A shout out a long time in coming!

I became familiar with Bob Sprankle and his work through Room 208. Listening and reading what he and his students were up to transformed my thinking. Wow! That really was in 2005? I continue to listen to the Seedlings @ Bit By Bit  podcast where Bob is joined by Alice Barr and Cheryl Oakes. Congratulations on 100 shows! Bob is now an Elementary Technology Integrator in Wells, Maine. Though I have never met Bob I'm always interested in what he is up to. His latest focus is working with parents and technology TechTime at Wells Elementary School. I hadn't seen this video he posted and thought you might enjoy it. Technology the size of a building now fits in your pocket!


You should also check out Bob's Lab Lessons for K-4th grade and Link of the Week.
Thanks Bob (Alice and Cheryl too!)!

And the Winner Is...!

The Edublog Awards are in their 7th year. Congratulations to everyone. Now it's time to dust off Google Reader and update my reading selections! What fun... Happy Reading!

Brain Food

I was excited to find out that Leo Laporte interviewed Kevin Kelly. I've listened to Leo for years on his nationally syndicated radio talk show at The Tech Guy Labs and now on his TWiT (This Week in Tech) Netcast Network. I first heard about Kevin Kelly starting with Whole Earth Catalog and The Well with Stewart Brand, and then read Wired magazine when he was executive director and now Cool Tools.

The interview can be heard on TWiT Live Special 49:
Now of course I had to read the book What Technology Wants. I've downloaded  it from Audible.com and started reading it. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

A Hug From Me to Diigo, Dropbox, Evernote, and Picasa

This week was a technologically challenging week for me.  My computer has been in the shop, and its future is looking bleak.  Although I haven’t been singing songs of good cheer with this news, I haven’t fallen apart either despite the fact that it has become evident that a large part of my life centers around my computer. 

Why you ask am I able to maintain reasonable composure during this time of "crisis"? Simple. I'm in the cloud and have been using some lifesaving web 2.0 tools.  Diigo, Dropbox, Evernote, and Picasa, here's a big hug from me to you.

Diigo is a social bookmarking tool.  It is where I keep track of all of my favorite websites, easily highlight and store select info of importance, join communities with similar interests, etc.  This video explains more.

Diigo for educators is also available.  Although I used to be a Delicious fan, Diigo has won me over.  Delicious accounts can be migrated over into Diigo.

See Kacey’s post about the fine qualities of Dropbox.  Since she made her post, DropitTOme made a debut.  It makes receiving files from others to Dropbox possible. (For example, students could submit assignments to my Dropbox using DropiTOme.) 

Evernote is also a useful way of organizing, storing, and sharing images, documents, links, etc.  You can watch a video explaining it here.  I am still debating it, but I think that Diigo alone meets most of my needs. 

There are a lot of ways to store pictures online.  I like Picasa because of its integration with blogger amongst other reasons.  Thank you Picasa for keeping those fun fall pictures safe during time of uncertainty!

Not only did these sites help me under a time of duress, but they consistently aid me on a daily basis when I move from my PC to various computers on campus.  There is also an iphone/ipad app for Diigo, Dropbox, and Evernote which makes info accessible from virtually anywhere 24/7. 

With all of this said, please don’t test my “good nature” with a crazy practical joke like hiding my iphone.   I can only hold so long under such pressure.