Jailbroken or not, Google Voice is available on your iPhone
This is a guest blog post by Sherman Nicodemus. This is my sixth post in a series this week on "Moving at the Speed of Creativity." If you have questions about this post I'll be glad to answer them via comments here.
Google Voice (GV) is a powerful and flexible telephony service which offers free features AT&T cannot presently match on the iPhone. If you're not familiar with Google Voice and the features it offers, take 90 seconds and watch the following video giving the highlights.
In the summer of 2009, a great deal of hoopla surrounded Apple pulling the GV application from the official Apps store at the behest of AT&T. The Google Voice iPhone application remains available free via Cydia, but like the applications iPhoneModem and ScreenSplitr (discussed in previous guest blog posts by yours truly this week) it's necessary to jailbreak your iPhone to use these applications. Whether or not you jailbreak your iPhone, however, Google Voice is available for iPhone users thanks to the browser-based GV app announced in January 2010.
Of these options, the Google Voice iPhone application is definitely the way to go if you're willing and able to jailbreak. If you're on an unlimited SMS text messaging plan this may be less of a "big deal," but for those who are not UNLIMITED, free text messages via your Google Voice account is huge. Transcription of voicemail messages is also a fantastic feature, and all of these functions of Google Voice are most readily accessed via the iPhone application.
AT&T has exclusivity on the iPhone in the United States, and doesn't want its customers enjoying the competitive options and advantages which come when other vendors are able to provide VOIP services on the iPhone. (Translation: AT&T wants to keep as much of your money as it can, and it has a team of very smart lawyers who help with this often.) A monopoly has its advantages, and AT&T is leveraging them with their exclusive iPhone contract.
For most iPhone users, jailbreaking is either not an option from a technical standpoint or something they are simply not willing to try. For those users, the Google Voice "web application" (m.google.com/voice/) can save the day.
The first time you visit the GV web app URL, if you have not already you'll need to add your iPhone's phone number to your account.
After your phone is added, you'll be able to access the following BROWSER-BASED interface (using the Safari web browser, of course, since it's the only one available on the iPhone presently) to make phone calls, send SMS messages, access your voicemail, call history, etc.
The new Google Voice web application was launched in January 2010, and it really is amazing to see what the creative folks at Google have been able to do within a browser-interface. This 70 second video gives a more detailed overview.
While I understand the need for Apple to secure a contract with a relatively reliable, nationwide cellular provider (AT&T) I lament the limits to creativity and consumer choice which this contract continues to impose. Should iPhone users be able to choose their carrier, without having to SIM unlock their iPhone or purchase a new iPhone in either Hong Kong or New Zealand, where the countries have negotiated with Apple to permit unlocked phone sales? Absolutely.
Should the Google Voice application, along with other fully-functional VOIP applications (like Skype) also be available via the Apple Apps store? Again, I would say "yes" with enthusiasm.
Stark limitations on function and application creativity continue to exist for iPhone users, however, but thankfully there ARE several options for those wanting to use Google Voice. Whether or not you opt to jailbreak your iPhone, thanks to Google software coders Google Voice is a telephony option you can begin using today! (As long as you can get a Google Voice invitation!)
Technorati Tags:
app, apple, google, iphone, voice, voip, att, unlock, lock, gv, web, telephony, competition
Demonstrate iPhone / iPod Touch Applications with ScreenSplitr / DemoGod
This is a guest blog post by Sherman Nicodemus. This is my fifth post in a series this week on "Moving at the Speed of Creativity." If you have questions about this post I'll be glad to answer them via comments here.
Demonstrations of iPhone and iPod Touch applications for groups can be awkward. The AV cables sold by Apple for the iPhone and iPod Touch support TV out, for playing videos users have saved in iTunes and have available for playback via the iPod functionality of their device, but screensharing for other apps is NOT currently supported with these cables. (Two cable types are available from Apple: A composite video out cable and a component video out cable.) Since neither of these cables can, with Apple supported software and functionality, support screensharing, most presenters must use a document camera to demonstrate applications on either device when using a LCD projector or large format television. This can work, but can be tricky because of iPhone screen lighting and document camera exposure settings.
This disabled iPhone / iPod Touch presentation application situation is not as it should be. The beautiful applications and functions available on the iPhone / iPod Touch deserve a much more professional presentation mode, and thankfully one is available via the applications ScreenSplitr and DemoGod. Both are free, but do require a jailbreak since the functionality requires ScreenSplitr to run in the background. Backgrounder apps are not supported on the iPhone and iPod Touch at present by Apple. For more about jailbreaking, including legal aspects, see my post from earlier this week, "Tethered iPhone Internet Access with iPhoneModem (Jailbreak required.)"
To install ScreenSplitr and DemoGod:
- Jailbreak your iPhone (if you have not already) using Blackra1n or the iPhone Dev Team's QuickPwn software.
- Use Cydia to search for and install ScreenSplitr on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
- Download and install DemoGod on your Apple computer. (Sorry Windows users, DemoGod is currently just available for Mac folks.)
- Connect both your Mac computer and your iPhone / iPod Touch to the same wifi network.
- On your iPhone or iPod Touch, launch ScreenSplitr to start screensharing.
- On your Mac, launch DemoGod. It should detect / find your iPhone or iPod Touch running ScreenSplitr and let you click on the name of your device.
- On your iPhone or iPod Touch, click ACCEPT to allow screensharing.
- All iPhone or iPod Touch screen selections should now be "mirrored" on your laptop or desktop computer, with a minimal amount of delay.
- Press the ScreenSplitr icon again to turn off screensharing, and simply quit the DemoGod application on your Mac laptop/desktop when you are finished using the program.
This screensharing method does NOT require the use of any cables: The iPhone / iPod Touch screen is shared wirelessly over the shared wifi connection. The frame rate of the shared video is only about 15 fps, however, so full-motion games and even videos will seem a bit jerky. For most demos, however, this method works great. If you have either of the Apple video-out cables, you can alternatively use them to share your device's screen. The frame rate for iPhone / iPod Touch screensharing with a cable is the same as it is for the wifi sharing option. If you use a cable, you just need to enable/start ScreenSplitr on your iPhone, DemoGod software is not required.
I've run into some trouble using ScreenSplitr and DemoGod in some locations where the wifi network was setup more securely. I suspect certain ports were blocked on the wifi network for sharing, and that prevented ScreenSplitr and DemoGod from working together. It should be possible to setup sharing with an ad hoc wifi network connection, but I have not tried that successfully. In the future, I may bring my own wifi hotspot to a presentation when I want to use ScreenSplitr and DemoGod, and connect a wired ethernet cable to that access point. By using my own, non-port filtered AP perhaps some problems might be averted. I don't consider ScreenSplitr and DemoGod to be foolproof demonstration options, but they are FANTASTIC when they do work and a personal AP could significantly increase the liklihood they'll work fine. My Airport Express is ideal for this purpose.
Steven Chi's five minute video tutorial on YouTube explains how to install both ScreenSplitr and DemoGod.
Have you had positive or negative experiences using ScreenSplitr and DemoGod for presentations to date? Hopefully we'll see Apple formally approve backgrounder apps like ScreenSplitr in the near term, so this can become an "officially approved" app store download.
Technorati Tags:
apple, iphone, ipod, ipodtouch, share, touch, ScreenSplitr, DemoGod, demo, screen, screenshare, jailbreak, blackra1n, blackrain
Ripping Personally Owned DVDs for iPhone or iPod Viewing: Legal and Technical Perspectives
This is a guest blog post by Sherman Nicodemus. This is my second post in a series I'm sharing on "Moving at the Speed of Creativity" this week. If you have questions about this post I'll be glad to answer them via comments here.
The advent of digital encoding technologies has brought a revolution to the entertainment and media industries, and afforded a wealth of new media consumptive options for consumers. In his song and music video, "Welcome to the Future," country singer Brad Paisley reflects on how, in his childhood, he dreamed of watching TV in the car on an eight hour road trip. This dream is a reality today thanks to the proliferation of iPods and other portable media players, as well as the availability of commercial audio and video titles in electronic formats.
The landscape of consumer media options continues to be fraught with legal battles, however, in large part because of media conglomerates' desires to maintain control over the "intellectual property" they produce, license, and sell. Entertainment artists and industry workers also share a stake in maintaining control and therefore profitability for media file licensing.
When it comes to the legality of making copies of DVD movies a consumer in the United States has legally purchased, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) as well as the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD CCA) are two fronts from which companies and organizations have challenged the legality of copying, archiving, and compressing DVDs. In her October 2008 article, "DVD Ripping: The Latest on the Legal Front," Julie Jacobson opens with the following statement:
Here's where we stand today on the legality of DVD ripping: We're not quite sure if it's legal.
The English WikiPedia defines "ripping" as:
...the process of copying audio or video content to a hard disk, typically from removable media. The word is used to refer to all forms of media. Despite the name, neither the media nor the data in it is damaged after extraction.
The article further explains in the "legality" section:
On the whole, it is legal for an individual in the United States to make a copy of media he/she owns for his/her own personal use. For instance, making a copy of a personally-owned audio CD for transfer to an MP3 player for that person's personal use would be legal.
In the case where media contents are protected using some effective copy protection scheme, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act makes it illegal to circumvent that copy protection scheme. This law makes it illegal to rip most commercial DVDs as they are typically protected by CSS encryption.
The legality of DVD ripping depends on your location, however. Again according to the WikiPedia article:
In countries such as Spain, anyone is allowed to make a private copy of a copyrighted material for oneself, and the source copy does not even have to be legal. Making copies for other people, however, is forbidden if done for profit. This is also true for Sweden. In Australia, copies of any legally purchased music may be made by its owner, as long as it is not distributed to others and its use remains personal. In the United Kingdom, making a private copy of copyrighted media without the copyright owner's consent is illegal: this includes ripping music from a CD to a computer or digital music player. The UK government has made proposals to allow people to make copies of music for personal use.
This is a confusing state of affairs.
The English WikiPedia article for "DVD Ripper" offers the following definition:
A DVD ripper is a software program that facilitates copying the content of a DVD to a hard disk drive. They are mainly used to transfer video on DVDs to different formats, to edit or back up DVD content, and for converting DVD video for playback on media players and mobile devices. Some DVD rippers include additional features, such as the ability to decrypt DVDs, remove copy preventions and make disks unrestricted and region-free.
The article also includes a detailed table listing and comparing different versions of DVD ripping software.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) provides a concise overview of the legal and technical issues at stake in DVD ripping on its page, "Hollywood v. DVD." The page (as of 14 March 2010) states:
With billions sold, the DVD remains the principle way that millions of consumers experience digital video. Yet Hollywood has, from the birth of this format, imposed unprecedented restrictions on what customers can do with the DVDs they own.
Hollywood has argued in lawsuits and before policy-makers around the world that it is always illegal to make a digital copy ("rip") of a DVD. Even if you own it, even if you're trying to make a personal copy so that your children don't scratch the original, even if you want to make a copy to watch on your iPod, even if you want to skip those annoying "unskippable" commercials at the beginning.
Hollywood has also sued companies that try to provide DVD owners with the same kinds of innovations that we take for granted with CDs—such as a "DVD jukebox" that lets you watch your own DVDs around your own house from a central home media server.
The difference between DVDs and previous media formats—like the CD—is the CSS encryption system used to "scramble" the digital bits on the DVD. Thanks to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a federal law passed a the behest of Hollywood, consumers enjoy fewer rights with respect to copyrighted works that are protected by "technical protection measures" (aka DRM) than they did with prior formats. Congress was told that the DMCA was necessary to prevent "digital piracy" online, but the use of anti-consumer DRM has been a total failure at preventing "piracy." Instead, the legacy of the DMCA has been to penalize legitimate consumers and impair competition and innovation. So Hollywood today clings to DRM not because it has any impact on "piracy," but because it allows the movie studios to dictate the features and innovations that legitimate companies can deliver to legitimate consumers.
The bottom line for consumers today in the United States is that intellectual property / copyright law forces the legal REPURCHASE of media which was originally bought in CD and/or DVD formats, and the consumer wants in a computer / mobile media player format. This was affirmed by Greg Sandoval's March 3, 2010, article for CNET, "RealNetworks surrenders in RealDVD case." Greg wrote:
The MPAA filed suit to stop the sale of RealDVD, a software that hands users the ability to copy and store films to a hard drive.
From the outset of Real's struggle, the company appeared to be on shaky ground. Real argued that consumers possessed the right to backup their DVDs, just as they have a right to make a copy of their songs for personal use. Real told the court the company was just trying to offer consumers the means to do that and that they had a fair use right to do that.
But after hearing initial arguments from Real and the studios, Patel [the judge in the case] quickly slapped a preliminary injunction that prevented sales of RealDVD. Things went down hill from there.
Fred von Lohmann, senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group that advocates for tech companies and Internet users, defended Real's pursuit of the case. He said Real could have provided real benefit to consumers, if not with RealDVD, then eventually with a DVD player that would have incorporated some of the software's copying abilities. Real was working on a player, codenamed Facet, which would have created copies of DVDs and stored more than 70 films on its hard drive."(Real's testimony) made it clear that Real was out to deliver to consumers a product that people wanted to see," von Lohmann said. "I think the message this sends is if you get into the business of enabling consumers to do with DVDs what they've long done with CDs, you'll get sued out of the business. I think that's bad news for consumers. What that means is that if you want to create a digital back-up of your movies, you have to pay for that a second time on iTunes."
The EFF quoted part of this article in their March 3rd "In The News" post, "RealNetworks surrenders in RealDVD case."
Now that we've explored some of the legal perspectives on DVD ripping, I'd like to highlight two functional solutions for DVD ripping. Bear in mind, as explained above, that the legality of using these software programs depends on your geography.
Handbrake is:
...an open source, GPL-licensed, multiplatform, multithreaded vio trancoder, available for Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows.
Somewhat ironically, I first learned about Handbrake when visiting an Apple Store and asking about software options for encoding DVDs. Of course the Apple Store wasn't and isn't selling Handbrake: as a GPL-licensed program, it is free and legally must remain free: No one can sell it. I've used Handbrake software on my Mac to rip and compress numerous DVD movies. The program allows users to select the target platform for the encoded / compressed MP4 video version. Most of my Handbrake-encoded movies are around 600 MB in size, but some (like the two part disc series in the 2+ hour movie LOTR - ROTK) are over 1 GB.
Handbrake is great, but some DVD movie creators have become more sophisticated in their use of "Content Scramble System" methods in encoding DVDs so Handbrake cannot (at present) properly rip them. One example is the DVD of WALL-E. My initial attempt to rip WAL-E with Handbrake appeared to succeed, but the order of the encoded scenes was mixed up. To remedy this, I used the commercially available RipIt application (sold by the little app factory) to create a full-resolution backup of my purchased DVD. Then, I used Handbrake to create a compressed MP4 version playable on iPhones and iPods.
Hopefully copyright laws in the United States, the UK, and other countries will change to legally permit DVD and CD purchasers to make THEIR OWN archive copies of media files. Until then (and even afterwards) we'll likely see continued legal fights by organizations and media conglomerates to prevent commercial, copy-protected DVD and CD ripping by consumers wanting to avoid the re-purchase of their movies and songs to realize Brad Paisley's vision in, "Welcome to the Future."
For more about these issues, check out The Digital Freedom Campaign's website on www.digitalfreedom.org.
Technorati Tags:
copy, dvd, rip, ripping, ripit, handbrake, eff, dmca, intellectual, property
Tethered iPhone Internet Access with iPhoneModem (Jailbreak required)
This is a guest blog post by Sherman Nicodemus. I've agreed to share a series of blog posts here on "Moving at the Speed of Creativity" this week. Hope you find this series helpful! If you have questions about this post I'll be glad to answer them via comments here. Full disclosure: I'm not affiliated with iPhoneModem or any jailbreak application software developers, and neither is Wes. I'm sharing this information here freely because this is software and a tethering method that's working for me.
Digital creativity is a curious thing. People who are creative geeks naturally explore the boundaries of the technologies they use, but some companies today use restrictive user agreements in an attempt to prohibit tinkering, hacking, and repurposed use of their hardware products as well as cellular data networks. Until the release of the iPhone 3.0 firmware, that was the case with "tethering" with the iPhone. Tethering means connecting your mobile phone to your computer, either through a wired connection (like the iPhone's USB cable) or through a wireless connection (WiFi or Bluetooth.) Depending on your wireless carrier and the country in which you live, tethering still may be prohibited today on your iPhone, but there are several ways it can still be done. As with other articles and blog posts about procedures which could involve "jailbreaking" your iPhone, an opening disclaimer is needed. In addition to violating ISP and hardware manufacturer EULAs, jailbreaking can void your hardware warranty. While it is generally possible to simply re-install the provided Apple iPhone firmware using iTunes, using iPhone firmware which has been manipulated/changed by 3rd party software programs is always a risk for which you should assume personal responsibility. There are also financial, BILLING risks if you utilize large amounts of Internet data using an unauthorized, tethered connection. (Generally it's a bad idea to stream lots of video from a home Slingbox or other device over a tethered 3G connection, since you can readily exceed a 5GB monthly bandwidth quota and get the attention of service provider network watchdogs.) If you use any of the ideas or software links mentioned in this blog post, consider yourself duly warned.
On the official Apple.com website, an overview of tethering with the iPhone is available, along with step-by-step directions. Apple's provided directions on how to tether an iPhone to connect your computer through its Internet connection include the following caveat:
NOTE: Additional fees may apply. Contact your carrier for more information.
As of this writing in March 2010 in the United States, AT&T remains the only "official" carrier for iPhone users and has NOT officially approved rate plans for iPhone owners wanting to tether. In other countries with other providers, iPhone tethering IS legal and does not require jailbreaking. Rob Galbraith's June 2009 blog post, "iPhone OS 3.0 introduces Internet Tethering, Find My iPhone," provides a thorough overview of tethering with detailed screenshots and step-by-step instructions. For U.S. iPhone users tied to AT&T, at least for the present, these instructions won't work.
U.S. iPhone users with AT&T can still take advantage of this tethering functionality in several ways, but BEWARE.
OPTION 1: FREE BUT MORE RISKY METHOD (jailbreak not required, but NOT recommended)
Some websites were created after the release of iPhone 3.0 firmware (in both beta and final versions) which run scripts, enabling tethering functionality on an iPhone. These scripts may inadvertently disrupt and mess up your iPhone's voicemail functionality, however. Thomas Ricker wrote about this on Engadget in June 2009. John Herrman's post for Gizmodo in June echos this warning about visual voicemail problems. I have tried one of these websites myself, and indeed the warning about visual voicemail disruption was accurate. My iPhone DID tether wirelessly (via bluetooth) with my Apple laptop, but my visual voicemail never worked again on my iPhone 3GS until I restored my iPhone firmware to the default / factory settings. It was exciting to see tethering work on my iPhone and laptop, but it was NOT worth the hassle and angst caused by the eventual full firmware restore which was needed to "fix" my visual voicemail again.
This option of using website scripts to enable tethering is appealing because it does NOT require jailbreaking your iPhone. I do NOT recommend it, however, because visual voicemail is a core functionality of the iPhone and it's not a feature I think most users are willing to give up-- EVEN if that means readily being able to tether their iPhone to their computer.
OPTION 2: JAILBREAK AND USE $10 IPHONEMODEM SOFTWARE
The option I'm using successfully WITHOUT any apparent bad side effects (like a loss of visual voicemail) and DO recommend to other iPhone users with service providers not currently supporting tethering is jailbreaking your iPhone with blackra1n and running $10 iPhoneModem software. Here are the steps and links you'll need to do this, if you want to give it a go. Bear in mind the risks / warnings I outlined initially!
Step 1: Jailbreak
When people talk about "jailbreaking" their iPhone, there are two different kinds of hacks they may be referencing. The English WikiPedia article for "Jailbreak (iPhone OS)" explains the difference:
Jailbreaking is a process that allows iPhone and iPod Touch users to run any code on their devices, as opposed to only that code authorized by Apple. Once jailbroken, iPhone users are able to download many applications previously unavailable through the App Store via unofficial installers such as Cydia; Icy; and Installous... Jailbreaking is distinct from SIM unlocking, which, once completed, means that the mobile phone will accept any SIM without restriction on, for example, the country or network operator of origin. Jailbreaking, according to Apple, voids Apple's warranty on the device, although this is quickly remedied by restoring the device in iTunes.
"SIM unlocking" is also referred to as just "unlocking" at times. I've never attempted a SIM unlock, and it is NOT required for the iPhone tethering option I'm detailing here. "Jailbreaking" is required, however.
There are several ways to jailbreak an iPhone, and the good news is this process has gotten MUCH easier over time. The iPhone Dev Team is one group which develops and distributes software to both jailbreak and SIM unlock iPhones. The team has their own WikiPedia article where you can learn more about them.
I've used the iPhone Dev Team's jailbreak software several times, and while I've been able to successfully jailbreak my own iPhone as well as iPhones owned by friends, the process has always been LONG and a bit nerve wracking. One reason for this is the process: To use the Dev Team's software, you must download a compatible version of Apple's iPhone firmware to your local hard drive FIRST. SECOND, users run the dev team's "PwnageTool" to modify the downloaded iPhone firmware so it's jailbroken. THIRD, iTunes will run with the PwnageTool software and install the jailbroken firmware on your iPhone, which will now include the Cydia application. Cydia is one of several "app store" applications for jailbroken / non-Apple authorised software programs. A variety of tutorials are available on YouTube and other video sites demonstrating the steps to follow when jailbreaking an iPhone with the Dev Team's free software. Some commercial applications ARE sold through Cydia and other jailbroken iPhone app stores, but the Dev Team jailbreak software tools themselves are free.
As with many other computer / software technologies, it is important to be aware of malware risks as well as scams. Jailbreaking software is no exception. The Dev Team posted about the proliferation of iPhone jailbreak scams several weeks ago. The risks and challenges inherent in jailbreaking also relate to the methods by which PwnageTool software and other jailbreaking software programs are distributed. BitTorrent is used for legal file sharing, but it's also used for lots of illegal sharing. The iPhone Dev Team maintains a link to "official torrent sites" for their software on their main blog/website, but the use of BitTorrent client software is inherently risky.
Given this landscape of jailbreak risks and challenges, the availability of Blackra1n jailbreak software (for both Windows and Macintosh users) comes as an amazing breath of fresh air. You can read more about Blackra1n on WikiPedia, as well as the official Blackra1n blog. Engadget has posted about Blackra1n updates as they become available. Jailbreaking with Blackra1n (as long as your iPhone firmware version is supported) is as easy as downloading the installer for your operating system, running it with your iPhone plugged into your computer, and waiting about 60 seconds. When you've gone through the LONG process of jailbreaking with the Dev Team's QuickPwn software, the speed and ease of the Blackra1n jailbreak seems like a miracle!
If you opt to jailbreak with any method, you want to be careful NOT to immediately install new iPhone firmware updates when they become available. Jailbreak software developers are generally pretty quick to come up with new hacks for new iPhone firmware versions, but the process can take several weeks. Of course there is no guarantee Apple won't develop an uncrackable / unhackable iPhone firmware version SOME day, but so far (as of this writing) that hasn't been the case.
Step 2: Install, Configure, and Buy iPhoneModem
After you jailbreak, you need to run the Cydia installer application. The first time you run it (as well as subsequently, depending on updates) it will connect to the Cydia server and download new "packages" as well as updates. Often you'll have a choice whether to install all updates or just core/required updates. On a WiFi connection these don't take long. After updates are installed and you restart Cydia, choose the SEARCH option and enter "modem." With the latest packages updated in Cydia installer, you should see "iPhoneModem" as an available program. Choose to install it, and it should appear as another application icon on your iPhone.
iPhoneModem requires three things: The iPhone application, a client application which runs on your Apple or Windows-based laptop, and a license key. The client application can be downloaded from the iPhoneModem website. The computer client software does not require a key, but the iPhone application does. Thoughtfully, the program will run in a trial mode so you can verify connectivity / functionality before purchasing. Currently a license key is $9.99, and the iPhoneModem website accepts PayPal. After purchasing a license key, you will receive it via email or you can get it on the iPhoneModem website. You'll use your IMEI "International Mobile Equipment Identity" number when you purchase your license, which is a unique 15 digit code viewable on an iPhone by choosing System Settings - General - About.
After you've installed these software applications on your iPhone and laptop, you're ready to go with tethered Internet browsing! iPhoneModem client software creates an ad-hoc wireless network, which you'll need to join on your iPhone. It then permits your laptop running the client software (as well as other computers within WiFi range, which is a GREAT bonus on car trips!) to also access the connection. The steps are:
- Run the iPhoneModem software on your laptop.
- On your iPhone, connect to the default "iPhoneModem" ad-hoc WiFi network created by the client software. (You can customize this with a different SSID and a password if desired.)
- Run the iPhoneModem software on your iPhone (it is called, "Modem.")
That's it! I'm sure to many, the prospect of jailbreaking sounds very scary and formidable, and it is not something that should be undertaken lightly. Still, the availability of Blackra1n is nothing short of a revolution, in my view. Be aware that in its 3.0 software iteration, iPhone Modem software does NOT appear to run in the background. To use it, therefore, you have to have the application open and CANNOT run other applications on your iPhone at the same time unless they run in the background like the Apple-provided iPod player software.
Hopefully AT&T in the United States will officially authorize iPhone tethering sometime soon. I'd like to hope they'll do that WITHOUT adding additional charges for the service, but that's probably analogous to hoping home loan interest and overall inflation rates aren't going to rise in the next year. All are probably inevitable.
Two final notes: Don't be confused by the term "tethered jailbreak" which you may see on some websites. This does NOT refer to Internet tethering, as I've discussed in this post. The Blackra1n blog post from March 8, 2010, explains:
A tethered jailbreak means that once your iPhone is successfully jailbroken with blackra1n, you’ll need to connect your iPhone to your computer and rerun blackra1n* if you ever need to reboot your iPhone or your iPhone loses battery charge.
Last of all, if you're contemplating an iPad purchase soon with 3G connectivity, don't count on Apple officially supporting iPad tethering.
If you've had experiences, good or bad, with tethering your iPhone for Internet access using iPhoneModem or another software program / method, I'd love to hear about it.
Good luck, and happy tethered surfing! 
Secret iPhone Agreement (now public) and Apple User Ethics
Thanks to the work of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and, ironically, the successful development of an iPhone application by NASA (bound by the Freedom of Information Act) the secret iPhone Developer agreement is now public. (PDF) EFF summarizes the key highlights of the agreement:
- Ban on Public Statements [by developers]
- App Store Only [for distribution]
- Ban on Reverse Engineering
- No Tinkering with Any Apple Products
- Kill Your App Any Time [Apple can]
- We Never Owe You More than Fifty Bucks [that's Apple of course]
From an ethics standpoint, I think it is both troubling and remarkable that the use of THE SAME application can be a EULA violation one day, and an enthusiastically supported iTunes App Store download the next. Exhibit A in this category would be the UStream Broadcaster iPhone App. At NECC 2009 in Washington DC, the ISTEConnects live blogging / webcasting crew had to purchase a special Nokia phone to provide mobile Ustream coverage of conference interviews and sessions. They couldn't use the Ustream iPhone broadcaster app at that time, because it was "illegal" and required a jailbreak. Wouldn't do to model EULA violations for ISTE educator attendees, would it? This year for ISTE 2010 in Denver, that same application will be available and in use by many I'm sure, since it's been approved in the iTunes App store since December 2009.
When it comes to ethics, generally "right" and "wrong" are not defined by the daily decree of a corporation. That officially IS the case when it comes to apps on the iPhone and iPod Touch, however.
I hope someday, King Steve will smile down on us and approve multi-tasking iPhone apps, so users of ScreenSplitr can finally come out of the shadows and walk in the bright sunlight. Until then, it's probably best to stick to the dark alleys.
photo credit: edbrambley
Hat tip to Digg and Wired for this news item.
Technorati Tags:
apple, iphone, developer, agreement, secret, ustream, broadcaster, iste, isteconnects, iste2010, necc2009, necc
Imagineering iPad Educational Apps
The folks at Penguin books have been doing some imagineering, inspired by the soon-to-be released iPad:
The imminent launch of the iPad has galvanized our children's publishing teams to think about how the work they publish can be reinvented for devices where touch and sound and movement can enhance stories and provide a rich engaging experience for children raised as digital natives. The video below doesn't show real working applications, or even prototypes - more they are imaginings of the things we think we might be able to do and perhaps will be doing. Look out for them in an app store near you soon...
If you can't view this YouTube version in your current location, try the mirrored version on Vimeo.
I can't wait to see what my kids are going to be able to draw on the iPad with Brushes! (I'll just have to figure out how to get a F2F or virtual teacher for them, since I'm a poor artist and don't know how to use Brushes well.... yet!)
Hat tip to Fastcompany via Google Fast Flip.
Technorati Tags:
edtech, technology, video, ipad, children, penguin, imagine
Putting Learning In Student Pockets: Mobile Learning at Oklahoma Christian University #heartlandconf10
These are my notes from Berlin Fang and Luke Hartman's presentation "Putting Learning In Student Pockets: Mobile Learning at Oklahoma Christian University" at the 2010 Heartland eLearning Conference hosted by the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond. MY THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS ARE IN ALL CAPS. The Heartland eLearning conference is on Twitter, has a conference blog, and a Facebook fan page.
I GOT TO THIS SESSION ABOUT 10 MIN AFTER IT STARTED.... I AM SO THRILLED TO BE ALBE TO HEAR FROM BERLIN, BECAUSE I REALLY HAVEN'T HAD MUCH OF AN OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN DIRECTLY ABOUT OKLAHOMA CHRISTIAN'S LAPTOP INITIATIVE. ALL STUDENTS THERE HAVE MACBOOK LAPTOPS AND IPHONES / IPOD TOUCHES.
Website where session resources are: ni.oc.edu (blog)
EduCause Quarterly article: From Distraction to Engagement: Wireless Devices in the Classroom By Berlin Fang
very difficult to make the case for using mobile technologies with faculty
- search for YouTube: professors vs gadgets
Big ban theory
- Univ of Memphis Law School cut off Internet access in the dorms
- I don't think this is the answer
- I'm from China, we're familiar with banning technologies
- when you are banning something in the classroom, you are sending very negative messages to students
Messages we hear when restrictive approaches to technology are used:
- Innovator, early adopter, early majory, late majority, my professor"
- I don't rust you can put learning in your own hands"
Contain or channel?
- story: in ancient China there were 2 kings facing flooding problems
- 1 king built a dam, but that never worked
- the 2nd king learned a lesson: he built channels and canals to take the water to where it was needed, and to the sea
- I think this is a very wise strategy
- instead of banning the laptop and technology, we should channel this
Great wall of China:
- didn't start as a tourist attraction
- one of our earliest dynasties built this
- this was one of the shortest lived dynasties in Chinese history
- hopefully we can learn something from this history
lots of faculty members are going to this mobile technology learning concept with lots of screaming and hair pulling
- we've beeen thinking about this and experimenting with it a lot
faculty complain students are distracted, students are not listening to my lectures any more, their device is a wall between them
Jyri Engestrom: Univ of Helsinki: "Historically accumulating ......
standing in front of the blackboard
- movie "Serious Man" screensnap
triangle: message, medium, and method
- most people focus on the medium (laptop, online course)
- actually your teaching METHOD and MESSAGE has to change as well
students should be required to reassemble your content and message in some way
another triangle: subject, object, and community
We encourage faculty to tell students guidelines and rules at the start of class
traditional teaching: teacher is control of EVERYTHING
How NOT to integrate mobile technology
- failing to motivate ("cool" does not motivate faculty)
- creating fear of job security
- having a bad introduction
- taking vendor promises too literally
- leaving tech to take charge
- failing to adapt to change
- having tech dominate teaching
Showing Tom and Jerry cartoon (maid, "sorry to disturb you Master Thomas")
- See WikiPedia article for "Push-Button Kitty"
HQ Tom & Jerry 070 Push Button Kitty
- "that cat must be tenured"
- change comes anyway
- Mechano: The cat of tomorrow
- "progress / the machine age"
- students adapt to the changes
Integration into the classroom:
- motivate learners
- organize content
- be the model
- institute rules
- leverage tools
- evaluate results
Cane's conditions of learning
- 9 instructional events
Iowa State contract with students:
"If your cellular phone is heard by the class, you ar responsible for completing one of two options" (singing a song, etc..)
Enriching the class
- attendance app
Creating opportunities for collaboration
- 3 Amigos analogy
We use wikis for collaboration
Our "InTouch" application on iTunes can be used for students to find each other
Oklahoma Christian instructor who used podcast capture to share his lecture during the blizzard
another example: Extending the classroom, "Food for Thought"
- instructional tech support followed him to the grocery store, to his kitchen
- he has many short videos like this
- I never get paid for extra work like this, but I get good BBQ to eat!
Teach - Listen - Produce --> submit
Mobile rehearsal
- extracts music for different parts, stores it in iTunesU
- students download them, and can listen to them as many times as they want
- students can record their performance using iMovie, and submit it via BlackBoard
- students say they love it, because they are learning at different speeds
- computer tech never tires of playing a song over and over
- mp3 formats: students can also use their mobile devices
I asked Dr Adams why he asked them to record a video instead of
Last example: James Dvorak teaching Elementary Greek
OC iTunesU - 10210SP-REK-5113-01 - Course Video
Now hearing from Luke Hartman
inTouch Native App
- mobile version of MYOC (campus portal)
- converge campus information
Pulls class info from Blackboard
- pulls media, course specific files where instructors can put media files specific to their course
Have LIVE updates from laundry room of available washers and dryers
- menu on demand
- gives access to any type of media
- showing videos plaing within
Used the iPhone simulator to create the video deoms he's using
Feedback app allows for polling
- realtime feedback
- similar to clicker devices
Here app: is attendance taking app
- lets students enter a password that the faculty member gives them
- or faculty members can click on a student's face to take attendance
- easy way to take attendance
WOW: I WANT THIS!
We have 3x5 application: a flashcard app, can create your own flashcards
- can create decks online
- cycles through them
See intouch.oc.edu for iPhone app info
Technorati Tags:
app, apple, edtech, heartlandconf10, iphone, ipod, #heartlandconf10, oc, touch, integration, tech
Don’t just blame the kids: Adults face social media challenges too
When the topics of cell phones, social media websites, and digital technologies come up in conversation, I frequently hear adults bemoan teens and and their inability to exert proper digital discipline with these interactive tools. Today's Associated Press article, "Courts Cracking Down on Texting Jurors," highlights the fact that plenty of adults face social media challenges too.
Last year a San Francisco Superior Court judge dismissed 600 potential jurors after several acknowledged going online to research the criminal case before them.
Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon challenged her misdemeanor embezzlement conviction after discovering five jurors "friended" one another on Facebook during the trial.
And a federal judge in Florida declared a mistrial after eight jurors admitted Web surfing about a drug case.
Twitter and social media use guidelines have been adopted by some federal courts to address these issues:
"You may not use any electronic device or media" in connection with the case, the recommended federal instructions admonish. They also bar visits to "any Internet chat room, blog, or website such as Facebook, My Space, LinkedIn, YouTube or Twitter."
The guidelines were developed "to address the increasing incidence of juror use of such devices as cellular telephones or computers to conduct research on the Internet or communicate with others about cases," according to a memo to federal judges from the committee's chief, U.S. District Court Judge Julie Robinson of Topeka, Kan.
"Such use," the judge noted, "has resulted in mistrials, exclusion of jurors, and imposition of fines."
Just as judges in our courts are recognizing the need for "social media guidelines," some educational leaders are recognizing the need for these guidelines in our schools as well. Social media guidelines go beyond acceptable use policies (AUPs) and rules. They are guidelines designed to catalyze CONVERSATIONS about appropriate and inappropriate uses of digital technologies in various contexts, and to GUIDE individuals as they make decisions about when to use or not use available technology tools.
While it may be appropriate for courts to ban mobile technologies, this is NOT the correct choice for our schools and centers of learning. If educators as well as parents continue to abdicate the responsibility to help students learn "digital discipline," who is going to meet this dire societal need? We each need to step up to the plate.
Karen Montgomery and I presented a session at the 2009 National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) on social media guidelines for schools, and created a Facebook group with the same focus / theme. In our Powerful Ingredients 4 Blended Learning (PI4BL) workshops, we encourage schools to adopt social media guidelines as part of ongoing efforts to proactively leverage the constructive power of social media and other digital technologies.
The Social Media Guidelines wiki project is a great place to start to find examples of social media guidelines adopted by different schools. Cell phones, text messaging, and the issues which arise when learners of ANY age choose to use (or mis-use) these tools are NOT going away. We all need to discuss and practice digital discipline. Next time you have jury duty, remember to leave your smartphone behind and take a printed book to read while you wait!
photo credit: Cayusa
For an excellent window into current trends with social media and digital technologies, see the PBS Frontline special and website, "Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier." This documentary aired in February 2010, and is available in its entirety online.
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education, facebook, school, twitter, myspace, court, juror, jury, ban, socialmedia, media, policy, guideline
Cell Phones R 4 More Than Texting: Let’s plan for them, not ban them!
These are my notes from Kay Tibb's presentation "Cell Phones R 4 More Than Texting: Let's plan for them, not ban them!" at the 2010 MACE (Mid-America Association for Computers in Education) Conference in Manhattan, Kansas. MY THOUGHTS AND FEEDBACK ARE IN ALL CAPS. Kay is the Technology Director for USD 353 in Wellington, Kansas.
I worked at the Challenger Learning Center before it closed because of lack of funding
years ago all 40 of my students had Palm Tungsten handhelds
- we discussed what learning with a Palm looks like...
- I let students sync their Palms to their home computers at home
- I was so amazed by what my students did with their Palms
- they loved working with their Palms
- I had a student who had MAJOR behavior disorder issues: when he had that Palm in his hand and was doing his science lesson, spelling, etc he was a whole different person
Favorite story: that student was doing a game instead of his spelling
- I said, "you know the rules, you all made them, I didn't..." and that was all it took
cell phones are so much like that now...
Palms had old technology called a "tri-beam"
- let the Palm go out to the internet, that was 7 years ago, there were VERY few sites that were mobile compatible
Today there are a pletheora of mobile sites
- are even some sites that let you change YOUR site to be mobile-compatible
My district does not YET let our students use cell phones during the day, but I am working on that with our administration
- I have some supportive teachers, and some teachers who are absolutely, positively against it
- I want to open it up so those teachers who WANT to allow the use of cell phones for learning
Cell phone as an organizing tool
- calendar: assignments are due
- appointments with counselor
- calendars can take the place of the agendas
The other day I asked someone in our 1600 student district how much we spend on agendas: almost $7000 per year now
- that is a LOT of money, that is just for the middle and high school (that $7K is for just those 900 students)
98% of our kids, even in 5th grade, have a cell phone now
no one is modeling the use of this cell phone / mobile technology for students
- you don't have to add anything to your curriculum
- just start using them in respectful ways, and ask the students to use them in respectful ways
I can guarantee you high school students don't lose their cell phone
- make sure kids pay for the insurance for their cell phone, so they can get a new one if it goes swimming
taking notes
- even the cheapest cell phones have a notes section
- notes are time stamped: so you can use them as a hall pass time/date stamped
Also task lists
- what is due and coming up
store passwords
my cell phone has a password keeper
Voice notes: record homework instructions, parent questions and quick reminders
most phones have a voice notes feature, I don't know of a phone (even the cheapest ones like Jitterbug) have a voice note feature
calculator
- basic calculator comes on most cell phones
Erate helps pay for telecommunication devices, including CELL PHONES
THAT IS A GREAT POINT. INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW: WHAT SCHOOLS ARE USING ERATE NOW TO PAY FOR STUDENT CELL PHONE USE PLANS
Website access
I AM WONDERING ABOUT CIPA COMPLIANCE FOR STUDENT-BROUGHT CELL PHONES?
Digital Disconnect
- studies show economic status does not seem to be a factor in ownership of cell phones among students
- the digital divide is no longer between economically advantaged and disadvantaged, it's between digital natives (students) and digital immigrants (teachers)
- cell phones are essential tools students use to communicate with the world around them, inside of school learning is isolated from students' everyday technology culture
- cell phones are not going away! Let's plan for their use as a learning tool
- we need to demonstrate good digital citizenship
If you would take my cell phone away, that would be like taking me off of life support
Countering what we heard in Janet's preso this morning, studies show students do NOT know how to use technologies responsibly and how to learn with
- we need to embrace these technologies, like laptops these devices are NOT going away
now some cell phone companies are MAKING consumers buy data service
- our kids are bringing these devices with unfiltered access now
FCC is not about to block cell phones in schools: they do not block them in movie theaters
Polleverywhere.com is one of my favorite websites
- lets you create instant polls for cell phones and allows up to 100 votes for free
[I THINK THAT IS NOW LIMITED TO 30 FREE VOTES PER POLL]
You can see the results of polls immediately, use this as a student response system
Drop.io
- free, you don't have to give your students YOUR cell phone number to have students send you voice messages, pictures, and text messages
- audio can be downloaded as a mp3
Google Voice
- I love this! It transcribes my phone messages to text
- does a pretty good job of transcribing
We will use Google Voice for today's scavenger hunt
- you will text me first so I'll have your cell number (students don't have to have a GV number, just the teacher does)
Liz Kolb's book "Toys to Tools" has a great example letter that you can use to send home to parents
Cell phone Scavenger Hunt
1- Text your name to my Google Voice number
2- Answer the question on the screen (with PollEverywhere)
3- With your table/group make a list of ways you could use drop.io (or any digtial dropbox) with your students
4- Text or call my drop.io # with your group's ideas
I JUST REALIZED SOMETHING THAT MAY BE OBVIOUS TO EVERYONE ELSE, BUT NOT ME..... WHEN PEOPLE SEND A TEXT MESSAGE TO YOUR GOOGLE VOICE ACCOUNT, IT'S FREE... THERE IS NO CHARGE/FEE FOR THOSE TEXT MESSAGES! (FOR THE RECIPIENT) WOW!!!
One of the most important things I learned when using Palms with students was that I didn't have to know everything!
- this can be very empowering for your students
Technorati Tags:
#mace2010, mace, mace2010, cell, phone, mobile
Top 10 Education Apps for iPod Touch and iPhone
Following the lead of Lucy Gray, I've created and shared a "Favorite Education Apps" curated list on Appolicious. These are my "top 10 education applications" for the iPod Touch and iPhone, for students in intermediate / secondary grades.
All of the above apps DO work with the iPod Touch, with the exception of Pano which is iPhone-only (at this point) since it requires a camera. AudioBoo does require a microphone, so if your older iPod Touch doesn't have one consider getting a ThumbTack mic. All of these listed apps are free except Pano, it costs $3.
In case you are accessing this page in a location where Flickr is blocked, here's my list in text form!
AudioBoo: This is a great application for quickly posting geo-tagged images with audio. Ideal for field trips!
WordPress: People learn to write better when they write more frequently, and often when the write for an interested audience! This Wordpress app can be used on classroom team blogs by students as well as teachers, who have different access/publishing rights.
Evernote: When you are learning it's important to take notes. Evernote lets your notes "live" in the cloud, so you can access them on multiple platforms.
Pano: Learning can and should be documented with lots of images. Pano lets you create "stitched" panoramic photos using multiple shots.
Google Mobile App: Google's tools for writing and collaboration, like Google Docs, are ideal for students and teachers. This app provides mobile access to your Google-verse.
NASA App: NASA has a lot of rocket scientists working for them. Generally we don't get to hang out enough with these folks. This app can help.
Read It Later Free: Sometimes Internet access is not available, but you still want to read/access web content. Read It Later can help.
Stanza: Stanza not only lets you read eBooks, it also has a desktop app you can use to create and sync your own.
StoryKit: Create and share an electronic storybook. Helping learners become authors is a BIG deal. This app helps.
Google Earth: GE can be great to help students make geographic connections to different topics and concepts in the curriculum.
[end of list]
Other apps I ALMOST included in this list but didn't are:
- Brushes ($5)
- Dropbox (free)
- MobileRSS (free)
- Epicentral (free)
- Touch Physics Lite (free)
What's on YOUR list of top education apps for the iPod Touch or iPhone?
Remember there can be no CREATIVITY without CREATION. I love apps which empower learners MAKE / CREATE stuff!
My complete library of iPhone / iPod Touch apps is available on Appolicious. If you are surprised by some of the titles, remember this is a comprehensive list of ALL the apps our family has and uses, including my 3 pre-teen kids!
Technorati Tags:
edtech, iphone, app, application, ipod, ipodtouch, fav, favorite
Posting iPhone Photos from Email to Facebook
This afternoon my wife received the following photo in her iPhone email, of our daughter last week acting as "The Wicked Witch of the West" in her school's shortened rendition of "The Wizard of Oz."
This was a great photo, and I wanted to share it with others via Facebook. I'm not sure if these steps are obvious to everyone, so I thought I'd share the procedures we followed to get this photo from my wife's iPhone email onto my Facebook page. (If my wife used Facebook she could have done this directly, but up to this point she's been largely a social media Luddite.)
Step 1 was to have my wife email me the photo. Once it was in my iPhone's email, I clicked on the image and chose SAVE IMAGE. This was Step 2: It put a copy of the photo in MY iPhone's photo library.
Step 3 was posting the photo to Facebook. Using the iPhone's Facebook application, I clicked on the NEWS FEED option and then the PHOTO button beside the "What's On Your Mind?" / update field. This brought up the CHOOSE FROM LIBRARY option for photos and videos.
I selected the photo from my iPhone photo library, added a caption, and clicked POST.
Done!
While I maintain offline backups of all my digital photos, in addition to the web-posted versions on Flickr, my wife does not. I spoke with the husband of one of her friends who does the same thing today (rarely EVER syncs her iPhone to a laptop or desktop computer) but had an iPhone crash this weekend which MAY result in her losing ALL her saved iPhone photos. Do you know of an iPhone application which lets you copy / backup your photos directly from your iPhone to a server-based backup service? I use PixelPipe to upload photos and video to both Flickr and Facebook on the go, but this isn't really an "archival" backup application / service. If you know of an application that does this and can recommend it, I'd love to learn what it is and share it.
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iphone, facebook, photo, share, sharing, post, copy, email, apple
Can you imagine this much global sharing?
Jesse Thomas designed and animated the 4 minute video "The State of The Internet" for his presentation at AIGA Baltimore in February 2010. The style is very similar to the "Did You Know" video series. The statistics which blew me away are the numbers for Facebook sharing, as well as botnet / zombie computer growth. Yikes. There's never been a better time to run a Mac or Ubuntu!
JESS3 / The State of The Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo.
The "Did You Know" video series was updated to version 4.0 in September 2009. Many of the statistics in Jesse's "The State of The Internet" video are (coincidentally) also from September 2009.
H/T to Tony Vincent via his delicious links for sharing "The State of The Internet." I was delighted to learn Vimeo auto-detects the iPhone's Safari web browser and provides an iPhone-compatible version of videos for mobile viewing, as YouTube does for many videos. I subscribe to updates from my own delicous network (of which Tony is a member!) and originally saw the video on my iPhone, after seeing the link in my Google Reader education feeds.
It's hard to believe the pace of technologically driven change appears to be "only" just heating up.
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internet, growth, stats, statistics, did, you, know, video, visual, visualization
Panoramic Fieldhouse Photos in Manhattan, Kansas and Norman, Oklahoma
Thanks to the generosity of family and friends, my daughter and I attended the Kansas State versus Colorado men's basketball game last weekend in Manhattan, Kansas, and the Kansas State versus Oklahoma men's basketball game in Norman, Oklahoma, today. I used the $3 iPhone application Pano to capture a panorama inside each fieldhouse. Each of these photos is 7-8 separate, portrait images stitched together on-the-fly, via Pano.
Pano rocks! Thanks to Marco Torres for telling me about it when we were in Maine for ACTEM09.
Since then, I've taken a BUNCH of panoramas! It's definitely one of my favorite apps in my iPhone app library.
Technorati Tags:
manhattan, norman, pano, panoramic, photo, ksu, kstate, basketball, fieldhouse, ou
Poll Results: How much would you / your school pay for PollEverywhere?
Here are the results of the two polls I included in this weekend's post, "PollEverywhere grappling with Monetization and Free Educator Plans." There were 24 respondents to the first poll, and 20 respondents to the second. Those participation totals are not sufficient to give these informal polls much statistical power, but they do highlight the amounts some educators think they and their school would be willing to pay for the web service functionality of PollEveryWhere. Mouse over / click each graph and choose FULL SCREEN to view them at a higher resolution.
PollEverywhere co-founder Jeff's post, "Should we even offer a free product for educators?" has received sixteen comments to date. One of them is from Brad, the other co-founder of PollEverywhere, who wrote:
What if we offered some sort of community support for educators? What would this look like amongst you folks? What tools/websites would you prefer to use to support other teachers who want to use Poll Everywhere in the classroom? This idea is particularly intriguing to me because all of you will run circles around us in understanding the pedagogical applications of Poll Everywhere, and probably come up with some videos of our product being used in the classroom that we'd love to blog about.
One of the best things which could come out of a learning community, or simply a collaborative project like VoiceThread4Education, is a list of examples for how a particular tool or website is being used by students and teachers in classrooms. Particularly when tools are used in engaging, complex lessons, I think a great deal can be learned not only about HOW (from a technical standpoint) a particular tool can be used, but also WHY it is used to achieve specific objectives.
It is a very small example, but last semester my 4th grade daughter was asked to conduct a survey for her math class. Students came up with the question they wanted to ask, and then tracked results as they asked people their question. Sarah asked, "What is your favorite Girl Scout Cookie?" and built the survey with PollEverywhere. She then posted it to our family learning blog, and received over 150 responses. Of course, the fact that I tweeted out a request for others to respond undoubtedly boosted the response rate for this survey. It was fun to both watch these responses "come in" live, and also discuss the results.
One of the best assignments my seventh grade math teacher (Mrs. Allen at Manhattan Middle School, in Manhattan, Kansas) gave us as a class was to create our own "word problems" for extra credit. She used these (often creative) word problems at the start of class as a warm-up activity. Gathering and analyzing live data with survey tools like PollEverywhere can have multiple classroom applications, extending far beyond math classes. I think a learning community where educators share these types of classroom uses / applications is a great idea.
Technorati Tags:
cellphone, mobile, monetization, monetize, poll, polleverywhere, polling, survey
Wordpress for iPhone 2.2 Even Better
The ability to mobile-blog with a smartphone is a powerful capability for Storychasers. (Including Geo-Storychasers!) I have been using the free Wordpress for iPhone app for several months now, and am pleased to learn the latest 2.2 version not only supports comment moderation but also comment editing AND replies. Mobile blogging tools keep getting better!
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