Tales of a Technology Omnivore

My colleague Maria showed me a wonderful tool to create an online scrapbook page that anyone can edit.  Pikiwiki.com is an amazingly easy to use tool where you can paste pictures, videos, audio, text, and graphics easily onto a page that can be shared without the hassle of registering new users or inviting people.  Truly open!  Sure, it can be grafitti’d all over but only by those who know it’s there (who get the link).  This could be a PHENOMENAL project for an elementary school class to create a story about their family in collaboration with their family.  Love it!  Thanks Maria!

Check it out:  http://www.pikiwiki.com

The New York Daily News has a nice article about the iTeach/iLearn pilot program which equips schools with 21st Century tools to enhance teaching and learning.  Schools involved in the program give a laptop to each student and equip teachers with smartboards, projectors, and other classroom technologies.  Most importantly, a full professional development program has been created to train teachers how to integrate this technology into their teaching.  With a laptop in the hands of every child, these schools empower the students to learn through differentiated digital avenues.  As Troy Fischer, OIT Senior Director puts it, “It’s teachers giving students the opportunity to take control of their learning”.

Check out the article:  http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2007/11/25/2007-11-25_hightech_schools_pilot_program_puts_kids-2.html

The New York Times has an excellent article on Amazon’s new e-book reader. Christened the “Kindle”, the device uses Sony’s new e-ink technology to create a screen that appears like a printed page: no glare, glow, or eyestrain. It can hold up to 200 books at a time and comes with FREE broadband wireless connection so you can download books directly to the device, browse the web, and check your email. Charge lasts between 2 and 10 days depending on if you leave the wireless receiver on. When it is ON, you never need to turn it off because the screen takes up NO power. Once it remagnetizes the screen to a new pattern, it requires no electricity to keep it there. The energy is used only when you’re turning pages or surfing the web or downloading books. On top of that, their library of e-books sell for typically half of what printed books sell for — kind of what you’d expect an e-book to cost.

Megan Meiers was a 13 year old Missouri girl who had a fall-out with her best friend. The parents of the best friend decided to play a joke on her that ended in tragedy. They pretended to be a boy that Megan was interested in named “Josh”. After flirting with the girl for a few weeks they started sending messages accusing the girl of being a slut, then ended with “The world would be a better place without you.” Megan hung herself in her closet that night and died the next day, a few days short of her 14th birthday. Tragic.

The best way to stop cyberbullying amongst kids is to tell them about stories like this. They need to know that cyberbullying is a serious and dangerous activity that can end in tragedy. Condolences to the family and friends of this senseless tragedy.

Read about it: http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3879331

and: http://www.news.com/8301-13860_3-9819394-56.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

READ THE FOLLOW-UP:  The Beginning of Justice for Megan Meier

All the way back in early October I was eyeing a replacement for my cell phone which I ruined.  It was between the AT&T Duo and the Motorola Q9H.  Took forever but I got a chance to check the Duo and it’s too plasticy.  Feels like it will scratch and break too quick.  So I tried the Motorola Q9H and I’m in love!!  This phone has real speakers built into it with surround sound and bass boost making it like a portable radio!  The camera has a bright flash on it enabling night pictures and the phone feels solid, sturdy and durable.  On top of that, it accepts micro-SD cards up to 32GB!!  I put my 6GB card in and it plays all my music.

Now for the disappointment.  It originally advertised that it has Blackberry connect.  But now they say it will be available by download in early 2008.  Another wait?!?!  I want my work and my home life on one device — sick of carrying around two units.  SO… I don’t know… I have a month to try it –  maybe it will be worth the wait.

I guess the whole point of the internet and these mobile devices whether they be laptops or smartphones is… we want to access our digital life but don’t want to be imprisoned to our desktop. I mean, how can you share your life if people have to come to your computer screen to hear your favorite song or see a picture or watch a video. This is why I began my digital migration to the internet.

The latest move in my migration to the internet cloud is through Anywhere.fm. This site makes it possible for you to access your music library from anywhere via a nice internet music player. Not only that, but you can share your music with your friends through an internet radio (listen to my station: http://www.anywhere.fm/jpmcde). Now not only can I access my bookmarks (del.icio.us — check out the new firefox plugin), files (skydrive.live.com), and pictures (flickr), but now music. And they’re all share-able which is the best part. Finally I am free from the desktop and can start enjoying the great outdoors. Now if I can only keep my fingers off the cell phone I’ll be fine.

This last week has been a woozy.  I got a new exciting project at work that took most of my attention and yet I still found a way to keep most of my work projects afloat — by asking for help.  The only thing that suffered drastically is my blog.  I dreaded the moment I’d have to check on the blog stats and see how it has affected readership.  But that moment is here and I am amused.

I advocate that if you’re going to write a blog that you establish some sort of frequency.  I started writing once in a while, then once a week, then once every other day.  Then I got hooked.  The more I wrote, the more people read!  So I started writing every weekday and voila!  More readers.  So I added the weekends (not every) and got even better results.  I have grown to look forward to writing my blog entry and always seem to find something to jab about.

But look at what happens when you disrupt that frequency.  Check out my blog stats..  See the peaks and valleys?  The drastic dips and jumps are from last week when I couldn’t focus my attention on the blog.  Lesson learned.  Don’t disappoint the people.  They have come to depend on me.  They need my writing like coffee in the morning.  Without my writings, people are sad, lost, and scared in this cold technological world.  Fear not readers, I hear your cry!

This is the biggest case of institutional bipolar disorder I’ve ever seen. Much to the dismay and anger of NYC parents, the school system banned cell phones in schools several years ago. Now in a pilot program, they’re issuing free cell phones to every student in 12 schools across the city and they’re going to text the students to promote achievement. What an amazing turn around. We’ve been salivating over the educational potential of these little portable devices kids carry around with them — many of which can be called mini-computers. Looks like an opportunity to develop cell phone technology integration strategies if you ask me!

Read: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/13/education/13schools.html?_r=1&ref=education&oref=slogin

Photo: From the collection of L-ines at Flick.com

I discovered HippoCampus in an USA today article entitled, “Free online material could save school billions“, passed on to me through a colleague.  It’s a free high quality tool to assist high school students with subjects like Algebra, American Government, Environmental Science and more.  It’s an interactive review tool that is unusually well done for a free product.  What I like about it is that it’s a comprehensive coverage of those topics aligned with most high school textbooks so if a student likes it, he or she can use it to digest all the content for that topic.  This could serve as a jump off point for an international project comparing how US History is taught in different countries.

Hippocampus.org:  http://hippocampus.org/

The NY Times has an article applauding a professor who staged a classroom stunt to scare his students from using their cell phones during class. Then it goes on to expound on how difficult it is for teachers to compete with the myriad of distractions that take student’s focus off what they’re teaching. Makes several good points. In the past, distractions would come in the form of chewing gum, playing with your curls, or staring into space. Today’s students are distracted by text messages, social networking sites, web sites, music, etc. It’s tough to compete with the ever growing list of distractions.

They make a nice distinction between how baby boomers and today’s generation view technology. Baby boomers see it as information and communication and today’s generation view it as entertainment and socialization. Yet for all they say that is right, they’re missing the boat on the bigger picture in relation to how technology is reshaping our society. (more…)