Where did the Summer Go?

As I write this post, I am reflecting on the past several days as my wife and I got my daughter situated and moved into her college dorm. If you have never moved a child into a a dorm or an apartment it sure is a lot of work! Once again another transition, as all of us move into our respective lines of work. Tomorrow I am back at the College of St. Elizabeth to start the Fall 2008 semester. It is hard to believe just how fast the summer went! I am eagerly awaiting to see my graduate students and look forward to sharing with them the trends and the new and exciting products that will soon be released. There is no escaping the impact that Web 2.0 has had on the field of educational and assistive technology as more and more mainstream tools on the web find their way into the work that we do. With free text to speech applications and the range of applications like Google Docs, Buzzword, Jing, and Jott- just to name a few, the combinations are endless as we craft our recommendations for the students we work with. As more and more teachers become aware of the power of wiki's- they can really begin to help students make their curriculum more accessible for those students that need it. All this summer I have been working with teachers on a math grant applying the principles of Universal Design for Learning into their math lesson plans. It has been exciting for me to watch how the teachers have embraced the UDL theory and have been able to plan accessible lessons which have been scaffolded with technology.

Reflecting on my trip to NECC 2008- this year will go down as the year of the netbook. If you haven't had a chance to look at these ultra small notebooks now is the time to do so. The netbooks will be seen as just one more vehicle for students to have a rather inexpensive tool to access the internet with. Weighing in at about 2.2 pounds these devices will will run Window XP and in many cases a variant of Linux. Asus, Acer, and HP have jumped into the bandwagon and soon Dell will announce their new netbook which will probably be released later this month. Schools will begin to look at these devices more seriously because of the cost and their functionality for the money. Many of the netbooks start at around $300 dollars and up. It should be interesting to watch as schools begin to adopt these tools.

Teaching at the college gives me another perspective from the vantage point of higher education as to how technology is being applied for instruction. At the college all students have access to Blackboard which is used as a portal for instruction. I have created some very rich courses using Blackboard that provide my students with a multitude of resources. Over the years I have developed many learning resources for my students using Camtasia Studio, a wonderful application for creating screencasts and video tutorials. At NECC 2008, I was introduced to Adobe Captivate 3 which I will add to my einstruction toolkit. Adobe Captivate 3 not only allows you to create video demonstrations, but also allows you to quickly develop compelling interactive media which you can output to Flash. I will be posting some more information about Adobe Captivate 3 in some later posts in September.

Certainly, collaboration is the buzzword and I'm sure going forward you will be hearing more and more about this as developers add these features into their existing applications. But you only have to look to Web 2.0 technologies to see that the foundation is already there for example in Google Docs and Buzzword, just to name a few. For this reason it will become even more important when we are educating our students and preparing them for the world or work that they have opportunities to work in teams and to collaborate with others outside the context of their school. Do what you can to seek out the exciting projects like the Flat Classroom Project that are taking place on the web to give your students these invaluable opportunities and experiences. I have learned that, yes the world is flat and having tools like Skype, Oovoo, CrossLoop, Yuuguu, Adobe ConnectNow and Dimdim, have allowed me to conduct the work that I do effortlessly without the need to leave my office. So reach out beyond your school and district and challenge your students to use these rich sets of tools to make learning more meaningful and rewarding.

I trust that this will be an exciting start to the school year and I look forward to sharing my ideas and experiences with you as I continue to explore and use new tools. Please feel free to email me with your comments and suggestions.

Adobe AIR version of Acrobat.com

In the past year I have written about Adobe and its unique set of online tools. Adobe continues to add features to their Acrobat.com site and provides all of us with an incredible tool set. I have written about Buzzword, Adobe's online word processing tool which has not only has a great looking interface but really gives you the feeling that you are working on a desktop application. If you have not given Buzzword a try it is worth checking out. I recently found that Adobe has released an Acrobat.com wideget that is written in Adobe AIR that gives you easy access to your files and application at Acrobat.com. Adobe's use of Flash and mix of Adobe AIR gives the applications a unique look which I find very pleasing to the eye. The programs work quickly over the internet and at times it is hard to belief that you are using these applications that reside on the internet. Here is how Adobe has described the widget:

The Adobe AIR version of Acrobat.com provides an easy way of interacting with Acrobat.com by dragging and dropping files and folders from your local computer directly into your Acrobat.com account, and browsing, previewing, sharing or publishing files easily from your computer. The application can be minimized to a widget on your desktop providing easy access to the Acrobat.com services.You can download the Acrobat.com widget and keep it on your desktop which makes uploading files and gain access to the applications that much easier.

Acrobat.com Widget



On the Acrobat.com website you can also use it to convert up to 5 documents to PDF format which could come in handy. You also get a fair amount of storage space where you can store your files and share them with others which can provide you with a way to collaborate on word processing documents. Buzzword does track all changes and revisions which makes it easy to see who did what and when.

One of the applications that I recently decided to try out on the Acrobat.com website was Adobe Connect, which lets you meet and share your computer screen online. Adobe ConnectNow lets you connect with two other computers which could make it ideal for doing small webinars and for providing technical support. Adobe ConnectNow allows you to use your webcam as well as setting up a pod for you to store documents and files that you would like your participants to have access to. Your participants are also provided with chatting capabilities and you can use your built-in webcam microphone to talk to your participants using VOIP. You can also choose to use the teleconference number that is available to you through Adobe ConnectNow. Considering the price of admission this is an invaluable tool and one you should look into. So if you get the chance download the Acrobat.com widget and let me know what you think.

Buzzword Has Been Updated

For those of us who are moving toward more collaborative tools on the Internet then you should take a look at Buzzword, a collaborative word processor from Adobe. I had a post earlier last year about the features and my first impressions but now it looks like with the support of Adobe that it is really becoming a unique product to take a look at. Once you are in the Buzzword environment you will find that the application is both fast and very visually attractive. I just received and email today about some feature enhancements which I thought you would be interested in knowing about.

New features in Buzzword Preview 7

Remember to clear your browser cache
before you try out the new version. If you would like instructions on clearing
your cache, go to: http://about.buzzword.com/support/emptycache.html



Colors in Tables

You can now add color to tables in
Buzzword - the background color can be set cell-by-cell or for the entire table.
You can create the look you want using both border colors and table cell colors
to enhance the contents.



Text Highlighter

Highlighting
text is one of the new features many of you have requested. Select the highlight
color from the font menu - for any color in our palette. It's a useful way to
draw attention to words, phrases or sections either for you, for others
co-authoring or reviewing a document.



User Information on Shared
Documents

When you're sharing documents, it's sometimes important to
know who has opened the document, which version they read, and so on. You can
now find that information by hovering over each user icon on the collaborator
bar. The new information tells you whether the person has opened the document
and, if so, whether he/she opened the current document or an earlier version. If
you want to send out a quick reminder, copy the document URL and email or IM
your team to remind them to read the document or review changes.



Sharing Invitation Links

Sometimes email inviting
colleagues to share a document can be delayed, or even worse, caught in a spam
filter. There is now a quick, direct way to invite people who are new to your
sharing list. On the collaborator bar, you'll see the option to copy the link
when you hover over the user's icon. Once you've shared a document, any new
documents you share appear in their Document Organizers automatically.



More Import and Export File Formats

Great news -
Buzzword now imports and exports .docx file formats for Microsoft Word 2007.
We've also added import/export plain text (txt), and export to HTML so that you
can use Buzzword to create documents that can be used with Wikis, web pages and
other applications.



Some Small Features and Tune Ups We Hope
You'll Like

Buzzword is a work in progress. We've made a number of
improvements based on user feedback. For example, the Font menu shows a sample
of the font; we've added strike-through; and Buzzword remembers the sort order
in the Document Organizer from the last time you used Buzzword.



And, there's a very cool new list type - check boxes. The list
gives you empty check boxes when you first create the list. You can check things
off just by clicking on the check box!



And, please, keep the
feedback coming!

We're very interested in your feedback - not just the
good news, but also any areas you think we need to improve. Please let us know
what you think! (http://forum.buzzword.com or feedback@buzzword.com.)


The Buzzword Team

It's Got the Buzz

I had a chance to take a look at the new Web 2.0 word processor called Buzzword which is in beta right now. Buzzword is Flash based and feels very much like a full featured application that you would have installed on your computer. It supports headers, footers, lists as well as adding comments. You can also add images and tables to your document. Even though it is in beta it has a nice feel to it. One of the features which is impressive is the ability to share the document for collaborative work. This is a great feature! You should be aware that documents are stored on their server- so you may be hesitant to store anything of a confidential nature. Buzzword is very responsive and has a great look and feel to it. Buzzword is an Adobe product with lots of promise. I have put together a short video for you to take a look at it. Here is the link to preview the video. Enjoy!