iPhone 3G

Ok so the iPhone 3G has been out for a week now.  My impressions are Wow.  My hands got on a 3G iPhone at my local ATT store here in Sandusky Ohio.  I currently have the first generation and have no plans to upgrade any time soon.  Now from my experiences I can fairly say that this is the greatest phone that I have ever had.  Every where that I go I am sharing my own uses of the phone with others.  As far as uses in education I have many.  I have used my iPhone to show others movies that my class has made, pictures of things that I need to remember, and even to share music with my class and football Players.  I love it and the uses have only gotten larger with the opening of the App Store.

In case you have been out for the last 6 months, the iPhone has oppened its OS up to 3rd party developers to write native applications.  So far I have downloaded 18 different apps that I have been using.  16 of them were totally free applications.  The two that I have paid for are a voice memo application and a game called Enigmo which is a great problem solving game.  Rather than review all of my applications, I will review only a couple and when I see fit I will try a couple more.

Shazam:  Shazam is a song recognition program that I see as the most refined and wonderful pice of software that I have used probably my whole life.  This program is a song recognition software that can figure out what song is playing, the artist, and the album with only a 10 second recording of the music.  I have tried this at home, in the car, and even at a shopping mall.  It has worked each and every time.  If you hear a song you want more information about all you have to do is complete a 10 second recording and it somehow communicates to its own servers and a very short time later (about 5 seconds usually) it will provide you with the song name, artist, and album.  It will also provide you with a link to download the song in some cases if it is available.  Love the app.  Not sure how to use it in my classroom yet but I am sure I will find a way.

Remote:  Ok now this little software company called Apple Inc. even got into the mix and wrote their own app for the phone.  This app takes control of your iTunes Library on your computer and allows you to play through your MAC or apple TV whatever you would like to.  It is much nicer than using the apple remote itself to remotely control your music library.  You get to see the music artwork and browse wherever you would like when you use this app.  The only thing that is not supported by this is cover flow which is more of an aesthetic thing anyways.

Well those are two must have programs that I have been messing with this week.  I hope if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch that you enjoy the software that has been released and please provide be with any apps that seem to help you out.

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and the National Education Association (NEA),  as well as three other powerful educational organizations, have joined together to develop a public service announcement aimed at the presidential candidates, and the need to emphasize the importance of both education in our nation’s future and the role technology will play in it. The public service announcement calls for the next president to address their vision of the 21st-Century classroom and make technology initiatives in education a major part of the upcoming debates.

The 2008 Presidential Race debates are on their way.  Much will be said about the war in Iraq, Health Care, and the economy.  Hopefully this public service announcement will bring some much needed attention to schools.

The groups funding the ad are concerned about the shrinking number of college students majoring in math or science and the need for technology in our schools. They use the ad to show how the focus decades ago on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) helped America in the 60′s win the space race and paved the way for economic progress of the 80s and 90s, a similar focus will help determine the United States success in the new global economy.

“Today, nearly 40 years after this historic accomplishment, we’re facing new challenges–including a flattening global economy and climate change,” the ad reads. “Now, more than ever, we must engage and train the next generation of scientists and innovators to address these 21st-century problems and opportunities. Student access to school technology, robust teacher technology preparation, and a renewed focus on 21st-century skills are as critical to this mission as they were to the Apollo astronauts.”

Classroom textbooks are undergoing some notable changes, giving schools many new options and resources.Technology is rapidly changing the way textbooks are produced, sold, and used.

According to the Government Accountability Office, textbooks have outpaced inflation 2 to 1 in the last twenty years, and they make up 26 percent of tuition and fees at four-year colleges. A recent USA Today article cites the increasing use of “open textbooks” as a way to combat skyrocketing textbook prices for college students.  Open textbook are basically free texts that are available online.  Licenses are sold to schools and users are able to download any or all of the text. The texts can be read online or can be printed out.  Educators are also given the ability to customize the content for their classes. Some open textbooks agreements also allow for inexpensive print-on-demand, professionally bound copies at inexpensive prices.

Kindle, Amazon’s amazing ten ounce wireless reading device, is becoming a major player in the future of classroom texts as well.  Kindle already boasts an online reading library of over 130,000 books and a host of other electronic content.  Now it is being picked up by Princeton University, Yale, and the University of California for use this fall by giving students the option of buying hundreds of textbooks in a Kindle edition rather than hardback. The University of California already has 40 percent of its texts available for download.

Kindles cost $359, and the online editions are not much cheaper than the hardbacks.  Still, it is a major advancement in textbooks. Imagine having all of your texts available wherever you go and it weighs just ten ounces. The special “electronic paper” of the Kindle makes the text much easier to read. It has been reported, however, that diagrams and charts do not do as well on the Kindle.

This past school year I served on a curriculum textbook adoption committee and worked with four different textbook publishers.  I was surprised to learn how much content is now online and offered on CD.  Houghton Mifflin, Holt, Glencoe, Prentice Hall, many others now offer entire texts on CD for teachers and students to take home.  Additional resources are now being provided online to compliment the texts including power point, smart board lessons, video segments, and more.

Online textbooks were also available with these publishers. Students are able to log onto a web portal and access the entire text.  No more, “I forgot to take my book home.”  I was truly impressed with the integration of technology and textbooks during this recent adoption.

In the end, books will never go away.  They are loved and treasured by many.  I do enjoy my books and would prefer reading a hardback over any other form.  Books are durable and dependable.  They are extremely portable and can contain a huge amount of information.  Books will always be around, but it is nice to have a variety of options and additional resources for teachers.

“Protecting Your Online Reputation” Written for Wired Educator by Edward Shepard, Small Dog Electronics, Ed@Smalldog.com

You have a good reputation around town, but how does your online reputation stack up? Your online reputation includes the content returned when your name or email address is queried in Google, Yahoo, or the new people-search websites such as Spock.com. This content includes news, personal web sites, participation in blogs, forums, and social media sites, even photos and videos. The internet has become the place where second and even first impressions are very often made. This is as true (or even more so) for educators as most other professions.

According to Search Engine Watch, there are 25 to 50 million proper-name searches performed each day. Beyond curiosity, people “Google” other people to verify credentials, assess reputation, and to look for a method of contact. A 2007 survey showed that 50% of hiring officials use the internet to vet job applications.

This has both strong positive and negative implications. Websites such a Ratemyteachers.com and Rottenneighbor.com make it easy for anonymous individuals to post malicious personal attacks on the internet. More common are examples of jobs lost, promotions denied, and job offers never made due to information that individuals posted about themselves on sites such as Facebook or Myspace. And perhaps, the most common are cases of embarrassing mistaken identity–when a stranger who happens to share your name posts information you’d prefer not to be associated with.

There is already plenty of information posted about us online, whether we want it there or not. The important thing is to make sure this information reflects positively on our name, work, and character. Fortunately, with a little effort, we can influence what people find when they search for us. Here are a seven steps you can take to establish, protect and enhance your virtual reputation.

#1: Use Common Sense – Information posted online is often available for many years, especially to determined seekers. The easiest way to protect your virtual reputation is to avoid posting seemingly-fun-but-potentially-embarrassing information about yourself, especially on social network sites, in public forums, and under your own name. Even college students are learning not to write about their hangovers and hookups online.

If you are writing about a controversial subject, it’s often best to post anonymously (when possible). Otherwise use a pseudonym and try to post in private, password protected forums. Still, be cautious. Pseudonyms can be deciphered, and just because information is originally posted in a private forum doesn’t mean it will stay there. Remember, especially online, you only get one reputation.

#2: Set up a LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn is a very easy, positive, and free way to summarize professional accomplishments, connect with colleagues and partners, and promote yourself online. It is fast becoming an essential resource for hiring and HR departments. LinkedIn is Google-friendly, so your LinkedIn profile will show up via a Google search. People-search programs like Spock.com rely on LinkedIn. Also, on LinkedIn you are in strict control of your profile, and only connect to trusted contacts.

#3: Buy an internet domain in your name (such as www.edwardshepard.com), or as close to your name as possible. There are malicious individuals who have purchased domains in other people’s names, solely to post derogatory and false information about them. While this could happen to anyone, people who work in public service are especially vulnerable. I own Edwardshepard.com, Edwardshepard.net, and Edwardshepard.org. It costs me less than $20 to own all three for two years, and I can easily renew for up to five years at a time. This prevents someone else from making a website that makes me look bad, either on purpose or accidentally. I can make myself look bad enough, thank you very much.

There are many good websites where you can purchase a domain in your name. Many offer web hosting on top of domain registration. Popular registrars include Godaddy.com, Google.com, and (most expensive) Networksolutions.com. I use IntuitiveISP.com, because a friend founded the company.

#4: A personal website is one of the most powerful tools for protecting your online reputation. Establish at least a basic website with information about yourself, preferably at the domain you purchased above. Many domain registrars include free, basic webpage hosting services. Alternately, many web hosts offer free domain registration. Your website can be very simple, with your name, some basic information about you, a public email address, and a link to your LinkedIn profile. Your website is also a good place to showcase your special interests and expertise. Don’t be afraid to have fun with your website, as long as it’s tasteful and ultimately reflects well on you. Also, most modern website creation packages include the ability to password-protect certain pages, where you can post private information for select friends and family.

Even if you don’t want to buy a domain, there are some great, easy-to-use free blog and website hosting companies. My favorites are Blogger.com, Google Pages, Tumblr.com, and Weebly.com. These typically provide an URL that includes your name (www.edwardshepard.tumblr.com). I will cover these and other free, high quality website creation tools in a future article.

#5: If you use social networking sites (Facebook, Myspace, etc), be sure to polish your profile. Most online social networks give you a fair amount of control over what information is shared in your profile. For many professionals, less is more. Simply posting your name and profession is often best. Addresses, phone numbers, and birth dates are best kept private (especially as these can be tools for identity thieves).

#6: Use Google Alerts: You can receive an automatic email (for free) from Google anytime Google discovers a new webpage with your name. This is very easy to set up, and you can control how many times a day, week or month you receive the alert. You can also do this for your school or business. Of course, if your name happens to be “Brad Pitt” or “Brit Spears,” you will get lots of bogus alerts. On the other hand, this can be an easy way to find out if people online are talking about you.

#7. Consider third-party reputation management solutions. Companies such as Naymez.com (free) can help you positively nurture your virtual reputation. Wink.com (free) shows your online profile, and can help you you to dispute it. Reputationdefender.com (fee-based) not only shows you what’s being said about you, but actually provides tools for you to get rid of the content you don’t like.

We must consider that our virtual reputation is as important as our real-world reputation. Fortunately, with just a little effort, we can gain enhanced professional and networking capabilities when we do this.

~Wired Educator encourages you to support Small Dog Electronics.

Livescribe Pulse Smartpen is an amazing pen and a computer in one. The pen records audio as you write and merges the two together.  When you go back to your notes you just tap what you have written and the pen plays the audio in sync with the words you tap. The pen also allows you to upload the notes to your computer.  The uploaded notes can be organized, searched and shared.

The Smartpen is only marginally larger than your average size writing instrument. Inside its aluminum housing you will find an OLED display, a 150MHz computer processor, 1GB NAND storage drive for 100 hours our recording time (200 hours on the 2GB), a rechargeable lithium battery, dual microphones, speaker, audio jack, and more. (Clock, calculator, etc. …) The pen connects to your PC through a USB cradle where it recharges the battery and transfers data.

The pen looks promising, however, I was disappointed to learn that you need special paper to make this magic happen, and the deal breaker for me is that it is not compatible with a Mac.  (Though the company states they are aggressively working on it, and with Mac laptops sales escalating you can bet they are.)

To learn more about the Smartpen’s technical specifications and requirements you can visit their website. Besides the pen, cradle, and cable you also receive a case, a tablet of the special ‘dot’ paper, and three ink cartridges. You are also given a 250MB online account storage where you can store and share your notes and audio with other Livescribe users. Livescribe sells additional 100-page, college-ruled notebooks for $20.

It’s difficult to give the pen a recommendation without using it.  My initial reaction is enthusiastic.  Imagine being in college and having a pen that syncs your notes to the lecture.  Wow!  I doodled a lot so that might be underwhelming, but the concept is first rate.  The pen will hopefully evolve to eliminate the need for special paper and be compatible with Macs. There are pens doing similar tasks on their way without the need of special ‘dot’ paper. (There are certainly many other ways to record lectures though.  I use my iPod and a mic.)  If you would like to see how the notes and audio merge visit LiveScribe’s website for many provided examples of actual Notecasts as well as excellent video demonstrations of the device.

The 1GB pen is priced at $149 and the 2GB pen is $199.

Have a safe and happy July 4th from Wired Educator!

Apple announced today that it is expanding its iTunes University material to include content suitable for kindergarten through grade 12.  A great variety of content is available to download for free today from seven different states with more to follow each day.

iTunes Univeristy, a part of the iTunes store, has offered over 50,000 free lectures, lessons, audiobooks, and educational videos from the top museums, universities, and international media organizations around the world. These wonderful lessons can be downloaded onto iPods, iPhones, Macs, and PCs and used to enrich learning in your classroom.

iTunes provides an excellent introduction video and overview of iTunes University for anyone unfamiliar with this resource.  In fact, Apple offers excellent tutorials of all of their products.

Wired Educator Comment: Wow!  Just Awesome!

Educators are role models whether we are on duty or not, and I am of the mindset that we are always on duty.

I also believe in the adage, “don’t write what you don’t want other people to read.” This advice holds true for electronic writings as well.  I am amazed at how many elected officials, educators, and other public workers have made the news for misusing their computers and especially email. Even texting is being debated and tried in the legal circles as evidence.

Since you are reading this blog, you are most likely like me, constantly working to become the best educator you can be for your students.  You probably don’t need to worry about anyone reading your email because you hold yourself to a higher standard. I know my emails would bore someone to sleep. So, in the words off the cover of the popular How-to Series For Dummies, this entry is a reference for the rest of us.

I just paid $70 to have myself fingerprinted for the Criminal Bureau of Investigations (CBI) and for the FBI to ensure that I am not a threat to our students as part of adopted board procedure. (Yes, everyone had to not just me.)  Schools are now requiring criminal background checks on their employees, as they should. I support this completely.  My children go to school, and I want that safety requirement for them as well.  So you better believe educator’s email and internet usage is being monitored as well during working hours.

Your Email at Work:

A recent survey states that one out of three IT workers admit to reading an employee’s email without authorization. So, please know: 1) Your workplace has the ability to read your email.  2) Your workplace may be reading your email.

Isn’t there too much email being sent back and forth to be read? Well, yes there is, but email boxes can be searched for specific key words and computer programs can be run over an entire system to scan email traffic for specific words and word strings.  They can look for an unusually high number of emails, or how many emails are out of district, contain attachments, or how many are forwards, and what time they are being sent.  Consider all of your email in a database with your employer having the ability to organize it, search it, graph it, and open any document. Even if your email is not being read, I would imagine most employers can and do check to see how many emails are being sent and where they are going.  Administrators want to know who is teaching and who is sending out emails.

Powerful Example: Recently, an Ohio school district ran software that red flagged an employee’s emails, and the email served as the crucial evidence to terminate him and lead to his conviction as a sexual predator.

Are they allowed to do that? Yes. Not only are they allowed to it, your school is now REQUIRED to archive your emails. It’s the law. Email Archiving is now required of schools to comply with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure as now related in the ediscovery processes. (No your union cannot argue against this either since it is now law.) You will be receiving notice of some sort very soon.

How will your school handle the email archiving process? I don’t know, but law is requiring it, so it will be happening soon. You can contact your IT for more information.

Will anyone be able to read my email? Parents? Coworkers? I don’t know.  I would assume the Freedom of Information Act will allow it.  I would assume that will be the case. (My attorney/wife says they can use that now to access your email.)

Wired Educator’s perspective:  Keep it smart. Keep your email professional. You’re probably doing that already. Keep your correspondence short. Report any improper email you receive to your IT or administrator.  Don’t use your school email for anything other than school. If you want to remind your wife to pick up eggs at the store once in awhile, I’d wait and text her during your plan period or use your smartphone and private account during lunch.

(One last thought: I do very little correspondene with parents via email.  I use the phone.  I save my emails for staff.  Phones are powerful for contacting parents. Emails with parents can become overused and lose meaning.  These are my thoughts.  Also, what if you receive an email from TopGun1987WingMan@yahoo.com claiming to be Johnny’s father?  How do you verify that before revealing personal information?)

The International Society for Technology in Edcuation (ISTE) issued new technology standards  today at the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC). The technology standards have not undergone a revision since 2000.  The updated National Educational Technology Standards, NETS,  are directed to improve teaching and learning, expanding on the already established standards of 2000, which focused on what teachers should understand and do with technology.

Don Knezek, ISTE’s CEO, clarifies “the new standards are aimed at promoting students’ abilities to learn effectively and live productively in an increasingly digital world. Teachers and students must be prepared for the challenges of a new digital world.”

ISTE’s standards now assume that every teacher understands the importance of technology and its ability to transform education, and moves forward to address what students should be learning.

The National Educational Technology Standards 2008 are outlined below and broken down in much greater detail on ISTE’s website:

1.    Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity

Teachers use their knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments. Teachers:

2.    Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments

Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessment incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS•S. 

3.    Model Digital-Age Work and Learning

Teachers exhibit knowledge, skills, and work processes representative of an innovative professional in a global and digital society. 

4.    Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility

Teachers understand local and global societal issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital culture and exhibit legal and ethical behavior in their professional practices. 

5.   Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership

Teachers continuously improve their professional practice, model lifelong learning, and exhibit leadership in their school and professional community by promoting and demonstrating the effective use of digital tools and resources.

Ok so I just finished my Week at Stone Lab and what a week it was.  We were stuck on an Island about the size of 2 football Fields on some Siluran Dolastone.  That is the type of rock that it is which I learned this week.  Anyways, we used Google Earth to create useable lessons for teachers regarding Geo Spacial Technology and the tools associated with Google Earth.  I had a Blast!  Most of it was being trapped on an Island with nothing to do but this work.  Along the way we went on a Trawling trip which you saw a video of earlier, we went to Kellys Island for a tour of its Geological history, and even toured Put-in-Bay and some of its History.

Dr. David Hart is affiliated with Wisconson Sea Grant and he recently took the book Paddle to the Sea and charted the path on Google Earth and made a kind of lesson out of Paddle’s Travels.  If you haven’t read Paddle to the Sea I suggest you maybe take a look at it some day.  His lesson is posted at www.googlelittrips.com.  He helped us burn the night oil and finish our stuff sometimes staying up to 3 and 4 in the morning to finish.

Dr. Rosanne Fortner is a retired Professor from The Ohio State University and she helped bring all of us together this week and leads COSEE during her retirement.  For information on her go here.  http://coseegreatlakes.net/staff/rosanne She is known as a teacher of Teachers.

I highly suggest coursework at Stone Lab for anybody interested in Science or Education.  I enjoyed it very much.  I have created a website to post our lessons.  I call them Earthquests.  So you can visit www.earthquests for more information.  Enjoy, and I hope you play around with my lesson and give me feedback.

Pat