Posts Tagged ‘education’

Sometime yesterday Protopage had an upgrade.  Here is what the site looked like before the upgrade.

Below is the same page after the upgrade.  Notice how everything is shifted down about half an inch so that the options tab can be seen at the top. 

The options tab is not new.  Before this upgrade, the tab was at the bottom.  That was nice considering that I use the options tab only a few times each year.  I have posted a “downgrade” request on the Protopage blog.  While I wait for a response, I’ll spend a little more time scrolling on my startpage.

The iPod Touch has become my most valuable piece of technology.   Last week I added this gem from Nemustech.  Nemus Sync is a free utility that syncs Google Calendar with the Touch’s built-in calendar.  Syncing works in both directions.

You have to jailbreak your Touch before you can add this utility.  About a month after I bought my Touch I watched a couple of videos on YouTube and found easy to follow step-by-step instructions.

The average person can probably get by just fine with the built-in functionality of the Touch now that POP and IMAP email are included.  Some of my jailbreak additions include Wikipedia and Mobile Twitter which I use on a daily basis. 

If you do jailbreak your Touch, don’t do the automatic updates of the firmware.  I turned those off a long time ago.  I think it was the day I got the following message from Apple:

There is an upgrade for iTunes.  It’s called Safari.  Would you like to install it?

I had a flashback to 1996 when everyone was trying to get you to install “their” browser.  I don’t understand how Apple can do something like this and it goes mostly unnoticed.  If Microsoft were to try to push a browser out to an OS X machine that was upgrading a media player, it would be all over the tech news.

I’m not about to drink the Kool-Aid.

SketchUp has incredible educational potential.  Using free tools available from Google, Disney has added a 3D layer over the entire Disney World property.  Every building, sidewalk and tree has been drawn in detail.  Above is a picture of the haunted house.  This is a must-see attraction at the Magic Kingdom.  As you enter the building, there are tombstones with funny names and one with a picture of a face with eyes that move.  Zoom in on Google Earth and you can see it below.  Click either picture for higher resolution images.

Think of the geography, mapping, history, architecture, engineering (the list is huge) projects that students could do with these free tools.  Students could recreate a 3D version of the local school, post office, court house and other significant government buildings.  Historical locations could also be added.

These locations would have to be researched.  Community officials would be interviewed.  Measurements would be taken.  Students would learn to use the construction tools available from Google and collaboratively place objects in correct locations.

Layers representing different time periods could be constructed.  Students could see what occupies spaces once used by historical buildings.  This could be a lot of fun… and a learning experience too.

Today Google announced that the ever popular Google Earth program can now be incorporated into a browser.  You will need a plugin, but you will not have to install the heavy application.

I captured the inserted picture from my browser.  I think that’s one of my college buddies getting out of his car.  Either that, or someone is stealing the stereo.

Google has developed an API (complete with sample code) so that developers can use Google Earth in web projects.  All I need to do is find that map key from a couple of years ago.  I know I got one.

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Update: Found the key.  Got it to work.

http://www.trustyetc.com/map/

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I asked my students how they move files from home to school.  I expected the most common method to be a USB drive, but I was surprised to hear that most still email files.

I consider email as a last resort when it comes to file management.  It’s inefficient because of the background processes involved.  There are also file size limitations.  UF gives every user 100 MB of email space.  It doesn’t take much to fill 100 MB.

I am waiting for an account on Microsoft’s new Live Mesh.  Once I have an account there, I will be able to synchronize files across multiple computers in multiple locations.  That will be ideal.  I can create a PowerPoint file at home and it will automatically be copied to my laptop, tablet and office desktop.  Likewise, I can update the PowerPoint on my office desktop and the new version will be copied back to my machines at home.

For local file synchronization, I have been using Microsoft’s SyncToy 2.0 beta.  By hand-configuring the Windows Scheduler, I can automatically sync my files every night.

I have a few files that I use over and over.  Using Microsoft’s SkyDrive, I have placed those into a more permanent online storage area that is accessible from anywhere.  With the drag-and-drop control in IE, SkyDrive is about as easy to use as a local file manager.

Drag

Drop

The files here are not automatically synchronized, but manage them much more easily than with email attachments.  Plus, Microsoft gives everyone 5 GB for free.