iSean

well, earlier yesterday Google released the next web-app to their set of office apps and it’s presentation software . . . named appropriately: Presentation. Here’s the snippet Google writes in their own intro:

Starting today, presentations — whether imported from existing files or created using the new slide editor — are listed alongside documents and spreadsheets in the Google Docs document list. They can be edited, shared, and published using the familiar Google Docs interface, with several collaborators working on a slide deck simultaneously, in real time. When it’s time to present, participants can simply click a link to follow along as the presenter takes the audience through the slideshow. Participants are connected through Google Talk and can chat about the presentation as they’re watching.

i have been playing with Spresent in my classes and i even have my students using spresent this week; however, i fiddled with Google’s Presentation and I am impressed. I added a photo from my computer to a slide and then decided i wanted it on another slide. i right-clicked the photo and cut it. i went to the next slide and chose paste and the photo appeared on the next slide. worked like a charm. now granted, this is a web-based application so it’s not yet a PowerPoint killer, but it also does things that PowerPoint can’t do. the collaboration tool that goes along with the this app is fantastic. i am sure this has a great use for my online teaching, but i don’t yet have synchronized sessions so the live collaboration piece is not high on my list, but i could certainly see how folks could be working on a presentation together and using the live chat built into this app.

and, like i always do with these free web-based apps . . . i certainly hope this new set of office applications gives some schools cause for consideration. i have no clue why any grade school would be trying to justify purchasing Microsoft Office for their computers when stuff like OpenOffice and/or these web-based solutions exist. Much money could be saved with little inconvenience to teachers and students.

hard to beat free and that’s how much Presentation is.

Technorati Tags: Google, Google Presentation, OpenOffice, spresent

when the iPhone first came out, i nearly went out and bought an 8 GB one for $599. i decided to wait, which was very hard to do as my wife had given me the okay to buy one. well, with the recent news of Apple dropping the price of the iPhone by $200, i knew it was time to buy. instead of going for the 8 GB iPhone, i decided to buy 2 of the 4 GB iPhones at $299 for the same total price i nearly bought 1 a few months back. i won’t write a review of the iPhone because they’re everywhere, but i do have to say that i held off because i had some reservations . . . and now having owned one i can’t believe i waited. browsing the internet from anywhere is awesome. and, it’s not a watered down cell phone internet; rather, it’s real, real real.

i can tell AT&T is not as good as Verizon in my area because the signal strength isn’t as strong, but so far it’s working even when i get down to 1 bar. this post is more about something that sort of irks me — being charged for ringtones. This isn’t Apple; rather, it’s the music industry. i can see being charged for a midi file that is different than the songs on the iTunes Music Store as it has the vocals removed and all that jazz . . . but being charged for the same exact song???

while i think downloading illegal music is wrong and it’s something i won’t do . . . i also think there’s just something about buying a ringtone that i won’t do. i have bought the music already. i can play the music on my iPod or burn it to a CD and play it on CD player and in DVD players and i can play the music in my car or on a home stereo. why should i pay to also have this same song play on the same device just because a call comes in? the notion that ringtones are somehow in a need of a new license agreement that i’ll pay for again is ludicrous. i bought it to play on my iPhone and it plays on my iPhone and now they want me to pay again so i can play it again on my iPhone? PUHHHLEASE!!!!!! the RIAA can go after illegal downloaders like crazy for all i care, but this is just too much. why do customers put up with this?

Technorati Tags: RIAA, iPhone, iTunes, ringtones

i am a big fan of open source tools. i like the whole open source movement . . . mostly because i am in education and acquiring the funds for expensive commercial applications is not always possible. supporting open source, on the other hand, ensures that quality products are available for all of us. but how do you know whether an open source product can work for you? for one, you first need to figure out what needs you have. if you know what you need then you can seek solutions. but merely reading about various tools is not enough to make a big decision as to whether the tool is going to work. you could download the tool(s) and test it on a computer or on a server. downloading products to your computer is easy. if you want to test the open source browser called Firefox then you download and install and you’re up and running in a matter of minutes. easy.

but what about web-based open source tools? even if you can create a database and download and then upload the files, there is a lot of time involved in doing this. i updated a family photo gallery the other day and even on broadband, i bet it took me about 20 minutes to get all of the new files for Menalto’s Gallery uploaded on top of my current installation. there’s no way i’d take that time just to test drive a potential tool. fortunately, there are solutions. the one i’d recommend is called OpenSourceCMS and it’s free to use. the website provides users with access to many of the most popular open source tools that are web-based (which means that they most likely require a MySQL database). here’s an example of their menu where i’ve opened the folder showing the open source e-Learning tools:

if you click on Moodle, for example, you are presented with an information page about Moodle. the page provides readers with direct links to the test a Moodle site’s Front Page and Admin Login. the login information is also supplied:
Username- admin
Password- demo

once you login, you can have near full administrative access to really test the behind the scenes goings-on for each tool. they also provide a plethora of user feedback to help you save time and learn from others. neat tool and well worth exploring the next time you have a problem and want to try seeking an open source solution.

Technorati Tags: CMS, ed tech, open source, technology in education

i am having all sorts of problems with setting permissions on the Drupal site i have created. i want to make student blogs public so that i can pull them down with an RSS news reader and so that their blogs on my Drupal site can be read by the world. i also want to keep all course content and information private so that only students can view it. so far, i have accomplished keeping my blog private where i make course announcements, etc. however, the links i have at the top of each screen (i.e., course links i created) are showing up on the restricted page that anonymous users see and it’s the login screen for students. i would rather have these links show up after students get logged in. hmmm.

phpBB is also forcing me to spend a lot of time learning the ropes. as i mentioned previously, i have upgraded from version 2 to version 3 and this is a HUGE upgrade. all of the administration tools are new and permissions are vastly different. i ended up figuring things out, but i actually had to change the way i set things up to get it to work. i was pretty frustrated after spending the hours i spent. i am typically a pretty good guy at trial and error and figuring out how to tweak, but this stuff was boggling. i can’t imagine a teacher who isn’t very astute at using technical technology tools even hoping to use these tools if they have to set them up in the first place. that’s discouraging to me because i really want to be an open source cheerleader.

but, i think it’s sometimes nice to see that even geeks run into troubles using technology. heh.

Technorati Tags: drupal, ed tech, phpbb, open source, technology in education

my wife and i are eligible for a sabbatical next year. we need to write up a proposal by mid October. my wife is working on doing some research in Italy so we’ll be spending 4 months or so in Europe next year (July - October or thereabouts). i can piggyback onto some of my wife’s work, but i’d really like to do some research that is more ed tech oriented. if you’re located in Europe or know of folks i can talk to then i’d love an email to see if we can work out some sort of collaboration to write an article. perhaps we could do a comparison of technology use between the U.S. and a country in Europe? i also have some educational software that is designed for use with students who have mild disabilities and we could test it on adolescents in a high school to compare to results we’ve collected here in the U.S. i am also interested in many other topics and would love to have a purpose of my own for being in Europe. i realize this is getting late in the game, but i wasn’t sure that my wife was actually going to carry through on this idea and it appears that this is really going to be our plan. if you are involved in ed tech (higher ed or k-12) and you live in Europe then please consider working with me. i can reached at jayhawk and that’s at mac.com — clickable link on my main website (i use javascript there to ensure that spammers won’t collect my email address).

Technorati Tags: ed tech, teachers, technology, technology in education

well, my semester starts in a little over a week and i still haven’t decided on the tools i’ll use. i was really hoping phpBB version 3 would be out, but they released a release candidate 4 in late July and i doubt that the final version comes out in the next week. i’ll wait until next week to decide, but i fiddled with an earlier release candidate and i really like what they’re doing with this upgrade. i am probably going to use the RC 4 even though it isn’t a final version. ah well.

drupal is up to version 5.2 and i’ll likely be using it for my classes this semester. i’ve used it a few times in the past and it’s a nice replacement for most of things that Blackboard does, but i really need a gradebook module to fully break free from Blackboard. i thought one was being made last summer as part of the Google summer of programming or something like that, but here we are a year later and i haven’t heard about it being ready yet. i might check out drupaled.org’s drupal release that is customized for educators. that means that they’ve set it up to install with extra modules already included that help educators use drupal more effectively in their classes.

i plan to take a few days early next week and explore some other potential tools that could supplement the tools above and make for some better online learning for my students. for what it’s worth, i am scheduled to teach 3 online courses this fall.

Technorati Tags: CMS, phpbb, drupal, lms, ed tech, technology in education

my family is set to leave for Canada in less than a week. today i should be receiving a new GPS (Garmin 60CSx) unit (if Fedex tracking is working correctly). this trip is largely about Geocaching. we’ll be staying at the Water Tower Inn in Sault Ste Marie, Canada and venturing out from there. we’ll be in Canada for 4 days, but i am going to make sure that we spend at least one day in the beautiful Lake Superior Provincial Park (i don’t believe geocaching is allowed in the provincial parks, but that won’t stop us from hiking and enjoyed the scenery). As we leave Canada we’ll cross the Mackinac Bridge and then get on a ferry taking us to Mackinac Island. this is a beautiful island where motorized vehicles are prohibited. people either bike, walk, or use horses to get to various places on the island. i believe biking around the entire island is only an 8 mile adventure, so it’s a relatively small island. bike rentals are quite expensive, so my family will be hiking from our hotel to various entertainment spots (unless i can get a 4-bike rack installed on the car by next week). we’ll also do some geocaching on the island while we’re there. this should be a neat adventure and a chance for me to explore a technology with kids to better evaluate and experience the educational application (see, i had to tie this into my blog). ;~)

Technorati Tags: mackinac, geocache, michigan, geocaching, hiking, Ontario

i wrote about coComment when it first came out more than a year ago here. i tried it and ended up not using it because of some technical difficulties (see this post), but i haven’t forgotten about it. well, i just learned that coComment has version 2.0 being released on Monday. oh, what is it you ask . . . well, from their website:

coComment helps you

• track all comments you make on blogs and other comment enabled platforms
• track the comment based conversations you are involved in, as well as those you want to follow as an observer

Keep track of your web based comments and conversations. You don’t need a blog to find this service useful! As a registered user, whenever you leave a comment on a compatible platform (see here for the ever growing list of platforms we support) coComment will automatically begin tracking the resulting conversation stream - updating you whenever someone adds a follow up comment. If you don’t make a comment, you can still have coComment track a comment stream if you are interested in following the discussion as a reader.

it’s just a great way to keep track of all of the various comments you make, wherever you make them (e.g., blogs, youtube, etc.) or even comments on blogs that you don’t participate in, but just prefer to follow. it’s a great concept. perhaps it’s time to give it another try?

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, coComment

i am one of the select few individuals working this summer to revamp and update our teacher education program. i get to help figure out how to best provide our future teachers with the strategies, skills, and know-how to use technology in their future classrooms. wow. currently, we have a single technology course for preservice educators that is required. it is a prerequisite for getting into the College of Education and is taken before any students can apply to the COE. i hate this model. getting a college sophomore in ED 205 who doesn’t have experience with lesson plans and who doesn’t have teaching experiences to draw makes much that is taught in ED 205 seem like an abstract concept. so, i have much higher expectations for the new model we create.

in the best case scenario, the various classes and professors in the COE would work together to teach all of the ISTE NETS-T (that’s the standards for teachers with regard to technology in education) and a technology course wouldn’t be necessary. i spent much time reading up on things in the Journal of Computing in Teacher Education. the bottom line is what i already knew . . . that most college of education faculty are not prepared to teach their students the various technology standards or even a decent sized nugget of the standards. thus, an educational technology course is still fairly necessary. but, i am going to push for some of the easier standards to be transferred to other courses. i am going to make a case that other professors should be modeling the use of technology in their teaching and some standards rely on access to classrooms, so they are more ideal for student teaching.

we had our initial committee meeting and i think (still early) that our technology course is going to be moved away from being a prerequisite. in fact, the course might now be moved to occur in the semester before student teaching. this is also the semester that will occur after a semester where students go into the classroom for a field experience called student assisting (not as interactive as student teaching, but not a passive experience either). i am quite pleased with the potential of this model. our students will have actual classroom experiences to draw on when doing the ED 205 requirements. i am keeping my fingers crossed the end model turns out this well. but, our whole College of Education is just now being emailed the minutes and results from our initial meeting. hmmm.

Technorati Tags: ed tech, undergraduate, teacher, preservice, technology in education

i am back on my blog after a few weeks of intensive teaching. the next 2 months are devoted to writing materials for use in an undergraduate educational technology course for education majors. i have dibbled and dabbled with various iterations of this “textbook” in the past. i am currently an author for the textbook that been used previously in this course. i get 50 cents a copy when the textbook is bought new. we have between 400 - 500 students take this course per semester, but most buy the book used as my royalty check is typically just over $100/year. given the time i put into writing the textbook, i think that works out to about 2 cents an hour (kidding). seriously though, the profit i make is meaningless. i see no reason to help a publisher and a college book store rake in well over $20 off of my students so that i can get enough money to buy my students pizza once per semester. this is the thrust of why i want to bypass the publisher and the bookstore. my contract with the publisher will not allow me to write another textbook for profit to compete with the current textbook so i have no intention of doing so. i do have the intent to have a new product for our students this fall. moreover, i have no intent of claiming authorship, so i think it would be hard for McGraw-Hill to come after me.

i wrote an article last year called, “wiki . . . wiki . . . wiki textbook?” i argued that wiki-based textbook should be replacing the paper textbooks most educational institutions are using. i really liked the open source nature of the wiki engines. well, after time to reflect and test things out and hold many conversations (including a conference presentation in March of 2007) i have come to a new conclusion — i am abandoning my wiki-based textbook ideas. instead, i am going with the open source CMS tool called Drupal. Drupal has a module I’ve installed called, “Books.” my experience is that the Drupal book module will help to produce a much better product for learning. Much like a wiki engine, Drupal can allow for anyone to edit and contribute content. however, i have no intention of being that open with my textbook. for one, i had a wiki-based textbook started and after more than a year, i am dealing with spammers signing up and adding spam far too often. i’ve forced users to register to make changes and they even jump through this hoop. i am going to be trying some strategies with the Drupal book tool, but I still am planning on allowing anyone to potentially contribute material and everyone will encouraged to add comments to various material pages. but a textbook cannot be edited during a school semester, so taking advantage of the technology is somewhat limited. i do plan to have a mechanism in place to allow for content to be added and edited but it will be in a queue waiting for the appropriate time. while in queue, folks who are interested can view this text/edit/revisions, etc. and discuss, etc.

i will spend more time on this new textbook over the next month, but this is where i am right now. i am not ready to give the web address to the new book yet, but i will post it soon enough with another link to the older wiki-based version so that folks can see the differences back to back. stay tuned.

Technorati Tags: drupal, ed tech, technology, wikis, wikitext