Apple – Mac OS X – Download the free Messages Beta.: “Download Messages Beta and get a taste of what’s coming in OS X Mountain Lion. When you install Messages, it replaces iChat. But iChat services will continue to work. And Messages brings iMessage to the Mac — just like on iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch running iOS 5.”

Messages stands at the middle of what Apple is hoping to do with Mountain Lion… move the computing experience into an (Apple) ecosystem that is device agnostic and flows easily from device to device to TV to device.

iCloud is not just a cloud platform, it’s a strategy.

I don’t ever think it will be a huge money maker, but I’d love for it to be something like a homegrown NPR of shows that go a little deeper.

We’re up to five weekly shows now and my ultimate goal by July is to have 15 shows going strong.

Here is today’s ThinkingDaily show that I do (daily):

Little much?

ThinkingSocial 1: Is Google Creepy? | Thinking.FM: “Sam and Merianna kick off ThinkingSocial with an episode focusing on Google’s increasing “creepy” factor in our data and the social web with the emphasis on Google+ and why it’s so hard to grow and change in a challenging environment.”

Fun show. I’m not sure how it will evolve over time, but I’d like to have more of a roundtable/panel feel to it.

Let me know if you’re available to hop on and know something about using the social web for good.

Download the mp3 or click above to hear the stream.

Educational Technology Guy: Have Chrome read any website to you (or your students): “There is a new extension that adds a very cool feature that can be great for a variety of students. It can read any website out loud to you. This is great for students with vision issues or who are learning to read or learning English.”

I’ll definitely be trying this myself. Thanks to Craig Badura for the link.

I love the font and contrast. The music ain’t too shabby either.

Ah, the 90′s.

The Case for a Gamified Classroom – YouTube: “Traditional education already has many game mechanics at play: scores give points for academic achievement, students level up through grade levels, finals represent a stressful boss level of all you’ve learned so far. The problem is that so far, the game has been designed poorly. “

School, as most of life, is a game. I definitely agree with the need to examine the structure of rewards and incentives.

Three key pro’s to using a gaming structure for classroom learning:

Safety (to fail)

Privacy (can do this on my own and don’t have to raise my hand for extra help or embarrass myself by not “getting it” the first time)

Personalization (can control environment inside of game)

The one thing I’d like to see added to this type of a discussion is how to move the development of these products to a more local level and away from the big publishers such as Pearson etc.

Thanks to Shawn Collins for the link!

Fascinating conversation thread on Hacker News (from a site that is basically for programmers and tech nerds) about this post on how we can’t always use computers to teach math written by the guy who gave this TED talk.

It’s an amazing time to be a teacher.

Badges: A solution to our teacher evaluation disaster? – The Answer Sheet – The Washington Post: “Think about that.  We have a system of tests designed for citizens of the Industrial Age, based on the assembly line, that are extremely costly, don’t measure much of content, and don’t motivate learning.  And millions of programmers have found a way that works so well they don’t even need formal credentials and accreditation systems.  What they do works — and works based on peers evaluating contribution (they don’t even have a system of “failing:”  they reward what works, what is good, setting the bar for reputation at its highest, not at its lowest denominator).”

Here’s to a better way.

ThinkingDaily: Head Full of Doubt | Thinking.FM: “About 15 minutes and change.”

Here’s the mp3 for your downloading pleasure (or click above and listen to the live stream).