21st Century Educator

Has been a while since I have posted anything, I have been terribly busy with school and the planning of our digital media program (Film Television and New Media). Things are coming along nicely and I will be adding more about the project in coming months – Mainly to get some feedback and thoughts from folk.

This morning I took some time to read through a recent post on Apple’s website bragging about
the 300+ new features coming in Leopard OSX. This release looks very promising and it certainly has been a long wait. Obviously, due to the iPhone etc etc - Still haven’t seen my iPhone Mr Jobs, when exactly will it come to Australia? I continue to suffer with my crummy Nokia which frustrates me to no end every day.

Anywho, back to Leopard… I decided to look through the 300 + new features list on Apple’s site and just go over some of the things that I believe will be of great use to educators. You can read the full list at Apple’s site. There are some exciting new features that I want to go over and explain – As for my readers that use Windows… I am sorry – Sorry that you use Windows that is!!

Let’s get started…..

Automator
Automator has been one of those apps that I just haven’t had time to really get into. I have done a few basic operations with it but now it just gets easier with UI recording and playback. First up for those who don’t know, Automator is a nifty little app that allows you to program a series of actions as one quick shortcut. For example, you may have a lengthy task that you do over and over again that may involve more than one app and multiple steps. Well automator allows you to record all the steps, then letting you assign a shortcut that will activate all those actions in one quick step. Using automator use to be a programming issue, where you would have to use a bit of logic and actually write every action that needed to happen. Now it looks like you will be able to record a series of actions as you do them and simply apply your shortcut to a recording of actions. This will certainly get me into automator much more frequently – it is all about saving time!! It also looks like there will be some neat automator actions to help create workflows in RSS feeds etc etc. This will be great for all us RSS junkies.

Dashboard
Many folk I talk to just hate dashboard widgets and many others just never knew they existed. Personally, I love them; there are some great little widgets that just make life so much easier. The introduction of dashcode makes it nice and easy to create your own widgets from sections of your favourite websites. The customizing of these widgets in dashcode means I can easily create widgets relevant for my students (due dates, notes, subject updates etc etc)….

Desktop
There are some great changes to the desktop. I suggest having a look at the clip below. I can’t wait to get into stacks, a neat way to create grouped dock shortcuts. I am also impressed with the idea of .mac syncing my dock items, a great way to keep all my macs looking the same.

Dictionary
The new dictionary tool looks interesting with quick reference guides for wikipedia etc. This is something that I will have to use in order to see if it is really as useful as Apple is claiming.

Finder
Some nice little tweaks to the finder that actually add some great productivity tools to an already wonderful tool. Instant screen sharing from the finder sounds interesting, being able to monitor other Macs on the network and take control of machines to help students or colleagues on the network could be very useful. Another one of those tools that need to be used before much more can be said. Found the clip below that explains a little bit about screen sharing…. Also love cover flow preview!!

iCal
Finally this nifty app has got a much needed productivity upgrade. Ability to auto pick times that every one is free sounds useful as well as reservation features that have been in entourage and outlook for some time. I am sure the apple boys and girls have made this much prettier and easier to use!!

iChat
I just love iChat it is the greatest chat and video conferencing software I have ever used…. Why you ask??? Because it actually works the way you hope video conferencing software should work. Multi logins is a new feature that has solved a big problem for me…. I want to have my own personal account and one for students to contact me (we all need the ability to cut off student contact at some stage!!

The new version also sees the ability to record chat sessions – Audio and video!! I have played with the audio recording once before and found it a little fiddly but I am sure it has been tidied up and will work seamlessly (fingers crossed). iChat theartre also looks like a great tool to share photos and presentations over the net…. Worried a little bit about how much bandwidth this will need to work well. Imagine someone giving a presentation to a class over the net with the ability to refer to slides and pictures….

Mail
The easiest email app I have ever used!! New features include some great RSS tools allowing users receive rss posts in their email quickly and efficiently. I also like the notes syncing with .mac…. About time they started giving me reason to justify my $100+ a year on a .mac subscription.

Preview
Preview is the app that does almost everything when it comes to viewing files. Finally the one feature I have been waiting for – more ability to manipulate images (including instant Alpha background removal!!). Quite often I just want to make a basic edit to an image without having to open Photoshop or something similar. Finally, the new preview delivers.

Spaces
This is one of those new features that is just blowing minds when we all see basic demos. I just can’t wait to get my hands of this. Basically it allows you to setup separate spaces of apps that you can switch around and hide with ease. Check the demo below…. I can’t wait to start using this in a video editing environment and seeing how students (the big multi taskers) start using this feature.

Spotlight
This is simply the best system searching tool I have ever used. I use spotlight every day constantly!! Now they have added web history searching and a few other tweaks to what is already a great tool. Actually, I used an old mac today for a few moments that didn’t have spotlight and I was just lost!!

Time Machine
Time machine is another yet to be used app that promises so much. A simple backup tool that can be used to keep all your important work (and play) files backed up without you doing too much work. Check the video clip…..

Universal Access
Universal access tools are one of those things every teacher needs to play with. There are a bunch of great little tools that help when presenting work on a projector or IWB, such as the zoom function. New in leopard is the misspelled word detection which will read the text of detected misspelled words. A useful feature for those kids that struggle with their spelling. Yet to see how good the voices are that they have added.

That is pretty much it…. I have ordered my copy of leopard to arrive on the 26th of October and will write more once I get a chance to play!!