Apple Purist or....

Recently we had quite a discussion (argument is probably a better term) about Windows vs. Mac (and the hardware underneath) on our tecsig listserv. It started out a simple question of what to load on an Apple in terms of an office productivity suite (among a few other things). As I read the initial question I saw a few similarities in some of our district's recent experiences. Our district had gone through some similar discussions last year when we decided to move from a nearly complete Windows 'shop' to recommending MacBooks and iPads as the student devices in our new high school. I decided to reply to the question and to lay out some of the rationale behind the decisions that we made, and how we ended up feeling comfortable with this move. Initially, I only had the writer of the question listed in my response, but ultimately I decided to include the listserv thinking that others might be interested as well. I ended up opening quite a can of worms, which I wasn't really expecting.

My intention was to just lay out our experiences, and conversations, which helped lead us to our decisions. I was not recommending that anyone follow in our foot steps, or that our way is the only way. I was simply just hoping to share what we went through. Some how the fact that I recommended Apple devices turned into me being an Apple Purist. Huh? Seriously?

Ultimately, this 'conversation' reinforced my belief that we must continue to build more open systems. We must continue to become more platform agnostic. We must do this for our students. If we don't, we risk allowing them to venture out into the world with a closed mind towards new and different systems. Aren't we failing them by not allowing them to find the system that makes them the most efficient? Aren't we failing them if we only provide them with one option? Isn't it our purpose to teach them? To empower them to become life long learners? Aren't we supposed to be creating individualized instruction? How does only offering access to one type of system help facilitate that? By offering access to multiple systems we allow the learning to determine the technology. The learning is the focus! The technology should be transparent.

The focus should always be what is best for all of our students, and what will best prepare them to be successful in our global economy. That is what I hope to stay focused on. I have no intention of becoming an 'Apple Purist' or creating a 'shop' of any one specific brand. I hope to further embrace a more open system that facilitates creativity, exploration, and spontaneous learning.

Using quicktime to create screencasts

Screencasts can be such a great way to provide training. You can't beat showing a user what their screen should actually look like.

I was recently shown that you can easily create screencasts using Quicktime. You can do this in both OS X and Windows (in Windows you need the pro version of Quicktime though). In either environment you have the ability to easily record audio along with your screen which is quite handy.

To get started you go to the file menu and select 'new screen recording'. You can also use the built in webcam (on your mac) to create a video or just the microphone to create an audio recording.

I've been using this tool to create screencasts of my prezis that I can then sync up to the audio recording of an actual presentation.

It is so easy! And free (on the Apple side)!

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Tell Congress to Preserve EETT Funding in the FY11 Budget

Spread the word:

Tell Congress to Preserve EETT Funding in the FY11 Budget The fate of FY11 funding for the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program may be determined as early as next week. When Congress returns to work on November 15th for a very short Lame Duck Session, they will attempt to complete work on all FY11 Appropriations bills, including the bill that funds Department of Education programs and EETT. Even though the House and Senate draft versions of FY11 education spending bills provided $100 million for EETT, the same level as in FY10, these upcoming negotiations on a final bill may result in cuts to EETT or even its outright elimination. We can't let that happen! It is critical that we maintain funding for EETT! Failure to fund EETT will undermine investments in school infrastructure and teacher training already made through EETT and hinder efforts to prepare our students to compete in the academic and employment arenas. Email your Congressional members today and ask them to provide EETT with at least $100 million in FY11.

ETAN updates are brought to you by the Consortium for School Networking and the International Society for Technology in Education.

Google's Big News: Google Instant #google #googleinstant

If you missed Google's big announcement today, they unveiled their new search feature - Google Instant. They are rolling this out to the US today, and the UK next week. They are also planning to roll this out to mobile devices later this fall.

What is Google Instant? It is an interactive feature that is designed to get you to your desired results more quickly. There are three main aspects:

1. Dynamic Results
2. Predictions
3. Scroll to search

You can find out more details straight from the horse's mouth here on Google's blog:

http://bit.ly/dtqM53

This is great for when you want to get a quick answer. But how will this affect student research? Will it hurt by requiring even less effort to find results? Or will it help to more easily find higher quality results?

What do you think?

Jailbreak your #iPad and use DisplayOut

Do you wish you could show more than just the Keynote or Photos app through your projector cable on your iPad? I did!

We recently had an iPad training session and I really wanted to be able to show the live iPad screen on the projector instead of just showing them screen shots. I heard you could show the live screen if you jailbroke your iPad. So a couple of weeks ago I started looking into the possibility.

I started by talking to a few of the iPhone fans I know. They suggested trying this jailbreak:

http://jailbreakme.com

A quick note: This jailbreak will only work on iOS 3.2.1 and older. The iOS 3.2.2 update patches the PDF flaw that this jailbreak uses.

If you go to the above link from your iPad browser, it will give you the option to jailbreak it right over the web. No fancy tricks, or downloading software and messing with iTunes. It just asks you to swipe on the screen and then it starts the jailbreak. It took me about 2 minutes while it downloaded and ran the jailbreak. Then it asked me to restart my iPad. I got the little Apple logo, and some rainbow colored dots on one edge of the screen. When it restarted everything looked normal but now the Cydia app was installed. Cydia is an app store that you can download (and buy) apps from for your jailbroken device. Don't worry, you can still download/buy them from iTunes as well!

In order to get your live iPad screen to show over the projector you will also need to install an app that will make it possible. We know that iTunes doesn't have an app for that. So you have to look in Cydia. I tried three different apps. The one that worked was $1.99 and is called DisplayOut. You don't actually get an app on your home screen, it just puts a new section into your settings. You can turn the display out on or off, and change a few basic settings. You can see an image of what it looks like here: http://bit.ly/dg8g1n

This worked out great for me, and our training session was awesome! Have Fun!

EETT Funding Restored in House and Senate Bills at $100 Million

Got this email this morning:

EETT Funding Restored in House and Senate Bills at $100 Million

Earlier this summer we reached out to you about the zeroing out of the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program in President Obama’s proposed 2011 budget. To save the program, we asked you to contact your Representatives and Senators to let them know how important the program was to your school and district. And you answered that call!

Since then, over 1,700 people have sent more than 5,200 letters to their Congressional representatives highlighting the importance of the EETT program. Additionally, on Tweet for Ed Tech day in May, 700 educators sent 1,550 messages demanding that Congress fund EETT.

Because of your efforts, last week the House and Senate approved appropriations bills that continued funding the EETT program at $100 million in FY11. Although this does not mean that funding for the program is certain (both bills must still be reconciled in conference), it does mean that it is likely that the EETT program will not be zeroed out next year. In a time when many programs have been dealt funding cuts, maintaining funding for the EETT program at this stage is a big success. Thank you for your efforts!!

ETAN updates are brought to you by the Consortium for School Networking and the International Society for Technology in Education.

Digital Learning Farm - Alan November #ISTE10

I had the opportunity to attend one of Alan November's sessions at ISTE2010. The session was entitled: Digital Learning Farm (Students as contributors). This was my first opportunity to hear Alan November, and I thought he was a great presenter with a great message. My main take aways from his presentation were:

1. Because the majority of students will ask their friends for help before they ask their teachers, their success is somewhat dependent on who their friends are.
2. Giving grades over time puts creativity in decline, as students will begin to do only what is required to get an A.
3. Assign students jobs in your classroom. Always have at least one official researcher for the day. He/She is in charge of finding the worlds best resources for the content that is being covered. This way at least one student is learning great research skills every day!
4. The teacher's knowledge shouldn't be the limit for a student's learning.

This was a great presentation that has left me with much to think about. He also talked about doing purposeful work, and tied this into Daniel Pink's new book Drive. Since the presentation I have also found two great videos that you can watch to get some more information.

Alan November - Myths and Opportunities

Daniel Pink - Drive Animated

And finally, here are my notes from the presentation: