Digital Smarts Blog

Make Your Vacation into a Comic Book

Power to Learn — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:33:00 -0400

OK, you get back from your vacation and the kids can’t wait to see the pictures. Everyone gets a good laugh at certain shots, but how can you make the fun last? Why not make your vacation into a comic book to enjoy now and in the years ahead? All you need is Plasq's ComicLife. It's extremely easy to use and before you know it your kids are dragging and dropping pictures, adding speech balloons and best of all practicing their reading and writing skills. Besides comic books that can be viewed online, or printed, you could also make a vacation poster to help your kids remember the good times or to send to Grandma and Grandpa. For ideas about how to use ComicLife, go to the forums where you'll find entries on topics such as using ComicLife with PC and Mac, iPhone and iPod Touch, ComicLife in Education, use with other languages, etc. Two versions of the program are available ComicLife (PC and Mac, $19.95) and ComicLife Magiq (Mac, $29.95); both are excellent products. (If you are a Mac user this program may already be on your computer so check your Applications folder before you buy.)

Universal SmartPens

Power to Learn — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:31:00 -0400

Livescribe's Pulse SmartPen is finding its way into the college and pre-college classrooms of all kinds of students, but it can give special needs kids a leg up on taking and organizing notes. That’s because this digital scribe can record and playback what you write and hear because it features an infrared camera that tracks what you write or draw and a stereo microphone that records what is being said as you write or draw. Instead of taking a computer to use to take notes during a lecture, the SmartPen can make remembering what is said a breeze, Students can transfer what they record to their PC or Mac where they can store and organize the information they collect. When they need the information, they can search for what they want. Replay what is saved, and the written notes are synced to the recorded audio. Special paper is needed for the pen, but it can be downloaded online. The pens come in 1G and 2G versions with pricing ranging from approximately $150-$199. Check out the Livescribe blog to see how teachers and students of all kinds are putting this new technology to use.

Charging Solution?

Power to Learn — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:28:00 -0400

Some good news for families whose members all have different kinds of cell phones. A set of major cell phone makers - including Apple, Nokia, Samsung, and Motorola – have come to an agreement in Europe to standardize cell phone chargers. They have settled on Micro USB as the universal. You have to agree that it would be great if that also comes to the States. Think of it. If your charger is missing or breaks you could actually borrow one from your kids or friends or vice versa and get back to full power. What a concept! Why it is downright user friendly. I just want to know what took them so long and when this consumer friendly notion will cross the ocean!

Digital Reporting 101 Offered on YouTube

Power to Learn — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:27:00 -0400

With citizen driven journalism on the rise it was only a matter of time before someone started a course on the subject, and YouTube is leading the way. Citizen journalists - those who wish to report on the stories going on around them using 21st-century digital tools but who don't have formal training --may find help in YouTube's new Reporters' Center. It's a channel on the video sharing site that features how-to tutorials on broad conceptual topics as well as detailed technical issues, some of which are hosted by some very well known news anchors and reporters. Could be a form of job training for the would-be young journalists at your house as well.

A Debate Over Censorship

Power to Learn — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:25:00 -0400

During the months reporter David Rohde spent as a prisoner of the Taliban, his newspaper – The New York Times, other publications and Wikipedia reportedly agreed to keep quiet about it. The reasoning was that the more publicity the case received, the harder negotiations would become. Rohde and another victim managed to escape, and it's possible the news blackout helped them survive. However, it's also raised questions about censorship. Are we as a society becoming more inured to letting censorship slide? Who decides when censorship is good or bad? What are your thoughts on the subject?

Friends Exchanged for Email

Power to Learn — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:03:00 -0400

Take a look at this article in the New York Times about how easy it is to unwittingly give your friends' email addresses away when you “sign up” for a site. As I read the article I realized that the same thing had happened to me recently when I got an form letter email from MyLife.com from one of the dads from my son's soccer team, who I didn’t really think was suddenly interested in social networking. Thankfully I didn’t sign up, but the article details how in exchange for your email many of these sites are given permission in the fine print to scour your address book for emails to send offers to. As always, be careful what you sign up for, the friends you save may be your own.

Hacktivism

Power to Learn — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:02:00 -0400

Ok, here is another new word for your technology vocabulary and let’s hope it doesn’t become popular – Hacktivism. Hacktivism refers to terrorists using cybernetworks to attack targets including US government computer systems and using Internet fraud to raise money for their causes. According to some intelligence officials, terrorist groups have stepped up their efforts to recruit members with sophisticated knowledge of computer engineering and hacking with an eye to aggressive attacks against vital U.S. security systems. So far most of the efforts of these bad guys have involved taking down or defacing web sites who espouse beliefs that differ from their own such as Shiite, Jewish or Christian sites, but it looks like some of these efforts may have just be trial runs for doing other dastardly deeds online.

Dealing with Technophobes

Power to Learn — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:01:00 -0400

Perhaps no one else has this problem, but just in case, here is the link on the Apple site to send a friend, relative, spouse or whoever, who just got a new iPhone, has heard it is SO EASY to use, but doesn’t have a clue. We will overcome...

Watch What You Say Online Before You Head off on Summer Vacation

Power to Learn — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:59:00 -0400

Remember to keep your vacation plans to yourself when it comes to your social networking pages because– as you probably have reminded your children – you never know who might be scoping them out. (Oh yeah, remind your kids as well.) While you may want to post pictures from the road while you are away, make sure you restrict who can see them and the GPS information could be attached to them. Again – no need to advertise you are away. You may also want to take down any pictures of your house while you are away so you don’t give would be thieves a road map of what is inside your house and where. For more cautions for traveling, see Thieves, cons and scammers may be watching you online on USA TODAY online.

Cable Show

Power to Learn — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:58:00 -0400

You may want to Bookmark this slide show of cables to use the next time you buy or move the technology in your house. Here every cable is illustrated in a color picture and an explanation is given for where you would use such as thing and why. There is also a guide to what such a cable should cost and what the price differential buys you. Good to have because this is the kind of technology minutia that your kids can’t help you with.