Updating/Jailbreaking an iPhone 3GS

I had a iPhone 3GS with no SIM card, and so I jail broke it last summer.  I have not gotten around to using it a lot, so it's been sitting in a drawer for a few months.

When I turned it on today, it said I could update to a new OS.  Because it is jailbroken, when up you update the iOS, it is unbroken....I forgot this until after I had started the iOS update to 6.  However when the iPhone connected to install the new OS, it went into a reboot cycle.  The apple could come up, stay on that screen for a few seconds and then reboot.  After doing some research it seems that Apple does not support the firmware for iPhone 3GS and that this is a common problem.

To fix this the only solution seemed to be to download and run the latest version of redsn0w for win.  Later I came across another possible method using a program called evasi0n.

Running redsn0w allowed me to get it back to iOS 5.1.1.

I wanted to see if I could get it to iOS6 somehow, but could not get it to work.  redsn0w supposedly has an tethered jailbreaking method, but I could not get it to work....will try again later.

The reason I wanted to get this old 3GS working again is that I wanted an iOS device in case I needed to try out some things for work/education.  With my using a Kindle Fire HD, I won't have another iOS device to test item on.  With a jailbroken device I can still get apps from the iTunes store to test out.

I have the following devices: Windows 7 Dell Laptop, Kindle Fire HD, Motorola Droid Razr and now an iPhone3GS.

Kindle Task Bar Keeps Disappearing

I had a problem with the task bar (accross the top) randomly disappearing.  It would sometimes come back for 1 second and then disappear again.  

After doing some research and playing around with things.....all I had to do to fix was go into GMail program and make sure to turn off notifications for all my accounts.  Once that was done it seemed to work beautifully once again.  

Taskbar did not disappear again.

Setting up Outlook to use IMAP with GMail

Using the IMAP protocol will allow you to 'sync' how your email behaves in Outlook and GMail - so that if you read an email in Outlook, and then later log into GMail you can tell it has already been read.  Using this protocol will increase network traffic, but it keeps track of your email progress regardless of whether you use your computer outlook, or phone gmail app.....

First you need to make sure your GMail account can use IMAP.  Go into settings on GMail.

Next go to settings and click on Enable IMAP.

Then near the bottom click on Configure your email client.  It has instructions you can use.
Or you can follow along here.....

Open Outlook and go to File - Info and the into Account Settings.

On the email accounts page you will choose NEW to set up the new IMAP account.....later if you have a POP3 setup, you can go back and remove it, once the new IMAP is working.

Now click on "New"
Then on the next page choose "Internet Email" and hit Next.
Then click on Manually configure and choose email.

 At the new account setting put in the relevant information.
Our imap and smtp server are imap.gmail.com & smtp.gmail.com

This should keep your Outlook and Gmail synced.  This worked for me, but sometimes you gotta go in and change the port numbers in "more settings" - so test account and if it doesn't work go into advanced settings and set the port.

Here is what I have for our domain....

if what I wrote doesn't make sense you can refer to these two web sites I used to research the steps, or you might want to check it out if my steps don't work for you at Seabury:
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/msoffice/how-do-i-add-an-imap-google-connection-to-microsoft-outlook-2010/3683
https://support.google.com/mail/troubleshooter/1668960?rd=1#ts=1665018,1665137,2769074

Plagiarism Education Week

TurnItIn.com and Plagiarism.org are sponsoring Plagiarism Education Week from April 22-26.  
There is also a poster making contest that can get the winner $1,000 - what a great way to motivate students to think about plagiarism.  There will be free webinars on various topics relevant to the area of academic honesty.
Click on the logo below for more info.

Here is a link to some free pre-recorded webcasts they have on their web site that people might find interesting.  I know I will be listening to them shortly:
http://www.turnitin.com/en_us/resources/webcasts

Web2.0calc.com

http://web2.0calc.com/

Here is a web based calculator, so if a student's calculator runs out of batteries, they can still get more functions they will need.  

You can also take the HTML code and put it into your class web page, if you so choose.
I added it to my class page (in FinalSite), just for fun.  It's not like someone in my class will use, but i just wanted to see if it could be easily done.

Wordle.net - Word Cloud

Wordle.net is a cool web site that takes texts and creates a "word cloud".  You can tweak the cloud with fonts, layouts and color, but the word sizes are based on their frequency in the text.

I took a copy of the Hawaii Constitution of 1840 to try it out....and below is one variation I got, using the 125 most prominent words of the Kingdom of Hawai`i Constitution of 1840 by Kamehameha III.

No Internet Connection Required Now For Google Slides

Here is an interesting article I came across, so you can now use Google docs offline.  I also wanted to see how the 'share' to Blogger link worked on the web site :-)


No Internet Connection Required Now For Google Slides: Google has announced that Google Slides will now be available with offline support. You can now create, edit, comment, and present your Slides presentation without an internet connection.

Kindle Fire Transition - Task Manager

For the past few days I've been checking my email and calendar on the Kindle - and trying not to use the iPad.  The next thing was to transfer over my task manager program (Toodledo). The app I used on my Droid Razr phone was not available on the Amazon store, so I had to follow the instructions from the link in my last post to get the .apk file over to the Kindle.  When I hooked up my Droid, my laptop would not recognize it, so I ended up using DropBox to tranfer the file to my laptop, and then to the Kindle.  All a fairly simple process, just a few more steps.

I then wanted to see about getting the podcasts I sometimes listen to onto the Kindle.  I downloaded the BeyondPod Podcast Manager.  It allowed me to enter the url feeds for my old podcasts to add to it's list of many podcasts.

The next thing I wanted to do was somehow access the iTunes U videos that I'm able to get thru iTunes on my Kindle.  I found an app called TunesViewer.  Here is the link to get the .apk file you will need to sideload: http://sourceforge.net/projects/tunesviewer/

With this I'm able to view the iTunesU library, but I still can't figure out how to play them or copy the RSS feed into BeyondPod Podcast Manager....which the description says it can get.....

Kindle Fire Upate: How to sideload apps

Kindle Fire Update:  
I decided that while I liked the calendar feature on the Kindle, I didn't like the default mail program.  So I thought I'd load the Google Mail app.  The problem is it is not available on the Kindle App Store - only on Google's store. 

However there are steps to bypass this and they were fairly simple.  It is called side-loading and I found this article and it was even easier than it sounded:
http://androidcowboy.com/2012/01/how-to-sideload-apps-on-kindle-fire/

In the steps to get the apps installed, they talk about using a file explorer and copying the apk files over, but the files I needed were linked at the bottom of the article, and all I had to do was click, download and install.  Very simple.

I side-loaded the Gmail and Google+ apps for now.  Both seem to work with no problems.  I may try others in the future.  I did keep the default calendar program and I like the way it works for now.

AndroidCowboy.com is a great website to get started on to find out how to use Android tablets and apps, in general, as well as some Kindle specific info.

FreeRice.com - Study and help people at the same time

Here is a cool web site game that civic minded-students can use to help them study various subjects and donate rice to starving people around the world.  For every question you answer correctly, they have sponsors who will donate 10 grains of rice.  The only limit you have is the amount of time you can play.  There are inconspicuous ads from sponsors and that is how they can donate all the rice everyone wins.  You can answer questions on Humanities, English, Math, Chemistry, Geography, Anatomy, Languages and SA Test Prep.  

FreeRice.com

Kindle Fire - The Beginning....

My new project is to integrate a Kindle Fire into my classes and determine its uses for a teacher and student at our school.  I am currently using an iPad 1 and will need to transition my apps and functions from it to the Kindle Fire over the next month.

Why the Kindle?

There is definately a push by faculty and the education world in general to use the iPad.  Many companies know how desired the iPad is and so develop many wonderful apps for the iPad.  However, recently the Android market has become more prevelant then the iPad as far as tablet sales are concerned.  Sales for Android tablets is greater than the iPad.   It is not due to the fact that Android tablets are necessary better than the iPad, but largely because the Android tablets are much cheaper than the iPads.

After the Christmas break I had two students who got mini iPads (no new iPads) and five students who got Kindle Fire devices.  Based on the fact that more students/families will be able to get a Kindle versus an iPad, I wanted to determine if it could be a vital tool in the teacher's toolbox.  

I also thought that because we are a Google Apps for Education school, and we are pushing more classroom projects online, the Kindle is a viable solution since it is Android based (and Google is the big player in the Android arena).  The Kindle does not have access to Google's PlayStore, but there are published ways to get around this, which I hope will be simple enough to do.  

My project will be to see how easily the Kindle Fire can be used to integrate with Google and it's online suite of products.  

I have a Kindle Fire HD. I also got a screen protector, and a case with a wireless bluetooth keyboard.  Right now I'm doing this blog post straight from the Kindle, and it is pretty smooth so far.  Any issues I'm encountering is based more on the keyboard size and key locations, rather than the Kindle.

My first impressions:  This Kindle is MUCH lighter than the iPad, and you would expect as much based on it's 7" size versus the 10" size of the iPad.  So far the smaller screen size doesn't seem to be an issue for me....but I can see how it might be for others.  I just love the smaller size and it is easier to carry. 

The default email and calendar programs were easy to integrate with Google Apps.  When I set it up, it asked which calendars I wanted to see, and it even allowed me to view shared calendars (in addition to my calendar). Setting up the email and calendar features were much easier than I thought it would be.

I will also be using in my programming class, as there is an MIT tool that lets one easily create an Android app.  I know the kids will love to see their creation running on a actual Android tablet.

As I go along I will post more information of my project.

Syncing iPhone to Google Calendars

Had to help someone today sync their new iPhone 5 to Google Calendars.  They had the phone set up to see their main Google calendar, but they could not input items that would transfer to Google (just view items), and they were not seeing all their shared calendars.  I found this article, and it was a simple setting in Google Calendars and then they were off and running and I was a hero for 20 minutes of work.  I'm posting the whole article here for easy reference, but here is the link if you want it:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/sync-multiple-google-calendars-on-iphone-or-ipad/

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HOW TO SYNC MULTIPLE GOOGLE CALENDARS TO YOUR IPHONE OR IPAD

By Andy Boxall — October 12, 2012

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So, you have several different Google Calendars, but have only managed to sync the primary one with your iPhone and iPad. Not to worry. Though it’s not the most intuitive system, by following these instructions you’ll be up and running in no time.

Here’s how to get all of your Google calendars working on your iPhone  or iPad:

1. First, lets make sure your Calendar is properly synced, and the process is the same on both devices.
2. Go to Settings, then open Mail/Contacts/Calendars.
3. Next, select Add Account and Gmail.
4. If however, you have already added your Gmail account, then instead of Add Account, choose Gmail from the account list. From here, toggle the Calendar switch to On.
5. Otherwise, add your Google account information and a description of the calendar, and ensure that the Calendar option is switched on. Syncing will begin when you next open the Calendar app on your iPhone or iPad.

Next you must choose which calendars to sync:

1. To do this, you need to visit the following Google website:www.google.com/calendar/iphoneselect
2. Provided you’re signed into your Google account, on this page you’ll see a list of all your calendars, with a check box against them.
3. Tick the boxes of the calendars you want to sync with the iPhone and iPad, then click save.

Once again, open the Calendars app and wait for it to sync. That’s it, all your calendars should be ready and waiting for you.

TeachingChannel.Org - Videos to help teachers by teachers

I came across this web site at TeachingChannel.org.

It has videos a teacher can use in their lesson plans, but it also have interesting videos that help teachers become better teachers.  There are videos on classroom management, and the ones interesting to me were the behavior topics - which included bullying and cyber-bullying.  I will probably watch more of these over the summer as part of my professional development.

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I also found this post of '100 Best YouTube Videos for Teachers'. 
http://www.classroom20.com/profiles/blogs/649749:BlogPost:177332

While the list is subjective, it is pretty well organized by topics - and it's a ready source - I wouldn't have enough time to look thru hundreds of videos and keep track of them to let others know :-)

How not to make a powerpoint/presentation

Someone sent this to me and I thought it was funny (even though it is old).
Also wanted to see if I could share youtube videos in this blog.....

This might be good to show students before they make their first presentation....basically it should be about content (not window dressing) and if they know their topic.