My Technology Addictions

Enviro Health Manager

We were all told that as technology advanced we would have more leisure time, time to spend with loved ones and pursuing our recreational desires. So why do I now find that I need a 10 day week so that I can get through all my work and still end up working most weekend?

Well in my case I can’t really blame anyone else for my need of more days in the week or working through the weekend. I have been in the last stages of software development for the Mobile Audits program that I have developed in my business About Data to be used by Environmental Health Officers of Local Governments.

This enables them to complete audits of Food Premises, Lodging Houses, Public Buildings and General Premises all through a PDA. The information is collected in the field and then on return to the office the PDA is connected to the desktop computer and then all data is synchronized to a SQL Server database.

My business partner Sandra Morley from Sanmor Computing has developed the desktop component of the software. The Enviro Health Manager system that is on the desktop is very complex and includes, Health Notice, Pest Management, Unit Cost and Waste Management.

The software with the PDA component has been tested in the field by the City of Kalgoorlie Boulder over the past two years.

On October 4th and 5th we visited the City of Kalgoorlie Boulder and installed the latest version of the software. It has been upgraded to now include:

: Property based data

: SQL Server data file

: PDA component to manage in the field audits

: Proprietor/manager signature capture

: Fully compliant with the new legislation

: Health Notice, Pest Management, Unit Cost and Waste Management

: Onsite Training

: Ability to integrate the EHM application with LGA’s financial management system

It has been a massive project, and we encountered several hurdles but in the end we have come through it all with a solid product that allows Local Government to manage their data in an efficient and effective manner.

So now all the hard work is done we are on the marketing trail, flyer’s have been produced and are in the process of being sent to all Local Governments in Western Australia. This will be followed by information packs to be delivered in early 2008.

So now you know why I haven’t been around online, and may not be around much in the nest few months. I will now start working on Swimming Pool audits and the list goes on, but I do really enjoy my work so it is all worth it in the long run.

Five Weeks of Fun

I haven’t written a post for nearly 2 months but have been spending nearly ever day of the past 2 months on my laptop, I have been teaching and developing software. This is a short rundown of my experience with a group of great teenagers that I introduced to the web one day a week over a five week period.
In the last term of school I have had a group of 14, 15 year olds for one day a week over 5 weeks showing them all the wonders of the web. They were a great group of kids from 3 different high schools, they created blogs, added to a class wiki, created iGoogle pages and lastly created podcasts.

I was surprised how little of these technologies they knew or had even heard about. I think the more we use these things like blogs, wiki’s flickr, twitter and facebook ourselves we assume that others, especially the teenagers also know about them. They had a great knowledge of what games they can play online, chat programs and some knew about MySpace and most had an email account and all knew about YouTube, but that was about it. They did not know what Blogs, wiki’s or podcasts were.
The challenge with this group was how to show them how to use these technologies, keep it interesting, relevant and get through the work in the small amount of time we had. They had set tasks to complete each week and this was all detailed for them on a class wiki that I set up, this also contains links to their blogs, del.icio.us accounts and podcasts.

When it came to creating podcasts I had visions of copyright issues spinning around in my head and eventually I thought of using Nursery Rhymes. I decided that the easiest way to get them to create their podcasts was to give them a list of Nursery Rhymes. These are the steps that they followed:

They each picked one Nursery Rhyme and then created a PowerPoint presentation of the Nursery Rhyme.

A new slide was used for each line of the Nursery Rhyme and they had to add appropriate images.

The slides from the Presentation were saved as images, a handy feature of PowerPoint.

Then using Windows Movie Maker they imported the slides, recorded the Rhyme and added transitions and effects.

Once this stage was completed they saved the Movie file.

Then using SUPER © they converted it to a mp4 format.

I created a podomatic site for the class, they uploaded their podcasts and now they can been seen by all.

Most of them created 2 podcasts and really enjoyed it, although some of the recordings don’t sound “too enthusiastic“, as the first thing they said when recording their voices was ” I don’t sound like that!”.

All in all it was a great exercise, exhausting but enjoyable. My adventure into the world of web 2 and more my inspiration and knowledge comes from my friend Sue who introduced and taught me how to use them. She is a wealth of knowledge and shares it with all, thanks Sue