Net Neutrality Rollback Concerns Colleges By Lindsay McKenzie, Inside Higher Ed

How to use Voice Over on the iPad to read books off Bookshare.org's Web Reader.

So I guess I am a little slow on the draw.  We create accounts on Bookshare.org for our students who need help with reading materials.  On March 2, 2017 I posted an article that told how to use Bookshare.org's web reader.  At that time it seemed as though you could only use the fully functioning web reader using a browser on a computer, but not on an iPad.  On the computer, the web reader gave you a "play" option, on the iPad this function was not available because the browsers would not support it.  

With this in mind, we would purchase and download the Voice Dream Reader App ($15) from the App store...then we became an 1:1 school and we started having more students that needed the Bookshare.org materials read to them on the iPad. I am sure we could purchase a license for Voice Dream Reader and push it out through our JAMF iPad management software but we do not have an exact number of students that need it and that number seems to increase every couple of weeks.  

Finally I decided to sit down and investigate if there was any way to use the iPad without downloading the Voice Dream App.  Here's is what I discovered.

I found that you have to use the Safari Browser...it will not work with Google Chrome...I guess Apple and Google do not play nice/

Let me just warn you that there are 2 ways to do this and here is my take...

• I would login to Bookshare.org, find and open the book and THEN turn VoiceOver on the iPad. 
• If you turn VoiceOver first and THEN login to Bookshare.org, just remember that you have to click once to select something (be it a link or even to type a letter) THEN double click it to enter. FYI-I did it this way first and it worked but my patience was severely tested.

1. Go to https://www.bookshare.org/ look to the top right and click “Login”.  Use the same username and passwords as they do in class.
2. Look in the middle of the screen under your name and click on #1 – view your assigned books (reading list)
3. Click on on your teacher's reading list (i.e. - Ms. Schaefer’s reading list)
4. Find book in that list…go all the way to the right of the book you want and click READ NOW

Commands to move forward and back pages are at the top of the screen (a left triangle to move back  page, a right triangle 

Now set up Voice Over on the iPad.

1. Go into settings
2. General
1. Accessibility
2. Voice Over
3. You may want to click on VoiceOver Practice first because once you turn VoiceOver on, the commands for the iPad change.
1. You tap once to select and item
2. Double-tap to activate the selected item
3. Swipe three fingers to scroll. (it is a little confusing at first but you'll get the hang of it.)
4. Turn VoiceOver by moving the toggle button to the right...it will turn green. 
5. Press the Home button once...the big button on the front of the iPad
6. Click the Safari icon once to select it a black box should now surround the icon.
7. Click the Safari icon twice to open it and get back to Bookshare.org.
8. Use the triangles to find the page you want, REMEMBER you have to click once to select and TWICE to move a page.  The icon to the left of the triangles (looks like a box with 3 lines with buttons at the end of them) allows you to open a Table of Contents. 
9. Click once to choose the selection you want to be read to you...a black box will surround the text and the iPad should start reading it.

The silent presenter in a join.me meeting.

I am doing a test run with a presenter for a PD day and we are using join.me meeting web browser interface for it.  She can hear me but I can not hear her, be it on our: Macbook or Windows 10 laptop (hardwired or connected via Apple TV).  When I run a test for an audio signal using the join.me interface I do hear the "air raid horn" sound effect on all devices but I still can not hear the presenter.  I can hear the presenter on the MacBook alone but when connected to the TV or Apple TV I lose her audio. Then it hits me, maybe it is the browser??  I was using Google Chrome, so I decide to try IE  and in the process it advises me to install the join.me client.  I enter the meeting code et voila, I can hear her.  Who knew?!?  It is the simple things in life that make me happy.

What happens when your Macbook says it can not connect to your Apple TV.

You have the best plans for this next class, you are going to have them use Kahoot to go over the latest English terms...uno problemo...your MacBook keeps telling you that it can not connect to your Apple TV.  You have checked your connections, you are on the same network and all that fun stuff still nothing.  You call IT.  They can connect with their iPhone and your iPad, so what gives???  It seems as though your Apple TV has updated itself to its latest software rendering unrecognizable by the MacBook because it is running an older iOS.  We updated the MacBook to Sierra, NOT High Sierra, and everything started working again.  If you have downloaded Sierra before, and do not want to update to High Sierra just yet, log-in to the App Store, click the "Purchased" tab and scroll down to find Sierra, download and install. Depending where you are it could take a while, but after the install your MacBook and Apple TV play nice again.

Net Neutrality II: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO). Here we go again folks!! “Once more unto the breach my friends!"

How Google Chromebooks conquered schools, originally published on Fox Business from the Associated Press.

Good read on how the Ipad v. Chromebook battle is faring in k-12 education.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2017/02/10/how-google-chromebooks-conquered-schools.html

How to use Bookshare's web reader on a computer using a browser not an iPad.

• Go to https://www.bookshare.org/cms/ look to the top right and click “Login” and use the same username and passwords as they do in class.
• Look in the middle of the screen under your name and click on #1 – view your assigned books (reading list)
• Click on on your teacher's reading list (i.e. - Ms. Schaefer’s reading list)
• Find book in that list…go all the way to the right of the book you want and click READ NOW
• When it opens you can click where you want to start it to read and then click the SPEAKER icon in the top right.  You can use the forward and backward arrow buttons to move through the pages.

What to do when you can not search your email folders in OWA (Outlook Web App - online Outllook web mail access)

Are you sensing a theme with the last couple of post??  Outlook/Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 has taken over my life.  The other day my school lost power and our Exchange Server power down and we had to restart it, a couple of day later we noticed that we could not search in Outlook mail folders using the OWA (online web tool).  We kept seeing the message “The action couldn’t be completed. Please try again.” 

After much research, some instructing  to run prepareAD and prepareSchema from the Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 2 setup.exe...which I was putting off until the last possible moment. I tried restarting the Microsoft Exchange Server Indexer and Microsoft Search (Exchange) service with no luck at all, then I found came across this nugget of information.

Restart the following services in this order:
1. Microsoft Exchange Search Indexer
2. Microsoft Search (Exchange)

3. Microsoft Exchange Information Store

All I can say...worked like a charm!!  Now we can search our mailboxes to our heart's content!

Many thanks to Clint Boessen of Perth, Australia! 

Managing a Multi-Mailbox Search in Exchange Server 2010.

First and foremost, I have have to acknowledge (and thank!!) Anderson Patricio of MSExchange.org for the information that he provide that help me deal with a very difficult situation.

I have just started working with our Exchange server and GSuite Administrator functions. Administration came to me and asked if I could search all of our Exchange mailboxes for a certain search term (name) in which they have been asked to provide documentation about.  I had an idea that it could be done but I had no idea how or where to start.  Patricio's article on Managing a Multi-Mailbox Search in Exchange Server 2010 explains it all.  Be warned though...it has seven sections to it.  There were some instances where I was caught mumbling "What?!?" but I was able pull it off.  

After successfully performing a Multi-Mailbox Search in Exchange and being able to view the results, the next question I was asked was "how can I save it in a file format?"  When I first did the search I forwarded the results (emails) but the organization I was working with said that by forwarding them it misidentified the original senders/receivers.   

Being in the OWA (Outlook Wed App), there was no menu to "File, Save As", so I had to use an installed version of Outlook (on a PC not a Mac).  I setup the account that had the rights to the search results in Outlook, launched it and voila...NOTHING!! I saw my mailboxes but not of the folders that contained my search results.  I googled "how to view my Discovery Search Mailboxes" and found this: "Use Outlook to Open a Discovery Mailbox".  

I used the following instructions and voila, I saw everything, now I could export them as a file and was exactly what I looking for.

Open the discovery mailbox from your Outlook profile

To display the contents of the discovery mailbox in the folders list in the Navigation pane when you're connected to your cloud-based mailbox with Outlook:

1. In Control Panel, click Mail, and then in the Mail Setup - Outlook window, click E-mail Accounts.
   Not seeing Mail? Mail appears in different Control Panel locations depending on the version of the Windows operating system, the view of Control Panel selected, and whether a 32- or 64-bit operating system or version of Outlook 2010 is installed. The easiest way to locate Mail is to open Control Panel, and then in the Search box at the top of window, type Mail. In Control Panel for Windows XP, type Mail in the Address box.
2. On the Account Settings page, on the E-mail tab, select your account, and then click Change.
3. On the Server Settings page, click More Settings.
4. On the Microsoft Exchange page, click the Advanced tab, and then click Add.
5. On the Add Mailbox page, type Discovery Search Mailbox and then click OK.
6. Click Apply, and then click OK.
7. On the Server Settings page, click Next, and then click Finish.
8. On the Account Settings page, click Close, and then close the Mail Setup - Outlook window.
9. Start Outlook and in the Navigation pane, click Discovery Search Mailbox.

In a nutshell you have to give an account Admin rights in Discovery Management to perform the query, once done Exchange sends the results (the emails) to a designated mailbox.  I could try to explain it better, but I'm sure I would only make things worse.

So for those needing a global search of your Outlook mailboxes, Mr. Patricio has obliged us. It may not rocket science, but I think it is a close second. 

How to download Rediker's ParentPlus App to use on your iPad.

I know what you are saying...how tough can it be to download an App from the App Store? Well let me tell you...it depends what device (iPhone or iPad) you are on while attempting to download.  If you are on a iPhone in the App Store, it will find it to download.  If you are on an iPad, it will not appear.  Below are the instructions on how to download it to your iPad.

The return of the MOOC: Established education providers v new contenders | The Economist

How to use the Voice Dream app on the iPad to access materials from Bookshare.org

Disclaimer...Voice Dream is not a free app.

BEFORE you can download the materials to the iPad you must have your Bookshare.org administrator download any materials to that student's Bookshare account either individualy or to a reading list.

Click here for the directions.