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Here is another reminder to backup your files… in more than one location!  As we move to an increasingly online community we have to be wise about these things!

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Glubble Browser for Kids - AWESOME!

Several months ago I got a computer for my kids.  I am techie and I want them to have the skills they need for the future, but protect them from some of the terrible stuff out there.  After much research I came across this GREAT firefox extension called Glubble.  At the time I liked the idea, but it was still in beta and was difficult to navigate… well, today they released a new version and it is AWESOME!  (Note, I am writing from the perspective of father of small children).

Overview from their webpage:

Glubble is a free tool for the Mozilla Firefox Internet browser. It
permits each member of the family to have their own custom environment,
so that when kids use it they only see the very best parts of the
Internet based on selections made by their parents or supplied by
Glubble’s editorial staff.

Glubble enhances Firefox to
make sure kids can’t see the whole World Wild Web instead they can only
see family friendly parts of the web, its like their own little world
on the web. We call it their Glubble World.

Cool things for kids:

• Interface - Easy to navigate (even for kids that can’t read)
• Glubble’s - Preapproved content that is awesome - There are a lot of great sites out there, and Glubble has done the hard work in finding it for you.
• Favorites - Kids can easily add small picture thumbnails.
• New Content - If kids want to see something that is not on there, they can request it with a click of a button and a parent/helper will be notified and decide if they want to allow them to see it.
• Personalized Homepage
• Lots of pictures to find things… very nice.

Cool things for Parents/Helpers/Teachers:

• Reporting on where the kids have last been… on any browser.  I can be signed in at work and see where my kids are have been last on the home computer.  Nice!
• Easily add new webpages.
• Create your own Family Glubbles - I created one for all of our extended family’s blogs.
• A Family Wall - This is a place to post notes to the kids that they will see when they sign in.
• Normal Browser in admin mode. 

Educational Uses:

I think it is easy to see how this would be useful in Elementary school.  You could create a classroom account and then set up glubbles specific for learning units.  It would protect them from other stuff out there too. 

What do you think?  How could you use this in the classroom?

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Real Time Collaboration

GoogleTutor posted a nice reminder tutorial online today about the power of real-time collaboration with Google Docs and Spreadsheets.  This past semester a class I was taking wrote a nice paper as a whole class and used Google Docs for gathering everything together between us all.  Nice. 

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Why We should use YouTube in the Classroom

Michael Wesch posted notes from a presentation he just did about why we should use YouTube in the classroom that I found very useful.  Topics he covers:

• Legality of using YouTube video’s
• Why we use them
• Tips for finding good video’s
• Ways to Download them locally
• Tools for Remixing them
• Ways to incorporate them into our teaching

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Blank your Screen in Powerpoint

Libby Evans, here on the UNC campus, has started sending out little tips to a instructional listserv I am a part of.  The first one was great so I thought I would pass it on here!

During a PowerPoint presentation, you can press the letter B at anypoint and the screen will go blank.

This is really effective if you want your class or other audience tofocus on you or on a discussion. As long as there’s something showingon the screen, people’s attention will be drawn to it.

I once used this during a conference presentation for a seminar-styleaudience. The effect was visually amazing. Every pair of eyes in theroom moved from looking at the screen to looking at me. I wasactually demonstrating the use of “B” during a discussion of effectivePowerPoint use, and everyone in the room recognized what had happened.Very powerful. Try it when you want attention focused away from thescreen and onto something else.

Oh, yes… how do you bring the screen back to your presentation? Justpress B again. 

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Author Uses Blog Comments to Peer Review Book

Oh this is just awesome!  I just read about how an author, Noah Wardrip-Fruin, is using his blog to solicit feedback for a book he is publishing.  Blog’s are really going mainstream when this happens.

Great idea though!  One we have been using in education for a while… peer feedback.  Of course a blog potentially offers a much more diverse, and larger number of reviewers. 

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Make Synergy Work with gOS

I have been super excited about gOS as of late and installed if finally on my spare machine.  It is snappy and honestly pretty nice.  Anyway, I wanted to get Synergy working and though for a while there it wouldn’t… then I finally got it going.  YEAH!  Here is what I did!

• Click on the desktop anywhere to bring up menu - Run Command
• Type ‘xterm’ to open up a terminal window.
• Install synergy by typing ’sudo apt-get install synergy’
• Enter your password and let the app install.

Then to run synergy

• Open terminal window (see above)
• Type ’synergyc [IP address] where the IP address is the IP of the computer you have set up as the server.

Notes:

• The name of the gOS has to be the same as what you have configured it to be on the server set-up.
• To get more options after the install type ’synergyc -h’ to bring up a help menu.
• To set up the gOS as the server, type ’synergys -h’ for instructions about how to do this. 

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7 Things You Should Know About Series

The Four Eyed Technologist posted a great post with links to all the “7 Things you Should Know About” series from Educause.  I have know about these for a while, but hadn’t kept up on it!  You should really bookmark this page for talking with Faculty and Staf

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Live Blog a Class

So there was been a lot of talk in the media lately about live blogging… CoverItLive seems to be a big player in this field. 

What about the idea of LiveBlogging a class?  Or perhaps having an assignment for students to liveblog something they are doing.  It could be pretty sweet. 

What do you think?

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Language Training Online (FREE) - Babbel.com Review

I am a foreign language guy by training, so anytime I see something about language training online I have to check it out.  Well, yesterday I came across a new site called babbel.com. (via Lifehacker).

I set up my free account, and was practicing my German in about 30 seconds.  It looks to teach you basic phrases that would be useful in a variety of different situations.  I haven’t spent a lot of time on the site yet, but it does look promising. 

Pro’s:

• LARGE selection of situations and vocabulary
• It is NOT just the normal vocab, but stuff you will actually use… today. :)  I did a section on going out at night and it taught me (or review) the words for flirting, getting a date, inviting someone out.  Actual useful phrases.

Con’s:

• The pronunciation appears to be computer generated.  Mostly it was good, but there were some things that were not pronounced right.  It won’t make you native, but it will work. 

The educational applications are obvious.  Great for classrooms.  You can even become training partners with other people.  Perhaps one day they will let you load your own training pictures/pronunciations up there.  That would be good for any teacher. :) 

Other thoughts?

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