techNOcool

Wilkes University is switching from a PC-based campus to a Mac-based campus. That's 1700 machines to be replaced over 3 years.

It would be nice to see this happen more. Maybe closer to home, even.

Posted by Susan Fenton at 1:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I came across Cellblock today. This is sort of a combo Flickr and YouTube with a cell phone twist - you can submit your photos and videos via your cell phone, and they appear "instantly" on your Cellblock site. From what I can tell, you can't stream live video like you can with PocketCaster, though.

To use this with your cell phone you need one that can send photos and videos via email. I'm guessing that most, if not all, camera phones can do this but since I don't have one I'm not sure. What would be the cost involved? Are you charged a data fee (as opposed to using your plan minutes) when you do this?

You can also use your computer to add content to your Cellblock site. While this product doesn't really seem to do much that can't be done other ways, it might be appealling to have one site that will accept photos and video from both a cell phone and a computer. (The usual caveats- privacy, etc. - apply, of course.)

Posted by Susan Fenton at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am a patient person when it comes to people who are less computer savvy than me, I think more patient than most. Therefore it might come as a surprise when I denounce these folks as just stupid. It should not.

This article out of Connecticut made me sick to my stomach. A teacher faces up to 40 years in prison because the classroom she was subbing in had Windows98, IE5, and therefore no protection against pornographic pop ups. The fact it happened in the first place is annoyingly familiar, yet tolerable. The details of the case, outlining the general stupidity of everyone trying the case suggests that it's no longer charming to not know your way around a computer, it can be considered ignorant and lazy when it results in a tragedy like this.

I am normally not so vehement about this, but this story brings a different, much more serious perspective into my head that I thought I'd toss up here for comments. Maybe I'll be calmer in an hour or two!

Posted by Jason Ramsey at 9:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Why you ask? Well, one question she routinely raises with all of these free new online apps -

"What happens when these services try to make a profit? What happens to your stuff? "

Case in point this morning I uploaded three pictures of my daughter to my flickr account and got a message saying that I reached the 200 photo limit of my free account. And that to keep me within my 200 photo limit, they will hide my oldest pictures. They also reassured me that my pictures are safe as they are only hidden not deleted and that I can show them again if I upgrade to a pro account.

I am not sure that this is such a big deal to me as I store my pictures on my hard drive and back them up to a CD for 'safe keeping' but I can only imagine the boat that others are in who used flickr as their sole storage place. The cost of the pro account is only $25 per year and I was already considering forking out the dough prior to this but again that is not the point.

Then this afternoon I came across EdVentures in Technology � New and Improved Google Apps. Not to be out done by Yahoo, Google obviously feels that its online suite is developed enough to charge users for usage.

Posted by James Fadden at 2:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The 12 steps�to cure e-mail addiction - CNN.com

This article appears to be written by someone with a lot of time on their hands. I can't even comprehend it.

Posted by Jason Ramsey at 4:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yahoo Pipesa new mash up service is more than a Daily Show joke.

While a little confusing to develop an information build tool graphically it is pretty cool that you can custom build information using the tool. For example I built a news feed from all of the computing services news pages - Help, OET, LMS, No Name Group, techNOcool - thus getting all of the computing services updates in one place.

Looking for ways to actually use this Pipes thingy? Check out Lifehacker's Cool ways to use Yahoo! Pipes

Thanks: EdVentures in Technology for breaking the news first (atleast to me)

Posted by James Fadden at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)

Apple posted this note from Steve Jobs today, arguing that the music companies should start letting online music stores sell their music DRM-free: Apple - Thoughts on Music

Apple also recently settled with Apple Records, maybe opening the way for Beatles, McCartney, Lennon, etc music to be sold on the iTunes Store.

Imagine...we may some day be able to buy Lennon's Imagine online, DRM free!

Posted by Susan Fenton at 4:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

We've all been thinking and talking about mobile phones a lot lately, so I was excited to get the chance to attend a hands-on session at the ELI Annual Conference last week about using mobile phones to stream live video.

We were using a service called PocketCaster from ComVu.com. The service is free right now, while it's in beta, though it's expected to be about $5/month when it goes out of beta. In a nutshell, it works like this: You sign up for an account and then you download a small application to install on your phone. You also get personal web space to stream your video to. When you want to stream video you pull up the app on your phone, make a couple of selections and you're off and running. Anyone who knows the URL of your webspace can see your live video.

You can stream the video from your cell phone using either wifi or internet service from your cell provider. We used Nokia n80 cells phones (about $400 retail) that didn't have any cell service, so we were connecting using the wifi in the hotel.

In reality, there seemed to be about a 15 second delay, so "live" is a relative term. You can also archive video that you stream live, to be viewed later.

You can see some of this in action. This blog has a link to video that was taken during one of the ELI sessions and then archived. You can see two things here: that it doesn't do so well with lots of movement and that enlarging the video from a cell phone is not a great idea!

Here's a better example. This is live video streaming from a cell phone on a window ledge in Vancouver. Press the play button to start viewing the video. Note: for some reason, you need a PC to view this. There is apparently a mac hack available, but I don't know what it is.

It's not clear yet what the educational applications of this are, but it would be great to have one of these phones on hand here to help us figure out how this could be used in education. According to the presenter, by 2011 25% of cell phones sold will cost less than $20, and there will be a camera on the $20 phones. If we start researching this now, we may be ready by 2011 to help faculty put those $20 cell phones to good use!

Posted by Susan Fenton at 2:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

As technology becomes more integrated into adult lives, it becomes completely enmeshed into the lives of children. With this as a premise I would like to tie two posts together.

First - In the Parlance of Our Times: It's a Victimless Crime. This post has to do with completing crossword puzzles using Google or Wikipedia as they are both readily available to online crossword puzzle doers.

Second - Digital Kids an article from news.com.com, that starts out.

"When Amy Jo Kim's son Gabriel says he wants to "watch videos," she knows he doesn't mean DVDs or television. He wants YouTube."

Last night during the, Superbowl, people were trying to figure out where Joseph Addai played college ball. My laptop was right there and I knew the answer was only a wikipedia search away. But I knew that I could not fire it up and find out. (He played at LSU btw) Why you ask? One word Sydney. If my three year old daughter would have seen me sitting with the laptop running she would instantly ask for NickJr, even though she really means noggin.com. These two sites have replaced her desire to watch old school TV. Don't get me wrong she still wants to watch TV but when I go to turn on Nick or Noggin on the good old idiot box she shakes her head and says "no daddy, I want to watch TV on your 'puter."

Thus, as my daughter and those like her move into the education system they will be expecting interactive learning like learning greater than/less than with Miffy playing "Who Has More" or beginning logic skills using Bert's Pigeon Patterns.

What will her expectations be of learning/connectivity by the time she reaches middle school, high school, or college?

Posted by James Fadden at 1:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

To day this post from compos(t)ing brought to the forefront some of the issues that we have been wrestling with regarding the new ways of the web and the applicability of virtual worlds like second life.

Author makes an interesting connection between the disconnect with reality that second life offers and the disconnect with reality that poetry also produces. Yet both second life and poetry give you a sense of being connected to others.

At least that is how I interpreted it.

[read :compos(t)ing Emporer of the Internet (and Oranges)]
[watch: video]

Posted by James Fadden at 1:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)