Cloud Storage

(cross posted on Success for Every Child)

I've been playing around with several cloud storage options over the past several months and I've found another one I've decided I like. And this one is DropBox. Here's what I like about it:

1) I do not have to be connected to the Internet to access my files - they are stored locally on my system and uploaded only when I'm connected (great for working at home on the laptop, which doesn't always get a connection)

2) Allows for syncing of files between multiple computers

3) Extremely easy to use and quick to upload/download files

4) Works on both Macs and PCs seamlessly (I have a Mac at home and put up with a PC for work!)

Here's what I don't like about it - and there's only one thing: the free storage capacity is set to 2GB (I could purchase additional but I'm too cheap for that).

Here's how I'm using it - and why I'm already close to my storage limit. The past six months I've been working to combine all my accounts and settings into one area, and I have three key accounts: my personal ones for home, my work ones for school, and my church ones for my church job. So in my dropbox I have three main folders: one for home, one for school, and one for church, and I can access any or all of them at any time. It's the (for now) cloud storage answer for files that is similar to my use of Google Bookmarks with the GMarks-add-on for Firefox that keeps all my bookmarks synced together on all my computers.

Think of it this way - DropBox is like having a flash drive with you at all times without having to keep a flash drive with you. Unlike Windows SkyDrive or Google Docs, I do not have to be connected to the internet to access the files, but like those two services I do have the ability to share folders with other users so they can access them. (Now if DropBox would just up their storage limit I would be a much happier person).

For those who are considering installing it on their computers, just know that once it's installed it saves all the files in a folder called "My DropBox" under the "My Documents" folder on your desktop. By saving files directly into the "My DropBox" folder - or any subfolder within it - (from Word or Excel or any other program) your files will automatically be uploaded and stored on the cloud server. Here's three examples from this past week where I used it:

1) I was working on a new faculty handbook for my new staff. I saved the file to DropBox when I left work and then accessed it from home that evening to review and edit it. When I got back to work the next day all the changes were already there.

2) Sunday afternoon I created a new worship set for my church service and put together the slide show for the congregation to follow along (something I do every Sunday) - I saved it to my DropBox folder and then when I arrived at church I accessed DropBox via the web side and downloaded the file onto the A/V computer in my church so the slide show was there.

3) I planned to use some new musical arrangements for a worship service this past Sunday that required print-outs of new sheet music. I uploaded them to my share folder on DropBox and the other musicians were able to access them and download the files they needed for their individual parts.

If you don't currently use some sort of Cloud Storage consider giving DropBox If you click on this link you should get a free 250MB after you join!

Pushing Groupwise Calendar to Your iPad

If you're like me you've found the iPad is a fantastic device, and if you don't have a Blackberry that can access your Groupwise Calendar at any time, having access to the Groupwise Calendar when you're off campus and without an internet connection is very difficult.  While there are some options available in the App Store, there is also a free option, if you're willing to take a few minutes to setup some filters and rules in both Groupwise and Google.

The first thing you will need is a Google Calendar account, and if you have Gmail you already have Google Calendar.

• While in Gmail click "Calendar" at the top and setup your account
• Choose "Calendar settings" from the left-side of the screen and then click the "General" tab
• Scroll down to "Automatically add invitations to my calendar" and click "Yes"

The next thing you need to do is setup your iPad to sync with your Google Calendar.  Go to Settings and then create an account for your calendar:

1. Create New Account and Choose "Microsoft Exchange"
2. The server for the account is "m.google.com" (without quotation marks)
3. Domain is the same as the server
4. Username is your FULL gmail address (ie, thomasrfellerjr@gmail.com) and your password is your gmail password
5. Select "SSL" as "On"
6. Only choose "Calendar" for your exchange account - do not activate Mail or Contacts

This will now allow you to have full syncronization between your Google Calendar and your iPad calendar.  Configuring Groupwise to publish your appointments to Google takes several more steps.  In short, you'll create a rule in Groupwise to automatically forward all appointments to Google, and then you'll create a rule in Google to automatically accept all appointments.  Please note that this is a one-way option - only appointments in Groupwise will show up on your Google Calendar; appointments you make on your iPad or in Google will NOT show up in Groupwise (if anyone has figured out a way to do this let me know, because I'm coming up empty).

Sounds simple enough, so let's walk through it.

First, go into Groupwise and click on "Tools" and then "Rules";  create a new rule and call it "To Google"

1. "When Event is" (the first line of the screen after the rule name) is "New Item" and click "Received" and "Posted"
2. "Item type" is "Appointment"
3. Click on "Add action" and choose "Delegate"
4. In the "To" field type your gmail address (ie, thomasrfellerjr@gmail.com"
5. In comments type "GWAppointment"
6. Save the rule

Next, create a second rule to auto-accept all appointments from yourself (more on the reason for this below)

1. Click "Tools" and then "Rules"; create a new rule and call it "Auto-Accept My Appointments"
2. "When Event is" is "New Item" and click "Received"
3. "Item type" is "Appointment"
4. Click on "Add action" and choose "Accept"
5. Save the rule

Now, you need to go over to Google and create an Accept rule... Login to Gmail and hit the "Create a Filter" link (up at the top of the page next to "Search the web" box)

1. From is your Groupwise email (ie, fellert.wms@pitt.k12.nc.us)
2. Enter "GWAppointment" in the field for "Has the words"
3. Hit "Next Step"
4. Click the options "Skip the Inbox" and "Delete it"

And that's it.  Here are a few things you'll need to remember:

• This only works ONE way - Appointments in Groupwise will be sent to Google but Google can not sent to Groupwise
• This will only work for ORIGINAL appointments; if you change an appointment, delete an appointment, or edit it in Groupwise those changes, deletions, or edits will NOT show up in Google (so if you delete it in GW you'll need to manually delete it in Google)
• It only works for "New Appointments" and not "Posted Appointments" (more on this in a minute) - that means you need to hit the "New Appointment" button in Groupwise if you want appointments to appear in both, if you just double-click on your calendar and do a posted appointment it will NOT show up in Google

So here's how to use all this...  When you want to post a meeting or appointment click on the "New Appointment" button; address the appointment to yourself (which it defaults to) and fill in all other information as your normally would (Date, time, location, category, etc) and then hit "Send".  The appointment request will now be sent to you, your auto-accept rule will accept it for you, and then forward it on to Google.  Once it gets to Google your filters in Google will auto-accept it and then delete the mail that sent it to keep your mailbox clean.  It's really that simple.

One thing you should be aware of is that Groupwise defaults to sending you a reply every time an appointment is accepted (or declined) to inform you of what happened.  These will show up in your inbox.  If you do not want to see these everytime you post an appointment (I don't want to see them!) then just create one more rule in Groupwise to delete the messages.  You already know how to create rules in GW (go to Tools and Rules), so I'll just put the parameters here:

1. Rule name is "Delete Auto-Accept Messages"
2. New Item is "Received"
3. Item type is "Mail"
4. Click "Define Conditions" and selected "Subject" from the pull-down menu and enter "[Your Groupwise Name] Accepted" (ie, "Thomas Feller Accepted" - replace "Thomas Feller" with whatever name shows up when you send emails out)
5. Add action is "Delete/Decline"
6. Save Rule

So, that's it - kinda a pain in the neck to setup but once you get it going everything works very smoothly!

Google Reader

As we have already discussed previously on this Blog, Google has a wealth of resources for educators. Google Reader (http://www.google.com/reader) is a tool that can help you, both professionally and personally. Reader is available to you FREE with your Google Account (Gmail). It allows you to "subscribe" and follow content on a variety of webpages at one time. For example, when I log into Google Reader each morning, I am able to quickly skim headlines from a variety of newspapers (Daily Reflector, News and Observer, etc.) and other news websites (CNN, ESPN, or whatever else interests me).

There are also sites that Reader can collect content. For example, it can load Twitter postings (I follow NCPAPA and NCASA through Reader) and even your Facebook postings. Reader can be easily set up by logging in and following a simple tutorial.

One other aspect of Reader is the ability to "share" information with others. I have set up my Google Reader account where I publicly post education related articles that I find for others (my staff or colleagues) to view. Here's my shared address in case you want to check it out: http://www.google.com/reader/shared/kevtsmith01

Here's also a "Getting Started Guide" in case you need specific instructions on how to get started with Google Reader: http://www.google.com/support/reader/bin/answer.py?answer=113517

Google Docs, Skydrive, and Gladinet

Cross Posted on Success for Every Child

As much as I like Google Docs for some things (surveys in particular), I get very frustrated at times because it doesn't work 100% with Microsoft Office files. For example, I have a lot of forms I've created with Word for common tasks (evaluations, observations, different data collection stuff), and uploading to Google Docs doesn't convert everything correctly. I love being able to have the virtual drive that I can upload files to so I can access them at home, but I hate having to go through the step of uploading files every time I leave work so the most recent version is available (if I'm using a document that Google Docs doesn't support).

So then I looked at Windows Skydrive, which seemed like a great alternative, because once Office 2010 comes out it will most likely have native support to save and open files directly from the Skydrive. This solves the problem of having documents that need Microsoft Office and won't work in Google Docs.

But it still was clumsy to work with (at least at this stage of development), so I was trying to find something to allow me to easy move files back and forth between my Google Drive, Microsoft Skydrive, and/or local computer. That's when I stumbled upon Gladinet. This wonderful free utility will allow you to mount your online drives as network drives on your computer. So that way I can save and open files directly from Microsoft Office (or any other program I'm using). It's setup on my computer as the Y: drive. I've actually got both my Google Docs and my Skydrive mounted, so when I go to my Y: drive I see a folder for "Google Docs" and a folder for "Skydrive". This also allows me to copy files and put them on the virtual drives via Windows Explorer (so I don't need to upload files individually but I can move entire folders).

There are obviously two huge advantages to using Gladinet (or other similar programs) to copy files to your virtual drive. For one, you can save directly to the drive (by choose "Save as.." in a Word/Excel/any program and selecting the destination as the Y: drive). The second, though, is that it provides a great option for backing up files. Since you can copy entire folders it gives you the option of backing up your entire file system by simply copying them over via Windows explorer.

For the record, Skydrive has a storage capacity of 25 GB, which is pretty significant. All three of these "programs" (Google Docs, Windows Skydrive, and Gladinet) are free.

Valuing People

Cross posted on Success for Every Child Every Day

I am going to share a pet peeve of mine, and I know it seems insignificant, but I believe it's particularly important for leaders to think about this type of thing..

This year I have made a conscious effort to communicate face-to-face as much as possible, or call someone on the phone, even though sometimes it can be more "efficient" to converse via email. I'm one of those few people who still doesn't have a texting plan on my cell phone - I only use the cell phone for making calls, and my plan has a shared number of minutes with my wife of only 550 minutes a month. Too often we as people, and especially leaders, forget the human component of the jobs we do, and that is most obvious in how often we substitute authentic communication for "efficiency" (didn't I learn somewhere that 70% of communication is non-verbal?)

This is actually a fairly common rant I read, so I don't feel I'm sharing anything revolutionary. What I don't ever read (or hear), however, is the how to use technology well when people rant about this topic. Let me share with you two things that have happened this week... First, I sent an email to a person in my district asking a simple yes/no question. All I got back was a one word email with the word "Yes" in it. The second is an email I sent to another person in my district letting them know I had done something they asked. This one at least had two words: "Thanks tom" (yes, they had my name in lowercase). They did not sign the email or anything, but it did have the customary "This was sent from my blackberry" tag line that many people have on their emails.

So, a few things.

First, why can't people put a greeting in their emails? I'm not saying I need a formal, "Dear Tom" or "Most beloved friend and colleague:" A simple "Tom - " at the beginning of the email would be nice.

Second, why can't people sign their emails with something more than their pre-filledout signature that the email program automatically inserts? It's kinda like getting a letter from someone and realizing they did nothing more than use a rubber stamp to sign their name.

Third, get rid of the darn taglines at the ends of the emails. I am so tired or reading that emails are sent from Blackberries, iPhones, iPads, or any other electronic device. I'm seriously considering putting at the end of all my emails, "This email was manually typed on an old-fashioned keyboard on an old-fashioned desktop because I think you are important enough to receive my best instead of a quick text message that I send on a whim."

When we do these things I personally believe it helps reinforce that people we communicate with have value - call it the technological equivalent of looking someone in the eye when they talk to us. Technology is a great tool and an asset, but let's not put it above the human resources we need to function in our world.

Smartboards

Okay, I just have to share this post from another blog... I have said for years that Smartboards are a great tool but they're also not all they're cracked up to be. I have seen too many teachers use Smartboards as an expensive whiteboard - and it drives me CRAZY. Here's another person's thoughts on the whole thing, and I think I have to agree with him...

Why Smartboards Are a Dumb Initiative

New Stuff on Google Docs

For a while now, I noticed the RED underlined NEW Features! button at the top of the Google Docs page.  I just figured out that if you click on it, you can access and learn about all the new features that makes Google Docs even better than it was before.  I really like the formula bar on the spreadsheets (similar to Excel) and the drag and drop columns.  On the Docs the ruler at the top of the page is very helpful, esp with tabs and margins.

Below is the link to the Google Docs page on the new features and how to get started.  One thing that confused me - once you switch to the NEW version of Google Docs, your previous docs will be in the old version, your NEW docs will have the ruler at the top of the page.

http://www.google.com/google-d-s/whatsnew.html

One of the things I realized last week was that Google Docs works SO much better on the Google Chrome browser.  I tried showing someone how to use it on the Internet Explorer browser and almost gave into the frustration.  The ease of viewing and the use of the tabs really makes it worth it to open your Google Docs on Chrome.