Apple is the largest mobile device company in the world ~ Steve Jobs
We’re come a long way
“Netbooks aren’t better at anything!” ~Steve Jobs
“They’re just cheap laptops!” ~Steve Jobs
It’s called the iPad
Hold the internet in your hands
View a whole web page, it’s a dream to type on, photos, etc
iPad is an AWESOME way to enjoy your music…with iTunes built right in to the device
Built in calendar
Mobile Safari installed “A whole website in the palm of your hands”
E-mail on the device….you can turn it any which way you want.
Photos
Works much like iPhoto, events, albums, faces, GPS tagging, Slideshow
Music: Built in iPod
Calendar: New look here from both OS X and iPhone OS
Will play HD movies
That’s an overview of what the iPad can do
Now to the Hardware:
1/2 inch thin
1 1/2 pounds
9.7inch display
Most advance chip yet
16,32,64GB of storage
Latest in WiFi with N
Latest Bluetooth 2.0
iPod connection so connects into all of iPod stuff
10 hour of battery life
Green device
Back to Software:
Talking about the App store that has 140,000 apps that have been downloaded 3 billion times
iPad runs all Apps out of the box in full screen
Games look great on it as well
The apps
Runs on mostly iPhone OS. Developers can start developing for it today
The New York Times on the iPad
It takes full advantage of iPhone 3.2 which means we’re getting an update from 3.1 soon.
Photo Editing:
It’s like having a HD TV screen just inches from your face
Now talking about MLB.com (this could sell it for me 
)
iBooks App
Have a bookshelf
Created a new iBooks Store via iTunes: Buy books and read them right on your iPad
5 of the largest suppliers in the world creating books for the iPad
iWorks on the device
Brand new version of Keynote
Brand new version of Pages
Brand new version of Numbers
Keynote:
Pages
Numbers
$9.99 for iWorks for the iPad
Comes with connect for presentations (I think)
Syncs like an iPhone or iPod to iTunes
WiFi
and
3G
usually $60/month in the US
Two plans
256MB of data monthly $14.99
Unlimited data monthly $29.00
AT&T runs the 3G
AT&T WiFi hotspots are free
No Contract…prepaid
Activate it right on the iPad
How about the rest of the world?
International deals will be in place by June or July
All Models are Unlocked
It should “just work” anywhere internationally
PRICE
$499 for 16GB
$599 for 32GB
$699 for 64GB
3G models models a bit more most expensive at $849
Available in 60 days everywhere in the world
Keyboard Dock
Keyboard on the device is “practically the same size of a laptop”
Device in Review:
Thanks to the following websites for their coverage of the event:
Teachers face a dilemma with Facebook. Do you or don’t you become fans with students past and present? It’s a topic that has come up in some of my sessions and a discussion that we’re having here at our school at the moment. But, I think I’ve found the answer to having your private Facebook stay private with your friends and family and also allow students to connect to you in the most popular social-networking site to date.
The solution: Start a fan page
It’s rather easy to do and it allows students to still feel connected to you, their favorite teacher ;), without you having to give up your privacy or be worried about what they might write or say that could end up on your wall. With a Fan Page you can set the privacy settings so that fans can’t post to your wall if you wish. I personally don’t have an issue with it so have left that open, but you can close that option if you like. Fan pages also allow you to embed different widgets, not all the same widgets work on fan pages but you can embed your RSS feed and some other cool things to make your page…well….you. You can see here (if you have a Facebook account) how I have set my fan page up.
When students find me in Facebook and send an invite to be my “friend” I simply send them a message back that reads something like this:
I’m so glad you want to connect with me. I’ve decided to keep my Facebook profile private with my close friends and family. But I would like to stay connected to you. So if you would like to join my fan page here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jeff-Utecht/75623012224 we can stay in touch.
Thanks!
Jeff
…and then delete the invitation.
I also things this helps to teach students that you don’t have to become “friends” with everyone but that there are ways to stay private and it’s OK to be private on the Internet. Again, the only way we’re going to be able to teach students to be responsibly on the Internet is for us as educators to set a good example!
One of the first things I do with any blog is add a map to track visitors to my blog. There are some pretty cool free maps out there, but last week thanks to Mr. Jessee I found a new one that I think is worth sharing.
It’s called Revolver Map and it’s a 3D view of the earth that the location of where people have been from when they visit your blog. You can see one here on my blog…pretty cool!
At ISB students blog at the domain: http://blogs.isb.ac.th. This is also where the High School hosts its Week Without Walls course blogs.
Here are some tutorial videos to get people started with working in this Wordpress environment.
Logging In
How does it all look and how do I change the theme?
How do I write a post?
How do I add a web link (hyperlink) to a post?
How do I add an image or file to a post from my computer?
How do I add an image to a post from the web? What is Creative Commons?
What do I do if I want to paste into a post from Microsoft Word?
How do I add and edit “Pages”?
What settings can I edit? How do I control commenting?
How can I play a video or PowerPoint right in the post?
What can you do with the sidebar?
How do I make a Table of Contents page (useful for Senior Seminar)?
How do I password protect an individual blog post (like a WWW itinerary)?
Tags: Blogs, creativecommons, images, weekwithoutwalls
There are days like yesterday when everything comes together technologically that allows you to create some of the most amazing artifacts.
Yesterday The Thinking Chick (my wife) sat down at around 2 o’clock and started working on a video that she wanted to create about her recent Operation Smile trip to Surin, Thailand with 9 middle school students.
8 Hours later she had created what I truly think is an amazing video capturing students feelings and reflections about the trip.
I was so proud of her. I didn’t help her out except to make lunch and dinner and keep her water glass full (still 90F here in Thailand….ug). About two hours into creating the video she looked at me and said “This is kind of addicting” to which of course I just smiles and refilled her water glass.
I don’t think we stop enough to really think about the power of the tools and the ease of use we have at our fingertips. Using iMovie ‘09, a program that she had only about an hour of time playing with, she was able to manipulate video, audio, pictures, and words to create a heart felt video. I just marvel at her ability to see the movie in her head and then figure out how to put it all together on her own. An amazing testimonial to the power of the tools and my talented wife.
Of course that’s one thing….to have an adult take the time to sit down and create a video like this. But then Owain, a student that went on the trip, decided that he too wanted to share what he took away from the trip. So using Movie Maker on his computer at home, and in less than a day created this video. He sent the link to my wife in an e-mail that simple stated:
It’s nothing special, but it’s how I see it personally.
Nothing special? Other than here was a student so touched by his experience that he felt the need to share it with the world. He didn’t do it for a grade….because we don’t grade students on things like this. He didn’t do it because he was asked to, he did it because he was moved to.
This is what happens when we stop talking about technology and just let it be. Let it be what we do, let it do what it was meant to do; To create ideas, to share feelings, to communicate with the world. When we stop trying to use technology and just let it be is when it affects us the most.
Tags: Operation Smile, Video
Here are some beginner tutorial videos for teachers to use PantherNet.
Logging in:
Adding titles to the boxes (using Insert a Label):
Resource Types:
Uploading a single resource:
Uploading folders of files at once:
Embedding a YouTube video into PantherNet:
Student assignments in PantherNet:
Using Advanced Upload of files:
Adding a Forum
There are so many great things happening at our school right now that I find I don’t have time to blog about one before I’m deep into another project with another teacher. All that I know is we’re having some fun!
Let’s start in Mr. Jessee’s room where I wanted to share a great Google Earth project that the third grade team has been working on for the past month or so. I talked about this in an earlier post so won’t go into all the back ground here. But you can visit Mr. Jessee’s class blog and download Google Earth tours. This time the students created video tours using Google Earth and take you to landforms around the world. Of course the trip starts off from school and then you’re swept away learning about landforms and some pretty cool facts. As usual, if you download and listen to the Google Earth files, we’d appreciate a comment on the blog. Let us know what you learned or if you have a landform to share, please push our thinking. 
In Ms. Tulli’s 3rd Grade class they’ve been deep into some science research learning how to analyze data. Ms. Tulli wanted to capture what the students were learning so grabbed a flip camera and simply asked:
What have you learned about graphs and analyzing data?
Pretty cool! If you get a moment to watch the video they’d love a comment on their class blog as well.
And finally to round it all off is our whole 5th grade team and their amazing adventure into blogging for learning and as e-portfolios with their students. They are all continuing to build their own skills as well as finding ways to incorporate blogging into just what they do. As teachers start to wrap their heads around it and as students get better and faster at blogging, they are becoming just a part of what is done in 5th grade. I walked into Mr. Armitage’s room yesterday and before I had a chance to say hi to the class Collin approaches me and says:
”I’m getting a lot of views on my blog”
“Really? Why do you think that is?”
“Because I’ve been blogging a lot?”
“Cool! About school?”
“No, about my trip to Beijing over break!”
So…here’s a 5th grader who on his break could have taken his thoughts, his feelings, and just kept them to himself. Instead he decided to share what he learned about the Great Wall of China with the world. I encourage you to stop by Collin’s Blog and read about his adventures on the Great Wall.
This is EXACTLY why we need to be connecting students to these types of learning opportunities. This is “free” writing time. This is time that this student took to write, not in class, not taking class time, but taking time from his day to learn, to write, to communicate, to share. When we at schools decide to not fight the technology but enable and teach students how to use it to promote thinking and learning we get amazing things happening like this.
Now let’s think of this as an e-portfolio and pretend that Collin is in 11th grade. He’ll have these memories, these words to look back upon. He’ll be able to say, “I wrote that? That sounds so much like a 5th grader!” which we all do when we look back. There is learning here, and we’re not even talking about when in 8th grade and he studies China in history class and the perspective and link-ability he’ll have from what he’s currently thinking, to what he experienced on this trip.
These are the things that get me excited! These are all ways that students can create information from what they know and add it to the world of knowledge that we know as the Internet. This is why I go to school everyday!
Tags: Blogs, Google Earth
Often we need to share presentations (typically powerpoint) online with students. Beyond linking to a file in PantherNet, it is often useful to upload a slideshow and then add audio to it. Slideshare is a great site for this.
For this and other options, watch this video:
To access the Teacher Organizational Goal (TOG) site, you need only to type tog in the address bar of your internet browser. However, some of you may get redirected to www.tog.com, informing you that it’s for sale. This is obviously not the address.
If this is happening to you, it is an issue with your browser’s proxy settings. For local, on campus, addresses like tog, panthernet, or powerschool, we by-pass the proxy server. Here are three 1-minute videos explaining how to do that, depending on the type of computer you use and what browser you use to access the internet.
(it is worth noting here, that the one least likely to have issues is Microsoft Internet Explorer - which certainly is unexpected)
I use a Mac and browse with Safari
I use a Mac and browse with Firefox
I use a PC and browse with Firefox
If you need to change the Time Zone in Entourage Calendar please click on the link below and watch the video that will walk you through the steps to update the time zones.
