Gary Stager recently tweeted me a link to Evgeny Morozov’s article “Techno-utopian fail.” Of the “techno-utopian” view which predicts social media will lead to democratic revolutions around the world in repressive countries like China and Iran, Morozov asserts: But this is an anachronistic view of the world. Modern authoritarian states have eagerly (but selectively) embraced
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I tweeted about this recently but am so impressed with the iPhone app “MobileRSS – Free Google Reader” I’ve decided it warrants its own post. I now read at least 95% of my news and blog updates on my iPhone, and most of those updates come through Google Reader. MobileRSS, also available as a $3
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It’s always hard to shop for my mom. This year for her birthday, we created a custom photo book of our summer family reunion / vacation using iPhoto. This entire process took about three hours, using images from her Mobile Me Gallery and my own Flickr set of the trip. It takes awhile to create
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At the end of November I lamented HP’s tardiness in updating the Mac-compatible version of their scanning software for my HP PSC 1350 All-In-One printer / scanner / fax, in the post, “Pleased with Windows 7 default scanning functionality.” At the time, I could not find or figure out a way to scan with the
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Yesterday my dad received a late Christmas present from my mom in the form of a new 15″ Macbook Pro to replace his aging 12″ PowerPC-based Macbook, and I helped him use Apple’s Migration Assistant software (free) to transfer all his files and settings from the old computer to the new one. This was the
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This afternoon and evening, my son and I worked on “pruning” down our list of installed applications in our family’s iTunes library. In our family of five we now have four different iTunes accounts, but because we sync our iPhones and iPod Touches to the same Mac running iTunes, we are able to legally share
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I’ve submitted a proposal for the January 14th IgniteOKC event, titled “Ubuntu Netbooks for All Learners – Now!” Here’s the session description: Every learner in our classrooms today needs immediate access to mobile, wireless technologies, along with opportunities to learn how to use these tools in powerful, constructive ways. Learning today should not be limited
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Will 2010 be “The Year of the Tablet?” New York Times blogger Nick Bilton thinks so. Two days ago he wrote: Like almost all the people covering technology, I have no doubt that Apple will release a tabletlike device in 2010; there are too many signs that point in this direction. Let’s put all the
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The iPhone is configured by default, most likely because of a bandwidth-limiting agreement with AT&T, to NOT download podcasts, software or other files via iTunes which exceed 10 MB in size. A couple weeks ago I wanted to download the latest NPR Technology Podcast “on the road,” but the filesize was greater than 10 MB
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Earlier this month I shared a presentation both face-to-face and online via Ustream giving an overview of the Storychaser’s Mobile Learning Collaborative. Instead of using Keynote (which I generally prefer for presentations) or PowerPoint, I created the presentation for this session using a Google Presentation. I was delighted to realize every Google Presentation is automatically
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A storm bringing ice and snow has come to central Oklahoma, just in time for Christmas. For fun I’ve setup one of our computers in the front window and am Ustreaming (via our Learning Signs Ustream channel) the view of the snowstorm in our front yard… with some Christmas music via Pandora streaming as audio
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I added the following text to my WordPress header file this evening, so these links now show up at the top of my blog each time it’s displayed in a browser. (This does not show up if you’re subscribed to my blog’s feed, however.) Also check out these blogs: Learning Signs – Eyes Right –
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In the style of the now-famous “Mac versus PC” advertisements run by Apple, Dave Dugdale created a clever 30 second spoof video poking fun at AT&T for its recent announcements and response to “Fake Steve Jobs’” exhortation for iPhone users everywhere to “speak truth to power” and engage in collective action via Operation Chokehold. While
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Nic Robertson’s video report on CNN today, “How Terrorists Recruit Online,” raises important issues relevant to social media and our need for constructive uses of video websites like YouTube in our schools and communities. This fall I visited with a friend who has been studying the importance of storytelling and the formation of individual as
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I’m helping members of my son’s Boy Scout troop design and develop a new website using WordPress, and we had a meeting tonight to discuss both content and design elements of the site. One of the boys shared a forum he has recently created using the free website ForumMotion. It warms my heart to see
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If you’ve spent much time helping students and teachers create with media, you’ve almost certainly run into some form of this question: “Can I use [song X] in my video project and just make a synchronized slide show of photos with it?” Implicit within this question are a series of other questions, including: Will this
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This afternoon my 9 year old daughter planned, directed, and starred in her third cooking program in a series she has titled, “The International Cooking Show.” This time around she demonstrated how to cook holiday sausage balls, and had her younger sister participate in the program as well. We still haven’t had anyone else contribute
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My 12 year old son recently discovered the website FanFiction.net, and today we had a discussion about eBooks which got me thinking about the possibility of creating eBooks from online FanFiction books. It turns out this is possible and free to do, using the programs Fanfiction Downloader and Stanza. Stanza is distributed as a cross-platform
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I learned this evening the latest version of WordPress (2.9) has added several exciting features, including built-in image editing (including cropping and image rotation) as well as video embedding from many popular video sharing websites using the oEmbed standard. I’m also enthused WordPress will now automatically check for plugin-in compatibility when upgrading plug-ins. Plug-in conflicts
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This evening I recorded a 30 minute webcast over Ustream with members of my family, discussing their experiences in the past few months reading ebooks on their iPhones, iPod Touches and Kindle readers. We included my father in our conversation, and “skyped out” to him on his landline phone in Kansas early in the webcast.
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