Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 06/03/10

What are the alternatives you ask? Well, March 15 is the launch of NSW DET's BlogEd service. Have you not signed up for it yet? Why on Earth not? Go here from a school PC and sign your school up! http://tinyurl.com/detbloged - Or why not look into Adobe Acrobat 9 to get your students to create portfolios? All the 2009 and later T4L PCs have the Adobe suite. We should start using that more. Wishing you and your students a great time ahead in learning all about the new publishing opportunities out there, and thank you for your many years of encouraging me to produce stuff.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 06/03/10

Well I've decided that following this release, I won't be developing EduWeb any further (unless some miracle occurs). I have just updated the software so that it will work for any year from 2010 onwards, so I just renamed it Stu's EduWeb! (without a year on the end). It will automatically realise it's 2011 next year and 2012 the year after. Computers are smart like that. So fear not, you will still be able to use it, but I'll be moving onto different projects such as further developing my other applications, Stu's QuizBoxes and Student Response Network. ...and I just got my first iPod/iPhone application approved at the Apple AppStore - http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/srn-client/id354974690?mt=8 - So there you have it. This is the tenth year of schools using EduWeb and I estimate that about 600 schools are currently using it to varying degrees across NSW. I know that many schools have years' worth of student work hanging off EduWeb, but the world has moved on.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 18/04/09

EduWeb 2009 v9.1 was released to replace the previous version which relied on data from ISP Console. With the demise of ISP Console and the improvements made to EMU, v9.1 will now work with EMU to export student enrolment data for creating your new school intranet. Get the newest EduWeb 2009 installer from the Downloads page linked at the left - new instructions are on the Instructions page.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 18/04/09

W2KWizard was released to replace the previous version which relied on data from ISP Console. With the demise of ISP Console and the improvements made to EMU, v5.1 will now work with EMU to export student enrolment data for creating user accounts. Get the newest W2KWizard from http://stuhasic.com/w2kwizard - new instructions are included.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 19/03/09

OK, here's the thing. ITD have revoked ISPConsole access to just about everyone (except me). If you would like to setup EduWeb for your school (or use my Logon Wizard), all you have to do is send me an email to Stuart.Hasic@det.nsw.edu.au and tell me which school you are from and I'll export it for you and send it as an attachment. Eventually EMU will be fixed to do this, but it's still not ready, so until you see changed instructions at the EduWeb site, you must use data from ISP Console.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 07/02/09

The ninth release of Stu's EduWeb is here, ready for the new year. Somehow, demand for this program has continued and who am I to deny all those schools wanting to use EduWeb for another year. The great thing is, for schools in Sydney Region with region-managed fileserver, you can get EduWeb 2009 installed and configured remotely by the regional IT Services Unit. All you have to do is ask! :) One thing I've never done is work out how many EduWeb pages have been built over the years, but with around 600 schools installing it each year, and this being the ninth year, the mind boggles. Hope you like it, EduWeb 2009 is on the Downloads page.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 28/01/09

If you use my Windows 200x Logons Wizard program to create student accounts on your school's Windows server that look like their DET Portal ID, you'll be pleased to know I've updated and refined it a bit. And now that ISP Console is back, we don't have to change the process of extracting the enrolment data. You can get your free copy of the Logon Wizard for Windows from here: http://stuhasic.com/w2kwizard

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 28/01/09

Well, they told me it would be back ready for the start of school, and it is. ISP Console seems to be working again. Only problem is Kinder kids and Year 7 kids aren't in there yet because of the changes with ERN. Previously, you could enrol a child into OASIS before they arrived. And if that child told four different schools that they were coming, all four school could enrol them. With ERN, that's not possible. New students are PRE-ENROLLED and their status only changes to ENROLLED when a school admin officer sights the new child at the school. Then when they are changed to ENROLLED, ERN will update EMU and ISP Console (usually overnight). Anyway, I never recommend schools create their EduWeb until about week 4 when the enrolments can classes have had a chance to settle. EduWeb 2009 is coming hopefully this weekend.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 19/01/09

Student Response Network (SRN) is a powerful 'virtual Clicker' student response system designed for use in school computer labs or with wireless laptop groups. It does away with the need for personal handheld 'clicker' devices by providing a software-only solution for use with networked Windows desktops or laptops. What's a clicker? For a few years now, Personal Response Systems (PRS) and Student Response Systems (SRS) have been making major inroads into classrooms and lecture halls, particularly in Universities and Colleges. These “clicker” systems literally put engagement, motivation, participation and instant feedback into the palm of each student’s hand. Teacher asks a question, EVERYBODY gets to answer. Answers are instantly analysed and discussed. Cool. Real participation for all students. OK, I'm probably confusing you, so just go have a look at it. http://studentresponsenetwork.com - Let me know what you think!

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 19/01/09

Following a very successful trial in late Term 4 of a mini-tournament involving six schools playing Jeopardy over two heats and a final, I have gained approval to make this tournament a featured event on the Interactive Classrooms calendar. It will be open to all K-6 schools in NSW that have access to an Interactive classroom including videoconferencing equipment and an Interactive Whiteboard. There are about 400 schools now with a connected classroom. Surely we should be able to get 48 of them to participate during term 1? There's a really good flyer for schools about the tournament here: http://stuhasic.com/jeopardy/JeopardyTournamentFlyer.pdf - If you have any questions, just ask. If your K-6 school - with interactive classroom - would like to participate in the tournament, let me know and we'll book you into a Heat!

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 19/01/09

With the demise of the Unisys contract for web services, the ISP Console application has 'disappeared'. It seems this was unexpected and has now caused a major issue meaning it is currently no longer possible to easily export all students at a school together with their portal IDs. This in turn means that EduWeb 2009 and the Windows Logon Wizard programs won't be able to work until a solution is found by DET State Office. I spoke to DET Learning Systems on Friday and they say they have received a couple of calls from schools during the holidays saying the same thing, so they agree that the problem is wider than just me - it actually affects over 600 schools!!. They have said that they would like to come up with a solution before school starts, so I'll keep you informed of the progress.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 21/08/08

I've released a brand new set of instructional mini-posters for How to Edit Your EduWeb pages when using Internet Explorer 7 with Microsoft Expression Web. Since the new rollout computers supplied to schools all come with these new applications, schools that were used to FrontPage have found things different. These mini-posters might help clear a few things up for you. Grab your own copy by clicking here: http://stuhasic.com/eduweb/editingeduwebv2.pdf - Hope you like them! Just print them on A4 or A3 pages (preferably in colour) and hang them in your computer lab or classroom so students can teach themselves how to do some really cool stuff with EduWeb.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 17/02/08

A lot of people have been emailing me saying "Where is it? When will it be released?". Well, I deliberately delayed the release of EduWeb 2008 until now because I had quite a few schools call me last year saying they'd created their EduWeb but they needed to change things around because they still hadn't finalised their classes. It's quite a difficult job to manually change students arund from one class to another. You are always better off waiting until things have settled before creating your new EduWeb for the new year. So that's why I held off releasing it. Anyway, it's there right now. Just for you. Please read all the instructions carefully then email me if you have problems.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 07/01/08

This news about the new Jeopardy educational game I developed last year is a bit late - I've had almost 3,000 downloads from all over the world. Stu’s Double Jeopardy (for Windows) borrows from the lasting legacy of the popular TV gameshow, Jeopardy! to make an exciting, interactive and educational computer-based gameshow available to everybody. It can be used in so many different situations - in schools and colleges, at conferences and parties. But the main use is expected to be in classrooms. As Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs) and data projectors become more widely used in schools, there is a need for motivating, interactive and educational software to complement them. Many of the IWB titles available involve working with one student while everybody else looks on. That’s where Stu’s Double Jeopardy is different. Feel free to take a look - http://jeopardygame.wordpress.com/2007/08/12/whats-stus-double-jeopardy/

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 07/01/08

It's that time of year again when I need to revist EduWeb to make sure all is in readiness for schools to create their student-centred intranets. Again, there have been some changes with the NSW DET Portal data gathering process and in 2008 I expect the enrolment data accuracy to be much better than it was in 2007 when we had several problems with missing students and students being listed in the wrong classes. The Information Technology people in DET have assured me that the quality of centralised data will better reflect that which is in each school. Much of the problems last year related to the implementation of OASIS Thin Client which was happening throughout the year. Now that it's all over, we can expect much better results. Nonetheless, it's always wise to hold off installing EduWeb until your enrolments settle. To this end, EduWeb 2008 will be available in before the end of February.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 14/02/07

The EduWeb website has been updated and you can now download the EduWeb 2007 installer and follow the brand new updated instructions for setting it up. My website records indicate that in only two days since its release, the EduWeb 2007 installer has been downloaded 106 times. We'll also be installing it remotely on over 110 Sydney Region school servers over the next couple of weeks (assuming ISP Console is finally up to date with its data). Hope you all like it. It's on the Downloads page right now!

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 06/02/07

With changes happening in NSW Public Schools relating to the need for students to logon to the Internet, a lot of work has had to be done in the back-end of EduWeb in an effort to provide local logon accounts that mirror the internet account (see the next item for more details). As well as this, a move to OASIS Thin Client in schools has also made the exporting of student data different. I made a decision to make EduWeb 2007 no longer work with OASIS, but instead, use the DET ISP Console tool for extracting your student enrolment. The problem with ISP Console right now is that the data in it is not up to date, but State Office are working on that, and expect the data to be ready by Week 3 (starting 12 February). Fortunately, that's exactly when I intend to release EduWeb 2007! Some schools have already contacted me to say they've installed EduWeb 2006. That's not a real problem, but if you haven't gone very far with it, you may want to wait to get EduWeb 2007.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 06/02/07

The Windows 200x Logon Wizard for creating student accounts has been updated for NSW DET (public) schools to allow for creation of student accounts using the DET User ID (the account used by students to logon to the Internet at school). This wizard creates the accounts on your local school server with the same name, meaning students only have to remember one logon name instead of two. This release of the Wizard (v4.0) will also allow for EduWeb permissions to be created so each student can only edit their own webpages. You can get the Wizard here: http://stuhasic.com/w2kwizard

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 17/12/06

My son Ben who is just finishing Year 10 made his first website in EduWeb at his Primary school in Term 4, 2001 - just after EduWeb was first released. It's a few years later and he has his own internet website now and a blog and he's also just completed his first professional website for a small building company. It took him 22 hours to complete and he's very proud of it. It has a Flash intro and a photo gallery and has a very neat and clean layout. Take a look- http://www.sydneyframelessglass.com.au/ - He may not necessarily have learned all these skills using EduWeb 5 years ago, but it certainly got him interested.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 07/12/06

Although it's less than two months old. my new blog - http://paralleldivergence.com has gone gangbusters. It's hosted at Wordpress.com - a free blog hosting service that has no less than half a MILLION blogs posted on it. One of my posts attracted over 70,000 views in a couple of days and pushed me to number 1 position at Wordpress. The post also attracted almost 2,500 Diggs (positive votes) at Digg.com. Right now, Parallel Divergence is in the Top 40 of all blogs at Wordpress and attracts a very wide readership via people subscribed to its RSS feeds. Blogging can be a very powerful tool, but it's not easy to get a popular blog. It takes a lot of effort in presentation, content and reader feedback. Is it for everybody? Probably not. But if you like to write (like I do) and you think you have stuff to say, people will read. 'Build it, and they will come.' :)

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 07/12/06

The Sydney Region IT School Support Unit is pleased to announce the opening of the new School IT Support Website and Forum. The new site is at http://sts.sydneyr.det.nsw.edu.au - The main advantages of the site include a search facility, direct links to the newest and most popular entries and RSS feeds. This site is accessible both at school and from home. In addition to the site itself, there is a mechanism to register and sign into the site to unlock additional content. The major benefit of registering for the School IT Support site is access to the new Sydney Region School IT Support Forum. This is is our new interactive resource repository, categorised and searchable. We hope it will build into a wide community of NSW Public School teachers, school administrators and DET IT specialists all sharing ICT-in-Education ideas and experiences. At present the site is only open to NSW DET Public Schools. Resistration is required using your DET User ID and DET-supplied email address.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 09/11/06

In its second year across the whole of Sydney Region, the STEMS (School Transition Enterprise Management System) has been a glowing success! We have 152 K-6 public schools in our Region and no less than 100% of them participated, providing excellent quality transition information about their year 6 students using STEMS. We now have in electronic form the necessary transition information for no less than 6,156 year 6 students to assist high schools with providing them with a smooth and relevant transition into high school. There is absolutely nothing like STEMS available anywhere and I'm really proud of how it's gone in 2006. With a bit of luck and commonsense, other regions will start to take STEMS seriously and look to it as a solution to the complex problem of high school transition. You can read more about STEMS here - http://stuhasic.com/stems - Well done Sydney Region!

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 24/10/06

It's been a long time coming. I've wanted to put together something for a while to host all my ramblings on various subjects. It's also a place to link of to some of my other sites. Feel free to pop over and visit and check out my updated Random Sites, see what I've been thinking about and maybe take in a Video or four that I made. It's all at my blog that I've called 'Parallel Divergence' - http://paralleldivergence.com - leave me a comment!

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 17/09/06

For those not on the NSWCC List, I often randomly surf and find all sorts of things of interest. I've been posting them to the NSWCC a few at a time. I've now found a way to automate cataloguing the interesting sites I find. In Maxthon (the browser I prefer), I've made a Favorites folder called Random Sites, in it a whole bunch of category folders. When I find some interesting sites, I Add them to Favorites the same way as usual, but I add them to the appropriate folder. Next, using Sync2It Bookmark Manager (freebie), I import my Favorites, then I export them to a HTML file for which I made a template. I then upload the HTML file to my webserver and hey presto: http://stuhasic.com/randomsites - I'll probably update it about once a week.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 09/06/06

I have been so slack lately when it comes to updating this Latest News page. Guess I'm just trying to do too many things. One of those things was being invited to present at the Western Sydney Primary Principals Conference at Wollongong yesterday. I had to run the same session twice during concurrent workshops and both were well attended. A common thread between both sessions is I was asked 'Why doesn't the education department support this?'. All I could answer was 'I don't know'. Oh well. I just keep plugging along. The next big thing I'll be doing is getting STEMS - http://stuhasic.com/stems - up and running again in all schools in Sydney Region in 2006. Following a highly successful trial last year in all but 23 schools (10%), STEMS will be run hopefully every school assuming I don't get banned again... Anyway, it's just another program I've put together, but at least my Region is supporting it. Keep chipping away Stu.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 07/05/06

I received an email from Barbara Shaffer recently. She just discovered a new Australian maths website that is Interactive, comprehensive, based on syllabus, gives clear demonstrations, immediate feedback, fun, well designed, caters for differentiated instruction and is hot of the press....and get this ......it was created by an Australian Primary teacher and it is FREE! I've just emailed the creator to congratulate her. Check it out: http://www.rainforestmaths.com - I know it is going to be loved by kids and teachers alike. I've been using the interactive maths dictionary by the same author for a few years - http://www.amathsdictionaryforkids.com (also awesome). Thanks Barbara!

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 19/03/06

Sydney Region has been installing new Windows 2003 servers into many schools since the middle of 2005. So far, over 60 servers have been installed with many more schools expected to come on line with the program as part of their next hardware rollout in Semester 2 this year. All of these schools now have remotely managed servers and we've been able to remotely install EduWeb 2006 for them, including individual student logon accounts. All the school had to do was create the OASIS floppy diskette and export their student names and classes from OASIS and then place the diskette into the server's floppy drive. We did the rest remotely. Now when students logon as themselves, they get a shiny new 'My EduWeb Site' shortcut and a 'My Work' folder shortcut, and everything just works! We even remotely create new student accounts for these schools! All they do is email us the details of the new enrolments and we do the rest. New account, new EduWeb site! All they have to do is USE it! :)

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 08/02/06

Just thought I'd drop this note in. The update to EduWeb TaskForce in EduWeb 2006 came about because of a suggestion by Greg Sharkey. He wanted to use it across four campuses of the Sydney Secondary College to log helpdesk requests from all sites, have them tracked and priorities and acted on by a single support person covering all four sites. Last week it was put into action and when I just looked at it, there were already 40-odd requests logged from all four sites. So it looks like the staff have taken to it. They can see where they are in the queue via its web page and see the priority that has been set on it. (Shuts them up for a while). It also has the ability to forward any request to the DET Helpdesk via email for action. Pretty cool. So that's the story behind its inclusion in EW2006!

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 28/01/06

It's a little later than usual, but still before school starts, so that's OK. You can now get EduWeb 2006 from the EduWeb website which has also had several updates. I'm still finalising the "Using EduWeb 2006" booklet (PDF), an update from the Using EduWeb 2004 book. Should be done soon. You can get the EduWeb 2006 installer from the Downloads page at the left. It's the first link. To find out what's in EduWeb 2006, go here - http://stuhasic.com/eduweb/new2006 - One note of suggestion: If you are wanting to setup EduWeb 2006 for your school this year, please wait a little until your enrolments andclasses have settled. Have fun and have a great 2006!

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 01/12/05

The current Service Pack for EduWeb 2005 is version 1.3. It includes a replacement fix for the Term Calendar Generator. Robert found that there was a problem when trying to create a calendar for Term 2, 2006. Something to do with the actual dates. Anyway, it's fixed and applying the service pack will fix your installation of EduWeb if you have that problem. The 2006 version of EduWeb will remove the need for the service pack as all fixes will be included in the base installation for 2006. Planning is underway for the new features in EduWeb 2006, due for release hopefully at the beginning of Term 1.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 01/12/05

Following a positive reaction from conference attendees to my presentation on EduWeb, several non-NSW Public schools have jumped on the EduWeb bandwagon! There are schools in Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and now New Zealand all discovering the world of student-centred intranets. Some have even signed up to the EduWeb Listserv. Welcome aboard!

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 01/12/05

On Friday 18/11/2005, I presented a session at the two-day Classroom Technology Conference at the Marriott Hotel in Sydney. It was a pretty strong contingent of about a hundred people from all over Australia and New Zealand. I started off by asking how many had heard of EduWeb and was pleased to see about half the group put their hand up. Anyway, the session was titled "Total Engagement Via Student-Centred Intranets". I had a whole six slides of a Powerpoint to talk about before I demo'd actual student work (Primary), then built a high school EduWeb from scratch, copied over two separate template pages and basically showed off what EduWeb is and what schools can do with it. Forty-five minutes and a couple of dozen questions later and it was all over. The paper I presented (which they bound into a big book with all the other presenter's papers) can be found here for those interested in reading what I talked about - http://stuhasic.com/eduweb/TotalEngagement-StuHasic.pdf

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 01/12/05

The EduWeb Topics Utility for primary schools has a pretty much undocumented feature it can do. As you know, you can deliver single files to groups of students, but you can also transfer whole folders in one go. eg, Say you wanted to put 5 jpeg image files directly into their images folder. You can do it in one step! Make a folder called images on the C: drive somewhere and put your image files into it. Then run the topics utility and choose the option at the top that says "Open a Folder to Copy". Navigate to the images folder on C: drive and Open it, so you can see the images you want copied. Then select the Year/Class or Custom group and at the bottom, choose Root as the folder to copy into. So what you are telling it to do is copy that images folder into the root of each student's EduWeb folder. Because there's already an images folder, it simply adds the contents of your folder into theirs, without disturbing anything else! Click the Go button and off it goes!

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 17/10/05

With thanks to Joann for finding the glitch, I have released EduWeb 2005 Service Pack 1.2, now available at the EduWeb site for both Primary and High Schools. I tried to be too clever with my last update of the Topics Utility and broke something while fixing something else. Ain't it always the way? Anyway, it's fixed now. Details for installing are on the Downloads page.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 26/09/05

School holidays again... A small change has been made to the Add Student Utility for EduWeb. Now when you add a student, it will automatically change the "New Student" title on the student's main page to the entered student's name, making the process one step quicker. Just download this program to replace (overwrite) the one in the EduWeb folder on your server: - http://stuhasic.com/eduweb/ewaddstudent.exe - Any qestions? Just email.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 14/09/05

Been a while since I last updated this news. Last year I presented EduWeb to the 9th Annual National Classroom Technology Conference in Sydney. It went down pretty well. It was actually a very good conference overall - well worth attending. If you want to go back through the past EduWeb News items you'll find out more about it. Anyway, I got invited back for the conference to be held again in Sydney in November. What's more the glossy brochure for the conference lists me as a "special guest" on the cover! Now that's pressure. I've scanned the brochure and made a pdf of it in case you're interested in finding out more about the conference. http://stuhasic.com/eduweb/classtech2005.pdf - but beware, it's a 5.6MB download. I'll post more details about it when I know more.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 13/07/05

I discovered this one a few weeks ago and meant to post it here, but I forgot. The ABCteach site has been put together by teachers and contains many useful resources aimed specifically from K to 8. There is a 'free' section and a 'subscription' section. The free area contains LOTS of really good stuff, including worksheets, templates, certificates and tools for creating crosswords, word finds and so on, and is well worth spending a good amount of time at. The subscription section which unlocks many, many more resources only costs US$25 per annum and it might be a good idea to subscribe one teacher and use it for the whole school. But look through the free stuff first to get an idea. http://www.abcteach.com - Looks very good. You might want to add it to your EduWeb Staff Links page!

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 05/07/05

Previously, there was a step-by-step guide for creating EduWeb Topic Templates which was a "start from scratch" solution. Released today is the EduWeb Templates Toolkit which includes templates that are easily modified into student topic pages ready to be transferred using the EduWeb Topics Utility. The Step-by-Step guide titled "How to Create and Distribute EduWeb Templates" has been newly updated and is included in the toolkit, together with blank templates. This Toolkit (1.00MB) is very simple to follow and provides an excellent starting point for teachers who would like to create (and hopefully share) their own EduWeb templates. You can get it at the EduWeb Downloads page - it's the fourth link from the top. Comments welcome.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 03/07/05

The first ever EduWeb Administrators course was run at the NSW Computer Education Group's Mini Conference at Wadalba on the NSW Central Coast. The course was held over the first weekend of the school holidays and it was very pleasing to see that this course attracted the highest number of participants (23) of all the courses that ran at the conference. The course covered just about all aspects of EduWeb setup, administration and use by both students and teachers and in terms of pace, it seemed to be just about right. We looked at configuring EduWeb on a server with individual student logon accounts, use of the various school intranet pages, editing student pages and creating and distributing EduWeb templates. Even though the group consisted of a mixture of primary and high school teachers, as well as the full range of computer proficiency, all went great and the course was well received. Thanks to my son Ben for assisting participants with the hands-on activites.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 03/07/05

EduWeb 2005 has a default website that it points to when the 'Education Website of the Week' button is clicked. The default link is to Zooish.com which *WAS* a fantastic site full of animated clipart perfect for students to use in their EduWeb pages. Unfortunately, that site has now closed down and the zooish.com domain name was not renewed by the previous owner. As a result, the URL now points to a 'Domain Parker' webpage which is an advertiser's click-thru page. The problem is, in the NSW Department of Education, this click-thru page is blocked by the DET Internet filter which reports it as a porn site. Not a good look for EduWeb. :) If your school is an avid EduWeb user, you've probably changed the link to a different site many times over (seeing as there's an 'of the week' connotation to the link), but if you haven't, it would be a good idea to change the link to something like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page - just edit the main index page and change the link.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 28/06/05

With thanks to Glenn Buchanan, here is a great site for Kinder and pre-school students with links to many useful activities. http://www.kinderhive.net/techgames.html - This page focuses on Internet games that reinforce Kindergarten skills. Hope you find it useful.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 25/06/05

I've been quiet for a while. About time I sent an update. I have been busy, promise. Next Saturday is the NSW Computer Education Group Mini Conference at Wadalba. I've been told the EduWeb session is one of the most popular being held, so I guess I'll have to make it good. I hear the facilities there are great. If you are coming, I'll see you there. Thanks to Barbara Schaffer for sending me details of this great site: The Teacher Resource Exchange (TRE) is a moderated database of resources and activities created by teachers. All resources on the TRE are checked by subject specialists to ensure they are of the highest possible quality. Resources are free to use and you can also add your own resources to share with other teachers. Barbara tells me that many of the resources can be adapted to be used as material for EduWeb topic pages. Take some time to explore what looks to be an excellent site - http://tre.ngfl.gov.uk/server.php -

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 30/05/05

Sydney Region in the NSW DET (basically the south-eastern part of Sydney) is getting EduWeb installed on brand new Windows 2003 servers over the next few weeks as part of a major regional project. 44 schools in total will get a new server configured by myself and the other technology advisers. They'll all get individual logon accounts setup for both students and staff, but for those schools that want it, Kindergarten through to year 2 will get generic logon accounts as well. Because I know that all of these schools will get an optimal installation of EduWeb, I hope there'll be a great increase in the number of teachers that dive into this new world of student-centred intranets and web publishing. The first one was completed successfully today. Two more tomorrow... P.S. there's some great new feedback on the Feedback page linked at the left.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 24/05/05

Over the past few weeks, I have been releasing updated utilities for EduWeb 2005. To avoid having to download several different files and install them separately, I have produces a single file Service Pack for EduWeb 2005 which you can download and install once. There are separate files for Primary and High Schools and you will need to download the appropriate version for your school. Service Pack 1 includes the following: 1. EduWeb Shortcut Creator v3. This version, still creates the My Work shortcut on the Desktop, but ALSO creates a new shortcut called "My EduWeb Site". This additional shortcut launches the logged on student's EduWeb page (index.htm) directly in the browser. 2. ALTERNATIVE EduWeb Shortcut Creator v3. This version, called ewshrtctmydoc.exe, creates the My Work and My EduWeb Site shortcuts in the My Documents folder. 3. EduWeb Topics Utility v2.1 and 4. EduWeb Photo Gallery Tool v3. Get it now from the Downloads page linked at the left.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 21/05/05

Both the primary school and high school versions of the EduWeb Topics Utility have been updated to v2.1. As more schools have been starting to use the EduWeb Topics Utility to transfer work templates and files into students' EduWeb folders, a few errors had been occurring, particularly where student folders had been deleted. The new version now includes better error trapping and reporting. Basically, it will do everything it can of what you ask it to do, then report back any problems it had for you to investigate. This should make a big difference in troubleshooting any problems you may have had in previous attempts. You can get the appropriate version for your school from the Downloads link at the left. It's the second link from the top on that page. The upgrade is highly recommended. If you have problems with the Topics Utility, you will first be asked to ensure you are using the latest version.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 07/05/05

At this EduWeb site, there used to be an EduWeb 2004 Demo site. That's now been upgraded to an EduWeb 2005 Demo site. But as well as showing normal empty student pages as they are first created, I have included a full 12 topics of student work each by two year 6 students. All names have been changed. The EduWeb 2005 Demo site is here - http://stuhasic.com/eduweb/eduwebdemo - If you open Student Pages, in the Class 6W, you'll find a student called "Robby Bushell". He has completed 12 topics on-line and this is what he produced. It will give you some ideas of the sort of tasks you might like to try with EduWeb. In Class 6I, we have Mariam Ali, a rather exceptional student who has also produced 12 completely different topics of work. Take a look at her stuff. These are REAL EduWeb websites created by year 6 students at a public school in Sydney. The only changes I made was anonymising the pages. Comments or questions welcome!

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 07/05/05

Peter and Linda both discovered a minor bug in the new EduWeb Photo Gallery resizing tool released last week. If either the source path of the photos, or the photo names themselves had a space in them, the tool would not place any of the selected photos into the desired EduWeb Gallery. The fix took only a few minutes - it's marvellous what a difference a pair of quote marks make. Some of these programs can get quite large in terms of their source code, and you sometimes miss these things... Anyway, thanks to both Peter and Linda for the great testing work. A fixed version is now available on the Downloads page (the second item). Get it, install it and it should work as originally intended. I'm sure you'll let me know if it's still misbehaving.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 01/05/05

I've just released a new version of the EduWeb Photo Galleries Tool. This new version not only copies your selected photos into a gallery, but it resizes them as well. Not much point copying a 4 megapixel photo into a web gallery that has a 400x300 viewing window. Photos taken at 4 migapixel will be less than 3% of their original size when placed in the EduWeb galleries. That's nice. You can also optionally add an overlaid caption on your photos using the new tool. The new version of the Photo Gallery Tool has not been bundled into the standard EduWeb 2005 installation yet. It is provided as an optional (but strongly recommended) upgrade and is freely available now from the EduWeb website. It is expected that this upgrade will be included as standard in EduWeb 2006. For more information about this new upgrade, go here: http://stuhasic.com/eduweb/newgallery - Please let me know what you think if you give it a try.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 24/04/05

Paul McGillicuddy, Technology Adviser at South West Sydney Region has created a useful and brief Powerpoint Slideshow for those individual teachers trying to present EduWeb to the school and convince more teachers to get onboard. It's titled: "Why Use EduWeb as an Intranet?" and you can download a copy by clicking http://stuhasic.com/eduweb/WhyEduWeb.ppt - (save your own copy by right-clicking the link and choosing Save Target As...). Build an EduWeb and then link from the PPT to the EduWeb you created so it can then be demonstrated. Thanks Paul.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 20/04/05

Some high schools in particular are reporting that FrontPage will not allow them to save their edited EduWeb pages because as a security measure, they've blocked access to or hidden the C: drive. When installed, FrontPage automatically uses C:\My Documents\My Webs as the default location for creating and saving your disk based webs. It is possible to change the location by editing the System Registry and changing the location to any folder you want. For those who are uncomfortable editing the System Registry, there is also a free installer named DefaultDir.exe that will make the necessary entry for you. Go t o this website: http://www.95isalive.com/fixes/index.htm - the details are on the middle of the page.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 19/04/05

My holidays only started today after working with Greg S on the new Sydney region website for much of last week - http://www.sydneyr.det.nsw.edu.au if you're interested. (the Support...Technology section is pretty good). Anyway, the first page of that site has a flash intro I put together using CoffeeCup Firestarter (my first effort with that program). I thought I'd see what else you could do with it, so I decided to make a trailer for EduWeb. The whole thing took about 2 hours to make. Let me know what you think: Click the Home button at the left, then click the EduWeb Trailer link in the *NEW* box on the right of the page. Sorry to the dial-up people, it's just over a meg. Turn up your speakers. Ten points to anyone who gets the title and artist of the music first... Firestarter is here: http://www.coffeecup.com/firestarter - US$49

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 19/04/05

More and more of those "Edutainment" type programs are becoming web-based. I remember installing programs like KidPix, Kidworks, Thinkin Things and so on on school servers. Now there are sites on the internet that offer similar activities without having to install any software (apart from a flash player which most browsers already have). Here's one well worth looking at: http://www.sparktop.org/intro.html - there are many fun and educational activities to go through, and better yet, there's no ads.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 03/04/05

Take a look at the site called NationMaster - http://www.nationmaster.com - to look at the maps and flags of all the countries of the world. They don't just provide maps but link them to other statistics of the country and also an encyclopedia for other details required. The statistics are many times more than CIA fact book. A new section on 'Lesson Plans' gives teachers access to quality lesson plans that integrate technology seamlessly with lesson content. There are many lesson plans for all grades in Social Studies, Geography, History, Economics, Civics and Environment which schools might find useful (http://www.nationmaster.com/lps/lesson_plan_Energy.htm is a good example).

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 21/03/05

With thanks to Margo Metcalf, you may be interested in taking a look at http://www.teachersintouch.net - they have provided a whole swag of free resources for teachers who are ready to integrate technology into the curriculum. Each lesson plan and project is mapped to the Board of Studies technology requirements and mapped to the Australian curriculum. Click on "Free Lessons" to get Lesson Projects, Plans, Ideas and "How To" Guides. They have several resources which cover both primary and high schools, across multiple KLAs. Well worth visiting.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 18/03/05

My website's statistics report has told me it's taken less than two months to see the main EduWeb 2005 installation file downloaded 500 times! In the whole of last year, the 2004 installer was downloaded 816 times. I suspect that high schools are starting to pickup on the fact that the 2005 version is now much more high school-friendly. Over 120MB per day on average (including weekends) has been downloaded from the EduWeb site - this is all files, documents, programs and webpages. There has also been an increase in visitors from the US and UK, specifically in the .edu and .ac domains. Interestingly, this has all occurred through word of mouth because I do very little promotion and we all know the NSW Dept of Education does none... Maybe one day.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 16/03/05

With thanks to Ellen Sheerin for finding this gem: A Web Quest is a method used to engage students in inquiry based learning. A web quest is meant to guide students through a process of inquiry through a set of assigned tasks that lead them to a conclusion, or that results in a product. This website lets you fill in a form and produce your own webquests - a very novel idea. Take a look http://teach-nology.com/web_tools/web_quest

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 05/03/05

WebQuests are among the most fascinating applications on the Web for educators. Student-centred and inquiry-based, a WebQuest challenges students to explore the web for information. Most WebQuests include the links that are appropriate for students to research as well as suggestions for further research. Found the following very interesting site at the University of Wollongong with instructions for how to create Web Quests and Learning Objects. Learning Objects are any digital resource that can be used to support learning. They are stored in databases called repositories. Just click the six step jigsaw pieces at the site: http://brink2.uow.edu.au/%7Ewebquest/webquest.htm

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 20/02/05

High schools are looking towards SMS (mobile phone Short Messaging Service) as a method of combating truancy at school. In most cases of truancy these days, parents are not informed about their child's unexplained absence from school until weeks after the event. SMS offers an almost instant way of alerting parents that their child is not at school. Schools that have adopted one of these parent-alert solutions are reporting a major decrease in truancy. The EduWeb School Personnel Automated Short Messaging System (SPASMS) is a system designed for public schools to utilise a dept-based SMS-gateway via the department wide-area network and intranet. By centralising the SMS gateway, an SMS-based Parent Notification System becomes accessible to all schools, and not just those that can afford it. An education department is then able to negotiate better SMS access and pricing through various Telcos. Find out more here: http://stuhasic.com/eduweb/ewspasms - Comments welcome!

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 04/02/05

There are a couple of new feedback items on the feedback page (linked at the left). One of them was submitted by me as a conglomeration of bits and pieces I have been hearing from schools over the past month or so. I thought that some of the ideas they had were worth sharing.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 26/01/05

I received a very pleasant surprise today with the Australia Day Honours announcements. Some very, very nice people nominated me to receive the Australian Public Service Medal and amazingly, the nominations were accepted. These nominations go through a lot of people before finally getting to the Governor-General, so I am truly proud, thankful and humbled by this wonderful recognition. The brief citation states: 'For outstanding public service, particularly in the provision of computer services to schools within the Southern Region of the NSW Department of Education and Training'. I'm told I will be getting the medal from the Governor-General sometime in April this year. In the meantime, they pointed me to this picture - http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/about/medal_descriptions/meritorious.html - which I am allowed to print and wear with pride. But seriously, for all the ongoing support and encouragement, Thank you.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 21/01/05

Thanks to Ellen from Asquith GHS for sharing this. National Library of Virtual Manipulatives - Utah State University - http://matti.usu.edu/nlvm/nav/vlibrary.html - Current mathematics instruction often fails to actively involve students. One way to address the problem is through the use of manipulatives, physical objects that help students visualize relationships and applications. We can now use computers to create virtual learning environments to address the same goals. This is a three-year NSF supported project to develop a library of uniquely interactive, web-based virtual manipulatives or concept tutorials, mostly in the form of Java applets, for mathematics instruction. The project includes dissemination and extensive internal and external evaluation. Divided into these sections: Number & Operations; Algebra; Geometry; Measurement; Data Analysis & Probability. Within each, you will find a good selection of interactive applications for your K-12 students.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic. on 12/01/05

If you are wanting to try out EduWeb 2005, well now you can. The software has been beta-tested by four kind and helpful people and all looks good. It's available from the Downloads page. The Instructions page has been fully updated to cater for the new installation process and there's a new support document at http://stuhasic.com/eduweb/EWUpdateGuide.pdf - This is especially for existing EduWeb schools who would like to keep parts of their existing EduWeb intranet and incorporate it in the new one.. More documentation and on-line training are coming and the FAQ still needs updating. I recommend that you don't install your 2005 version to the school server until at least week 2 of term after your enrolments settle down. Any feedback on the new version is most welcome. If you find any glitches, please let me know ASAP.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 07/01/05

Hello and Happy New Year to all. Following a very successful 2004 for EduWeb, there has been much work towards having the release of EduWeb 2005 ready for the upcoming start of school. If you are interested in finding out what EduWeb 2005 will look like, then keep reading! There have been several changes, mostly to assist High Schools getting into EduWeb with their students. With Mandatory IT coming in this year, it may just be the perfect tool to introduce ICT into all subject areas. Because this message would be way too big if I were to detail everything in EW2005 here, I'll just point you to this link instead - http://stuhasic.com/eduweb/new2005/index.htm - It looks best at 1024x768 or better. There's a bit of reading involved and MANY screenshots. Hopefully you'll like what you see. Any comments or suggestions are appreciated.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 13/12/04

EduWeb had a great mention in the NSW TF paper, 'Education'. The article shows how it is being used at Cessnock Public School with teacher Michael Kermode. A snip from the article follows: 'Mr Kermode said a program he already uses, called EduWeb could become an integral part of (or link from) an online information directorate. The program was developed by Stu Hasic from the St George district. 'EduWeb is an intranet research facility that allows teachers to fully support students in directed research,' Mr Kermode said. 'EduWeb is without doubt the very best educational tool that I have ever worked with. It has become the focus for almost all of my library research work with students at Cessnock Public School. The students' level of achievement as a result of EduWeb has been fantastic. Not only has students' level of engagement increased, but the quality of their computer and research skills have also improved significantly.' - http://www.nswtf.org.au/edu_online/66/workl.html -

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 18/11/04

I've been thinking for a while about the best way to make EduWeb better suited to the high school situation. Today after a meeting with Paul and Leanne, the ICT Consultants from Western Sydney Region, I'm piecing together the new structure to be ready for the start of 2005. They've come up with some great ideas and I'll be working on implementing them ASAP. Western Sydney Region is also working very hard towards putting together a viable EduWeb Users Group and offer specialist EduWeb training more regularly, all through the great work of these two. I've now presented two big seminars in Western Sydney, so the number of teachers that now know what EduWeb is and how it can work in their schools has suddenly grown dramatically. The priorities between now and the start of next year are: 1) EduWeb On-Line Training Module for Students; 2) EduWeb On-Line Training Module for Administrators; 3) New EduWeb Installer to cater for schools already running EduWeb and 4) EduWeb for High Schools.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 08/11/04

OK, so it wasn't a story about EduWeb, but there it was in all its glory on the TV screen. Today NSW Education Minister Andrew Refshauge launched the government's new 'Technology for Learning' project (formerly known as the Computers in Schools Project or CISP) at Bellevue Hill Public School in Sydney's east. That school was selected because it is actually using technology effectively in teaching and learning. The various shots on the news of the students at their PCs clearly showed them editing and working on their EduWeb pages. When Joann from the school called me to say this was all happening, she said the Minister was very pleasantly surprised at how well the students were using the PCs and were so pleased to show off their digital portfolios to both him and the news people. There was a shot of a boy typing a letter to the Minister on his EduWeb page, and another shot of a girl filling in her "self-evaluation" section of her topic page. Well done to Bellevue Hill PS again!

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 06/11/04

While this is not really EduWeb-related, it relates to students, teachers, parents and everyone else who uses the Internet. I've used the Internet pretty much on a daily basis since 1994. Back then, it was very academic. The focus was on education, research and the sharing of ideas through various forms of communication. Today, only 10 years later, it is still a great place to find information and communicate with peers, but in order to get to that good stuff, you have to wade through a cesspool of ads that cover every page and even pop-up in separate windows at you. The Internet today is a very commercial place with hundreds of millions of users all over the planet. You can't know them all and you certainly can't trust them all. This is evidenced by the recent phenomena of spyware, adware, malware, phishing, spam, unrequested porn, internet scams and rampant worms and viruses. How can a parent of school children expect to keep up? http://www.stgeorged.det.nsw.edu.au/darkside

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 27/10/04

The last few weeks have been very busy. First a hands-on training day for 35 people from Penrith area schools at Cranebrook High, then a visit to the very impressive Barnier PS where they are running 1 PC for each pair of students in the each year 6 classroom, then a presentation to about 100 people from Western Sydney Region at Kingswood TAFE, then another couple of presentations at the Australian School Librarians Association (ASLA) NSW Conference at the amazing Kings School. Many thanks to all those great people who arranged these days and sessions. There'll be a repeat of the Kingswood TAFE session for Western Sydney Region schools at Chifley College on November 18. The next big thing I'm doing is a presentation to parents from the St George area all about the dangers of the 'Dark Side of the Internet'. This will be on Tuesday, 2nd Nov at 7:30pm at Oatley Snr HS - there's an invite at http://www.stgeorged.det.nsw.edu.au/darkside.pdf - then it's the Sydney Region CC Days!

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 07/10/04

On October 1st, tech.LEARNING, the resource for Education Technology Leaders published one of my articles on Student-Centred Intranets. Take a look at the article here: http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=47902859 - They have already said they'd post a follow-up article. Take a look at the rest of their site. It's very useful and informative for any school wishing to apply technology to teaching and learning more effectively.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 30/09/04

I've been thinking about the future of EduWeb training and basically, it's impossible for me to personally train everyone who wants to use EduWeb. But now the EduWeb Self-Paced Training System is a great new way to learn about how to use EduWeb in your own time. The first release contains over 50 minutes of flash movies you can play in your browser. The movies are fully narrated and broken into 30 separate sections covering all aspects of the EduWeb school intranet solution. You can choose to either run the training system on-line (broadband recommended), or you can download the full training system as one file and install it on your workstation or school's server or burn it to a CD for quick and easy access at any time. The movies can be played in any order, stopped and reviewed as required. Future releases will include a training system for students and another for EduWeb administrators. Click Home at the left, then click EduWeb On-line Training System in the orange *NEW* box.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 18/09/04

I have a busy October ahead of me. On Oct 14, I'll be conducting an all-day training session in the Penrith area in conjunction with Western Sydney Region and their ICT Consultants, Paul and Leanne. This training is for a select group of (up to 30) participants and will hopefully be the basis of future EduWeb training courses to be offered. On Oct 21, I'm back in Western Sydney Region for an afternoon info session on Project-based Multimedia Learning and Student-Centred Intranets - a.k.a. EduWeb. This session will be held at Kingsford TAFE and has also been organised by Leanne and Paul. Then on Oct 22 and 23, I'm presenting two sessions at the ASLA (Australian Schools Library Association NSW) Conference at Kings School, Parramatta. The EduWeb session will be similar to the day before, the second session looking at Digital Video Editing for Schools, particularly WHY schools should be doing it. http://www.asla.nsw.edu.au/asla2004/Present/hasics.htm - I'm looking forward to it all.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 09/09/04

Recently I saw a great website mentioned on the NSW Teacher Librarian listserv - http://www.enhancetv.com.au/ - enhanceTV is a free Australian website and email service which gives educators access to information on more than 20,000 film, TV and radio titles. In addition, teachers can download hundreds of free articles, study guides and other resources. Search the database by keyword, title or learning area for a detailed list of film and TV resources, and how to obtain them. Subscribe to their free weekly email newsletter or jump online and check out the daily educational TV guide. Take a look!

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 24/08/04

It was Thursday, August 9th, 2001. I was asked to attend 'TILT Database' training being held at Gymea Bay PS. Without a doubt, the training was going to be boring and there would be little chance that I would use that program afterwards - I even considered not attending in the first place. But I'm so glad I did. When the training finished, Greg Fitzgerald, (the then AP at the school), said to me: 'Let me show you what my kids do in the computer room'. I was blown away. 4 days later, EduWeb was born. I firmly believe that had Greg not invited me to view his 'intranet', that EduWeb still would not exist to this day - there still is no direct competition to EduWeb. The fact is EduWeb, its listserv, the (hundreds of?) thousands of student webpages, the resources and add-ons and the huge difference that has occurred over these three years would not have been a reality without that one little sentence that Greg spoke. Thanks again Greg, and Happy Birthday EduWeb!

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 18/08/04

In preparation for a meeting I have next week where I have been asked to provide a briefing of EduWeb to NSW DET, I contacted several schools to ask if they would provide some details of how EduWeb has made a difference to their school. I was totally staggered by the response and had no idea what schools were actually doing with this little intranet system. With the permission of some of the kind teachers who wrote back, I have added their comments to the top of the Feedback page which is linked at the left. I strongly urge you to have a read to see for yourself the kinds of things EduWeb 2004 is being used for in a variety of schools across NSW. I hope to be able to visit some of these schools soon to see for myself how it's all going and to try and find out where and how things can be made better. Hopefully, a whole swag of ideas will come out of these visits.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 15/08/04

I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but having the Olympics live after midnight is a great excuse for sitting on the couch and doing some programming. The Women's 4x100m Freestyle Relay was amazing! This weekend's job was to update last weekend's project. EduWeb TaskForce v2 is now available. New Features: 1. Two clicks to produce Excel reports for - ALL Tasks, Complete Tasks only and Incomplete Tasks only. Do what you like with them in Excel. Good way to report back to the Prinicpal to say 'look what I've been doing' 2. Three clicks to automatically eMail a task/request off to an external Help Desk or external support provider. A new eMail Preferences screen stores all the necessary eMail settings so it just uses those to create and send each eMail. 3. Updated documentation to reflect the changes and new features. You can get EduWeb TaskForce v2 from the Downloads page at the left - and no, it doesn't require EduWeb to run but then again, why wouldn't you be running it??

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 08/08/04

Steve Wilkins at Auburn GHS had a great idea for EduWeb. He suggested modifying the EduWeb News Module to make it a Task Request system for use by Computer Coordinators. It was such a good idea, I decided to make it right away. 9 hours later, it's finished - with documentation. EduWeb TaskForce is a new module designed to fit in the Staff Pages section of EduWeb and offers a simple, unique way of logging task requests for specific school support staff such as the school CC and the General Assistant for example. With TaskForce, any staff member can log a request using the in-built database entry tool (Windows) and auto-generate the EduWeb TaskForce webpage that contains details of all outstanding (incomplete) requests logged (Mac/Windows). It then provides the support person with a shortlist of tasks to complete, as well as a tool to manage all requests (Windows) including marking requests as complete and regenerating the EduWeb TaskForce webpage. Get it at the Downloads page!

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 24/07/04

I've added a new document to the EduWeb website following a suggestion I received a couple of days ago. Several schools are wanting to setup EduWeb with individual logon accounts for students using the Logon Wizards I put together. The problem is, EduWeb and the Wizards are separate products that do separate things - BUT, they do work together. So I put together a new two page guide as a starting point to explain the process of setting up EduWeb on a server with Individual Student Logon Accounts (aimed at Windows 200x Servers and Novell Netware servers) with the view that schools will then do it the right way, rather than their own way. You can get the guide from the Downloads link at the left or by clicking this link: http://stuhasic.com/eduweb/EWInstallGuide.pdf

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 21/07/04

Welcome back to Term 3! The other day I setup EduWeb in a couple of St George schools that had a Windows 2000 server, some Windows XP PCs and many Apple Macs, mostly OS9 with some OSX. I was pleasantly surprised at how well this setup actually worked. The trick is to make sure that both the Windows PCs and the Macs access the EduWeb folder on the Windows server using UNC paths - e.g. \\servername\intranet\eduweb\index.htm. By doing this, both types of workstations were able to browse and edit the EduWeb structure, including having students working on linked Word docs and PowerPoint slideshows on either platform. The PCs were used exclusively for the Topics Utility (distributing templates to students for use on either platform), submitting and publishing News articles and creating the Photo Galleries and Calendars. There are limitations on what you can do editing-wise on the Macs, but for general access, they were fine.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 05/07/04

OK, you're probably confused by the subject line above and I'm probably just indulging myself over the holidays. My weekend job was to totally revamp the Great Enigma Challenge website and move it to its new home at stuhasic.com. The Great Enigma Challenge is a book I wrote over a couple of years back in 1992. It was never published. In 1998, I decided to publish it as a website, hosted at Tripod.com (a free service). I finally got sick of all the ads at the site, so it now has a new home and a new look. If you like solving entertaining brainteasers and exercising your grey matter, then this may be the site for you - http://stuhasic.com/enigma - over the last six years, I have received solutions from virtually every country in the world. Visitors from the US are probably the most common. It's just one of the other things I do in my spare time...

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 04/07/04

Hope you're having a nice mid-year break. If you're an Apple Mac (OSX) school and are using or wanting to use EduWeb, I can strongly recommend you use Mozilla (version 1.7) instead of Netscape Communicator. Both use exactly the same browser and editor engine, except Mozilla is supplied without all the extra advertising. Mozilla is actually quite a nice browser which supports tabbed browsing and pop-up ad blocking. You can download Mozilla v1.7 from http://www.mozilla.org - If you're a school still using OS9 and earlier, you should really consider making the switch to OSX. It is a much better platform. I also look forward to seeing what Mozilla's new Firefox browser will be like when it's complete. Details also at the website.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 29/06/04

In my last message, I talked about a presentation I did at the National Integrating Classroom Technology conference last week. If you'd like to read what I presented (minus the actual student work demonstrations), download and take a look at the PDF version of the paper submitted. http://stuhasic.com/eduweb/EWConfPres.pdf - Your comments appreciated.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 22/06/04

I was invited to present EduWeb to the 9th National Integrating Classroom Technology Across the Curriculum Conference which was held 21-22 July in Sydney. With over 90 leaders of school technology present from all states of Australia as well as New Zealand, I had the opportunity to talk about EduWeb and show how it is being used in hundreds of schools in NSW. The session appeared to go down very well with a variety of drop-jaw expressions being witnessed around the room. The title of the session was "Project-Based Multimedia Learning using Student-Centred Intranets" and covered a lot more than just EduWeb. I have no idea what will come of it, if anything...

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 10/06/04

One of the more important files in your EduWeb structure is EWshrtct.dat. It's in the EduWeb folder. It's so important that there's a backup of the original file stored in the eduweb\2004 folder. But what is it and why is it so important? This file contains a list of all student names, the name of the folder their eduweb pages are in and the year and class folder names. Essentially, this file tells various EduWeb tools where to find specific student folders. Without it, tools like EWshrtct.exe, (the "EYE") would not work and students would not get their "My Work" shortcut on the Desktop. The EWaddstudent.exe, EW Topics Utility and the EW Photo Studio would not work. I guess you get the picture. So, what should you be doing? Everytime you add a new student to EduWeb using the EWaddstudent tool, you should make a fresh backup of the EWshrtct.dat file. I don't care where you back it up to, just back it up!

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 27/05/04

I have just added a demo EduWeb school intranet site to the main EduWeb website, so people can take a look at what gets produced when you install it for your school. You can see it here: http://stuhasic.com/eduweb/eduwebdemo - I didn't put a whole school site up, just a couple of classes with a few student pages active, plus all the school intranet stuff. Eventually, I'll add some sample student work to the student pages to give visitors more of an idea of the sort of stuff you can use it for. Also the various applets have been disabled because they are designed to work on a local intranet and not across the Internet. Take a look!

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 22/05/04

As promised a couple of News items ago, the EduWeb WebCam has been released and is now available. You can get it from here: http://stuhasic.com/eduweb/ewwebcamsetup.exe - or on the Downloads page at the left. Full PDF instructions included in the download. You'll need a USB Camera (webcam) installed on the PC you want to serve images from. Don't bother if you don't have one. But then again, maybe you should get one! They're only $70 or so... If you do have a camera setup, you'll have your WebCam website up and accessible in less than 3 minutes. Comments most welcome.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 20/05/04

My new website providers give me some really good statistics and breakdowns of visitors. Since February when I launched http://stuhasic.com - there has been over 5.5GB (yes, gigabytes) worth of downloads from the site, 80% of it from the EduWeb website. The average per day has been almost 60MB, including weekends. There have been over 8,000 separate visits with over 33,000 page views, an average of 340 page views each day. Visitors are overwhelmingly from Australia, but the US, Singapore, Canada the UK and New Zealand combine to about 15% of all traffic. By size, the most downloaded items are PDF documents - instructions! Since February, the main EduWeb installation program has been downloaded no less than 704 times. That's more than the whole of last year in just four months. I'm really impressed how people seem to be supporting themselves when it comes to EduWeb, because with that sort of traffic, I would expect to be inundated with requests for help. Thankfully, I'm not!

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 15/05/04

Last year I bought a Web Camera and wrote that EduWeb Photo Studio tool. Anyone ever used it? Anyway, I decided to play and see what else I could do. I've written a new *easy* program which turns your Windows PC with WebCamera into a LIVE WebCam (stills) which can be run across your school, or across the whole of NSW DET. If you have broadband at home, you can use it with a camera to have your own personal WebCam site so the whole world can watch what you do! Why? In a school situation, you might use it in the PC Lab. From any PC/Mac in the school on the network, you can "watch" the Lab through a browser. You can even have multiple cameras around the school and watch them all from one PC - all accessible from your EduWeb school intranet. If you're a NSW public school, you can watch from any DET school or office. For example, one school can set it up in a classroom and tell other schools about it. They can all take a look at what's happening in your classroom! Coming very soon...

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 06/05/04

Following a successful day's training on 27/4 at Gwandalan PS, I have decided to work on the structure for an all-day hands-on EduWeb Administrator's Training Course. It would cover all aspects of administering EduWeb in a school, installing through configuring to using and managing. Participants would learn how to create EduWeb templates and distribute them, how to add new students and how to setup and use the EduWeb Photo Studio. Best practice for using the Calendars, News and Photo Galleries would also be covered as well as a serious look from the student's point of view and how to best apply EduWeb in the classroom. I haven't worked out exactly where and how it would all come together and I'll probably need DET assistance for that, but ideally it would be in a school computer lab where participants would come from surrounding schools. There would have to be a small charge to cover room hire, lunch and handouts, payable to the school. More as I think of it...

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 25/04/04

A Step-by-Step guide titled "How to Create and Distribute EduWeb Templates" has been completed (previously, only the first part of this guide was available). It is now available for download and includes everything you need to know to create and distribute EduWeb templates for use with student pages at your school. This 24 page document (1.18MB) is very simple to follow and provides an excellent starting point for teachers who would like to create (and hopefully share) their own EduWeb templates! You can get this document by clicking on the appropriate link on the EduWeb Downloads page or by clicking this link: http://stuhasic.com/eduweb/ewtemplates.pdf - it's 1.18MB in size and requires Adobe Acrobat Reader. Any comments you may have about the guide are most welcome.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 22/04/04

EduWeb 2004 by default contains 6 Photo Galleries. There is a new download that will allow you to increase the number of galleries from 6 to 9! - The EduWeb 9 Galleries Option is simple to install into your existing EduWeb structure and includes a new version of the Photo Galleries Utility to allow for the easy transfer of photos into all 9 galleries. If you've filled up all your EduWeb Photo Galleries and you want more, this download is just what you need! Furthermore, you will not lose any of your existing galleries - neither the photos, nor the descriptive text. Many thanks to Linda Babic for this suggestion/request.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 09/04/04

After just one Term since the release of EduWeb 2004, there's already been lots of great feedback, covering all different aspects of the new release. It's great to see people are already using the News, Links, Photo Galleries, SRC section and Calendars. It's also great to hear that students are doing wonderful things in terms of publishing their work. If you haven't gone through the EduWeb Feedback page recently, it's well worth a look. The reason EduWeb is spreading so widely is because of word of mouth. Apart from this website, there is virtually no real promotion of EduWeb by me because I already have a full time job in the Sydney Region and I can only update this site in my own time from home. But if you want to share your thoughts about EduWeb and what you're doing with it and how it's making a difference, I'm happy to put them on the EduWeb Feedback page. Enjoy.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 07/04/04

Only a day to go and there goes term 1. I have been getting so many e-mails from schools from all over the place. Some who are trying out EduWeb for the first time, some who are running it now for the 3rd year! You might be interested to know that up until today, the main EduWeb program has been downloaded 613 times. Now at best, that means 613 schools, but even if it's half that, 300 schools in one term is pretty good. In all of 2003, the program was only downloaded 680 times. In the world of letting people know about EduWeb, next term will be busy. I'm presenting all day at the SDD at Gwandalan PS where the Principal has arranged sessions and invited surrounding schools to attend. Then I have a session at the National Classroom Technology 2004 Conference in Sydney, a Computer Studies Teachers Association meeting, a couple of other sessions in St George and the ASLA conference later this year. Have a great break!

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 30/03/04

The Downloads page has been redesigned to make it easier to find stuff. It has now been broken into categories of Software, Instructions, Promotional Stuff and 3rd Party Stuff. Take a look to see what I mean. As well as this, two Mini-Posters in PDF format have been added for download to assist your students with the process of Submitting News Items in EduWeb 2004. These instructions were produced and kindly provided for download by Justine Abell from Irrawang Public School in the Maitland area. Many thanks Justine! She has also provided some great feedback on how EduWeb is being used at her school for the EduWeb Feedback page (linked at the left). If anyone else feels like producing some "How Tos" that they'd like to share or has some feedback, I'd love to add them to this site.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 28/03/04

With thanks to Joy Wilkinson for pointing out the problem, the EduWeb Add New Students Utility (ewaddstudent.exe) has been updated and is now available for download from the Downloads page. The version prior to 28 March 2004 did not transfer the Student Writing Portfolio to any new student EduWeb folder structure created using the utility. The new release, called the 2004 version looks exactly the same as the previous one, except it will now transfer the Writing Portfolio as well. If you have not yet installed EduWeb, the 2004 version of this utility is included as part of the main EduWeb 2004 download. For those schools who already have EduWeb 2004 installed, you should download the new version of this utility, replacing the copy in your EduWeb folder on your server.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 24/03/04

Here is a link that may want to hold pride of place linked on your EduWeb "Educational Site of the Week" link - http://www.kidsbookshelf.com - What we want to promote here is students using the technology interactively - not just to find and absorb information, but to create information - the same concept as EduWeb. If your students have written a poem, reviewed a book or are otherwise creative, send them to this site! How proud will they be when their book review or poem is on the web for the whole world to see? Now, for the teacher's professional development. If you are looking at introducing or continuing to work with EduWeb in your school, I consider you an "Education Technology Leader". There is some excellent reading at this site which may help to develop you further into a real change-agent at your school. Take a look! http://www.techlearning.com - Very impressive.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 21/03/04

As mentioned before, a Step-by-Step guide titled "How to Create and Distribute EduWeb Templates" is currently under production. I know I said it would take a couple of weeks yesterday, but I've finished Part One of this document and made it available for download using the Downloads button at the left. It includes everything you need to know to create and distribute a basic EduWeb template for use with student pages at your school. The document is very simple to follow and provides an excellent starting point for teachers who would like to create (and hopefully share) their own EduWeb templates! More sections of the guide will be added soon detailing the more complex things you can do with templates as well as further uses of the EduWeb Topics Utility. You can also download/print the guide by clicking this link: http://stuhasic.com/eduweb/ewtemplates.pdf - Enjoy! Any comments you may have about the guide are most appreciated.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 20/03/04

The latest release of the EduWeb Topics Utility was completed today. With this version, it is possible to transfer not only single files to each student's folder, but also transfer entire folders in one go. You can also define a custom group of students to distribute files to other than just by Year or Class. This is especially useful for High Schools who can use it to create different class groups for different subjects. You can even transfer files to ALL students at your school as a custom group. The EduWeb Topics Utility v2 is now available for download on the Downloads page using the link at the left. Soon you'll also be able to download a detailed Step-by-Step guide for how to Create and Distribute EduWeb Templates at your school. I hope to have this complete within two weeks. I look forward to any comments you may have about the new EduWeb Topics Utility!

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 24/02/04

I've just started work on version 2 of the Topics Utility program. Several people have given me suggestions for what to include, but while I'm at it, if you have any more suggestions, that would be great. Here is a screen shot of what I've put together so far: http://stuhasic.com/eduweb/ewtopics2.jpg - Here are the two main new features: 1. The ability to copy a single file OR a whole folder of files (and subfolders if you wish) into each student's EduWeb folder and; 2. You can still select to copy into a Scholastic Year (Grade), or into a class that EduWeb knows about; but as well as that, you can also now select a custom group of students to copy the selected file or folder into. Custom groups include EVERYONE in one go, or any group of students you can easily make in Excel. The nice thing is you can save and re-use groups. Should be ready in a couple of weeks and available from the Downloads page for free.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 20/02/04

Many schools are starting to look at and use the EduWeb Photo Galleries. Before you start, consider these simple rules: 1. Don't turn the camera to take a "portrait" (tall) shot, always hold the camera in landscape to take wide shots. 2. If you're taking photos for the gallery, set the camera to a lower resolution. 640 x 480 is fine. You don't need 5 MegaPixel shots to display on a computer monitor, they'll just be huge and slow everything down. 3. Think about using some of the effects on the camera. If you're taking pictures of a play that's set in the past, try setting the Sepia effect. What about Black and White photography? Might be good for the Staff Gallery - hides the wrinkles! 4. Get the students to be really discerning about their shots. Remember, each gallery will only show 10 photos, so make 'em good. 5. Update the galleries regularly. Keep the site interesting!

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 19/02/04

Most High Schools use Vertical Roll Classes, where there's a few students from each grade in each Roll Class. The problem with this is that in many cases, you end up with dozens of small classes in each grade. That's no good for EduWeb. What these schools need is a utility to automatically edit the School.txt file exported from OASIS to change each student's roll class to a new one based on their surname grouping. The EWRejigger.exe utility will do exactly that for you. Put the EduWeb diskette with the School.txt file in the floppy drive, download this utility to the Desktop and run it. A few seconds later, you're ready to make your EduWeb. Your students will be placed in classes called A-D, E-I, J-N, O-S and T-Z. That way, it's easy to find a student's web page, based on their surname. It also means there's NO MANUAL manipulation of the School.txt file required. For big high schools, that's a huge bonus. Get the EWRejigger.exe program from the Downloads page at the left.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 13/02/04

Today, a delegation from a public education authority in Wales, UK came to Sydney to take a look at all this fuss going on about EduWeb. I joined the delegation on a visit to Bellevue Hill Public School in Sydney's east. Suffice to say, they were impressed (read: floored). This school has now started to use EduWeb for the third year and have literally gigabytes of students work in their Student-Centred Intranet. They have so much evidence of the real difference that publishing student work onto an intranet is making. The work and presentation can be described in one word: staggering. The digital portfolio work being done in this school is truly innovative, as are the management structures they have put in place to keep it going. In just two short years, this school has become a showcase for EduWeb, whose work will now be appreciated from the other side of the world. Congratulations to the students and staff of Bellevue Hill Public School.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 12/02/04

If you get this error when you try to submit a News Item, it means the workstation has not had the EduWeb Libraries installed and registered. This is a very simple process. Just go to the Downloads page (at left) and find the download called EWLIBFIX.EXE and download it. Save it in the EduWeb folder. Then any PC that has this error message can simply run that program from the EduWeb folder to fix it. There's also an EWLIBFIXQ.EXE file that you can download. It does exactly the same thing, but requires no input from the user, it's totally silent. Perfect for running from a logon script. Now get cracking with your News Page!

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 12/02/04

Anyone started using the News and Photo Galleries in EduWeb 2004? Here's one thing that might help you get started: If you read through all of the 39-page EduWeb 2004 doco, you'll see that I think this stuff might be able to make a difference, but it needs teachers to push it along, and it needs students to contribute. One way students can contribute is by being News Reporters and Photo-Journalists for the new School Intranet! How do you get students to do this stuff? Make REAL jobs for them. I've just posted to the EduWeb site a PDF file which is a "Positions Vacant" ad for the two jobs. Take a look: http://stuhasic.com/eduweb/positionsvacant.pdf - Click it, print it and post it around your school. Get as many enthusiastic students as you can to take on the jobs and get these useful parts of your intranet firing right away. On the Downloads page, (about 4th from the top) is a link to the same file, but it also offers a link to an MS-Word format of the same file.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 10/02/04

For schools that had a 2003 EduWeb and would like to keep it, you may find there's no link by default to it. The new 2004 front page of EduWeb has a "Student Pages" button, but it points to the Year pages for 2004 only. Here's what you can do: Open the eduweb\2004 folder. Copy the file index.htm to a file called studindex.htm. Now move that file to the eduweb folder (one level up). Edit the file and remove the Year links from it. Insert two buttons from the eduweb\ewimages folder - the buttons you need are but-2003.jpg and but-2004.jpg. Link each button to the index.htm file in the appropriate folder 2003 or 2004. Then edit the index.htm in the eduweb folder and edit the hyperlinks for Student pages (both the button and the student picture). Have them point to studindex.htm. Hey presto! You can pretty up that studindex.htm page as much as you like.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 07/02/04

It appears larger numbers of schools are taking on EduWeb this year, many for the first time. I thought rather than flood this listserv and the TL one with queries and discussions about EduWeb, it would be worth creating a mailing list specifically for it. The EduWeb mailing list is aimed at any teachers wanting to use EduWeb with their students, it's not just for techos and installers. The idea is to share resources, ideas and experiences to make this change process easier across the state. If you are running EduWeb at your school this year, could you please pass this message onto your involved teachers? Details and instructions for joining the EduWeb Mailing list are at this site. Just click on the Home button at the left and in the *NEW* box at the right is the link to join the mailing list. Everything you need to know is on that page. I'm hoping the numbers will grow quickly and we can get some useful discussion going. See you on the EduWeb list!

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 07/02/04

It finally had to happen. With the restructure of DET and the dissolving of Districts, I have been informed that district websites will be eventually removed, replaced by regional websites. All of the important resources on each district website will be retained and managed centrally. For a few years now, the St George District website has hosted all those little programs and utilities I wrote in my spare time and gave away to schools. Because I was managing the St George District website, and because districts had an identity in the past, it made sense to make those programs and resources available through that website. In the new structure, I'm a regional technology adviser, no longer working by myself in a district context. It is now not appropriate for DET to centrally host all my stuff and for this reason, I have moved it all to my own private domain. The home page is http://stuhasic.com - Take a look! I hope you like it.

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 11/01/04

After some four months of after-hours development, most of it sitting in front of the TV, the long-awaited final release of EduWeb 2004 has happened! Not only is the base software for creating a student-centred AND school intranet finished, but so is an extensive amount of documentation and support materials. One major new feature is the EduWebFTP module. With this utility, schools can EASILY upload the EduWeb School News and School Calendar pages to their Internet site - removing the need for double website editing (this News page is uploaded using that tool!). This is nice. Please take the time to read through the 39-page EduWeb documentation. It's designed to be read by novices and will hopefully give you some great ideas of how you can use the various parts of EduWeb 2004 in your school. Get Stu's EduWeb 2004 from the Downloads page (link at left).

Submitted by: Stu Hasic on 17/12/03

Today, the BETA release of Stu's EduWeb 2004 was made available for schools to test over the school holidays. There were several very successful launches of Stu's EduWeb 2004 in venues across Sydney and in some regional areas, including Port Macquarie, Maitland, Lake Macquarie, Ryde, Hornsby and the main show at Oatley. All up, over 500 teachers were provided a sneak preview of what's in EduWeb 2004, before this BETA release. Several schools have volunteered to test the BETA prior to its final release in January 2004. Stay tuned!