Popfly is SO cool! Published 2007-05-21 under collaboration, creativity, gadgets, tools

This morning I came across a service/website created by Microsoft called Popfly. From the website, "Popfly is the fun, easy way to build and share mashups, gadgets, Web pages, and applications." Popfly consists online visual tools for building mashups without programming experience.

Our team's vision is to democratize development by making it approachable to an entire class of people that want to "create" without necessarily having to write code. We believe that if you can send an email, you should be able to build and personalize your own website, mashup, social networking site, or blog.

This project is still in an Alpha release, but it is really cool and offers wonderful opportunities for educators. The downside, it only runs on IE (6.0 +) and Firefox (2.0 +). Nonetheless, check out the Popfly screencast. You will be amazed.

Technorati Tags: Popfly Silverlight Microsoft gagets web tools

We Need to Talk Published 2007-01-11 under gadgets

The question, "So, what do you think of the new iPhone?" was the common denominator in all of my meetings yesterday. It did not matter with whom I was meeting, a leadership coach, retired labor contract negotiator, a portrait artist, an adult-ed administrator, or a high school teacher. Each asked my opinion of Apple's newest addition to their "i" products - "a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough Internet communications device" [apple.com]. I was clear that I was considered an expert on all thing techie. The funny thing was that while I had seen references to the iPhone on in my feed aggregator, I had not actually read anything details.

My lack of interest in iPhone has to due with the fact that I only occasionally use my cell phone and am certainly not tied to my PDA (which is way out of sych). I am not really interested in gadgets like others (he says while posting a blog at an outdoor cafe). But all of the interest in the iPhone has actually got me thinking.

First, I must say, Apple is one cool company when it comes to marketing. They were able to generate great buzz in a product that I know none of those folks with whom I met yesterday will ever need. I am fascinated with how buzz is generated and Apple certainly has a good understanding how to spark interest in their products. How many folks do you know that think that there is only one MP3 player - the iPod?

The second thing that got me thinking is how the iPhone or a similar device will be the norm in classrooms. The current version of the iPhone needs some refinement to meet the needs of educators (including a dramatic reduction in price!), but it does give us a view into the future. Debates on 1:1 computing will be moot as everyone will have a handheld device for communication, research and collaboration.

I see the iPhone as a wake up call for me to get more experience with mobile devices in education and visit classrooms where learning is being enhanced through the use of these gadgets.

FAQs on the iPhone

Tags: iPhone, 1:1

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