Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech

Last week I got to spend 3 full days learning all about Palm(R) handhelds and the wonders of one to one computing. Very cool and the possibilities continue to mount.

I scheduled my flights to insure I was able to spend a full day in San Francisco. So Saturday was my day to enjoy the city by the bay.

Being a small town boy and never having been to San Fran, I wanted to make sure I was prepared for the day and get the most out my time. So early preparations began with many tours using Google Earth.  I created a folder of all the major sites that included, transportation, hotels, sights, geocaches and more. Next I downloaded the BART schedule to my Palm® TX so I knew exactly when and where to catch the train. I also downloaded several geocaches into my device as well as a tourism application for San Francisco.

Arriving on Saturday morning at the corner of Powell St. and Market, I hoped on a cable car and headed for the Fisherman’s Wharf. I walked around a bit and decided to go after my first geocache.  I headed away from the water and was quickly walking in a residential area. I knew the cache was supposed to be in a garden so something was wrong. Pulled out my TX and connected wirelessly to someone’s router and retrieved the information. I had entered in a wrong coordinate so I changed it and was on my way. Found the cache and explored a nearby park.

Then I walked towards Pier 41 and 39 and got a cruise of the Bay. After the cruise I looked for my second cache. Smallest cache I’ve ever found. Using my map, I got the bus up to Coit Tower and later connected to Lombard Street.

When back downtown and send a few emails from Union Square. Got my train back to the hotel and the shuttle to airport.

I’ve posted before about using technology for travel, it truly did allow me to plan and enjoy my day.  I only made one mistake. My flight left at 22:15 which for some stupid reason I told myself that was 11:15pm. They had already taken my luggage off the plane but kindly put it back as I realized my error.  Can I convert my Palm handheld to recognize the 24 hour clock or do I have to figure that out on my own?

I created a little story about geocaching using BubbleShare. BubbleShare is an essential in digital storytelling. I’ve used it before and also RockYou but the features in Bubbleshare make it #1 in photo stories online.

Bud posted this on his blog and 2 things caught my attention. The first is somewhat insignificant to the post but the fact that Bud asked the student to use their cell phone to call the number on the book made me think about the ease and natural way we could be using this technology. The second thing I like about this is that I love the way this book appears to be intergrating traditional media with digital media. Writing a book that requires folks to seemlessly move from online information to group problem solving is really interesting.

Written by one of the creators of I Love Bees, an early incarnation of an ARG (alternate reality game), Cathy’s Book is a puzzle wrapped inside a book and scattered around lots of voice mail boxes, collections of documents, websites, and . . . well, we’re not sure what else yet. We just know it’s addictive and contagious. At least one other student here at school is waiting to read the book, and we’re all reading voraciously; we even met up today during lunch to check in on the progress that we’ve each made. (All of us had discovered different clues that allowed us to access various hidden puzzles. We needed each other to make the picture begin to be complete. VERY COOL.)

I like the idea of a novel that uses a narrative that exists in lots of places. I’ve written this before, but I really, really think there’s potential in these types of stories, stories where we have to access different types of information and begin to make sense of what’s real, what’s relevant, and what’s important to the story.

After only a day of reading Cathy’s Book, I’m hooked, as are my students. The only problem I see with that excitement is that in a week or two, we’re going to need another book that engages us in this way.

I’m currently writing a chapter for the new Coming of Age book on geocaching. One of the things I love about geocaching is the way it naturally involves physical activity, problem solving and physical activity. These are both very natural ways of learning and experiencing the world where technology is critical but sits nicely in the background.

Came back from vacation down to Yellowstone last night. A big thanks to Wes for guestblogging. As expected, he did an outstanding job and of course manage to post some great stuff.

Looking back at our holiday, there were a number of ways technology was used to create a better vacation.

• Wiki. We travelled with another family and used a wiki to plan out the details. While I basically did all the editing, everyone viewed it many times prior to the trip and we all sat down and used it to finalize things. When travelling with another family, it was nice to have many things pre-planned.
• Flickr. Friends and family members loved being able to keep up with things along the way. In addition, it enabled me to deal with all the pictures in smaller chunks rather than doing it all after the fact. I also found a great little bookmarklet that easily adds a geotag to your photos. I also incorporated a little tip found at photojojo.com that we had a lot of fun with.

• Youtube. I was even able to create a short video and upload it to youtube.
• Blog. Providing short updates rather than emailing, allowed me to describe some of the details of our trip.
• Geocaching. Had the opportunity to do a few geocaches which led us to some interesting places we may not have found otherwise…Ousell Falls being one.
• Cellphones and text messaging. We needed to text message each other throughout the trip as the US charges $1 a minute for cellphone use.

I’ll definitely use these again for future vacations.

Had an interesting day at Ross with Grades 4 and 5 introducing them to GPS and Geocaching. We certainly had some problems getting accurate satellite readings. Even with all the problems, there was no lack of interest and enthusiasm. Lots of math, science and social studies concepts are necessary for them to develop understanding on Global Positioning. We’ll try again on Friday.

This is the location of the parking lot.
.

Here are the enthusiastic kids.

My dad turns 73 this month. For Christmas, I bought him a GPS or Global Postioning device.,
I’ve now got him hooked on geocaching. Geocaching is like a big game of hide and seek but there’s more to it. He has found over 10 caches in his winter home of Lakeland, Florida. He planted his first cache this week. He calls me a few times a week to keep me updated. On my recent trip to Florida, we got to do several caches together. We had a blast.
Technology doesn’t know how old you are.