I recently found via SlideShare Christopher Pappas’s site for Moodle Tutorials. Looks like a great resource. He’s also created several good groups at Slideshare worth checking out!

I’ve begun playing with the Sugar OS, the operating system for OLPC (one laptop per child). I used VM Fusion to run the OS in emulation on my Mac. Interesting! I think it will be more interesting once I find some others to try it out with me… to explore the social networking functionality.

Today, I installed Edubuntu on my MacBook Pro laptop.

Displayed above, you can see me using a Web 2.0 tool, VoiceThread just fine under Firefox in the Ubuntu-linux operating system. What makes Edubuntu unique is the educational software that comes with it, and the support for thin-clients running off a server.

This past October, the tech sites were ablaze with high hopes for the latest version of Ubuntu, named “Gutsy Gibbon.” Having used Linux before, it is even more polished and stable than I’ve noted in past forays. I doubt I could use this day-in and day-out as effectively as I use the Mac (in part due to my familiarity with Mac over Ubuntu linux), but the amount (and quality) of what’s there says a lot for what schools could do with inexpensive machines and this free software.

Incidentally, I had some issues getting Ubuntu installed on my Mac with Parallels 3. I took the advice I found elsewhere, and:

• Installed the earlier v7 release of Ubuntu with their Alternative CD.
• I used the text-installer. It hung on me.
• I restarted, and it had actually fully installed.
• I used the built-in system update in Ubuntu to upgrade from Fiesty Fawn to Gutsy Gibbon.
• I used a command-line tool to install (upgrade, if you will) to Edubuntu.
• I used the built-in software installer to grab a lot more software, including the titles that come on the Edubuntu install disc.

The only thing I had to do on my own was install Flash. Latest versions of OpenOffice, TuxPaint, GIMP, etc., are all ready and waiting. Thanks to some folks on the Edubuntu IRC channel for some advice in getting Edubuntu installed over Ubuntu.

Presentation Zen did a review of Jobs’ Keynote this past week at Macworld.

I agree with all the points made, the thing I liked best is something I try to do in my own presentations: tell people where I’m going; give them a roadmap.

Too many presentations… you’re not sure where you are going. I liked the idea of “four things.” I can sit here now and name off the four things: MacBook Air, Leopard and Time Capsule, iTunes and movie rentals, and the iPhone update.

In recent meetings I’ve had with colleagues in different school divisions, they keep reminding me (us) that the Web we are talking about “The Read/Write” and “2.0″ varieties, are not the ones that they use at work. When I suggested at a meeting to start a podcasting initiative with English teachers in our middle schools, the backlash hurt.

“It’s blocked!” said one.

What is? – I asked.

“Blogs!” cried one. “Wikis!” cried another.

“Wikis??” I asked. “Yes,” they confirmed.

I know I am not alone with disappointment. Blocking the Internet is safe and leaves no questions asked about loopholes or accidents (in a perfect world–the kind where proxy servers and leaked passwords and other methods never come into play).

But seriously–how do you address 21st century skills without access to the tools that are partly inspiring the revolution?

It’s disappointing to me that even our technology leaders are at odds with these policies–or unsure of them–and yet nothing is done.

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