside Secondary.  Under the amazing leadership of Jeremy Brown and Elizabeth Bancroft with the support of the administration team they launched an exciting, engaging program for students.  Student stay together for the full mornings each day this semester take Science 9 and a Digital Immersion course.  Next semester, Elizabeth Bancroft takes over with English and Socials.  There are a number of structures that their team has put together to ensure student and program success.  All the student self-elected to join the program, they are engaged and enthusiastic.  They are also very patient, as you can imagine when working with technology, there are times when things go wrong.  The school has a robust wireless infrastructure and the room is well supplied with electricity around the walls and in the centre of the room.  The students all have modern laptops.  Some have privately-owned computers but the majority are using Dell Netbooks supplied by the school.

My small contribution this morning was to have the students download and install Windows Live Writer (see previous blog post).  They then connected the program to post blogs on their internal sharepoint blogs.  Their topic was researching and sharing “Breakfasts from around the world”.  They will then have access to read and respond to each other’s blogs.

The teachers have approached this like an action research where they are actively learning and experimenting with new ways to have student make the best uses of Web2.0 technologies while covering the prescribed learning outcomes of their respective courses. 

One of my key determinate of a quality program is would I choose it for my children if they were in Grade 9.  The answer is a resounding YES.  I couldn’t help thinking how this program would be great social environment to use the internet to research the topics and share.  As a teacher I would be thrilled to teach in an setting like the one designed for these students.  I hope we see more of these types of programs.

Reference: The picture from the internet.

Internet Filtering in Schools

Under the guise of student safety, many school districts are choosing to block various websites.  My personal favourite excuses for blocking sites because students are ‘off task’ and ‘facebooking’ too much.  Using this train of thinking, students will somehow be more on-task and focused when we block sites.  I guess this would mean banning books would improve student reading?

I work in a great district which blocks almost nothing beyond the most inappropriate sites.  We have a broad belief that the internet is an educational resource that should be open to all current and unanticipated future uses.  We believe that educators are creative caring individuals and will think of ways to use social media and other sites in ways we can’t even imagine right now.  I’m a huge proponent of keeping the internet open and free for all students and teachers.

There was a great twitter discussion on September 9th about this topic.  You can find the tweets under the search term #edchat.  There was an amazing response and re-tweet to this original post ‘RT @plevy: All schools and universities should open access to social media #edchat’

Thanks to my blogging colleague Lisa Reid for getting me to think about this topic in her blog.

I’d be interested in hearing from others. How much is filtered at your school/district?

Traveling with family in Oregon

Just returned from an amazing trip through central Oregon and the coast.  Here are some of the details for those interested in visiting these amazing locations.

Sun River, Oregon

A master designed community in the high desert in Oregon.  It is mostly large, custom home on large lots.  It has an extensive network of cycling paths to and from every part of the community.  Although you can get anywhere on a bike, the distances are quite long due to the sprawling lots that the houses sit on.  When at the resort be sure to visit the Observatory for star gazing, the pool with slide, the stables.  Also, be sure to pack an inflatable boat or inner tube as the Descutes river is a calm two hour float and can be shuttled as the rentals are expensive from the marina.

Newberry National Monument

This state park is an amazing collection of volcanic sites.  We visited the following locations and highly recommend them.

Lava Butte great views of the surrounding area.
Lava River Cave Lava ran through this tunnel cave for years and hardened around the outside to make a mile long underground hike.
Lava Cast Forest These are the remains of tree trucks that were surrounded by lava and then burned away.

Bend, Oregon

Bend is a city that reminds me of Nelson, BC.  It is full of local businesses that cater to an active lifestyle.  Everything from yoga studios to bike shops to noodle houses (two visits there!) and coffee roasters to service our every need.

Lincoln City, Oregon Coast

Surfing and skimboarding at Devil’s Punchbowl.  This stretch of beach is protected by an off-shore reef that keeps the waves to a 3-5 foot safe beginner’s size.  The cliff on one side acts as a wind barrier making this a great location to spend the day.  Visit the state park website.

Surf lessons and rentals.  At the south end of Lincoln City is the Lincoln City Surf Shop.  The owner, Mike Jipp took me out for a lesson and I ended up renting a board and great wetsuit from him for only $40/day.  Also check out the awesome staff at Oregon Surf Shop they have fabulous gear at great prices.  Check out the deals I got.  A cool T-shirt $10, skimboards for the kids $20 and a wetsuit for the two year-old $34.  In Oregon there are no sales taxes!

That me about to head out for a chilly, fun dip in the Pacific Ocean at Devil’s Punch Bowl.