Jim Heynderickx's Blog (11)

Transitioning to a New Student Information System



Student Information Systems (SIS) are likely the most important database on campus. Even if they don’t do accounting, or fund-raising, they still handle the information and the work flow processes that are at the heart of the school– who are the families and the students, and what are their courses and schedules, and then reports, transcripts, attendance, and more.



We’ve been working… Continue

We had a two hour demo of the Epson Brightlink 450Wi yesterday:

http://www.epsonbrightlink.webengager.com/Education/



Relatively impressive. Ultra-short throw. WXGA (Macbook native resolution. 2500 Lumens. Interactive pen that can make a variety of surfaces work like an interactive white board.



We've had tech issues with Smartboards for some time… Continue

At a previous school, we used Microsoft Sharepoint for class pages for several years, but we could never get past the cross-platform loss of functionality. If you were in IE, it was full featured. If you were in Firefox or on a Mac, it was part featured. Same with Office access to the online file repositories in Office vs. Mac Office. And don't get me started on Outlook vs. Entourage.



Anyway, time passes, and maybe Google Docs is putting pressure on MS. The new Sharepoint 2010 that… Continue

Hi, All



Here's a dilemma. In a 70 percent Mac / 30 percent Windows school that has standardized on Microsoft Office, does it make sense to introduce iWorks to a fair percentatge of users.



Let's assume there are real benefits to using Keynote, for example. However, do those benefits outweight the possible sharing problems with non-Keynote users. Is it possible that having two options for presenations (and word processing, spreadsheets) could have a negative effect on… Continue

When is a worm a good thing? When it makes you upgrade your Wordpress software and start blogging again.



Thanks to a warning from a colleague, I learned that older versions of WordPress were being targeted by worms. My blog was running on a "very old" WordPress version, so this weekend I did a long backup, and then revamped it back up to the latest version. I did the same for the family sailing blog, and our photo gallery site.



Better still, I learned how to post directly… Continue

We're approaching the launch date for our new Finalsite main web site.



This week, we finished the uploads of calendar layers, athletics schedules and rosters, and other data. We're now tracking down blank pages and finishing roll-out plans.



This is my fourth web page roll out for a school, and perhaps the one with most promise. In the past, web sites had strong ties to informing prospective families. This web site, with a majority of content within the portal, has strong… Continue

Well, maybe partially alive. I plan to post some observations and notes from the Lausanne Laptop conference at my main blog www.k12converge.com and here if possible.



To begin, I've been posting about my first year in London, a new Advent Netbook (MSI Wind) I starting using just 2 days ago, losing my luggage over the Atlantic, and reading Carol Dweck. (Drinking an entire carafe of coffee at iHop this morning may or may not have been a great… Continue

I just finished a blog post about my daughter's growing interest in photography:



http://www.k12converge.com/?p=242



What's interesting about working with an eight year-old and photography is the way that the medium puts her one step back from simply looking at the scene or subject. Too much of this meta-awareness would likely be detrimental to a young child's development, but in chosen ways I can it being both fun and creative.… Continue

A quick update on eeePCs...



I've bought three so far. One is hidden as a xmas gift for my two kids next week. The other two were briefly handed around the IT office before being appropriated by the High School First Robotics team. I had an update today that they are now successfully using them to write and compile the programming of their robot, and the eeePCs have the right cost and form factor to travel with them to the competition.



Overall, I give all credit to the… Continue

Actually, not such a good surprise.



With around 800 Macs on campus, it's not unusual for us to have to order extra Macbooks and iMacs as the year progresses. I recently ordered three Macbooks to replace faculty machines, and they came with OS X 10.5 Leopard installed. Not a big deal, we thought, we'll just put on the 10.4 faculty image.



Bong! Wrong answer. Currenlty, there's a firmware change on the Leopard Macbooks that prevents 10.4 from working. Apple "should" come… Continue

Okay, it looks like it's about time for "wireless network overload."



It began with the laptop carts, and then the 1:1 laptops, and now the iPhones, and soon the eeePCs will join the Blackberries, Windows Mobile devices, and all the other devices that want to join school wireless networks. Suddenly, our "supported user base" may include an increasing percentage of parents coming to school events, presenters, vendors, delivery personnel, and more who want to stay connected to the… Continue