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Archive for the ‘Technology’ category

Old School Bookmarking

August 17th, 2012

I was looking through our cabinets to find something to help our school secretaries organize receipts when I came across this hilarity. A previous librarian had written out hundreds of Rolodex cards for pertinent websites.Â What makes me laugh is that, to use this system, you would need to know the name of the website. This is definitely before Googling became a part of our cultural mindset, because if Lycos isÂ in here, there were search engines around.Â (Does anyone even use Lycos anymore? I know that they tried to re-brand themselves in an AOL/Yahoo way with games and community pages.)

Needless to say, I’m thankful for delicious.com, catch.com, diigo.com, evernote.com…You get the idea.

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Posted in Technology

Mars One

July 27th, 2012

Mars One is a Dutch organization set to pioneer Mars. I’ve been excitedly following the next NASA Mars mission, Curiosity. It’s an unmanned probe that will land on August 5 and search for signs of life (whether ancient or current) on the Martian surface.

Mars One, on the other hand, is promising to establish a manned colony by 2023. That number seems so far off and yet it’s only 11 years away. Here’s their game plan. One key facet to note: they don’t plan on coming back to Earth. They’re setting out like the Pilgrims and know that they must have a successful colony or they will die. That’s pretty gutsy but that has sometimes been the risk with historical milestones.

They have companies supplying different components for the mission and you can find them by clicking here. I really hope it works. They say that they’re only using proven technology; there’s nothing new here, it’s just all working together. That’s like the Pilgrims, too. Their boats were not new technology. Where the new technology came in, though, was learning how to plant crops in a completely different ecosystem. Hopefully Mars One finds some friendly Martians to help them out.

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Posted in Science, Technology

Marvel’s Augmented Reality App

July 10th, 2012

Marvel has an augmented reality app where you can scan comics and get expanded content. That’s nothing too extreme, although I do like its DVD-like special features quality.

Where you might be interested is the new release of the Spider-Man augmented reality storybook app, where young readers can take pictures of themselves and add on photo elements from the new movie. It’s nothing too groundshaking, but might be the sign of a change in book marketing for the future. The app also narrates the storybook.

Right now it’s just for iOS systems. The regular Marvel digital comics app is for iOS and Android, is free, and has free comics to download to your device. Most comics you have to pay for, but I have only downloaded the free ones and have enjoyed it (just don’t expect to follow a story arc to its completion).

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Posted in Tablet, Technology

Give me a tablet that’s about creation, not consumption.

June 18th, 2012

I know that there are some users that write extensively on an iPad, which is really cool and I know that it is possible. I also know that there is a version of iMovie for the iPad, as well, but that it’s missing some functions that a MacBook version would have. You can post blog entries and even edit photos, which would make Ray Bradbury giddy, but most Apple users that I know do their heavy workloads using a MacBook.

I’ve helped people set up Android tablets before and enjoyed it, but it wasn’t quite for me. I’ve not really made the leap into tablet computing because most of it seems to be focused on consuming media and not creating it.

The new Microsoft Surface Pro is boasting that it can run many of the applications that a desktop running Windows 8 can. The tablet hasn’t been released, so any further commentary from me would be just speculation. We’ll see if battery life or usability get in the way of creativity.

Can it run a full version of Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator? I use those daily and I’m not about to spend money on an expensive tablet and an additional laptop.

It is interesting to note that Steve Ballmer mentioned that software and hardware need to be considered at the same time. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of Microsoft, traditionally a software company when it comes to computers, making its own hardware in the same set-up as Apple. They’ve got the XBOX and the Windows Phone. (Can I throw in a cheap shot joke about Zune here?)

From a school perspective, I’m just hoping for technology that’s cost-effective and efficiently supplements the curriculum.

Here are the tech specs for the “low-end” and “high-end” (relative terms) tablets:

Windows RT

OS: Windows RT
Weight: 676 g
Thickness: 9.3 mm
Display: 10.6â€ ClearType HD Display
Battery: 31.5 W-h
Ports: microSD, USB 2.0, Micro HD Video, 2Ã—2 MIMO antennae
Features: Office Home & Student 2013 RT, Touch Cover, Type Cover, VaporMg Case & Stand
Possible configurations: 32 GB, 64 GB

Windows 8 Pro

OS: Windows 8 Pro
Weight: 903 g
Thickness: 13.5 mm
Display: 10.6â€ ClearType Full HD Display
Battery: 42 W-h
Ports: microSDXC, USB 3.0, Mini DisplayPort Video, 2Ã—2 MIMO antennae
Features: Touch Cover, Type Cover, Pen with Palm Block, VaporMg Case & Stand
Possible configurations: 64 GB, 128 GB

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Posted in Microsoft, Tablet, Technology

A text-only help line

April 27th, 2012

Check out this TED talk about a help line for teens set up by Nancy Lublin, someone who understands how teens prefer to communicate.

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Posted in Technology

Google Drive

April 25th, 2012

Google Drive promises to be like Dropbox as a place to synchronize files across your devices. The added bonus is that you can set up your files to be shared amongst specific Google users. The downside is now Google, supercomputing powerhouse that it is, would now have access to those files. If I were a comic book supervillain, I wouldn’t take over a building. I would subtly take over Google.

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Posted in Google, Technology

Socrative – A free student response system

April 9th, 2012

I know that schools are pushing for more technology use and one of those ways is through student response systems, “clickers” that students can key in their responses and get instant feedback. The positive is that teachers can assess the entire class at once instead of just the one or two students that get called on per question. The negatives are the cost and, closely related, the proprietary nature of the devices. (You have to use that company’s clickers on their software.)

Socrative gets around that. This is perfect for the computer lab or a mobile lab. The teacher creates a classroom and a quiz. Socrative generates the room number. Students then go to Socrative and type in the room number. They type in their name and then are presented with the quiz.

I did my test run with a laptop and my phone, with the laptop being the teacher station. My phone showed a message that said it was waiting on the teacher. Once I was ready on the laptop, it automatically updated on my phone and I answered the sample question. The teacher station then saw what I got and started a grade report. Students don’t see how their classmates scored, which is good. They are able to see if they got the right answer if you set up the quiz to do that. There is also a game mode called Space Race where they are divided into two teams and their right answers fuel their rockets. It’s not a huge motivator, but it still beats a worksheet.

What is great is that the reports export to Excel. There is also a quiz creation template in Excel that you can import so that you can make a backup copy and not have to rely solely on an online copy. The fact that it’s free definitely helps.

With more school districts moving towards a “bring your own teachnology” policy for portable devices, I see a lot of potential for this.

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Posted in Assignments, Technology

GMail Tap

April 1st, 2012

Google always has great April Fool’s Day jokes. Some were pretty far-fetched, like the mind control features of Google Docs, but this GMail keyboard is pretty convincing:

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Posted in Google, Technology

Class books as eBooks

March 27th, 2012

Yes, there are things like Kindle Direct Publishing or Apple’s iBook creator, but School Library Journal’s Digital Shift has a great list of websites that can be used to create eBook .mobi and .epub files. We have students that create portfolios online. Imagine a collection of poems or essays in one contained file to load on an ereader.

The caution: What’s to stop an older sibling from giving the ebook to a younger system? You would need a system of checks to avoid plagiarism.

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Posted in Technology

A Common Core search app for both Android and iOS

March 19th, 2012

Over Spring Break the Common Core standards came up in conversation (I do, on occasion, hang out with educators) and the people I chatted with wanted links to both the iTunes and Android App Store versions of MasteryConnect’s Common Core App. Where the app excels is in presenting the Common Core standards in an easy-to-read format at a moment’s notice.

The link to the iOS (for iPhones and iPads) is here and the link for Android users is here. If you can find a Windows Phone version, please leave a link in the comments. Also leave a comment if you have a better app. The other ones that I have found are missing one half or the other, making MasteryConnect’s the best option.

Here’s a QR code for the Android version:

Here’s a QR code for the iOS version:

Here’s a QR code for this post:

Feel free to use the images or anything else from this post in a handout for teachers and your educational community.