Well, it’s been a while since my last post… to be honest, I’d just got a bit distracted in real life. Things have been hectic here. It’s been hard to find my laptop and check that we have some connectivity after deciding on paint colours, door handles, bar stools, unpacking furniture and so on. Moving house when you’re 8 months pregnant is an experience. Thankfully the weather has only recently decided to get completely summery.
So, one has to disregard what I wrote last time about the iPhone. I got one for my birthday. It’s lovely. I didn’t really want to wait for the second gen. I was just putting on a brave face.
While it is lovely but you have to be committed to this iPhone ownership thing. Bit like getting a pet really. It’s not just for Christmas (or your birthday, or whatever). For example, I have to make sure I don’t let the slippery little blighter tumble out of my handbag or hands when I make a lunge for it. You also have to be aware of where you put your handbag because, while it’s backed-up regularly to my laptop, you don’t want to have to ask another US based friend to send/bring another one into the country. But the hardest thing to do is resist the big UPGRADE button in iTunes. Whatever you do, don’t touch that button!
As I’m a lover of lists, here’s the good stuff about the iPhone:
- it looks amazing
- it works super intuitively
- it syncs seamlessly with my laptop
- it takes better pictures than I’d thought (the camera is better than my old Sony)
- you can’t txt and drive (safety feature!)
- the spontaneous “iPhones on the table!” moments in bars
Things that are a bit “first gen” and need to be worked out:
- inconsistencies in the user interface
- not being able to send group text messages
- not being able to receive pxt
Things that you need a tame hacker for:
- making it work on the Vodafone network (and being able to manage the updates)
- installing software to make your phone cooler e.g. editing music to be your cool new ringtone, alerts that let you know that you’ve got a voice message waiting for you
So, as the end of the school year approaches and life gets a bit more cumbersome, I think this may be my last post in some time. I’m not sure how this whole at home/maternity thing will go. Maybe I’ll be back to work quick smart? Who knows?
Simon inspired me to reflect on this past year but then it got hot and I needed to have a lie down. Being a facilitator this year has been challenging. It’s taken me into some neat schools and allowed me to work some amazing teachers. It’s been a great change of pace from classroom teaching. I have missed the kids but I love working with teachers too. I guess that means that there are loads of opportunities for me when I’m ready to go back to work.
I hope you’re counting down to the end of term and realising you are going to make it. As my mother-in-law says: this is the time of year you can lose you best friend. So some end of year advice: don’t be late for duty but if you are, be quick smart about getting a choccie bar into that person’s pigeon hole!
Merry Christmas and I hope you have fantastic break.
December 17th, 2007
I’ve been thinking about searching with students recently. I have a few places I like myself, such as, Encarta, Yahoo Kids, and Grokker but Simon bought to my attention Google Kids. I did a bit of a search myself and turned up these ideas…
This site is a nice portal for “kids and teens” and offers a directory of different sites. More importantly it has tips on how to do better searches.
Two other places to have a think about:
Google Directory: Kids and Teens
Google Directory: Kids and Teens: School Time
This week has brought Leopard - the new update to OSX. I dutifully watched the instructional video (which was fronted by a Steve Jobs look alike) to see all the new things included. The things I’m liking are:
- the more consistent look across the iLife apps
- the new features in iChat e.g. screen sharing
- Time Machine for back-up
- notes and to-does included in Mail
- the new Finder that has heaps more detail and much easier navigation, even to shared computers.
Things I’m not sure about yet:
- Stacks in the dock
- the blue orb reflection in the dock under open apps.
Overall I’m very happy with my upgrade. It feels a bit faster and it’s always nice to feel like you’ve got the best/latest on offer.
October 30th, 2007
Can anyone explain how we have the good fortune to possess an ipod nano that survived a trip through both the washing machine and dryer?
How does that happen!?
The new iPods are worth looking at on the Apple website. The new nano looks kind of funny in the pictures but is actually quite a delightful After Dinner Mint shape in reality. Quite pleasing to hold.
In other quite-pleasing-to-hold Apple news, I now know a couple of people who have iPhones here. They have been, er, altered to work on the Vodafone network in NZ. The iPhone works just as described and they are beautiful. I wonder if the user experience is a bit like the iPod, i.e. if you are already a Mac user it may be a little bit easier to navigate than if you had been a PC user? Anyway, I want one. Except I want a second-gen one because the camera really is a bit poor. Worse than my 3.5 year old Sony Ericcson.
The iPhone works like having a small child or a cute dog. Suddenly all sorts of attention is garnered, even from known technophobes. No matter where you are, if you pull out an iPhone you’ll instantly have people want to touch it, see how it works, ooh and ahh over it. In this week alone I have seen children under 12 gasp in admiration at the iPhone (great marketing by Apple if the fuss reaches this audience on the other side of the world where the phone isn’t even for sale!) and a gentleman of about 70 years transfixed by using Google Maps over wireless. That’s amazing buzz.
September 30th, 2007
I would recommend anyone interested in young people, and their mental health, to check out this podcast recorded during Kim Hill’s show on National Radio on Saturday 1st September. Kim Hill interviews Michael Carr-Greg, a psychologist who specialises in the mental health issues of adolescents. The podcast is about 34 minutes long. If you are a teacher you might also like to look at his educational resources online.
September 5th, 2007
Recently Apple released iLife08. I’ve been a bit slack about searching out the new stuff. What’s wrong with me?! Most of you will know how much I like Mac stuff and iLife06. I’ve expounded the benefits of using such a student/teacher friendly package and yet I just hadn’t been motivated to go search out the new version. Maybe I was just too happy with the status quo?
I’ve finally thought it was time to go and have a look at it… So, what’s new in iLife08?
- iPhoto: organise photos by event, some new editing tools, and some fluffy stuff (more themes for books, calendars etc)
- Garageband: multi-take recording, customisation of the mix, arrangements, and some fluffy stuff (new vocals jam pack, magic garageband)
- iWeb: theme switching (finally!), my album pages, Google AdSense and Maps and some fluffy stuff (widgets, personal domain names with .mac)
- iDVD: new themes, more customisation, better performance and pro-quality encoding
- iMovie: has been completely rebuilt.
The new version of Garageband sounds cool. I really enjoy using Garageband. I am no musician but it’s been great to create movie soundtracks (and integrates so well with iMovie but does anyone else have the problem where new songs don’t always appear in the Garageband list in the Audio window in iMovie? Sometimes I need to save, quit and reopen iMovie before my new song will show up), recording podcasts etc. I’ve also used it to create beats with students and then get them to rap over the top. This is a great way to integrate poetry, music and ICT. Plus, it’s super motivating for those “reluctant” writers.
I’m also interested to get stuck into iWeb a bit more. I had originally found it quite frustrating. I’d been used to using Dreamweaver and being able to flick between design view and the code. The version of Dreamweaver we have is getting on a bit now and by being able to paste in some code it was quite easy to insert movies etc. I know that Apple wanted iWeb to be super easy, drag’n'drop, but that was exactly what I found frustrating. The templates are very easily manipulated but their very existence annoyed me. It was frustrating to see various websites in last year’s Netguide Webchallenge winning using templates provided by the software. It’s also one of the things I didn’t like about FrontPage i.e. it’s not cool when you can tell what students have used it to create their webpage (clipart, ugh!).
However, I am suspending all my hang-ups about iWeb and reassessing it. It’s not frustrating for those people who haven’t made their own websites before. In fact, the teachers that I’ve worked with on iWeb have been really excited about the possibility of producing their own class website. The only tricky part now is organising hosting and FTP access. Neither of those are particularly difficult. So, it’s okay. I might even use it for some personal stuff soon. Maybe a photo album or some video work. We’ll see.
Which brings me to iMovie. It’s been rebuilt from the ground up. I loved the iLife06 version of iMovie. I’ve taught so many people to use it. They’ve all been delighted, especially those ones that have struggled with MovieMaker and come over to the Mac platform. I particularly enjoyed how it integrated the other iLife software so seamlessly, asides from aforementioned Garageband weirdness. I’ve heard two theories about why Apple have rebuilt iMovie:
1. To make it even easier to use for home consumers: there hasn’t yet been an explosion in digital video such as there was with digital photography.
2. To differentiate more from Final Cut Pro i.e. they didn’t want to keep adding more features to iMovie and make it closer to the pro sofware.
I watched the video on the Apple site to see what it looked like. Apparently you can run both the 06 version and the 08 version. The 08 version looks a bit like a mix betwen iPhoto and Garageband. Gone is the brushed metal interface. There’s some neat ideas, like highlighting the selection of video and placing it in sequence but there is no timeline anymore. I don’t know what you’d call the place where you put the video selections anymore. Maybe it’s the Clip Viewer?
Another thing that seems interesting is the inability to mix/add audio like you could in the previous version. Previously you could use two audio tracks, adjust the volume, extract audio, add fade-in and fade-out etc. It certainly was handy being able to manipulate voice-overs and different soundtracks. Now there is only one audio track available. I wonder if maybe the way to get around this is by recording and mixing in Garageband? Maybe that becomes your one audio track?
In conclusion then, it seems to be worth spending the $109 at the Apple Store to upgrade. If iMovie is rubbish, I’m happy running the old version for a bit more. Has anyone out there had any experience with iLife08 and prepared to comment on their experiences?
August 29th, 2007
Russell Brown weighs in on the article about the rise in violence in schools from The Herald in his post on Hard News: “The Cane and the Strap”. He has a different take on the things I wrote about and his post is definitely worth a read.
July 31st, 2007
This isn’t ICT related but sometimes things written in The Herald astound me. This item was also featured on Radio NZ this morning in the 7 o’clock news.
“The removal of corporal punishment in schools has been highlighted as a root cause of the rise in violence against teachers.
A New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) survey has found one in seven primary school teachers were hit by their pupils last year.
The study also found more than 50 per cent of teachers and more than 25 per cent of school support staff reported “aggressive verbal confrontations” with pupils.”
The removal of corporal punishment is the root cause of the rise in violence against teachers. What?! I am astounded that anyone might think that.
We’ve all had our share of “toey” kids but this article seems to buy into the common notion that schools should be dealing with the problem by changing the way they do things (or in this case, going back to the “good ol’ days”). Just like schools should teach students how to blow their nose and what is a balanced healthy diet, etc. Where is the conversation about parents teaching kids how to behave appropriately, how to eat correctly, get enough sleep, blow their own nose?
More importantly though, how can you teach a child that it is not okay to hit someone when you hit them yourself? One rule for Peter and another for Paul? In my experience, the children that are likely to abuse you (physically or verbally) come from homes where this sort of behaviour is “acceptable” or “normal”. There are lots of positive behaviour management techniques that teachers can employ and these are even more effective when the home comes on board.
July 31st, 2007
From The Herald’s technology section yesterday:
“A unique computer keyboard for the disabled has won its New Zealand designers a coveted gold award at the 2007 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA).
The LOMAK keyboard is operated by a head-mounted or hand-operated laser and allows people with disabilities to navigate the internet, type at 20 words per minute, and achieve or maintain their independence.
…
“LOMAK users develop a whole new outlook on life - they can email friends, remain productive in the workplace, join MySpace, sell things on Trade Me - the things anyone with a computer and an internet connection takes for granted. At school or university, LOMAK means having the same opportunities as other students.”
LOMAK users range in age from 7 to 78 years old and have a range of disabilities including multiple sclerosis, motor neurone disease, spinal muscular atrophy, cerebral palsy, quadriplegia, arthritis and repetitive strain injury.”
This short article grabbed my attention. I’d have to say that until recently I hadn’t spent a lot of time considering how differently abled people could access ICT, except to say that I thought that it could potentially make things easier. Exactly how things would be made easier I didn’t really know. I have heard of an ICT cluster starting based around meeting the needs of students with a variety of disabilities. This could be a fascinating area to research and be involved in.
Just imagine not being able to watch content on YouTube, or hear podcasts, or contribute easily to your own blog, Facebook page, whatever. It’s fantastic that New Zealand designers are addressing the needs of our community.
July 23rd, 2007
It’s been a bit quiet on the Western Front, with school holidays and all, but finally our annual winter treat is here. The New Zealand International Film Festival has begun! I saw a charming French movie yesterday called “Conversations With My Gardener” and tonight we are off to see “Helvetica”.
The Herald had an article about the movie on Saturday 14th July:
“For New York filmmaker Gary Hustwit, the sheer pervasiveness of helvetica makes it every bit as worthy of screen treatment as anything else in the world.
And as this typeface becomes the prevalent means by which we receive written messages in some parts of the world — it can be seen in business logos, public transport networks and numerous posters around the western world — Hustwit thinks its story is worthy of broadcasting.
Perhaps just as curiously, plenty of moviegoers at film festivals around the world have wanted to see Helvetica, his documentary about the font which began life as Die Neue Haas Grotesk in Switzerland 50 years ago.
Hustwit, who will attend screenings of the documentary at the New Zealand Film Festival in Auckland next week, admits he didn’t think his historical tale of graphic design would find such a wide audience.”
So, one may ask how does the NZFF tie in with ICT? Well, I have been experimenting further with Google Calendar to share my picks of the festival with friends. Every year I diligently go through the programme, record the films I am interested in, figure out which sessions can be attended and then highlight them on the timetable provided. But every year I am stuck with writing a massive email to various film-festival-interested-friends; which takes a lot of effort for me to compose and a lot of effort for them to negotiate. Everyone I know seems to be complaining about receiving too much email and so I struck upon the idea of creating a Google Calendar for such things.
In the past I have used Google Calendar to upload my Work and ICTPD calendars from iCal. This works pretty well - you export your calendar from iCal, then import to Google Calendar. Something to remember is that you import to Google. This is not a sync. That means that in order to avoid duplicates I had to delete the current version in Google Calendar and then import the new version. If you forgot to do that it would mean you got double ups all over the place - somewhat frustrating but easily avoided. I was reasonably happy with the service - it’s a bit clunky and slow but it is handy having your calendar on call when you’re away from your own computer/cellphone.
I have had a few questions recently about the best calendar solution for Mac/PC situations. I am not sure that Google Calendar is there yet but it’s certainly a step in the right direction. Some handy hints when sync-ing your calendars between devices:
1. Make sure you have the time set correctly. This includes the Time Zone and Daylight Savings settings. It’s confusing if you can’t remember which device you created the appointment on and now have two different times for the same event.
2. Fill in as much detail as possible. It’s very handy to have phone numbers, physical addresses on call. Nothing like being delayed on a plane, trying to let your rental car company know to stay open for you and being able to access their number quickly.
3. Sync your devices regularly. Play with the settings for how far in the past/future you want your calendars to be sync-ed. It can be quite handy referring back to previous appointments i.e. when did you ring that person, is it time for a follow up call? In the school environment you need the full details of at least the current term, if not the next one.
4. Share your calendars where appropriate and possible. It’s very handy adding attendees to events and sending them notifications/reminders.
I have found being able to sync my iCal with my cellphone invaluable. In fact, I investigated my options for compatible phones before purchasing the last one in order to ensure that it would work with my Mac. I don’t know how I’d get by now if there was no calendar option on my computer (iCal, Google, whatever) and the ability to sync my phone. Life would be one mixed up jumble of never-ending surprise events! Which has it’s charm and place but I prefer to know what’s going to happen next.
July 16th, 2007
Okay, so I’m buying into the hype just a bit. I’m trying not to. Really! Here is a video from USA Today in which technology reporter Ed Baig gives a demo of the iPhone.
To be honest, that on screen touch keyboard looks like a pain. I don’t know that I’d want to type as many texts as I currently do with that system. I wonder if you can get a traditional cell phone keyboard option? Maybe that makes me old-skool? Maybe once you get used to the full keyboard you wouldn’t go back?
June 28th, 2007
Previous Posts