If you perform searches from a Search box in your browser, you should go to google.com and try out the new “instant search” capability that Google rolled out on Wednesday. As you type your search, the most likely results are displayed, changing with each letter added to your search term. Searches from search boxes haven’t changed. You have to go to Google.com to experience this new feature.
Bring the smart phone app to a museum. Your visit will be much better for it. I visited the Georgia Aquarium and was able to listen to fascinating narration at almost every stop in every exhibit. Similar apps are available for major museums, providing you with interesting comments, tours, and restroom guides, all rolled into one app. Check it out before you leave to speed up the download process.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/technology/personaltech/09smart.html
Businesses develop dashboards that list the critical numbers on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis: how many new customers have been acquired, how many widgets have been sold, what is the average wait time for phone support, what is the stock price, how many people have hung up before reaching the person they were asking for, and lots more. The idea is to give you a quick check of how things are going.
Sometimes it is very difficult to create a personal dashboard because we aren’t sure exactly what to measure or how to determine success or identify problems. Here is a wonderful dashboard for what really matters in life. I would love to have this as a banner on my computer so it was always in front of me and I would take it as my personal goal to increase THESE numbers as much as possible. Take a look and see if you agree.
QR codes are popping up all over. In Washington, DC, QR code stickers are being place around the city. If you have a smart phone with a QR app (there are lots and lots of them for every smart phone with a camera) you scan the QR code with your phone to get bus arrival information.
Check if Your Bus is On Time Via QR Codes at DC Bus Stops
FOX is using them to promote their new shows by displaying a QR code at the very end of TV ads. When you scan them you are taken to a special web page about the show.
http://www.2dbarcodestrategy.com/2010/09/fox-tv-uses-qr-codes.html
I have seen them on business cards, in the windows of stores to provide a link to the store’s site or the stores contact information and hours, or specials available only to QR code readers. Soon we will be putting a QR code at the beginning and end of every PowerPoint slide show at conferences to provide contact information and links to the PowerPoint online. This could really take off if enough people have the app to read the codes and people start using them.
Keep your eyes out and see if you can spot any QR code.
The content of a discussion board is important, but so is the network created by posts and replies to posts. You can easily see who is off by themselves and who is the center of most class discussions from a network map. I haven’t tried it, so I don’t know how to use it, but Michael Feldstein shares this summary of a tool that builds network maps from discussion boards in Blackboard and other Learning Management Systems. It looks fascinating.
Social Network Analysis and the LMS | e-Literate
Want to write a book? See if fastpencil.com can be of help. It guides you through the writing process and then allows you to distribute the book, either electronically or printed on demand, through Amazon and other online bookstores.
It was originally created for writers who were just getting started. This New York Times article describes their efforts to entice well known writers to move to their service.
Another example of the effect of technology on the writing and publishing markets.
The iPad is an amazing tool. I was in a classroom last week and saw a student touch typing his notes on it very quickly. There are even special programs for students to use to take notes, diagrams, and keep track of their assignments. One of these programs is called “CourseNotes” and looks like a useful tool for a student. It not only lets the student collect the information, it provides a social aspect to share the notes with other students.
CourseNotes for iPad gains sharing, premium content | Education | iOS Central | Macworld
| — | Facetime isn’t for showing your face, it is for showing what you are seeing. It is the camera on the back of the phone that makes Facetime valuable. If someone calls to get help with something, they can SHOW you what the problem is and you can solve it from afar. Steven Levy on FaceTime and Sharing the View | Magazine |
| — | Flight simulators have a fatal flaw: they don’t properly reflect how a plane reacts once control is lost. So pilots who think that they can do things in the plane the same way they did it in the simulator can kill people. My two rules: Don’t extrapolate, and don’t assume that technology works correctly. Simulator training flaws tied to airline crashes - USATODAY.com |
Clickers (personal response systems) can enhance instruction or detract from it, depending on how they are used. This is a nice list of strategies to using them appropriately. Take special note of the “Integrate Questions Periodically During Lessons” and “Think-Pair-Share” strategies. They really work! http://www.suite101.com/content/10-personal-response-systems-teaching-strategies-a159078
