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Memorial Day - “Remember Me”

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In honor of the upcoming Memorial Day I recommend you all take the time to watch this.  And remember to have some tissue’s near by.  I don’t cry much, but I cried when I watched this. 

To all the soldiers out there.  Thank you.  Today I remember.  I will do all I can to remember tomorrow as well.

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Do Research in Languages you Don’t Speak

Today Google Translate launched a nice side by side search engine that might be useful for those researching in languages they don’t speak.  Just type in what you are looking for in English and what language you want to search.  There are 11 languages right now including very difficult languages like Chinese, Arabic, Korean and Japanese (not to mention the typical ones). 

The search results display in a nice double column format that is easy to compare.  I think that if we give this one a little more time it is going to become more and more prevalent across Google search products.  Keep your eyes out… and until then enjoy looking up the stuff you always wanted to know in other languages.

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Zoho Notebook Goes Public - Imagine the Educational Potential

I ran across Zoho Notebook a while ago, but it was only in private Beta… well today it went public. Here is a short video introducing some of the features!

Now just imagine what you could do with this in education! Students keeping track of not only notes but all of their online content… video’s, RSS reads, webpages (marked up), audio, embedded html (like an online calendar) that automatically updates… WOW! Beyond all that, it is accessible everywhere and backed up on Zoho’s servers!

Teachers can use all of the same features, but the beauty really come in when you realize you can share it with others (chat online with them) and even publish it online for your students. Publish just a part of a lesson, publish a lesson plan for other teachers, heck, you can even embed it in a webpage. Wow! I’ll have to explore more when I am a little more rested (see previous post).

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Announcing the Arrival of Spencer VanDrimmelen

Hello all!  I know this is a my instructional technology blog, but I couldn’t resist sidetracking for a quick personal post.  This morning (5/16/07) I was lucky enough to see the arrival of my fourth child, Spencer VanDrimmelen.  He arrived at 6:59 a.m. weighing in at a whopping 8 lbs. 8 oz.  Both he and Mom are doing great.  In fact they are both sleeping right now.  Here is a picture of the precious little one!

Yes, that is a TarHeel hat he is wearing.  I couldn’t think of anything more appropriate for our new little TarHeel.  I have posted many more pictures on my personal family blog, but if you want to get in there you will need to e-mail me and I will send you the password.

Cheers to everyone!!

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RSS in Education

Just in case you hadn’t noticed by now, I think RSS is just about the best thing since sliced bread. I have written about Google Reader and shared a pretty popular video recently introducing RSS. Well, if you need a more formal source that RSS is viable and important in Education, EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative: 7 Things you Should Know About… for April is RSS. They put together a nice 2 page Introduction to RSS that might be useful to pass on to others. Check it out!

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To Linux, or not to Linux…

Well… I finally decided to take the plunge. I have officially taken
one of my machines and installed a Linux operating
system on it. I decided that since I was in education, edubuntu would
be a good place to start.

Likes:

• FREE! Need I say more. Free OS, Free Software, free free free!
• Applications Installer (just select the stuff you want from a HUGE list and it installs automatically).
• Windows Selection - there is an option you can enable that activates windows as soon as you mouse over them.
• Networking capabilities - I was able to connect to a windows share server and FTP site directly and edit stuff on them directly without having to FTP back. NICE!
• Panel Widget’s - Like applications, there are a bunch of built in widgets and a totally customizable toobar to put them on. I installed some little eyes that watch my mouse where ever it goes.
• Games - Not that I really have time to play games, but there are a ton of them, including a impressive selection of educational games.

Dislikes:

• Terminal (or command line) - I have already had to use the terminal multiple times. I’m not a native Linux user so I am having to learn a LOT of command prompts…
• Application installation - This is kind of ironic considering point number two above, but if something is not on that list you have to go into the terminal to install it… not good for GUI spoiled people like me.

This is my initial reaction. Mind you, I have been using Linux for all of a day now. But I have set up the Synergy client so now I have a Mac on my left screen, a PC in the middle and Linux on the right. I am trying to use all three so I am familiar with all of them at least to an extent. There is so much to explore and learn about!

Request for Help:

So I know there must be some Linux users out there.

• What do you like about Linux?
• What help would you offer to a beginner?
• What makes Linux so great?

Please share your thoughts in the comments.

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