iSean

email is important for just about anyone who works in an online world. many of us consider many email applications before settling on the best of the bunch but often a solution lacking all of what we’d want. the browser is another important application for internet geeks (e.g., is there really a choice beyond Firefox?). but for me, two of the more important uses of my computer are for scheduling needs and for my to do lists. i am a Macintosh user, so i am pretty happy with iCal — it comes free with the Mac OS. unfortunately, iCal is not great for a person who has to sync calendars with others and for a person who often uses lab computers, etc. so i switched to Google’s calendars back in April of ‘06. at the time, i noted that Google worked well with iCal. i was wrong. while Google’s calendar can import iCal calendars, it’s not a two way street and thus it is worthless to even try it. so i gave up on iCal. i missed the quickness of using iCal when i am on my main computer. i can make quick edits and additions when using iCal that take a bit longer on Google’s calendars. and Google is fast. however, i recently discovered Spanning Sync (SS). SS is a tool that will work on your Mac to automatically (or manually) sync Google’s calendars with your iCal calendars and visa versa. they have a demo here and it looks just beautiful. i have grabbed the public beta but unfortunately i just discovered that the DIGG effect is in full force. this little application had made the digg front page and the servers at SS couldn’t handle the load, so they closed down their beta offering for now. shucks. on the other hand, i find it interesting that the application will reside on your computer, yet it uses the SS servers to perform the sync. imagine the amount of data that SS will have access to (insert evil laugh here). ;~)

as far as my to do list . . . i’ll have to save that for another day, but suffice to say i’ve moved beyond a simple text document and i am still searching for the ideal solution.

Technorati Tags: iCal, calendar, scheduling, digg, Google, Spanning Sync

so, i guess you can tell that i’ve taken some time off over the break. nothing like visiting Disney World to get me back into the swing of things. Heh heh.

i am not teaching ED 205 Computers in Education this semester for the first time in years. instead, i have a bunch of thesis students and a weekend class for LD teachers wanting to learn more about special education technology. in other words, i have time to do a lot more exploration of new technologies and time to try and find solutions to problems that i encountered when i was teaching ED 205. one of things that was easy to do in a regular classroom that was difficult online was a lesson on creating podcasts. when the lesson is taught in face-to-face classrooms, i can bring in the necessary equipment, etc. when i taught online, i just skipped this lesson and did a different lab instead. well, i think i’ve found a solution for podcasting that can even work when teaching online. Gabcast.

Gabcast is a tool that is self described as:

a podcasting and audioblogging platform that offers an easy way to create and distribute audio content. Most people will use a touch-tone telephone to make their recordings but we also provide worldwide access to the service through VoIP. Once you have made a recording and have published it, a newsfeed is immediately and automatically updated to alert subscribers to your channel.

in other words, students can create podcast just by using their phones. the service is free as long as the account stays under 200 MB. and, a podcast can be up to 60 minutes long. they have a toll-free 800 number and even free world numbers for everyone else. the podcast can be easily integrated with a student’s blog if they have one and they’ll even provide automatic RSS feeds, etc. it’s worth checking out if you don’t have the typical podcasting equipment, but you want to have your students creating podcasts.

Technorati Tags: blogging, education, gabcast, podcasting