If CEO's went back to school.

Throughout this past week if you keep up with technical news Comcast has taken the spotlight. They have been accused of traffic shaping, which simply put means certain data going through their network is given more importance then other data. The other data that I'm referring to is BitTorrent data.

BitTorrent is a protocol used in P2P networks. Data that is shared using this protocol tends to be music, picture, OS, and video files but it could represent any type of file. Generally when one thinks of BitTorrent the idea of illegal music and video downloading appears. Obviously that is an unfounded accusation because a protocol is a set of rules and who chooses to use it does not define the protocol itself.

Comcast is getting itself into a definite quagmire as what they are doing not only goes against their ToS (terms of service) but also is illegal in a few states. The process involved in shaping the traffic requires them to pretend they are the server requested by the end user. Obviously none of us would like Comcast to inspect the data we are sending via their Internet connection and would definitely not want them to pretend they are the servers we are trying to communicate with.

The benefit we can all receive from this giant communication company's blunder is to use it as an example when teaching ethics to our children and students. The importance of honesty, straight-forwardness and character that is developed by treating everyone with equality. It seems some of the executives at Comcast missed this important ethics lesson. As our children and students are the future CEO's and leaders it is important that we take every opportunity to show them how to lead ethical and moral lives. Current events is a great topic to start this conversation at the dinner table.

To read more about the current Comcast situation follow the link: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071023-comcast-shooting-itself-in-the-foot-with-traffic-shaping-explanations.html

Blog Action Day

Dear Readers,

Today is Blog Action Day. It is a day where a universal topic has been thrown to the blogger masses and we are all supposed to write about it, as a way to universally discuss our thoughts on a topic.

The topic is the Environment.

If we use technology in education then we must measure our environmental impact, develop a strategy to minimize it, and choose environmental offsets as the current method of helping the environment.

Many times human beings choose whether they will purchase, invest, or otherwise take into possession some object based on the cost or financial burden it will place on our business. Let's assume these objects are technology based and are used in an educational setting. Making this decision solely on financing is a fundamental error, which occurs everyday, and is part of the environmental crisis we face today.

I met a person a year ago who read me a quote that went "I fire you when I hire you." One of the main themes of this quote is that all future interactions whether good or bad that will happen between you and this potential employee occurs right now in the decision whether I should hire you. Do not underestimate the importance of that first interaction. In general, we have all the pieces and information we will ever have right now in front of us to make an informed and correct decision.

This same theory can be applied to acquiring objects. It should be our concern at the point of acquirement how we will recycle or redistribute this object when it has no value to us anymore. Our analysis of recycling fees must be added onto the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership). We should then also choose to add in environmental offset prices to help cover our environmental impact tracks. Other values that need to be considered are ease of upgrades, so the object itself can be added onto or improved without replacing it and the cost of man hours for upgrades.

Adding these costs and taking extra care to consider ease of upgrades will allow us to make an informed decision of the objects true value and TCO. At the same time we are participating with the rest of the responsible companies to help better our planet, pay our dues, and find future methods for reducing environmental destruction.

To learn more about environmental offsets visit:

• Can you be traveling green by buying offsets?, USA Today article.


• Environmental Offset Policies, Principles, and Methods by Bruce McKenney (PDF)
  

No trees in my classroom year.

One of the many goals technology is supposed to provide the world is saving of resources or at least shifting of our use of resources. We see this in many of our classrooms where money is shifted from one resource to another. For example our classrooms that have Smartboards installed should no longer require chalk, dry erase markers, or cleaning solution. This money saved helps offset the price of the Smartboards (minimally, short term) but let's look at the real resources saved long term, no more chalk, dry erase markers and their plastic casings, and chemicals for 10 years of use, which the Smartboard should provide us.

In my classroom I have set a goal that this year is a paperless year. I am no longer accepting homework on paper and I am no longer giving quizzes or tests on paper. I have 100% dedicated my three classes to complete online organization. All homework is submitted digitally and all quizzes and tests are taken online.

I look forward to providing a follow up to this blog in June to report on the success of this challenge. So far it has been liberating! I find work is graded with much more ease and quicker response time. I also believe the students appreciate the quick response time when it comes to having their tests graded.

I'll keep you updated. Wish me luck!

New school year!!

Wow! I cannot believe that another school year has started and that we are at the end of September already!

The Freshman Laptops have been given out at our Out-of-box Night. This year was great, Ms. Piasecki had the following prizes to give out: 2 Nintendo DS, 2 IPod Nanos, 1 512MB Flash drive, and 1 Wii.

I'm also excited because this year our Freshman laptops are Lenovo T61's which are the first in our building to have a wide screen and run on Vista.

There's more I want to write but I'm going to save it for my next post.

Saving Resources

Tomorrow at UC starts our course registration process. It's a busy season yet very exciting thinking about all the new students you will get to know and teach. It also makes me think about the registration process and how it has changed over the past four years.

Four years ago the process was a paper nightmare, having students circle their choices and approvals done by hand. Three years ago we test our new in-house system on the Junior class. It allowed students to submit their course selection online. Last year the entire school was using the system. No more paper work!

Since this will be the second year the entire school is involved, I am looking to future advances for UC. The biggest success I see from this program is our cutback on the natural resource of trees. The question I pose to myself is where can UC cutback further on the waste of paper and how can I help push this change?