always learning

One of the perks of being an Apple Distinguished Educator is being able to represent Apple at their educational events around the world. A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of presenting a session on Garage Band at Apple’s Think Ahead Roadshow (at my very favorite hotel, The Metropolitan) here in Bangkok.

Wow. I’m still a little bit speechless. The Roadshow was so well-organized, so clearly grounded in sound educational practices, and so totally focused on what we need in the classroom and in our schools. Honestly, I’m still a little surprised that all of this was being presented by a vendor. The one-day session was a lot better than many educational (and edtech) conferences I’ve attended.

Now, we all know I’m already sold on Apple, but if I wasn’t, this would have convinced me to head straight over to the Apple store and pick up a new MacBook. For starters, Adrian Lim (one of the regional managers for Southeast Asia) gave an absolutely fantastic keynote presentation that actually brought tears to my eyes.

Everything that Adrian said was something I have thought, said or heard at one time or another as a teacher in the field of educational technology. His explanation of the stages of technology integration, implementation and professional development in schools was stated so clearly and so accurately it’s almost unbelievable that he’s not actually teaching right now. The background information and research about our 21st century learners described exactly what I’ve been learning and thinking about in my PLN, and the approach for how to engage those students to create a 21st century classroom was almost word-for-word what I was planning to share in Doha the following week.

On top of all that Adrian shared Apple’s vision for the 21st century school, their revised Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow Today program, and of course all of the easy-to-use and innovative software that Apple is known for. All I could think as he was presenting was that we need him in our schools, presenting this to full faculty and the parents. This was more powerful than so many keynotes I have seen delivered by “big names” in education and technology. And it was delivered by a vendor, who’s not teaching, and in fact, not working in schools at all.

Following Adrian’s keynote were two hands-on sessions. I delivered the one on Garage Band and a fellow ADE, Michael Koronkiewicz, presented a session on iMovie.

I have to admit, I was a little nervous to present on a software package in front of the people who work for the company that designed the software. Um, who’s telling who how the software works again? But, it was by far the easiest presentation I’ve ever had to give. All of the materials were provided for me (scripts for my “students” who recorded their own podcasts, research on a wiki already prepared, 15 MacBooks and iPods all ready set up and ready to go, and even some prizes to hand out to the “best” group project!). Plus, I had at least one tech support person in the room at all times. Oh, how I wish that was the case on a regular basis in the classroom. What a breeze!

The best part about the presentation (for me) was how much it reflected my philosophy and classroom practice. Each piece of material provided by Apple was almost exactly (but usually a little bit better than) how I would do it in my own classroom. The “project” my “students” completed was very similar to something I’m doing with grade 5 right now, and I never felt like I was “selling my soul” to present on behalf of a vendor. In fact, I learned quite a few new things that I’m planning to put into practice over the next few weeks. How often can we actually say that about technology vendors?

In addition to the one-day session, I just have to share how supportive, friendly, and approachable all of the Apple staff are. I never once felt pressured to do or say something I didn’t believe in, I was consistently encouraged to share my voice and my opinion on the tools. There were plenty of times in my presentations when I recommended web-based services that would accomplish the same tasks (but are not sold or provided by Apple) and this was encouraged.

If I wasn’t already convinced that Apple is the best choice for education, I certainly would be now. Tools designed specifically for education, with software that could not be easier to use, and support personnel that actually understand education and are as passionate about the changes we need to see in schools as I am. Why wouldn’t we want that in our classroom?

Images by Kelvin Kong

I’m having a little problem with my MacBook. Maybe you can help!

First of all, I can’t complain too much because this is a school-provided laptop. If it dies entirely, they’ll just give me a new one. Even so, my little problem is definitely not helping my productivity at school or at home.

Here’s the story:

I upgraded to OS 10.5 at the beginning of the school year (along with everyone else at ISB) and over the last few months I have been experiencing some annoying sleep-related problems. It seems that at least 50% of the time when my MacBook goes to sleep it somehow wakes itself up (I can see the Apple icon light up on the closed lid if I’m near the laptop). Once it’s woken itself up during sleep (without opening the lid) it can’t seem to go back to sleep.

So when I come back to the computer ready to do some work, it doesn’t wake up. I just end up with a black screen and a non-pulsating, bright, sleep light. I am then forced to hold down the power button until the MacBook shuts off, and then restart. I know this is not good for my shiny white friend, but I can’t seem to get it to wake up no matter what I do.

Previously I had experienced a similar problem that seemed to have something to do with the power connection. If I put the MacBook to sleep and either unplug or plug in the power before it’s “officially” asleep (the pulsating white light), it won’t wake up from sleep unless I replicate the power status of the computer before I closed the lid. Now I just make sure to remember to unplug before I close the lid, or wait until the sleep light starts pulsing. An inconvenience, but one I can definitely live with.

This new problem seems entirely unrelated to the power issue and it’s gotten increasingly more common very rapidly. I’ve checked on various forums, gotten lots of excellent advice from my Twitter pals (see below), repaired disk permissions, tried resetting the SMC and changing sleep and display preferences, but it just keeps getting worse.

I’ve started ensuring that I shut off my airport before I put the MacBook to sleep, have disabled Bluetooth and don’t have an devices connected to the computer (aside from the power). I’m even starting to try to remember quit out of Twhirl and Skype before I put the computer to sleep, just in case they can somehow wake it up.

On Thursday alone I had to do a hard reboot 5 times in just one 12 hour period. One of our wonderful technicians tried to fix it on Friday, but it’s still been a problem all weekend. I read a little bit about the possibility that “safe sleep” may cause this problem, and that can be disabled in Terminal but I’m not sure if that’s a good idea or not.

Either way, now I don’t really want to put the computer to sleep at all (not that I need any more excuses to be online)…

Anyone have any advice?

Light #2 by blakie
Untitled by thejbird