Teach42

I know, I know, “Not another meme!” But this one has a little twist to it.

Lucy Gray is organizing a Google Earth Meme, where your answers are embedded into a Google Earth file. That way you can zoom around the map and see where people live/work as well as their answers to two questions:

1) What has been your most memorable learning experience?
2) Who is the teacher that has influenced you the most?and why?

I just submitted my placemark, so hopefully it’ll be in the next update. So join the meme! Everybody cool is doing it

File this under cool uses of new tech.

Whether you realize it or not, your digital camera snaps a whole lot more than just the photo. Most of you know that it also records the time and the date. However, many digital cameras also the settings that were used to snap the photo as well as what type of camera took the photo. It’s all there in the meta data. I’ve seen it appear in Flickr, but I never really thought much about it.

Well, Flickr is making great use of that info now. If you go to the Flickr Camera page, you can see some interesting charts about how many photos have been taken with each brand and model of camera. Drill down and you can see other stats that basically let you know how popular different cameras are and such. You can even then view scads of photos that were taken by that specific camera!

If you’re thinking about buying a digital camera soon, it’s a great place to stop by and check out actual pictures taken by a model you’re considering. That way you can see the quality of the photos in the real world! You can even filter down to night photos, macro photos, landscapes and so on. These are all photos taken with the same digital camera I use. Pretty darn cool…

Wow. People weren’t kidding when they say that having a kid changes everything!

First of all, thanks for all the comments and emails wishing us well. It has really been touching, and a testament to just how powerful these mostly virtual relationships can be. I was going through the comments and reading them to Jess and was really astounded by how many people I considered close friends, and yet I’ve never met them face to face. Pretty crazy.

I’m back at work and getting into the swing of things. Gearing up for conference season and pulling together some presentations. Oh yeah, a HUGE thank you to everybody who responded to the “Favorite Web 2.0 apps” thread. It’s been fun going through it and lots of new apps to explore!

Speaking of explorations, we’ve switching things up a little bit on the work end. I’ve now got a new blog called Digital Passports (for Digital Immigrants) that I’ll be using to share explorations in online technologies for teachers. Some of the posts will be simulblogged here, but most will be exclusive to there. So what’s the difference between that and Teach42? Well, the commentary will stay here as will the personal opinions, fluff, and bleeding edge stuff. On Digital Passports, I’ll be revisiting old favorites that I haven’t really blogged about here for years, like del.icio.us and Flickr and such, because there’s still thousands of teachers that it’s still new to. Also, I’ll be focusing more on digital media and classroom applications.

Obviously, those are just the intentions, we’ll see how things turn out. Always an adventure starting a new blog! Hope to see you over there as well.

About 15 hours ago, Aiden Lefty Dembo was born! Official time was 8:49 on January 9th, 2007. Despite staying tight for 36 hours of labor and focing a C-Section, he was only 7 pounds! He’s 19″ inches in length, but I think 2 of those inches were because he had a little bit of a conehead.

Mommy and Baby are both doing great. Happy, healthy, and obviously more than a little sleepy. The way things are scheduled right now, we’ll be in the hospital until Friday, and then we’ll take him home and introduce him to his much furrier older brother, Solo.

Here’s a photo and a video of the little guy. If you click on the photo, you’ll be taken to a gallery of images from his first couple of hours (thanks Dad for uploading those!). Got a bunch more video, but I want to get back to the hospital to take care of the wife, so here’s just a little teaser!

If you can’t see the video via YouTube, here’s a direct link to it.

I’m in the process of putting together a presentation about some of the best FREE Web 2.0 sites for educators. Nothing too heavy, this is going to be a whirlwind tour of free tools available to teachers that they may want to take advantage of. What do you think are three sites that absolutely MUST be included??

Here’s the guidelines:
1) I’m only looking for free sites. If the site has a free as well as paid service (like Flickr), only suggest it if you think the free features make it worthy. Timed free trials don’t count and shouldn’t be included.
2) Only suggest sites that you think would be worthwhile for educators to make use of.
3) I’m using a very loose definition of Web 2.0. So loose that I won’t define it here

Vote using the form below. I’ll publish the results in a future blog post. And if you want to do some more typing, feel free to vote for your favorite 3 in the comments and let everyone know why you chose them.

UPDATE In response to an email I got, I’m actually using one of my favorite web 2.0 apps to handle the form: DabbleDB. However, since there’s no free version (they have a 1 month free trial), it won’t make this list.

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A couple of years ago, I mentioned that I wanted to get access to all my media anywhere at any time. I actually think I’m there now!

On Black Friday, I got lucky enough to score a new desktop for $399 from Best Buy (I had to beat up two old ladies and step on 3 small children to get it). It came with Windows Media Center 2005, which has taken me down a twisted path with the net result thatI now have access to my music and videos from just about anywhere.

In the house, I have an XBox 360 hooked up to our main TV in the living room. The 360 is designed to be able to tap right into WMC and stream music and video from it. Pretty sweet. So now I can load DVD’s and TV shows right onto the hard drive, and watch them through the TV on the other side of the house. I started off doing it wirelessly. While this did work, it was prone to what it called ‘network congestion’ aka lag. So I wound up running a network cable through the wall, through the nursery, into the closet, down to the 1st floor closet, down to the basement, across the ceiling, under the TV and up through the floor to the 360. Works like a charm. And nothing makes you feel like a man more than using a 12″ drill bit!

Outside the house, I’m using Orb again. While it still isn’t perfect (there can be annoying gaps between songs) I have to admit it’s pretty darn slick. I can listen to my music and watch videos from just about any internet connected device. You can even share your media too! For example, click here to listen to one of my favorite albums, Why Do Birds Sing by the Violent Femmes. While people would be able to download your photos, they can’t download music or video for obvious reasons. Streaming only.

In theory, I should be able to watch and listen from the PSP and even my cell phone as well, but I haven’t tried that out yet. That’s next up on the list. For now, I’ll just enjoy being able to access my immense collection of 80′s one hit wonders while working on the DEN website!

Well, I done been tagged by a few friends over the vacation that was far too short, so Kathy, Chris and Beth, this post is for you! (As I just discovered, David Jakes too!)

Five things you may not know about me:
1) I’m a geek. No, seriously, I really mean it. I’m not talking about just an ordinary nerd. I love role playing but haven’t gotten to do it since college since none of my Chicago friends do. And I wasn’t content to just play the usual Dungeons and Dragons, I played Shadowrun, Rolemaster (aka Chartmaster), GURPS, and Vampire the Masquerade. Heck, I even dressed up like a Vampire and did Live Action Role Playing on many an occasion. Yes, I love video games and regularly play my XBox 360 and Sony PSP, but that isn’t even geeky anymore. What I really miss is playing obscure board games like Illuminatus!, Axis and Allies, and The History of the World. I even used to play a Lord of the Rings game via mail. You would figure out your turn, mail it in and in a couple of weeks you’d get new information to figure out your next turn with. Yes, I had a map of Middle Earth hanging in my kitchen. I played Magic the Gathering before alpha cards were called alphas and the only rule in a tourney was ‘Don’t deal from the bottom of your deck’. I can read binary pretty well. I’m a huge Star Wars fan and have way more toys than a grown man ought to. If you’ve seen my Permanent Record presentation, then you know that I have also sewed myself a Jedi Costume and have even worn it out in public on days other than Halloween. I still read comic books periodically, mostly X-Men and Spider Man. *sighs* My son has no chance at all of ever winning the Heisman…

2) I have music in the blood. My grandfather taught music privately and I inherited his violin, banjo and guitar. I don’t know how to play any of those though. I’m a pianist and percussionist, but I don’t do much of either anymore. In high school, I played in 6 bands and orchestras daily and performed with 3 others. I started off college in music education before switching eventually to elementary education. Yes, I played in the University of Iowa Marching band for one year. I was on the cymbal line, which was fun to do, but I’ve never been too fond of organized marching. Throughout high school and college I made a living DJ’ing weddings, bar mitzvah’s, fraternity parties and 80′s nights at a local bar. I’d love to hook up with a local symphony sometime, but for now the only drumming I do is on tables and steering wheels. Yes, it drives my wife crazy.

3) I’m a huge fan of the Beatles, but John Lennon in particular. I think one of the things that appeals to me so much about him is the way he was able to strip away all the garbage and get right down to the essence of an idea. Example: War is over (if you want it). You don’t need a degree to understand a song like Working Class Hero or Power to the People. The music is simple, the lyrics are direct, and most of all he emphasizes how much control people really have over their own destiny.

4) I’ve completed a marathon, a triathlon and a 6.5 hour adventure race. I’m not an athlete. Heck, if you’ve met me in person, you know I’m pretty darn far from it. However, you know they say that running is 75% mental? Well, that’s the part that I can do. Mentally, I can keep myself going. At this point, I really do hate long distance running, but I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished. Anytime some task seems to be an overwhelming challenge, I think about to those last few miles of the marathon and it helps put things in perspective. My sister Laura, who is a personal trainer and in amazing shape, ran the majority of the marathon with me. She didn’t sign up for it, she just jogged along with me and helped keep my spirits and motivation high. I hope someday to be able to repay her for the support she gave me that day, mile after grueling mile.

5) My wife kicks ass. She’s a bigger football fan than I am, she enjoys watching poker and wrestling on TV and doesn’t mind at all when I head over to a local cigar bar to partake in the occasional stogie (so long as I shower and change when I get home). She encourages me to enjoy the yearly Vegas trip with the guys and has backed me 100% whenever I’ve had some crazy idea that I wanted to try. She’s always helped me keep my feet on the ground while encouraging me to reach for the stars. She has put up with the all night poker games and Halo LAN parties, and does an amazing job of organizing our SuperBowl party every year. She makes me laugh and she punches me when I’m doing something stupid. She is a fantastic artist and I hope she starts painting again as our son grows up, because he certainly won’t get any art experience from me. She doesn’t rub it in much that she’s way better at Bejeweled type games than I am. She’s so beautiful that sometimes I catch myself just staring at her and thinking to myself how lucky I really am. She’s been an amazing wife for the last 5 years and she’ll be an amazing mother any day now. I must have done something right in a past life, because I get to spend every day with her. Love you Jess!

Alright, enough of the mushy stuff. You wanted me to babble on for five bullet points? Consider it done! Now it’s my turn to tag a few people.
* John Blake
* Mister Teacher, James Tubbs
* Susan Sedro
* Steve Burt
* Brian Lamb