Finally an Easy way for Linux to Join AD

This has been the number one road block for using Linux at our School. About once a year I format a student system into Linux. It starts rosy, I'm feeling good about all the open source software we're going to use. It's an upbeat day. Flash forward to about a week later and I'm sadly RISing it back to XP. Why?

Students just can't login with their AD accounts like they do on Windows or Mac. They have to jump hoops, learn how to mount network shares, access network printers. Sure, the technologist out there might argue "but that stuff is all easy." It might be, but it's different enough to cause grumbling in the ranks.

To try to solve this I've wrestled with joining machines to the AD. I usually can do it, but it takes way ... way too long to do this on every machine. However, this has changed! I'm not really sure when this package came out, but I just found it today. It works like a charm. Here are the short steps for a denebian system

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install likewise-open
sudo domainjoin-cli join fqdn.of.your.domain Administrator
sudo update-rc.d likewise-open defaults
sudo /etc/init.d/likewise-open start

For a better explanation, and for more info, run over to this site where I found these instructions: Bobby Allen's Blog.

Now I just need to remember how to trigger a .sh login script from AD ...

Zoho is Great but needs RAM

I took my class down to the computer labs this week to learn about zoho. We only had a class and a bit, but they caught on very quickly. Using the Zoho notebook they quikly built review centers for the unit of study we are working in.

All went well, and I'd recommend this to anyone for a great online project. However, one note of warning. Zoho notebook sucks up RAM. After about half a class they started getting errors. I suspected hardware so bumped up the old machines from 512 to 1GB. That lasted a few more pages then the errors came back.

I had them switch to computers with 3 Gbs of RAM and no errors. So ... zoho is cool, but needs RAM be warned!

The power of Google Docs

OK, this is a lot like the wiki video but it still deserves a look. I can't tell you how many of my colleges think email is the ultimate collaboration tool. Even when faced with multiple versions of documents or being somehow left off the email group list, they still insist it's the best. Perhaps if they saw this great quick video (who is commoncraft anyway?)

Wikis in Plain English

Just in case you have not seen this video on Wikis, and so I'd have a place I could always find it, here is a simple video explaining why Wikis can be so good. Enjoy and think of the possibilities ...

Why has Technology Become a Snooze in Schools?

Hey ... my school lab just got evergreened! I've been looking forward to this for four years. Finally a whole room full of brand new computer technology. What will they be ...

Well it turns out they are big, square, fat, full towers with separate monitors. They come in room dampening black and are full of cords but no card reader, web cam or even a mic. This particular set even comes with ball mice. You remember ball mice don't you?

Well, at first I was very sad. How can this be? Three years ago we brought in a few beautiful flat, all-in one macs. They were white, slim and silent. They was only one piece with few cords, yet they came with a web cam and mic and still ran our district's required Windows. What happened to that direction?

I've concluded that I and my fellow teachers have somehow failed. We've failed to showcase what we can do with better technology. We've failed to engage kids in web 2.0 stuff like voicethread, sketchcast, eyespot or even podcasts. Instead all we've proven is we can use MS Office, so that's what we get. Fast Office boxes.

I really can't blame IT. They do not teach. They do not know how frustrating it is not to be able to see your students. Or how much positive difference it makes if your room looks engaing, innnovative, or even just bright and appealing. They fix boxes. Now they have a large nearly empty case that's easy to access. These are a win for them.

Sadly, they are a loss for us and our students.

So the challenge must be issued. We must do better. Our communities and students should be clammering for more web cams, camcordes, mp3 records, card readers, and cleaner, smaller, easier to use pieces of computer technology. If we do it right, I'm sure they'll listen.