Follow Mark Twain

One of my favorite blogs & Podcasts is The Bowery Boys.  They have a way of taking history and making it really engaging to students.  I use the Bowery Boys to illustrate what podcasts are and how they work. Today the Boys are discussing Mark Twains adventures in NYC.  This is a great lesson for language arts and technology teachers.  The blog has a Google Map embedded into the post, use the maps features to go street view or take a virtual field trip.  Use this post as a way to teach students about blogging or podcasts.  

Thank you Bowery Boys for all your hard work.  

iPad Help

My Principal is ordering iPads for the school and asked me if I knew of any apps or lesson ideas that relate to Middle School Science or Math.  I told him I would check somethings out but hope some of you in the blog world could help.

All I ever learned....

We have all seen the All I ever learned i learned in kindergarten posters but what if you took a different slant?  Film School Rejects posts the Top 10 Things We've Learned From The Muppets.  Awesome job!

What a cool idea for a writing prompt.

WPS files

Today I had a student come to me in a panic.  She couldn't open her Word file.  When I plugged in her USB drive and looked at the file extension it showed WPS an extension for Word Processing Software no good.  At school we use Word 2007 we can open DOC files and DOCX.  Normally when you open a file and your WPS file is missing you can change the File Type to All Files.  At school students are restricted from doing this so I will do it for them and save in the DOC format.  

Why it s confusing.

The WPS extension comes from Microsoft Works.  This product was discontinued in 2010 and looks very similar to Word.  many people get confused by this.  

Way around it.

You can try using openoffice.org a free download that will work "seamlessly" with Office.  I haven't tried it myself but feedback is positive.  

If you can access your files you may want to try zamzar.com a free online converter. 

2 Google Voice #'s 1 Cell Phone

I have 1 cell, it is my primary phone and has been for years now.  My wife also uses only a mobile phone as her primary phone.  We have a Google Voice # that when called will ring to both of our mobile phones.  This is very handy when we needed to give a number to someone like real estate agents, contractors, etc that needs to communicate with either one of us.  I also have a Google Voice # for my business.  To have BOTH Google Voice numbers ring to my cell phone I needed to go under "Settings" in Google Voice and edit my Mobile phone to be a "Work" # in BOTH Google Voice Accounts.  Now when somebody calls either number it will forward to my cell phone.  I am also able to sign in and out on my Android App between the 2 accounts.  

I LOVE Google Voice and by using this trick I am able to have separate working #'s for the different parts of my life.  

My Edublog Nominations

Last year I was really hopeful that I would at least get a nomination for an EduBlog Award.  Well it's that time again this year and I am shamelessly plugging myself.  

Here is how to nominate someone;

Post your nominations somewhere public, website, blog, etc, with your nomination

Send in a link with your nominations posted to the nomination page

You have until December 2, 2011 to submit your nomination

You may tag your nominations with #eddies11 on all social networking sites

The categories are;

• Best individual blog

wwwatanabe

• Best individual tweeter
• Best group blog

teacherchallenge   ( I know it is part of EduBlogs but I really enjoyed being part of it )

• Best new blog
• Best class blog
• Best student blog
• Best ed tech / resource sharing blog

techsavvyed  

• Most influential blog post
• Best twitter hashtag
• Best teacher blog

freetech4teachers

• Best librarian / library blog
• Best School Administrator blog
• Best free web tool

techsavvyed  (sorry FT4T )

• Best educational use of audio / video / visual / podcast
• Best educational wiki
• Best open PD / unconference / webinar series
• Best educational use of a social network
• Lifetime achievement

freetech4teachers  We could hope to be this good

Good luck to all!

Dwolla

Do you know what Dwolla is?  If not you will and soon, and don't forget you heard it here first!  "Now you can discover and pay people nearby, accept payments wherever you are without the credit card fees, and more! Watch the video to see how you can start using use Proxi today!"

For the small internet business this could save you HUGE $ on transaction fees.  My only caution is are your customers ready to trust someone other than PayPal?

Android Uodate 2.3.4

Well it finally happened to me.  My Android phone updated to version 2.3.4 and all of my Angry Birds and other apps are gone.  I wrote about Angry Birds being erased off the phone on September 16th.  In that post I wrote how I contacted HTC and asked them "what up?"  You can read their response here.  Also now that I have updated I am continually plagued by the low disk space icon.  Currently it looks like Facebook is the violator as it continues to run well over 23 mb even after I use the app killer.  Google+ was a problem until I moved it to the SD card.  

Not sure whats going on here but hopefully an update to Facebook in the very near future will fix this.

Creating a Privacy Policy

In doing some basic web research and in trying to set a good example to others, I have learned that I need to have and display a proper web privacy agreement / policy on my blog.   I really didn't know where to start or what to write for my policy all I know is that Google Anylitics and Adsense require me to post a policy.  I came across freeprivacypolicy and after reading over the site decided that this would be a great help and guide to me.  Here's how it works.  You press the "get started" button and just fill in the form.  Answer ALL of the questions about your site.  In about 5 min freeprivacypolicy will email you your privacy policy 2 ways.  1 as an html code that you can insert into your site and 1 as text to be included on a page.  

For more information on privacy policies and compliance go to the US Gov't site http://export.gov/safeharbor/swiss/index.asp

Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

We take your privacy seriously. This policy describes what personal information we collect and how we use it. 

Routine Information Collection

All web servers track basic information about their visitors. This information includes, but is not limited to, IP addresses, browser details, timestamps and referring pages. None of this information can personally identify specific visitors to this site. The information is tracked for routine administration and maintenance purposes, and lets me know what pages and information are useful and helpful to visitors.

Cookies and Web Beacons

Where necessary, this site uses cookies to store information about a visitor's preferences and history in order to better serve the visitor and/or present the visitor with customized content.

Advertising partners and other third parties may also use cookies, scripts and/or web beacons to track visitors to our site in order to display advertisements and other useful information. Such tracking is done directly by the third parties through their own servers and is subject to their own privacy policies.

Controlling Your Privacy

Note that you can change your browser settings to disable cookies if you have privacy concerns. Disabling cookies for all sites is not recommended as it may interfere with your use of some sites. The best option is to disable or enable cookies on a per-site basis. Consult your browser documentation for instructions on how to block cookies and other tracking mechanisms.

Special Note About Google Advertising

Any advertisements served by Google, Inc., and affiliated companies may be controlled using cookies. These cookies allow Google to display ads based on your visits to this site and other sites that use Google advertising services. Learn how to opt out of Google's cookie usage. As mentioned above, any tracking done by Google through cookies and other mechanisms is subject to Google's own privacy policies.

About Google advertising: What is the DoubleClick DART cookie? The DoubleClick DART cookie is used by Google in the ads served on publisher websites displaying AdSense for content ads. When users visit an AdSense publisher's website and either view or click on an ad, a cookie may be dropped on that end user's browser. The data gathered from these cookies will be used to help AdSense publishers better serve and manage the ads on their site(s) and across the web. Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.
 ( http://www.google.com/privacy/ads/)

The evolution of conectivity

TechCrunch posted this video that the good folks at Ericsson sponsored on the history of connectivity.  titled "On the Brink" the 21 minuet video is great for a class preview or discussion.  I plan on reviewing the video with my class later this week.