Martin Spriggs

This past week Apple introduced electronic textbooks through their iBook store and available in the iTunes University (iTunes U). iTunes U had previously been available only to higher education institutions. It is now available for K-12.. Also a part of the announcement was the introduction of a new iBook / Textbook authoring tool called iBook Author. With textbook publishers like Pearson “signed up” to populate the offerings, Apple is getting serious about getting electronic textbooks in the classroom.

Over the last day or so I’ve been using the iBook Author application to convert an ebook I wrote on church websites. I am fairly impressed with the tool and will blog a review of it in the near future. There is great potential for paper textbooks to be replaced with these very interactive and engaging products. Almost makes me want to go back to school.

Those of you that follow this blog know that I recently finished a series on Google Chromebooks in the classroom. So if an elementary school administrator is looking to “go digital” do you go with Chromebooks or iPads? By the way, iBook textbooks can only be used on iPads. Right now I’d have to lean toward Chromebooks for the following five reasons:

1. Chromebooks can be shared, while iPads are meant to be owned and operated by one student. I suppose you could share an iPad but the students couldn’t take their own notes, do anything customized for themselves or store documents/homework locally. One of the Chromebooks greatest strength is any student could pick up any Chromebook, login and start working. Since Google Apps is cloud based all documents, etc. are not stored on the local device…making the device just a vehicle to get at cloud based content.

2. iPads have limited storage. If you put five 2Gb textbooks on one (depending on the version of the iPad), you’ve used over half the available space. Chromebooks aren’t meant to have onboard storage, thus everything needs to be in the cloud. I think a smarter model for textbooks rather than chained to a device.

3. IPads are expensive. The lowest price model currently costs $499. To ask each child to own one at the elementary or even high school level is a tough sell. Chromebooks come with a monthly fee ($20/month) a school or parent can pay over time, and then if desired “own” the device after three years. Schools could do the same with iPads and cover the initial cost, but that is a large capital cost for most schools.

4. Google Apps have an excellent management console which allows very granular control over each device. iPads aren’t set up that way. Each has to be individually managed and don’t provide a lot of tools that allow them to be locked down.

5. Google Apps provides an ecosystem of Docs, Email, Groups, Sites, etc. that a classroom can use to provide needed services for homework submission, collaboration, and communications. The iPad environment can offer some services like that, but not nearly as cohesive or seamless.

Having said all that I do have to say that the interactive textbook experience offered by iBooks has great possibilities. What is available on Chromebooks right now isn’t as advanced. However, since the Chromebook relies on the web, any publisher or person who would want to create one could.

It should be interesting to watch how all this shakes out.

This is the 7th installment of my series on Chromebooks For The Classroom. So far I have covered almost everything but the actually computer hardware that the Chrome Operating System runs on. There are really only two choices right now, one from Asus and the other made by Samsung. The one reviewed here is the Samsung Chromebook Series 5 Arctic White WiFi.

First the specs:

• Processor: CPU Intel® ATOM Processor N570
• Speed: 1.66Ghz
• Memory: Standard System Memory 2GB
• Memory Type: DDR3
• Maximum System Memory Onboard: 2GB
• Display Size: 12.1″
• Display Type: LED (WXGA)
• Resolution: 1280×800
• Matt/Gloss: Non-Gloss
• Aspect Ratio: 16:10
• Speaker: Stereo Speaker
• Web Camera: Yes
• Internal Mic: Yes
• Storage: HDD 16GB SSD (mSATA)
• Connectivity: WirelessLAN 802.11 b/g/n
• I/O Ports
• VGA: VGA via dongle adapter
• Headphone Out: Yes
• USB Ports (Total): 2
• Multi Card Slot: 4-in-1 Memory Card Reader that supports SD / SDHC / SDXC / MMC
• Input: Track Point Touch Pad
• Touch Pad:  Buttonless type, Gesture Support
• Keyboard: Size Full-size (island style)
• Battery Hour Life: Up to 8.5 hrs
• Dimensions: (W x H x D) 11.6″ x .8″ x 8.6″

Nothing spectacular here. However, the test of any configuration is how well the operating systems performs on the hardware. And in my testing the OS/Hardware combination is a good match. You have plenty of ways to get data into and out of the system including 2 USB ports, and a SD card slot. You also have a speedy Solid State hard drive that has 16 GB of RAM available for users. You won’t want to use this as permanent storage, but it can serve to hold data for short periods of time until you can archive it to something more permanent. Because the components are “easy on the battery” the Chromebook can last for over 8 hours before it needs its battery recharged. You also have no need for any serious fan in the system as the Chromebook doesn’t get very warm at all. Another side benefit is that is is whisper quiet. Perfect for the classroom.

One big advantage this hardware has over most netbooks is the full size keyboard. I have rather wide hands and fat fingers. I find it very comfortable to type. The keys are very responsive. You will notice that there are no function keys…remember you only need keys that a browser would support. In there place are useful keys that a browser would use like forward and back keys, refresh, full screen, brightness and volume keys. And, oh yeah, there is no CAPS LOCK. Thank you Samsung. A key that should never have been invented. In its place is a search key. Nice.

The screen is a nice size with acceptable viewing angles. And a webcam sits at the top. It’s not of super quality, but it will do for most situations.

There are a couple of semi-negatives. One is the onboard audio speakers. Very tinny and not loud enough to be useful. I say semi-negative because rarely in the classroom would you want a student to use the speakers. Each student can plug in headphones. Another negative is there is no delete key, only backspace. Unfortunately they took their cue from Apple which doesn’t include a delete key either. You have to press the Alt-Backspace key combo to delete characters after the insertion cursor. You’d be surprise how many times a pc users might like to use that missing delete key.

The overall case design is attractive, and even though its plastic, it doesn’t feel cheap. The unit is very light…it seems lighter than my Macbook Air…and that’s light. I can’t vouch for its durability however. Since the product is so new, only time will tell. The good news is that all Chromebooks come with a 3 year replacement warranty. All in all I think the hardware is well suited for student use.

So far in this series on Chromebooks I have addressed setup, management, features, and even an onsite visit of a WELS Elementary School classroom using Chromebooks. However, the elephant in the room for many schools is going to be cost. I could have started there, but I wanted to evaluate the solution first before making a judgement call on value based on the price tag. I think we are ready to do that now.

Here are the facts and figures…

Chromebooks (either the Acer or Samsung models) are purchased directly from Google. There are currently two ways to purchase them: 1) A three year “lease”, or 2) An upfront purchase of the Chromebook and monthly subscription charges.

Google started with only one pricing model — as a subscription service directly to education customers, for $20 per month. Chromebook subscriptions extend for three years. After that period, customers own the Chromebooks; they can also choose to renew their subscription and receive new hardware. There is a 3G version for a little more a month, but I can’t think of a good reason to go with that option as it only provides 100megs of bandwidth per month. In a classroom setting, or even at home, they are going to need to be on wifi to be useful.

Google has recently decided to offer a second option which allows customers to buy the Chromebooks up front. The WiFi models sell for $449 and 3G models for $519. For educational customers who want to receive continued support on their Chromebooks as well as access to the administration console, Google is offering support contracts for $5 per month one year after the notebook has been purchased (i.e. years two and three).

So doing the math, option one (the three year lease approach) would cost $720 over the three years. Option two (the pay up front with monthly support fee of $5 after the first year) would cost $569. Either options provides the exact same computer, support and admin console functionality. The difference is the schools ability to front the money or spread out the cost over three years. It should be noted you can’t buy any fewer than 10 units at a time.

There are any number of funding options that come to mind…

1. Budget the needed funds. One trade off that might be possible is the money necessary to build and/or support a computer lab. As you do your budgeting, make sure you try to calculate the total cost of each solution. With a traditional computer lab you will have maintenance, software, replacement parts, keyboards, etc. Don’t forget to evaluate the potential savings with an online curriculum versus traditional textbooks as well. The Chromebooks have the books themselves and any fees you might incur for web app that isn’t free. In my review however, there aren’t too many of those. But you must also assess your wireless network and bandwidth, as it may not be able to handle the addition of classrooms full of Chromebooks.
2. Find a donor or donors. There may be individuals or families in your school/church with a passion for education and the technology that supports it. Grace Lutheran in Oshkosh had a large gift they used for their purchase. Be sure you understand the consequences of using one time money for an ongoing project however. You will need to continue to support the initiative that you have started.
3. Institute a technology fee. Many schools currently have a technology fee in place that parents pay as part of their tuition or school fees. The cost can be included in that, or at least a part of it with the school budget subsidizing a portion. In this scenario, you may want to consider if the students will be able to keep the Chromebook after the three years are up.
4. Fundraising by students or PTA organization. Some schools hold fundraising activities for purchases like this. There are many programs that could be used. The challenge with fundraising is that there will be constant pressure to raise funds each time new books are needed. You also then are implying that this is an “outside the budget” expense, which I believe is at odds with the place of these devices in a schools educational strategy and approach.

There are many other creative approaches to funding I’m sure, but from my perspective the best approach is to figure out a way to include it in your annual budget. If the school is committed to the tool and believes it to be an important part of the educational process, then it needs to be treated as such. Once begun the program needs to be supported in successive years. Chromebooks for the classroom should not be treated as a nice-to-have which can be pulled from the budget if funding is running lean. Either it is worth doing or not.

So there are a number of considerations when evaluating value versus cost and every situation is going to be a bit different. If you believe however that the Chromebook solution is worth implimenting, then do a thorough analysis of the total cost of all options. You may determine that a phased in a approach makes sense, or waiting a year or two until funds can be secured. Regardless of the approach, careful planning is needed, both to insure ongoing viablity, but also support by parents, faculty, leadership and the congregation.

You might have noticed that I didn’t include other potential 1:1 computing solutions like traditional netbooks or iPads/Tablets. That discussion is for another day, but in short, I don’t believe those approaches offer as much upside as the Chromebook…at least in my opinion. Many of those reasons I have already shared in previous blog posts. But they include ease of administration, seamless inclusion in classroom activities, and cost.

Tune in next week as I talk about the physical Chromebooks themselves — their construction and configuration.

Note: This week I installed and used an extension from the Chrome Webstore called ScribeFire to write this post. So far so good as it will allow me to write one article and post to multiple blogs. I’ll write up a more thorough review after some more testing.

A couple of weeks ago I outlined the numerous positives associated with a Web-based computing model in the classroom. “Living in the browser” is definitely doable! However, it’s not all peaches and cream. There are some rough spots when trying to live online. Let’s look at a few.

1. OK. OK. The obvious down side of living in the browser is that you have to have a solid internet connection. There are a couple of concerns here of course. One is the stability of your wireless infrastructure. Many of our schools have cobbled together Linksys routers and aren’t totally sure how to correctly configure them, keep them updated with new firmware, secure them or insure there is solid coverage throughout the building. A second concern is the amount of bandwidth available when more than a few students need solid speeds to get their work done. Cheaper/older routers struggle with too many connections. “Free” internet that some cable providers give to schools may not have enough bandwidth to support a whole class or two of students online at the same time.

None of these issues are show stoppers but they will require a knowledgeable network person (or consultant) and perhaps some funds to upgrade equipment or internet service. I don’t have any concerns about the Chromebooks ability to find and connect to any wireless network. I’ve been on many networks of different shapes and sizes without any issue.

2. The second possible negative of a Web-only approach to computing is that there are just some applications that aren’t available in a web app. Most of these are in the processor (both CPU and Graphics) intensive category of apps. It will be very hard to find a usable application that will allow students to do movie editing within the browser. This may be changing, but right now I haven’t seen anything that can do what iMovie or MovieMaker do. Part of the reason for this is that web apps can’t use a lot of local storage space to cache files.

The potential solution for this issue is to have a few desktop computers in the classroom that could be used for video and audio editing. If that isn’t possible, wait a 6 to 12 months and I’m sure programmers will figure out how to allow these kinds of apps to run acceptably in the browser.

3. The third is similar to number two and is app related. Web-based apps may not be as feature-full as their desktop alternative. As good as Google Docs or Microsoft Office Live are, they do not compare to the full suite of tools available in MS Office or even Open Office / Libre Office. Google has recently updated it’s Presentations tool, but there still is a gap between it and MS PowerPoint or Keynote. Having said that, students may not need the extra features. You will have to make the call.

4. Finally, the last negative in a classroom setting I can think of is that EVERYTHING you do requires a username and password. Almost all web-based apps need to know who you are. Thus your students will need to set up an account for each service they use. Currently there is no “single-sign on” that app makers use. Some use Google, some Facebook and other similar services, but the reality is that students may have to juggle (and remember) different logins (sometimes email, sometimes username, etc) and different password requirements.

That’s it for the “bad” of computing in a Web-only environment. There are probably others…printing comes to mind, but each school will have to weigh the goods and the bads and determine what works best for them. As you may have read in my last post, I visited a school that has successfully moved to an online-only experience quite well. However, that may not be for everybody. My next post will address the cost of implementing Chromebooks For The Classroom.

As I write this post I’m sitting in the back of the 7th and 8th grade classroom of Grace Lutheran School in Oshkosh, WI. Many thanks to the students there and Principal Peter Iles for allowing me to spend a morning with them to observe their use of Chromebooks. After their initial envy of my white Chromebook vs. their apparently boring black ones, they went about their studies as if I wasn’t there. A great environment to watch students, and teacher, use the technology.

Currently the students are spending some time with their Chromebooks using KhanAcademy to practice math exercises. Very engaged. Very smooth. Principal Isles plays music while the kids work and shows the Khan Class Statistics on the screen in the front, displaying a line chart of classroom performance as they answer questions on their screens.

Grace Lutheran School has about 130 students. The 7th and 8th grade has 16 students. They were the very first elementary school in the country to introduce Chromebooks into the classroom. They have had a number of visitors so far this school year interested in watching their progress including the area newspaper. Of course, Google is very interested in their experience as well. Principal Iles was invited to Chicago recently to share his experience with education technologists and teachers.

As they started math class, the students were instructed to get their Chromebooks from a wheeled cart in the back of the room with slots for each laptop with a powercord attached. The whole process took about 2 minutes, and another 30 seconds later the kids had opened their Chromebooks, logged in and were working. Zero disruption to the educational process. Very important and impressive. The “instant on” nature of a Chromebook makes it a much better startup experience versus other more traditional netbooks some classrooms are trying.

The students seem to be very at home with the Chromebooks. Some use a mouse, others just the trackpad. All seem to be fairly proficient at the keyboard. Gone are the day when later years of grade school are spent in Mavis Typing Tutor to get the hang of a QWERTY keyboard. They still have “typing” practice, but not many use the hunt and peck approach I remember. They still also have a paper and pencil handy for scratching out math problems, etc, so it helps that their desks are about 2.5 feet wide. That will be something to consider in whatever computing device you want to place on the students desks. When classroom activities don’t include the Chromebooks (but they might be used later), the students are asked to close the lids. None of the students seem to be distracted by their presence. Just another tool at this point…like a textbook. Very natural.

There is very little technical infrastructure at the school. Basically they have internet access distributed throughout the school via wireless routers. No large file servers or other enterprise level network gear. Content filtering is provided through OpenDNS which Principal Iles manages by simply opening and blocking sites as necessary. They use the free version of OpenDNS and so far it has been meeting their needs. Most of our elementary schools are going to be in the same boat. The person in charge of technology is usually a full time teacher, so time spent administrating a network with proxy servers, content filters, domain servers and active directory management is not in the cards.

Principal Iles did relate that a couple of days ago a student came to him with a Chromebook that clearly had issues. After trying to work with it, he decided just to wipe it, restore the OS and re-enroll the machine on their Google Apps domain. Presto. Problem solved. BTW, that whole process takes about 5 minutes. All the apps, etc. are restored along with. No further configuration or installations necessary.

Note: Thanks for the cookie (I’m talking a real one here) from the young lady celebrating a birthday!

The students are now in the midst of History class. Principal Iles asked them to open their Chromebooks and then use the “Cornell Notes” template from Google Docs. He has assigned a specific naming convention for their notes (i.e. 20-1), so they can all “be on the same page” when referring to their notes related to a specific class and topic. Again, the entire process from sit down to start note taking was about 30 seconds. Toward the end of the class each student was asked to write a lesson summary.

The teacher doesn’t share his PowerPoints currently, but is considering using the new and improved Google Presentations tool, which he would then share with the students. He tries to keep the slides fairly simple, which then encourages the students not just to type everything they see on screen, but also listen for important points and type those into their notes.

Now the students have “computer class” which starts with touch typing practice using a free app called Touch Typing Tutorial from Typing Club.com. This is still important to speed/optimize note taking and paper writing. Principal Iles then went through a worksheet on Password Tips. A great idea to have class time devoted to essential computing best practices. The assignment is to create three “strong” and “weak” passwords that historical figures might have created (i.e. Albert Einstein and Mark Twain). So Twain might have created Huckl3b3rryFinn (strong) and beckythatcher (weak). The students used their Chrombooks to search for and research historical figures. Wikipedia seems to be a popular resource. Nice mix of tech and history. Some of the kids came up with -!raccoonboyH<3boots!- and TrigrHapy3 (Davey Crockett and George Eastman respectively). Fun.

During their research one student stumbled on a site that had a video that was set to autoplay. She quickly stopped it, but I can imagine that happening quite often during surfing exercises. Just something to be aware of. BTW, the students do have headphones available if they want to play a video they find.

The students only use the Chromebooks while in class, but as most students have computers at home, they will have access to all their Google Apps files from their home computers. This prevents lost and damaged computers, but still allows anytime access to assignments, notes, etc. No need to allow access “into” the schools network. It’s all on Google Apps.

Principal Iles uses other tools to interact with his students including the built in email and even Google Talk/Chat to address questions from the kids. Over lunch with Peter I explored a number of other topics including printing, paying for the devices, the relationship with Google and many other topics that I’ll share in future posts.

For now, I’d like to again thank Principal Peter Iles and the students of his 7th and 8th grade classroom. You guys were great. I had a good time and learned a lot. Blessings on your continued use of Chromebooks and your growing in knowledge and faith!

Earlier this week I was able to secure a Samsung Chromebook and have Google essentially “emulate” the experience a school technology administrator and a student using the device might have. Normally Google will not allow an off-the-shelf Chromebook to connect to a Google Apps environment. So with a 30 day variance my objective with this project is threefold:

1. Determine the fit for our typical WELS classrooms considering a 1:1 computing initiative (primarily our high schools and elementary schools). This will include the budgetary impact and suggested ways to fund them.
2. Test the administrative capabilities of Google Apps and the Chromebook to see if our overworked technology coordinators will save time with a more centralized computing environment approach
3. Identify web-based applications that will serve as suitable substitutes for traditional (i.e. PC-based) applications used in classrooms.

Each blog post in this series will examine a different aspect of the project, but what I’m looking forward to the most is the feedback I hope to get from teachers and school technology coordinators.

Introduction
For those not familiar with the Chromebook or Google Apps, here are a couple of links to get you started: 1) Intro to Chromebooks and the Chrome OS, 2) Google Apps for Education. In short, the combination of a internet-only netbook and online web applications suggest a student computing experience that can be flexible and manageable by the teacher and school tech guru. This is not a traditional computing environment. It is entirely browser based — Google Chrome in this case. All content that is created needs to be stored “in the cloud” as the Chromebook has only limited and temporary storage. This also means that no traditional downloadable or disk-based application can be installed on the machine. So every application needs to be able to run in a browser. This, I believe, will be the challenge. As we go through the review, things will become a little clearer if you are still a bit fuzzy.

Installation
The setup process for starting a Chromebook and getting a student going on it right away is a snap. The school, of course, needs a Google Apps account. Refer to the previous link to get signed up. Any school can get one for free. This will provide email, document storage, calendaring, web sites, chat, etc. The school technology administrator will need to create accounts for each student who will be using a Chromebook. You don’t really need one laptop per child to make this work, but each child will need an account on Google Apps. One of the sweet things about a Chromebook is that anybody with an account can use the device with no fear of any security issues. The laptop is just a web browser and thus there are not files left on desktops or differences in applications. Therefore the laptops can be shared easily. It doesn’t matter which one the student grabs.

Before the laptops get distributed for use by the students the administrator will want to start each one and follow the setup instructions. It takes about 2 minutes (depending on whether the Chrome OS needs to be updated–it happens automatically). You will need to find the local wifi, enter the credentials for it, and then “enroll” the laptop. It’s a simple key combination and then enter in a username and password that belongs on the Google Apps domain. After that, just log off the machine and close the lid. When the student opens it for the first time, all they will have to do is enter their Google Apps username and password. Their desktops, applications and extensions will be all ready for them. I’ll write about how to set that up in a later post.

My guess is that the prep time per machine will be about five minutes tops. The domain setup will take longer depending on how much customization you want to do, but that discussion we’ll save for another day.

First Impressions
After one day with the Samsung Chromebook and just playing around with the Google Apps configuration settings, I will not have a lot of depth to my reactions. But here are a few…

1. The Samsung Chromebook is adequate, but not a powerhouse by any means. I’m probably not going to be able to provide a very balanced review as the only thing I really have to compare it to is the Macbook Air. The two are similar in size and weight, but that is about as far as it goes. Now the Macbook Air is about three times the price, and you can tell. The place where I notice the most is the screen, especially viewing angles. Having said that, I think the Chromebook is perfectly suitable for classroom and homework use. It seems durable. The keys are responsive, as is the touchpad. There are special keys on the keyboard well suited to web browsing–a search key replaces the caps lock, and browser type buttons (back, forward, full screen) have replaced the function keys.

2. One of my first challenges was trying to fine a tool to write this blog post. I do most of my writing on a Windows machine and absolutely love Windows Live Writer. It allows me to write one article and publish across the three blogs I maintain. Working within the Chrome OS I was unable to find an “app” that came close to providing that kind of functionality. To be fair, that grade of tool is also not available on the Mac OS X. I wound up simply using the built-in web-based authoring tool within WordPress. Two of my three blogs are WordPress based. The extra step of course is that I have to copy the content from one web site to another.

3. Setup was a joy and at first blush, the configuration of the domain and user preferences looks to be equally as easy. This will be key as an initiative like this must be administrator friendly. Admittedly the fact that everything is web-based can be a double edged sword, but in the case of centralized administration and user updates, this is the way to go.

Conclusion
Overall a great start. The hardware seems workable, the setup easy and the entire concept of cloud computing in the classroom intriguing. My next post will cover the Google Apps configuration process and how easy/hard it will be to configure a standardized computing environment for any student who cracks open a Chromebook.

I tend to use a few browsers in my professional and personal computing lives for many different reasons, but the one I prefer is Google Chrome – for basically three reasons. Chrome, at least in my experience, is faster. Chrome runs Gmail, Reader and the new Google+ better than the other browsers. And finally, Chrome offers just the right amount of customization to allow me to optimize my time in the browser, which is a lot. So I’d like to just highlight five ways I have customized Chrome to keep things efficient.

1. Set the start page to the Apps window. Many apps exist that can be placed on that screen, so for me it acts like a launcher. I can launch my email (Gmail), RSS reader (Google Reader), task manager (Remember The Milk), image editor (Picnic), and almost any other Web 2.0 application right from one screen. As an added bonus, I have access to my “Most visited” sites and “Recently closed” sites at the bottom.

To get the Apps window to show up first when launching Chrome, click on the wrench icon in the upper right, select preferences and go to Basics on the left. Then make sure “Open the home page” is selected in the “On Startup” group and “Use the New Tab page” is selected in the Home Page Group. BTW, you can add your favorite Apps by clicking on the Web Store icon.

2. Always show your bookmarks bar. This will come in handy once we go through setup #3 below. This will allow you to have one or two click access to your bookmarks. If you don’t have an app on the Apps screen, you can nest all your favorite websites in your bookmarks. So when you click the star icon in the browser to set a bookmark, just be sure it is placed in a subfolder on your Bookmarks Bar.

To insure that the bar is always visible, again go to preferences (wrench icon) under Basics and select “Always show the bookmarks bar” under the Toolbar group. While you are there you might as well click the “Show Home button” so you can always show your Apps listing when you want. (see #1 above)

3. Now on to the cool extensions. Use Xmarks to keep your bookmarks in sync. Xmarks, now a part of LastPass (see #4 below) allows you to add and manage bookmarks in one browser and have them stay in sync on any other browser on any other computer where you have also installed Xmarks. It’s free and works well.

To add extensions, click on the wrench icon one more time, click Tools, and then Extensions. Click the “Get more extensions >>” link at the bottom and search for Xmarks. Follow the instructions and you are on your way.

4. Install the LastPass extension. Many of us have and use more than one password. In fact, everybody should be diligent about varying their passwords from site to site. LastPass makes that easy. I’ve written about LastPass before, so I won’t go into detail here, but in short, it manages all your passwords and then fills them in to the appropriate fields on a website for you automatically. Just follow the same instructions as #3 above to get it installed. Just a note, it is worth the $12 a year to purchase the premium version.

5. Use Diigo. I’ve talked about Diigo before and find new uses for it each day. Diigo allows you to bookmark any site, annotate that site with notes or highlights, and then share that bookmark with otherpeople or groups of people, like your WELSTech friends. You don’t want every site you are interested in on your bookmarks bar (see #2 above). But you do want to be able to go back to and reference sites when needed. Diigo does much more than that of course. I couldn’t compute without it in this Web 2.0 world. Install the extension using the same directions as #3 above.

Well that’s it. You now have a pretty good picture of what fills my screen once Chrome is launched and I’m working on the web. It might improve your computing experience as well.

This post is a part of the
Summer 2011 WELS Hacker
series on the WELSTech Podcast.

There are many “solutions” available for sharing files either with yourself while you are on a mobile device or other computer, or with others. There is Dropbox, Sugarsync, MobileMe, Box.net, LiveMesh, etc. The list is growing everyday. Yet, I think one of the easiest and cheapest solutions is PogoPlug. Recently they launched a software only version that might work well for many of you. Previously you had to buy a rather expensive PogoPlug device that you would plug into your network and then attach a hard drive. Now however you can use your own computer as a storage device and gain access to those files from anywhere in a secure fashion, or share those files with anybody you choose. Here’s a quick tutorial for sharing an entire folder on your hard drive with a friend.

1. Download and install the free Pogoplug software from: http://www.pogoplug.com.
2. Go through the fairly easy configuration steps to get the computer registered and give yourself a Pogoplug account.
3. Launch Pogoplug and then right click on the Pogoplug icon in the system tray (works essentially the same for Windows or Mac. Then select “Open Pogoplug Preferences”.
4. Go to the Remote Access tab and turn on remote access (lower left area of screen are two radio buttons). This will allow you to get access to your files from anywhere and also share them with others.
5. Click the folder icon with a plus sign on it in the lower portion of the screen and select a folder you’d like to share with a friend/co-worker.
6. Once you have successfully turned on remote access to that folder you are ready to share it. You need to do that via the web access tool. Once again right click on the Pogoplug icon in the tray, but this time select Web Access. You will need to login with your newly created account name and password.
7. You should now see your computer and the folder you opened up to remote access. Click the box next to the folder and then the share button at the top. The next screen should have the folder you selected as the default folder you’d like to share. Go ahead and click next.
8. Type in the email of the person you’d like to share the folder with, type a quick message and select any other options you’d like to use. You can force the user to login, which is a bit more secure, by checking the appropriate box at the bottom. You can also make it totally public via the “More Sharing Options” link.
9. You should be good to go. An email will go out and as long as your computer is on and the Pogoplug software running, they should be able to see and download anything in that folder.

I’ve found that this is a great way to share really large files that can’t be sent via email or even other methods like Dropbox. If you want to create a two-way, or multi-way file share where your friends and co-workers can upload files to your computer as well as download, visit the Settings link in the upper right of your my.pogoplug.com main screen. You can then give user accounts and permissions to certain areas of your computer.

This post is a part of the
Summer 2011 WELS Hacker
series on the WELSTech Podcast.