Photoshop goes 2.0!

Oh yes! Oh yes! The Web 2.0 app I've been waiting for is now Web 2.0, free and online. It's Photoshop Express! (Sign up fast to get the personal URL of your choice. :)


It's beta and undoubtedly new features will be added, but right now it lets you upload photos, crop, rotate, retouch, etc. The interface seems very intuitive (compared to Photoshop or the Gimp) And, of course, optionally, you can share your photos.

One omission, at first glance, is that they don't offer a Creative Commons license option. (I'm emailing the suggestion to them.) However, their terms of use (again, at a first quick read) don't seem onerous like some other content sharing sites.

Bravo, Adobe!

New "$50 handheld"

There has been a lot of press about the new "$50 handheld," otherwise known as the Teachermate handheld computer from Chicago-based non-profit Innovations for Learning, and some people have asked me what I think.

First of all, I haven't actually seen or used the device, but I have read the company's information and reviews by several ed tech experts I respect.

Given this, here are my thoughts:

• This tool has a very specific use in mind (supplemental K-1 reading and math) and doesn't appear have capabilities for use beyond that.
  
• This really isn't a handheld computer as the term is commonly used. For educational purposes, I would say a handheld needs to have basic productivity functions (e.g. writing) and some kind of input mechanism (e.g. keyboard, handwriting). It also needs to be suitable for multiple purposes. The Teachermate doesn't fit these criteria. It's more inline with devices like Leapfrog's educational toys than handhelds. Of course, you can call something whatever you want, I guess, but that doesn't make it so.
  
• The hardware is $50, but that doesn't include software, which you can only purchase from Innovations for Learning at additional cost.
  
• Most importantly, the Teachermate system appears to be a closed, proprietary system. In today's world of open source, user-generated everything, read/write web, etc., I don't think closed systems have much of a chance. (Even Apple may be waking up to this with the recent long-awaited release of their SDK.) Educators need to be able to choose from a large range of solutions and to be able to customize content to meet their students' needs. The success of handheld computing to date has been the availability of a large selection of options (software, content, etc.) across all curriculum areas, skills focuses, and learning styles. One size does not fit all.
  

Now, if Innovations for Learning were to come out with an SDK and release their hardware spec for developers to come up with peripherals like keyboards, wireless cards, etc., that would be much more interesting.

In the meantime, it may be an effective early learning tool, but it's not a handheld.

If there's one thing every classroom needs....

When asked what one piece of technology every classroom needs, I used to answer "an LCD projector." Now, though, I think it's more electrical outlets.

I recently visited this classroom in New York that had electrical outlets spaced every six inches all around the room. There must have been at least 30 or 40 outlets. (It used to be a science room.) I think that this one simple thing adds as much to ease of integration as anything.

It's the little things.

I love the work we do

Last week, we ran a special in our email newsletter, offering the first 100 respondents a free set of handheld posters. (The offer has concluded, so need to email us now.:)

I was very gratified by the responses we got. The responses flooded in from all over the U.S., as well as internationally from places including Germany, Australia, and Israel. Accompanying the responses were all kind of nice notes about how teachers are using handhelds, how much they love technology, and how appreciative they are.

These messages were a lot of fun to read, and I hope you all enjoy your posters and keep using mobile technology to enrich your students' learning!

The Spam Problem

At a presentation I did last week, Wes Fryer was in the audience and asked me how we deal with spam in our wikis. (I hoped that he asked because he had a brilliant answer himself, but alas not.) For wikis, we try to monitor recent changes and revert spam out as quickly as possible. It's not an ideal solution.

For my blogs, I find that the spam-catching feature on WordPress is very good. (As it tells me every time I log in, it has caught many thousands of spams for me.) Occasionally, it flags one of my own comments as spam (usually one where I've posted a whole slew of links), but that's ok. After I go crazy trying to figure out where my post is, I fix it in a matter of seconds.

Today, I went to a web form that didn't accept anything with any web links (to weed out potential spam). Wow! I had to edit my whole message. It's hard for me to converse about anything without any links. :)

Anyone out there have any other ideas for catching spam on wikis and blogs?

Image credit: David Hegarty; used under a Creative Commons NC license.

Sidenote: Did you know they make sushi out of Spam? This is the kind of thing you could only know because of incredible world of user-generated content.

Use your head

This sign is up all over the Indianapolis airport. It reminds me of one of the many comical moments from living in Africa, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro and seeing the hard-working porters carrying very expensive, high tech backpacks ... they were carrying them balanced on their heads.