Twitter in Education - Surely Not!

Image via CrunchBase

Interesting post over at ZDNet regarding Twitter in education.

More than the content of the post I think it's useful in reminding practitioners (and IT managers) that technology is not, in and of itself, good or bad, it's how we use it.

If Twitter can be used to take a quick poll of students without installing any fancy software - why not?

Look, Ma! Twitter’s useful! | Education IT | ZDNet.com

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Open Source Image Programming

Image via Wikipedia

Processing is

an open source programming language and environment for people who want to program images, animation, and interactions. It is used by students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists for
learning, prototyping, and production. It is created to teach fundamentals of computer programming within a visual context and to serve as a software sketchbook and professional production tool.

For anyone looking to teach programming images it looks a good bet.

Processing 1.0

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Didn't This Used to be Investigated by the Justice Department?

Image via Wikipedia

OK Here's the scam.

1. Invent an operating system that's full of vulnerabilities
2. Create some software that plugs the holes (let's call it OneCare, for example)
3. Sell it
4. Find that no-one buys it because others sell similar software except cheaper and better
5. Make your software free
6. Drive all the other manufacturers out of the game
7. Sell your software at a new, higher, price

Microsoft are at point five on the list. Six and seven are sure to follow soon.

In the meantime take advantage of their "generosity" to make your Windows machine safe to use.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Microsoft to offer free security

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PDF to Word Conversions - Online and Free

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PDF files are wonderful. They are a standard, feature rich, easy to use format that makes exchanging files easy. What they don't do well is exchange data.

I've lost count of the number of times I've received a PDF and wanted to grab the text and edit it. Anyone who's tried to do the same thing will testify that it can be one of the most frustrating computing problems around. I've spent inordinate amounts of time re-typing information contained in a PDF in order to be able to re-use it.

Enter, stage right, PDFundo. This web site allows you to upload a PDF and receive a Word file in return. For free. Without registration. And in real time.

What else can you possibly need to know?

Free PDF to Word Doc Converter! Just plain and simple pdf conversion software.

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How To Write Unmaintainable Code

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Anyone who has ever had to teach Software Development will know that students know this stuff without being taught. Roedy Green has, however, kindly written it down for us:

How To Write Unmaintainable Code

Mac Educational Applications Bundle

Image via Wikipedia MacUpdate do a daily offer for Mac software at vastly reduced prices.

The offer today is especially good containing ten applications aimed towards education including:

• Hookup
• Alarm Clock Pro
• Periscope
• DevonAgent
• Mellel
• Norrkross Movie
• Bookend

for just $49.99. I think that's about two jam jars in our money.

If enough bundles are sold MacJournal, Contactizer Pro and LightZone are added. This is a great deal that you should jump on.

Today's MacUpdate Promo, 40% off

Which Software?

Image by tsevis via Flickr

Everyone in education is currently making decisions on what software to use. Which manufacturer? What product? Which version?

It's about time we simply said no more and switched to online versions of software like Photoshop Express or Splashup. No more investment in software that will simply become outdated before it's out of the box. No more installation problems.

What could go wrong?

Splashup

OneNote for Education

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Microsoft Education Product Center: Microsoft Office OneNote 2007

I've never really got in to OneNote, Microsoft's free format note taking software. It looks fun but I've just not had time to really put it through its paces.

The new site from Microsoft might change that with its Teacher Toolkit containing templates and articles.

Try it and let me know how it goes in the comments. You might even convert me.