REDONDOWRITER'S SACRED ORDINARY

Tech Tuesday Introduces Several New Free Apps (whew, long)

One of the advantages of working in a school is that we are constantly given training, if we want it, on how to use applications not only for classrooms, the library, or our areas of expertise, but for personal use. The younger teachers are very savvy; technology is second nature to most of them, but many of us have to be trained as to the myriad of teaching and learning possibilities out there. 

Once a month it’s Tech Tuesday for faculty and staff for one hour. Yesterday it was billed as Newseum and other networking applications. Our website already has private access for students and faculty to have wikis and blogs for class work.

Though I am a long-time computer user who utilizes many task and project oriented applications, my social networking apps have been primarily blogs, Facebook, Twitter and Skype so far. Our training began with the relevancy of Facebook and Twitter for more than strictly social purposes.  Since I am a sponge for learning and teaching and embarrassed by the time I sometimes waste “playing” on the Internet, now I can rationalize my usage better. (Can't I?) I’ll admit that I’m not an iPhone, Blackberry, iPod or MP3 user—yet. I guess all these social networking apps can be downloaded to the phones.

Facebook. Most of us know that Facebook started out as a social networking site reserved only for college students, but now it's for everyone. Created by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004, Facebook has quickly turned into a popular cyber destination for teenagers and adults of all ages. Whether you are posting pictures, linking to published works, using it to keep in touch with friends far away, or using it to create cohesion within your company, Facebook has taken on several practical uses. On March 2, Southern California Public Radio's Larry Mantle talked to Greg Atwan, co-author of The Facebook Book, about the frenzy around the popular website and the future of Facebook. The link will take you to the podcast. I found it very informative. 

Twitter. Yesterday we had a quick overview although almost everyone already had an account or knew about it. The following links were given to us today that really gave me a strong sense that Twitter has a lot more going for it than I had previously understood. I came to Twitter almost as reluctantly as to answering machines back in the early 1980s, but after yesterday's presentation, I realized that the app has a lot more going for it than I previously understood. For example, try Academic Hack,  Tech 42, or College at Home. 

Next came two Daylife applications by Jonathan Harris.

We Feel Fine is an exploration of human emotion on a global scale. Since August 2005, We Feel Fine has been harvesting human feelings from a large number of weblogs. Every few minutes, the system searches the world's newly posted blog entries for occurrences of the phrases "I feel" and "I am feeling". When it finds such a phrase, it records the full sentence, up to the period, and identifies the "feeling" expressed in that sentence (e.g. sad, happy, depressed, etc.). Because blogs are structured in largely standard ways, the age, gender, and geographical location of the author can often be extracted and saved along with the sentence, as can the local weather conditions at the time the sentence was written. All of this information is saved.

The result is a database of several million human feelings, increasing by 15,000 - 20,000 new feelings per day. Using a series of playful interfaces, the feelings can be searched and sorted across a number of demographic slices, offering responses to specific questions like: do Europeans feel sad more often than Americans? Do women feel fat more often than men? Does rainy weather affect how we feel? What are the most representative feelings of female New Yorkers in their 20s? What do people feel right now in Baghdad? What were people feeling on Valentine's Day? Which are the happiest cities in the world? The saddest? And so on. (OK, why, you ask?)

Universe reveals our modern mythology by supporting the exploration of personal mythology, allowing each of us to find our own constellations, based on our own interests and curiosities. I haven’t figured out yet how this works. Way over my head. 

Newseum blends high-tech with the historical. It’s actually a 250,000-square-foot museum of news — offering visitors an experience that blends five centuries of news history with up-to-the-second technology and hands-on exhibits. The Newseum in reality is located at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and Sixth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., but the link above allows you to visit the Newseum virtually.

Voicethread allows distance learning anew for business and education. It allows discussions to extend beyond the classroom walls by capturing the voices of students and educators anytime and anywhere, although it obviously has social/personal potential, too. The teachers were particularly excited by this app.

Second Life. One of our part-time librarians is also a college librarian and she introduced Second Life, a free online virtual world for higher education imagined and created by its residents, or avatars. From the moment you enter Second Life, you'll discover a fast-growing digital world filled with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity. I’ll admit I have never been a gamer, but most of our younger learners are fully in-tune with this kind of model. Universities all over the country are using Second Life and there’s a link there for Sloodle and Moodle which I did not understand at all. This site would take days to learn I think, but the opportunities for learning are limitless. I would definitely have a very high learning curve. 

Then came two sites just for fun: Pandora and Slacker. Both are free personalized radio  services featuring  a myriad of expertly programmed genre stations and the ability to create your own perfect stations . I have set up a Sarah Brightman-like station in Pandora to write this entry. I Pandora came out of the Music Genome Project.

I can't imagine that any of you stayed this long, but if you did, won't you share apps that you know that are used for social networking, but can also be used for learning--or fun. 

Tech Tuesday: Google Notebook and Search Engines

One of the beauties of working in a K-12 school is that our tech staff often gives us classes or tutorials so we at least know some of what the kids seem to know from kindergarten on, if not sooner. I forget sometimes that for a woman my age I have an innate curiosity about all things Internet and I love to keep on learning. This is a photo I took in the kindergarten a few months back. They have several computers there for the little ones to use. 

Today we, meaning teachers and staff who were interested, learned about Google Notebook. This was a new tool for me although I use Google Search, Google Earth and Google Images, and I know I probably "should" get a Gmail account. Everyone who has one seems to love it. 

You have to have a Google account to use Google Notebook, but if you don't already have one, you can get one easily. If you want to cut and paste text and photos into your different notebooks, you do have to have to download a browser extension. Also, it seems to only work with Firefox and Internet Explorer 6 and under. I use both Firefox and Apple's Safari browsers, but it isn't compatible with Safari. 

We all practiced how the site works and if you try it, be sure to note that in very tiny blue letters in the bottom left corner there is a Help button. Tomorrow I'll read that as I have a feeling there is a lot we didn't learn today. Various software has this capacity, but it's nice to have stuff all in Google. 

Next the librarians went over several of the research links that are available via my school's website--and are available generally in public libraries as well. I'm particularly fond of ProQuest Platinum and JSTOR. I have access to a ProQuest search for old newspapers beginning in 1850, although it is by subscription.

I did learn three new search engines today which are particularly interesting for students doing research. I primarily use Google and Yahoo. They are Clusty, Exalead and Kidzui. Kidzui is an amazing engine and instructional activities site that the K-6 kids use, so check it out for your kids and grandkids. 

Because I use my laptop for work as well as home, I was eligible to download the new educational Adobe CS3 suite including Photoshop CS, Illustrator, and InDesign. For Mac this requires a newer computer, which my laptop is, and my work desktop is the newest iMac. I have long used PhotoShop, but on Thursday I take my first of three three-hour classes in PhotoShop. Later I'm scheduled for InDesign which has replaced Quark and PageMaker for me. I am so excited!

And, I'm finally up and running on FaceBook and Twitter. Who would have thunk? 

Computers: Where My Friends Live

For the past few days, in my "discretionary" time (meaning when I'm not at work), I've been doing the research, writing and editing of my South Bay Macintosh Users Group newsletter. One of our members sent me this cartoon which, unfortunately, is not attributed, but it sure is true about how I feel about you. And, I am including it in the newsletter. 

All of us who use computers find communications with our family members, old friends and cyber friends a lot easier and consequently deeper; at least that's my opinion. Now, if all our friends were just the ones who live in our computers, I guess we would need cyber psychiatrists to sort out why. Health is a question of balance, I've always believed. 

Changing the subject slightly, have you seen the new Microsoft ad featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates? Personally I find it kind of touching, if not totally understandable, but Seinfeld has always been mostly about nothing--and that's why I love him so. You can see the ad on YouTube or any number of other places, and there is a growing group of critics who seem to either love or hate the ad. You might get a kick out of The Baltimore Sun's David Zeiler at the Apple a Day Blog writing about "Truth in advertising: New Microsoft Windows ad about "nothing."

Then you can go to a favorite fun computer site and participate in a poll about the ad that will make you smile. Go to: Geek Culture's Joy of Tech and see where you fare with other poll takers. 

Blaugustine Explores Topic of Older Female Geeks

Do you read artist, writer and multi-media maven Natalie d’Arbeloff’s alter-ego blog Blaugustine? This is Natalie, drawn by Natalie, as Blaugustine, taken from her website. She is an amazing woman, funny as hell, and I have gotten a lot of inspiration from her. She has a lot of her cartoons, movies, and everything else under the sun at her blog.

She was a guest editor for the UK Guardian this past week and she wrote an article about “Where are all the older female geeks?”  It’s really well written and moi is quoted there.

I’m so honored to have been included with the following bloggers: Finnish-Canadian Marja-Leena, Penelope in Spain at Granny P., Rain in Oregon at Rainy Day Thoughts ,  Tamar, New Jersey at Mining Nuggets, and Beth in Montreal's, Cassandra Pages

As for me claiming the title of geek; not quite, but I am a wanna-be-geek in the respect that I'd like to have the knowledge, but use my knowledge to help others learn in more user friendly language than classic geeks generally have. And also to learn more applications, becoming more savvy on the Internet, and to spice up my blog. I’ve used computers since the early 1980s but began to use Macs in 1990. I use both platforms, but I really prefer Mac. Once you are in the Internet, there’s not a lot of difference, however.

Why does someone my age want to continue learning and learning about computers and applications? I guess because I can. Like that old question about why a climber wants to climb Mt. Everest; because it’s there. I’ve long been comfortable in word processing and some publishing programs and have been on the Internet and listservs since the early ‘90s. This is my fourth year blogging. Yes, I do get really frustrated sometimes when I am trying to learn new things, but along with Cookie, my computer has become a glorious challenge and a way of even extending my community more. Many of my older friends will use e-mail but refuse to go any further, but using e-mail is a really cool thing for people of all ages. I just love to encourage older people to give computers and the Internet a try.

Let’s hear it for all the older women—and men—who find such joy with computers. Do you fit in this category?

Geek Culture and Me. Who Would Have Thunk?

If you want to really get an hour’s enjoyment, especially if you are a Mac user (but it's still funny if you are not), click over to Geek Culture’s Joy of Tech website. My tech and Mac learning curve is very high right now—so please bear with my obsession. One of the guys in my Mac Users Group shared my new favorite link. Check out the really funny e-greeting cards, cartoons and quizzes. 

A user of Macs since 1990, I have largely learned only what I've had to for work and now pure pleasure on the creative side. However, since I joined the local users group last December, I have learned so many new things—mostly from the self-professed geeks aka techies aka nerds. There are abundant average users like me just trying to figure out new Mac apps and the Internet we can understand and utilize. Some members are beginners or switchers, which means coming to the Mac platform from PCs. Sometimes when the techs communicate I have to continuously translate into terms I understand. They tease me and call me the English major. What follows is my personal history with techs.

I have always gotten along well with what our club president calls: en-gen-eers. I worked at Lockheed and Northrop in the engineering marketing departments when I was young, mostly typing what the techs wrote out by hand. Engineering handwriting, grammar and spelling are a challenge. Back then most of them were degreed in mathematics, electronics or physics, at least those who went into the aerospace field. The South Bay area of Los Angeles where I live is the mothership of the aerospace industry. Computers were just beginning to be commonplace in 1959, when my then husband Ray graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in mathematics. He went to college on the G.I. bill and I worked at the university in the Crops and Poultry Departments. He was hired by Northrop right after graduation as an electronics engineer/programmer. (I got a PHT degree—Cal Poly’s recognition for those of us “Putting Hubby Through.”) I realized back then, because all of the husbands were engineers, that inter-relating was sometimes challenging, but I really liked being around those guys, most of them Korean War-era vets. They thought differently than I did. 

Ray’s post-college job offer was $560 a month with benefits and we were overjoyed after living on the G.I. bill and my $250 a month job in the Crops and Poultry department. Cal Poly was an agriculture and engineering school then. Both of us had grown up poor and that salary seemed humongous. My serious life of living with one engineer and chumming with lots of others was new to me. I learned that the engineering or techie personality is often stereotyped—and the guys hated being stereotyped. Some tended to be non-communicative in social situations, distanced emotionally from others, ignorant of fashion and fitting in and only comfortable when they were either doing tech stuff or talking to someone else about it. Nobody even knew what OCD was back then, but in retrospect, many of them probably were diagnosable. My husband was not stereotypical, though he had a few of the traits. He was and is very social, family oriented to the nth degree, responsible and damned funny.

Most engineers I’ve known would be branded in today’s world as left brained, but I’ve observed that they usually marry or partner with creative, right brained people. Both personalities are attracted to the other. The University of Wisconsin did an easy-to-read article for the Wisconsin Engineer in 1997 that you might get a kick out of reading. I did.

The reason I was drawn to write about what I have is that last night I had a dream that I was back at Northrop in the midst of the marketing/engineering bull pen where I once worked. There the guys all were—short sleeved white shirts, pocket protectors and slide rules. Some were playing bridge because it was lunchtime. We were laughing and telling jokes and they were being sexist because that’s the way things were then. One even patted by butt and I blushed. Yes, I do like engineers and I’m glad to be among ‘em again.

Oh, and another link some of you might like: cross platform: The Jing Project, free download. The concept of Jing is the always-ready program that instantly captures and shares images and video, from your computer to anywhere. 

 

 

   

You've Got Male

I have been so busy at my paid work and my volunteer activities lately that I haven't had much time to spend at the blog. At the moment I am preparing to write, edit and produce my first newsletter for the South Bay Macintosh Users Group and trying to understand our new wiki well enough that I can write about it without sounding stupid. 

When I was teaching journalism, there was always a cartoon in every issue of the student newspaper. I want to incorporate one in my newsletter so I found several for upcoming issues. This one really fit where I am in my life right now because my newest grandson is due within the next 30 days--and his doc dad is a computer guy. He's sure not an AOL guy, however. 

Only a few more weeks of work before I have my summer hiatus--yay! But, I'll structure my time to spend more of it on my community volunteer projects. I'm on two Boards of the Peninsula Friends of the Library, active in my Mac group, and I'm trying to produce a digital art portrait for the Redondo Beach Art Group's Power of Art Show in October. 

You can teach an old dog new tricks. I am just so grateful that on the whole I am healthy and energetic and that I do have such diverse interests. I continue to make more and more really fascinating new friends.