Most people know that Cindy and I are big Leo Laporte fans. We listen to his podcasts when we drive. Some may also know that Gawker has attempted to out Leo for his relationship with a coworker. This reply from Leo explains the situation – he and wife are separated, he was protecting new relationship but got careless online. Seems a reasonable response and not as pathetic as some may have hoped.
We are often told to use the holiday season to consider the plight of those who are less fortunate. We know the financial gap is growing. It also appears we are tolerating a growing achievement gap. Something for those of us lucky enough to be comfortable to consider.
I just purchased a Galaxy Nexus. People think we are Apple only, but this is not true. We diversify to explore.
One of the features that most interests me about smartphones is the camera. It turns out I am not a big fan of talking on phones. The “camera you have with you” is one of the most important educational features in my way of thinking. I have been taking a similar set of pictures for the last couple of phone cameras just for fun – some stored on Flickr.
We are finished with classes so I took a little time this noon to take some of these same images.
There is an interesting feature of Android phones I was aware of before, but the feature is now available from the built in camera app. If you like, you can automatically geotag the images you capture. So, for example, the image above was taken overlooking the English Coulee. If I upload this image to Flickr and view where it places the image (enlarged as much as possible), this is what I get.
This positions me on this map within 10 feet of where I took the image (the Chapel shown in the image is relatively new and does not seem to show in the satellite view, but you can see the fountain). I drew the red arrow to approximate the angle of the shot.
I think the potential of connecting visual information to a location has great potential.
It is reported that Dell is geting out of the netbook business. Perhaps there is not a meaningful space between the smaller laptops and the iPad (or similar tablet devices to come).
Advocating for the educational value of participating online gets complicated. You think you have located some good services at a reasonable fee, describe the benefits, get a few people excited, and then learn that what you are suggesting may violate some federal law.
It appears that Google really does expect you to be at least 13 before you can use Google to create content. It seems there is this law called COPPA and if you have yet to reach your 13th birthday, the government is here to protect you.
What is the situation with Google for Education and COPPA – Google says that the schools are responsible for assuring compliance – get approval from parents. Must say that keeping track of consent forms – who turned one in and who has not is a significant challenge.
It is time for year end lists – best, worst, etc.
Eschool News has a nice list of the biggest ed-tech stories. I might come up with some different suggestions, but I like this list because the staff make the effort to offer substantial justification for each item. This content, agree or not, makes it a worthwhile read.
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