Monthly Archives: January 2009

Jan 21 2009

Media at an All-time High

With the inauguration of Barack Obama yesterday, the media covering this year’s US Presidential election kicked it up another notch, if that’s possible.

Throughout the election, every move and faux pas by those in the running was captured in text, images, and video and shared / commented at levels that have never been seen before.  It was interesting to watch on two levels.  At the high end, we saw the news networks engaging in camera angles and technologies that were never possible until now.  At the low end, we saw people with cell phones and bloggers with keyboards recording their thoughts and sharing whatever comes to mind.

We saw candidates on Twitter giving us the blow by blow.

I found all of this fascinating.  On the high tech end, we got opportunities to see technologies that we know will eventually trickle down in price so that we can all enjoy it.  On the low end, we enabled anyone who wished the opportunity to have a voice and an opinion to be freely shared without censor.  On Twitter, if you followed closely, we saw just how hectic a pace that all of the candidates kept.

There were lessons in media literacy and technology for all classrooms should you be following it.

Less than a day after the inauguration speech, a Google search reveals over 600 000 hits for the search string “obama inauguration speech“.

Some other things to check out and bookmark…

There is so much more.  The major networks were doing their best on the human interest angle as well.  Last night, I watched as CNN used their interactive screen to show what balls the Obamas were attending and how they got there.  There was coverage and commentary on the clothing worn.  There was even speculation that the girls had a sleep over with friends at the White House.

That the media raised this event to new levels, there can be no doubt.  I’ve always maintained that it takes a special person to put themselves on display for analysis in so many different angles.

You’ve just got to know that the conversation will continue in classrooms, workspaces, and around water coolers world wide today.  People may not have been part of the audience but with the use of the media at so many levels, everyone is an expert at some level.

And, if you’re in need of a second opinion, check out the 676 front pages at the Newseum.  Is there any question what the top story is?

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Jan 20 2009

links for 2009-01-20

Jan 20 2009

Is Nothing Sacred

If you know me well, you know that one of my daily rituals is to have a peanut butter sandwich for lunch.  It’s one of life’s treats for me and I enjoy it so much.

It does mean that I have to have lunch by myself as there are folks who have allergies and I’m sensitive to that.  It is a situation that I deal with to treat myself to this delicacy.

Now, in the news we read about a recall of peanut butter in the United States because of salmonella.

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/01/12/health-salmonella.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE50F7GH20090120

Say it isn’t so!

What’s scary about things like this is that you don’t know until it’s reported in the news.  By the time it makes the top of the news stack, there have been sicknesses or even deaths to raise the awareness.

At this point in time, it’s still good news for my lunchtime plans.

http://kraft.com/MediaCenter/country-press-releases/Peanut_Butter_Ingredients_Update

It really does give you pause to think though.  We rely on the quality and work efforts of so many people as we go through the day.  Similarly, there are people that rely on us to do out best.  It may be time to mentally revisit the old adage “Autograph your work with excellence”.   

We all need to pull together, doing the very best that we can.

Blogged with the Flock Browser
Jan 20 2009

links for 2009-1-19

By dougpete • Posted in Uncategorized
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Jan 20 2009

links for 2009-1-20

By dougpete • Posted in Uncategorized
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Jan 19 2009

links for 2009-01-18

Jan 18 2009

Concept Updated

I decided to put some effort into the iPod / iPhone post and have created a new page on my wiki to let us build and share applications suitable for the classroom.

The goal is to create a perfect suite of applications that would be useful should you have students with these devices.

Or, as noted in the original post, it could be a teacher with an iPod, data projector, and appropriate cable.

Please add your thoughts to this wiki page.

http://dougpete.pbwiki.com/iPod-and-iPhone-in-the-Classroom

I’m really interested in seeing where this takes us.

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Jan 18 2009

iPod / iPhone in the Classroom

This type of technology has been on the horizon for a while.  The concept here is one of using these devices in the classrooms for learning activities.

I’ve been sort of interested, on the sidelines, but not terribly sold on the concept.  Until recently, the applications that had an educational bent were very simple and did things like flash cards which doesn’t cut it for me.  Yes, there’s a drill and kill, review type aspect to them that does have a place but it’s an expensive place.

I’m thinking that Christmas 2008 may be the start of something new and interesting.

It was this Christmas that kids (big and small) found iPod Touches and iPhones under the Christmas tree.  After tearing them open, downloading the latest iTunes, updating the i-OS (these things must have been manufactured last summer), there’s a realization that these devices could do more than just play their favourite music.  Significantly more.

If your house was equipped with wireless for traditional computing devices, you were ready to go with your new one.  Where to head?  The iTunes store, of course.  Ready to pony up $.99 for a song?  How about something free instead?  If you hadn’t been there for a while and hadn’t been there with one of these new devices, you might not have poked around the “App Store“.  Sure, you might have downloaded a free podcast or two, but this changes things significantly.  Love it or hate it, the App Store is your one stop for applications that run on your new device.  And so many of them are for free.

There is the entertainment space which I’m sure is the first place that most people head.  Prepare for a smorgasbord of free games.  However, the educator also heads to the Education section.  As I write this, there are 59 pages of about 20 applications per page that fall into the category of Education.  It does indeed get interesting now.  Applications written for the iPod / iPhone tend to be very visually engaging, with sound and music, and no external drivers and devices needed to get them to work.  If you can point and click with your finger, you’re good to go.

The down side is the distribution mechanism.  While there are lots of free applications, there are even more pay applications.  At this writing, there isn’t a way to preview these before you buy.  You pay for them upfront and take your chances.  With the digital rights management feature, I’m surprised that there isn’t some sort of method to take a look before you pay.  Many developers release a “lite” version to let you explore and then purchase the full version if that’s what you want.

There needs to be a way to improve upon this for sales because there are so many good applications for free.  The venerable Google Earth has a mobile version.  Animoto has released a free version that lets you put together simple presentations based upon imagery in your device.  Great teachers will find great ways to incorporate these.  The list of applications is impressive.  Above and beyond the typical single application, the iPod / iPhone works with the best of collaboration right out of the box.  In fact, with the GPS abilities of these machines, applications like Twittelator have more functionality than their desktop or web relatives.

How will this play out?  Who knows?  We may be headed towards a head to head battle between the iPod / iPhone and Netbooks in the race toward ubiquitous computing.  Both seem to be zeroing in on the same price point.  Both are very portable, have great battery life, both access web applications, you can fill in the blanks. It might even be that your Netbook will run an iPod emulator in the future.

The iPod / iPhone even has the teacher is covered.  With appropriate connections, your device also connects to a television or data projector for display.

Stay tuned; we’re not done with this discussion by a long shot.

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Jan 18 2009

links for 2009-01-17

Jan 17 2009

A Bona Fide Hero

In the continuing saga of US Airways Flight 1549 comes this story this morning.

It’s great when we recognize heros, heroism, and extra ordinary efforts.  I’m sure that the official word would be that Captain Sullenberger’s actions were what every pilot would do under the circumstances.  Perhaps it is.

Given what I know of the circumstances, I can’t see myself remaining calm and under control and doing everything by the book.  I’m sure that most of us have been in airplanes and experienced the wind sheer and turbulence that happens in flight.  It’s corrected, of course, but you’ve got to believe that there is a significant difference between doing it under normal circumstances with full controls and controlling an airplane without engines as you attempt to land on water where there might be boats, ferries, ice, …

It is wonderful to see the reported 75 000 Facebook users step up and recognize this effort of heroism.  By the time you read this, the numbers will have surpassed this.  (I just checked and it’s at 103 387 and growing)

This is indeed something special.

You can visit the page on Facebook by clicking here.

The facts from US Airways can be found here.

How Captain Sullenberger stayed calm.

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