kathy@kathyschrock.net
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Macbook Air, part 3
It took a while, but I found the answer was to decrease the hardware acceleration of the graphics card. To do this on XP, simply right-click on the desktop and choose PROPERTIES-SETTINGS-ADVANCED-TROUBLESHOOT. I had to drag the slider down to the middle of bar in order for the wmv movies to run within the PowerPoint presentation. This disables some things that apparently could cause problem with Direct X programs, but I need the videos to work right now. It is easy to set it back to full for all other applications.
This must be an interesting chipset. I found newer drivers, but hesitate to install them because of the Bootcamp/Windows/Mac thing. However, I did find a fix for those with the Intel 965 chipset (on any computer) who cannot seem to get Second Life to run. That post is here. I successfully followed these directions on a student's Dell laptop with Vista earlier this week and he is having no problems!
I promise not to continue with many more postings on the Air. However, people are reading and responding and asking me additional questions via email, so I feel compelled to share what I learn to save others some time!
Kathy "The Techno-Geek" Schrock
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Macbook Air, part 2
Second Life works tremendously better on the Mac side and there is no lag.
The VGA-out dongle worked fine. On the Windows side, you need to use the Intel mirroring software and on the Mac side you have to set the screens to mirror. By the way, the native resolution of the Macbook Air is the same as the Macbook @ 1280x800.
Below you will find two photos of the thickness/thinness factor of the Macbook Air. Clockwise, the items are the Macbook Air, the Fujitsu P1510D tablet, the XO, an iPod Touch, a Treo 700wx, and the Asus eeePC.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Macbook Air first thoughts
My Macbook Air arrived yesterday and I have been installing software ever since. I have installed Bootcamp and Windows XP (glad I ordered the external Super Drive since it made it easy!) and all of the programs I will need on the machine. I broke the drive directly in half, which gave me about 37GB for each platform. I knew I had to pick and choose wisely.
The Macbook Air is very slim. I was surprised at its weight...seems heavier than a little over 3 pounds, but the fact it is so compact might have something to do with with that. I made my own Vera Bradley slipcase for it out of two placemets today, which you can see below.
Pros:
Thin
Compact and sturdy
The multitouch touchpad is awesome!
Comes with DVI and VGA dongles that have their own connection under the little door
Screen is brighter than bright!
External Superdrive works great for a single-USB non-powered device on both platforms
Second Life regular client (Windows) works just fine (not as well as the Macbook Pro, but just fine)
Peppy on program start up
Cons:
A tad top-heavy when it is open wide since the screen area probably weighs as much as the keyboard area.
The mono speaker comes out from under the keyboard only on one side. A tad tinny, IMHO.
All software installed like a charm and the list follows.
Apple side of the machine
Cyberduck
Fire
Handbrake
Paparrazi
Microsoft Office 2004 for the Mac
iWork 08
Quicktime Pro
Flip4Mac
(18GB of HD left)
Windows side of the machine
Windows XP Pro
Office 2007 Pro Plus
Paint Shop Pro
Filezilla
Homesite
Second Life
Screen Print Platinum
Adobe Photoshop Elements 6
Adobe Premiere Elements 4
Acrobat 8 Pro
Microsoft Photostory
MacDrive 6
ActiveSync
Microsoft Streets and Trips 2008
Twhirl
Skype
Audacity
CA eTrust AV
Fraps
VLC
Stardock ObjectDock
(24GB of HD left)
I have not tried hooking up via the Ethernet dongle or to a LCD projector. I will do that later this weekend.
(Update 2/5/08: Good review here for the ones who really need to know how it performs!)
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Why Twitter? Of course!
I discovered a neat techno-trick today. I had a 118 MB, 84 slide PowerPoint presentation that I to move into someone else's template and it was not going well. So, I simply saved the presentation as JPEGs, created a photo album in PowerPoint with the organization's template as the background and imported the JPEGs of the slides, and just resized the JPEGs on the slides so their logo showed. Imagine my surprise, after saving this new presentation, to realize that the 188 MB PowerPoint presentation was now only 5.6 MB! I don't know why, but, in case you are interested, here are the steps again.
- Save your large presentation as JPEGs which creates a folder with each slide as its own JPEG.
- Open a new presentation and choose to create a photo album in PowerPoint, choose the folder of JPEGs as your "photos" and then save that photo alubum.
- Miraculously, the slide show is much smaller than the orginal!
So, usually when I have a techno-discovery I go charging out of my office to share the news with someone-- a teacher, secretary, or even a 6th grader if they will listen. No one is usually very interested. However, today I went right to Twitter to share my discovery with people who ARE interested!
I have figured out the power of Twitter (for me) is the ability to share my ideas and thoughts with like-minded individuals who DO get excited about geeky techno-discoveries and enjoy sharing their own, too!
w00t and thanks to my Twitter buddies!
Monday, January 28, 2008
Thoughts on FETC08
I have signed back on to Twitter to see if I can handle it, and, thus far (the last 24 hours) it is manageable. I only have a few people's tweets come through to IM, but read the rest of the feeds from the Twitter page. I have just added it to my daily routine-- work on the Schrockguide, read my Bloglines feeds, and now check the "tweets". I have even used Twitterfeed.com to feed my blog entries to Twitter. We will see how that works out.
I could not locate anyone with an XO at FETC, although I did get to show it off to a lot of educators at the conference. (And the TSA at the airport security checks!) It is a bit heavy to carry two laptops (although the other was the Fujitsu P1510D tiny tablet and by the time NECC comes will be the Macbook Air), but I think I will make the effort again for NECC. I want to try out the mesh networking option with other teachers.
I will be sending out some of the sites I discovered at FETC08 as my Sites of the School Week over the next few weeks, so, if you are interested, you can subscribe to the weekly email here.
Friday, January 18, 2008
YouTube is cool!
In any case, I found the following YouTube video from a high school pep rally in 2006. This video struck my fancy, and I always laugh aloud when watching it. For those of you, like me, who have attended pep rallies every year, and have seen some "not so stellar" performances, I felt this one was great!
I decided to look at the others that came up on the search, too, and have linked to some of them below. Imagine students contrasting and comparing the way the song is presented in the various videos. (Another shameless plug for unblocking YouTube in the many districts in the name of visual literacy!)
Enjoy!
Kids from England (my second favorite!)
Yale Group
Harvard Group
Conn-Men from the University of CT
Friday, January 11, 2008
Vocabulary lesson: UMPC vs. MID
Today there is an entry on Engadget describing the differences.
So, let's see where my own secondary devices land based on this description.
Apple iPod touch : MID
Asus EeePC: MID
OPLC XO laptop: MID
Fujitsu P1510D: came out before the UMPC, so it really is a laptop, but it can pass for an UMPC with its passive matrix screen...
Hum, it seems the lines are blurring and perhaps the definition provided may not be as definitive as it could be. For example, the Asus EeePC (MID) does media well, also has an office suite, and it runs Linux. It could actually pass for an UMPC if it had a touch screen.
The original specifications for the UMPC included multiple input methods, Microsoft Windows Tablet OS, and that it was smaller and lighter than a laptop.
I am looking to get a device of some type in as many students' hands as possible. Since many applications are moving to the Web, and there seems to be wireless Internet access in many places in our schools and communities, I am looking at the low-cost devices such as the Asus EeePC and the upcoming Everex Cloudbook. (Update 1/12/08: The OLPC program will be expanded to the United States in 2008. More details to follow from the OLPC America branch of the OLPC Foundation.)
I need a device somewhere between a MID and a UMPC to take advantage of low cost, but with the inclusion of some power on the machine locally. I will continue the search!
Saturday, January 05, 2008
XO Laptop from OLPC arrives!
However, for its intended purpuse to educate students, it includes an amazing array of quality software and the collaborative functionality to allow students to work together from other XO's is available throughout the operating system.
The speakers are loud and clear, and this comes in handy with the applications that rely on audio-- both a beginner and more advanced music composition applications, and an acoustic-circuit (and electrical-circuit) construction application. The really good camera can be used for talking photos and video. There are drawing applications, a data collection tool which graphs sounds via the included microphone and one that measures the distance between XO's via sound, a memory game, computer programming via Python, and a multimedia authoring program. Of course, it includes a browser and simple word processor and several other applications, including an RSS newsreader.
I will probably bring this along to FETC to find someone else with one so I can try the mesh network and also to collaborate with someone else from within the applications to take advantage of the intended strengths of the device.
To read more about the device and its applications, you can visit the Getting Started Guide here: http://www.laptop.org/en/laptop/start/
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
The Wii rules!
The bottom line is that the Nintendo Wii, with its handheld wireless controller (the Wii Remote) which can detect movement in three directions as you flail about the living room, seems pretty close to simulating real life action. I am amazed that I could be quickly successful at the things I could do in real life and performed so poorly at the sports I was not good at in real life. I guess the real test will come, for me, when I can practice with and learn some tactics with the Wii that will transfer over to the real world of games of golf, darts, pool, ping pong, "ping cup", or shuffleboard.
(Of course, the Dance Dance Revolution practice will come in handy for a dance-off with 6th graders at school!)
Kathy
Sunday, December 16, 2007
The more things change...
Growing up in northern New Jersey, it was a traditional part of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (from 1966 on) to see the burning Yule log on the WPIX television station, Channel 11, and listen to the Christmas music. I always figured they aired the burning log all day long, without commercials, for both the enjoyment of the viewers and to give everyone at the station the day off to celebrate with their own families! I had not thought about it in years, though.
Here is the 1970 version of the Yule log movie which aired on WPIX.
My friend, Midge Frazel, sent me a note today letting me know that, on Comcast OnDemand, in the list of HD programs, there is a Yule log with holiday music playing. I must admit, the quality of the burning log in HD is much better than the WPIX 1970 version, but, thanks to the Internet, I was able to enjoy the original one, too!
The more things change...
Addendum: Since Tony Vincent sent the link to the virtual Yule Log for your handheld device, I decided to create a "virtual virtual Yule Log" by filming a Second Life fireplace...enjoy!
Thursday, December 13, 2007
NECC 2008 presentation accepted!
Title: "Get a MUVE On: The Power of Synchronous Online Environments"
Place: TBA in mid-May
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Kathy's Konsumer Korner: Holiday Edition
Well, it's that time of year here in the US, and people are starting to ask me for suggestions for holiday tech gadgets. Here is the list of my newest gadgets that others may be interested in.
1. iPod Touch: This iPod may only come in 8GB and 16GB models, but that is enough for most of us. I have 600 songs and audiobooks, lots of photos, and five TV shows on my touch right now, and I have used only 6.5GB of space. With the easy access to the Web via Safari, the ability to sync with Microsoft Outlook, the widescreen for viewing photos and movies, and just one of the nicest devices you will ever hold, the iPod touch is a great gift.
$299 and $399
2. The Asus Eee PC just came out a few weeks ago and is already available in a couple of different models. I have the 4GB flash and Webcam version and used it extensively at a tech conference this week. It performed flawlessly and many of the vendors at the show tried their Web-based solutions on the Eee PC and were happy with the results. I tried the VGA-out to a projector, and it worked great! Find out all about it on the Asus site.
$399 from Amazon (with a long wait) or the same price at NewEgg when you can catch them in stock.
3. The XO laptop from the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative. I have not received mine yet, but all the reviews of those who have tried them seem to indicate it is a great little machine! In addition, for $400 you get one machine, and one gets donated from you to a student in a third-world nation. Also, T-mobile sweetened the pot with a year of their hotspot service included with the device. These are only available to the public through December 31, and you can read all about it on the OLPC site.
4. I often get asked about digital cameras as presents for children, high school and college students, and adults. If a large LCD screen on the back and a small size is what you are looking for, just be sure to get the most analog zoom possible. The numbers that indicate zoom on a digital camera (i.e. 3x/5x) mean that the camera lens really zooms in 3 times and also uses a software process to digitally zoom in 5 more times. You want the one with the largest first number.
I cannot hold the smaller cameras still enough to get a good photo, so I like digital cameras that are a bit larger and have both an eyepiece, a really good lens, and a really large analog zoom. I have the Kodak Z812IS which has 12x analog zoom, image stabilization for those of us who have trouble holding the camera still, and is an 8.2 megapixel camera. It is available from Amazon for $242.23.
5. And if you want to step up to a digital SLR, I have the Nikon D40 and love it! I had the Nikon D50 before I had the D40, and the D50 did more than I needed to do. The D40 is simple to use and, with a good photographer behind it, can take excellent photos! You can pick it up from Amazon with one lens here for $479.99 and with two lenses and two DVD's here for $569.93.
Happy gadget shopping!
Monday, November 12, 2007
One Laptop Per Child
I am sure you have all heard about the "One Laptop Per Child" project, the brainchild of Nicholas Negroponte from MIT's Media Lab. The project's goal is to provide a rugged, useful laptop to students in areas of the world who would not historically have access. (You can find out more about it here: http://laptop.org)
For those of us in the US and Canada, from today (November 12th) through (updated 11/22) 12/31/07, we have the unique opportunity to participate in the "Give 1. Get 1." program-- we can buy 2 of the laptops (called the XO) for $400, with one becoming a donation to a child in a developing county and one for ourselves! (http://laptopgiving.org) (Update 11/22: Schools can now purchase them in lots over 100 units.)
I have already participated in the program the first thing this morning and the Schrock's XO will travel in the bicycle pack of my husband as he treks across the United States next spring!
PS In addition to getting a rugged little device here in the US, T-Mobile is including one year of Internet access at its wireless access locations with the device. Kudos to them!
Kathy
Friday, October 26, 2007
New Life for Second Life in K-12
Kathy Schrock
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Monday, October 15, 2007
iPod touch online applications for education
BooksoniPhone
...over 20,000 books to read plus the ability to upload your own to allow students access to your syllabus, information, etc.
iPheed
...a simple online to-do list that also includes a mini-blog that can be aggregated
Listingly
...an easy-to-use application that would allow a student to create a list for each subject, project, or personal reason
Ask A Word
... a free spellchecker, thesaurus, dictionary, and encyclopedia
Today in History
...shows important events formatted for the iPod touch screen
World Book This Day in History
...another chronicle of events happening on this day
iPhone Web Docs
...create folders on a virtual desktop, save your notes, and even embed URL's; a very useful tool accessible from a desktop, too, for printing or editing
Glide Mobile
...a mobile component of a Flash-based desktop application, it allows you to uploads items to the mobile site
Widgetop Mobile
...a "widget-like" interface for common sites and reference tools
Moon Phase for iPhone
...see the current phase of the moon or change the date to view in the future
Starry Night Mobile
...see the view the day and night skies for anywhere in the world, on any date
UniDo
...this is an online notes creator and manager that is available via the iPod touch and the desktop
Netvibes Mobile
...one of the best RSS aggregators for the desktop is available for the touch!
Converter
...conversion calculator formatted for the iPod touch
Belfry SciCalc
...access this scientfic and programming calculator from the iPod touch
Nametag for iPhone
...type in your name and use the touch as a nametag!
Quote of the Day
...a possible use of this is a writing reflection journal
Brainy Quote
...search through thousands of quotes by person, topics, or keywords; includes today's birthdays
***UPDATE 10/17/07***
Google Docs has come to the handheld in read-only format right now, but hopefully will be editable in the future.
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Monday, October 08, 2007
Facebook and Second Life
Instructions:
First search in the application listings in Facebook to add the Second Friends application to your Facebook profile.
Then, in Second Life, you must visit the Second Friends kiosk on Eduserv Island in Second Life and touch it to obtain a secret key. The SLURL for the kiosk is:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Eduserv%20Island/112/41/29
Andy is planning on the incorporation of some other cool features in the future!
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Saturday, October 06, 2007
Tiny Devices and 1-to-1
See a trend here? I have been saying for years that much of what one needs to do with technology can be done on a "smaller" device. (And, as many of you can attest, bothering anyone who would listen to me and put up with my excitement at what my newest gadget could do!)
Now that so many applications are available as Web 2.0 applications, which are Web-based and require little processing power on the user's device, I think the time has come to start promoting a "1-to-1 Device" initiative for schools.
At the same time, we need to purchase pods of "blinged-out" computers, the production stations students will need for their heavy duty processing applications (video, CAD, audio editing). We also should include scanners, Flash card readers, Firewire ports, midi keyboards, and any other input devices students might need for their creative purposes.
Even of more importance to me is the fact students need to have wirelessly connected devices with them 24x7. We are becoming a society of information consumers, and students should have access to information sources, both on the open Web and in subscription databases, wherever and whenever they need it. They should be able to communicate and collaborate with others via social networks and Web 2.0 content-creation tools.
I think these small, low-cost, well-made, feature-rich, crop of mobile devices can meet this need. Anybody with me?
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Fujitsu U810
Asus Eee PC
XO Laptop
iPod touch
Thursday, September 27, 2007
iPod touch for students
I wanted to see if Discovery Eduation Streaming would work on the iPod touch if I chose the Quicktime and "embed in browser" option. A few of the items seemed to work while streaming, but, since the iPod touch does not have Flash capabilities and the iPod touch browser did not support some formats natively, most items did not. I found a great free video converter on the Web that worked just perfectly for taking either the downloaded WMV or MOV files and turning them quickly and easily into MP4, the movie format of the iPod. I was able to put the videos into iTunes and play them on the device.
I next took a slide presentation, saved it out as JPEGs, and put it in the photo section of the iPod. With the large screen, you can easily read the slides, and could share information with a small group. With the cable output to video coming soon, students could use the iPod touch as a presentation tool.
I have not yet found a "regular" online word processing option that works. Zoho has an option for the iPhone, but I cannot seem to get it to work on the iPod touch. However, Gmail, Google search, ning.com, and many other of the online Web 2.0 applications seem to work just fine on the device A student could do word processing directly within an email message, blog entry, or wiki page to have it accessible once he or she is out of the classroom. As long as there is a text entry box available, students can use it. (This seems like a workaround, but I am sure students would have no problem with it!)
I then started thinking about iPod management...how do we allow the students to sync at home and also offer content to them at school? Luckily, some great Apple Distinguished Educators have written a guide outlining these processes already! The bottom line is, to allow syncing of an iPod to multiple computers, the account at school has to be set to "manually manage content" and items can simply be dragged over to the attached iPod. I know there are hardware options available, too, for multi-syncing and charging, but these iPods will be going home and can be charged there.
Well, this is the latest installment of using the iPod touch to support teaching and learning. If only it did Flash....
Kathy
PS I heard, through the Twitter grapevine, that people were saying I had an "in" and was able to get the iPod touch before anyone else. Rest assured, I have no "in" with anyone, and I just ordered online it the second it came out! I was lucky enough to get it very early and get the model that did not have the initially reported video color problem.
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Saturday, September 22, 2007
iPod touch day 2
I brought it to school yesterday and put it in the hands of teachers without any instruction. They could easily figure out how to use it, but did have questions on how to get items onto it and such. (Some of these were non-iPod owning educators.) I kept hearing expressions of excitement like "cool", "wow", and "I am asking for this for the holidays!" as I kept working at my desk.
One teacher asked me if he could use the iPod touch as a handheld computer. There are some limitations, such as the lack of included applications such as email, a word processor, and an IM client. However, I am using some Web-based clients and Web 2.0 tools to do some of these things successfully, and will report back about that later. The one disappointment with the touch is, although you can sync your calendar entries from Outlook through iTunes to the device, you cannot add calendar entries on the device itself. This is too bad, because it would be just about perfect if you could. (You can sync and add contacts on the device, though.) I guess a user could just use a Web-based calendar and overcome the obstacle that way.
I demo'ed it in an eighth grade class for a few moments. They thought it was neat, but did not think 16GB would be enough storage for all of their songs. And, since they cannot bring in personally-owned devices to hook to the school's wireless (at this point), they realized the wireless component of a touch of their own would be useless to them. My thoughts are, if we are going to look into purchasing wireless devices for students, such as the touch or the new crop of low-cost Linux-based handtops, and we are supplying them, the students will be able to attach to the wireless network and life will be good!
In my opinion, the most appealing feature of the device is the way it handles Web pages. Some online protocols do not work yet (most notably Flash), but the ability to see an overview shot of the page and then easily zoom-in to the portion you need to read is impressive. I use lots of devices with small screens, and this technology truly solves the problem of small screens and the use of the Web. Here is a sample of what it looks like. (It is really hard to get a photo because of the glossy screen, so excuse the photographic quality!)
More about apps in a later post...
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Thursday, September 20, 2007
The iPod touch is great!
I did not jump on the iPhone wagon since our AT&T reception is less than stellar here on Cape Cod and I love my Verizon Treo 700wx, but I had the chance to try some iPhones and was hooked on the touch screen concept!
The iPod touch has a beauteous big screen and a very easy interface to use. The best part is that it does the Web wirelessly and wonderfully! I am not a huge music user, so my device has about 3GB of music and books (555 items), 4 full-length movies, all my contacts and calendar, all of my Internet Explorer bookmarks, and about 20 photos, and I still have 10GB left. Gotta love it!
I would like to go on about its other features, but I have to go play! Find out more about the iPod touch for yourself here: http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/
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