Christopher Dawson Resources on ZDNet

ZDNet Author Biography: Christopher Dawson grew up in Seattle, back in the days of pre-antitrust Microsoft, coffeeshops owned by something other than Starbucks, and really loud, inarticulate music. He escaped to the right coast in the early 90's and received a degree in Information Systems from Johns Hopkins University. While there, he began...; more about Christopher Dawson »

ZDNet Resources

How does OpenSolaris fare for Ed Tech?: In a nutshell, just fine. It's Unix, it's stable, it's robust, it's free, and includes a solid repository of free software. The real question is, does it have a place in Ed Tech? It's certainly pretty, but it's running Gnome and looks an awful lot...; Tags: OpenSolaris, Linux Distribution, Linux, Open Source, UNIX, Operating Systems, Software, Christopher Dawson; Blog posts 2008-05-08
A new must-read for math/science teachers: I stumbled across an extraordinary children's book at our local library (for a town of 600, we somehow manage to have a great library). The book, though published in 1995, is still available new on Amazon. Called Math Curse, it was written by John Scieszca, and answers that fundamental...; Tags: Cereal, Teacher, Math Curse, Fibonacci, Christopher Dawson; Blog posts 2008-05-08
Second Life is the latest reason our kids are doomed: I'm kidding of course, but U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) apparently isn't. According to the Chicago Tribune, Kirk sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission requesting a consumer-alert warning about its dangers....Kirk said he knew of no cases in which children were targeted by...; Tags: Second Life, Internet, Engineering, Christopher Dawson; Blog posts 2008-05-08
Large Hadron Collider will put academic networks to the test: The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will be coming online this summer when its construction is complete outside of Geneva. Run by CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, the collider will be the largest facility of its type, designed to detect new types of subatomic particles, generate previously unseen...; Tags: CERN, Network, Data, Internet2, Networking, Christopher Dawson; Blog posts 2008-05-08
Expensive certification requirements hurt recruiting: Not everyone is cut out to be a teacher. It's a demanding job, summers off or not, and it helps to like kids. However, there are many instances when students can really benefit from teachers who have worked in private industry. This isn't the old adage, those...; Tags: Education, Recruiting, Teacher, Christopher Dawson; Blog posts 2008-05-06

Everyone loves the Eee: I spent the day at a conference sponsored by our SIS developer. The food was excellent, which is always a solid barometer for conference success and I learned that I've forgotten too much java (X2's Aspen SIS largely uses java to interact with the relational database that sits on...; Tags: Conference, SiS, Keyboards, Linux, E-mail, Hardware, Peripherals, Operating Systems, Software, Online Communications, Christopher Dawson; Blog posts 2008-05-06
ePals provides safe student collaboration tools: Yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak with Ed Fish, CEO of ePals Corporation. I first heard about ePals through Intel, who recently announced that they would provide hooks to ePals' services on their Classmate PCs. While it's easy to describe ePals as "the world's largest social network...; Tags: Collaboration, Mr., Collaboration Tool, Classroom, Teacher, Tool, ePals, Productivity, Social Networking, E-mail, Instant Messaging, Online Communications, Marketing, Advertising & Promotion, Internet, Christopher Dawson; Blog posts 2008-05-06
The "ubiquitous computer" changing the ed tech landscape: The Christian Science Monitor is featuring a piece on netbooks and the drastically decreased cost of bringing computing to students (and adults) in both mature and developing markets. According to Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director at Jupiter Research, They represent the idea of the "ubiquitous computer...; Tags: Computer, One Laptop Per Child Project, Productivity, Christopher Dawson; Blog posts 2008-05-06
Xubuntu 8.04 stellar on low-power machines: I finally had the chance to install Xubuntu 8.04 on a laptop for another of my kids this weekend. My first attempt to install Xubuntu (Ubuntu running the Xfce interface instead of Gnome and generally considered lighter and faster than other *buntus) on a seriously aging and memory starved...; Tags: Ubuntu, Video, Hardware, Xfce, Microsoft Windows, Corporate Communications, Operating Systems, Software, Marketing, Christopher Dawson; Blog posts 2008-05-04
Sugar on Windows looking inevitable: Now that Walter Bender has resigned from OLPC, Technology Review featured an article on the group's new president, Charles Kane. The article makes it very clear that OLPC, under the direction of Kane and Nicholas Negroponte, will definitely be seeking to deploy Windows on XOs and future products from...; Tags: One Laptop Per Child Project, Nicholas Negroponte, Bender, Microsoft Windows, Operating Systems, Software, Christopher Dawson; Blog posts 2008-05-04
New approach gives Purdue serious computing power: Purdue University will be replacing its current research computing clusters on May 5th with one of the world's largest supercomputers. While this isn't especially surprising at a school known for its computer science expertise, the funding model and installation are far more novel. Interestingly, the supercomputer,...; Tags: Purdue University, Supercomputer, Computing, Computer, Productivity, Research & Development, Business Operations, Christopher Dawson; Blog posts 2008-05-01
Stanford pushing for new parallel computing model: Stanford University, in conjunction with Sun, AMD, NVIDIA, IBM, Intel, and HP, is working to create a new computing model that fully exploits modern, multicore processing. As a feature in Ars Technica points out, parallel computing has always posed significant challenges to programmers. However, since most of us...; Tags: Computing, Christopher Dawson; Blog posts 2008-05-01
Record labels getting better at detecting P2P: An article in Ars Technica points to a recent increase in copyright infringement notices being sent to universities. While the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) claims that it has not changed its procedures, it did note that record labels are constantly improving their ability to detect peer-to-peer traffic...; Tags: Ars Technica, P2P, University, Peer To Peer (P2P), Internet, Christopher Dawson; Blog posts 2008-05-01
Is Stallman right about OLPC?: Richard Stallman (president of the Free Software Foundation) has been something of a firebrand in the IT community. Even open source advocates don't always agree with his hardline stances. However, one has to wonder if his latest take on the OLPC project and its possible move to a...; Tags: Open Source, One Laptop Per Child Project, XO, Microsoft Windows, Tools & Techniques, BIOS, Operating Systems, Software, Management, Hardware, Components, Christopher Dawson; Blog posts 2008-05-01
Know when to say when on open source: My librarian and I spent quite a bit of time evaluating open source replacements for our ancient Follett library software. We both liked what Koha had to offer and would obviously rather use something free than something, well, not free. However, with both of us in...; Tags: Open Source, Christopher Dawson; Blog posts 2008-04-30
Has math instruction actually changed in the last 40 years?: I started my last two master's classes last night (!!). Since the classes consist largely of teachers, we usually end up having some pretty interesting discussions about teaching approaches to translating the master's-level content to secondary education. The first professor of the evening (analytic geometry, although...; Tags: Geometry, Professor, Math, Student, Teacher, Productivity, Christopher Dawson; Blog posts 2008-04-30
Inevitable, huh? Not in Ed Tech: I just finished a post on Ubuntu 8.04; the OS has converted my son from a Linux-hater to an OS-not-carer (yes, I just made that term up, but I think you know what I mean). Then I stumbled across a ComputerWorld article on the inevitability of Vista adoption in...; Tags: Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows Vista (Longhorn), Operating Systems, Microsoft Windows, Software, Christopher Dawson; Blog posts 2008-04-29
"Don't tell them that I love it": These were my son's words after living with Ubuntu 8.04 on his laptop for a day. Interestingly, he said, "I never loved Windows either, but it always worked for me." Of his fresh installation (sans a Windows XP virtual machine), he noted that drastic improvements in boot and...; Tags: Ubuntu, Training, Ubuntu 8.04, Microsoft Windows, Linux, Tools & Techniques, Operating Systems, Open Source, Software, Management, Christopher Dawson; Blog posts 2008-04-29
Is Google locking up historical works?: Google provides funding to universities and researchers around the world who scan and digitize books for them. Many of these books have considerable historical significance, although Google's real goal, according to a CNN piece on the effort, is to create Google Inc.'s Book Search, a portal...; Tags: Google Inc., Book Search, Portals, Channel Management, Internet, Web Technology, Marketing, Christopher Dawson; Blog posts 2008-04-28
If my kid doesn't like Linux now...: ...then I'll give him Vista. I finally had the chance to install Ubuntu 8.04 on his laptop last night, wiping out an unhappy 64-bit Kubuntu 7.10 installation. His final words before I took the laptop were, "Just save my music." Typical teenager. So I backed up...; Tags: Desktop, CD, NVidia Corp., Laptop Computer, Vista Business DVD, Linux, Notebooks, Productivity, Operating Systems, Software, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Christopher Dawson; Blog posts 2008-04-28