Tech Review – Page 5

I Love My MacBook Pro

My new MacBook Pro arrived about two weeks ago. I’ve been using a PowerBook Pro and an HP Pavilion for the past 3.5 years and really liked both. I’m surprised at just how much better this new MacBook Pro is than both of them. Leopard is sweet! The integrated webcam and mic work well and it’s nice not having to lug them around as peripherals. I prefer Office 2008 for Mac over Office 2007 for Vista. There’s much more, but I’ll stop there for now!

I welcome any advice, suggested software or widgets, etc. related to making my MacBook Pro experience as good as possible.

Firefox Is the Browser of Choice

Download Day 2008 This blog does not support Internet Explorer! Web developers have to add special coding to webpages and blogs to keep things from going wonky in Internet Explorer, although everything will look perfect in other browsers without the special code. I’m tired of fooling with it. There are several better and more secure browsers available and I don’t think anyone should be using IE anymore. Here’s the perfect opportunity to switch to Firefox (The browser I recommend using). Download today and help set a new world record.

Tech Notes

Share This has added Diigo to their list of available social web services. That means that you can add content from this blog to your Diigo bookmarks using the Share This plugin at the bottom of each post or page.

I’m still a big fan of Diigo and Twitter. My professional development has fast-forwarded at warp speed as a result of interacting with individuals with common professional interests worldwide. I’d enjoy having you join me.

Weebly is an excellent way for teachers and students to develop websites. The time investment in learning this tool is under five minutes. There’s little reason for newbies to struggle with learning Composer, Dreamweaver, or HTML. Weebly also makes it possible to seamlessly integrate a blog with your website. Unbelievable.

Zoho is another favorite online tool. While my needs do not cause me to use Zoho on a daily basis…yet…I’m amazed and impressed by their offerings. The Zoho team is quietly developing some of the most robust tools out there. I’m currently using Zoho Polls to help collect data for this discussion.

As a reminder, I still think Jott rocks.

Adium works as well on a Mac as Trillian does on a PC. I’ve been a fan of Trillian for many years and have always wished I could use it on my Mac computers. I intend to make a full transition back to Mac in June, so this is a welcome discovery. The best part is that I get everything I like about the subscription version of Trillian for free with Adium.

Thank goodness for Wi-Fi. I’m sitting in the shade in the backyard watching the sunset over the lake while putting the final touches on this post. I remember the days when we had to get up and walk across the room and turn the dial on the TV to change the channel. I wonder what future innovations will bring us.

Jott.com ROCKS!!!

I’ve been using this amazing technology for just about a week and I’ve already discovered dozens of reasons (or excuses) for using it. I think it is useful for people that commute back and forth to work like I do. It integrates well with the way I use my driving time (reflecting on the day, dreaming up new plans and ideas, thinking of quick notes that I’d like to send to others, recalling things that I need to “remember,”) and I feel like my time on the road is being better spent. Previously, I’d make all these mental notes while driving home and I’d get a bit stressed trying to remember them all later. Using Jott helps me actually get things noted relieving the stress and cognitive load of keeping it all stored in my puny human memory. I encourage you to take a look at this technology. listen

Here are some possible uses of Jott.com.

Send messages to most social media with a phone call (Twitter, Blogs, Yahoo! Groups, and much more).
Set reminders for yourself and others (Through Jott.com, Remember the Milk, and more).
Leave notes for yourself.
Compose letters, emails, blog posts, announcements, and other documents hands-free through Jott’s voice transcription.

Related Resources

Jott in Education – by Clif (Coming Soon)

Jott: A Powerful New Tool for Learning

Diigo Notes for 05/03/2008

How Paperless Are You?

Jott Videos

Jott Bloggers

Jogg’s Blog

Thank You Eye-Fi

Dear Eye-Fi, Eye-Fi

I’d grown tired of all the time it took to download and organize my photos from my camera to my computer. Even more burdensome was the effort it took to then upload them online so that they could be shared with friends and family. Argh! Technology should be easier!!!

Then I heard about your wireless card, the Eye-Fi. I read your claims that it “automatically uploads pictures from your digital camera to your PC or Mac and to your favorite photo sharing, printing, blogging or social networking site.” I admit that I was skeptical. I waited for nearly five months and kept an eye on your progress, technical reviews, user feedback, etc. Your product and services consistently received high marks and my interest grew stronger.

I recently ordered my own Eye-Fi and it arrived in a timely fashion. I’ve been playing with it for only a short while but I would like to share the following points with you.

Great packaging! Wow, I thought only Apple could be so clever with a product’s container. Major kudos.
What an easy setup! It was such a cinch I was certain I was skipping over some steps. I can not believe something that does so much was so simple to setup.
Way to live up to your claims! Again, wow, the Eye-Fi does exactly what you claim. My digital photos wirelessly download to my computer and upload to my online photo sharing site for loved ones to enjoy…without any assistance from me.

Thank you for a great product. Thank you for freeing me from having to dig out the old USB cord, hook up my camera to my computer, download and organize the photos, login to my online photo sharing site, and upload all the images. Thank you for making photos fun again.

All the best,

Clif

More on Twitter

I received a comment last night on my post, Twitter in Education, that I found interesting. It was from a doctoral student in our program and she was recounting her recent entree into twitter. It is honest and highlights both the excitement and difficulty in becoming comfortable with this networking technology. I liked it so much that I asked her permission to make it a post.

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GUEST BLOGER
Kristy Conger

In the last 24 hours I have become totally sold on Twitter. I signed up a while back but never really got into using Twitter. The only person who followed me was my friend Mary who sits less than four feet away from me all day at work. Needless to say, all we had to do was look over at one another to see what was going on : ) Then I came across and article that talked about using Twitter in the classroom. The name @newmediajim was mentioned as being someone really neat to follow. Turns out he works for NBC news and covers the president, the White House, etc. His posts to Twitter were really neat to follow. So, I added him and began following his adventures. OK…so here’s where the cool part comes in. He sent me a direct message after seeing what I had written about trying out Twitter again but not knowing if I would be successful at keeping up and posting updates. He encouraged me to post updates, and we started a conversation from there. I’m actually communicating directly with someone who is part of the White House press detail for NBC. He also just sent out a Twitter link the other day for a live web interview that he was doing with Sir Bob Geldof. One of his friends received the link via Twitter and began to watch the video. While watching this live interview, he sent a question via Twitter for Jim to ask while conducting the interview. Sir Bob Geldof was more than happy to respond to the question and addressed the person by name who sent it via Twitter. Now that is Web 2.0 technology at its finest!

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I know that Twitter is a hot topic with many of this blog’s readers and I wanted to share a few more related resources.

I Use the Web Differently Now…Do You?

Twitter in Education

Twitter – A Teaching and Learning Tool

On 130+ Comments

Baby Got Follow-Back

Tweet Less? Blog More?

Twitter in Education

If you’ve spent much time in the blogosphere in the last six months you have likely heard about Twitter. I have mentally been writing this post for about ten days. I want to provide my critical review and share the pros and cons as I see them. I realized that many people have already covered the bulk of this information and I just found it unnecessary for me to fully cover this topic with my own original post. Therefore, here are a few BIG points that I briefly want to make followed by valuable resources to further pursue this topic.

There is value in the networking and real-time interaction that you can get using Twitter. Many educators and academics find this to be an effective strategy for dealing with the isolation that can come from working in the classroom or office. Imagine encountering technical difficulties during your lesson and having a means of receiving assistance within minutes. Consider the ability to receive assistance from others during a teachable moment in which you don’t know the answer to a student’s inquiry. Individuals like @nlowell, @sbrandt, and @room214 have provided me with much needed real-time assistance.
I admit that it is possible for Twitter to be used in non-productive ways. I do not care about the weather, meal plans, funny cat stories, or work schedule of individuals that I do not know (in real life or virtually), but I solve this issue by simply dropping them from my follow list. On the flip side, I don’t mind if individuals that I know/ respect do this. Hearing @mguhlin share about events at work or @berniedodge describe the weather in San Diego helps me know them a bit more and adds an additional layer of community within my online network.
The message to take away is that your experience with Twitter will be what you make it. You should customize and use it on an ongoing basis to meet your specific needs and interests.
Join my Twitter network by using the link in the Navigation menu to the right.

Resources

Here is a great introduction to Twittering.

This video provides a full overview for setting up and using Twitter.

Using Twitter with Learners

Twitted, Tweets and Young Learners

Twits Are (Not?) for Kids

Twitter – Meaningful or Trivial – Up to the Writer

Tips for Using Twitter in the Classroom

Plan, Tweet, Teach, Tweet, Learn, Smile

Twitter for Academics

Will Twittering Catch on with Teachers?

Tools I’m Currently Using

Several have asked me to share the technologies that I’m frequently using these days. Here’s a short list of tools that I’m using on a regular basis. You can access my accounts for most of these tools using the Navigation menu.

Firefox – There are a variety of technical and security reasons to quit using Internet Explorer. Firefox is the browser of choice these days.

WordPress – It’s clearly the content management system/ blogging platform of choice these days.

Trillian – Use and access all your different IM accounts through one platform.

Del.icio.us – Social bookmarking made simple and efficient.

Twitter – Twitter is a service that “puts you in control and becomes a modern antidote to information overload.” I use the Twitbin extension so that I can use the Twitter service even more easily.

YouTube, TeacherTube, and BlipTV – Using free accounts I setup channels allowing me to organize and share video with students and those with common interests.

SlideShare – A great way to share slide presentations. Be sure to checkout how easy it is to turn your presentation into a slidecast, too.

Feedburner – The “leading provider of media distribution and audience engagement services for blogs and RSS feeds.”

Zoho and Google Apps – These are free online office/ productivity tools. I’ve recently become more a fan of Zoho than Google because Zoho offers many more tools. Zoho’s Creator makes it possible and super easy to create your own online forms and databases without having your own server.

The following resources are also useful in helping you get your message out there and get connected: Digg, Social Poster, and Twitter

Here are other tools that I’m still trying: Flock (Combine your social tools into this Firefox-based browser), Second Life (I’m out of my comfort zone with this one), flickr (Good for work uses, but doesn’t meet our family’s needs) and facebook (It works well enough, but I don’t see the need for it).

When I finally migrate from a wordpress.com blog to a wordpress.org blog I’m going to start using Share This and Jiglu.

Go 2 Web 2.0 – Claims to be the complete directory of all the Web 2.0 technologies out there.

You can also take a look at other related posts I’ve written by clicking on the Free Educational Software link in the Navigation menu.

Free Open Source Software (FOSS)

I’ve run across several lists of free open source software (FOSS) in the last few days. I’ve added each to my del.icio.us bookmarks (see My Bookmarks in the main menu) but I wanted to a bit more proactive in sharing this information with teachers, thus the reason for this post.

Free/Open Source Software for Kids – This list was generated for those teaching 3-12 year old students. It suggests FOSS for music composition, painting, space exploration, math, and more.

KDE-Education Program – This group is “developing high-quality educational software for the K Desktop Environment. Our primary focus is on schoolchildren aged 3 to 18, and the specialized user interface needs of young users. However, we also have programs to aid teachers in planning lessons, and others that are of interest to university students and anyone else with a desire to learn!” You’ll find about 30 educational software games/ tools related to math, science, languages, art, keyboarding, and more.

23 Most Valuable Free Software – A list of the most outstanding free/open source software.

GIMP – “The GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages.”

Exploratree – Exploratree is a free web resource where you can download, use and make your own interactive thinking guides, concept/semantic maps, organizers, charts, tables, and more.

Firefox – A cross-platform browser, providing support for various versions of Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. However, the source code has been unofficially ported to other operating systems. This project has a large community of external contributors. If you haven’t already switched from Internet Explorer to Firefox (or at least something else) then I strongly suggest that you consider it.

Blender – “Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite.”

For even more, you can also review my previous notes on other FOSS and TeacherJay’s Free Software Guide.

Free 3D Software for Interactive Whiteboards

It’s always exciting to run across cutting edge technology that has true educational implications. “Edusim is a free opensource 3D virtual world” designed to be used with interactive whiteboards. Did you hear that? It’s FREE and OPENSOURCE!!! “Edusim is an extremely powerful way to engage your students by bringing a 3D virtual environment that allows the direct manipulation of the 3D virtual learning objects directly from the interactive whiteboard surface.” You can also use the software to connect multiple interactive whiteboards allowing teachers and students to collaborate with others around the world.

Now, don’t misread my enthusiasm. The graphics, interface, etc. all have room for improvement, but that’s true with all new innovations. That will all get better with time, resources, and more innovation. And, yes, educators will need to look for effective ways to integrate this with teaching and learning and refrain from using another bell or whistle. I just find it intriguing to think about the door of possibilities that this opens. Aw, the fun we’d have with this in my math and science classes. We could potentially use this kind of technology when studying the parts of a cell, the layers of the Earth, fractions, ratios, proportions, measurement, metric vs. British measurement, conversion of measurement, and so much more. I’d love to be part of its future development!!! Wouldn’t that be a blast?How could/will you use this kind of technology in your instruction?