Over-the-air Updating of iOS 5 from Frasier Speirs...

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Tonight the iOS 5.0.1 update arrived, which means a chance to test the new over-the-air update system introduced in iOS 5. Over-the-air updates are one of the most important sanity-saving features of iOS 5 for people managing large installs of iOS devices. Instead of having to connect to iTunes, download a 700MB+ restore image and connect your iPads one by one, you can install the update directly on the device.

via Fraser Speirs - Blog - Over-the-air Updating of iOS 5.

Speirs' site is a great resource for folks managing iOS deployments... At Lewis, we have 70 iPads in use in our 4th and 5th grade classrooms. Over winter break we plan to do the upgrade from iOS 4 to iOS 5. Once this is done, then we can take advantage of Over the Air (OTR) upgrades.

via tumblr:

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What is elementary, worldly wisdom? Well, the first rule is that you can’t really know anything if you just remember isolated facts and try and bang ‘em back. If the facts don’t hang together on a latticework of theory, you don’t have them in a usable form. You’ve got to have models in your head. And you’ve got to array your experience—both vicarious and direct—on this latticework of models. You may have noticed students who just try to remember and pound back what is remembered. Well, they fail in school and in life. You’ve got to hang experience on a latticework of models in your head.

om.co » Why connecting the dots is important too

The quote is by Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway… 

on tumblr: http://timlauer.tumblr.com/post/13024336163/what-is-elementary-worldly-wisdom-well-the

Art History Lesson

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On Monday, Lewis parent Professor Dana Katz visited room 10 to help with an art history lesson. Dana is a professor at Reed College in the Art History department. She helped lead the students in an art lesson focused on portraits. Look for their work posted in the hallway.

New Bench in Room 17...

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Ms. Kennedy's classroom has a new reading bench, compliments of her husband Craig. Over the past two weekends he built the bench and it is now placed in Room 17. He did a great job with the finish work, and he experimented a bit to get just the right shade of stain so that it matches the existing 50's era woodwork. Ms. Kennedy plans to utilize the area as a reading corner providing a comfortable area to get lost in a good book.

bench

Wireless Projection with an AppleTV and a VGA Projector

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One of the best features of iOS 5 on the iPad is the ability to project your iPad 2 screen wirelessly to a display via AppleTV. This is accomplished via Apple's Airplay technology. The AppleTV has an HDMI connector so, basically you just plug your AppleTV into an HDTV and your can wirelessly project your iPad 2 screen on the TV. instagram image

This is great if you have an HDTV, but most classrooms do not. This is where the HP HDMI to VGA converter comes in. It is a small attachment that has an HDMI connector on one side, and a VGA adapter on the other. This allows you to plug an AppleTV into a data projector that does not have an HDMI connection. The connector will pass the video, but audio will not pass through. We only have one projector in our building with HDMI and ideally this is the best way to do this, since you get video and audio, but for most of what teachers want to share, being able to pass the video image will be very helpful. The HP HDMI to VGA converter is about $40 and available from HP. An AppleTV will set you back bout $100.