High Techpectations

Apple - iPod shuffle

Link: Apple - iPod shuffle.

I gave the 1G model to my seven year old daughter for Christmas, and it's a big hit! The only problem is the ear buds; they are too large for her ears. Currently, we are using a pair of traditional headphones left over from a Walkman like device, but some Sony earbuds have been recommended to me. So we shall see.

It looks like we will be able to fit about 270 audio files on Julia's iPod. We have a variety of kids' music already loaded in iTunes as well as a few audio books. For instance, we visited NYC last summer and I compiled a playlist of New York themed songs. This playlist also included the audiobook of A Cricket in Times Square. We listened to the book together using a splitter on my iPod while traveling. Julia really loved it when we visited the real Times Square!

Anyway, my advice regarding setting up a shuffle is to think through your playlist. I arranged the playlist to sync with the shuffle so that the audiobooks come first. It was difficult for Julia to click through all her songs to get to the books with my original playlist, so I just rearranged things to have the books first.

I'm getting such a kick out of Julia with her Shuffle. She sat in her rocking chair, reading books and listening to music tonight. Occasionally, she starts singing out loud, too. At one point, she wanted to watch TV AND listen to her iPod, but I thought that was a bit much!

LeSportsac: Shop by Color

Link: Shop by Color.

This LeSportsac pattern caught my eye recently as I was shopping at Field's. Thought it might be of interest to other female Mac addicts out there!

MacDailyNews - Apple and Mac News - Welcome Home

Link: MacDailyNews - Apple and Mac News - Welcome Home.

Here's an article mostly about political problems at some college I've never even heard of, but to me, the most interesting part is in bold type. A teacher is being relieved of her student newspaper adviser duties and one of the reasons is that , " student staff, because they use Macintosh computers, are not being prepared for the real world".

How absurd and ignorant is that? Again, it's not the platform, dummy. Our students will be truly prepared for the "real world" if computer use is transparent to them. They should be able to sit down at any computer and use critical thinking skills to figure out the basics of a computer. It's about what you produce with a computer, not how you use the machine.

Apple's Tribute to Rosa Parks

Link: Apple.

I'm not sure how long the picture I am describing will remain so I'm just going to describe it here. After spending many hours looking at the blogs of others recently, I have not found anything particularly compelling to write about. The following is definitely worth pointing out to others.

Another ADE posted on our community site about Apple's web site today. The message was a bit cryptic, so I went to Apple's homepage. There was a picture of Rosa Parks along with name and the years of her birth and death with the familiar Think Different slogan. Clicking on the picture leads to an article about her life. Very cool. I hope they make this a tradition for acknowledge those who've changed our society.

I loved the original Think Different campaign and have a few of the posters which I have packed away somewhere. Wouldn't it be nice if there more people out there who chose to think out of the box?

Sam at the Apple Store

One of my Gen Y students was asked to give a presentation at the Apple store on Pages. Sam did a fabulous job; I was impressed with his poise and expressive manner! Incidentally, Sam has his own consulting company http://samkaplancomputing.com/.

The Michigan Avenue store was quite busy, but I did manage to spend more money on things I don't really need, but I certainly want! I did take a quick peek at the new video iPod, and it's very thin and light. The picture quality was great and big enough for me to enjoy watching a video. I hope Santa will bring me one this Christmas!

Apple Store Field Trip

I met my NLU students at Apple's Michigan Avenue store tonight for class. I designed a scavenger hunt for my students and Scott Murphy did a presentation on the iLife suite of software in the theatre.

When I arrived at the store, several students were already there. And, they had figured out how to do video chats already! I had told them on Tuesday that creating a video chat would be one of the requirements of the scavenger hunt. So I was impressed that they had already done this by the time I arrived on the scene. Their enthusiasm got me pumped for the field trip in general!

At the beginning of the theatre presentation, Scott asked our group what their impressions were of Apple. And, the usual comments were discussed... Apple products are more expensive.... not pervasive in the business community... etc. By the end of the presentation, I think the group fully understood about what makes Apple stuff so unique. Scott was a trooper and spend way more time than I expected leading us through iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto, and Garageband. My students asked really thoughtful questions, and seemed to be enjoying themselves. I think Garageband perhaps drew the most oohs and ahhs from our group.This trip was intended to show my students the power of multimedia, and I think that they got the general idea of how Apple can bring sound, video, and digital photography together seamlessly.

I'd like to know what everyone else thought of the trip. Please post your comments here. Have a great weekend! Here are some pics of our trip: http://homepage.mac.com/elemenous/Work/PhotoAlbum38.html

Lucy