Scratch where it itches

WHY I went BACK TO "SCHOOL" at Purdue Polytechnic High School

2022-05-04T13:32:00.022-04:00

As of mid-April, I am back into K-12 education at Purdue Polytechnic High School (PPHS)- Englewood. After two and a half weeks, I am glad in spite of the commute being 10 times the distance of my previous commute to Traders Point Christian Schools (TPCS) until last summer when I left TPCS. At that time, not only was I going to "retire" (AGAIN!), but I wasn't necessarily going to volunteer in K-12 education to which I have devoted the last 7 years in my second career as a "refugee from higher education" which was rewarding so I shouldn't be surprised. It was rewarding because not only did I feel APPRECIATED AT TPCS, but I knew I was "needed" as I stated in a previous post,

In the five years since PPHS was founded, PPHS has had the wisdom to adopt Google Workspace for Education and Chromebooks which I championed at TPCS so I am not "needed" at PPHS as I was when I joined TPCS. Nevertheless, I learned so much during my transition to K-12 education so it certainly makes sense to continue to apply my experience to K-12 education as Warren Buffett recently advised. Especially, I learned so much about administering Google Workspace for Education and managing Chromebooks for students at TPCS which is precisely where I will be focusing at PPHS-Englewood. Asset management of Chromebooks and adoption of tools such as Clever which leverage Google Workspace for Education are top priorities. As devices issued to every student, Chromebooks represent a significant investment for PPHS and Google Workspace can make even more impact when leveraged with the adoption of Clever! Neither requires "rocket science" but they need to be done.

I also hope to enlist PPHS coaches (that's how PPHS designates "teachers") to join me among the ranks of Connected Educators. I don't YET know the need but I am willing to COACH them myself!

I "found" the job at PPHS as I was preparing to volunteer at PPHS-North which is closer to my home. I had been "wintering" in my boyhood home in Hawai'i which granted me the opportunity to consider my next step after failing to connect with PPHS when I tried last year after my retirement. PPHS is "near and dear to my heart" because it's an initiative of Purdue Polytechnic Institute where I had the good fortune of building the "undergraduate information technology education I would have wanted for myself" beginning in 1978.

Finally, I missed using Google Workspace. I even subscribed to Google Workspace Individual while I no longer had access to Google Workspace for Education. I have to "catch up" with so many new features, especially the ones that aren't available to Google Workspace Individual subscribers!

Are you smarter than a sixth grader?

2015-05-26T11:14:00.000-04:00

If you've been watching my tweets and especially if you're using my Diigo outliner about Google Apps for Education (GAFE), you know that I've been shepherding a GAFE pilot at Traders Point Christian Academy (TPCA). In anticipation of a 1-to-1 Chromebook initiative in grades 7-8 next school year, I asked Lisa Mais, our 6th-grade English and language arts teacher, to use GAFE during the past semester. Needless to say, I have been thrilled with the results so let me explain why!

Personally, sixth grade is very special to me because I attribute much of my subsequent academic success to MY sixth-grade learning experience and the amazing teacher (Mr. Nitta) who I was so fortunate (including the FOUR times he paddled me during the school year :-P) to have. Hence, I wanted our sixth graders to have a transforming learning experience as well!

I shared some of their work samples with my daughter who just finished her freshman year in college and who also attended TPCA until the eighth grade. She saw the Google Slides presentations and claimed that she also learned how to make PowerPoint presentations in school. What she failed to realize is that she did not possess the same degree of information literacy in the sixth grade, but she may not even currently have the same degree of information literacy as a high school graduate who did not have the opportunity to use the bibliographic citation tools like EasyBib which were so easy to provide to the students with the administrative console of Google Apps. Of course, Ms. Mais deserves even more credit for asking me to make EasyBib available to her students and for teaching them how to use it to judge the reliability of their sources and to cite them correctly.

Furthermore, the students learned the valuable lesson of collaboration because it was so easy for them to work on their presentations together. I'm sure there's so much more that Ms. Mais can say about the advantages of using Google Apps so I will encourage her to share that. I'm sure that among what she shares will be her gratitude to no longer have to deal with flash drives due to the unlimited space provided to her students by Google Drive!

Icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com is licensed under CC BY 3.0

The Eagle (Tech Corps) Has Launched

2015-04-29T09:30:00.000-04:00

Motivated by the enthusiasm of Traders Point Christian Academy sixth graders for our Google Apps for Education pilot project under the mentorship of 6th-grade teacher Lisa Mais, I recruited some of her students to attend the Hoosier Student Digital Leaders inaugural conference (#HSDLead). As a result, they have launched our Eagle Tech Corps (ETC) to support our upcoming 1-to-1 deployment of Chromebooks in grades 7 and 8.

So what can we expect from them? I have some ideas, but I expect them to exceed my expectations! In the meantime, we will be planning how we can help their classmates and even their teachers as we deploy Google Apps for Education and the Chromebooks during the upcoming school year.

Read the #HSDLead story! We are part of it!

We heard you!

2015-04-07T17:14:00.000-04:00

During the winter, I shared with you the vision for using technology for learning at TPCA! It's time for another update so I am excited to tell you that our WiFi infrastructure will be substantially upgraded during the summer in time for the new school year. Thanks to the federal e-Rate program, we will receive a substantial subsidy for our Internet-related services which will enable this substantial upgrade. The new system will improve WiFi coverage in the modular for our upcoming Chromebook "1-to-1" program in grades 7-8 to enable our students to learn "21st-century skills" for communication and collaboration via Google Apps for Education. This will be a state-of-the-art system that will also improve coverage in our newly renovated J. K. Stevens Commons as well as the Bostick Athletic Center gymnasium.

Stand by to hear more about other upgrades to our technology infrastructure including our Internet access and our phone system. We want you to know that we heard your feedback about our technology infrastructure and that we are responding by taking action!

TPCA is on its way!

2015-01-30T16:56:00.001-05:00

TPCA Instructional Technology Update: Winter 2014-2015

Last fall, I posted about our intention to deploy Google Apps for Education for pilot use. I am pleased to report that we have launched one pilot project in 8th-grade English and language arts enabled by a Windows-based “Chrome browser” laptop cart supplemented by “bring your own device” for students who have voluntarily chosen that option. A subsequent post will explain that project in greater detail.

In the meantime, let me share about what other progress has been made and where we are going to build on that progress. We intend to implement a curriculum in digital literacy with a Biblical worldview:

Digital citizenship
Technological literacy
Information literacy

Standardization on Windows 7 Enterprise has been deployed on various hardware:

Laptop cart (primarily serving 5th and 6th grade)
Desktop computers in Media Center
"Chrome browser" laptop cart primarily serving 8th grade

The following planning efforts are underway for next school year:

Application for e-Rate federal subsidy to upgrade Internet access and WiFi infrastructure
Selection of Chromebook model for 1-to-1 rollout in junior high
Evaluation of Microsoft online products, e.g. Office 365 and OneNote

To insure the effective application of these tools for learning, planning for professional development is underway. The administrative team is currently being oriented to becoming "Connected Educator" role models for the rest of the staff. During the summer, teaching staff (especially junior high) will take advantage of Indiana Department of Education Summer of eLearning professional development opportunities in addition to peer coaching.

Current efforts to prepare for the future are underway:

Elementary

is searching for a media teacher to develop and deliver a digital citizenship curriculum.

Middle school

is blogging at The Reading Eagles with other blogs and another Google Apps for Education pilot project to come.

Junior high

has launched its Google Apps for Education pilot project with the "Chrome browser" laptop cart. A search for "Connected Educators" is currently underway.

High school

students "bring your own device" for online courses. A search for "Connected Educators" is currently underway.

Watch for further progress reports because

iTPCA

is on the move!

A glimpse into TPCA’s future!

2014-09-19T14:18:00.001-04:00

Last week, I had the pleasure of spending the day in two Wayne Township schools, an Indiana public school district which really “gets” the integration of technology into learning. In the last two years, Wayne's “Blueprint for Digital Learning” has led to the adoption of Google Apps for Education and deployment of 7000 Chromebooks into several grades across its district. It has also led to “bring your own device” at Ben Davis High School.
More importantly, I learned:

How much Wayne has invested in professional development to support its technological initiative
Wayne’s encouragement of its media center staff to lead development and delivery of its digital citizenship curriculum
Parent engagement is critical

Accordingly, there is much we can learn from Wayne’s experience which will be invaluable as we launch our own initiative in the foreseeable future! Recently, we purchased several Chromebooks which we are teaching our “vanguard” teachers to use as we intend to deploy Google Apps for Education for pilot use soon. Stay tuned!

A blast from the past…a peek into our future!

2014-09-12T12:08:00.001-04:00

As some of you already know, I have gone back to “work” (I’m having too much fun to call it work) as Director of Technology Integration and Support at Traders Point Christian Academy (TPCA) which my daughter attended until we left for Florida four years ago. It’s been a long time since I have felt so needed and appreciated in my long educational career. I also continue to appreciate the staff of TPCA who I had already seen serving in a ministry to my family rather than merely doing a job. For this reason, there is so much I want to do for them to return that favor!
In the time since I left Indiana, TPCA unfortunately has made little progress in the integration of technology to teaching and learning. There were some earlier attempts which apparently failed for reasons I wasn’t around to assess. In order to stabilize the situation, new school leadership had already decided to invest in a laptop cart to replace aging desktop computers which have reached the end of their useful life. Without any technology leadership in place, there really wasn’t any alternative. At the same time, the small high school time adopted a one-to-one “bring your own device” (BYOD) program to (at least) support online learning to complement its own offerings.
This is where MY learning begins because some high school students were unable to BYOD so we “borrowed” a few (our spares) laptops from the cart to lend to them and the story unfolds from there. To support standardized testing, an insufficient quantity of the ailing desktops is available so we have had to use the cart to complement those desktops which is preventing us from deploying the laptop cart. This isn’t entirely a surprise because part of the justification of the laptops is standardized testing.
In the meantime, we are learning that there is a need to “repackage” the laptop cart into smaller lots to serve the needs of either enrichment or remediation of smaller groups of students. Accordingly, we are redeploying the laptops with an (experimental) smaller cart to assess that demand as well as to (occasionally) meet the needs of standardized testing. That experiment will likely result in the deployment of all of our laptops in smaller quantities.
That experiment has also given me further insight into the “state of the art” in the integration of technology into learning. In search of better designed laptop carts than the unwieldy one we already own, I put a query on the #edchat Twitter hashtag and received NO responses. Rather than being dismayed by this apparent failure of the vaunted power of social media in teaching and learning, I realized that it is more likely that the progressive tech community on Twitter just isn’t using laptop carts anymore!
This reinforces my sense of urgency to move us up the educational technology value chain, but I am acutely aware of the critical need to upgrade our technical and human infrastructure in order to do so. Stay tuned as we continue this quest!

I think it's time to start blogging again!

2013-09-18T14:15:00.001-04:00

Google+ is the reason because it is now so integrated with Blogger! Will this post display on my Google+ profile?

Going to a PUBLIC college in Florida (or any other state)?

2013-06-24T12:01:00.001-04:00

If you want to know about more than how your school’s sports teams are doing on (or off ) the field, check out what the Florida Board of Governors (FLBOG) is asking Florida’s public universities! FLBOG governs the State University System of Florida. In that role, the Governors have the statutory right and responsibility to ask tough questions that you ought to ask while (and especially before) you attend one of these schools! As a matter of fact, each state has a comparable governing body such as the Indiana Commission for Higher Education where I spent most of my academic career.

Recently, The Florida Channel broadcast a recent meeting during which university administrators presented their work plans for the coming year to FLBOG’s Strategic Planning Committee:

Since my daughter will be applying to several Florida public higher-education institutions during the coming year, I watched with great interest so let me give you some idea of what I learned. First, I learned about a school of which I was not aware (especially since I have only lived in Florida for almost three years), but I was impressed by the uniqueness of the New College of Florida (NCF) which is “small but mighty” as one of the Governors expressed during the “Q and A” after NCF presented its work plan! As a matter of fact, it was fascinating to note the Governors’ attitudes as well as the responses of the university administrators to the Governors’ questions and comments. This is especially revealing to me because I am not very familiar with these schools but I suspect that even long-term Florida residents would find them revealing as well. Second, I confirmed my “worst fears” about another school which I had already learned from a different source. If you want to know the rest of that story, ask me about it in a comment and I will reply. Finally, I learned about new initiatives already underway at schools which my daughter is considering which may either help us to differentiate the schools when it comes time to choose as well as to get more return on our investment in higher education. For example, the University of Florida’s Innovation Academy (IA) has a unique spring-summer semester schedule with additional opportunities during the fall and throughout the year to become actively engaged in strategic innovation, creative problem solving, entrepreneurship, and interdisciplinary collaboration. I wonder how many of UF’s current students are aware of IA?

In any case, I encourage prospective and current students of Florida public universities as well as their parents and other (Florida) taxpayers to take advantage of this opportunity to make college “worth it” (look for future posts about the value of a college education)!

In the meantime, I am sharing my Florida higher education notes publicly via Evernote.

Which grade would you give to your local government (2.0)?

2012-02-10T08:00:00.000-05:00

I’m taking a break from Education (2.0) to spend some time trying to understand how we might transform local government with information technology, especially via social media. Gartner defines “Government 2.0” as the use of information technology to socialize and commoditize government services, processes and data.

A few months ago, I blogged about “Getting all A’s in school” to motivate the use of social media in education. For this post, I’ll “play” with a similar theme to motivate the use of social media in local government to facilitate:

Accountability and Advocacy
Business (public)
Communication
Democracy
Emergency preparedness and Engagement

We don’t want to give any F’s and in any case, this is just a gimmick to get some ideas flowing!

Accountability and Advocacy

As in my education post, government can do a much better job of advocacy by being more accountable as a result of transparency in its interaction with the citizens it serves. In a manner similar to what I described for education, social media between government and citizens could document government’s value to its citizens.

Business (public)

In conducting the people’s “business” government can deliver services more effectively and efficiently via information technology.

Communication

As a result, communication between government and its citizens would be vastly improved!

Democracy

Citizens would have greater opportunity to be heard!

Emergency preparedness/public safety and Engagement

It’s time to get practical…especially since I now live in Florida where severe hurricanes can disrupt the lives of millions of people! Due to our ability to forecast their potential severity, many lives can be saved by emergency preparedness. Especially since my county’s early social media efforts are being led by Seminole County Emergency Management, this is the best place to do more. Furthermore, my faith-based friends back in central Indiana where I lived previously are experimenting with Twitter to promote readiness. Even more is possible as efforts such as CrisisCommons suggest. I am especially intrigued by the application of the Ushahidi product Crowdmap to handle information coming out of a crisis. What is most encouraging is the pending FEMA certification of a course titled “Social Media for Natural Disaster Response and Recovery” offered by the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center (NDPTC).

Perhaps, public safety is another likely area to try with service providers such as Nixle which publishes alerts via text messaging as well as experiments with Twitter by neighboring Orlando Police.

No matter which grade you give your local government, it could get a better grade by using information technology and social media to engage its citizens!

Where do we go from here?

Perhaps, it’s time to convene a CityCamp, an international unconference series and online community focused on innovation for municipal governments and community organizations.

I’m going to share this with my County Manager…what will you do for your community?

Testing BlogPress

2012-02-01T11:28:00.001-05:00

I just updated the app and reviews said the update isn't working with Blogger so I'd better test it out!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Chuluota,United States

Has it been six months already?

2012-01-08T20:49:00.001-05:00

It's been six months since Atlantis blasted off as STS-135, the last Space Shuttle launch! In the meantime, I've seen several other launches, but they just don't seem the same especially since they've all been unmanned! I wonder how long it's going to be until I see another manned launch? I hope I live long enough to see the US with the capability for manned spaceflight!

Connecting your Blogger blog to Google+

2011-12-12T21:11:00.000-05:00

If you have linked your Blogger blog to your Google+ account, you'll be able to easily share your post to your Google+ circles when you publish a post to your blog. This post should be shared on my Google+ account after I publish it.

#NASAtweetup: Day L-0

2011-07-11T08:17:00.000-04:00

STS-135 NASA Tweetup at launch clock, courtesy of NASA
I can’t believe over a day has passed since I witnessed history at the launch of STS-135, the final mission in NASA’s 30-year space shuttle program, on July 8, 2011. I have to admit as I intimated in my last post that I did not think it would actually happen on that originally scheduled date after learning that the weather forecast allowed only a 30 percent probability for launch. But, as we were told, a break in the weather during the 10-minute launch window wasn’t too much to expect and NASA management knew that when it ordered “tanking” (fueling) Atlantis early on launch day.
We had been told to check if tanking had been announced before making the trek to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) so after my wife woke me shortly after 2 am (I MIGHT have overslept if she hadn’t ), I was on the road by 3 am and made it to Gate 3 of KSC IN LESS THAN AN HOUR because I was so early! Hardly anyone else was on the road and I expect that those I encountered were either press or NASA personnel (those who weren’t already at work)
As a matter of fact, I was so early that I couldn’t get into KSC because my Tweetup credentials did not allow entry until 5 am. I decided to head for NASA’s Press Accreditation building (where I had picked up those prized credentials on Wednesday) to wait because it was also closer to Gate 2, a gate which only allows employees to enter KSC, which we had been advised to use. When I got there, a large subset of fellow Tweetup participants were already there. As I waited, I noticed a line of cars building on State Road 3 in front of the parking lot so I realized that it could be difficult for our convoy to exit the parking lot onto SR 3. I went to talk to one of the security guards at the checkpoint which had been established on SR 3 and we worked out an arrangement where we would line up our cars in the parking lot shortly before 5 am and he would enable us to get out of the parking lot without having to wait for any cars to pass on SR 3. I am so glad I thought of that and I think my fellow tweeps were as well!
As a result, we were at the KSC press site shortly after 5 am and that’s when our 6-hour wait to witness history began. NASA had another full morning of program for us (Elmo didN’T join us this time ) so the time passed as we enjoyed ourselves with other activities such as the memorable group picture above (I’m in the SECOND row right of center next to the girl with the lime-green shirt in the first row) and the Astrovan carrying the STS-135 crew to launchpad LC-39A as we cheered them on. Not quite as momentous, I noticed I had made my 26,000th tweet (it’s taken me a little over 4 years) about an hour before launch. Most memorable, we heard from Doug Crippen who was on Columbia for STS-1 in 1981!
As launch time approached, we moved out of our “TWent” to view the launch and I chose a vantage point away from the crowd because I wanted to capture the SOUND of the launch rather than merely its imagery. When I witnessed the launch of STS-133 from Titusville earlier, I was disappointed that I could not hear the shuttle’s engines!
I used Audioboo on my iPad and recorded on my Flip camera as well. I’m so glad I brought the Flip for backup because for some reason still unknown to me (I think there’s a time limit on length of a boo), Audioboo stopped recording before the launch. One of the reasons why I stayed closer to the TWent was to stay within range of the WiFi which NASA had so graciously provided in the TWent. Next time, I think I’ll just use Griffin Technology’s iTalk app and then upload the sound file later. That app has worked very well for me when I podcasted my classes earlier. Here’s what I managed to get with the Flip and here’s someone else’s which is much better.
After the launch, we hung out to wait for the traffic to clear…I still haven’t heard any estimates of the size of the crowd. By mid-afternoon, I decided to leave after our NASA hosts told us they would be taking down the WiFi (I know I’m so predictable) and that was just as well because the trip home at that point was uneventful except for its ease! I didn’t even have to use my original plan to head north to enter Seminole County via State Road 46. Instead I went west on State Road 50 toward Orlando (it was a mess after STS-133) and I encountered no traffic until just west of Christmas so I just turned off at Christmas to head north for Seminole County. That was the same route I had used earlier that morning.
So as you can see, it was a very good day. I witnessed history as I would want my descendants to note. Nevertheless, if I ever have any grandchildren, I would want them to know that this day wasn’t nearly as memorable as the day on which their parents were born and I became a father!
I wish you the same joy as well!

#NASAtweetup: Day L-1

2011-07-08T05:33:00.000-04:00

It was a rainy day in central Florida with a torrential downpour throughout much of the day at Kennedy Space Center (KSC)! The weather outlook for scheduled L-0 (July 8, 2011) is uncertain so as I write this post, I am hoping to get at least a little sleep before I check to see if NASA tanks the shuttle so that I know to begin my trek to KSC with as many as a million other people.

Most of those folks won’t get as great a view of the launch whenever it happens (I’m so glad I live near!) nor will they have the opportunity we had today to witness the retraction of the Revolving Service Structure at launchpad LC-39A (see photo above) in advance of preparing Atlantis for launch. While that was certainly the highlight of the day, we had a full day filled with activities as diverse as NASA briefings mixed with astronauts hamming it up with Elmo from Sesame Street! See my social media aggregation at NASAtweetup.info to get some sense of our day. My own lifestream (including my Flickr set) is on the “curator” tab.

Although I think I fell asleep (I woke at 3 this morning!) after dinner shortly after I got home from KSC, I’m going to get at least a little sleep now…hoping for good weather although a delay would give me a chance to recuperate!

#STS135 #NASAtweetup weather report

2011-07-07T10:23:00.001-04:00

It is RAINING at our TWent...I guess it didn't help that I brought an umbrella ;-)

I'm actually seeing if I can post again. Until I can get to my Tablet PC, you can find my latest http://NASAtweetup.info post at http://OrlandoNewbie.com

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Saturn Causeway,Cape Canaveral,United States

#NASAtweetup: NASAtweetup.info on Day L-2

2011-07-07T07:34:00.000-04:00

courtesy of http://www.facebook.com/netvibes

It was a good day. I picked up my credentials at Kennedy Space Center Press Accreditation and got a commemorative t-shirt at Space Shirts to wear on day L-0 because we’re wearing our NASAtweetup shirts on day L-1. Being an Orlando Newbie, I also learned my way around the Space Coast much better!

The highlight of the day was a tweet by Robert Scoble which shared the social media aggregation NASAtweetup.info which I built as a Netvibes public page. As I explained in my previous post, I am now turning my attention to its original purpose to aggregate the content generated by the NASA Tweetup tweeps. I have seeded the first few tabs, e.g. Twitter, with widgets where I already expect to find relevant content and I’ll be adding more later today as I learn more from my fellow tweeps about where else they intend to share their unique experience. Whether you’re a Tweetup participant or a viewer, check out the “General” tab to maximize your NASA TweetUp experience!

Watch with us as history is made at the final launch of NASA’s space shuttle program!

Let me know IF the NCAA goes after NASA’s Final Four.

#NASAtweetup: #STS135, day L-3

2011-07-06T13:17:00.001-04:00

Courtesy of http://twitter.com/lartist

As day L-3 closed and L-2 beckoned, I was exhausted trying to “drink from the firehose” of the closed Facebook group for STS-135 NASAtweetup. To help my fellow tweeps, I’ve been highlighting some of that content at my social media aggregation NASAtweetup.info as we prepared for this historic event. I’ve prepared a 30-second video to explain my intention.

My original motivation for the aggregation is chronicling the event itself so I have to turn my attention to that task. Stay tuned for a post about that.

I’m going to #NASATweetUp…better than Disney World!

2011-06-29T17:04:00.001-04:00

Courtesy of http://twitter.com/lartist

For some time, I have been aware of my selection for the NASA TweetUp for the FINAL shuttle launch. For various reasons, I haven’t said much publicly about this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be part of history! Here’s my public reaction for “The Space Crowd” film…hope I “make the cut” instead of the floor.

Especially, I’ve been working on a social media aggregation http://NASATweetUp.info after not having done any for over a year so I’m a little “rusty”, but I finally have a version which is ready for “soft” launch. On the “General” tab, read “How to participate” which explains how you may either merely access or contribute (via crowdsourcing) content.

Although I’ve been aware of NASA TweetUp as an avid Twitter user, STS-135 is the first launch for which I actually applied for NASA TweetUp. For STS-133, the first launch after my recent move to Florida, it completely slipped my mind! I resolved to apply for STS-134, but did not realize that the application window was only 24 hours so I missed that opportunity. Realizing that STS-135 was my last opportunity to apply for a shuttle launch, I applied shortly after NASA began accepting applications and subsequently learned, to my absolute delight, that I was one of the fortunate 150 successful applicants out of more than 5500 tweeps!

As I have learned more about my fellow participants, I have been impressed by the diversity and passion of the group. I am humbled by how much some of them know about the shuttle program as well as how far some of them are traveling to attend (someone is coming from Australia!) since I live so close. I knew much more about the Apollo program which occurred while I was a student at Purdue, “mother” of astronauts, and I did see an Apollo launch many years ago. That memory has caused me to wonder if I’m the oldest participant after I realized that some of my fellow participants weren’t even born yet when fellow Purdue alumnus Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon! I’ll let you know if I find out.

Likewise, I witnessed STS-133, my first shuttle launch, from the beach in Titusville so I was somewhat “disappointed” that I was unable to HEAR the shuttle because I was so far from the launchpad. I have been assured that I will not be disappointed this time because we will witnessing history from the press viewing site which is only 3 miles from the launchpad! I hope the crowd noise doesn’t drown out the shuttle!

Mobilized: this blog now has a mobile template

2011-06-27T12:37:00.001-04:00

I've been 'frustrated' that this blog wasn't 'mobile-friendly' so I am very happy that it now IS! I don't know when Google launched mobile template for Blogspot blogs, but I just discovered they did...just in time to go with my new-found ability to post from my iPad as I've already posted.

Hopefully, this feature will also motivate me to post regularly.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

How to really use the Internet

2011-06-25T09:05:00.000-04:00

Hugh MacLeod’s recent post with the same title (forgive me Hugh) motivated me to write this post to explain why I bought the BlogPress app for my iPad to facilitate my use of the Adonit keyboard which I just bought. This post started as a review of BlogPress, but I really haven’t used it yet. Anyway, I found a BlogPress review for WordPress blogs, but I’m still looking for one relevant to Blogger users which was my motivation for buying it.

Instead, I’ll be reacting to Hugh’s recent post in which he makes the case for blogging which has always been a challenge for me personally. As you can see from this blog, I can do it well enough, but I don’t do it “often enough” or regularly!

I’m hoping that the combination of the iPad, Adonit, and BlogPress will remedy that! Although I’ve been primarily using Twitter to interact with people who I care about as well as to express serious opinions via tweets about news and opinion shows which I'm viewing, I do admit to longing for a “totally different league of Internet use” as Hugh implores us to aspire. I recognize that the “Internet has given us a HUGE, life-changing opportunity that simply didn’t exist a generation ago” and I admit that I’ve been wasting it!

How about YOU?

I’ll be meeting Hugh at next month’s NASA TweetUp for the last space shuttle launch (see? I haven’t even posted about that!) so I’ll be talking to him about this and I hope to thank him someday as well.

TWO life-changing opportunities!

Happy Father’s Day to ME!

2011-06-20T08:32:00.000-04:00

As a Father’s Day gift to myself, I ordered a refurbished iPad 1 a few weeks ago and was thrilled when it arrived on the day before we left for our recent visit to Indianapolis so I was able to test if I would be able to “survive” with it as my primary Internet device for an entire week. It passed that test!

For some time, I had been torn between buying a new iPad 2 or a refurbished iPad 1. That issue was settled by two factors. First, a review convinced me that the faster processor and two cameras on the iPad 2 were not features that particularly appealed to my use cases for the iPad. Second, I discovered that an iPad 2 model of the highly-rated Adonit keyboard did not yet exist. Since I really wanted a keyboard, I realized that the $150 price differential between a new iPad 2 and a refurbished iPad 1 would more than pay for the Adonit so that sealed the deal!

The keyboard arrived the day before Father’s Day so I was going to write this post with the Adonit, but decided to do that when I post about the BlogPress app since that was motivated by the acquisition of the Adonit.

Mobilizing

2011-04-30T22:05:00.001-04:00

I finally got a new phone which I'll tell you more about in a subsequent post but I really wanted to try posting from my phone to see how easy it would be in hopes of posting more often!

At the same time. I was motivated to work on a mobile-friendly version of my online identity so try the QR code and tell me in the comments what you think of it. It also serves as the start page of my mobile browser. I used Delivr to create the QR code which also provides analytics. I used Winksite to create it and have been using it for some time but my QR code may also make it more accessible to others until they build their own. It's very easy!

Did Florida Governor Rick Scott really do that?

2011-01-20T22:39:00.001-05:00

Tonight, newly-elected Florida Governor Rick Scott held a “Twitter Town Hall” during which he tweeted in response to questions which had been tweeted during the last 24 hours including at least one question which was apparently tweeted DURING the event. I’ve had an entire day to “suspect” any number of theories regarding HOW and WHY he would do this, but I have come to the conclusion that this “PR stunt” merely confirms how much of a “miracle” his recent victory was indeed!

I did not vote in the primary election because I could not make up my mind between Governor Scott and former Attorney General Bill McCollum and until the day of the general election, it was still a toss-up in my mind between Scott and former Florida CFO Alex Sink. I won’t say who I did vote for, but in any case, Scott won by fewer than 100,000 votes or about 1 percentage point.

I hope he’s more successful at running the State of Florida and creating jobs (his major platform issue) than his handlers are at social media! During the event, Governor Scott TWICE responded to tweets addressed to @FLGovRickScott (Not Rick Scott), a Twitter account which “tweckled” during the Twitter Town Hall:

Tweet to @Floridavoters (sent to @FLGovRickScott)
Retweeting question addressed to @FLGovRickScott

They were legitimate questions from a couple of tweeters, but I wouldn’t have chosen those two questions from among many good questions which were submitted during the day-long submission period.

Am I nit-picking?

Do you feel compelled to "keep up" with all of the new social media sites? If so, why? If not, why not?

2011-01-17T08:08:00.001-05:00

I do indeed & can't seem to help myself although I realize it's keeping me from being great at ANY ONE thing. I justify it because some have told me how much they've learned from me! Of course, I personally use much of what I discover.

Ask me anything