Posts filed under 'New Technology'
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
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
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
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
This article was in the Herald’s Technology section this morning:
“Apple said on Tuesday its hotly anticipated iPhone could cost as much as $3,000 ($NZ3914) with a required two-year service contract, and a handful of eager buyers started lining up to spend their money.”
$3914. Ouch.
EDIT (29/06/07): I calculated what was spent on the first two years of my phone contract and it’s purchase price. That includes $699 for the phone originally and then approximately $90/month on contract. The grand total of all that $2859.
What do I learn from this? Cell phones are expensive. Would I do without one? No.
June 27th, 2007
Leo Laporte, from TWiT, calls the launch of the new Apple iPhone “the largest consumer electronics launch ever”. It certainly looks amazing - an all-in-one device: cell phone, iPod, “internet in your pocket”, camera… And, it’s beautifully designed. Say what you want about Apple, but they certainly know how to design good looking hardware. Unfortunately there’s a couple of (potential) stings in the tail: some costly data plans, limited battery life, being locked into one provider and the US$500 cost. Mind you, with the exchange rate as it is that’s not too bad!
It got me thinking about my old cell phone, a Sony Ericsson K700i. It’s been a great little work horse. Three years on and it’s still trucking along beautifully and provides an excellent range of tools e.g. Bluetooth and the ability to sync with my laptop. Its camera is fairly average but okay for those quick snaps and the video is alright as long as you hold the phone as still as possible.
Something really exciting about cell phones is their ability to be used in the classroom. Stephen Heppell discussed this at the last Navcon I saw him present at. As he said, cell phones are found even in the most remote parts of the world. They are the most ubiquitous piece of hardware that teachers can access. It’d be hard to find a teacher who doesn’t have access to a cellphone! Yet, not many other teachers I know ever use them in the classroom, despite me often encouraging them to do so.
Here are some ideas that you can use your cellphone for:
- recording audio
- photographing spontaneous learning situations
- videoing learning experiences
I have used my phone for all these things and it’s been so easy. The students have recorded interviews with others in the school, I’ve recorded them speaking about their learning on trips (capture the moment!), and then we’ve used bluetooth to send files to the laptop. In the past we’ve published those audio files via podcast and on the class blog.
I’ve used the camera on the phone when there has been some exciting learning and my digital camera has been unavailable (flat batteries, the next door teacher has it) and then shared those photos or video via the data projector. One memorable time we did this, I took short videos of the students learning rugby skills with the Auckland Rugby guys. I uploaded the videos to my laptop, renamed them and then shared them (out of order) with the class on the projector. The students were asked to discuss the activities they were doing for oral language and then, to support writing, I asked them to sequence the activities. This really motivated and excited the children. They love to see themselves on screen! None of these activities relied on having awesome quality pictures, sound or video. The students could see clearly what they were doing and were completely satisfied with the quality.
Disadvantages for using a cellphone in school time:
- the potential for students to access private information.
- the “portability” of cellphones - they’re expensive and you don’t want them to get taken.
- the policies of the school in which you work - do they allow teachers to use cellphones during class time?
- the potential for mixed messages to be sent for kids - it’s okay for the teacher to use their phone in school time but it’s not okay for them to use them.
What happens at your school? Are you making the most of the piece of technology in your bag?
June 26th, 2007