Application is done!

At least for the time being. We shall see how it pans out from here. There will probably need to be some tweaking of the rubric as we go on, but that's not a huge undertaking.

Busy busy

Spend the last two days in meetings again, and getting the PLTW application squared away. Also, I'm getting all of the purchase requests for my department, and for all the various activities done as well. UG!

Tech Needs

I've been out for a few days, because of meetings, and teaching the Apperson Scanners.

I have been able to get some information about the different things tech-related.

ICE Tablet PC
First, Paul Hardy has said that he doesn't really have a need for the Tablet PC, because he will have a Project Lead The Way Laptop.

Nick Wedoff has said that he would LOVE a laptop/tablet, but it would have to be able to run Chief Architect, 3dStudioMAX, and KeyCreator. This could be a limitation, when the hardware has integrated graphics, like in some laptops.

Steve Elza and I have indicated that we would be very willing to participate in the Tablet PC ICE program.

Tech Needs

Paul has had great success with the shopbot, and having the computers in the lab has been a huge help. He has requested "better" computers to get him to a total of 10. He suggested the CAD computers, when they get reapportioned.

Steve Elza will be putting different desks in the auto shop, and would like 5 computers in there, networked.

Electronics would like Multisim purchased and installed on the computers in the lab.

There is concern that the plotter in the CAD lab will not be compatible with Vista when we do eventually make the switch.

Our two color printers in the CAD Lab are on the fritz, and it was suggested from one of the other buildings in the district that we get one large, volume color laser printer.

I will need a replacement motherboard for my Computer Repair PCs, and 1 replacement stick of RAM (1GB)

O, I forgot!

In addition, Google is working alongside the "Open Handset Alliance" to come up with a free, open source operating system for cell phones and handhelds. They expect the hardware to be released in the 2nd half of 2008, but the SDK (software development kit) is available now. The neat thing (which I was getting my students involved in) is that they have set aside $10 million to award to different developers who write novel pieces of software for it. We are working on ideas for software that people might want on their cell phones or PDAs as we speak!

A post drought

Eek! It's been two days since a post, and the intertron may never recover.

Dramatics aside, I was out of the building on Tuesday, watching my mother graduate from a Nursing program. We had a long conversation about the analogs between medicine and education. If teachers spent as much time as doctors on each student(patient) how the individual education would be much better, but more expensive and time-consuming.

We had a laugh at if we treated medicine as we treat education. 30 patients come into a room for 50 mins, while a single doctor attempts to treat all of their various conditions before they leave for 24 hours.

Yesterday, I set up the final pieces of equipment for the Dance Room sound system. I can't wait until that job is FINALLY done. It's been almost a year and a half since I first proposed it. Red tape makes me cry.

Rapid Prototyping Excitement!

Nick Wedoff and I have been talking for a while about Rapid Prototyping equipment. Sometimes called "3d Printers," rapid prototypers are devices that can "print" a 3d object using plastics.

Normally, these machines are in the realm of impossibility for education, since entry level models start at $15,000. However, a new company has released a statement saying that they will be releasing an extremely cheap 3D printer, to the tune of about $5,000. That is much more plausible.

These are amazing for engineering, when we can draw something and then "print" it in 3D to see how the pieces fit together. We had a chance to borrow one a few years ago, and the projects the kids turned out were incredible. There was a custom fishing reel that a student had drawn, and all the pieces were printed and fit together perfectly.

Here are some pictures of things made on a rapid-prototyping machine.

Another:

From design...

To Reality: