Clay Shirky is brilliant! Thank you!

Today I watched a video of a keynote address given by Clay Shirky at Penn State’s 2011 Symposium for Teaching with Learning. I am deeply grateful for this intelligent and insightful look into an understanding of the Internet.  Academia needs to watch and listen to this. Our institutions need to understand how the Internet has changed and is changing the  environment we share. Watching this video might very well change how you learn or better yet, how you teach.

“We come through a phase where we’ve said let’s take the university and add some internet, that will go great. And what we’ve discovered is, some things go great but a lot of stuff doesn’t fit because it’s not just about adding new tools to an existing ecosystem, it’s about building a new ecosystem. The way we communicate with each other creates the environment that we share. Changes in the way we communicate with each other change the environment we share. And we are in the middle of a big set of changes.”  Clay Shirky, 2011 Symposium for Teaching with Learning

Please leave a comment on how this has inspired you or gave you a new idea. I am looking for examples. Thank you

Linked In – Download your contacts!

Did you know that you can download your Linked In connections? Go to your Contacts menu item, Click on Connections, scroll to the bottom of the whole page (not just connections), on the right, and click EXPORT CONNECTIONS.

Top 10 Linked In Tools

Spark Digital iPad microphone

The first studio-grade microphone comes with both iPad and USB connections. It allows high-fidelity recording in different circumstances and very effectively delivers an excellent output. It is ideal for many different situations such as only vocals, or a speech, or a piano performance, drums, guitars, etc. The headphone that you get with it has zero latency, enabling you directly check the changes in volume and gain and to mute/un-mute.

Also, with Spark Digital, you get the useful feature of Focus Control of the mic. You can either record audio with ‘Focus Off’ which record a very powerful, crisp audio. This kind of audio is particularly useful when you want to let the recoded sounds make a strong impact. The other option is ‘Focus On’ which is more focused on the clarity and detail of the sound it captures. Through Focus Control, you can easily check different sound-recording quality options and get a hang of it, even if you are not a professional.

This nifty piece of hardware comes with an angle-adjustable desk which can be easily and quickly set up anywhere. The ease of use can be gauged from the fact that you just have to plug-in the device and start using it. It doesn’t require any driver installation.

To top the cake with a cherry, you get to have cloud storage options with the passage. Just imagine recording some audio on the go, with a very professional quality, and then storing it right-away online through SoundCloud or Gobbler. This is precisely what Spark Digital provides you in a rather suitable price of about $199.

Songify – Song Creator App For iPhone

Song Creator App For iPhone

Songify is an iOS app that allows users to record anything like news, clips, a poem you wrote, a headline, or even your own words, once the recording has been done the application will create an auto-tuned song with your words. After you finished your creation then you can share your self-made song with Facebook, Twitter or even by email. Very interesting app available in Apple’s App store under Music Category. And it’s totally free to download.

Update Fails to Improve iPhone 4s Battery Life

The release of iOS 5.0.1 update has failed to improve the performance of iPhone 4S batteries. Apple had claimed that this update will fix the battery-life problem of iPhone 4S. But iPhone 4S users continue to grumble and comment on iPhone forums, complaining that the update made absolutely no difference. (from the techjournal)

Headmagnet – Know that you know

Headmagnet creates a model of what’s going on in your head. It predicts what memories have faded away, and what memories are still inside, allowing you to quickly get things in your head and keep them there. The more you use headmagnet, the better it gets at modeling what goes on in your head.

Snap! Empower by Lectora (Easy Flash interactions builder for only $99)

Adobe’s Flash is dimming, focus on HTML 5

“HTML5 is now universally supported on major mobile devices, in some cases exclusively,” wrote Adobe executive Danny Winokur in a company blog post. “This makes HTML5 the best solution for creating and deploying content in the browser across mobile platforms.”

Visualize your LinkedIn network with InMaps

High schools start requiring online classes for graduation

Michigan,  Alabama, Florida, Idaho, and Indiana have
approved requirements that high school students take several credits online in
order to graduate from high school.  In 2010 , more than 4 million K-12
students participated in formal virtual learning programs, according to iNACOL
statistics.

From: eSchool News Nov 8, 2011