Randy Orwin's blog

Favorite Open Source Applications

Have you ever gone looking for open source software titles? Did you ever wonder if there was a single place where all of those titles could be aggregated with descriptions, license information, links, use categories etc...? Well I have built a page where I would love to have as many open source apps listed as possible. I am asking your help in building a repository of apps that includes things like titles, license types, instructional uses, ratings and other informational items.

New web site up and running!

Hello to everyone that has visited my site in the past. I have nearly completed a full overhaul of my site. This short post is to invite you to help me to make this site more friendly to all of my visitors. I am asking for your feedback in regards to things like navigation, ease of use, layout, design etc... I want to make this site easy for people to get around and find stuff. With this in mind I have created a forum where you can give input to ways in which I can make the site better.

Time for a change!

Did you wonder if I was ever going to post again? Well it has been a while but I am now ready to get back on the wagon. For those that have read my blog in the past you have probably noticed a few changes to the site in the last couple of months. I have totally rebuilt my site on Drupal 6 and am now ready to get on with my new life. This post is mainly to bring folks up to date on what I am up to since I left my previous district last May and to describe where I hope that I am headed.

Word Processing Form Trick

Welcome to 2010! One of my goals is to get back into blogging a bit more. With that in mind here is my first post of the new year. Recently I have been filling out a lot of forms and I am just sick and tired of forms that are formatted so poorly! As a heads up, I will be doing a webinar in the near future on how to properly format word processed documents so they look good in almost any word processor.

Online learning better than face to face?

A new report that was prepared for the United States Department of Education says "...on average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction." The report goes on to state that there isn't much actual research based evidence in the k-12 arena to support this statement, but that with adults and students in higher education this is the case.

NSBA T+L 2009 Conference

I am sitting here at Denver International Airport using the Internet via bluetooth on my phone. I figured it would be as good a time as any to give an overview of the 2009 T+L conference. Last year we did a couple of workshops and one presentation as kind of a beta test to see if the folks at NSBA wanted to have an open source presence at their annual technology + Leadership conference. This year they gave us our own room and we did about a dozen presentations and two workshops. It was very well received!

Open Source Support Models

In my first post today, Why not OpenOffice, I asked the question; "Why would a company riff staff rather than look at open source solutions that could potentially save a few jobs?" Just over an hour after the post I received a comment from someone who very succinctly pointed out what they felt were the reasons managers would riff staff before considering a move to open source. I replied back to this comment in a very long-winded fashion and said I would tackle the subject of support in a different post. Well, here is that post.

Why not OpenOffice?

During the last few weeks I have had a number of conversations with various individuals regarding the use of open source applications in both schools and in the business place. Let's take OpenOffice as an example.

Organizing Your Website Content: Drupal Views

More and more schools are moving to content management systems (CMS) to more easily manage their websites. While many are going with propietary solutions like Schoolwires, my district decided to use Drupal.

Moodle Server Time Block

Do you ever wonder what the real time is on your Moodle server? Many people have downloaded the Analog Clock block for Moodle thinking that this will show the time on their Moodle server only to find out that it shows the local time on their personal computer.