Blog 8 - 10/26/09

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So let's get down to the nitty gritty with this cell phone thing.

How can we REALLY make these things useful in a school setting? REALLY useful?

Dr. Hutto has made it clear that if we could prove the cell phone's value in the scholarly setting he would ask the board to take a look at the policy.

Me? I don't care much one way or the other. So why am I such a cell phone nazi?

Here's the thing . . . If I let one person slide by with pulling their cell phone out of their pocket to check messages every 5 minutes, I'm pretty much giving everybody in the room the same permission. And before you know it there's an epidemic of Illegal Cell Phone Usage. It's like the plague.

Not to mention the fact that if you have time to be distracted by your cell phone then I am OBVIOUSLY not working you hard enough and I need to assign more stuff to do.

So let's really talk about it this week. Go out on the internet and do some research and see if you can find instances of schools using cell phones as part of the curriculum. You will need to post the link that YOU find so that I can check it out. OR you can give me some suggestions about how we can seriously use these things for good in a scholarly setting. These are the only two things that will earn you a grade this week.

PLEASE NOTE: Once a link has been listed twice you may no longer list it as your own.

Talk to me . . .

Blog 7 - 10/18/09

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This week is a video blog. On Tuesday we will watch a video from David Pogue, who is the technology reviewer for the New York Times. He spoke at this past year's TED convention (and yall know how I love me some TED videos . . .). In this video he tells us about several really cool cell phone things that I didn't know we could do. I'm betting some of yall don't know either.

As always, we will not be whipping out our cell phones in class to try these tricks!

On Thursday you can tell me what you think about his cell phone tricks. Will you use any of them? OR you can tell me about your own cell phone tricks that some of the rest of us might not know about.

Talk to me . . .

Blog 6 - 10/12/09

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In the next few weeks I'd like to talk about cell phones. This week I'd like to take a look at some new cell phone technology coming our way. Next week we will watch a TED video from David Pogue, who is the technology reviewer for the New York Times. Then the week after that I'd like to have a discussion about how cell phones can be integrated into the classroom.

And no, this does not give anybody permission to whip out their cell phones for any reason!

Ya know, these devices are supposed to be making our lives easier. Is yours? Are you using it to it's potential?

This past year I updated my cell phone to a Samsung Epix with a full data package. I did this after Chris Brophy came in and showed me his sparkly new Epix and I immediately caught this horrible disease called Cell Phone Envy. I *had* to have that phone. It was touch screen, AND it had a stylus and touch keyboard, AND it had a touch-sensitive mouse in the middle! So I went and got myself one. I had to have it in my hands all the time at first. It was like that feeling you get when you get a new car . . . you just wanna be in it all the time.

And now . . . meh. It's just a phone, ya know? Several times I've used my phone to find directions when we're driving around the big city and that's been pretty cool. Mostly I use it to update my Facebook status and check the status of my friends. Could I live without that? Yeah. Do I want to ? Not so much.

Anyway, take a look at those links for new cell phone technology. I guarantee at least one of them won't work from the school address, but give them a try anyway. Pick a new phone and tell my why you'd spend your money on it. OR pick a new cellular technology and tell me how it would benefit you. OR respond to someone else's post regarding new cell phone technology. Either of these things will earn you a 100. "That's cool" will not.

Talk to me . . .


http://www.tuvie.com/category/cell-phone/

AND/OR

http://www.engadget.com/

AND / OR

http://reviews.cnet.com/cell-phones/?tag=hdr;snav (look down the page and you'll find the heading "Latest Cell Phone Reviews and Advice." Spend some time clicking around in there.)

Blog 5 - 10/5/09

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This week I want to do something that we will do several times throughout the year. I want to look at *sparkly* (man, where is Emily when I need her?) new technology. I have a couple of really good sites for this. They are:

http://tinyurl.com/ztsat

and

http://www.yankodesign.com/

Techeblog is more hard-core nerdy. Yanko is ABOUT the design of technology.

Don't stop on Page 1!!! Techeblog has an "older entries" button and Yanko has more pages listed at the bottom. Take a look around. Pick a product and tell me WHY you like it or how you think it could change our lives.

ALSO: Some of you have been earning ZEROS because you are not ADVANCING the discussion. As I have made ABUNDANTLY clear, posting a "that's cool" will NOT earn you a grade. This is a DISCUSSION. I want opinions with reasons!!! If you can't give me that much effort, then I can't give you enough effort to type a 100 in your grade book!

Talk to me . . .

Blog 4 - 9/28/09

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So sticking with the subject of medical technology, I thought I would get a little personal this week.

This year has been a tough one in the Lanham household, as we were visited by the big C word.

Cancer.

Scary just to look at isn't it? Kinda makes my skin crawl just seeing it sitting there.

Anyway, Mr. L (who I lovingly refer to as Better Half) was diagnosed with prostate cancer earlier this year. On the very first day of summer vacation he had a radical robotic prostatectomy.

That's right, ROBOTIC. Oh the technology implications . . .

His surgeon actually sat ACROSS THE ROOM as he operated on Mr. L! Just like a video game. He has these goggles he looks into and he moves his thumbs and across the room the robotic arms that were INSIDE MY HUSBAND proceeded to do all the things that surgeons used to do the old way. Except when he was done, Mr. L only had 5 small incisions instead of one great big huge one. MUCH faster recovery time.

So go take a look at the pictures of the robot. At the same time, I'm going to play a video from this year's TED conference by a woman who had a hand in designing this robot. Her video is all about how medical technology has changed.

PLEASE NOTE: This video shows a few seconds worth of ACTUAL surgery on someone's insides. It's not bloody or gory. It's kinda interesting in a detached sort of way. BUT if it oogs you out, please look away during those parts.

Please remember: you must advance the discussion in some manner to get credit. "That's cool" or "I like that" is not advancing the discussion. Not now, not in May at the end of the year. You must TELL ME WHY! You may also reply to someone else's post.

Also, if you have questions for Mr. L's surgeon please post them in the blog. I'll email them to him and see if we can get an answer.

http://tinyurl.com/2mhxoh

Talk to me . . .

Blog 3 - 9/21/09

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I thought this week we would stick with medical technology. I found this article in Readers Digest online about medical technology advances in the battlefield and how they might help us all in the future. Go read:

http://tinyurl.com/n3al24

Please do not just stop at Page 1. There are 3 pages of really amazing technological advances in battlefield medicine.

Come back on Thursday and tell us what you think about one or all of the highlighted technologies. Which ones do you think will make it into the mainstream? How do you think we will be using those in our everyday lives in the near future?

As always, you will need to advance the discussion in order to receive credit.

Talk to me . . .

Blog 2 - 9/14/09

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So there's this article on CNN.com about these new contacts that scientists at the University of Washington are developing. They are digital! They have built-in LEDs to augment your natural eyesight.

They say that eventually a more advanced version on this contact could become available that would scroll captions across the bottom of your vision. Information about the person you're talking to, etc.

It might also be used to monitor our health. According to one researcher "The eye is our little door into the body." You could be sitting there eating lunch and have something scroll across your vision that says "More water intake please, you are getting dehydrated." Or other health-related info.

Of course, the group has to do much more safety testing before this lens will ever come in contact with any of our eyes. But the possibilities could be absolutely endless!

For me personally, it would be difficult to get used to poking something in my eyeball. I cringe every morning watching Mr. L put his contacts in. Ugh! I don't know how you folks do it.

Anyway, follow this link and read the story:

http://tinyurl.com/pbdn69

Think about it for a couple of days. Let it work on you. Then on Thursday come back and go to the comments section for THIS blog (please make sure you land in the correct comments section) and post an opinion. Do you think this is really in our future? Do you think we're still light years away from this? Do you think it will ever really be marketable to the common man, or will expense keep most of us from participating? GIVE ME AN INFORMED OPINION AND ADVANCE THE DISCUSSION.

As always, a "yes" or "no" or "I really don't care" will earn you a zero.

You may also reply to someone else's opinion to advance the discussion.

And finally, you might want to briefly check back in on Friday to see if anyone has replied to you.

Talk to me . . .