Presenting the iQSF

With great pleasure, I would like to officially announce the iQ Student Forums. The initial setup is completed and ready for your enjoyment. Stop on by, register, and don't forget to bookmark it! A quick note: If you don't register with your iqwisconsin address, please send an email to iqa.students@gmail.com from iqwi to validate your account.


Here are a couple of selling points for the doubters out there:


Personalization.

The appearance is customizable and flexible. You can upload your own avatar, create a signature and even request a custom member title. By default, you're placed in an appropriate iQ Student user group, but if you think of a group you'd like to establish, we'll make it happen.

Ease of use.

The Student forums are powered by the popular IPB forum system, making it easy for users to navigate, subscribe to topics, and participate efficiently. Even bookmark threads and send them via-the built in Personal Message system to your friends.

Security Without Hassle.

Instead of waiting for an admin to validate your registration, you can get a feel for the forums right off the bat as a member without unnecessary hurdles. All the same, no one will have access to the whole thing (including member lists and the calendar,) until they've been validated by an administrator. What does that mean? No worries for you.

A Blank Slate.

As difficult as it is to sustain a new forum, this experience is yours to define. Let your friends know, and dive in. Start something new.


Above all, what have you got to lose? (A whole lot of fun, that's what.)

-H²

iQ Student Forums Continuation

Since the Student Forums idea has a bit of support, I registered for the boards. The bare bones of what could one day be a bustling community of virtual students can be found here: http://z15.invisionfree.com/iQa_Students/index.php

Feel free to register/bookmark it- the address won't change, but as you will see there is much work to be done...

If anyone would like to help out in the development process, hop on over and have your say.

I'll have a post there with things to be done; in the meantime, check here for major(ish) updates.

-H2

Unified forums concept

Hi Folks,

Been a while, hasn't it? As much as I doubt many are still around to read this, I simply must get this idea out in the open... Read away, thou much-beloved visitor:

Throughout the history of the school, forums have played a significant role in the inter-socialization of iQ's students. Forums are fun, and a good one can consistently provide enjoyment to all involved. Nonetheless, efforts to establish a successful alternative forum have always been mediocre. The original Commons forums had huge participation, but the format was terrible (Every section took forever to load unless you hid half the topics.) The Phoenix's Roost, a forum I started somewhere during iQ's 3rd year, was fairly active for a while, but tapered off, in part due to a lack of extensive participation. Currently, the Place of the Phoenix has some active members, but is bound by low membership, the lameness of Phpbb, and lack of a proper skin.

I don't mean to rule out the current commons forums or PotP, but I think we can do better. I don't want to create yet another forum for the sake of having control over it, nor because I think the current ones are inadequate, but simply for the sake of getting it right. A last hurrah, so to speak. What I believe we could have is an interconnected system of iQ-related sites that, with a lot of luck and ultimately even more effort, could actually grow to a sustainable size.

What we have now, that we didn't have in the past two years of trying to get students together online, is more than 1 iQ Acadamy. The forum I propose would attempt to replicate this Blog's theme and integrate with it, but it would go a step further, by being a forum for all iQ Students. Not just WI, our small group of ambitious iQers, but students from around the country. I can get the Staff involved (I've talked with Lisa McClure about getting some communication going between the various iQ's, and she's definitely interested...) and with enough of you on board, we could make this happen.

If this gets off the ground, I would propose we use Invisionfree (which I find the most efficient and customizable forum system,) and name it simply the 'iQ Student Forum.' I can help with administration and the skinning of the forum, but something like this would require a number of dedicated students to succeed. Anyone have real interest in making this work? Would you even care to join if such a thing were created?

I mentioned an interconnected network- with this, it would be the blog and forums, but are there other methods of communication you think would be fun? What about iQ Radio, video, or a secure chat room?

Forever attempting the impossible,

-H²

A Replacement iQ Commons Discussion Board

We all know the discussion board is broken. And it hurts your eyes to look at.

So to continue talking amongst each other in a more civil place, Hilary Siebring, a Senior at iQ, has created a replacement forum. You can get there by clicking the title of this post.

The iQ Blog is a wonderful idea and its done very well. But its not meant to be a replacement for discussion boards. When it comes to really getting in there and holding a conversation, it doesn't hold up well. Its use lies somewhere else.

To join the forum, you're going to need to sign up as you normally would, then post your username here as a comment, so it can be verified you are an iQ student. Anyone other than iQ students will not be able to see what is posted on the forums.

A Moment of Silence

I've come to realize, despite all the promises and mildly-competent attempts to follow through on them, that things in the iQ Commons are never going to achieve their former organizational glory. We have homepages that no one knows about, we have forums that no one cares about, and the commons announcements are messed up nearly to the point of illegibility. Even our faithful macs are being phased out now, in favor of PC's. Things are changing, and certainly not for the better...

When I first joined iQ, there were at least 3-4 intelligent students who were consistently involved in serious discussions in Commons. While I was just a freshmen, I saw something there that I wanted to be involved in, and did so. Several major flame wars and a bunch of other stuff later, I was a full fledged member of the discussion board group. If something came up that I was interested in, and back in the day things did, I joined in and had my say. My Sophomore year was similar, though slightly more students were more interested in chatting than discussion. (And that year, last year, was the year they shut down the chat rooms.) Back then, we had real, heartfelt discussions where we furiously disassembled the other side's arguments, until we grew tired of that subject and started another. It was a community, like any other community, and it was a great enjoyment to participate.

Now, this year, after the whole blackboard system seems to have been renovated, everything is, to put it bluntly, a mess. The announcements in commons should be in the announcements section of the Discussion Board "Course" and they shouldn't be in obnoxious colors, and they shouldn't stretch the screen so you have to scroll sideways to read them. The Homepages should be right there too, where people can see them. The discussion boards should have all the functions set up, so people can edit the errors in their posts, etc. They should be able to mark posts as read or unread too, like we used to be able to do.

Unfortunately, the thing that really matters, the people, seem to have disappeared. The veterans of the first several years of iQ Academies have gone now, and in their absence, no one has showed up. There might be 10 participants in the discussion boards at the moment, but none of them care to start an serious discussion, and sadly enough, they all seem to agree completely on everything. Not to mention, no Philosophy and Religion board, AND they actually removed the Politics board! So the primary composition of topics is literally "How's the buddy program going?" "How's school going?" and "Homework help".

I should've seen this coming. Similar situations have played out in other organizations, especially online, that I've been involved in. Things fall from their glory as time drags on. People get worn down and lose ambition. Ever since Stacy McKnight left, things truly haven't been the same for iQ's student-to-student relations. (For those of you who don't know, she was our Go-To person for all the commons stuff, and Proms/Dances/Basketball tournaments etc.) I thought someone else would pick up the baton, but it's apparent that there isn't anyone else with the talents Stacy had to organize things for our sake, and make things more interesting for *us*.

Maybe someone else will come along eventually, but who knows. Maybe the iQ Administration is no longer interested in hip younger (pre-30's) people to work for them. If things continue down the road as they are, however, I fear for iQ's success as a whole. You simply cannot maintain a school without giving the students a significant, well thought-out and appropriately-managed commons (Not to mention the need for someone who can relate to students, and the organization of fun events.)


All that said, I'd like to take a moment of silence in memory of the past.

And they're off!

Good news folks! If you weren't already aware, the commons discussion boards are finally to a point of flexibility that allows for a reasonable amount of real discussion! New sections include (with comments by yours truly):

• Green Bay Packers (In annoyingly capital letters that I've decided not to adhere to.)

??? Why not just a sports section? *sighs* Oh well... Go Pack!... Go...

• General Discussion

Yay! Except for the horrible clashing colors in the subtitle area, it's great to finally see this one up and running!

• What's your favorite TV show? (Also in caps...ahem...)

Uhm, alright. Not so bad, but less useful than some of the missing ones. (No Phil/Rel, for instance!)

• Political Issues

Oh snap. This one's gonna get ugly...

• What are your hobbies?

Well, at least this one was requested by quite a few people... And it doesn't have obnoxious colors in the subtitle... and it's not in caps... three cheers for that!

• How is school going?

First of all, the "question as a title" thing is getting rather old. Secondly, dduuummmbbb topic. I don't even need a thirdly.

• Have you checked THE commons for school events?

"THE?"


Might see you around in there sometime soon. If you've never experienced chaos before, you should join in! Trust me, it's a blast... Really. Like, *kaboom* *screams* *machine gun fire* *death*

*not so subtle wink*

-H<sup>2


Edit: Added two DB's</sup>

Discussion Board Quandary

Alright, what's the deal? It took a while to get Commons setup, and then longer to get the Discussion Board Suggestions section setup, but now that they did that, the only thing they've done is create three mildly pointless boards that don't actually allow for any serious debating...

Am I the only one gradually moving from "Patience" to "Frustration" at an exponentially greater rate? Or is this actually bothering some of you as well?

Personally, I want discussion. Even just an acknowledgment of the suggestions posted by students in that section. After all, why ask if they don't seem to care?

Win An Apple iPhone!

Yes, it sounds like junk mail, but it is entirely true.

I was interested in seeing if iQ had a Wikipedia page, and so while I was searching Google, I came across a website of iQ's I had not seen before. Of course, I clicked it:

iQ Academy

(Page will NOT open in a new window. I seem to have forgotten that bit of code. Just + click it open.)

And there, right before my eyes; a chance at last.

In case you are unaware of the greatest phone ever, check out the site.

(Same applies for this link, it will not open in a new window, sorry.)

It looks easy enough. They want us to do a video demonstrating the freedom and flexibility provided by online education. (There's a video of iQ Academy director Lisa McClure doing just that. She and a few others are using their laptop... while skydiving!) Everything we need to know is on the site, along with what will help us in winning.

Unfortunately, I just found out about this, and the deadline is noon on September 14th. Hopefully many of you were aware of this long before I was. If you weren't, there's still time!

If you want to add any special effects, titles, sounds, transitions, etc., I suggest you use iMovie HD, which should have came loaded on all of our laptops. It would normally be pretty slow, but since we're only using YouTube quality video here, it should be no problem at all.

I wish the best of luck to everyone!

EDIT:

I should mention, and I'm a little disappointed with myself that I didn't, that buying the iPhone means switching to AT&T's service. It's a 2 year agreement, plans starting at $59.99, and the phone can not be used (except to dial 911) until you have this service.

Tips for preserving your work

I'm sure we've all experienced that dreaded moment when we realize something just went wrong and all the work accomplished in the last hour is not there anymore. It's an inevitable situation, but with some forethought and good habits, you'll find it can be easy to stop most of these events before they happen. This guide is mostly for tips on taking digital safety measures, but the easiest way to avoid data loss is obviously to do things on paper (print out exams, do assignments by hand before typing them, etc.)

Here they are:

#1 Save Early, Save Often- The most important issue is saving your documents soon after creating them, and saving that document again and again while editing it. The easiest way to do this, in most programs, is "Command+S" Especially in word processors, get in the habit of hitting "Command+S" after paragraphs, sentences, even words when you get stuck. Saving goes for exams too. They didn't put that juicy "Save" button next to "Submit" for no reason!

#2 Undo- Yes, it's true. On most applications, you can undo what you just did. If you accidentally delete a whole paragraph's worth of text, don't panic! Either go up to "Edit > Undo" or use the easier "Command+Z" on your keyboard. If it doesn't work, take a moment to breathe and calmly see if there's another way of getting it back.

#3 Backspace while taking an Exam- This one's a killer. You're typing a long essay, and accidentally hit backspace when your mouse isn't focused in the text box. Of course, makers of almost all browsers thought it was a nice idea to make backspace the hotkey for "Go back one page" and that means "Erase the exam" unless you've saved it (If not, why didn't you read #1!?) There's no way of undoing this one, but you can avoid it when you know it happens. Just always make sure your mouse is focused where you want it to be before typing anything.

#4 Email Drafts- While this one is becoming less and less important (as email programs often save themselves nowadays,) you should know that its possible. Any email program will have a "Save" option while composing an email. Take advantage of this! Save your email before you accidentally close the browser window, or just get Gmail and never worry again ;)

#5 Location > Location > Location- This is one of those problems that, while it shouldn't even cause problems, can give headaches to anyone. Ever experienced saving a file and then not being able to find it? Well, have no fear; Those days are long gone now. First off, your mac's Finder has a search function that you can utilize to find any file imaginable. Secondly, your Mac OS X has "Searchlight," a brilliant search function built into your computer for your use. You can use it by clicking that magnifying glass at the top right of the screen. However, all this is unnecessary if you just organize your comptuter and put things where they should go. You should create a folder for each class, and save documents related to them in their respective locations. Trust me, it works.

#6 "Oops, didn't mean to hit that X"- This one's related to browsing the web. If you close a webpage that you didn't want to, remember that there's a "History" function (Or should be. If you don't have one, you need a better browser,) that you can use to get that page back. On Firefox, there's even a "Recently Closed Tabs" function within History that allows you to open a tab you just closed. Unfortunately, no browser can guarantee that any forms you had on that page will still be filled out.

#7 Screenshots- Did Word just freeze up? Do you have no way of saving all the stuff you just wrote now, and you forgot to listen to #1 so it wasn't saved in the first place? Again, there's a solution! You can take a picture of the document for reference and retype it after you force quit the application. It's a simple feature, and you can use it anywhere (Elluminate whiteboards, anyone?): Shift+Command+3 (For a full screen capture) or Shift+Command+4 (To target a particular area on the screen- Click and drag, then release when the gray area is where you want it.) The files will be saved as .png images on your Desktop, where you can open them with a program (such as Preview.app) whenever you please.

That's all for now, but more tips will be added as they come! Also, feel free to suggest your own using the comment function.

Happy recovering!

-H²