Fellow Google Certified Teacher, Molly Schroeder, is writing a blog over at Follow Molly. We both had the pleasure of attending CUE Palm Springs. In a recent post, Molly shares some of her great finds at the conference. My favorite part of her recap is the notes she took at the iPhone Workshop.
Scroll down to the bottom of the post and look for iPhone. She links to the presenter's notes and offers up some of the audience's favorite iPhone Apps. They include:
* iTap- $4.99 acts as a wireless mouse for your mac computer
* List of US presidents with brief bios
* Constitution
* Pocket grade: find an easy percentage for an amount wrong
...and here are more where those came from. So run out, buy an iTunes gift card and load up that phone.
Quick Idea: Wouldn't it be great if School Administrators gave iTunes gift cards out as rewards so teachers could buy the apps they'll use in the classroom. Hmmmm.
Thanks for the post, Molly! Good luck at your Google for Educator's Workshop in MN.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
17" iMacs in Education still only $899
AppleInsider is reporting that Apple plans to continue selling the 17" iMac to education customers for $899. 
This comes at the tail end of the new announcement for 20" and 24" iMacs.
The price is good only for Education customers. If that is you, act fast!
For more information, check out Apple's eNews for Education.
This comes at the tail end of the new announcement for 20" and 24" iMacs.The price is good only for Education customers. If that is you, act fast!
For more information, check out Apple's eNews for Education.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
iLife Tutorials
When I wrote about the new iLife last month, I didn't mention the free tutorials available for each of the five apps in the package.
They are great resources for both beginners and seasoned pros. If you are anything like me, you have to rewatch them a few times. Well, Rob Griffiths over at Macworld.com has offered some help. He's written an article called, Batch Rename the iLife Video Tutorials. He gently walks you through the process of downloading the videos and saving them to your own computer for easy access anytime. Nice!
--js
They are great resources for both beginners and seasoned pros. If you are anything like me, you have to rewatch them a few times. Well, Rob Griffiths over at Macworld.com has offered some help. He's written an article called, Batch Rename the iLife Video Tutorials. He gently walks you through the process of downloading the videos and saving them to your own computer for easy access anytime. Nice!
--js
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Apple's Inomnia Festival is Cancelled
If you registered for the festival at the end of last year, you probably already know that the Insomnia Festival, Apple's 24-hour Film contest for high school and college students, has been canceled. Apple emailed registrants yesterday to say that the event is not going to happen.
According to the information on the site last year, some unexpected server problems caused the contest to be postponed. Now the site is gone and the contest is gone. According to TUAW, the email says that Apple teams "constantly seek new and better ways to showcase your artistic expression," and that there will be other "opportunities to participate in Apple creative festivals."
This really is a bummer since last year was the first time they opened up the festival to High School Students.
According to the information on the site last year, some unexpected server problems caused the contest to be postponed. Now the site is gone and the contest is gone. According to TUAW, the email says that Apple teams "constantly seek new and better ways to showcase your artistic expression," and that there will be other "opportunities to participate in Apple creative festivals."
This really is a bummer since last year was the first time they opened up the festival to High School Students.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Projecting your Mac to the Class
Since I teach Final Cut Pro to my classes, I spend a great deal of time projecting my screen for my students to see. There are times when I want my students to see a more detailed area of my screen. Here are a couple of tips on how to zoom in and highlight a particular spot on your computer.
1. Control + Mouse Scroll. Hopefully, you are using a Mighty Mouse (Wireless!). The Mighty Mouse has a scroll wheel that will help you zoom in much quicker. While holding down the Control key, scroll up to zoom in. Your screen will zoom in to the area around your cursor.
If you are old school, then Option+Command+8 will turn on zoom. Option + Command + = and Option + Command + - will zoom in and out respectively.
One of the biggest issues with this occurs when you move your mouse around. The screen moves around with your mouse. This is very distracting to your audience. There is a fix for this. Go to your System Preferences and click Universal Access.
Then click "options" for Zoom.
Under "When zoomed in, the screen image moves", click the radial button next to "only when the pointer reaches an edge".
This will allow you to move your mouse around the screen without making everyone in the room dizzy.
2. Mouseposé 3.1.
I have been using this program for a number of years. It is great for "spotlighting" an area on the screen. With a simple keyboard shortcut, Mouseposé "dims the screen and puts a spotlight on the area around the mouse pointer, easily guiding the audience‘s attention to an area of interest". The application also is customizable. It is well worth the $16.95 price tag.
Hope it helps.
--js
1. Control + Mouse Scroll. Hopefully, you are using a Mighty Mouse (Wireless!). The Mighty Mouse has a scroll wheel that will help you zoom in much quicker. While holding down the Control key, scroll up to zoom in. Your screen will zoom in to the area around your cursor.
If you are old school, then Option+Command+8 will turn on zoom. Option + Command + = and Option + Command + - will zoom in and out respectively.
One of the biggest issues with this occurs when you move your mouse around. The screen moves around with your mouse. This is very distracting to your audience. There is a fix for this. Go to your System Preferences and click Universal Access.
Then click "options" for Zoom.
Under "When zoomed in, the screen image moves", click the radial button next to "only when the pointer reaches an edge".
This will allow you to move your mouse around the screen without making everyone in the room dizzy.
2. Mouseposé 3.1.
I have been using this program for a number of years. It is great for "spotlighting" an area on the screen. With a simple keyboard shortcut, Mouseposé "dims the screen and puts a spotlight on the area around the mouse pointer, easily guiding the audience‘s attention to an area of interest". The application also is customizable. It is well worth the $16.95 price tag. Hope it helps.
--js
Thursday, January 15, 2009
PC on a Mac
One of the best reasons for switching to a mac in the classroom is the fact that the 
new intel macs allow you to use the PC on the mac. Like most of you, my school uses PC software to enter grades and attendance. So, I use Parallels to run Windows 2000. And I love it. Earlier versions were a little buggy, but the latest update is the best yet. With a quick keyboard shortcut, my screen slides from my mac desktop to full screen PC.
There is another software option those that desire/need the PC at school. That software is
VMWare. There are lots of people out there that love it, too. Recently, TUAW posted a couple interviews with the leaders of both companies. Here is their interview with VMware's Peter Kazanjy. Here is the interview with Parallels' CEO Serguei Beloussov.
Hopefully, this will aide in your decision when you are ready to go "bi-platform".
new intel macs allow you to use the PC on the mac. Like most of you, my school uses PC software to enter grades and attendance. So, I use Parallels to run Windows 2000. And I love it. Earlier versions were a little buggy, but the latest update is the best yet. With a quick keyboard shortcut, my screen slides from my mac desktop to full screen PC. There is another software option those that desire/need the PC at school. That software is
VMWare. There are lots of people out there that love it, too. Recently, TUAW posted a couple interviews with the leaders of both companies. Here is their interview with VMware's Peter Kazanjy. Here is the interview with Parallels' CEO Serguei Beloussov. Hopefully, this will aide in your decision when you are ready to go "bi-platform".
Thursday, January 8, 2009
MacWorld for Educators
If you stuck at home or back at school, you are probably wishing for some access to all the great educator news from MacWorld. Well, here is your chance. Head on over to the MacWorld for Educators Podcast! With help from the Apple University Consortium (AUC) in Australia and Computer-Using Educators Inc. (CUE), Allan Carrington and Dr. Ian Green are posting podcasts about all things education from the Educator Academy to the Expo floor. You can also check out the podcast on iTunes. I have not had the chance to listen to them all, but so far so good! Thanks to Darcie for inspiring me to find this great site.
On a personal note: I just got back from a whirl wind tour of the Expo with 12 students. It is always fun to watch them actively seek out information on today's technologies. Also, we attended the Final Cut Pro Supermeet last night. As always, the show was GREAT! The kids were still talking about it on the ride home. If you are teaching Final Cut Pro, I highly recommend tracking down Final Cut Pro User Group in your area.
On a personal note: I just got back from a whirl wind tour of the Expo with 12 students. It is always fun to watch them actively seek out information on today's technologies. Also, we attended the Final Cut Pro Supermeet last night. As always, the show was GREAT! The kids were still talking about it on the ride home. If you are teaching Final Cut Pro, I highly recommend tracking down Final Cut Pro User Group in your area.
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