I got my prerelease copy of Boinx Tv which seems like a great tool. I look forward to using it at ulearn I just have to convince Kelvin to go on camera again after our last video attempt.
MusicStation is just $2.50 a week for unlimited access to over one million songs. There are no data charges so that’s all you pay
Ok so I can download megs and megs of music but I want to upload one photo and you charge me $1 for 10 mb a day. Just how much does data really cost you Vodafone?
Fairly cheesy video but you get the idea. I just bought this app because I have become a beta tester for the mac as it is only advertised to work on XP and Vista. The app works by installing server software on your computer and transmitting the data over wifi. The application has 2 modes, you can use the iPod/iPhone accelerometer to move the mouse as shown in the video (which doesn’t work too well on the mac yet) or you can use the iPod screen like a laptop touch pad which I found far easier. There is also the added bonus of having a keyboard so you can wonder around your class and interact with your computer as if you were sat next to it.
I am starting to see real benefit of putting an iPod touch in the hands of every teacher. The hardware plus the software (excluding laptop) cost less than NZ$400. A good bluetooth keyboard and mouse can cost between $200 and $400 and you can do so much more with this device.
I visited Tepuke High School today and was really impressed by the setup for their wiimote iwb’s I look forward to building my own this week. Will post some photos of the setup later, If only my n73 bluetooth would work with osx.
As I sat in a class this morning watching students labour over a task that only a few seemed genuinely engaged in, the teacher and I discussed what their motivation was for the task. Essentially the only reason they were doing anything in this lesson was to get the grade. Now I can’t say we can avoid this all the time and my other reason for being interested in this in the first place is because Rylee has just hit two and boy can she throw a tantrum at toothbrushing time. So what is needed how can we as teachers/parents avoid the trap of rewards? The site references Alfie Kohn who seems to have quite the library of texts on the subject I will try and find one in the library and see what I can learn.
I am sitting in my office here at mt maunganui college and although I have good wifi I also get a good 3g signal.
I have started joiku on my n95 and my iPod touch found the wifi network instantly.
Safari on the touch works very quickly and I can watch my data usage in real time. Joiku also shows me who is connected in case someone tries to piggy back my wifi signal.
Still can’t get AIM to work, maybe I will try a different IM client.
All in all a good experience.
NB. Joiku does support WEP encryption which will keep most people out and it only uses the http and https protocols which is why IM clients dont seem to work but Google chat from the browser will.
I have been trying to figure this out for a while to connect my laptop to my phones 3G connection. The tethered solutions seemed overly complicated requiring the installation of multiple applications, Kelvin had managed to get it working on his N95 but it was a pretty painful process.
Then I remembered hearing about turning your phone into a wireless hotspot on a podcast and sure enough this free app from Joiku does just that.
Start the application and your phone becomes a wireless router which you can connect any of your devices to. Joiku is kind enough to display the usage so that I can use Vodafone NZs 10MB for $1 data connection without running up any massive data bills. Unfortunately the free version is not secure so anyone can connect but if you are only using it for brief periods then I can’t see a problem, although the premium version does offer more security.
You do need a 3G phone with wifi and no doubt it will drain the batteries in my N95 in no time but if you are stuck in a hotel with no internet a powerpoint will not be too far away. I look forward to trying this out at the TRCC conference in Wellington in October.
In reply to question of why the iPod Touch over the iPhone? Simple - I already own a Nokia N95 which has a far better camera and dvd quality video, video calling etc. I would love to only have one device but those times are a little way off yet, I will go so far as to predict that the 4th gen iPhone will be the all in one device.
Back to the iPod touch. One of the first things I did when I set it up was to sync it with my mobile me account. I have been using .mac for a couple of years now, primarily with iWeb and more recently .mac gallery for uploading photos and video of our daughter to keep the grandparents happy on the other side of the world. As a result of the sync I found my address book, calendar, bookmarks and mail all on my iPod adding my other mail accounts was a breeze through iTunes.
If you don’t want to fork out the NZ $180 for mobile me I am pretty certain you can sync your gmail and google calendar fairly easily.
The ability to check email anywhere around the school is great but I could do that on my N95. Where the iPod Touch comes into its own is the ease of which it is to write a reasonable amount of text. Writing a reply on the N95 is a laborious task with the number pad whereas the touch keyboard and predictive text on the iPod is far better.
On the fun side, and the only app I have bought so far, is Super Monkey Ball, a game in which you tilt the device to control the direction of the monkey in the ball to navigate mazes, obstacles and bananas. It is very addictive and highlights the intuitive use of motion as an input as with the Nintendo Wii and if you visit the App Store most of the top downloads are games.
One app which I am looking forward to trying is Air Mouse which is currently only available for windows. The application uses the accelerometer and wifi to control the mouse on the computer for presentations.
For some time I have hassled first Lynette (from Matamata College) for her Tomtom and now Kelvin for his Navman. As a bit of background here Kelvin is geographically challenged. Walk out if a train station and he is bound to go the wrong way every-time. So I guess a Navman was a natural thing for him but I was really impressed. We were going to a hotel in Auckland and all he had to do was click GRA and it gave a list from which he selected the Grand Chancellor Hotel and it led us straight to it. Then when we had to go to Aorere College the following morning we just typed that in and off we went instant and stress free (have a look at the Aorere college’s Finkspace worth a visit for Social Sciences)
So my verdict. Hey if I got one for free that would be ok or if it was standard in my car that would be great, also if I was in Auckland often but for now living in the sprawling metropolis of Tauranga I think it is a bit of overkill.
incidentally the picture inn this post was uploaded to flickr with the free plugin FFxporter. I also can highly recommend Jumpcut as a clipboard saving utility very helpful for web based work.
