Gary’s Blog

  • Elevator Pitch on User Accounts
    User accounts can be added to one or more groups that are configured on the network operating systems as well. These can be set by whatever rules the network administrator decides; of course, in schools, teachers are often assigned to groups based on the subject areas taught and grade levels taught, so they will be Read More
  • Elevator Pitch on CIA Triad
    Network security would be very easy if no one ever needed to use computers or data. From a security point of view, it is unfortunate that people use networked computers. The reality is that we need networked computers and that data stored on them to do our work as educators. IT designers consider confidentiality, integrity, Read More
  • An Experiment with AI
    A colleague and I have been leading forums on AI at our community college. Once per month, we meet with faculty and once per month with students. The discussions have been rich and we also share tools and ask other to share tools. At our most recent forum, we were exploring Notebook LM. This is Read More
  • IT Skills & Educators
    In the first decade desktop computers were in schools, most teachers had little experience with computer technology, so dedicating professional development resources to train teachers in the basic operation of systems (tasks such launching applications, creating and editing documents, and saving and printing) was appropriate and necessary. Soon thereafter, the local area networks and the Read More
  • Elevator Pitch: Leveraging #edtech
    I used to recoil when the term “leverage” was applied to computers in educational settings; I had heard too many administrators and vendors describe how some tool could be “leveraged to improve student outcomes.” As we chatted while waiting for a meeting to begin, an English-teaching colleague pointed out that the word really does apply Read More
  • An Old Guy’s Story of Media
    The need to train and retrain teachers has taken on increased importance as digital computers have arrived in schools. As an undergraduate student enrolled in a course on teaching methods, I made an appointment with the staff at a small media office and had them sign a sheet confirming that I successfully threaded a film Read More