General questions

ICT questions and answers about a variety of topics and issues.

Sharing photos with Picasa
Is there a quick way or programme to upload photos for sharing on the internet? It takes us twelve minutes for 5 photos with Picasa. Do you know of any other free programs for this?
I wonder if the problem is with Picasa or the size of the photos and the upload speed of your connection? What is the file size of the photo (in MegaBytes)? You may want to reduce the size if you are uploading the photos; the same would go for emailing. Upload speeds are generally much slower than download speeds. Some plans cap upload speeds even further and this can account for the time it takes to upload photos. Check to see which broadband plan you are on and see what speeds you should be getting. You can also perform a speed test at this site: http://www.nzdsl.co.nz/

Small digital video camera
Is there a small video camera that could be worn unobtrusively by a staff member to video children so that staff can concentrate on interactions and listening?
There are a variety of products available, but the Flip video camera is small and discreet. There is now a high definition model as well. Have a look here: http://www.theflip.com/

Storage of backup
Since our cybersafety training, we have purchased a hard drive and wondered if this is best stored on site in a fireproof safe, or taken home with individual teachers each night. What are people doing with backup storage, please?
Most centres that I work with tend to take the external hard drive off site and bring it in once a week to do their backups. When I used to run backups for a company, we would always have the most current backup off site and the others were kept in a fireproof safe.

Backing up a wiki in Wikispaces
How do we back up all the pages on our wiki? We have a Wikispaces wiki with about 6 different headings, and then there are quite a few pages with comments on that we would like to back up, too.
You can back up the most recent copy of pages in a wiki as follows:

• Click ‘Manage Wiki’.
• Under ‘Tools’ you can use the ‘Export’ button to get your wiki into wikitext format or to view it in HTML.
• Use the dialogue that pops up to save the archive to your hard drive.

Blog visitors counter
Where do I find the counter for the number of visitors to our blog?
There are lots of blog counters and a Google search will bring up plenty of hits, Bravenet seems a popular counter for blog visits: http://www.bravenet.com/webtools/counter/

Ceiling mounting a data projector
We would like to permanently set up our data projector from the ceiling. It’s not wireless so we are wondering about cords, if this is the best way to go?
We went to a ceiling mount last year and just love it! We had an electrician put a power point into the ceiling for the projector and then the cables are encased along the ceiling and along the wall to the point where we set up the laptop. Since we did this we have used the projector nearly every day with the children.
The main considerations here are that if you only use the projector in one place, then ceiling mounting is the way to go. However, if you like to move it around and use it in different areas then setting up a ‘multimedia’ trolley is a better option.
If you decide to ceiling mount, I would recommend that you get an expert to do it. The basic requirements are power to the projector and running a video cable from the projector to where you plug in the computer/DVD/Video etc.
It is also a good idea to invest in some powered speakers.
I've found that the projector tends to get used a lot more once it has been mounted.

Hector safety button
We have finally got our new laptop today and have been using it with the children but have come across some pictures they don't need to see. We were just wondering how do we get hold of the Hector safety package to block this?
The Hector package is designed for children to click on when they find something that they are unhappy with or unsure of. Upon clicking Hector, the screen is replaced with a picture of Hector telling the person to go and get some help. The Hector programme does not do any content filtering or blocking.
Hector is available from the following website:
http://www.netsafe.org.nz
Hector can be used as part of cybersafety education, and I recommend spending some time at Hector's website and viewing some of the cartoons there:
http://www.hectorsworld.com
It is worth looking at your Netsafe Kit for ECE, which was sent out to all centres last year. Content filtering is covered on page 18. Educating young children to be cybersafe is covered on page 26.
Watchdog provide a reasonable content filtering service in New Zealand. They are an internet service provider (ISP) offering content filtering, but also have a family watchdog product that can be used with any ISP:
http://www.watchdog.net.nz
There are many other products out there that also offer this service.
You also need to think about how you use the Internet with children. If you use Google, make sure that safe search is turned on. Click on 'Search Settings' which takes you to ‘Preferences’ and select ‘Use strict filtering’ in the 'SafeSearch Filtering' section.
Think about how you structure the search. If at all possible, research prior to working with the children and have the web pages that you wish to show bookmarked.
Also, having staff and helpers trained in dealing with minor and major cybersafety incidents is essential!

Microsoft Academic licensing
Our centre wants to use Microsoft Office. We would like to purchase a group licence. We currently run 1 windows PC and 3 laptops (maybe 4 shortly) using Vista. What sort of licence would we need to purchase?
Microsoft offers special licensing for academic/education institutions. The basics of the scheme is outlined here:
The Microsoft Qualified Educational User Definition website <http://www.microsoft.com/nz/education/user.mspx> confirms that an early childhood centre meeting the criteria below may purchase software through an Academic Volume License programme (i.e. Open Academic) or Academic Full Packaged Product (including FPP Office 2007 Standard, however not Office 2007 Home and Student which is designed for home use only).
A description of the programs offered by Microsoft is detailed here:
http://www.microsoft.com/nz/howtobuy/education/default.mspx
You would need to contact any Microsoft reseller, who will be able to give you further advice.
An alternative is to use an open source offering, such as open office <http://www.openoffice-software.com/>.

Date on blog
The date on our blog is a day behind and I don't know how to change it. The date is correct on the computer.
Sign in to Blogger, access the dashboard, choose Settings >> Formatting >>Time Zone and navigate to GMT + 12 Auckland, then click on Save settings.

DVD +R and DVD –R: the differences
Many centres are using DVD and/or CDs to share information, photos, multimedia etc with whānau. I was under the impression that you should use DVD- rather than DVD+ as it is more readable by more hardware i.e. DVD players, computers, playstation etc.
What are the differences and which is more user friendly?
They are both different formats. Most newer DVD burners can write to both; this can be checked with the specifications of the drive. On a Mac, you can click on Apple >> About this Mac >> More info >> Disc burning and you will see the type of disks that you can burn.
They are competing formats, a little like Sony Beta and VHS. However, in this case, no standards emerged and so we are left with the two formats and hybrid burners.
From a burning perspective, the DVD +R should be more reliable. But when looking at media that were playing back in the late 1990s, DVD -R has a 5-year head start on DVD +R and should, therefore, play on more DVD players. There will always be the odd DVD player that won't be able to play the disks that you have burned. Older DVD players (pre 2004) will probably only play DVD –R.
My preference is for DVD -R, as I have had far fewer returned to me saying that they cannot be played.
There are some other formats available as well:
DVD-RW
DVD+RW
Both of these allow re-recording or erasing and reusing. I generally don't use these for handing out to communities as they are less likely to work on domestic DVD players.
There is also a +R DL format, which can hold twice the amount of data.