Blurts

I watched the Apple announcement today. The new Apple TV will likely be a purchase, but this would mostly be a way to feed my tech habit and not because I would be exploring educational potential.

After watching some of the announcement program, Cindy made an observation that had not occured to me. “Will this be the end of the Flip”, she wanted to know. I was watching the Apple announcement in my office and must have been doing other things as I waited for “one more thing”. Cindy worked on a iPod Touch project and immediately saw the potential in the camera available on the new Touch. Is there a limit to the length of video segments that can be recorded? I did not see anything on the specs page.

It is a little like the Kindle – iPad comparison. Of course, the Kindle is a little less expensive, but you can only use it to read books. Of course, the Flip is a little less expensive, but …

Nice post today on the Landwitches Blog on student use of video.

Here is a long article from The Journal of Second Life’s decision to close teen grid. The article also considers the issue of educators investing in free, but undependable online destinations.

I follow one podcaster on a regular basis – Leo Laporte. Here is a feature from the LA Times blog.

This article on the spread of malware via USB drives caught my attention because I encountered this problem last year. I would think this would be a big issue in education at all levels. Students carry content on USB drives so they can use computers in multiple labs (and at home). I am not a big Windows user, but the classrooms in which I teach offer the Windows operating system for instructors. I prepare content on a Mac and present using Windows. This switching experience offers some interesting insights. When I bring the USB drive back to my Mac, I can see files that were not there when I took the drive to class. The instructors are sharing a machine and also malware.

Henry Jenkin’s book “Confronting the challenges of participatory culture” is presently available at no cost from Amazon (Aug. 24). If you own a Kindle or want to try the Kindle app on other devices (e.g., iPad), I certainly recommend what Jenkins writes (at least the previous works I have read). I also highly recommend the personal experience of reading a lengthy work from the screen as a way to understand advantages and disadvantages.

If you are attempting to understand the various issues associated with net neutrality, you might explore this summary by Stephen Light. His post offers a visual summary and plenty of links if you want to investigate in depth.