iPad
I thought I would give my take on the new iPad as an educational technologist. I have researched it all week and read all kinds of articles about it. The first thing I have to say is that the iPad is a very unfortunate name. Their marketing team really missed something on that! The next thing is that it could basically be named iPod2 because it’s just a big huge iPod Touch. I love my iPod Touch, so don’t get me wrong. Love, love, love it and carry it with me everywhere. My favorite app is probably a tie between the Bible app by LifeTV and the Kindle app, where I have 60+ books stored. And it would be great to view my Kindle books on a bigger screen. However, with the iPad, you can’t run two applications at once. You can’t truly create documents on it. I was expecting more of a tablet PC, but that’s not the iPad at all. I’m truly disappointed that they didn’t allow you to use more than one app at a time. While it is “neat” and all, it’s not truly new technology at this point. I’m disappointed in Apple for the first time ever and really think they missed it with this product. For now I will wait and see what the next generation of the iPad will bring.
Your favorite online learning resources?
I’m preparing to teach “Strategies and Realities of Teaching Online” this summer. While I have taught it before, it was two years ago that I did that and I’m seeing a huge need for changing this course. So guess what? Less than a week before it begins, I’m rewriting the course. So here is where YOU come in… what are your favorite online learning resources? What video hit you upside the head that the educational world as you know it has changed? What tool do you use now that you just can’t live without?
I’m anxious to hear your thoughts. Just put it in the comment section below. :) I’ll be sharing your answers with my students who are in the K12 system and in higher ed.
Have you SEEN Widgetbox? Wow! What an incredible place! You can get the code to run all kinds of different widgets and they would be great to add into your online classroom! Want to see current NASA pictures? Add in the NASA widget. Want to show current tech and computer news? Add in the cnet.com widget. There are so many fun and useful widgets and they add anywhere you can add HTML code. They even have it so it seamlessly adds into your Facebook account or Blogger account! AMAZING!
Have you ever gotten frustrated because you’re working along and realize you bookmarked a site on another computer and you need that link NOW?! Meet Foxmarks! I’ve been using it for a couple of years now in Firefox and absolutely love it. Our family shares our bookmarks and we have them installed on at least five computers at the moment. If I leave my laptop at work for some reason, I still have access to all my bookmarks at home. Foxmarks also has a password saver, although I haven’t tried it out yet. If it’s anything like Foxmarks, it’s also very impressive! I’m thrilled today to find out that Foxmarks is now an add-on for both Safari and Internet Explorer. Oh, and it’s cross-platform compatible. I have a MacBook for work yet a Vistas PC at home. Foxmarks, because it works with a browser, doesn’t care if the browser is running on a Mac or a PC. Check it out. It’s the one add-on that I absolutely can’t live without!
Just built my new face on Face Your Manga. :) Pretty cool! The only thing I didn’t like is that they didn’t have a curly SHORT haired person! I went with a medium hair person since I AM growing my hair out. ;)
There are a ton of resources Julia and Holly have accumulated to help you with teaching online.
Ok… time for feed back from YOU. Do you use Ning in your classroom? Show me some examples!
Do you twitter? If you twitter, you need to install Twhirl on your computer. It works more like an IM and allows you to receive and give instant tweets without looging into the twitter website. If someone tweets me, I get an immediate notification. It’s easy to install and easy to use and best of all is FREE. Check it out!
Check out my Voki Avatar! I learned how to create my voki this morning in the Web 2.0 conference. Can you tell Iove PINK?!
