1) Calendar… Sounds boring but it is a life saver. Once you have this puppy linked to your exchange server at school or iCal server there is no missing meetings and appointments. I have had phones and PDA’s in the past with similar features but they have never worked. The key with this app is it’s ability to sync with the calendar services on your school network. Meeting requests, reminders and appointments all just push through seamlessly without me doing anything special!!

2) Tweetie… So not everyone is a twitter freak like me, but the usefulness of this app and the twitter service is amazing me more and more each day. The ability to crowd source so quickly and easily absolutely anywhere is a lifesaver for me each week. Free assistance on any issue from using advanced editing software to teacher recommendations on particular software or class activities!! All of this depends on you creating a network of worthwhile friends and colleagues, but once you achieve that there are some awesome advantages to an app that gives you quick and easy access to a wealth of knowledge!! Starting next term I am starting a project with 1 class to follow the a twitter feed of class information (more on that as it develops). (My twitter name is brett_moller)

3) Ping… Oh ping is an amazing push messaging service that I can see going nuts. Best of all it is free to download and free to use (basically). Push messages is just like sending an SMS to your iPhone buddies without the crazy telco charges. Push messages work over wifi or cellular. Each message is around 2Kb of data so there is no going over your data limit, unless you send 1000′s of messages a month. I see this as a great way for teachers and students to communicate. So far I have used this more as a social tool – but as more and more colleagues are on board I can see this becoming a great tool for connecting and communicating. (My Ping handle is Molski)

4) In the same category as ping would be AIM (iChat client) and Skype. The potential of these apps as collaboration and communication tools is great, however, we have had some interesting technical obstacles to get skype working 100% within our school network. While I was in Hong Kong earlier this year I participated in a conference call to a meeting back at school with skype on my iPhone. I was on the ferry on my way to a school visit off the main island, connected to the free wifi on the Hong Kong ferries participating in a meeting back home in Australia.

5) Evernote… Oh my this is an amazing tool that is so simple yet so powerful. Evernote is a great note taking app that syncs to your account which can be accessed via iPhone, web or desktop. Finally all my meeting notes, class notes, assessment of oral presentations are all synced, backed up and easy to access. Your notes can be private or made public. This is a great tool as it also allows me to share notes from class discussions with students on a public page. My evernote feed for my Film class is in our class LMS page and often contains text notes from class discussions, copies of workflows, even basic voice notes and pictures can be shared their also.

6) iDisk… For all you mobile me buffs iDisk on the iphone is a must have. Simple access to all my documents and important files on my phone is just so useful!! I can’t remember the number of times I have been in meetings where someone has questioned something and I have been able to clarify with direct access anywhere to my important files and folders (obviously I have all my work documents on my iDisk)

7) OmniFocus… Expensive but well worth it for the disorganised and very busy teacher. I have struggled for so long to manage projects and basic tasks. With this app you can easily setup projects and tasks that need to be completed with basic steps and reminders. The app has a desktop companion which synchronises with your iPhone. For me this is the best productivity app I have ever used. I like the way it lays out projects and lets you setup and schedule tasks.
iExpensit… This is a great app for keeping track of departmental budgets. With different budgets that I take care of it is great to have something that helps me keep track of what is and isn’t spent. Always good to keep your school accounts staff happy with you!! I would love to see a expense app or budget app the synced to a web service so it could be shared amongst other staff. Any suggestions?

9) Wikipedia.. At your fingertips anywhere this is just priceless!!

10) Voice Recorder… I am constantly using class discussion and debate in my classes to help students form deeper meaning and understanding of issues. The ease of voice recorder to capture those priceless conversations is just an awesome thing!! Often I grab a conversation and with minimal mucking around I have the file on my computer submitting to our podcast server. Next step for me would be podcast capture for the iPhone!! App to capture and submit media to your podcast server!!!

Also been playing with a free app called locify. This free app locates you then links you to a list of information in that area. It shows a list of flikr pics from the area, POIs (cafes banks ATMs etc) and wikipedia articles related to the area. This final one is awesome… Imagine having all that information at your finger tips during a school field trip.

Besides the new toy I have some exciting news to share about this site… I have been offered a complete redisign for free – the plan is add some cool new features that will allow me to show more of my work and broadcast conf presentations… We also have plans to create a iPhone specific version of the site for all the iPhone users!! So stay tuned to these updates and more!!

The second service which I am much more excited about is FriendFeed. This service allows you to share all your web 2 services (blogs, twitters, pownce messages etc et) all on the one page. Friends can subscribe to your feed page and see everything you are doing on all the major services from one handy page. Love the potential of this and can’t wait to see more people in my online network jump on board. So jump onto Pownce or FriendFeed and add me (Brettos).

Enjoy…

Blogged with Flock

Tags: brettmoller

UPDATE….

Hey I posted this before going to bed last night…. Woke up this morning and 8 new people following me on Twitter!! coincidence or do people actually read my blog??

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Tags: itsc07

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!!

I guess this whole thing infuriates me…. My wife’s response – “Why didn’t they get the kid to write the software?!?!” Interesting thought…. However, I find it crazy that as a society we would spend all this money (which seems to now be a waste) when the money could be better used by being invested in a student learning project that may actually enhance learning. What about an Angus King style innovative program??? How many student laptops could be purchased for 84mil (56,000 approx by my calculations) – furthermore, how many more schools could have a decent speed broadband connection connected to their classrooms.

I can see what will happen here – This filtering system will be made available and students will quickly have guides on getting around the filters passing around school in no time. What we create here is a challenge for students to get around something – encouraging them to access the content we don’t want them accessing – hmm what about an education program about the reasons why accessing content like this is damaging. Or perhaps parents need to take some responsibility!! Tell me would the Government have spent this kind of money 20 years ago to keep students out of the local newsagent which sold adult material or would they have simply expected parents to supervise their children?!?!

Welcome thoughts….