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Real-Time Diagrams For Your Team
The no-hassle presentation and online mind mapping -
Snip and share your favourite part of a YouTube video.
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TimeRime is a web application which allows people to create, view and compare interactive timelines. The application is available as an online community at www.timerime.com, and as a professional software solution, that can be integrated in other websites. See also our Pro Solutions page.
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Archimy.com is a service for drawing the graphs of all kinds of functions. With Archimy, you will draw the graph of any function and form, just use your imaginatio
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Detroit Public Schools will invest more than $49.4 million in classroom school technology upgrades, thanks to federal stimulus funding that is being used to purchase 40,000 new netbook computers and more than 5,000 desktop computers, as well as multi-purpose printer/scanners for every classroom in the district, Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb announced today.
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Beginning in February, every student in grades 6-12, and every teacher in the district, will receive or have access to an ASUS Eee Netbook, as part of what they're calling a massive technology infusion.
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Web-based gradebook for teachers, schools, and districts, K-12 to
college. Optionally integrate with your SIS or use SnapGrades SIS -
GroupMe makes life easy for you and your groups. It's your real-life network, in your pocket.
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MyFoodFactsTM – an iPhone application empowering food allergy sufferers to take control over the foods they eat and the products they buy!
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Accept card payments with no contract, monthly fees, or hidden costs. Just plug a free card reader into your mobile device and start swiping.
Monthly Archives: January 2011
Welcome Visitors
It is possible for your blog to end up looking pretty badly. In fact, Alec Couros poked a little fun at our development of web content during his keynote address on the weekend. He talked about people who created webpages at Geocities in years gone by and had the compulsory animated GIFs to add content to the page. I smiled when he made that remark and demonstrated something using the Wayback Machine. The reason for the smile was the fact that one of my popular workshops at the time included showing participants how to create animated GIFs from scratch. It seemed compulsory at the time that people included something like that on their pages. I used to warn people who would do the same activity with students to not confuse these things as actual content.
Flash forward to today where we’re not using Geocities as a host anymore.
Some of the elements of “design” that people learned from GeoCities lives on in contemporary platforms like the modern blog. I know that visiting some blogs look more like comic books than deliverers of thoughts or contents. Things spinning here, flashing there, and help us, periodic sounds.
My personal take is that you’re visiting the blog for the thoughts and comments of the author and not to see some sort of spinning multi-media distraction showcase. I think it should be quite evident when you get to a blog just where the blog is! Unfortunately, in some cases, you have to dig past the advertising, sponsorships, widgets, and just plain noise. Now, on this blog, I do have some widgets (you’ll see them off to the right) which I hope that people can use for additional navigation and information through the site. On the backend, when you log in as an administrator, there is a complete set of analytics. I like periodically going through the analytics to find out more about my visitors. Beyond just numbers, I find it helpful to know “where” people are coming from, “what” page that they hit first, and “what kind” of browser they’re using when they got here.
For a long time, I’ve played around with Feedjit on webpages and wikis and it does exactly what I want without the obnoxious spinning and flashing and advertising. Since this blog is on wordpress.com instead of a self-hosted wordpress, the option wasn’t available and I just gave up on the concept.
Until about a week ago.
I was reading a blog (can’t remember which one now) and I noticed that there was a Feedjit on it so I went back to do some digging and found that there is a special version that they claim will run everywhere. Now, I don’t know how long this has been available but I’m glad that it is. It’s probably not of interest to anyone but me so I’ve put it way down at the bottom. Since my blog posts aren’t long, you’ve probably never noticed. If you have seen it, you’ve probably seen this. It’s a summary of who has visited the site. Chances are, you’re at the top of the list.
But, that’s just the “ego” interface. “Wow, you had someone from Toronto, Canada visit your blog”! Yep, I did.
Now, by itself, that’s not what I’m looking for. There is an option to view details about the folks and how they got there. If you watch the feed live, you get the good stuff.
This is what I’m looking for. What operating system are people using. It looks like this capture indicated that visitors are using Windows XP and Windows 7. Browser? At this moment in time, it’s Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer. The actual landing link appears to the right. For all my thoughful postings, it’s something about Wordles that capture the interest of folks. I can now take a look and see what that post was about. It turns out that it dealt with analyzing the content of a Wordle. Interesting.
It’s this sort of analysis that I personally find interesting. Hopefully, it’s placed so far down the page that you won’t be annoyed by its placement. I think working with the analytics of a blog has great potential in the classroom as well. It does allow students to dig a little deeper into what makes blogging such an important activity to include in their publishing efforts. In the computer science classroom, the source code of the page is a nice text page that just begs a program be written to rip it apart and analyze the contents.
As I wrap this entry to a close, I’m smiling thinking that I may have rambled on long enough that you may see the real Feedjit to the right. Sorry! In case you’re interested, I appear in the list as coming from Harrow, Canada.
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links for 2011-01-11
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Create your own YouTube playlists
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Your data is spread across the web.
Search through it at once, just like you search your hard-drive. -
Resources for Rethinking is a project developed by Learning for A Sustainable Future. It provides teachers access to lesson plans and other teaching resources that integrate environmental, social and economic spheres through learning that is interdisciplinary and action oriented. We call this learning Education for Sustainable Development or ESD.
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BetterLesson – create, organize and share your curriculum
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The internet's first collaborative photo encyclopedia
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Play the BiblioBouts online game to learn the process of finding high quality information while you complete your assignments.
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Top Lists of Everything! Create lists of the best stuff on the web.
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Style Google Forms so that they fit into your site’s look and feel.
Replace that dull Google confirmation page with your own custom ‘Thank you’ page. -
Google Docs is an easy-to-use online word processor that enables you to create, store, share, and collaborate on documents with your science and math students. You can even import any existing document from Word and Simple Text. You can work from anywhere and with any computer platform to access your documents.
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Easy to create Google Map with Route Directions. Display Street View for any point along the route. Animated Street View for all or part of the journey.
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The Prezi Academy. Learn how to make the best Prezi presentations.
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easy way to find songs and music videos.
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A Catholic school board has taken action after learning a young hacker in accessed confidential records, including provincial test scores.
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Discover over 35,000 radio stations including hundreds of genres in over 40 languages and your favorite pure play internet radio stations from around the world.
An Interesting Application
I started on a quest to find a friendly graphic organizer for the iPad. One of the titles that I ran across was Popplet which has both a Lite and a pay version. As I’m inclined to do, I downloaded the Lite version to play around with it. It worked very nicely and did the sorts of things that I was looking for. It was like an iPad version of the most common features that I use with SMART Ideas. Create bubbles (popples), enter text, add some drawing, insert an image, include a URL actively linked to a web browser, resize and link bubbles. It had it all.
There were some features that I wouldn’t use now like output to VGA but that’s a feature that I might use somewhere down the line. With finger touches and swipes, it’s pretty easy to navigate throughout the organizer on the screen. I was pretty happy with it. Recently, I wanted to do a little more research on the product and so went to their website where they’ve been working on a computer version – only thing it is a closed Beta. But, ever adventurous, I signed up and received my invitation today.
I had to give it a shot. I decided to create a Popplet version of my Digital Footprint. Within minutes, I was up and running and very happy with the results.
The computer version is just as easy to navigate as the iPad version. It does have all the functionality of the original and then some. In addition to creating a basic organizer, there are some really nice additional features. Besides images, bring in media from YouTube, Flickr, Facebook or Google Maps. Rather than pinching and swiping to zoom in and out, a slider does the trick for you. (Or mouse navigation as well, of course) In the design, choose a colour theme to get started.
I really liked the clean presentation. In their “labs”, there’s a timewarp feature that lets you play back your Popple in the order that it was created. I can watch stuff like that for hours! From a presentation point of view, each of the Popples can be hot linked to internet addresses. This would be a very nice navigation feature on an Interactive White Board.
Collaborating isn’t fun when you have to do it alone! There are a number of options for sharing like a link, Twitter, Facebook, or embed code. So, if you are inclined, you can visit my Popplet live at: http://popplet.com/app/#/11936.
My first impression of Popple is very positive. I like the consistent approach between the iPad and the web version at the basic level. That makes implementation in the classroom easier. It would be nice if you could share a Popple between platforms but perhaps that’s in the future. If you’re inclined, apply for an invitation and see what you think.
links for 2011-01-10
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Mark La Pointe is a veteran voice over actor, who specializes in lightening fast turn around on your project. His voice talent experience ranges from Reality TV narration to internet pod casts, national radio and television voice overs and beyond
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Interactive learning resources from teachers, publishers, museums and archives
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The Zimmer Twins is a fun way to incorporate technology into the classroom. Watch your students expand their vocabulary, practice proper writing habits, and become junior movie producers all at the same time! Take a few minutes to explore the Zimmer Twins and so you are familiar with the site before using it with your students.
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Looking for a way to get your students more engaged? Mixbook is proud to present 1Mixbook for Educators, a program that allows educators even easier access to the most powerful suite of digital storytelling tools on the web. Check out the stories below to hear how Mixbook can help YOU.
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Welcome to Myths and Legends. This site is for pupils, teachers and all those who enjoy stories and storytelling. The British Isles is rich in myths, folktales and legends. Almost every town, city and village in Britain has its own special story, be it a Celtic legend, Dark Age mystery, strange happening or fable.
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Show your Prezi presentations! Register on prezi.com, create a prezi, and then show it on your iPad. Drag to pan and pinch to zoom in or out of topics, just like you do in any map app. This lets you freely explore your prezi as your meeting or conversation develops–in the exhibit hall or office hallway.
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It is nice that The New York Times occasionally publishes a positive story about technology in education amidst their standard "oh, we're distracted" fare. But it is unfortunate when that information is incomplete and inaccurate in presentation.
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iPhone Configuration Utility lets you easily create, maintain, encrypt, and push configuration profiles, track and install provisioning profiles and authorized applications, and capture device information including console logs.
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The MDE Tools Wiki was created for the UMUC MDE Virtual Conference 2011. Here, Allison and Julie present free, or low-cost tools you can use to communicate, keep organized, and share information. The activities help acquaint students and staff with several “cloud-based” tools for use throughout the MDE. For students, these tools provide excellent support for collaborating in Study Group activities. Lurkers are welcome, although you'll get the most benefit from the site trying the tools collaboratively with other participants. While the wiki remains open 24/7, the MDE Tools Wiki activity will be supported January 17-26.
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Some people just cannot seem to learn what it means when Google says “We made 400 algorithm changes last year!”
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In a recent PC Pro article, Professor Steven Furber, developer of the ARM microprocessor, laments the sharp decline in interest in computer science classes in the UK. And although the U.S. hasn't seen that same drop in enrollment, a recent survey of some 14,000 U.S. high school teachers by the Computer Science Teachers Association found that only 65% of respondents taught in a school that offered some sort of introductory computer science course.
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Services like the Mac App Store may be convenient for discovering software, but they can come with quite a few downsides too. Here are ten other great places to find the program you need.
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Mapwing makes it easy to build, share, and explore virtual tours. Use Mapwing to turn your digital photos into virtual tours that include interactive maps, images, and comments. Then, share your virtual tours with friends, clients, or the entire world. Begin creating your own virtual tours for Free
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This is an attempt and work in progress to write a semi-useful ipod web app for teaching.
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When the social and digital media revolution gained momentum at the dawn of the new millennium, no one would have predicted that less than a decade later black and Latino youth would be just as engaged as their white, Asian, and more affluent counterparts.
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This is a new page of the Directory showing SOCIAL tools particularly targeted at (or very useful) for the primary, junior, middle and secondary school classrooms. (The rest of the Directory also provides useful tools) But if you want to add a tool specifically to this list of social learning tools for the classroom, go HERE.
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Twurdy uses text analysis software to "read" each page before it is displayed in the results. Then Twurdy gives each page a readability level. Twurdy then shows the readability level of the page along with a color coded system to help users determine how easy the page will be to understand.
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50 Educational Apps for the iPod Touch
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The Autism Awareness Project (AAP) provides individuals and agencies who work with infants, toddlers, and preschool children with Early Detection Kits, at no charge.
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Angry Birds now for Macintosh and Windows.
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Learning Without Frontiers is a global platform for disruptive thinkers and practitioners from the education, digital media, technology and entertainment sectors who come together to explore how new disruptive technologies can drive radical efficiencies and improvements in learning whilst providing equality of access.
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If you are a classroom teacher who wants to take advantage of powerful technologies in both your classroom and for other professional tasks but still have time to talk to your own family, read a book or even get some sleep, consider the following strategies
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The history of computing spans thousands of years – from the primitive notched bones found in Africa, to the invention of abacus in 2400 BC, to Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine in 1883, to the rise of the popularity of Personal Computers (PCs) in the 1970s. For the most part, this timeline is marked by devices that bear little or no resemblance to present-day machines both in form and capabilities.
Why Isn’t It About the Pedagogy?
It was interesting to read Royan Lee’s blog post this weekend entitled “It’s not about the tech, let’s move on …“. Now, Royan is a pretty sharp teacher. If you read his blog regularly, you’ll see that he does some pretty amazing things with his students and is transparent enough to share that with us and encourages dialogue about what’s happening.
In his blog post, he makes reference to a few other blog postings that support his position. On the surface, the logic seems pretty straight forward. I think of my own teaching scenario where my students have dual boot iMacs, high speed internet, a wireless network where they may attach their own devices, and I think that I could jump on that bandwagon as well. For years, I’ve railed against the concept of “integrating technology”. The term itself implies that technology is an additional part of the classroom where it really shouldn’t be. In a perfect world, it should be just another tool that a teacher may or may not elect to use to meet a specific purpose.
While, in a perfect world, I do agree somewhat with Royan’s original premise, I think that the reality is that nothing could be further from the truth. From where I sit and gaze into the future, the conversation will always be about the technology. In education, most really haven’t got their heads around the use of technology and what it could actually do and, more importantly, what it should look like. I’m guessing that Royan’s situation is similar to mine. He has a strong background and sense of what is possible and access to the tools to make things happen. There are lots of supporters, few blockers, and an understanding of what can be done when the technology fits.
When I think of the conversations that I watched yesterday, people are struggling to get to that level of comfort.
I read discussions about:
- whether or not wireless access should be available in schools;
- if wireless is available, who should get to use it and with what;
- certain resources being blocked in one school district but not in another;
- the goals of a single “computer lab teacher” in a school;
- the goals of a classroom teacher who was planning a lesson around technology for today;
- a classroom teacher who wanted to have a scanned PDF copy of a worksheet for use with an interactive white board;
- the old Mac versus PC debate;
- technology that has been purchased but not set up;
- technology that has been purchased but not set up properly;
- the importance of constructivism;
- the importance of connectivism;
- someone who was dreading a computer workshop about dealing with data to make informed decisions;
- people who were having to choose between doing report cards and having an online discussion;
- feedback about the presentations from an online conference;
- a teacher who wasn’t allowed by policy to blog with her students;
- how to teach today with the events that happened in Arizona over the weekend;
- a proposal to make it illegal for teachers to text their students;
- and much more but you get the gist, I’m sure.
These were all good discussions but they also serve to remind me that the profession and use of technology hasn’t matured to the point that Royan and others envision. Access and abilities differ from district to district, from school to school, and even from classroom to classroom. We’ve got the high flyers who have a sense of where they’re going and we also have those who aspire to be a high flyer but are held back by their abilities, the access to technology, the type of technology, or even does the technology work.
Personally, I think that the conversation is good and important at this time. Knowing that you’re part of the discussion enables your own professional growth and learning. Unfortunately, technology ensures that we don’t live in a static world. There isn’t a single answer except that standing still isn’t helpful. I’m reminded of the MacLean’s article “Don’t give students more tools of mass distraction.” It’s a view of education from the outside that would have us ignore many of today’s realities. I smiled when they made reference to students enjoying Powerpoint presentations and the image of a chalkboard filled with writing in the background. Today’s reality is more like what we see in the foreground – students collaborating using a piece of technology. It’s a matter of staying current. Even MacLeans which has its roots in paper and newsstands has this electronic version and in the top right corner, you’re invited to try their iPad version of the magazine. If embracing current technology is OK for them to use to reach their clientele, why isn’t it for classrooms that are trying to do the same?
It is very helpful as we have this discussion to take a look at all sides. I remember a few years ago being at a MACUL Conference at the Renaissance Center in Detroit being so motivated by keynote speaker Clifford Stoll. He was riding the success of his efforts in tracking hackers and his book The Cuckoo’s Egg. (As an aside, a very engaging book). A subsequent book “High Tech Heretic: Why Computers Don’t Belong in the Classroom and Other Reflections by a Computer Contrarian” needs to be read as well. Balance that with the writings of Seymour Papert to help you frame your thoughts. Do you have your own “Vision for Education?“
It’s a big topic and it could be very easy to ignore it and grab another piece of chalk to continue. But, if you care about those faces that are smiling back at you, you need to be part of the discussion in this less than perfect world. That discussion absolutely needs to be about the pedagogy but it also has to include the technology, Our profession is working to understand both.
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links for 2011-01-09
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Free Software and Business Innovatio
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With all of the available tools to help you visualize data, it can be confusing where to start. The good news is, well, that there are a lot of (free) available tools out there to help you get started. It's just a matter of deciding which one suits you best. This is a guide to help you figure that out.
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Are you looking for practical tips for blogging success? Are you wondering what to avoid? While my position is generally that there are no “rules” in blogging, there are best practices that will help your business blog succeed.
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LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net. Our goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books.
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Communication on the Go for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad
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Confusing Words is a collection of 3210 words that are troublesome to readers and writers. Words are grouped according to the way they are most often confused or misused.
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In 2001, SET-BC staff and school district teams gathered together with the goal of making reading accessible for students with special needs. We began to build a collection of “accessible books.” Now in 2008 SET-BC has a collection of over 700 books for students to read independently!
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Use this site to create, share, publish, and read digital books that engage and support diverse learners according to their individual needs, interests, and skills.
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Blio is a FREE eReading application that presents eBooks just like the printed version, in full color, and with all of the features you’d want from an eReader. So welcome to what eReading should be…welcome to Blio.
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Balabolka is a Text-To-Speech (TTS) program. All computer voices installed on your system are available to Balabolka. The on-screen text can be saved as a WAV, MP3, MP4, OGG or WMA file. The program can read the clipboard content, view the text from DOC, EPUB, FB2, HTML, ODT, PDF and RTF files, customize font and background colour, control reading from the system tray or by the global hotkeys
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NaturalReader is a Text to Speech software with natural sounding voices. This easy to use software can convert any written text such as MS Word, Webpage, PDF files, and Emails into spoken words. NaturalReader can also convert any
written text into audio files such as MP3 or WAV for your CD player or iPod. -
Ever get the urge to edit some audio but you’re not sure where to start? Settle in with this HTG guide to the free audio editor Audacity that’s written for beginners but caters to geeks of all levels.
Photo Project
For a while now, I’ve been in awe of my friends and colleagues who were able to commit to any of the photo of the day projects. There seems to me a couple of things about this. First of all, they are able to commit to it and secondly, they just plain come up with interesting pictures. I’m also realistic as I’ve watched people start something like this with enthusiasm and then have it peter away on them.
On January 1, I decided to try this on my own. I didn’t announce it at the time since I didn’t know if I could do it. I so appreciate the photographers who always have a camera with them and seem to be able to just find the right angle, the right subject, and the right lighting to take great pictures. I’ve always been one of those people who see something and say “Gee, I wish I had my camera to take a picture of that.”
I’m banking on the fact that committing to a project like this will make me a better photographer and find a way to take my own interesting content. I’m not the type to take pictures of people but rather pictures of things. In this regard, I’ve followed @dailyshoot to see what sorts of ideas that it generates. A posting a daily gives marching orders for people who follow. I’m going to give it a shot. I may not follow all of their suggestions but will rely on the post for inspiration at times.
I waited a week before sharing this to see if it was going to be possible. After a week, I think that it’s going to be possible, fun, and interesting. I’m also hoping that it will make me a better photographer by forcing me to take pictures all the time. I’m going to be on a personal commitment program to get it done.
As I read more about the DailyShoot, I found their list of preferred platforms for collecting and displaying images. On of these was Tumblr and I’ve always wanted to do something serious with Tumblr. I went in and deleted the content that I had previously posted there and will use the site dougpete.tumblr.com as my showcase for my pictures. Please feel free to drop by and see what I’m able to contribute.
I really hope that a year from now, I’m able to look back over a year’s worth of photos and see some evident of real growth in this area. As you’ll note, if you visit the site, I will license my work under a Canadian Creative Commons license that I think best fits this sort of activity.
links for 2011-01-08
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The Angry Birds Guide to Organizational Change
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We have been working hard to get the conversations, mini lessons, and learner interviews together in one place. I hope you find the new YouTube channel a helpful and valuable resources. We are adding new video everyday, so stay tuned
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Welcome to YardsellrSell anything quickly and easily
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RSCON11 – Keynote ResourcesWhy Networked Learning Matters by Dr. Alec CourosTag for Event – #RSCON11
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LearnCentral Features
Passionate about teaching and learning?
LearnCentral™ is all about YOU! -
BioKM is a web-based research management service that ensures your research is on the right track.
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27 Interesting Ways* to use an iPod Touch in the Classroom
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Man versus babies
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What is a Twitterview? It is where people have a live interview on Twitter.
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RSCON NT Presenter's Schedule
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Twijector — real-time twitter wall for conferences, events, cafe and classrooms.
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Welcome to Math Playground, an action-packed site for elementary and middle school students. Practice your math skills, play a logic game and have some fun!
Software Stores
From where I was sitting, there was a huge hub-bub when Apple released the upgrade to OS 10.6.6 where the Macintosh App Store was made available. I read comments like “game changer” and “this will change everything” and the like. Don’t get me wrong; I like the concept. For years, we’ve had to walk to the local computer store or go online and purchase software that comes in cardboard containers, complete with huge printed manuals, inside a plastic shrink wrap, on a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM, and complete with serial numbers for legal compliance.
Upon cracking into the software where even getting access can be painful on the fingers depending upon the packaging, it’s a matter of slipping the media into the drive and running the installer, entering your serial number carefully, and then running the software. It only takes being burned once or twice following this procedure until you realize that you should run the update feature of the software first to overcome the problems of software rot that sets in when a title has been sitting in store inventory for too long. A week?
Like most people, I suspect, I carefully repackage everything and try to find space on a bookshelf for the box. After all, the instructions are explicit that I would need the original media if I ever need to reinstall the software and the manual will be handy in case I need to look up things. For some reason, I’ve even been known to keep the compulsory French manual for some reason that must have made sense at some time. (My knowledge of French is passing and certainly not at any sort of technical reading level).
So, what sort of game does this change? Hopefully, there would be two fallouts on this. First of all, it respects the environmental impact that traditional distribution thumbs its nose at. Let’s face it. We live in an online world and built-in help installed and online is all that most people need anymore. Gone are the days where people master one or two programs from A-Z. Instead, we’ve opted for a world where there are so many applications that are very well written to perform one task and do it very well. Secondly, we’ve become increasingly reliant on the knowledge that any tool is available the moment that we need it and just don’t have the patience to wait for a trip to the store or for a shipping service to drop it off at the front door. Wouldn’t it be nice knowing that when we install software, that we’re installing the best available version and we’re not doing to install/patch/install software shuffle?
This philosophy does change the game. But, it didn’t happen this week just because the Macintosh App Store went online.
If you’re a Ubuntu or any Linux user, you’ve had this facility for years. The Update Manager and other other utilities get you into the software repositories immediately. New titles and updates have always been available this easily. Perhaps the concept originated with Firefox years ago when you could download an excellent browser and then make it so much better when you add add-ons to provide additional functionality. It wasn’t called a store but you sure could go shopping for what fills your software itch. Earlier, the Google Chrome browser and OS opened a store where you could add additional functionality with a click. I even asked the question “Could I live in a browser?” If you’re a netbook user, you’ve had to rely on these repositories or stores since a media to install software creates all kinds of other issues. On the Macintosh side of things, the Macintosh Air faces the same challenges. The Store solves it.
The concept is not new to Apple. Through iTunes, we’ve been able to purchase music, applications, and movies for a long time now. iTunes is a very effective store that manages both the original purchase and pushes out updates. On the Android side of things, the Android Marketplace does the same functionality.
In its totality, I don’t see the Macintosh App Store by itself as a game changer. For some folks who haven’t dabbled outside their comfort zone, it may be new, but the store approach is just a way of modernizing the approach. When you need software, you just go and get it. It may be the downfall for impulse buyers but so be it. On the positive side of things, you should be able to trust the reliability and malware free availability of the titles. On the other hand, a store can pick and choose whatever it elects to sell. Apple has made this well known with its pick and choose approach to resources through its iOS store.
This concept of a store puts responsibility on the store to safeguard any information that it collects from you. Unlike the traditional computer store where you present a debit or credit card upon purchases, your information is permanently stored online. Unfortunately, it makes for a perfect target for hackers. The story about the iTunes hacked accounts was disconcerting. Of course, this would never happen in the Ubuntu world because the applications are free. I look to yet another smack down between the two approaches. I don’t see the Ubuntu approach gaining much traction though because Apple fans seem to overlook a number of things as Apple works to get things right.
I do see an opportunity for a new type of store. Right now, the current paradigm is around the operating system. You can’t go to the Ubuntu store, for example, and get the latest and greatest Macintosh or Windows application. And, for good reasons too. Companies do exist by protecting their product or their brand. The reality of education, for example, is that there are diverse collections of platforms, even within the same building. If those who offer platform dependent stores offer an API, then a SuperCentre could be a one-stop shop for education. If you need a copy of XXXXforKids, instead of shopping at various stores at your online mall, this SuperCentre could provide click-through shopping in a single point of presence.
For the technology savvy classroom teacher, the promise of differentiation can be delivered by easily choosing the application that is needed for the job instead of trying to shoehorn people into a one size fits all solution.
The winners in all of this will be we end users. The promise of a personal computer becomes much more personal when we increasingly become more in charge of our digital lives. Education and offices that persist in presenting locked down user hostile environments will feel more pressure as clients who learn how to work in this world at home demand the same functionality at work. If you continue to have an environment where you want to keep them back on the farm, you’re not going to change any game. You’ll be bringing out an old beaten up deck of cards with a couple of the aces missing. The contemporary kids will be playing with a full deck while the others will have Ace of Hearts written on one of the Jokers that you weren’t using anyway as they struggle in a world of make do.
It is an exciting concept and I don’t think that we’re done. There are clever people working on ways to add value to their product. There will be a path of growth in this concept and we’re all going to be there becoming more productive as it happens.
