Dirt Cheap Laptops; New Stuff for 17 and 20S

Hello, everyone.  I'm going to lift my head up from the grading for a second for a small update on the laptop classrooms.

Practical info up top, as usual.  We have a couple of new items in 20S and 17S.

In the baskets (new thing 1) inside the cabinets, you will find new little DVI to VGA converters (new thing 2).  These are for the Macs and work just like the little white gizmo you use to hook up your projector now.  But they're generic.  I had Sandy order these in anticipation of the day that one of us leaves his or her own converter gizmo at home.  They're back up for the forgetful.  (That's not just me, is  it?)  I've tested one this week, and I had to wiggle it a little once to get it to work, but it seems basically A-OK.  We've also got new 10' VGA cables for projector hook up (new thing 3).  These'll let you get a little further from the plugs if you want.  

A wrinkle with these: I just realized that what we received, to my dismay, are extension cables.  They plug into the other cable and give you another ten feet of strolling space.  (I found this really helpful with my new tablet PC, which I finally got running for the classroom this week.) 

What these cables don't do is give you the option of hooking up a second computer (like, maybe for a student presentation) at the second wall jack.  If you didn't know this: the two sets of plugs in each room work independently, as Computer 1 and Computer 2 on the projector remote.  So you can, if you want, toggle between them.  Could be fun.  Could be cool.  I'll work on getting cables to do that.

The baskets also now contain VCR/DVD hookup cables.  (Or will: right now they're both in 17S.)

Soon, we ought to also be getting laser pointers to go in the cabinets, in case you'd like to use those.  

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That's the news.  As always, please let me know if you're running into problems with the tech or the classrooms, or if you have any requests.  (I'd love it if you could all give me a wish list in January.)   

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A couple of my interesting-links-you-don't-have-to-read follow:

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First, I hope you all noticed that BSU was just named as the #1 "unwired" campus in America by Intel.  That's nice, it is.  We're part of that.  Actually, we're a big part of what will make it matter, educationally, or not.

Second, have you played with Facebook?  I started messing with Facebook because it was a good way for me to connect faces and names early in the semester.  Then I put up a profile, and I've found that now and then a brave student will ask to be my friend.  Some interesting potential in it as a tool for us, in terms even of recommending reading, websites, and ideas to students who come to our profile pages.  Also a good place to post office hours and that sort of thing, maybe, as your students are more likely (infinitely more likely) to be puttering around on Facebook than on Blackboard or our iWeb sites.  (Downside: some of the students are putting awfully personal or compromising information on their pages.  Upside to that: an excellent opportunity to talk about audience, persona, and self-representation online.)

Third.  I hear about the movement to create sub-$100 laptops now and then, and I find it intriguing.  (The ones featured in the linked article have power cranks for recharging their batteries.  Wrap your mind around that.)

That is all.

fj