I'm excited to use Pandora because it's free and I already had a bunch of Latino stations I can use in the classroom.  I can use this to play during a do now or other "down time" where students are entering or exiting or working quietly.  It does have commercials but it seems like there is no interruption for continuous play.

 

Just thought I would share.  Not sure how many other people use music in the classroom, but this certainly makes it easier.  No need to bring the iPod or buy a ton of songs on ITUNEs which I have done already.

I saw a two-year old kid (in diapers, in a stroller), using an iPod Touch today. Not just looking at it, but browsing menus and interacting. This is a revolution, guys.

Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash. We have been working with Adobe to fix these problems, but they have persisted for several years now. We don’t want to reduce the reliability and security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash.

In addition, Flash has not performed well on mobile devices. We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it. Adobe publicly said that Flash would ship on a smartphone in early 2009, then the second half of 2009, then the first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010.

We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers.

Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.

This Nature video, Mobile Medicine, samples the more than 2,000 iPhone apps that are making medicine increasingly mobile.

Via: Cell Phones

Some interesting thoughts from the writer of the uLearning Blog. Follow the link to read the full post. Most enlightening was the writer's response to the growing proliferation of iPod Touches and iPhones in classrooms:

And what should an educator’s response be? Possibly you’re already in the middle of deploying one of these options – and if so, my biggest suggestion is – reflect. While our sector has stood still for so long, the current rush might make us forget our usual values of tying everything we do to our learning vision first. So reflect first, then on how these devices can enhance learning – don’t make learning fit to them.

It is refreshing to have an educator say that we need to reflect first and tie everything we do to our learning vision. So often in schools we run after the latest educational technology fad. In education we need more sustained deep reflection before embarking on any technology initiatives. Do small pilots to test a hypothesis and find critical stress points.

I also like the writer's comment that we should not make learning fit the device. I am not a big proponent of electronic whiteboards or Smartboards. I feel these devices are an example of trying to make learning fit the device. We spent years trying to get teachers away from the front of the classroom controlling everything and now we anchor them to the front of the room using an electronic whiteboard. Backwards innovation.

The people at the Slide to Learn website have put together this PDF as a comprehensive guide for using Apple's mobile products in the classroom. Follow the link and give it a look, It is very well done.

FEATURING 480 DOCUMENTS, INCLUDING: 90 Supreme Court Decisions, all the US Presidential Inaugural Addresses, the Constitution and dozens of key laws, first-hand accounts and speeches (with 18 Audio Recordings) make this an incredible compilation of primary source documents in American History. Each document entry includes an explanation of the significance of the court decision, law, or key points of a speech. MultiEducator, Inc. has applied its 20 years of experience writing Multimedia History and to the iPhone and iPod Touch. Documents can be accessed chronologically, or often by groups. You can search for a document and save recent or favorites. All of the documents can be e-mailed and thus shared.

Like almost every major art museum in the country, according to communications officers here and in other cities, the San Francisco institution is using mobile multimedia devices — iPods, iPhones, BlackBerrys and other smartphones — to tell the stories of its exhibits in new ways.

“Essentially, we’ve liberated the audio tour,” said Peter Samis, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s associate curator of interpretation. “We’ve developed five hours of content, made it extremely portable and easy to use, and devoted it to rediscovering aspects of our collection and its history. This is not about techno-fetishism. It’s about focusing on artworks in meaningful sound and video.”

via iLounge

A team at Toronto’s University Health Network Centre for Global eHealth Innovation, in partnership with The Hospital for Sick Children and Saint Elizabeth Health Care, has released a new iPhone application designed to simplify diabetes management. Designed initially as a self-management system for adolescents with Type I Diabetes, Bant allows iPhone and iPod touch users to track their blood glucose levels and self-manage their condition. Users can store their recorded data to their Google Health account and share their experience with the diabetes community via Twitter.

In the push for mobile learning as a way to utilize tools that students are adept at using and are enthusiastic about, the quest for creating and finding high-quality content is proving a challenge. But as more schools decide to incorporate portable technologies into the school day, demand is growing for curricula developed with a three-inch display window in mind.

The Florida Virtual School officials are trying to get beyond such simple uses. They have enlisted a team of experts to develop mobile software, in partnership with a commercial provider, that incorporates video, interactive and social-networking features, and Web resources adapted for the devices.

In St. Marys, Ohio, a 2,150-student district that issues mobile phones to elementary students, teachers have put together an online forum for sharing curriculum ideas and resources with members. Teachers there have also organized show-and-tell sessions to demonstrate how they work with cellphones in the classroom.

Last Saturday my wife and I traveled to NYC to see the Phantom of the Opera. Here are some of the ways we used our iPhones to assist us on the trip.

Prior to leaving I located parking garages near the Majestic Theater and emailed the directions from Google Maps to my iPhone. This way I would have the link on my phone and I would only need to touch it in the email and the directions would open up in the map application. 

I used the camera on my iPhone to take some pictures of the theater and email them to family and friends. 

After the play I used Yelp and Siri to read reviews on restaurants in the area. This was useful because it was raining very hard in the city and we wanted to limit our time walking around trying to find a good place to eat. We settled on John's Pizzeria. They make delicious thin crust pizza. It is located directly across the street from the Majestic Theater. 

While at dinner one of our daughters called us to tell us that the power had gone off at home. On our way out of the city our other daughter texted us from her iPod Touch, using Textfree Unlimited, to tell us that power had been restored. 

On our way home we had to take the first exit out of the Lincoln Tunnel to get gas. We found a gas station right away but the attendant gave us bad directions to get back the NJ Turpike. We got lost. I used the iPhone's map application to find directions home. It worked beautifully. I was very thankful for the iPhone at that moment.

Throughout the day we checked our email, read the news while waiting, and I checked my Google Reader and Twitter feeds. Is the iPhone needed for a trip to NYC, no, but it sure made the trip easier, allowed us to share the experience with others, and got us out of a jam. 

Cory Dobson recently created an iPhone app for his West Virginia high school. The app can be used to check schedules, grades, school closures, Google Maps, and other school related tasks for Capital High School in Charleston, West Virginia. The app is called iCHS and is available via iTunes.

The high school changed their cell phone policy this year and allows students to use cell phones in class as long as the teacher has a valid instructional reason to do so. You can read the full Education Week article by clicking here.

The Education Week article mentions at least five other schools who are using their own iPhone applications.