While New Hartford is proud of the excellent use of technology by students and teachers in our district, none of this would be possible without the technical knowledge and support of those who set up & maintain the network and computers used in each day. Therefore it is nice to give credit where credit is due. To that end, what many people don't know is that Mr. Jason Tallman, pictured below working on his laptop in the Senior High library, was recently invited by Apple to personally share some of his experience of supporting technology in our schools. As part of this invitation, Jason was flown to California at Apple's expense late last spring to be interviewed as part of a video podcast series which has been featured on Apple's website about schools that effectively use and support technology. In the interview, Jason discussed how Mac OS X tools such as Apple Remote Desktop make it easier to manage the computers that we use on our school network. He also talked about how our Mac OS X Server installations make it much easier to image workstations as part of their initial setup or periodic system upgrades. Jason was the perfect representative to talk about these topics on behalf of the district as he has been responsible for much of the sophisticated technology that we utilize on our network today and that's unique in our area. Jason has helped to bring several technology tools that have become integral to teaching and learning in our schools. For example, over the last few months, he has helped set up the district's Podcast Producer server that several teachers have actively been using since the start of the school year and plans are being made for student use in the near future as well. Over the summer, Jason also set up an instant messaging server software called Openfire which lets our teachers and administrators stay connected to each other over our school network using iChat on their computers for text, audio, or even video conferencing with each other! Finally, his latest efforts have allowed the district to establish and make use of Google Apps for Education within our schools. This powerful set of tools by Google has helped us to start bringing calendaring, collaborative document creation, and a host of other productivity tools to students and teachers. With the elaborate and specialized skills today's networks and technology demand, the district is fortunate to have Jason on board. Check out the Apple video today [mirrored on our servers] and see what our tech support wonder said about the technology we use in our schools. Thanks Jason and way to go in helping New Hartford become a school district with innovative technologies that help students and teachers succeed.

Many Mac OS X users are familiar with the power and convenience of Mac OS X's built-in instant messaging software, iChat. While iChat makes talking with others very easy with little setup or customization needed, there are some simple features you can use to get so much more out of the program. Below are a few cool ideas you can use for improving your iChat experiences in the future!

USING ONE WINDOW FOR ALL CHATS
One of nicest features in iChat 4 for Mac OS X Leopard is the ability to use tabbed windows. When you use this feature, it allows you to collapse all of your open chats into a single window. That way, there's no need to have several windows open on your screen. Here's how to enable this feature in iChat:

1. Open iChat and choose iChat > Preferences.
2. In the Preference window, click the "Messages" tab. Near the bottom of this section, check off "Collect chats into a single window," (see circled area in the diagram below.)

3. That's it! Now, iChat will list all of your open chats in a drawer along side your chat window. To move from one to the other, just click your buddy's name and you can talk with them. To close a chat, just click the X next to your buddy's name.

GOING INVISIBLE
Sometimes you need to chat with someone about an urgent project, but can't be bothered by anyone else. And setting your status as "Busy" just isn't enough—you might still get that unwanted ping. When this is the case, you will want to set your status to "Invisible." With this feature, you can appear offline, and still send and receive messages but your buddies cannot see you! To use this feature, just scroll to the bottom on your Status menu on your Buddy List, (see screenshot below) or choose Control + Command + I anytime when you are in iChat.

QUICKLY SENDING A FILE TO A BUDDY
To do this, just drag and drop the file right onto the buddy in your Buddy List. After they accept your transfer request, the file will instantly transfer from your computer to theirs!

SAVING TEXT CHATS
Do you want to have a transcript of a text chat with a buddy? Before you close the chat, just choose File > Save. Your text chat can then be saved as a text file for copying, pasting, or editing as needed!

RECORDING YOUR AUDIO OR VIDEO CHATS
Believe it or not with iChat 4 running under Mac OS X Leopard, if you want to record an audio or video chat, you can do this too! To record an audio or video chat, choose Video > Record Chat. After your buddy confirms, you can then record the chat session. Audio chats are saved as AAC files and video chats are saved as MPEG-4 video files. These recordings are stored in your Documents > iChats folder and could be useful for inserting these audio or video pieces into podcasts, or just keeping a record of your conversations!

The Internet Public Library, founded at the University of Michigan School of Information (SI) and hosted by Drexel University's College of Information Science & Technology, began as an educational initiative designed to provide students & professionals in the library and information science (LIS) profession with a place to explore and learn about the practice of librarianship in the digital age. The IPL began in a graduate seminar in the School of Information and Library Studies at the University of Michigan in the Winter 1995 semester. The idea was twofold: (1) to ask some interesting and important questions about the interconnections of libraries, librarians, and librarianship with a distributed networked environment, and (2) to learn a lot about these issues by actually designing and building something called the Internet Public Library. From a large pool of interested students, a group of 35 was selected to make up the class. Work began on January 5, 1995, and the Library opened on March 17, 70 days later. To date, thousands of students have been involved in designing, building, creating and maintaining the IPL and its various services. In addition, hundreds of volunteer librarians throughout the world have been involved remotely, answering reference questions in the Ask a Question service. It is through the efforts of these students and volunteers that the IPL continues to thrive to this day. Upon visiting the site, you will that the Subject Collections section makes it easy to locate resources relevant to topics in just about any subject area you may need. Another section is the handy Ready Reference section which links to a wealth of basic research tools such as almanacs, dictionaries and encyclopedias. For young readers, there are well organized sub-pages appropriately titled KidSpace for primary age students and TeenSpace that contains resources for secondary students.

One of the most useful features of the site are the Pathfinders pages, collections of resources that IPL Expert Guides have assembled with the intention of helping you get started doing research on a particular topic, both online and at your local library. Another excellent feature of the site that is superb for difficult research topics is the Ask a Question service. Using an online form, you can submit a question to the IPL and get your question answered! To provide this service, the IPL is staffed by trained professional librarian volunteers and graduate students in library science programs. The site's volunteers and students come from libraries and schools around the United States, Canada, and even other parts of the world. As of October 2008, there are also plans to merge the Librarians' Internet Index, currently managed by the Califa Library Group, with the IPL. This will only increase the catalog of resources that the IPL has ready access to. The next time you have a research project at hand or need some help with a tough research task, the IPL may be the exact place you may want to go. Check out the site today to see what resources the site offers that might benefit you or your students. For fast access, the QuickLinks above will connect you directly to some notable areas of this excellent website as well!

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Eager to learn about new ways to use Mac OS X even better? Come to our monthly OS X "Talk, Tips & Tricks" session. Find out more.

Below are select technology courses to be offered by the Teacher Center this month. To learn more, log onto My Learning Plan then click the links below for more details about each class and/or to sign up right now online!

Monday, January 12
Mac OS X "Tech Talk, Tips, and Tricks" - January 2009

Tuesday, January 13
SMARTBoard for Beginners

Tuesday, January 20
CPR for Your School Webpage. Bring It Back To Life! Part 2

Wednesday, January 21
School Year Digital Scrapbook

Thursday, January 22
Your Classroom Webpage  

Tuesday, January 27
A New Year, A New Website - SchoolCenter Web Publishing

Wednesday, January 28
Quick & Easy Videos Projects with Photo Booth

iCal Users
Download January Events

Here are ten simple things educators can do on the web this month. Perhaps these can be springboards for a lesson or even some new "lifelong learning" for you, they are all related to holidays and traditions of celebrating the New Year! Take a look and see what you can pick up & share with your students!

1. Discover the Ice Hotel
   
2. Watch "I Have a Dream Speech" on YouTube
   
3. Create New Year Resolution Time Capsules with Your Students
   
4. Take a Closer look at Snowflakes
   
5. Ways to Create Change in a New Year
   
6. Your Classroom in the New Year: Teaching Reflection
   
7. January 2009 Bizarre and Unique Holidays
   
8. Learn the History of Inauguration Day
   
9. Winter Recess Games
   
10. Create a Winter Poem with Magnet Poetry