GEICO Insurance has Android App

http://www.geico.com/information/mobile/

After dumping State Farm and Farmer's Insurance (actually, they dumped my wife and I during our first two years of marriage) due to fender-benders that were no-fault for us, I trod back to my father's recommendation for car insurance--GEICO.

In the years since my wife and I switched to GEICO, I haven't had any complaints. They have consistently worked to get me low prices, meet our needs, and more. When I logged into their web site earlier today to get a proof of coverage, I noticed that they now have an Android app!

It's like walking into an urban complex and finding a beautiful garden there--unexpected. So, I'm unlimbering my Android phone, using Lynkee to scan the QR code and see what I can do with GEICO's new Android App, Glovebox.

Unfortunately, despite some nice features (being able to pay your bill on the go, a clean menu design, helpful tips) the app had 1 problem I ran across:

1. Tapping to view ID cards takes one to the mobile version of GEICO's web site, leaving me trying to download a file that is completely black and unviewable. Imagine me chatting with a police officer, "But officer, here is my proof of insurance! So what if it's black? Use your imagination!"

I did like the inclusion of funny GEICO Gecko videos. Something to do when you're stuck on the shoulder of the road.

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Collaborate, Communicate Globally - Texas TechApps

Do you have any feedback on the first draft of Technology Applications:TEKS posted on the TEA web site? Take a look!

The first draft of the recommendations for revisions to the technology applications TEKS are now posted on the TEA website at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=8192 . Informal feedback will be accepted in response to the first draft recommendations through October 8, 2010. Detailed information for providing feedback to the review committees is available on the website listed above.

You can send feedback via Email to

TEKS@tea.state.tx.us 

(Please indicate the course or grade level your comments respond to in the subject line of your email.) 

In a quick review of the grade 6-8 TA:TEKS, the following jumped out at me:

• Districts are encouraged to offer technology applications in all content areas. They may also be offered in a specific class while being integrated in all content areas.
• As responsible digital citizens and competent researchers, students use creative and computational thinking to solve problems while developing career and college readiness skills.
• Communication and Collaboration. The student collaborates and communicates both locally and globally to reinforce and promote learning. The student is expected to:  create personal learning networks to collaborate and publish with peers, experts, or others via current and emerging technologies, such as blogs, wikis, audio/video communication; 
• explain technology relevancy as it applies to college and career readiness, life-long learning, and daily living
• Creativity and Innovation uses creative thinking and innovative processes to construct knowledge, generate new ideas, and create products.
• create products using technical writing strategies 

Anything jump out at you?

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Become a Content Provider for Texas Education

Source: http://www.tea.state.tx.us/itunesu/

The following note appeared in my inbox today:

Governor Rick Perry and the Texas Education Agency have joined together to launch Texas Education on iTunes U, which provides free multimedia content to educators, students and parents in Texas and around the world.

If you are a student, teacher, school district, higher education institution, professional organization, or a non-profit organization, we would invite you to consider becoming a content provider for Texas Education on iTunes U. If selected as a content provider, your organization’s current audio, video and PDF resources will be hosted on the Texas Education on iTunes U site in addition to any current website locations that can be linked in iTunes U. For information on submitting content, see the Content Provider Interest Form and Rubric.

In addition, we invite you to participate in the Governor's Skills Challenge for Algebra Readiness. Governor Perry and the Texas Education Agency (TEA) are looking for short videos or audio files to support teachers, students, and families in preparing all students for success in algebra. We are looking to showcase the incredible talent we have in Texas education. Perhaps you have video footage of you teaching a lesson or strategy, your students presenting a project, or podcasts you have created for your students. Please share your best content, focusing on algebra readiness, with TEA for possible placement in the Texas Education on iTunes U library.

Please pass this on to anyone who may be interested. For more information, please visit http://www.tea.state.tx.us/itunesu/.

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DiigoNotes - More in Texas choose home schooling

Quotes:

More in Texas choose home schooling

• More in Texas choose home schooling
• The Associated Press
• Updated: 7:59 a.m. Monday, Aug. 23, 2010 Published: 6:21 a.m. Monday, Aug. 23, 2010
• The number of students being home-schooled in Texas is on the rise, with some 300,000 children staying home as the school term started Monday.
• According to the Texas Home School Coalition, the number of Texans opting to home school has grown about 20 percent to an estimated 120,000 families and 300,000 children in the past five years, the Houston Chronicle reported.
• The National Center for Education Statistics reports that families primarily opted to home school because they wanted to provide religious or moral lessons to their children. Parental concerns about safety, peer pressure and the academic instruction at traditional schools were other reasons cited.
• In Texas, parents who wish to home school are not required to register with any agency or to get their curriculum approved. Legal rulings have upheld that parents simply are supposed to have a curriculum that teaches reading, spelling, grammar, math and good citizenship.
• Information from: Houston Chronicle, http://www.houstonchronicle.com___August 23, 2010 08:59 AM EDT
• Copyright 2010, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed

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DiigoNotes - In the red, lawmakers may get schooled 08/23/10

$18billion deficit for Texas...is Education on the chopping block?

Quotes:

Amarillo.com | Local News: In the red, lawmakers may get schooled 08/23/10

• In the red, lawmakers may get schooled By Enrique Rangel enrique.rangel@morris.com
• in next year's session of the Legislature lawmakers are expected to face what could be the largest budget shortfall in state history, perhaps as much as $18 billion over the next two fiscal years.
• most school districts now find themselves in the same financial hole as before.
• the school districts in Amarillo and Lubbock receive $5,062 and $5,067, respectively, per student a year, according to figures MALDEF has compiled. By contrast, the rural Sundown Independent School District in Hockley County, one of the wealthiest districts in the state, receives $12,538 per student. As a result, it's estimated that at least 60 percent of school districts will have to use reserve money in the upcoming academic year to meet operating costs.
• groups such as the statewide affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, are calling on Gov. Rick Perry to accept $830 million in federal aid for Texas public schools. But Perry and legislative leaders have refused on grounds that it would only make matters worse.
• in last year's session the Legislature used $3.3 billion in federal stimulus money to balance the education budget. The money included a state-mandated pay raise for teachers.

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Ahoy, eBook Readers! #nook #kindle #ipad

Note: The info here is relevant to Kindle and iPad owners as well as Nook users.

Updated: 08/28/2010 - Included ebook definition and link to MakeUseOf.com and Shambles.net

Source: http://spanishshilling.blogspot.com/2010/08/barbary-pirates.html

My ereader--a Barnes and Noble Nook--arrived today! What a thrill! On my way to a meeting, the person who received the mail brought the box straight to me in the hallway. I took it along to the office where we were gathering. When I arrived at the meeting, the question preceeded the business, "I've never seen one. May I?" So I opened the box, pulled it out and the first words out the other person's mouth was something like, "Is it like an iPad?"

"No," I replied with a smile. "It's less expensive...and I have access to other technology for that. This is for pleasure reading." My smile grew as I remembered the 100+ books I'd downloaded in ePub format last night.

Sigh. In my office--full of technology folks--the Nook also got a lukewarm reaction. "Can I swish the pages by moving my finger across the screen, like on my iPhone?"
"No," I replied, "you have to push this button to advance the pages."
"Oh, I couldn't do that," came the reply. "I've gotten accustomed to moving my finger across the screen."
(of course, you can swish your finger across the touch screen on a Nook to get to the previous or next page but I forgot that in the discussion).

When I got home with my new Nook, my wife questioned my sanity...an "inexpensive" book reader you can't even surf the web with? Hmm...I tried to minimize her concerns, pointing out that I'd already downloaded enough ePub books from Baen to not buy any new print books for quite awhile! Surprisingly, I hadn't ever read any of the books available from Baen's Free Library, not to mention the rich variety of free sci-fi ebooks  available on other sites.

My daughter greeted the addition of the Nook as an enemy of print books, signaling the demise of beloved friends, betrayed by her own father. She refused to look at it.

Just to clarify, ebooks, for the sake of this discussion, are books which are available electronically, rather than printed on dead trees, and which can be read on an electronic device of some sort. And completely free ebooks, just now, are those which are legitimately available for free. Other options exist. We all know that. (Source: MakeUseOf.com via Shambles.net (great list of ebook sources)

Those expressions of dismay and disappointment aside, I found myself looking at the Nook and wondering, maybe I made the wrong choice. But then, I turned it on, registered it with my account info, and the two books I'd purchased appeared. I connected to the WiFi connection. So far, so good. But then, what really knocked my socks off was Calibre.

calibre is a free and open source e-book library management application developed by users of e-books for users of e-books. It has a cornucopia of features.

Again, I'm amazed at the power of Calibre, a free open source ebook converter and manager, that converts to a variety of formats, including support for a variety of eReaders:

It's pretty amazing in that you get a preview of the cover of the book...I was thrilled to find Andre Norton's books available for free, finding the entire collection of stories (Time Traders, Defiant Agents) that I'd read long ago and were now out of print.

Aside from free ePubs available, I have to confess my profound appreciation for the Baen authors and publisher, who share their books in a variety of formats.

Here's one title from their entirely free collection of Baen books:

Source: http://www.baen.com/library/

You have to admire the Baen Free Library of Books. Note that they offer books in a variety of formats, including Mobi (which is Kindle friendly) and ePub (which is Nook and iPad friendly).

Read a bit about how they got started from Eric Flint below:

Baen Books is now making available — for free — a number of its titles in electronic format. We're calling it the Baen Free Library. Anyone who wishes can read these titles online — no conditions, no strings attached. (Later we may ask for  an extremely simple, name & email only, registration. ) Or, if you prefer, you can download the books in one of several formats. Again, with no conditions or strings attached....

There was a school of thought, which seemed to be picking up steam, that the way to handle the problem was with handcuffs and brass knucks. Enforcement! Regulation! New regulations! Tighter regulations! All out for the campaign against piracy! No quarter! Build more prisons! Harsher sentences!

I, ah, disagreed. Rather vociferously and belligerently, in fact. And I can be a vociferous and belligerent fellow. My own opinion, summarized briefly, is as follows....

It's definitely worth reading Eric Flint's opinion. It's an important one to consider, but I may have to disagree with his opinion in this way. He points out the following:

Online piracy — while it is definitely illegal and immoral — is, as a practical problem, nothing more than (at most) a nuisance. We're talking brats stealing chewing gum, here, not the Barbary Pirates.

I disagree...consider these links below with the amount of books available for "free" from pirates...I do not consider this that simple. Entire collections of books are available online for download via torrent...if I were a book publisher, I'd be worried! Yet, one seldom hears of this...in fact, the knowledge of these is kept secret. 

Terry Brooks' Site

These links below to torrent files represent a fortune in books...does their availability signal the dawn of a new age of writing? Authors write for fame, not fortune?

• 2009 Star Trek Books - Over 20 book titles
• Stephen King books - everything he has ever written. How does King feel about all his work just being out there for free download?
• The Economist
• James Patterson - 31 books
• Cambridge History of the Byzantine Empire worth $195 on Amazon
• Dean Koontz - 36 books

This is just a sample of the over 20 pages of "torrents" available with ebooks that are copyrighted...even the King James Bible appears. The search took all of 10 minutes, if that, using Google Search Engine.


Consider the front page of Amazon.com's line up for Fall reading:

Or, Barnes and Noble (I actually bought the Legends of Shannara book...Terry Brooks is great!):

The question is, how long would it take to find a random selection of these books online using a Google Search for a torrent file? Let me pick one title from each vendor above and see if I can link to a torrent online:

1. Amazon - Don't Blink by James Patterson
2. Barnes and Noble - The Black Prism by Brent Weeks

This activity took less than 2 minutes. I'm starting to wonder if Flint knows what he's talking about (I'm still grateful for the Baen Free Library!!!)...this can't be a mosquito bite, unless you count getting eaten by mosquitoes no big deal (watch this video of a man in Panama, my country of origin, suffer being eaten alive--might shock you).


While torrents are often used for legitimate purposes--imagine downloading a DVD ISO of a GNU/Linux distribution--they are also being used for piracy. A short definition of what "Torrent" means:

Torrent is a small file (around few kilobytes) with the suffix .torrent, which contains all the information needed to download a file the torrent was made for. That means it contains file names, their sizes, where to download from and so on. You can get torrents for almost anything on lots of web sites and torrent search engines. (Source)

Of course, I am sympathetic to this other point that Flint makes...it pretty much sums up part of the satisfaction I derive from blogging and sharing my work online:

I don't know any author, other than a few who are — to speak bluntly — cretins, who hears about people lending his or her books to their friends, or checking them out of a library, with anything other than pleasure. Because they understand full well that, in the long run, what maintains and (especially) expands a writer's audience base is that mysterious magic we call: word of mouth.

Word of mouth, unlike paid advertising, comes free to the author — and it's ten times more effective than any kind of paid advertising, because it's the one form of promotion which people usually trust.

As I look at my new Nook, bursting with more Baen books I couldn't hope to read in a year (I have all this other "academic" reading to do), I realize I probably am not the run of the mill ebook reader. I'm not one of those folks that runs out and buys the latest book and reads it because I want to talk about it around the water cooler.

Source

I read for pleasure and that's what my Nook is for. I'll worry about what happens when I run out of Baen free books when the time comes. For now, off to read!

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Free ePub solutions for Your #Nook #Kindle #iPad (Updated 09/01/2010)

Updated 09/1/2010

Do you know where you can find free ePub publications for your eReader, especially the Nook?

Earlier this year, I shared eReader Indecision.  After hemming and hawing about the monumental decision to abandon print, switch to eBooks, and selecting an eBook reader I could afford, I finally made a decision and ordered the Barnes and Noble Nook Wi-Fi. (Here's one of the reasons why I didn't get a Kindle...lack of format support, such as for ePub...no iPad because I just don't see folks spending that much money for etextbooks). I'm hoping I didn't totally make a mistake but only hands-on experience and time will tell. Also, I'm hoping that the Nook Wi-Fi will be something that will work well in a school environment where 3G access isn't necessarily encouraged (potential CIPA violations).

Veteran "nooker" Bud Hunt shared a few Twitter direct messages with me about the Nook and its benefits. One of the ones he mentioned was support for a variety of ebook formats, some of which are included in the list below.

Here's the list that I know of so far that works with the Nook, as well as links to book providers of that format. There are others but I've excluded the ones that "charge" for books (or tried to).

• Adobe ePublication - These are the "digital rights management" (DRM) titles that are available.
• ePub - Per The Web Books web site, "Google has more than 500,000 public domain titles in the EPUB format and Project Gutenberghas over 20,000 titles." Other Sources of free ebooks include:
• 4ebooks.org
• Baen Free Library of Science Fiction (I love this site)
• Book Glutton
• eBooks.com - This site supports lots of formats, not just ePub. . .and tons of titles!
• Free ePub Books - They provide a nice list of eReaders supported, including the Nook. Tons of books here that I'm dying to explore.
• Feedbooks
• Free eBooks
• FreeBookSpot.com
• Globeusz.com
• ManyBooks
• Waterstones
• Instapaper.com - A tool to save web pages for reading later. Check out this blog entry on Instapaper on Nook.
• MobiBooks - You may have to convert these to ePub format using Calibre (free, cross platform tool).
• Overdrive - about ePubs from Libraries listed by OverDrive. Since I live in San Antonio, Texas I found this information helpful.

There are a ton of ebook sources online in a rich variety of formats, all for free (avoid that price-fixing!). And, of course, you can load PDFs on your eReader (Kindle or Nook). 

Another possibility is creating your own ePub publications...have to give more thought to that, but what a fascinating concept. And, if you format your creations in ePub, there's bound to be an audience (if not a market) for your work.

You can also convert content for use on your Nook using a  free, open source tool known as Calibre.

Calibre is a free and open source e-book library management application developed by users of e-books for users of e-books. It has a cornucopia of features.

Again, I'm amazed at the power of Calibre, a free open source ebook converter and manager, that converts to a variety of formats, including support for a variety of eReaders:

No matter what eReader you get, Calibre is a MUST HAVE software program.

It's pretty amazing in that you get a preview of the cover of the book...watch a demo of how Calibre works online (Requires YouTube access). You can also see screenshots online...here's what one screen looks like:

Content loaded into Calibre is ALL FREE. As a grade 6-12 student, I would have been in heaven with this many "books" available to read.

Sending data to your eReader is a cinch...

Note that you can right click on and convert books to a variety of formats...ePub works great on Nook and iPad:

So, the Nook makes a great inexpensive eReader solution that is MORE open than Kindle. Add Calibre to the mix, though, and you can pick your eReader of choice since you can convert to anything you want!

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DiigoNotes - The ABCs of e-book format conversion

Fantastic tutorial on doing ebook conversions using Calibre! Well-worth reading if you use a Kindle, Nook or Sony eReader. At the bottom, you'll find some practical remarks from the comment section.

Quotes:

The ABCs of e-book format conversion: Easy Calibre tips for the Kindle, Sony and Nook | TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

• The ABCs of e-book format conversion: Easy Calibre tips for the Kindle, Sony and Nook By John Schember
• E-book readers are becoming more and more common.
• different brands don't read the same kinds of e-books. This mess is like the one in the music world where you might find such formats as WMA, MP3, and AAC. In e-books, the same confusion exists—the Tower of eBabel, as some call it.
• there are a very good reasons why you should know about the major formats, what you reader supports and how to convert between formats.
• Many Web sites offer legal and often free books. Everything from public domain books to well known and less known authors. Also, you can shop for the best prices at a number of small independent e-book stores.
• Often you can download these e-books in a variety of formats, but you won't always find them in the format your e-book reader supports. Here is where conversion comes in.
• The Nook, the new reader from Barnes and Noble, can read EPUB, the same format as the Sony although there are now some catches with DRMed books.
• Many vendors like to have and control their own formats so they are not dependent on outside companies. They also have the benefit of being able to license their format for use by others. This also allows them to lock users into their platform.
• The EPUB format, from the International Digital Publishing Forum, is an industry standard intended to reduce these problems.
• Many easy-to-use tools exist for converting e-books. For Kindle users, the Mobipocket Desktop is a good choice. Amazon also provides a conversion service that allow you to email them e-books which they will convert and send directly to your Kindle.
• there is a more general tool that can convert between a large number of formats. Calibre supports the Kinde, the Sony PRS line, the Nook and a large number of other devices. It is is a full e-book management application that can organize your e-book library, handle automated news downloads from a number of sources, and convert between a large number of e-book formats. It is a one stop, all in one tool.
• The PRS line from Sony supports EPUB, LRF, LRX, RTF, PDF, TXT.
• The Kindle supports AZW, MOBI, PRC, AZW1, TPZ, TXT.
• for the Kindle, you really only need to worry about Mobipocket (MOBI)
• you only need to worry about EPUB (same for the Nook
• Downloading Calibre You can download Calibre here with your Firefox, Internet Explorer or other browser. Versions exist for Windows, OS X and Linux. Calibre has an easy-to-use Welcome Wizard to help new comers get up to speed. Just answer the Wizard's questions.
• Using Calibre to convert is very easy. Plug in your e-book reader. Open Calibre and click the "Add books" button on the top left. Select your book. Click open. Select your book in the library list. By now Calibe should have detected your e-book reader. Click "Send to device" in middle of the top toolbar. Calibre is smart enough to know if the book is in a format supported by your reader. If it's not, it will ask you if you want to auto convert it. Say yes, and it will take care of the conversion and put the book on your reader.
• Calibre worries about the formats and converting for you.
• Auto conversion is the easiest way to go and in most cases will be all you need to do.
• After adding a book click the "Edit meta information" button. Fill in the title and author or the ISBN (it is better to use the ISBN for the paper or hard back version than the e-book's ISBN). Then click "Fetch metadata from server". This will pull in all kinds of information about the book. If there is no convert image next to the metadata entry or if it is a generic image it is a good idea to click "Download cover".
• Now that the metadata is all correct, click the "Convert E-books" button. This screen looks very complicated but realize that the majority of options here are best left alone. Most of the options only need to be changed on a are per book and in special cases basis. There is one option that is very important and may need to be changed. At the top right there is a drop down for "Output format." This control what format the conversion will result in. Kindle owners will want to select MOBI and Sony and Nook owners will want to use EPUB.
• One limitation using a tool like Calibre is the inability to edit the book before conversion. Calibre simply moves the content and formatting from one format to another. It is not a editing tool.
• Not all e-book formats support the same formatting. It can be lost when converting to a format that supports limited or no formatting.
• MOBI and EPUB both support complex formatting so you won't have to worry about this when using these formats.
• Barnes and Noble sells books in the PDB format (along with EPUB) and as you might expect it is supported by the Nook.
• PDB is not really an e-book format. It is a container for e-book formats. Think of it like a zip file. You put other files into a zip file so you only have to worry about having one file instead of many. That is what PDB essentially does for e-books. There are 28 e-book formats that can be put into the PDB container that I know of.
• The two most common formats found in PDB files are PalmDoc (also known as textread and Aportis) and eReader.
• The PDB files sold by Barnes and Noble are in the eReader format.
• DRM, as noted, stands for Digital Rights Management.
• DRM restricts what you can do with an e-book.
• Any e-book with DRM cannot be converted to a different format.
• Mobi, PRC, and AZW are the same format. If a reader reads one of those format, it can read the others. It's the same case with LRF/LRX and AZW1/TPZ.
• Mobi and ePub DRM is easy to remove and there has never been a case in the United States of someone getting fined for removing DRM for personal use.
• Barnes and Noble, it looks like ebooks purchase at their website and downloaded directly to a Nook are usually in the ePub format, and they use the B&N social engineering DRM (key is name and credit card number), but if they are downloaded from their website to a computer, it is usually downloaded in the eReader format. Currently, only the Nook is able to read the B&N style DRM ePub format
• if your friend is computer savvy, and willing to install python and the scripts to strip DRM and convert it from Ereader format to ePub
• I recently got a Nook and I have some older Baen CD rom libraries that only have these formats on them .doc, .lit, .prc, .rb, .rtf and of course many html pages. DRM is not an issue with these disk. What I want to know is which format would be the best to convert to epub using Calibre?
• The large variation in size is because some formats are compressed and others are not. From the Calibre FAQ: What are the best source formats to convert?¶ In order of decreasing preference: LIT, MOBI, EPUB, HTML, PRC, RTF, PDB, TXT, PDF

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Unbound

In "Friend, foe or strong leader?," Amber Teamann explores the challenges teachers face in using social media. But the post is more than a reflection on a question that could lead to termination--Should we friend our students? Rather, it explores the tension between who we are and who we purport to be for financial gain.

While we've often agreed that MORE time with a student can be valuable, have a greater impact academically on students, that time has usually been characterized as more "seat time," focused on tutoring students. Social media enables us to reach students at any time, often including them in our lives as educators...the problem is, what happens when our lives aren't as educational as our bosses would like them to be?

The definition of what is educational behavior is narrowly defined as what happens in the classroom or academic setting. Simply because we can expand the boundaries of the classroom, knock down the walls of the classroom using social media, it doesn't mean that the walls of our privacy as educators should be knocked down as well. Amber acknowledges this point when she writes, "As educators, we know we are held to a higher and different standard within society."

When boundaries intersect, worlds collide. Amber flirts with danger when she uses Facebook to be a social butterfly, as if Facebook--which I dropped as a tool for social media recently--could actually be trusted with her future in the face of a "higher and different standard within society." While Twitter and Plurk offer great opportunities for building a professional learning network, too often, they are used by foolish educators as a place to announce their dis-satisfaction with a host of issues that could lead to disciplinary action, if not termination. Crossing lanes on the "Information Superhighway," a term I haven't used in a long time given the power of the network and connected learning as a more apt metaphor, can result in a head-on collision for teachers. While Amber and others are themselves in public via Facebook, it must be a sanitized "me," that adheres to the standard Amber acknowledges.

At a time when passion-based learning is of great interest, why not pursue a position that allows you to be who you ARE rather than who you must be to satisfy a standard? Accept the consequences of being yourself. If being yourself is a matter of being open, transparent, then embrace that...just be aware that the job you have may not lend itself to your newly found values. If you can be open, transparent, and that raises no eyebrows in your society, then you're in the right line of work as an educator.

Amber reflects on leadership that keeps everyone at a safe and equal distance. While we all sometimes retreat to solitude, human beings are wired for social behavior and engagement with others. Simply, for a leader, there is no personal and professional persona. You are who you are, 24/7 to the benefit of those around you. A leader can't be one 8 hours a day, then switch it off when they get home. Leadership takes a lifetime, and the moments which fuel the learning necessary happen all the time.

That's why I believe that blogging is so valuable. It allows reflection on who we are, and what we can do to get ahead. . .it acknowledges that every experience provides the fertilizer for leadership growth. Those who seek to separate their public and private personas are simply playing at being one or the other. The lack of alignment between what is and who you pretend to be will tear you apart. Align the two, find a position that fits, and you will be more confident in the decisions you make...and from that confidence, followers will appear. If they don't, it matters little. You are pursuing your passions, accepting who you are, acting from your strength at the center of who you are, flexible and open to possibility, unbound.

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DiigoNotes - Apple Seeking to Patent Spyware

Hmm...what do you think? isn't this about right for Apple, though?

Quotes:

Steve Jobs Is Watching You: Apple Seeking to Patent Spyware | Electronic Frontier Foundation

• Steve Jobs Is Watching You: Apple Seeking to Patent Spyware
• Deeplink by Julie Samuels
• It looks like Apple, Inc., is exploring a new business opportunity: spyware and what we're calling "traitorware." While users were celebrating the new jailbreaking and unlocking exemptions, Apple was quietly preparing to apply for a patent on technology that, among other things, would allow Apple to identify and punish users who take advantage of those exemptions or otherwise tinker with their devices. This patent application does nothing short of providing a roadmap for how Apple can — and presumably will — spy on its customers and control the way its customers use Apple products.
• it's "traitorware," since it is designed to allow Apple to retaliate against you if you do something Apple doesn't like.
• Apple's patent provides for a device to investigate a user's identity, ostensibly to determine if and when that user is "unauthorized," or, in other words, stolen.
• the technology would allow Apple to record the voice of the device's user, take a photo of the device's user's current location or even detect and record the heartbeat of the device's user. Once an unauthorized user is identified, Apple could wipe the device and remotely store the user's "sensitive data." Apple's patent application suggests it may use the technology not just to limit "unauthorized" uses of its phones but also shut down the phone if and when it has been stolen.
• This patented device enables Apple to secretly collect, store and potentially use sensitive biometric information about you. This is dangerous in two ways: First, it is far more than what is needed just to protect you against a lost or stolen phone.
• Apple's technology includes various types of usage monitoring — also very privacy-invasive. This patented process could be used to retaliate against you if you jailbreak or tinker with your device in ways that Apple views as "unauthorized" even if it is perfectly legal under copyright law.
• Here's a sample of the kinds of information Apple plans to collect: The system can take a picture of the user's face, "without a flash, any noise, or any indication that a picture is being taken to prevent the current user from knowing he is being photographed"; The system can record the user's voice, whether or not a phone call is even being made; The system can determine the user's unique individual heartbeat "signature";
• To determine if the device has been hacked, the device can watch for "a sudden increase in memory usage of the electronic device";
• The user's "Internet activity can be monitored or any communication packets that are served to the electronic device can be recorded"; and
• The device can take a photograph of the surrounding location to determine where it is being used.
• Apple will know who you are, where you are, and what you are doing and saying and even how fast your heart is beating.
• this information "can be gathered every time the electronic device is turned on, unlocked, or used."
• When an "unauthorized use" is detected, Apple can contact a "responsible party." A "responsible party" may be the device's owner, it may also be "proper authorities or the police."
• Apple does not explain what it will do with all of this collected information on its users, how long it will maintain this information, how it will use this information, or if it will share this information with other third parties
• [Permalink]

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Embedding Poll Everywhere in #Moodle

Thanks to a comment from Jeff Utecht on how to embed Poll Everywhere, I've decided to pull his comment and my response and repost here.

Jeff asks the following in response to embedding multimedia:

Thanks for the info!

I've followed all your steps and still can't get the polleverywhere.com widget so people can vote to embed. It keeps stripping the code. Any ideas?

To which I reply:

Here are the steps:

1) In Moodle Admin-->Security-->Site Policies, make sure you have ALLOW EMBED and OBJECT TAGS checked.
2) In the same place, make sure you check ENABLE TRUSTED CONTENT

3) In Poll Everywhere poll, make sure to turn on the web widget.

4) In Moodle, switch to HTML view, and paste in the embed text (I chose blogger embed text) you copied from Poll Everywhere.

5) Click SAVE AND DISPLAY (rather than the other) WHILE STILL IN HTML view.

You can see the example below:



I hope that works for you!

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eReader Indecision

I love to read. If I had my choice, I'd spend my time in a bookstore or library picking through the books, especially the Science-Fiction and Fantasy area. Then, would come Westerns a la Louis L'Amour, then spy thrillers. In the non-fiction area, books about writing, teaching writing, leadership and motivation. These have been my interests for many years and deviating from what I like means a book finds its way into the resale pile. For me, Half-Price books is as close to nirvana as you can get--well, maybe a Half-Price book near a beach unpolluted by BP Oil Spill might get me closer.

As my daughter and I walked into Half-Price books, the old argument of print books vs ebooks came up again. To buy an ebook reader is to betray those old friends waiting for us at home, some of which I've known since I was as young as 11 years old. Their covers, pages, the stories are a visceral link to the love my father had for me, taking me to the book store to pick out a few books. Our shared love for Dana Fuller Ross' "Wagons West" series continued with my daughter, who still reads the books now. Louis L'Amour, Stephen King, Dean Koontz also grace my shelves, and I

This past week, one of my opening slides at an East Texas school district's convocation keynote--"Embracing Technology for Positive Change"--showed the the impact eReaders are having, eliminating print books. With that presentation, I may have talked myself into buying one. The agony of which to buy, though, began. Should I buy the Kindle 3 or the Nook? As much as I love Barnes and Noble, I'm in love with the books available through it, not the place or the brand itself. That said, I have complained about Amazon's so-called "digital rights management," a practice I disagree with. If you are so inclined, visit Defective by Design for another perspective, especially the Amazon Kindle Swindle.

Amazon deleted books that were already available in print, but in our paperless future—when all books exist as files on servers—courts would have the power to make works vanish completely. Zittrain writes: "Imagine a world in which all copies of once-censored books like Candide, The Call of the Wild, and Ulysses had been permanently destroyed at the time of the censoring and could not be studied or enjoyed after subsequent decision-makers lifted the ban." This may sound like an exaggeration; after all, we'll surely always have file-sharing networks and other online repositories for works that have been decreed illegal. But it seems like small comfort to rely on BitTorrent to save banned art. The anonymous underground movements that have long sustained banned works will be a lot harder to keep up in the world of the Kindle and the iPhone.

Source: Slate Magazine

or consider....

An empirical study done by Patricia Akester, a professor of law at Cambridge, found that DRM does more harm than good on an individual basis and in one instance even led the consumer who otherwise would not have to obtain an illegally shared copy. This user, who is sight-impaired, downloaded an ebook from Amazon and was surprised to learn that it did not enable the text-to-speech option. Upon contacting Amazon, which does not refund ebooks, she was referred to the publisher who in turn referred her back to Amazon. Not receiving any help from Amazon or the publisher, she then decided to download an illegal copy that provided the text-to-speech function. As Nate Anderson writes, “The study confirms what anyone who has ever wanted to rip a DVD to their computer or iPod could have told you: DRM, coupled with anticircumvention laws, makes pirates of us all.”

Source: Defective by Design

You can understand that purchasing an eReader for me is an act of betrayal...a betrayal of the print books that accummulate dust on my shelves at home, kept more for the memories they evoke rather than the stories, the anti-DRM approach I advocate for. That said, I would love to have an ebook reader. My only wish was that such an ereader was based on the Android OS or GNU/Linux OS (that is OPEN without DRM) and was similarly priced (or lower) to the more popular ereaders. . .

1. Skiff Reader
2. Alex eReader for $399
3. More listed here

At this point, it appears the Kindle 3 is the clear winner over the Nook, although some folks--like Bud the Teacher--prefer the Nook because you easily add other content to it. I'm not yet convinced by Bud, although I want to be...and every review for the Nook move me along in that direction. I like the idea of being able to read multiple formats...the problem is, the Kindle 3 looks like it has support for PDF as well. Read this great review. Of course, Kindle WiFi is also a great looking choice.

So, I'm stuck between the 3 choices...Kindle 3, Kindle WiFi, and the Nook WiFi/3G.

What's your advice?

On another note, check out the multi-platform Calibre that allows you to convert from various ebook formats (not DRM'd ebooks though)including the following:

Calibre supports the conversion of many input formats to many output formats. It can convert every input format in the following list, to every output format.

Input Formats: CBZ, CBR, CBC, CHM, EPUB, FB2, HTML, LIT, LRF, MOBI, ODT, PDF, PRC**, PDB, PML, RB, RTF, TCR, TXT

Output Formats: EPUB, FB2, OEB, LIT, LRF, MOBI, PDB, PML, RB, PDF, TCR, TXT

With all this in mind, I'm really leaning towards the Nook now...which makes me wonder when the Nook 2 will be out.

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Setting Up Grouping in #Moodle

A short time ago, someone asked this question on Moodle Mayhem email list:

I have a quick question.  I don't yet have my course set up to enable groups.

I have a course with approximately 50 resources (audio, pdf's, video files) that I would like different students to see, as well as hiding some of the files for some of the students/

If I enable groups, can I then assign students to groups and then designate each particular resource as visible only to a certain group?

This presented the opportunity for me to share something I'd just read about in Ian Wild's Moodle Course Conversion (listen to a podcast of Ian Wild online at http://moodlemayhem.org).

Here's my response to the person asking the question above:

Yes. I'm sure other folks could explain this better since my knowledge of grouping, groups and assigning different tasks to each group is theoretical at this point.

When you set up your course to enable groups--separate groups, force=yes--you can then issue each member of a specific group an enrollment key. When they sign up for the course using their group enrollment key, they automatically become a part of the group you've assigned them to. Group A's enrollment key is "groupa" and Groups B and C can't see what A group is doing. 

Contrast this approach with one enrollment key for an entire course that allows everyone to see everything else people are doing.

Now, in addition to this, you can assign specific tasks--using the grouping button--to Group A that aren't necessarily available to Group B or C. This allows you to differentiate instruction for your students according to grouping (gasp, that sounds like homogenous grouping).

Using this approach, you can also make certain activities/resources available or not depending on group membership.

That's my current understanding. Anyone else have a different one?

How are you using Grouping in YOUR Moodle-based course?

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Setting Up a #Moodle Teachers' Lounge

Recently, I shared this Moodle Tip on how to make changes to MySQL database in Moodle to facilitate creation of enrollment keys for multiple courses. I realized I hadn't shared this with the MoodleMayhem email list, most of which I would guess know how to do this. Of course, it's easy to assume others know stuff when they may not (happens to me all the time).

Here is the email I shared:

Thought I'd share this with the list members...since we had lots of Moodle courses without enrollment keys, were bringing on students who could "enrol" in any course, we needed to quickly add enrollment keys. Rather than going one by one, there is a way to do it via MySQL. It wasn't hard, but for those who aren't familiar with it...

Read the details online at:

http://www.mguhlin.org/2010/08/moodle-tip-modifying-course-enrollment.html

One response was this one from Moodle Mayhem member, Jeff K.:

Thanks for this. So then, you set a single enrollment key for all courses that did not already have one? If so, will you now notify teachers, and if so, how will you do this efficiently?

My response follows below:

 Here's what we did:

1) After doing the enrollment key replacement, delete all "old" student accounts. In our case, it's "@student.districtname.net" so it was pretty easy to do a bulk delete of all 6K accounts that had been created over the last few years.

2) Clean out old course instructors/teachers...I went back to anyone who hadn't logged in since June, 2009.

3) Create a new course called "Teachers' Lounge" and subscribed all remaining users (which all instructors).

4) Sent out a news forum post/update to all subscribed users notifying them that their courses now have enrollment keys.

And, that's that!

I thought it was a nifty solution that didn't take long to implement...and I couldn't help but wonder why we hadn't set something up like that before! How would you have done it?

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Write What Is and What You have Seen

Thanks to a tweet from Jay Rosen, I found myself skimming The Columbia Book of Quotations. This quote jumped out at me...I think if I limit myself to the first two commands, that will be sufficient for now AND eternity.

Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. (Revelation 1:19)

The first two parts--write therefore the things that you have seen and those that are--provide a nice direction for non-fiction writers (ahem, bloggers). For fiction writers, the whole quote applies.

This may replace my favorite quote of all time--Ben Franklin's one appearing below--since you can't argue with a Biblical mandate, even if taken out of context (what bible quote ISN'T taken out of context these days? (smile)).

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. 

Benjamin Franklin 

As I get older and have less time due to other responsibilities, I find that the "do something worth writing" becomes more of "support others" in doing something worth writing about. Since I have always seen my writing as that of a poor hack, lacking the luster of poets (my standard is Alexander Pope) and more insightful essayists, I can only aspire write something worth reading.

Of course, write the things you have seen and those that are...well, I figure I can do that! Could this be also a commandment for plurking or twittering? That "those that are" part implies obtaining a clear perception of what is, the absolute truth of a thing. Again, perfect for blogging. . .and let the chips fall where they may.

Image Source: http://www.eborg3.com/Graphics/Bible/66-Revelation/0-Rev01.htm

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Free Mobile Internet for Educators - In YOUR U.S. City!

Source: http://www.clear-wirelessinternet.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/clear-usa-map.png

Thanks to a colleague for sharing this bit of exciting news! An organization known as The Source for Learning (SFL) is offering educators Clear 4G wireless accounts FREE to educators in various locations, including my home city of San Antonio, Texas !

The free accounts will include a user device to enable reception. User devices might be stationary modems for a room or USB modems (i.e. “sticks”) for a laptop (see www.clear.com/shop/devices/mobile). Users will also have free access to SFLMedia which is a combination of TeachersFirst and an assortment of streaming video clips covering selective topics.

This pilot program is part of the commitment of SFL to support education in all forms. If you are located in the above communities and you wish to participate, you will be expected to sign a letter stating your willingness to use this account for educational purposes for a specific number of hours each week. SFL will match the address of your school and/or home to be certain you are within the Clear coverage areas. Participation can only be offered to those located within the coverage area. You are welcome to share this application link with others you know who are located in one of the coverage areas.

Other Texas towns included in the offer:

1. Fort Worth
2. Nolanville
3. San Antonio
4. Waco

Apply online.

Below is the official press release:

Free mobile Internet - a pilot project for teachers in certain locations 

The Source for Learning, Inc. (SFL), our non-profit parent company, has an agreement with Clearwire (commercial provider of wireless Internet) to offer some Clear wireless 4G service for educational use in certain U.S. cities. As part of this pilot program, SFL will offer a limited number of Clear 4G wireless accounts free to educators in the following locations: Anderson, IN; Atlanta, GA; Baltimore, MD; Bloomington, IN; Champaign, IL; Fort Worth, TX; Indianapolis, IN; Kansas City, MO; Miami, FL; Milwaukee, WI; New Orleans, LA; New York City, NY; Nolanville, TX; Philadelphia, PA; Pittsburgh, PA; Portland, OR; Saginaw, MI; San Antonio, TX; St. Louis, MO; Tampa, FL; Waco, TX; Washington, DC. 

The free accounts will include a user device to receive wireless 4G Internet along with free access to SFLMedia. If you (or an educator you know) are located in one of these communities and you want to learn more details and apply for this FREE offering, read the details and apply for The Source for Learning: Broadband for Education Pilot Project.  Feel free to share this information with teachers you know in these locations.

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#Moodle Tip - Modifying Course Enrollment Keys En Masse

Problem:
We've just activated student logins via LDAP authentication. Unfortunately, our Moodle instance has courses that do not have enrollment keys. This means students could login to ANY Moodle without an enrollment key. We've just created 70 courses without enrollment keys...do you see the problem?

Solution:
One solution is to go through each course and update the settings to include an enrollment key. This would be time-consuming.

Another solution is to assign a uniform enrollment key to ALL courses that lack an enrollment key. But how?

In the "mdl_course" table, there is a field by the name of "password." This password is the enrollment key for a course. But how to change the password for all?

One way is to use a SQL statement that updates all blank enrollment key settings. Here is the statement that FINDS courses with blank enrollment keys:

SELECT fullname,password 

FROM  `mdl_course` 

WHERE PASSWORD =  ''

Before updating ALL the courses at once, you might want to check to see if it will work. Try this:

update mdl_course

set password='clef'

where fullname='Music Technology'

Verify that the change took place with this command:

SELECT fullname,password 

FROM  `mdl_course`

where fullname='Music Technology'

The results of the query should reveal that the password is now "clef" without quotes.

To update the "password" field for ALL courses en masse, use the following SQL commands:

update mdl_course

set password='clef'

WHERE PASSWORD =''

Another way to verify this is to login to the course and check the AVAILABILITY settings:

So, that's all there is to it. Easier than I suspected.

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New School Year

In "Improving Leadership," Nick at 1to1 Schools suggests the following--great suggestions he's filtered from two other blog posts (PipeDreams and  Adventures in Teaching & Learning) on the subject--approaches:

1. Start the first staff meeting by showing your staff YOUR NEW BLOG.
2. Be willing to ask an expert – even if that expert happens to be a first year teacher. 
3. Model great learning and teaching.
4. Recognize positive growth; often.

Without going into too much depth about that blog post, here is my list of suggestions on the subject of improving leadership, IMHO:

1. As superintendent or principal, focus your organization on the power of technology to accomplish 3 specific actions:
1. Continuous professional learning through a global network of educators sharing what they are learning every day via social networking/bookmarking (e.g. Twitter and Diigo.com) and social media tools (e.g. Moodle, blogs).
2. Enhance daily interactions with Community--parents--that model the use of these to disseminate information, facilitate data collection (e.g. GoogleDoc's Forms, Moodle Questionnaire are two that come to mind), data mining, and most importantly, reflective dialogue.
3. Share positive stories about how we are using technology as part of our work to enhance student, teacher, administrator engagement possibilities.
2. Set up a campus/district Moodle that enables sharing of important topics, professional development ideas. I am particularly thrilled to point to an example in a large urban district in San Antonio where a principal and staff member worked hard to get people going in the right direction. This isn't a campus Moodle for students to use, but for the faculty to build an online professional learning community.
3. Encourage students to share their perspective on using technology they are familiar with in the context of school, allowing for open conversations and opinion sharing to influence the community. Share those perspectives as podcasts a la Mabry Online

What would you add, take-away?

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