Trending November 2023 # Making The Grade: Meeting Owl Is An Essential Tool For Virtual Learning # Suggested December 2023 # Top 17 Popular

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Building an IT system entirely on campus is one challenge, as is making one for completely remote is another challenging process. Trying to come up with solutions for when some kids are off-campus, and others are on is a daunting challenge, though. As we headed into summer, we knew that some of our kids would not return for the start of school regardless of what was going on in the world, so we wanted to be ready.

We knew that we’d be using Zoom for the communications technology as we’d used it before, and we’d been quite happy. Zoom has had a wild 2023, but it’s the most accessible video conferencing software on the market. Our teachers were already familiar with how to use it, and our students already had it installed on their devices at home. Students receive an email each morning with meeting links for their scheduled classes. It takes a bit of work on the teacher’s end to set these meetings up, but it’s worked well for the most part.

We then set up Google Classroom to help facilitate the assigning of work and handle the turning in of work. We use FACTS SIS, and they have a built-in sync for Google Classroom that allows us to connect student accounts in Google Classroom back to their profile in FACTS. With this integration, the grades sync from Google Classroom back to FACTS SIS.

Meeting Owl

Our next decision was how to improve the camera and audio quality in the classroom. I am certainly not an audiovisual expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I know enough to know that the built-in camera on the 2023 MacBook Air wasn’t going to provide an excellent experience for the students. Why Apple still includes such a low-quality camera in brand new laptops, I’ll never know, but I hope that changes with the transition to Apple Silicon. We decided to invest in Meeting Owl Cameras. Each teacher that has virtual students has one in their classroom hooked up to their Mac. The camera is also connected directly to Wi-Fi to download new software upgrades and be controlled from an iOS device. The camera shows a 360-degree view, has a high definition camera, and eight microphones that will pick up from 12 feet away. We were using them during our back to school meetings, and we had a few teachers who watched from home, and they even joked they could hear conversations they usually wouldn’t have been able to hear from other tables.

Setting up the cameras is pretty straight forward. Once it’s connected to Wi-Fi, you plug up to your computer over USB. In Zoom, the Meeting Owl then becomes your camera, speakers, and microphone. We quickly ran into issues where it wouldn’t connect to the Mac. It wasn’t just one of them, but all of them. After researching the problem online, I found that Meeting Owl doesn’t work well with most USB C adaptors. The Owl comes with a Micro USB to USB A cable, and we were using an adaptor to connect them to our Macs. Meeting Owl works best when using Apple’s adaptor or a direct cable. I opted for the direct cables because it would be one less adaptor to have to keep up with for teachers. Since we swapped those cables, it’s been flawless.

Wrap up on hybrid learning solutions

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Making The Grade: Juice Mobile Power Solves Classroom Charging Woes

Being in school IT, I get a lot of sales calls. It especially heats up in the spring when schools are making all the buying decisions for the following year. Most of them are sent straight to my voicemail, so it’s hard to wade through the junk from the great. A few weeks ago, I got an email from the folks at Bretford wanting to talk to me about Juice Mobile Power. I was immediately intrigued when I saw the first paragraph on the website:

When the average schools were built 40-some years ago, contractors never imagined that each student would need access to power to keep their textbooks charged. As most educators know, the average classroom has 2–3 outlets, and they are almost always in the most inconvenient locations.

Our school building is 65 years old, so we certainly have this problem. It’s often not even just the lack of outlets that is the problem. It’s the cost of adding new ones. We have a lot of concrete walls, so running new wiring is a serious challenge for our facilities department.

So what is Juice Power? Let me show you.

[vimeo 239791690 w=640 h=360]

The folks at Bretford sent me a unit to demo, and I was immediately impressed with what it could do. Juice Mobile Power is a simple way to roll out power to the classroom, securely and safely charging up to 20 mobile devices from one outlet. Could you do this with a host of surge protectors and extension cords in the past? Sure, but it was a fire and tripping hazard.

Modern mobile devices have great battery life, but sometimes students might have forgotten to charge the night before or have been rendering files from a movie editor. Batteries can last all day, but it’s not guaranteed. When you’re building your lesson plans around digital content, students have to have the option to charge mid-class.

With built-in FLI Charge safety technology, Juice Mobile Power detects foreign objects and powers down to ensure safety. When the object is removed, it instantly powers up, making it safe for everyday use. Juice’s connection points are magnetic, so they easily break away if someone trips on it.

One of the things I love most about Juice Mobile Power is that it’s easy to roll out and move around. Let’s say that you only have the budget for a couple of them. You can keep them in storage and roll them out when needed. If you have a class that is going to spend time coding or doing movie editing, you can quickly roll it out in the classroom. I was able to set up the demo unit in just a few minutes, and now that I’ve done it once, I could quickly do it again in no time.

Overall, I’m impressed by Juice Mobile Power. If you are needing to expand power capabilities for mobile devices in your classroom, deploying it will likely be a lot less costly than having your facilities crew add power outlets. It will bring the charging capabilities right to the desk in an easy to deploy way. It starts at $1328, and they have options for Lightning, USB-C, Micro-USB, Acer, Dell, HP and Lenovo cords. They even include the device cords with the kits. One neat feature: the cords are locked into place with the initial setup so they can’t “disappear.”

Check out Juice Mobile Power on the Bretford website.

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Why Programming Is Essential For Data Science

Introduction

I graduated with a degree in Bachelor’s of Commerce from Delhi University and decided to pursue Data Science as a career. During the first 3 months of my learning journey where I was taught basic programming, I quickly jumped from there without paying any heed to practice. Call it my ignorance or the excitement to learn algorithms and build models, I regret that decision to this data.

The time I could have saved in long run by simply being good at basic programming could have been unfathomable.

And Yes! You heard it absolutely right. You do not need to have hardcore programming skills to be a data scientist. Being really good at the basic skills will help you in ways that might have skipped your thought.

So in this article, we are going to explore in detail the role programming plays in data science. If you are from a non-programming background transitioning to data science, search no more.

Table of Contents

Real-Life Scenarios

Kaggle competition code interpretation

Data Science Learning Journey

What aspect of Programming should you be Good at for Data Science?

Role of Programming in Data Science Life Cycle

Programming Languages for Data Science

Real-Life Scenarios

Let us go through a couple of real-life scenarios that data scientists go through, where good programming skills could have saved you a lot of your time.

Scene 1 – Kaggle Competitions

Suppose you are participating in a Kaggle Competition with a very large dataset and 30 days’ time to complete. Here your programming skills will not only determine whether you complete and submit your model, but the quality of your work will also be dependent on how good you are at your programming skills.

Often, you need to learn, understand and implement some new code that is complex but efficient in cleaning such vast data. Now if you do not have the capability to understand the code syntax, you will either miss out on the deadline or you will only be able to do basic cleaning and create a below-par model which will not fetch you any medals.

Practicing is key when it comes to excelling in programming skills.

Scene 2 – Data Science Learning Journey

Now, if your programming skills are not good by this stage, there is a very high chance that you will not understand what each step meant and will definitely hinder your journey.

What aspect of Programming should you be Good at for Data Science?

As I said before, a person from a non-programming background transitioning to data science should be good at the basic tasks of programming. Let’s have a look at these tasks-

1. Constructing Conditional Statements

This is one of the easiest and the basic programming skills that a data scientist should know. This simple statement has immense applications when it comes to breaking our own and analyzing data.

A practical example of the use of conditional statements will be an HR trying to identify whether an employee is eligible for promotion or not based on his annual performance metric. Let’s say the benchmark score is 75. So the HR can easily use the conditional statement and segregate employees having a score of 75+ into the eligible for promotion category and else, not.

2. Looping Constructs

These lines of code help you command your language to perform a repetitive task without you manually typing the code every time a task has to be repeated.

For example, if you want to command your language to print “Larry is a good player” 1000 times, you simply use a looping construct (for loop to be precise) to print the statement 1000 times.

3. Functions

This is the most ignored yet the most important aspect of programming. Even though to perform various functions there are pre-defined libraries to solve the problem, in many situations you are required to define your own functions to efficiently perform the function.

For example, let’s say that in multiple steps of model building you are required to add a number(say – 5) and then multiply it with the result of the previous code line. Rather than repetitively writing multiple lines of code, you can simply pass the function in one line each time.

4. Data Structures

Data structures are constructs around which you do your programming. Different data structures help you store different types of data in a particular manner. Prominent data structures which you need to understand well include-

Dictionaries

List

Tuple

Set

5. Indexing Dataframe

Once you have the data imported to your programming language, you will be required to slice and check only a certain portion of the data. Or you will be required to index through data having a particular variable value.

For example, you work in a hospital and you need data of all patients currently at the 2nd stage of cancer.

Our Certified AI & ML BlackBelt Plus Program teaches you all the programming you need with the necessary 1:1 mentorship required at each stage.

Role of Programming in Data Science Life Cycle 1. Data Extraction

Once you identify the objective, you need to collect the relevant data. Either the data will have to be imported from your local system or you will have to retrieve it from the database of the organization. In both cases, you are required to code. And the programming skills required to extract data from a database are a tad bit technical than the former activity.

2. Data Cleaning

Clean data is an absolute must for your model to understand the rules of the data and create the best possible models. Identifying and imputing missing values, variable transformations, creating multiple loops, and defining functions are some of the common activities for which you will be required to code.

3. Data Visualization

Before you create models, a major effort is exerted in understanding each and every variable of the data. You will be required to individually visualize them to check distributions, plus you will also need to compare 2 variables to check if they have a relationship or not.

Furthermore, often you will need to make complex visualizations, and good programming skills go a long way.

Programming Languages for Data Science

With the world of data science progressing faster and faster, myriad programming languages have been developed. Let’s have a look at the most prominent ones. Some of the most prominent languages include-

Python

Julia

Java

C/C++

I recommend Python as the language to begin with. It is the most popular programming language in the data science community. From courses to data science competitions, a majority of activities in the data science domain happens around Python.

Python is a general-purpose, high-level interpreted language that has been growing rapidly in the applications of data science, web development, rapid application development. Its ease of use and learning has certainly made it very easy to adapt for beginners.

To learn about other languages and choose the right programming language for you, I recommend you go through the following article-

5 Popular Data Science Languages – Which One Should you Choose for your Career?

End Notes

I hope you understand how paramount the concept of programming is for a data scientist to be efficient in his tasks. Better programming skills will definitely provide the necessary edge that multi-disciplinary fields like data science requires.

Do check out our Certified AI & ML BlackBelt Plus Program to not only excel in programming but also learn data science and be industry-ready.

The Best 6 Essential Features Of An Efficient Erp Software

Enterprise resource planning software, or ERP, is one of the most effective and efficient data management tools. ERP is an excellent tool for data analysis and automation that can be used extensively in many businesses. This tool is ideal for small and large companies.

These reliable systems can be used by many organizations. An ERP system that is strong has many great features that can be used to manage many business activities such as order and inventory management, CRM and accounting, human resources, sales, and HR. We have highlighted the most important features of ERP software that are essential to use before you buy it.

These are The Most Important Features Every ERP Software Must Have

ERP systems are used by many organizations to efficiently perform a variety of business tasks. Optimized ERP systems can improve productivity, decrease expenses, and increase profitability. ERP systems are vital for managing many enterprises, regardless of size, in today’s digital age.

A good ERP software has many useful features that can help you run your business. You must determine whether the ERP software has the most important features.

These are the most important features of an ERP system that you should consider when comparing ERP systems.

Why Ocenaudio Is The Easiest Audio Editing Tool For Multiple Platforms

Ocenaudio is a cross-platform, easy-to-use audio editor that can resolve noise, echo and interference issues from both audio and video files. It is completely free to use even for commercial purposes.

The software has minimal features but does the sound editing perfectly. You might want to give this a try if you are considering other tools like Audacity or Adobe After Effects that have more features but also come with steep learning curves.

Download and Installation

Ocenaudio supports all the platforms of your choice – Mac, Linux and Windows – and you can keep track of their version updates on its download page. Follow the simple installation setup wizard which will guide you through the installation.

Wait for the installation to complete. Once done, you can immediately start working on your audio or video files (.mp4, .mpeg) with Ocenaudio.

Editing Audio/Video Files

A simple and elegant dashboard awaits you, and you can explore all the options without having to register. You can import multiple audio or music files using Ctrl +O; they will have their separate timelines and editing portions.

Simplicity is the biggest hallmark of Ocenaudio. The most important editing options you would require have been covered in this tutorial.

Other tools like Audacity (shown below) have far more options to remember. If you want to start editing immediately and do not want to spend too much time learning, Ocenaudio is a great alternative.

To begin, select a timeline to use “fade in” or “fade out” effects, which reduce the volume of any segment, and “trim” to reduce any additional audio after buffering. It will take you less than a minute to get the hang of both features.

The waveform option of Ocenaudio is very easy to use, and you only need to select the required portions to perform the following edits:

Use the show/hide gain tool to increase or adjust the decibels. This can take care of audio segments which hurt the ears.

Delete any superfluous audio segments. You can zoom in or zoom out to delete what is unnecessary.

With Adobe After Effects, to use the EQ feature you must learn how to shape the sound, which requires a good control over the mouse. You will find it easier to use sliders on Ocenaudio’s timeline and on a laptop trackpad without an external mouse.

Other Cool Features of Ocenaudio

Don’t know what to do with an annoying background vocal? Identify it on a “spectral view,” which is easily available from the View option, then simply add white noise with signal generator for a time duration of your choice.

As an alternative to white noise, you can also add a chorus in the background.

Reverb is a nice feature to get rid of any residual echoes in the audio.

Save Your Edited File

Once you have finished editing throughout the timeline, you can save your file using various record options. You can also simply enter R to save the recorded file.

Want to create an iPhone ringtone? It is available as a very easy option on the File menu. You can optionally add a few seconds gap if the first few seconds of an audio clip are precious to you.

Conclusion

If you don’t want to use complex software to edit your audio files, you will find Ocenaudio very easy in comparison. Thanks to its powerful features, you can get the professional touch without breaking a sweat. The software is extremely lightweight and does not burden your CPU and other resources.

Sayak Boral is a technology writer with over eleven years of experience working in different industries including semiconductors, IoT, enterprise IT, telecommunications OSS/BSS, and network security. He has been writing for MakeTechEasier on a wide range of technical topics including Windows, Android, Internet, Hardware Guides, Browsers, Software Tools, and Product Reviews.

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Newsletters As An Instructional Coaching Tool

I take what I learn from students and teachers across our school and use it to build a weekly staff newsletter called Teacher Talk, a shared resource that helps build community, inspires professional learning, and is tailored to the needs of our school.

Learning What Teachers Need

By working in many different classrooms, instructional coaches have a pulse on the school’s needs. I attend weekly grade-level and child-study team meetings and act as the note taker. I listen to what is most important to teachers at these meetings. Are there behavioral challenges? Are there special projects that classes are working on? What are the ways I can support them in their teaching? I find that most requests usually fall within what instructional coaching leader Jim Knight refers to as The Big Four: (1) classroom management, (2) content, (3) instruction, and (4) assessment of learning.

I also meet weekly with my principal and listen to her needs and priorities. I try to think of ways to help implement her ideas throughout the building. In addition to meeting times, I’ve found that some of the most valuable conversations with teachers happen informally at the copy machine or in the hallway. Wherever I am, I listen. I look for what topics get teachers most animated. That is what they care most about. All of these conversations guide my choices of topics to focus on in the newsletter.

Building The Newsletter

Layout and design: Since teachers have limited time, I put extra effort into making the newsletter visually appealing and keep reading time to a minimum by giving quick summaries of links to the articles, books, podcasts, or videos that may interest teachers and highlight good instructional practices. I break up the process of creating the newsletter into chunks, adding one resource or summary every day to the template I use when I have time in my schedule between meetings or classroom visits, with the goal of having a complete newsletter ready to send out to teachers every Tuesday. Overall, it takes me one or two hours per week, or about 20 minutes a day, which I make time for in my daily schedule.

I build the newsletter in Canva, a free resource for educators. I start the newsletter with a captivating image: one that I select from Canva’s digital archive, a screenshot from a link I am providing, or a photo taken at school. I have found Canva to be a simple, intuitive graphic design tool.

After building and proofreading the newsletter, I send it to staff attached to a weekly email. I give a quick bulleted summary of resources I’ve included and offer to help implement any new ideas in their classroom. I also ask for suggestions on topics that teachers would like to see covered in future newsletters.

Writing: Each week, the newsletter is organized into the same sections, such as “Curriculum Corner” (teaching strategies), “Fresh Air” (ideas for getting students outdoors), “Classroom Spotlight” (sharing teacher or student work), “Give a Listen” (links to podcasts), “What’s Going On at VES?” (new happenings at our school), and “Book Review” (lists of recommended titles). I also try to include a photo, meme, or quote of the week that is funny or affirming for teachers. Using these ideas to format my pages, it is easy to make a copy of the previous week’s newsletter and paste links to new resources each week.

Advantages for our campus

Putting together a newsletter each week provides resources that teachers may not have time to search for. It also creates a culture for professional growth in our building. It helps connect us by providing a place for sharing work and celebrating accomplishments that may have gone unnoticed. Ultimately, I hope it makes teaching a little easier by offering inspiration and strategies for teachers to help them improve their practice.

Teachers often stop me in the hallway to thank me for finding resources they did not have time to search for. A teacher recently came back from a conference with a link to a science of reading (SOR) website that provided valuable resources. She asked me to share it with other teachers in the newsletter, and it became a topic of conversation that week during team meetings. One teacher wrote me to say, “Thanks, Alissa! I especially loved the SOR resource, as it has so many resources and how-tos built right in. I may use it as a resource for some of my families as well!”

The newsletter has created a way for teachers to feel seen, valued, and heard. I respond to their requests, and the resources become tailored to the specific needs of our school. As coaches, we can be influencers, and the ideas we draw attention to can have an impact.

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