Blogging from iGoogle

After a least a dang month, the Fridge has finally taken some time to dive into the Google Reader. One neat thing I found was from Tammy Worcester's Tip of the Week. You can add a Blogger widget on your iGoogle page so that you can post from iGoogle. Great! Except...I'm not sure about links and pictures. I'm actually typing in iGoogle now and will be interested to see how the link to Tammy's page shows up. What? You thought I'd try it ahead of time on a little-known blog that I keep? What's the point??? There is no formatting bar (link was typed out with html code...who does that anymore??), which is easily the thing I would miss the most. I do think, though, that it's a widget, therefore to be used for something quick. If you think about it that way, it's a great way to post a quick blog.

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Just a follow-up, the link worked fine. The other idea I had as I was hitting the "Publish" button is that the "Save Draft" button is still right next to "Publish" in the iGoogle widget. Therefore, you could type out your whole post in iGoogle, save it, then go into Blogger when you have more time later to add links, pics, etc.

Wake Up! Apple Keyonte Recap

Before we get started, the Tech Fridge has decided that we should look into developing some swag, so if there is anyone out there who needs to start themselves up and wants to get their name out there to all 20 of our subscribers, let me know. We can discuss ideas and if we can work out a price deal, we'll put your logo/contact info on the back of the swag. I'm guessing if you were in the area it would be easier, but we can discuss. As you know, we are running a multi-penny company here.

This week's was Apple Computer's version of Christmas more commonly known as the Macworld Keynote, given by head genius Steve Jobs. Unfortunately, for education, there wasn't a whole lot of good presents. There were four main announcements: The iPhone and iPod Touch have some great new features making it more and more realistic that it's the only thing you carry...as soon as they enable it to start your car; to make Time Machine easier, they introduced a wireless external hard drive and wifi station called Time Capsule; Apple TV was improved, making being a couch potato oh so much easier because iTunes will be offering movie rentals; and the new MacBook Air was introduced. So while what was introduced was very cool, I don't see it having much effect on education. The Time Capsule would be nice to back up, but most schools have servers for that. The MacBook Air is great, but I don't think you want to give kids something easier to pick up and therefore drop and/or throw. All in all, it was a snoozeable event in regards to improving education.

Our friend (not in a literal sense and by no means are the feelings mutual) David Pogue has a pretty interesting take on why Apple sales are improving and it has sparked quite a few comments. I don't know what the record for number for comments are, but I'm sure he has to at least be challenging it.

Next week's post will be from a conference on 21st Century Skills in which yours truly and a guest will be discussing YouTube and Blogger in the classroom. Hopefully we'll have something new to share! Here are a couple of past posts on those subjects:

21st Century Skills

YouTube

Blogger

Free Good Review for the Boss

In the 1990's, our building Technology Assistance Teams (TATs) thrived. They received laptops, training and were involved with bringing technology use into the schools. In the past few years, numerous outside factors contributed to the demise of TATs, namely time and importance. Administrators focused on the basics of curriculum areas and integrating technology into those areas fell behind. It was left up to individuals in individual buildings to keep that strong. That is not enough to maintain momentum in our district.
So now we are in the process of breathing life into the old beast. One idea that we are using is Blogger. For most buildings, those involved in TAT are good teachers who are naturally involved in many other curriculum groups. Needless to say, finding a time for 5-10 of them to meet is like trying to stuff a state fair watermelon into a milk jug. So, to be able to communicate with everyone and not clog up email boxes, we are posting items that need to be communicated and best practices to be reviewed on the blog. Viewing is limited to the individuals we invite (i.e., TAT members and administrators), but they also have authoring permissions. If they do not already have a Gmail account, they are prompted to create one through the email that Blogger sends out. Those registered can utilize Google Reader to keep up to date so they don't have to continually go back to the website.
If you have any "cool" suggestions for this process, please drop in a comment or two. All of us here at the Tech Fridge would love for you to share your condiments!