Mozart who???

I'm writing this blog entry now as I give a test to my students who are studying Intro to Networking. There are two things that I noticed right from the beginning related to technology in education.

1. My students are taking a paper exam. When I think about this no matter who tech savvy the school is most schools still provide exams on paper.


2. I have Mozart playing in the background and it's soothing and relaxing. Computers need to be made, as devices, soothing and relaxing. This will involve the noises they make, the way they look, and the images you see on the screen. It's funny how a musician hundreds of years ago accomplished this but with all the knowledge we have now we can't re-create the same feelings.

Planning ahead

This past weekend I started to focus on a course I teach in the spring Semester, Intro to SQL. It's a great course to offer high school students. They learn about SQL and the MySQL database something most high schoolers won't run into during their tenure. This is going to be the second year the course runs because of the success of the first year.

I'm looking to change the course significantly in the way the information is given to the students and it's so exciting to prepare for this course. I have found lots of information through different searches. I especially find it useful when I find interviews with MySQL creators. It brings things down to earth with the students showing them that anyone can create something amazing.

The most useful part about teaching a course using MySQL is that MySQL is Open Source and free (as is all of LAMP). There's no paperwork necessary or fund approvals to purchase this software. It's very difficult to turn down something that is free, powerful, and used by large companies as a reliable system.

The one thing I haven't been able to find yet and maybe it doesn't exist yet is Open Source courses for educators to run. The courses that are created by educators in Course Management Systems could be distributed. It would also be nice to see companies such as MySQL AB create a course for high school students and distribute it for free. It's great marketing and giving back to their future users all at the same time with little effort and time necessary.

Just a thought!

Follow the leader???

Welcome!

Here's a little background on who I am. My name is Jim and I work at Union Catholic High School. Union Catholic (UC for short) is a private high school in central New Jersey. We're a laptop school, which means all 800 or so students have a wireless IBM laptop that they carry from class to class and bring them home.

Why am I blogging? Specifically, because:

1. I pushed for other members of UC to blog and they are now :) , so I kind of feel like I should too.
2. Deep down I think I want to also.
3. This is a great learning experience for me on how blogs can successfully be utilized in education!
   

So what will you read on my blog??? A wide array of sometimes unconnected thoughts that deal with topics on education, technology, and the how they can work together.

That's it for now folks! Check out my other blogging friends at the UC Admissions Website.