Author: ryan
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Thursday 3 for Jan. 31, 2013 – Educon 2.5
EduCon 2.5 took place this past weekend in Philadelphia. I was
extremely lucky and grateful for a chance to attend last year, and
attend isn’t quite the right word to use. A better word would be
experience.What is EduCon?
EduCon is both a conversation and a conference.It is an innovation conference where we can come together, both in
person and virtually, to discuss the future of schools. Every session
will be an opportunity to discuss and debate ideas â from the very
practical to the big dreams.Videos of Educon sessions
All of the sessions are available to watch on Youtube!. Try not to
be overwhelmed by the number of videos, just take one a day/week/month.
A great resource for an edchat in your school district and a glimpse
into how learning takes place in other schools.Why Preaching to the #educhoir Really DOES Matter
I’ve written about the echo chamber before and the perils therein,
but Bill Ferriter writes how sometimes you need the echo chamber.The simple truth is that being a change agent can be a REALLY lonely
experience.Hashtag visualization of Educon 2.5
Jonathan Becker has put together a visualization of all the
tweets with the [hashtag #educon][]. It drags my
machine down to a crawl, but it is still useful. đ -
Thirty years of tech, where are we now?
This January marks the 30 year anniversary of the Apple //e and the
Apple Lisa. While the Apple //e had profound effects on the computer
world throughout the 80s, I am in awe of how much the Apple Lisa
foretold of the computing world. No matter what your thoughts are of
Steve Jobs, the man had a knack for going “where the puck is going to
be, not where it has been“. Reading through BYTE magazine review of
the Apple Lisa shows what Steve was envisioning. It seems so quaint
how the writer had to describe using the “mouse”, what the “desktop”
was, and how to double-click.Although the Lisa was a failure in the marketplace and its document
centric model being bypassed by an app centric model, it did set the
stage for the direction of computers over the next 30 years. BYTE
magazine, the world’s second personal computer magazine, started
publication in 1975 as a platform agnostic magazine. The Lisa was so
different that the reviewer didn’t quite know how to review the
computer, and, in fact, foresaw the end of the megahertz race and the
death of computer specs.Reporting on the technical specifications of a computer toward the end
of an article is unusual for BYTE, but it emphasizes tha the why of
Lisa is more important than the what. For part of the market, at
least, the Lisa computer will change the emphasis of microcomputer
from “How much RAM does it have?” to “What can it do for me?”.The Lisa also had a sleep feature, much like hibernate under Windows and
how iOS on the iPhone and iPad react to sleeping and waking.… thing happens when you turn the Lisa “off” (actually, it’s never
completely off; it just goes into a low-power mode). In any case, when
you hit the Off button, system software automatically closes all open
files, thus transferring the information in them to their respective
floppy disks, and releses the disks from the Lisa disk drives. In
addition, the software records the status of the “desktop” so that,
when the computer is reactivated, Lisa automatically returns it to the
appearance and state it was in when the Lisa was turned “off”.It seems that when people try to predict the future there are only two
different scenerios. The more likely gradual changes, and the so far out
there changes that the chance of them being right is slim and
unbelievable. The Lisa shows that Apple was the latter, and it amazes me
what they were thinking up in the years leading up to its release. Apple
did get inspiration on the GUI from Xerox Parc, but their additions,
such as pull-down menus, overlapping windows, are the excence of Apple,
refinement of an idea.Xerox PARCâs innovation had been to replace the traditional computer
command line with onscreen icons. But when you clicked on an icon you
got a pop-up menu: this was the intermediary between the userâs
intention and the computerâs response. Jobsâs software team took the
graphical interface a giant step further. It emphasized âdirect
manipulation.â If you wanted to make a window bigger, you just pulled
on its corner and made it bigger; if you wanted to move a window
across the screen, you just grabbed it and moved it. The Apple
designers also invented the menu bar, the pull-down menu, and the
trash canâall features that radically simplified the original Xerox
parc idea.The difference between direct and indirect manipulationâbetween three
buttons and one button, three hundred dollars and fifteen dollars, and
a roller ball supported by ball bearings and a free-rolling ballâis
not trivial. It is the difference between something intended for
experts, which is what Xerox PARC had in mind, and something thatâs
appropriate for a mass audience, which is what Apple had in mind. PARC
was building a personal computer. Apple wanted to build a popular
computer.So here we are, 30 years later. A half billion iOS devices have been
sold, and more people than ever have more computing power in their
pocket then what was used to put a man on the moon. Apple now generates
almost as much revenue in a quarter than Microsoft does in a year. With
$137 billion in the bank, what do they have planned for the future?For your students, Powerful technology is available for $25
dollars, what are they going to create over the next 30 years? -
Thursday 3s for Jan. 24, 2013: Student tech skills, tablets vs. IWBs, and menu calendar
5 technology skills every student needs before they leave high school
Jeremy Kaiser writes about 5 technology skills every student needs
before they leave high school. Technology moves fast, but even this
article which is almost 2 years old holds relevance today. What is
missing is the mobile component, which in 2011 wouldn’t be as obvious as
it is today. All of his skills can be done with the most basic of hand
held devices today, but in your classrooms, how many of these skills are
being used?Why AppleTV & iPad beats Interactive Whiteboard?.every time
Why AppleTV & iPad beats Interactive Whiteboard?.every time. Pretty
much sums up my thoughts on the subject. đ Along the same lines is an
article from Information Week on Why Tablets Will Kill Smart Boards In
Classrooms.DAY-O
Running OS X and want to make that menu clock more useful? Check
out Day-O. It replaces the menu bar clock that still shows the date
and time, but when you click on it, Day-O gives you a monthly calendar.
Quite handy when you want to look for a date quickly. -
Your inbox is not an organizational tool
Email
is the technology that everyone loves to hate. They use it daily, and most hate
every minute of it. I believe part of the problem
is the difficulty in coming up with a workflow that allows you to
efficiently use email. And by efficiently use email, I mean that whether
you are on your computer, a tablet, or smartphone, you can organize your
email and do work with the device you have with you.Over the past couple of years I’ve been refining how I use email. The
problem is how to organize your email in such a way that allows you to
not miss important emails or tasks that need to be completed, but to
also provide quick responses to emails you are sent. The workflow I’ve
come up with I call DART: Delete, Archive, Reply or To do. It’s a
very GMail centric workflow, but can easily be adapted to whatever email
system you use. The beauty of it is that your inbox is always empty, and
any emails that need further action are in the folder To Do. DART
refers to actions taken with new emails.Delete
Pretty self explanatory, the trick is to know what to delete and what to
not delete. I basically only delete SPAM messages that have gotten past
the SPAM filter or sales messages of which pertains to things outside of
my area. Deleting messages is in actuality a task that does not take
very often because Archiving makes more sense.Archive
When you archive a message in GMail, it takes the message out of your
inbox and places it in All Mail. You can mimic this action with other
email services, just create an All Mail folder and move messages into
it. To locate messages a person will use search instead or organizing
emails into folders or labels. Sometimes it makes sense to put things
into folders instead of just All Mail, but in a majority of situations
it takes more time to organize your email into folders instead of just
putting them into All Mail and using search to locate your messages.
GMail provides search tools such as from: and to: to help locate
messages from or sent to particular people. Most of the email messages I
receive are archived because they do not warrant a reply and are not
something that is actionable by me.Reply
If I receive a message that requires a short reply that will take me
less than a minute to write, I will compose the message and send it as
soon as possible.To do
For messages that require a longer reply or ones that require me to
complete a task, they are moved to my To Do folder. This folder then
becomes my To Do list. I have one location where I can go and take
care of all my tasks, without rummaging through my inbox.Conclusion
By using DART, inbox 0 is achievable. Messages you need or want saved
are in All Mail and messages that are actionable are in To Do.Addendum
When using GMail from an iOS device, the default action is to archive
any email that is deleted, so, in effect, it combines the Delete and
Archive feature into just Archive. You can adjust this in your
settings, but I’d recommend using the GMail app for most of your email
needs (although you will still need your account added to your email
accounts in settings for sending emails from apps). A nice feature of
the GMail app is the Unread view.BTW, my assistant really wanted it called FART (Follow Up, Archive,
Reply, Trash). -
Use a GMail filter to organize emails from students
GMail has a somewhat powerful filtering mechanism that you can
apply to incoming email. Unfortunately, I say somewhat since there
really isn’t an easy way to select student email and take it out of your
inbox. It won’t match on part of an address, so you can’t just search
for an email address that starts with a number.What I’ve done is configure Google Apps for Education to append a footer
for all email from students with the tag:
#studentofkcs. That also means that if you are now a Google Apps for
Education user or cannot automatically add this tag to the footer of
your student email messages you will have to have the students do it
themselves. Most email packages allow the user to add a signature to
their email messages, they just need to be sure to add a piece of text
that will be unique.To filter email from students, go to GMail and in the search field at
the top of the screen enter #studentofkcs and hit the triangle to the
left of the blue button with the magnifying class.
Then click Create filter with this search. It will have a list of
things that can happen to the message when it matches the search. You
will want to check Skip the inbox (Archive it), and Apply the
label:.
Since you probably don’t already have a label (or folder, if you want to
call it that) set up, you can click on the Choose label… and
create a new label.
I like to put an exclamation point in front of the label so when the
list of labels are sorted alphabetically, the ones I’ve created are at
the top.
Click Create and then Create Filter. From now on, email from
students will bypass your inbox and be in the your label created above. -
Has Apple lost it?
Apple announced the iPhone 5 today and updates to the iPod line. Most of
the announcements were lackluster at best, but the event laid the
groundwork for the rumored iPad mini event in October, which could be
even more disastrous than the iPhone 5 event today.The iPhone 5 is a nice upgrade, thinner and lighter, but at the same
time, it doesnât have any feature that makes it a must upgrade for me
and my iPhone 4. This is probably more of a testimonial on how good a
phone the 4 is than what the 5 brings to the table. There are features
in the next version of iOS that I wonât be able to use, such as
turn-by-turn navigation, and, Iâm assuming, Facetime over cellular, but
since there are apps I can use to replace these missing features Iâm not
that worried about upgrading.Whatâs more disturbing about todays event was the iPod line refresh.
Apple now sells the iPod shuffle, iPod nano, and iPod touch (the Classic
is still available, but it hasnât seen an update in 3 years). The iPod
shuffle makes sense as an entry level music player, and at \$49, makes
it pretty affordable. After the shuffle comes the nano, which doesnât
make sense at all. At least the 6th generation nano had a cool look and
could be used as a watch, this 7th generation looks like an iPod touch,
works like an iPod touch, but isnât an iPod touch. Why would Apple waste
engineering sources on the nano? They priced it at \$149, only \$50 less
than the entry level iPod touch that includes the same amount of
storage. I just canât think of a use case where the nano makes a better
purchase than the iPod touch.Then thereâs the iPod touch. At the \$199 price point, theyâre now
selling the 4th generation iPod touch with 16Gb instead of just 8GB. No
other changes in the now two year old device. If you want the new iPod
touch which has several of the goodies of the iPhone 5, be prepared to
shell out \$299. You do get 32Gb at this price but is it worth a third
more than the iPod touch 4th generation.Itâs the pricing of the iPod touch which is the most worrisome. Making a
guess about the iPad mini launch next month, I bet that Apple will drop
the iPad 2 and put the iPad mini in at the \$399 price. This would hand
the Christmas shopping season to Amazon, Google, and possibly Barnes and
Noble. The software for iOS is heads and shoulders above what is
available for Android, but when a parent can pick up two Kindle Fire HDs
for the price of one iPad mini, what choice do you think theyâre going
to make? I really doubt theyâd price the iPad mini at the same price as
the new iPod touch, but letâs say they do. It would still be a third
higher than the Kindle Fire HD, although closer in price to the Nexus 7
32GB.Apple has solid devices, well built, but their pricing expectations are
all over the place. To me, it makes sense to:- keep the shuffle at \$49
- place the old nano form factor (but with bluetooth) with 8GB at \$99
- iPod touch 4th gen (8GB) (add bluetooth 4.0 and IPS screen) at \$149
- iPod touch 5th gen (16GB) at \$199
- iPad mini (16GB) at \$299
- iPad 2 (16GB) at \$399
- iPad 3 (16GB) at \$499
I see more and more kids getting Kindle Fires, which is now at \$159.
Apple has dominated the tablet space (and the mobile phone space in
profits), but if they donât price their products more aggressively, they
will lose that dominance. Right now, a \$299 iPad mini would be a tough
sell in my school district when I get get a Nexus 7 (which has better
integration with Google Drive) for \$199. Forget about a \$399 iPad
mini.p.s. Signs that Steve Jobs is gone: he would never have added that hand
strap to the iPod touch. -
Impressions of the Nexus 7 Tablet
For those that know me, ordering a Google Nexus 7 Tablet when it was
released isn’t much of a surprise. I did wait a day though. đ The
Nexus 7 Tablet joins the stable of portable devices at home, which
include a couple of iPad 1s, and iPad 3, a couple of cheap Android
tablets imported from China, an iPhone, and an HP Tablet running both
WebOS and Android Ice Cream Sandwich. My first impressions will be
mainly what I see are the pros and cons of the Nexus 7. I’m not much of
a reviewer, you can find tons of other reviews around the web. -
Something about iPads
[![][]][]I’ve been thinking a lot lately about iPads, Chromebooks, Android
Tablets, and Linux laptops. In planning the next 5 years of technology
in my school district, I know it will be mobile, but what device should
I be thinking about? And then I noticed something very curious about the
iPad and how people interact with it.In the past, when I’ve done professional development, there would always
be some participants that would question the complexity. âWhy are there
so many steps?â âIâll never remember all these!â Now with iPad training,
I very seldom hear these comments. In fact, with all the hoops one must
jump through on the iPad to do some tasks, people almost seem to enjoy
it. These are the same people that would be overwhelmed with the
complexity of doing the same task under desktop operating systems.Is this the epiphany that techies are missing? A device that defies
our expectations of technology? The iPad with its touch and non-window
interface turns the last 20 years of technology use on its head. For the
first time in 15 years, people are realizing that they can use a
computing platform that doesnât have Microsoft Office on it.Iâm reminded of a situation when I first bought the Nintendo Wii. At the
time, motion control was brand new, and I was playing my brother in a
first person shooter. He couldnât quite get the hang of using the
controller, preferring wild swings instead of using the controller with
style and finesse. It was the first new gaming interface he had used
since the analog stick was added to the Nintendo 64 and he was
struggling. It seems we get too comfortable with what we know, instead
of pushing through to see what we can do.These same discussions are taking place with the new interface of
Windows 8. People are lamenting the loss of the desktop, even as
Microsoft assures them that the desktop will still be there when using
Windows 8 on a desktop or laptop computer. Itâs funny in a way, I
remember these same arguments when the switch from Microsoft DOS to
Microsoft Windows was taking place. The writing is on the wall for the
desktop metaphor. People donât want to manually manage their
documents anymore. Or the apps. And most importantly, their
computer. They want to use it to get stuff done, and theyâve found that
the iPad allows them to do it.As districts buy more and more iPads will the new paradigm of touch
computing with a tablet be the future?Â
-
First impressions of the new iPad (from an iPad 1 user)
[![][]][]I’ve had the new iPad for 24 hours, and it has already ruined me for all
other displays. I noticed it yesterday, as I was working on my 24″
1920×1080 monitor at school. It just looks bad after using the new iPad.As an upgrade to the iPad 1, the new iPad is a no brainer upgrade. The
speed is amazing, but it’s the display that is the future. I don’t even
want to use my 11″ Air anymore.You can read more in-depth reviews from around the web, so I’m going to
try to pull out the little bits that may not be covered but I feel are
important:- The #1 feature is the display, 2058×1536 in a 9.7″ package is just
amazing. This is the highest resolution screen I’ve ever used, and
text looks as good as e-ink on it. - Speed of the device is a substantial improvement over the iPad 1 or
iPhone 4. I haven’t used the iPad 2 or the iPhone 4S enough to
compare the two. - iPhone/iPod Touch apps at 2x use retina resolutions for the devices,
giving the apps a more pleasant display. If you are running an iPad
that is already jailbroke, there are apps to allow you to do this
with the older devices. - I’m using my ZAGG/mate bluetooth keyboard from my iPad 1 on it. The
new iPad is very loose in the keyboard case, but it’s useable.
If you’re still rocking an iPad 1, it’s pretty much a no brainer to
upgrade. The decision from an iPad 2 is better left for others to help
you decide.By the way, the Apple Store online has refurbished iPad 1s for \$299
right now.Â
- The #1 feature is the display, 2058×1536 in a 9.7″ package is just