At a grocery store in Cambridge, a fellow put twenty items down at the express (5 items or less) check out. The checker looked at the fellow and said. "You are from either Harvard or MIT." The fellow said, "Why yes. How did you know.?" The check said, "Well, I knew you were either from Harvard and couldn't count or MIT and couldn't read."
Friday, February 29, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
Adobe Blurs Line Between PC and Web
This seems like an important trend/transition that will soon change the ways in which we conceive of and use our computers. Thoughts?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/technology/25adobe.html?th&emc=th
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/technology/25adobe.html?th&emc=th
Thursday, February 14, 2008
I just read this NY Times piece, and signed up with Twitter.com. Hopefully, I'll have better luck getting my children to engage Twitter than the author of this article did.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/fashion/
14Cyber.html?th&emc=th
Anyone here tried this out yet?
"Enquiring Minds Want to Know!"
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/fashion/
14Cyber.html?th&emc=th
Anyone here tried this out yet?
"Enquiring Minds Want to Know!"
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Text to Speech for the Web
Macintosh computers running OS X have text-to-speech (TTS) built in. I plan to demonstrate this in class Monday.
Mac TTS is easy to activate; follow instructions available via the "Help" menu in the Finder. I searched on "read text aloud" in Help to find how to do this.
None of the voices are "great", in my opinion, but most of them are "OK". I admit, grudgingly, that Windows seems to have better voices. :-)
Windows users may want to use the following:
Mozilla Firefox with Speak It is a stripped down, streamlined re-build of Mozilla offering tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking, and significantly increased security over and above Internet Explorer. Firefox is customizable and extensible, and, by adding themes and extensions, can be configured for each user. The Speak It extension provides text-to-speech support on all web pages.
www.mozilla.org/products/firefox; https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3552 Both of these are free.
Mac TTS is easy to activate; follow instructions available via the "Help" menu in the Finder. I searched on "read text aloud" in Help to find how to do this.
None of the voices are "great", in my opinion, but most of them are "OK". I admit, grudgingly, that Windows seems to have better voices. :-)
Windows users may want to use the following:
Mozilla Firefox with Speak It is a stripped down, streamlined re-build of Mozilla offering tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking, and significantly increased security over and above Internet Explorer. Firefox is customizable and extensible, and, by adding themes and extensions, can be configured for each user. The Speak It extension provides text-to-speech support on all web pages.
www.mozilla.org/products/firefox; https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3552 Both of these are free.
(A tip of the hat to Skip Stahl, of CAST, for this information.)
New Book I like
Interesting new book from Harvard Education Press
(Located on Story Street in Cambridge, just across Brattle St.).
Transforming Schools With Technology: How Smart Use of Digital Tools Helps Achieve Six Key Educational Goals. Andrew A. Zucker, 2008. $27
Zucker has been a public school teacher, has worked for the US DOE, SRI, and currently works at the Concord Consortium.
The Six Goals are addressed individually, in six separate chapters:
1. Increasing Student Achievement
2. Making Schools More Engaging and Relevant
3. Providing a High-Quality Education for All Students
4. Attracting, Preparing, and Retaining High-Quality Teachers
5. Increasing Support for Children Outside of School
6. Requiring Accountability for Results
I’ve not finished it, and so far find it generally thoughtful, practical, sensible, and informative. It’s certainly worth looking at.
More later, Bart.
(Located on Story Street in Cambridge, just across Brattle St.).
Transforming Schools With Technology: How Smart Use of Digital Tools Helps Achieve Six Key Educational Goals. Andrew A. Zucker, 2008. $27
Zucker has been a public school teacher, has worked for the US DOE, SRI, and currently works at the Concord Consortium.
The Six Goals are addressed individually, in six separate chapters:
1. Increasing Student Achievement
2. Making Schools More Engaging and Relevant
3. Providing a High-Quality Education for All Students
4. Attracting, Preparing, and Retaining High-Quality Teachers
5. Increasing Support for Children Outside of School
6. Requiring Accountability for Results
I’ve not finished it, and so far find it generally thoughtful, practical, sensible, and informative. It’s certainly worth looking at.
More later, Bart.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Introduction:
Today's objective is to demonstrate some media-types that can be integrated into Blog pages.
Later, many class activities and resources will be hosted on blogs, and by "tagging" and "webbing" our blogs we will create a richly interconnected learning environment.
Later, many class activities and resources will be hosted on blogs, and by "tagging" and "webbing" our blogs we will create a richly interconnected learning environment.
One can add text to a Blog
Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.
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