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Archive for September, 2008

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OSTube: DIY YouTube

YouTube blocked? TeacherTube not quite what you’re looking for? Ever wish you could just do the darn thing yourself? I recently discovered that you CAN!

Via a Tweet from BudTheTeacher, I found a link to WeberTube. If you check it out, you’ll find it’s remarkably similar to YouTube, except with the abilty to upload pictures and documents as well. Users can create profiles, rate videos, watch them there or embed them elsewhere. And it looks GOOD. I was so impressed that I poked around until I found a link back to the application they used to build it.

I’d never heard of it before, but it turns out to be an Open Source project called OSTube.

osTube is the first content management system for media content (MCMS) – a basic framework for creating websites similar to YouTube, Veoh, and Revver. After the successful release of osTube 1.0, 2.0 and 2.1 we have just published the brand new 2.2 version of osTube – a quantum leap in player-functionality and CMS-scalability.

A complete revision and further development of current features as well as numerous new features guarantee even better usability of the framework. Also, many features requested by the osTube community are now part of version 2.0. The addition of AJAX, social bookmarking services and extended search capabilites are just a few key-aspects that will make the implementation of osTube more seamless than ever before.

There are premium versions available that allow you to insert ads into the videos, rotate banners and other such silly things. But for a school, the community FREE version is just peachy. On the backend it looks like you can maintain all the controls you might want, including moderation, video approval queues and other such things.

Pretty darn sweet considering the price. Definitely worth checking, whether for public consumption or for use behind a walled garden.

9/26/2008 6 Comments
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Google Teacher Academy wrapup

Been meaning to write up some quick thoughts about Google Teacher Academy: Chicago, but realize that time is fleeting and I just didn’t see myself getting to it soon. SO, I decided to go the video route and do a quick vlog wrapup about it.

FYI, that’s the last time I use the camera on the front of the phone. While it’s great because I can see comments that are typed in live, and I can see myself and make sure I’m centered and such, the quality is SO much worse than the camera on the back. So from now on, I use the good camera and even if it’s a little laggy while watching it live, at least the archive will look much better. And let’s face it, thats’ much longer lasting.

9/26/2008 5 Comments
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Nokia Open Labs 2008 – A look back

I’m pretty sure that I was only in Finland for four days. However, given the number of meaningful experiences that occurred during that time span, it seems hard to reconcile its brevity. That being said, I’m back on US soil again, have replaced jet lag with common, every day exhaustion, and am ready to share a bit of what I learned from the experience.

First of all, I do have to thank three groups. A huge thanks goes out to Nokia for hosting an event like this. It was creative, innovative, and a distinct pleasure to be a part of. I also need to thank WOM world. They truly did a phenomenal job of making sure everything ran like clockwork and that the attendees were treated like celebrities at every turn (more on that to come). Lastly, I want to thank the other invitees who attended the inaugural event. I learned quite a bit from the group to say the least, and much of it had nothing to do with cell phones. It was truly an honor to consider them peers.

Alright, now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get on with the good stuff.

That which rocked
I’m trying to by concise, something I’m not really good at. But I think I have to say that it was the people that made up the experience. The attendees were an eclectic, international group who each had something different to contribute. Very diverse perspectives in many ways, not so in others, but on the whole just hanging out with them was a learning experience in itself. There were plenty of Nokia employees around throughout the event, and I do have to admit that it was fascinating talking to them. It’s a massive company and there are so many different aspects of it. It was interesting hearing what each of them have been working on, and discussing what the implications could be for education. And of course, the people of Finland were incredibly gracious, with the exception of one drunken Finnish woman. Oh, how I would love to know what exactly she was screaming at Brian.

The conversations definitely rocked. That’s no different from any conference. However, these were intended to be a little more open, less constrained, and focused on asking “What could we do if…” There were some very creative ideas that arose from the conversations, and some that weren’t quite so. While at times we seemed to be spinning our wheels, on the whole I think there were some innovative subjects broached. I truly hope that Nokia learned something from the event, I know that I did.

The social events truly rocked. There were two fantastic dinners, with drinks and merriment aplenty. Between the stand up comedian one night and the brilliant guitar the second night, it was very clear that they wanted to ensure their visitors had a great time. And we did.

The last piece that gets thrown into the ‘rocked’ drawer is the amount of free time we had. I was truly worried that I wouldn’t have much time to experience Finnish culture and explore Helsinki. I was wrong. I had a very memorable walk with Mike and Jen with plenty of photos to be uploaded still. I experienced a true Finnish sauna, which involved getting to know far more of the group than I had anticipated. And that’s all I’ll say about that. A group of us visited the Kiasma, a modern art museum that had some rather evocative exhibits…. and some that weren’t. One exhibit in particular, The Trainee, I have to admit I did not get at all, until I encountered it again at the airport in Helsinki on the way home. They recreated the exact same installation and I have to admit it was much more intriguing than I my original opinion, which seems to be the museum’s motto, “I don’t get it.”

Meh
We were sent out the Nokia e71 prior to the conference to try out. I swapped my SIM card into there and used it for a couple of weeks leading into the workshops, but unfortunately it was the European version and I couldn’t get on with a 3G connection. Not a big deal, I figured that they did that so we could have high speed connections while in Europe. And one of the first things handed to us when we got to the hotel was a SIM card to use for the trip. That being said, this was a group of people that were accustomed to carrying multiple devices. And for the most part, the e71 wasn’t exactly the ideal all in one for this group (myself included). So there was a ton of sim-swapping going on, and to be honest I didn’t really see that many people use the e71 that much. Compounding this, was the minute the conference was over, we were required to turn in the SIM card. I’m a bit perplexed why they didn’t just have us return them before we left, or even mail them back. Most people I spoke to basically turned off the e71 when the SIM card was taken away, and went back to their regular device. If they really wanted us to make proper use of it, I’d think they’d want to either give us the version that we could use in our ‘homeland’, or at least provide us with a SIM to keep making use of it beyond the constraints of the event.

I know how much I hate when groups just go around the table and everybody shares who they are, what they do for a living and what their favorite shape of pasta is, this event really demonstrated why that’s so necessary. When we began collaborating, we didn’t know each other. In fact, by the time we had an idea who each other were, the first day was essentially through. Context is so valuable to conversations, and it would have been helpful to have had some when we began collaborating.

Third ‘meh’ for the event was a certain lack of communication. I never really knew what the goals were for the event. In fact, there were some very X-Files conspiracy theories floating around. One theory was that the event was actually more for internal purposes, to illuminate the rest of the company to the power and relevance of social media. Another was simply that it was good for marketing, because surely the bloggers would type up posts like this one. All buzz is good buzz, so sayeth the gods of social media.

Fail
This leads me to the stuff that I don’t think worked. Namely, the structure of the event. There were two days. One day was workshops, the second day was presentations. During the first day, we’d have a 10-20 minute introduction about a topic, and then about 40 minutes to discuss, brainstorm and share back with the group.

Side out rotate.

We were randomly put into groups, and often the specific direction that the groups discussed was determined by the age old system of whoever shouts out first and loudest. I don’t mind randomness though, in fact sometimes it’s kind of nice talking about a topic that is far away from your comfort zone. However, that being said, is 40 minutes really enough time to do a deep delve into any topic? I would say no. In fact, at least three times i felt like the conversation was just barely beginning to get rolling, when we realized we had to stop and start planning how to present our ‘findings’. I was mortified when people who were striking out in some different directions that were contrary to what the group had been talking about, got cut off because we simply didn’t have time to explore their ideas. Very disappointing.

Let’s face it. You handpick 35 early adopters, social media gurus, highly connected, bleeding edge leaders in the world of new technologies… You fly them out to Helsinki and put them up for several nights… You create a stimulating environment and host lavish meals and events for them… And then have them contribute for a grand total of 3 hours? (4 brainstorming sessions x 45 minutes each) What a waste… With the group of people in that room, I truly felt like we could have accomplished something, really delved deeply into some of the different topics, provided some new insight or innovative ideas, beyond off the cuff surface thinking. Instead, there were many people who’s ideas were never heard, which is horrifying considering the nature of the event.

Additionally, there was very little effort made to involve the outside community. We pushed quite a bit of information outwards, but short of a brief pseudo-integration with Second Life, there was no effort to bring anybody from the outside in. If we’re sharing the event with the outside world, why not take it the next step and invite them to participate and contribute? Heck, just putting up a Tweet or SMS wall that allowed people to interact with the attendees would have been welcome in my mind.

Along those lines, one of the biggest surprises to me was the distinct lack of backchannel. Backchannel’s are commonplace for most edtech conferences now, so I was very surprised that nobody expressed a desire to create a backchannel for the conference. Twitter kinda sorta served as an unofficial backchannel, but by the time most of discovered and connected to the other people there, the event was basically over. I think that would have been extremely helpful, particularly during the presentations of the second day.

Lessons Learned:
I guess this one should be obvious, but you get out of an experience what you put into it. I realized pretty quickly that education wasn’t going to be a focus, and didn’t really figure much into most of the topics we were discussing. I could have tried to force the groups along my preferred path, but I didn’t think that’d be constructive. Instead, I realized that we had a pretty eclectic group of people gathered, many of whom are currently making a career out of jobs that didn’t exist when we were growing up (sound familiar?). So with that in mind, I thought I’d do a little informal survey and see what people had to say about their education. I asked about 10 people or so some questions about their schooling and got some pretty fascinating answers. Videos to be edited and shared soon.

Another point that I think bears further exploration is the idea of fame in the 21st century. Every person at this event was famous… for 15 people (give or take a few thousand). Very well known, very well respected, among a very tiny community of people. I like to think that I’m pretty well known in the EdTech community. And yet, I guarantee you there was not one person there that knew who I was. And for the most part, I didn’t know anybody else there prior to being introduced to them. There were sites I knew and employers I recognized, but nobody was what I would consider a household name, even amongst the bloggerati. However, as I said, everybody there was famous.

It made for an interesting dynamic. Some were rather outspoken, others rather soft spoken. Clearly a few people felt intimidated and didn’t want to chime in despite efforts to draw them out. Others simply dominated the conversation. It truly did emphasize to me the opportunity that every person has to become famous nowadays. It doesn’t take much to become famous, simply persistence, courage and the confidence to put yourself on the line. That’s it. Ironically, expertise is optional.

The last point I’ll mention in closing is more of a question than anything else… Which is more important, diversity of ideals and interests, or diversity of cultures and personalities? We had plenty of the latter, and not as much of the former. As diverse a group as we had, we were remarkably homogeneous. More often than not, it’s the conflict of opinions that leads to new ideas. Innovation doesn’t occur in an environment where everybody agrees. And there was precious little disagreement during these sessions. If people disagreed, it would come out on Twitter later, rather than verbally much of the time. I suppose part of it could have been because of the limited time available, but I think it was actually more due to the fact that everybody there had similar characteristics when it came to technology.

Ok, one more point/rant and then I swear I’m closing off. Let me just say that after spending half a week with this hyper connected, social media obsessed group, I really wanted to throw my cell phone through a window by the end. Believe me, I’m still pro-twitter, pro-blogging, pro-sms, pro-cell phones in the classroom and all. But I was appalled at how many people simply were unable to UNPLUG even just for the duration of a meal. I vividly remember at one point looking around, and at a table for ten, six people were busy typing away on a total of 8 devices. We were flown halfway around the world, being put up in an incredible hotel, and had the opportunity to collaborate with some brilliant minds… and people couldn’t seem to break away from the network overlay. Believe me, I understand the desire to tweet everything that happens, and I’m hardly a model example for the manners textbook, but that was just too much… Cell phones and mobile technologies should augment communication, not replace it. I just kept flashing back to the presentation we had seen earlier in the day by Adam Greenfield. He showed an image of a woman walking through the mall talking on her cell phone, and pointed out that while physically she was there, mentally she was nowhere near that mall. Her mental space was a technology overlay completely separated from her physical space. For the most part, that’s what seemed to be happening quite often throughout the weekend.

I’m not advocating that we eliminate the technology, but I do think that this is even more of a reason to teach appropriate use during schools. After all, the flip side of appropriate use, is understanding when NOT to use it.

Welps, that’s enough of a rant for now. More to come. And while it may seem like a lot of moaning and whining, it truly was an incredible learning experience. I hope Nokia got as much out of it as I did!

9/19/2008 10 Comments
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Off to Nokia’s Open Lab

So a couple of weeks ago I got a mysterious email saying that Nokia was interested in springing for me to join them in Helsinki for a few days.

We sometimes help Nokia run events involving participants from social media, like bloggers and forum members. The latest being a new annual workshop that hopes to involve an eclectic mix of the online community in a discussion of what the future holds for everything from mobile technology to media creation. It’s a three day event in Helsinki and we’d like to invite you, flights and accommodation paid for.

It’s taking place in September between the 11th and 14th, and will be the first of its kind hosted by Nokia. We’re contacting everyone from creative’s, designers, video producers to open source software bloggers and mobile tech pioneers. There will be a number of workshops that’ll see discussion with participants, and with Nokia guys, about the future of different online arenas and mobile technology. Workshops that we hope you’d like to join in with and make yourself heard.

My initial thought was to file this under ‘elaborate phishing scheme’, but then figured I might as well look into it. After several Google searches, I became convinced that this was real enough. Of course, I couldn’t turn down a free trip abroad, so I gratefully accepted. A flurry of emails and frantic passport renewal later, and I’m off for Finland tomorrow!

Just a few days ago, they finally got around to posting an official site for the event, which has a few surprises to me that I hadn’t heard before. In particular, they say:

In the spirit of the event, non-attendees will be able to freely participate through online tools that will be available on the website prior, and via the virtual event that will be taking place simultaneously on the days of the event. So feel free to join in, and help us all learn more on what the future of mobile should really be.

I’m dying to know what this will entail, but I’m planning on bringing people along as much as I possibly can. From blog posts, to Tweets/Plurks, and of course live broadcasts, I hope to share as much of the short trip as possible. 35 people were chosen to attend, and the group has begun to self-organize here if you’re curious to see who else is going. So far as I can tell, I’m representing the education community, so if you have any crazy ideas that you want mentioned to the Nokiarati, let me know.

Additionally, they sent me a Nokia e71 to play around with. As you may have read in my last post, I’m pretty darn happy with the N95, however I’m always open to re-evaluating. So far, I do have to admit that the keyboard on the e71 gives it a HUGE advantage of the N95, but the N95 has a nicer screen and a camera that really can’t be beat. That being said, I’m going to try to do some side by side stills, videos and broadcasts to compare the two of them and see which one would be better suited for both me and education users. Unfortunately I don’t get to keep the phone, it’s just a loaner. But I’ve got nothing at all to complain about. Thrilled for the opportunity.

If you are interested in participating virtually, keep an eye on the blog and I’ll share ways that you can do so as I find out about them!

9/9/2008 No Comments
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My cell phone can beat up your laptop

Shortly before NECC, I had a tough decision to make. I was ready to upgrade my mobile phone and had narrowed it down to two choices: the iPhone 3G and the Nokia N95. Both have their pros and cons when compared to each other, but I decided to go with the N95 for two reasons. The first is that it has an incredible high quality camera that takes phenomenal video, which is definitely something I’m very interested in right now. The second reason is that having been around for about a year and running the Symbian 60 operating system, it is very well developed and had a slew of applications built for it. I know, I know, the iPhone didn’t take long to catch up, but that’s why I decided to go with the N95.

The lack of keyboard was the only real buzzkill to me, and to be honest, I thought that might have been a deal breaker. But here I am, months later, and at this point I dare say that this is by far the best phone I have ever used. And when I think about how it could be used by teachers and students? Well, I have to admit, I get a little giddy. So let’s explore a little bit. Let’s take a look at some of the things this amazing device can do and brainstorm a bit about how it could be used educationally. Yes, I know your school has a policy against cell phones. Yes, I know they can be used to send text messages and be distracting. And yet, if we just suspend our disbelief for a few minutes and say, “What if we actually gave it a shot…” Well, I think you’ll start to see some possibilities.

Specs
Real quick, before we get into the details, let me give you the run down on the phone itself. It’s a Nokia N95-3, which means that it isn’t the latest version. The newest one has 8GB of memory built in, but no memory card slot. Mine has a MicroSD slot, which in theory can support up to 12GB, but I only have a 4GB card in it. It has a 5megapixel camera on it. Yes, you heard me. 5 whopping megapixels. It takes video in 640×480 which looks simply amazing on a computer. Definitely one of the high points of the camera. It also has a camera on the front of the phone, so you can see your own face in the screen while your recording/broadcasting. That camera is only 1 megapixel though. Great for video conferencing, if American cell companies would support it! It has a built in GPS, decent looking screen and a standard headphone jack that doubles as video out. It connects to… well, everything. It has a standard mini-usb port, Bluetooth, Infrared and even WiFi. It features a double slider, meaning it can slide both up and down. Sliding down reveals the standard phone keypad, sliding up reveals media buttons and switches the phone into landscape mode. In theory, it’s better that way for watching media. I’ve watched one movie so far and it was ok I guess, but I rarely put it into that mode (except for web browsing at times).

Browser
Obviously the phone is connected to the internet. In fact, it’s connected at 3.5G. I’m not sure if that’s .5 faster than the 3G iPhone, but it sounds neat. It comes with a browser that’s adequate, but both Opera and Firefox make mobile browsers that I like quite a bit better. I should point out that it’s a full html browser. That means you’re looking at REAL web pages, not mobile/wap versions. As you can see, it renders them pretty darn well. No, it’s not nearly as nice as the iPhone’s browser, but I have had no problem at all scrolling around pages and surfing like I normally would. Firefox loads pages quickly and is easy to navigate around in.

Typically when talking about accessing the internet, I’d throw out a list of mobile websites that students could use to enhance classroom experiences. I won’t do that here. Why? Because they can go to ANY website using the N95. Sure, a few flash sites don’t work, but 99% of the sites I’ve navigated too have loaded just fine. With a flip of the slider, you can switch into landscape mode see even more real estate. Works like a charm.

Google Maps
Like many phones, I am able to load up a mobile version of Google Maps that rivals the online version. In fact, GMaps will tap into the phone’s GPS and use it to figure out where you are! However, what I really love is the ability to switch into satellite view. By doing that, you can really mimic Google Earth in many ways. Get a geographic perspective of whatever your studying. For example, let’s say you were discussing the Statue of Liberty and you mentioned that one of the architects also designed the Eiffel Tower. A student who didn’t know what the Eiffel Tower was could take out their cell phone, pull up Google Maps, and quickly find out that it’s a monument in France, switch to satellite view and get a good look at it in its actually setting. Check out the screencap below for an example of how it looks on the N95.

While it may not be critical for eduction that it does so, it’s rather nice that Google Maps will tap into the phone’s GPS as well, getting a fix on your current location for things like regional searches and directions. Nice touch, but I’m not sure how that figures into education. Offhand, I’d say Geocacheing, but as you’ll see we can do WAY better than that.

GeoCaching
I hadn’t really thought of this phone as a GeoCaching device until I went to the DEN National Institute this summer. Bridget Belardi was doing some ‘caching with attendees and I realized that since the phone had a GPS, maybe I could find a map program that would work. Lucky me, I found WAY more than that. GeoCache Navigator is an incredibly well developed application that has everything you need to get rolling.

Once you load up the application, you can search for caches nearby your current location, or search by address, zip code, or cache code (from GeoCaching.com). It will pull up a list of caches nearby, tell you how far away you are and what direction they’re in. Very convenient for spontaneous caching. Then, it provides you with a compass, maps, full text information about the cache, and even access to hints and logs if you need a little help. Once you find the cache, you can log it directly from your phone. I’ve done about 4 caches using this device love how easy it is to do on the fly. No prep needed, if you have the time you can do a cache. The program itself is compatible with a pretty fair number of phones and is either free or available for a low cost (depending on phone and service).

Live Broadcasting
Anybody who has visited this blog in the last few months knows that I’m big on live broadcasting right now. I think it’s absolutely amazing that via a mobile device I can broadcast just like I could with something like uStream.tv. Oh yeah, except no wires, no computers, no browser needed. My site of choice right now is Qik.com. It automatically archives it, announces live streams over a variety of sites, and even permits two way chat during broadcasts. It also does an incredible job of making sure the final recording is clean, even if the live connection is flaky. While there are plenty of other sites that are offering similar services, Qik has won me over for right now at least! It works with most Nokia phones, a handful of Windows Mobile devices and even supports jailbroken iPhones.

So why would you want this for education? A few reasons come to mind. First of all, after the lesson is done and you’re reflecting on what the class has learned, you can share the learning with parents, the community or even the world. Students can quickly and easily present for an authentic audience, and have records of it to share on their blogs or the classroom website. When a particular student does something incredible, they can share it with their parents in real time. Assemblies, sporting events, speeches, can all be shared with people who aren’t able to be there, but AS it happens instead of days or weeks later. It could also be used to bring guests into the classroom from remote locations across virtually any distance. Student weather reporters can actually do their reports from outside! Quite simply, it opens up a new world of opportunities for us to explore with students. How will it actually be used in classrooms? I don’t know. Maybe you’ll tell me.

One thing to note: Some people might say that this is pretty scary stuff. Broadcasting live video with students? What if something happens or some student abuses the privilege and does something horrible with it? In my opinion, that’s precisely WHY educators need to be leaders in this arena. Students WILL be using this technology, and likely without ethics, morality, forethought or good judgement. But where are they supposed to learn that stuff if not in school? We need to make sure that they have the skills, knowledge, and understanding to use these tools appropriately. After all, even members of Congress are using it!

Music
Obviously many mobile phones make great MP3 players. Most have the ability to record as well. So if a music teacher wanted to provide students with a copy of the song they’ll be playing or singing, and have students record themselves at home rehearsing, that’d be easy enough to do. Or you could even have students use their phone to record them playing so you could SEE what they’re doing as well. But then there are other applications that can support music instruction in different ways. For example, I found an application called Chords. You put in the key and the fret position you want and it’ll show you where to put your fingers on the guitar! Nothing too fancy, but it fills a need.

There’s also a drum machine application that looks promising but I haven’t tried out yet. Or if you just need a little help staying on rhythm, maybe using your phone as metronome would be music to your ears (pun intended).

Astronomy
I’ve always been an astronomy buff, but I’ll be honest… Most of the constellations look pretty similar to me. Hard to pick them out in the sky, especially when I don’t know which are SUPPOSED to be above me at any given time. That’s why I love MicroSky so much. It’s a planetarium in your pocket! It can use the GPS to figure out where you are and based on the time and date, display to you what constellations will be directly over head. You can also look up any other celestial bodies that may be of interest to you, whether it be stars, suns, planets, or galaxies. Truly an incredible application that is a no-brainer for all star gazers, whether their unpacking their first telescopes or are seasoned astronomers.

Second Life
Seriously? Second Life via mobile phone? Yeah, that’s right. I wouldn’t say that it’s exactly ideal, but it seriously does work! Using an application called Vollee, you can actually log into Second Life as your avatar on your cell phone, navigate around, and even fly! Yes, you can chat with people in world, but it’s tough because you have to open up window that covers up your view of SL. Additionally, it’s a little pokey. Hardly a surprise considering the graphics that it’s funneling, but just something to be aware of. Regardless, while I’d hardly say that this is an ideal way to experience Second Life, it’s pretty darn impressive that you can. This short video was my avatar wandering around one of the locations Riptide used in his photography class.

Fitness
This is one of those applications that simply blows me away. Nokia Beta Labs released a program called Sports Tracker, an unbelievable application that tracks your fitness activities, both on the phone and online. You switch it on when you begin your workout and then it uses the GPS to track your speed, elevation, laps (it figures those out based on your route) and more. It’ll give you averages, charts, and just about any information you could possibly want except heart rate. Needs bluetooth heart monitor integration I guess for the next version.

Once you’ve finished your workout, you can upload that data to the Sports Tracker site and review it all online. It plots out your route on a Google Map, marking off your fastest and slowest points, the elevation and more. You can take that map and link to it, print it out, or export it to Google Earth! The icing on the cake here is that if you take any movies or photos while being tracked, when you complete your workout the phone will scan your media, recognize that you took some pictures and upload them to the server. Since it geocodes everything it records,they’ll show up on the map in the correct place when you view your workout. Love that feature.

Do I envision schools providing GPS enabled cell phones to their students to keep track of them during gym class? Of course not. However, if a student DOES have a GPS enable cell phone, why wouldn’t we help show them how to make the most of it? Just imagine high school track coaches having access to this? Or for physical fitness challenges? Why not create a bulletin board or website for students to share their favorite jogging/biking routes, if for no other reason than to encourage physical activity? Hey, if you think it’s cool, I’m thinking your students will too. And I sure as heck do.

Mobile Hotspot
I don’t know about your school, but at the school I worked at there were a few corners of the building that didn’t have WiFi. Additionally, the grounds outside the school were WiFi free. While it didn’t come up every day, there were several situations when it would have been really handy to have a few laptops with WiFi available for students to use in some of those dead zones. One situation I remember was during dress rehearsal week for the school play. Students were out of classes the entire day, but sometimes they had 20-40 minutes free to work on homework. However, no WiFi was available unless we did a crazy series of bridged routers, which was a pain to set up.

Well, since the N95 has a 3.5G connection as well as WiFi, there are a couple of applications that will create mobile hotspots bridging the two together! With just a couple of clicks, you create your own WiFi network (password protected if you like) and then any computers nearby can see it and connect to it. Speed wise, it’s about comparable to a cable modem. Obviously the more people that connect to it, the slower it’ll go. But I found it plenty fast for myself. I’ve used two different programs, JoikuSpot and Walking HotSpot, but found that the latter has worked much more reliably. Either way, being able to connect a handful of laptops to the internet through your cell phone without any extra charges is a pretty sweet little trick to keep in your back pocket.

Teaching with a Cell Phone
Of course, as anybody who has ever done a cell phone presentation knows, it’s awfully difficult to share what’s happening on your screen with the rest of the class. That’s where applications like Mobiola Remote Control come in handy. it’s what I’ve been using to take these screenshots and create the movies. By loading up the program and connecting to my PC (Via USB, Bluetooth or even WiFi!), I can see on my computer screen everything that’s on my cell phone screen. I can take screenshots, record videos, or zoom in on the image full screen so everybody can see it easily. I’ve read that you can even load it up as a virtual webcam so you can share what’s on your cell phone screen via sites like uStream, Yahoo Chat or Skype, but I haven’t tried that just yet. It works incredibly well, and if you present with cell phones or intend to use them with your students, I highly recommend it. Well worth the cost.

Wrapup
I think that’s enough of a taste for right now. But what’s really amazing to me is just how much I’ve left off. For example I didn’t mention that ALL photos that you take are automatically geotagged. And that it has built in support for sites like Flickr so you can share your photos there. I also didn’t really talk about the fact that there’s a native YouTube client, so you can both watch and share videos through there. And this phone takes phenomenal videos and photos! The 5 megapixel camera on it is almost as good as my current camera! I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that you can sync it up with your Google email and calendar, or just about any other mail or calendar application you have. It makes a great media player and will also support instant messaging, like Yahoo and AIM. Seriously, the list of what I love about this phone goes on and on and on. Battery life is awful, but what’re you gonna do? Some sacrifices must be made. I bought myself a second battery to keep handy.

Seriously though… The best part about this all is that while I’m thrilled with this specific phone, all of those features will be commonplace within a couple of years. None of these things will be unusual anymore, and the majority of your students will have access to them. And when that happens, will you be fighting their enthusiasm or leveraging it? I hope that you see some potential and find ways to harness it for your own educational setting.

Disclaimer
I bought my phone off of Craiglist. Any commercial software you see here I bought myself. No handouts, no paid endorsements. I’m just a fan and evangelist. I happen to be using the Nokia N95 and recommend it highly. However, that being said, there are many other phones that will allow you to do the exact same things. So use what ya got!

I was recently invited by Nokia to participate in their Open Lab. I have no idea why they invited me, but they did not ask me to write this post, nor even know that I was doing so. In fact, they’ve loaned me a phone to try out that I didn’t even mention here because I don’t have enough time on it yet to discuss it with any authority.

And that’s all I gotta say about that!

9/8/2008 28 Comments
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Edmodo released!

I’ve blogged about Edmodo before, while it was in early alpha. Well, Edmodo has finally launched and is definitely worth a look. If you want to read more about it, I blogged about it over on Digital Passports already.

9/5/2008 1 Comment
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You know you’re a rock star… Now prove it!

[simlulposted at the DEN National Blog]

I can’t tell you how many people I speak to that have a ton of great information to share, but come up with one excuse or another not to bother submitting any proposals to the various state conferences. Well, let me tell you something… You’ve got experience, you’ve got ideas, and you’ve got knowledge that would be valuable to other people. Why not take the next step and share it with other educators?

As I do every year, I’ve aggregated together a list of state conferences along with when their proposal dates open and/or close. I didn’t realize just how late in the year I was doing it this year and a few of them have closed already. So don’t waste any time! If you’d like to participate in any of these conferences, JUMP at the opportunities and apply immediately (if not sooner).

One thing to remember, particularly if you’re an East coast resident… You aren’t restricted to just your state. Apply to present in a neighboring state and see how they run things across the border! More thank likely, there’s several conferences within driving distance that you could be presenting at. Why not apply to them all and see what happens!

And of course the big momma, which happens to be in Washington DC next year…

Did I miss any? If so, leave a comment with the info!

9/2/2008 11 Comments