So, while I was away on interview at a school in Kuala Lumpur, I had my phone going off with Facebook updates which, at first, was unnerving as it was a new alert beep and it was, well, Facebook.  Facebook as we’re all aware is largely nonsense. Nonsense photos, updates and neighbour requests. It’ll become one big farmville soon.  But here in Vietnam the blocks are on. And, sometimes you can see their point. I personally wouldn’t mind registering at the local cop shop to say “Hey, I’m Johnny Foreigner let me Facebook.” Why, well its the only real way of communicating with good fellas back home.

So, to unlock and burst those shackles my little scrap book will reveal this from here tek3d.org/ – The owner has quite a few followers who comment but this is what he has to say regarding unlocking Facebook:

For my 2 penneth – I wouldn’t use IE at all. So for some of these links and hint below I would totally omit. Go with Firefox completely and eliminate the unnecessary tangle of worms, trojans and other untrustworthy bits and pieces. Have Windows 7? Have a look here to eliminate it form your OS.

7 Ways To Access Blocked Facebook

Nowadays, social networks as Facebook and Twitter are used by so many users. But in a lot of companies and countries, these social networks are blocked by firewall. For example, you can’t access Facebook in some areas of Vietnam and China. In this article, I will show you 7 ways to acces Facebook, Twitter or any blocked site easily.

1/ Use Proxy/Socks: this is a very popular way to visit any site you want without any restriction. All you need is find a good proxy to use. But when use proxy, your speed can be reduce because of the respond time of proxy server. You can also buy a private socks for the best quaility. If not, just find free proxy from sharing site as http://sockslist.net/, http://www.checker.freeproxy.ru/checker/last_checked_proxies.php, http://aliveproxy.com/socks5-list/ etc. All proxy or socks have the same format: 123.123.123.123:1234, with number before : are ip address, and after are port. To use it, you need configure you broswer as following:

Find proxy and socks

- Firefox: Tools > Options > Advanced > Networks > Settings > Manual Proxy Configurations > Socks Host.

- Internet Explorer: Tools > Internet Settings > Connections > Lan Settings > Use a Proxy Server for you LAN.

- Chrome: Options > Under the Hood > Change Proxy Settings > Connections > Lan Settings > Use a Proxy Server for you LAN.

- Opera: Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Networks > Proxy Servers.
Then fill IP and port and apply. To remove it, just take it back to default.

Configure Proxy/Socks in Firefox

2/ Use Fake IP Software: some software use for faking and hiding your IP address as Auto Hide IP, Real Hide IP, Hide IP NG, Invisible Browsing etc. They still can decrease speed but not to much.

3/ Use UltraSurf: the easiest and fastest way to hide IP and access to any site you want. All traffic will be brought through UltraReach server. So that the speed is almost no change. Download UltraSurf, newest version is 9.6. After download, you just run it, and an Internet Explorer windows will open for using. You can also use a add-ons to use UltraSurf with Firefox. Note: to use in Firefox, you must download UltraSurf application, run it and activate in Firefox. UltraSurf is totally free and no need to setup. [Go to Homepage].

UltraSurf with Internet Explorer

4/ Use Free Proxy Website: there are many website help you surf web through a proxy. Two of the best site is HideMyAss and Defilter. All you need to do is input url of site in blank field and press enter.

HideMyAss service

DeFilter service

Found that this struggled and only worked in Finnish. Was sloooow as mentioned below

5/ Use Google Translate: what? Yes, this is Google Translate, which can help you translate a website and browse it through Google Server. But you can see what have been translated, this mean just only text, and all images maybe still blocked. Just go to http://translate.google.com, input address, choose target language is your language, and source language is another. Or use this link and replace you url to red mark:

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Ffacebook.com%2F&anno=2

Google Translate with Facebook

6/ Use OperaTor: OperaTor is a free browser that base on Opera 10.0 and add more features as auto use proxy and clean privacy infomations. With proxy, you can access any webpage although blocked. Proxy can from USA, France of any country as Espanol, Italia etc. And you no need to find it yourself.

OperaTor auto search and apply proxy.

My personal fave. I like to use this just as a security tool rather than an unblocker. I recommend this to a lot of the people I work with although they prefer the hidemyass set up.

7/ Use OpenDNS: Open DNS is a free DNS server that offer you DNS resolution for consumers and businesses as an alternative to using their Internet service provider’s DNS servers. By placing company servers in strategic locations and employing a large cache of the domain names, OpenDNS usually processes queries much more quickly, thereby increasing page retrieval speed. DNS query results are sometimes cached by the local operating system and/or applications, so this speed increase may not be noticeable with every request, but only with requests that are not stored in a local cache. First, you need to change network configuration of window:
- With Windows XP: go to Control Panel –> Network and Internet Connections –> Network Connections, right click to Local Area Network and choose Properties. In list This connection uses the following items, choose Internet Protocal (TCP/IP) and click Properties. In new windows, you click Use the folloing DNS server addresses, and at Prefered DNS Server, fill 208.67.222.222, and at Alternate DNS Server fill 208.67.220.220. Then OK to finish.
– With Windows Vista or Windows 7, go to Control Panel –> Network and Internet –> Network and Sharing Center > View Status > Properties and the configure as XP.
Find more infomation at home page: http://www.opendns.com/

Triple Boot Mac OS, XP, and Linux on a Mac

From Wired How-To Wiki

Can’t decide which operating system you want to run on your MacBook? The newest Macs allow you to boot up from Windows or Mac OS X using the included Boot Camp

disk-partitioning software. However, with some steps and a little elbow grease, you can add Linux to the mix and get the best of all worlds.

Warning! Be sure to back up all your important data before starting.

//

What You’ll Need

For this project, you’ll need:

• An Intel-based Mac (These instructions are written for MacBook and MacBook Pro, but they should work for all Intel Macs)
• Either Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard” or 10.6 “Snow Leopard”
• Installation CDs or DVDs with various operating systems and the tools included with them
• The two additional (free and open source) apps listed below
• This process will take 3-4 hours if you do everything right the first time.

We recommend getting the following software

• Windows XP Professional (with service pack 2). If you don’t have XP with SP2, you can slipstream it in with nLite. Unfortunately nLite only works on Windows, so you can’t create your CD on the Mac. Therefore, you should make the CD using a machine that can run Windows. If you don’t have access to this, you can install a demo of Parallels to run Windows for a few days to create the CD. Instructions for slipstreaming XP with sp2 can be found at GeekGirls.

• rEFIt software. Get it from the Sourceforge download page.
  • click on rEFIt 0.12 (6.5M Mac disk image).
  • Save rEFIt image to desktop.
  • Double-click rEFIt-0.12.dmg to mount the image to the desktop.
  • Double-click rEFIt.mpkg and follow installation instructions.
  • Open Terminal (Applications\Utilities\Terminal) and enter the following code:
    sudo /efi/refit/enable-always.sh
  • Hit RETURN
  • Quit Terminal

• GParted software. Get it from the Sourceforge download page.
  • Click on gparted-live-0.4.1-2.iso
  • Save image to desktop.
  • Burn image to CD using Disk Utility (Applications\Utilities\Disk Utility)
  • Insert blank CD
  • Click Burn
  • Select .iso file and burn
  • Label CD when completed

• Ubuntu Linux operating system (free)
  • Get the latest version from the Ubuntu website
  • Save image to desktop.
  • Burn image to CD.

Partition Hard Drive with Terminal

Next you’re going to split your hard-drive into three separate partitions using the Terminal command window:

1. Open Terminal (Applications\Utilities\Terminal)
2. Type: diskutil list
3. Hit RETURN and a list of your partitions should come up. You should have one partition (disk0s2) right now if you already have Mac OS X installed. This list will also tell you how much hard drive space you have to partition. On my computer I had 232.5GB of space (The slightly smaller number, i.e. not the one with the * in front, is the one you want to use. It should be at the bottom of the list).
4. The syntax for your code looks like this:
   1. diskutil resizeVolume disk0s2 80G JHFS+ Linux 72.5G JHFS+ XP 80G
   2. (This is the setup I used, 80GB for Mac, 72.5GB for Linux, and 80GB for XP. Note that when choosing your partition sizes, make sure they add up to the amount of space you have at your disposal.)
   3. Do not worry about the filesystems right now, as we will format them individually later
5. The partitioning should take a few minutes. It will show a “Verifying 0% ……………………” line for a while, but it’s not frozen. Wait a few minutes and it will complete partitioning.
6. Quit out of Terminal

Fix Windows Partition with GParted

Because the Windows XP setup won’t recognize the JHFS+ partition, you have to use GParted to change the filesystem to Unformatted:

1. Insert your GParted CD and reboot.
2. When computer chimes, hold down C key to boot from CD
3. Follow instructions to load GParted.
4. If GParted hasn’t started when desktop loads, double-click GParted icon.
5. Make sure the drive at the top right-hand corner is set at /dev/sda0 or /dev/sda
6. Select the Windows or XP partition and delete it.
7. Select the new unallocated space and create a new partition.
8. Make sure the type is set as Unformatted. Leave 128MiB to be free.
9. Follow the instructions to finish making the partitions.
10. When you’re done, shut down the computer by holding down the power button until it powers off.
11. Reboot the computer.
12. As the computer starts up, hold down the mouse button to eject the GParted CD.
13. When you get to the rEFIt menu, select the Start Partitioning Tool and hit RETURN
14. If rEFIt asks you if you want to edit the MBR, type ‘y’.
15. Exit out of the Partitioning Tool.

Install Windows XP Pro

Time to install Windows, the third best operating system soon to be on your computer.

1. Shutdown the computer from the rEFIt menu.
2. Insert the Windows CD on reboot and hold ‘C’ after the computer chimes to boot from the CD.
3. Follow the Windows XP on-screen instructions.
4. When you get to the partitioning menu, select the bottom partition (partition4). It should be labeled C:/. You may also be able to identify the partition by its name and size.
5. Follow the Windows XP installation instructions.
6. After Windows XP installs, your computer will take you back to rEFIt.
7. Open up Windows XP and finish the setup. If your computer crashes, shut down and retry. If it still crashes, hold option on the reboot and select Windows to boot from there.
8. Once Windows is set up, shut down your computer.

Install Ubuntu

Time to install your Linux operating system.

1. Insert your Ubuntu 8.1 CD as you reboot. Hold ‘C’ to boot from CD.
2. Follow the on-screen instructions to install.
3. When asked to choose a partition, choose partition 3.
4. Make sure to format the partition in EXT3.
5. Finish the Ubuntu installation.

Configure Drivers

You must install MacBook drivers on Windows XP and Ubuntu in order for all your hardware to function properly.

1. Load Windows XP.
2. Insert your Mac OS X DVD and follow the on-screen instructions to install drivers.
3. Reboot.
4. Load Linux.
5. Go to the Ubuntu support site, and follow instructions for configuring the version of Ubuntu you’ve installed to work properly with your MacBook.
6. Note: In the sound section, after adding ‘options snd_hda_intel model=mbp3′ to /etc/modules (i.e. before rebooting), you must also:
   1. Open Terminal, type: gksudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base
   2. Hit RETURN
   3. Add ‘options snd_hda_intel model=mbp3′ (no quotes) to the end.
   4. In Terminal, type: sudo depmod -a
   5. Hit RETURN

Congratulations! You now have Mac OS X, Windows XP, and Ubuntu installed on your MacBook!

In the Future

While this is a more complete way of setting up multiple operating systems on your computer, companies like VMWare, Parallels, and Sun are making it even easier. Even competitors Apple and Microsoft have offered their own streamline solutions to running multiple operating systems on the same platform.

All of these companies offer virtualization software that allows you to operate most operating systems from within your existing operating system. In other words, you don’t have to reboot to load that Windows or Linux program you’ve been wanting to use.

This and TutPup are awesome – have a look at TutPup here. http://www.tutpup.com/

How to Create a Video in Animoto?

• Sign up for a free account
• Choose to do a short 30-sec video or a full length video
• Choose to upload images from your computer
• Or pick one of the following services: Flickr, Facebook, Picasa, Photobucket, etc.
• I chose Flickr & chose a set from my Flickr account after authorizing Animoto to access Flickr
• Then wait a few mins when Animoto gets your images and processes them
• Once it grabs your images you can choose to keep them all or delete the ones you don’t want
• Then choose a song from their collection or upload your own.
• Then finalize your video with a title and description and let Animoto works it’s magic.
• Email the video, download it or even embed in a webpage to share in with others. (like I have done top right)

If you had more than 15 images Animoto will warn you that you some images might get cut off or you can choose the full length version.

The great thing about Animoto is furthered by it’s iPod app and the Education log in. The education edition allows several features of the fully fledged animoto edition – namely unlimited slide shows to be uploaded. To access the education edition you have to prove youare an educational establishment and you are who you say you are.

Lastly, Animoto gives you the option of HD. So, should you be a keen photographer and you know the images you have deserve to be in HD then there is this option. Perhaps then use them on Vimeo?

Update – Animoto now lets you add video to your slideshows. A remarkable improvement to the slideshow builder.

What is different? I think there are several items like the Blue tooth module and the software has various bits that allow you to tweek and customise the operations of the blocks within the programming. If I sound like a novice to this then you’d be correct!

To help me, as always, I purchase books. What?! I hear you cry. I know it’s very last century but there is nothing quite like a good reference book and especially true if they’re written well, illustrated and don’t make any pre-judgements regarding the readership.

I have several examples in my library (both as e-books and paper backs) ranging from ‘The Missing Manual’ series, some ‘… for Dummies’ (be very, very selective here! And, these: The LEGO NXT Mindstorms One-Kit Wonders and Unofficial Inventors guide.

The great thing about these is that there is a companion website to accompany them here. Here you will find the forums for the LEGO community and resources like these.

More to follow!

The Goal is pretty ambitious; Alex Chua, South East Asia manager, mentioned that by the end of the training and deployment to HCMC schools, Vietnam will be the leading user of Promethean IWB in South East Asia. A goal that could well be achieved judging the competency of the trainees here. Although, I feel the figures he’s mentioning would either be by ratio of teachers per board. This leads me to think about cost – I have lead the project for our school to use the boards and implement the full use in all classrooms and departments from Reception to Year 6 on all primary campuses. The installation is now part of the running costs of the school and they have been relatively high. What I began to think about during this course was how Vietnamese schools are able to afford this and how would they continue to use this powerful tool as part of the Development plan. At our school we have found that we were better placed to install over 3  years, first as a pilot with 3 boards replacing the SMARTs we had, then following up the install with upper and lower parts of the school. There are cheaper solutions of course like the use of a tablet instead of the board itself and combining it with a projector – but this really deviates away from the the interactivity that the boards promote.

The cost is much, much lower for the Activ Slates than that of a board (Activ Slates are like a hand held interactive wireless board that transmits the mouse movements to the display). Perhaps Promethean are aiming the software to be used by teachers and childen and not the boards themselves. Either way the fact that they are setting up an academy here for these teachers to train others is great and it means that our training can be incorporated into it for the local international schools. I just hope that Promethean don’t get too swallowed up in self promotion and lose the key purchasers’ interests.

Further info: www.prometheanworld.com and www.prometheanlearning.com (for product and training documentation)

If your local area has access to computers and the internet (here in Vietnam it’s booming with an estimated 5 million in the southern area [HCMC]) then what does this mean? There are other factors to take into account; in Asia there is a darker side to internet use. The Gold farming from sites like WOW and the Linden doallars being transferred as real life dollars for characters and popular virtual niceties. But that’s another story.

In addition, I would hasten to add the impact of Internet cafes here in HCMC as a local factor to price of  progress that affects the social aspect of children. Many of the Internet cafes house children of the same age as those in my studentship who are studying this topic late into the night. What further implications does this have? Is there a gender issue attached? Is there a knock-on effect to the content they view? Is there a difference to the content they view/ interact with and the content they view – some may say no. It could also be a good grounding for my international students who are slightly detached from their surroundings due to their family’s wealth. It is startling sometimes as to how they are oblivious to the world outside of school. The more I think about this the more I want to kick this off in the new term.

The project that kicked off a long time back (I think 2001-2?) was heralded as a large and complex operation that would encompass many governments, organisations and operatives. Since the many newspaper, blog and newsfeed stories that have chronicled the progress of the project it seems as though the OLPC has taken a slightly different track in it’s approach and direction. This sidestep is part and parcel due to Walter Bender leading a team with the OS rather than the hardware.

Sugar, the name for the OS that OLPC uses is a flavour of the Fedora Linux family and is also available through Debian, Ubuntu and, as I’m about to chat about, the live USB version. Although, I’m cheating a little, as I’ve actually got it through VirtualBox as as a separate installer. The idea is that I would like to use it in class as a live USB for the smaller children in another computing environment that windows for various reasons that i’ll come to ina moment. The live USB version, I would assume, is very similar in use as the main with some elements missing – but for this post I’m sure this won’t matter as the crux of the issue is classroom use.

So far, this OS (the Strawberry Sugar on a stick but not on a stick!) is working very well for me. i really like the interface, the simplicity and the ready robustness of the feel I played around with it and tried to think like a 5 or 6 year old would when they are presented with something new. The whole wow factor followed by the frantic clicking and then followed by the stop and look. I did this without precautiuon and ened up opening the turtle application. Now, my students (age from 4 to 11) are pretty familiar with windows and they see a changing desktop appearance week in week out but not the operation. The circular dial would, I feel, entice them to click on the picture. I mean, after all I set up icon shortcuts for them to “click-click” on daily and this seems kid centric to me. The circle of apps surrounds them too which is what I like also. So far, so good.

We have been using the Windows version of Gcompris for a while now as it has games and quizzes that are colourful and easy to follow and differentiate for  the more computer savvy 5 year old. Also, Gcompris is open source (resticted for Windows users) but the full set up available for your school should you run EdUbuntu or similar (or if your site manager allows you to run VirtualBox) coupled with Sebran and you have quite a setup for the bebinner ICT class for children (or OAPs getting used to a computer and keyboard).

What is really good about Sugar though is the potential of the site and the community that runs it. The model of the Mozilla extensions that has made web browsing sans IE has been used here too. The Activities menu is growing all the time and there are some reasonable addons here too. As any self respecting ICT teacher will know music is a brilliant factor in the attention grabbing eyes-on-the-screen activity where and hour zips by without a word said (headphones permitting). Tamtam Jam activities provide this with an easy download.

I am sure that I will hit stumbling blocks along the way and the fact I have to try and persuade my Principal to give me money for 25 2Gb USB drives so that I can operate this for my classroom is one of them. What I would then like to do is test and post up the pitfalls and the successes – especially the neighbourhood tool and see the reaction.

Hey, I’ll be posting personal views of Ed Tech and the tools that we, as teachers and educators, see in our daily digital lives.

There is so much going on that I have re-done a website for my professional life called the Ed Tech Lounge (the image links to it). I felt that I needed it as a place to build a portfolio of all the tech and web tools that I and my colleagues use on a daily basis. It will also be used as point-of-call for all the staff training we run at our school.

If you’re interested pop on by as there will be all sorts of hidden treasures that you’ll enjoy should you be wanting Edtech ideas, resources, links, images and video.

Cheers.