Sessions

Twitter Updates 2011: Learn what’s new in Twitter and available applications.Discuss how short–form communication is being used to create long–form communications. Examine best practices of NEA affiliates and other online strategists. Refresh yourself on the do’s and don’ts of Twitter, and how to get the most out of Twitter as a power user by creating feeds for varied content. Download presentation here.

iPad UnConference: Whether you’re an iPad user or not, this session will be a general hands on and open use cases for iPad in communication. Bring your iPad and share your favorite apps with the group and learn more about note taking, event organzing and more apps you just can’t live without. You’re sure to leave this session installing the latest and greatest applications. Download presentation here.

About NEA SEE

The State Education Editors (SEE) group is comprised of communications professionals who work in the state affiliates of the National Education Association and at the NEA. There are more than 135 members nationwide, and they work as editors, graphic designers, Webmasters, writers and public relations professionals. Through printed and electronic media, SEE members communicate the importance of quality public education and association membership to teachers, education support professionals, parents, politicians and community members. SEE is governed by a four-member executive committee, which is elected by the membership during an annual business meeting.

After reviewing the five iPad advertisements, I noticed an interesting trend. The earlier commercials have a 2:1 ratio of content consumption compared to content creation. As you move through the newer advertisements, the focus leans toward a 1:1 focus of consumption and creation. The final tally ended in  a count of 22 applications targeting consumption and 13 aimed at creation. It sounds to me that Apple is attempting to capture the spirit of this device as a device primarily used for consumption. I scoured the internet for articles and research. One of the simplest graphics I found outlines the features of Apple’s three mobile platforms. Take a look at it and comment on it below.

Strengths

The iPad is a very stable device. Thanks to the closed operated system, the average consumer doesn’t notice any instability or crashes in iOS. As a reader and video player, the iPad provides an adequate amount of viewing space and backlight for low light situations. Through the iTunes Store and App Store, users can access an plethora of games, publications, media, and organizational tools.

Limitations

The iPad has no means of exporting content to a USB drive, although applications like Dropbox attempt to offer a file system to transfer content. The closed operating system does create limitations to file system structure for managing photos, media, and documents. The Safari browser for iPad notoriously denounces any support for Flash content which makes millions of website impossible to render and use.

The App Store is also known as a limiting factor for advanced users. Without cracking the operating system, users can only access approved applications.  The biggest barrier to content creation on theiPad focuses around the unexplained decisions that have limited users access to a variety of creation tools. Google Docs was one such feature.  When it was originally released, the iPad’s browser didn’t support Google Docs for editing, but in recent months things have changed and users can now edit their documents (with limitations).  Users will experience mixed results in support for certain content management systems and even some online learning platforms due to features disabled in the mobile Safari browser.

What Now?

With more than 300,000 applications and 10 billion application downloads, Apple certainly has the numbers to keep going, but will their restrictive environment stifle creativity and lean more towards consumerism?  I hope not. Fortunately, Android OS 3.0, AKA Honeycomb, was officially announced last week.  Does this mean the iPad is doomed? Not hardly. But just as in the mobile phone market, competition will drive innovation. With two major platforms, users will have greater choice and see the possibilities of tablet devices. Ultimately, we will need to watch as the current generation of tablets evolve into iPad 2 and devices like the new Motorola Xoom. Either way, I can’t wait to see users pushing designers and developers to support our creativity as technology advances.

Related

http://www.thomas-fitzgerald.net/2010/04/06/content-creation-v-s-content-consumption-the-ipad-revolution/

http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/03/entelligence-the-ipad-as-a-productivity-tool/

http://weblogg-ed.com/2010/reading-as-a-participation-sport/

So when you misplace your handset, AND YOU WILL, I have a great solution to ease your worries (unless you dropped your phone in the Atlantic Ocean). Where’s my Droid is a free application available through the Android Marketplace.  If you have  QR code reader, you can scan this URL and get a head start.

So why would I want to download this application? It’s free, so it can’t be that great. Wrong! Where’s my Droid allows you to send a pre determined text message to your Android phone that will activate the ringer for a previously decided upon length of time. Additionally, if some ne’er do well has your phone you can send a separate message that will activate your handset’s GPS and return a Google map and GPS coordinates of where your phone is.

I doubted the rich feature set of this application, but I installed it and tried it out after hearing about it at the end of Episode 78 of This Week in Google, I had to jump into the Marketplace and dig through the four possible entries that were listed under the same name. I tested it out in my home, while my mobile device was still in my own possession (as I recommend everyone do). It worked flawlessly. I used my Google Voice account to send a text message to my mobile number and received the messages you see here.

Is this application perfect? Probably not. But it certainly is a great option if you don’t have some enterprise level of security on your device. There are many other options available as you set up the default behaviors, many of these applications even offer a remote wipe option to clear all sensitive data from your mobile phone. If you have an Android device, make sure that this is in your top five applications when setting up your applications.

via Reality Check – Nearly No One Knows What A “Foursquare” Is.

After reading this article at thenextweb.com, I started thinking about conversations I’ve had with teachers this past summer. I feel safe saying that educators represent a middle ground of tech know how and nearly all that I spoke to about location based services gave me that deer in the headlights look. Similar to reactions over Twitter (I don’t get it!), I dive further into the social aspects of the service and get a mild, “That’s cool!” reaction. Then I move into the data mining aspect of it and discuss how these companies can provide immense amount of data for a geographic region based on user generated input (Repeat the deer in headlights look).

So what can we do about this? I suppose not much more than keep using it and keep sharing interest mash-ups that come from people interested in location services. One of my favorites allows Foursquare data to be visualized in Google  Earth. I’ve been working some possible ways to present Foursquare to others in meaningful ways that will impact our society. But I have to admit, I have not used any other services (aside from Buzz). So which services should I compare and why?

]]> http://danthetechguy.net/2010/08/02/wheres-waldo-pondering-location-based-services/feed/ 0 http://danthetechguy.net/2010/04/15/blogging-from-my-ipad/ http://danthetechguy.net/2010/04/15/blogging-from-my-ipad/#comments Thu, 15 Apr 2010 18:55:03 +0000 dan http://danthetechguy.net/2010/04/blogging-from-my-ipad/ Now that I have killed all traffic to my website from a 16 month hiatus, I am attempting to develop my personal learning network to include blogging along with Twitter, Delicious, and Skype. I’m working on this blog post from WordPress for the iPad. So far so good. I do wish I could add links from within the editor, but I’ll have to look into that later. For now I’ll just post this single entry and add a photo of the WP dash.

There is a big problem with this. Any know what that might be? Connectivity. Without internet access, I would be totally parallized. So I have now run into other areas for me to explore – VNCs, Remote Access, and the use of web based storage. I’m currently using Google Docs for presentations, spreadsheets, documents, (and now Forms too). Picasa stores my photos, my iPod stores my music (not cloud computing). So where do I go from here?