Blurts

I must admit – this one has me confused. Several institutions investigating the use of ebook readers were informed the readers did not meet accessibility requirements. It was reported that while the Kindle dx offers text to speech conversion full control of the device is difficult for those with vision problems. What is the standard here? If the Kindle was being investigated as an alternative to a traditional book, it we seem obvious that the Kindle would have an advantage because of text-to-speech. Some accommodation would be required in both cases, but this would not seem to negate use of the Kindle by most students.

I bought an iPad today. Now I encounter this post typing folks like me as selfish elites. Ouch.

They are six times more likely to be “wealthy, well-educated, power-hungry, over-achieving, sophisticated, unkind and non-altruistic 30-50 year olds,” MyType’s Tim Koelkebeck told Wired.com.

I just read a Gizmodo post that mentioned Hypercard. Every time I see or hear this magic word I am worthless for the rest of the day (see a blog post from 2002). Is it even possible that something resembling Hypercard could return to an Apple platform?

I understand this is a rumor, but I like the reasoning. In the Google vs. Apple conflict, companies look for open spaces to create differences. Google is open. Apple is closed. Google offers the App Inventor.  Apple has nothing similar. Does Apple have the guts to move back toward the type of machine/software that created the original cult following?

There are some great services that aggregate content from other sites for more “practical” viewing.  A touchy issue with any aggregator is whether the original author gets “credit” for his/her effort. The original author may assume the content will be accompanied by ads to generate revenue. The author may attempt to offer links to other resources. Aggregators offer a user experience that deviates from what the author intended. While this is life on the web, there are clearly issues that have to be resolved so some incentives for content creation remain.

Flipboard is an example of an aggregator that has come under some scrutiny.  The intent here is not to single this app out, but it does represent an example of the situation I describe. For a longer analysis that prompted this post see Is Flipboard Legal?

I do have to admit that the experience of using this product is impressive.

This post from TechCrunch confirms what I have been thinking – there really isn’t much out there as a functional alternative to the iPad. I don’t understand this – just give me a larger version of the Droid with wifi, an app store, etc. In a weak moment, I may buy an iPad – it just works and my idealism about exploring and encouraging options may be a waste of time.

Today I have read several references to a new report on teacher use of technology. The comments typically link to a summary in eSchool News.

It took a while, but I located the original report available as a pdf from Grunwald Associates.

The headline is that new teachers make new greater use of technology with their students than their more experienced colleagues. I guess this goes against common assumptions – it actually is not a novel finding. The report does contain other interesting data describing classroom use of technology.