Home Archive by category "Blog" (Page 5)

Category: Blog

AT&T U-Verse Wireless Connection Problem with Apple Devices

I have been using AT&T U-verse since last year. It has been better than AT&T DSL service which I used prior to U-verse. But sometimes the internet connection was not successful from only my Apple devices. Actually the fact that the problem is only from Apple devices was known to me quite lately. My son is using a Windows laptop. I found out that he never complained about his connection. I am not sure that my wired connection was also problematic since I didn’t check it because most of my networked devices are wireless.

I asked AT&T technical support to help me. They  were very kind and eager to solve my problem. After listening to my problem, the technical support changed my modem settings. I believed it helped since I didn’t have the disconnection problem anymore. But another problem, maybe more serious one arose. Network speed got seriously slow down. I called again AT&T technical support. All they said was that my modem and wire were OK. The technical support asked me to cold-reset my modem. So I did. The speed came back to normal. I believed that it helped and solved the problem. But it was not. The network speed got slow down again after a while.

I had decided to solve this problem by myself and checked out some relevant articles from the Internet. Many complaints existed here and there. But there were not many clear answers for the problem. So, my second approach was to check out my son’s Windows laptop which was getting network connection even though all my Apple devices weren’t. I found out the laptop’s wireless setting was using WPA-Personal as the wireless security. So I changed the security setting of my MacBook Pro’s AirPort. It didn’t solve the problem. I googled one more time. And I found an interesting answer for this disconnection problem. The guy said that the modem’s wireless setting should be changed.

I figured out that Apple’s AirPort Security settings have missing compared to Windows wireless settings. Among authentication types of WPA and WPA2, we can choose either TKIP or AES in the Windows settings but not in the AirPort settings. I suspected that Apple devices do not support one of types. The default setting of the U-verse modem is  “WPA-PSK (TKIP) and WPA2-PSK (AES).” I selected “WPA2-PSK (AES)” “WPA-PSK(TKIP)” instead of the default setting and clicked the ‘save’ button. This solved my wireless connection problem of my Apple devices without sacrificing network speed.

Here is a short version of what I did to solve my problem.

  1. Start a web browser. Go http://192.168.1.254
  2. Click the “Wireless” icon on the “Home” screen or select the “Settings” tab –> LAN –> Wireless. Either can bring you to the same setting page.
  3. Scroll down to the Security section.
  4. Select “WPA2-PSK (AES)” “WPA-PSK(TKIP)” in the Authentication Type.
Then, you may change your Windows Wireless settings to use WPA2-PSK (AES) WPA-PSK(TKIP) on your Windows machines if it is selected with (TKIP) something else.

App Inventor for Android

I started learning how to use App Inventor. A few things that I should have known.

  1. App Inventor doesn’t require Android SDK.
  2. App Inventor is a web-based app but App Inventor for Android Blocks Editor is a Java-based app requiring JDK 1.6.
  3. Must install App Inventor Setup that is a supplementary tool set.
  4. Blocks Editor cannot find an emulator when TeamViewer is running.

How Learning Works

This is a brief introduction to seven research-based principles for smart teaching in the book: How Learning Works. I summarize an email news letter from Tomorrow’s Teaching and Learning.

What is learning?

  • Learning is A process not a product
  • Learning involves change in knowledge, beliefs, behaviors, or attitudes.
  • Learning is not something done to students but rather something students themselves do.

Seven principles of learning?

  1. Student’s prior knowledge can help or hinder learning.
  2. How students organize knowledge influences how they learn and apply what they know.
  3. Students’ motivation determines, directs, and sustains what they do to learn.
  4. To develop mastery, students must acquire component skills, practice integrating them, and know when to apply what they have learned.
  5. Goal-directed practice coupled with targeted feedback enhances the quality of students’ learning.
  6. Students’ current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning.
  7. To become self-directed learners, students must learn to monitor and adjust their approaches to learning.

Scientific Writing

Here is a good guide for scientific writing in the academic and professional environments. This is the Webinar link presented by Dr. Matthias Reumann.

Survival Skills for Scientific Writing in the Academic and Professional Environments

Here is a basic outline for your scientific writing.

  • Introduction
    • Problem statements
    • Rationale
  • Background
    • Previous work done by others
    • Previous work done by you
  • Materials and Methods
    • What you did
    • How you did
    • What you used
  • Results
    • Typical raw data
    • Data obtained
  • Discussion
    • What your results mean
    • Comparison with work of others
    • Significance of findings
  • Conclusion

Take home messages are

  • Know yourself and the enemy
  • Outline first and stay focused
  • Take a break (remember the 80:20 rule) & create inspiring environment
  • Read, revise and your peers

Good teaching

Tools for teaching by Davis, B.G., Jossey-Bass

Here is the table of contents.

Getting Underway

Responding to a Diverse Student Body
Discussion Strategies
Lecture Strategies
Collaborative and Experiential Strategies
Enhancing Students’ Learning and Motivation
  • 21.   Helping Students Learn
  • 22.   Learning Styles and Preferences
  • 23.   Motivating Students
Writing Skills and Homework Assignments
Testing and Grading
Instructional Media and Technology
  • 35.   Chalkboards
  • 36.   Flipcharts
  • 37.   Transparencies and Overhead Projectors
  • 38.   Slides
  • 39.   Films and Videotapes
  • 40.   Computers and Multimedia
Evaluation to Improve Teaching
Teaching Outside the Classroom
  • 44.   Holding Office Hours
  • 45.   Academic Advising and Mentoring Undergraduates
  • 46.   Guiding, Training, and Supervising Graduate Student Instructors
Finishing Up
  • 47.   The Last Days of Class
  • 48.   Student Rating Forms
  • 49.   Writing Letters of Recommendation

Must-have podcast for brain scientists

The Brain Science Podcast, hosted by Ginger Campbell, MD, is a must-have podcast for brain scientists. Dr. Campbell interviews brain scientists including medical doctors, neuroscientists, computer scientists, students, and business persons as well.

You can listen to this. But the best thing is that you can also ‘read’ this podcast since the website provides episode transcripts.

http://docartemis.com/brainsciencepodcast/

 

Tips for new teachers

http://chronicle.com/article/Tips-for-New-Teachers-at/48003/

Take-home-messages from the article.

  • Appear confident. “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and, doggone it, people like me!”
  • Be consistent
  • Don’t take yourself too seriously
  • Keep your distance. Neither too close nor too far.
  • Dress professionally.
  • Remember whom you are teaching

Teaching and research

Ten simple rules to combine teaching and research from Tomorrow’s Professor Mailing List.

  • Rule 1: Strictly budget your time for teaching and for doing research
  • Rule 2: Set specific teaching and research goals
  • Rule 3: Don’t reinvent the wheel
  • Rule 4: Don’t try to explain everything
  • Rule 5: Be shameless in bringing your research interests into your teaching
  • Rule 6: Get the most in career advancement from bringing your research into your teaching
  • Rule 7: Compromise, compromise, compromise
  • Rule 8: Balance administrative duties with your teaching and research workload
  • Rule 9: Start teaching early in your career
  • Rule 10: Budget time for yourself, too

The five characteristics of successful new faculty members

Good advice to new faculty!

http://chronicle.com/article/The-5-Characteristics-of/48374/?sid=oh&utm_source=oh&utm_medium=en

This was written for new faulty in two-year colleges, but most advice here is still valuable to new professors in universities.

  1. Be humble.
  2. Be willing.
  3. Be organized.
  4. Be collegial. Be friendly, open to sharing ideas and materials, and willing to help out a colleague in need. Your collegiality must extend not just to other faculty members but also to everyone else on the campus, including librarians, admissions counselors, and custodians.
  5. Be low-maintenance.

Verb tense in your research writings

This is from an article from Tomorrow’s Professor website.

USE PAST TENSE:

  • To describe your methodology and report your results
  • When referring to the work of previous researchers.
  • To describe a fact, law or finding that is no longer considered valid and relevant.

USE PRESENT TENSE:

  • To express findings that continue to be true.
  • To refer to the article, thesis or dissertation itself.
  • To discuss your findings and present your conclusions. Also use present tense to discuss your results and their implications.
    (e.g.) Weight increased as the nutritional value of feed increased. These results suggest that feeds
    higher in nutritional value contribute to greater weight gain in livestock. (Use past tense to indicate what you found [weight increased], but use present tense to suggest what the result
    implies.)