Apple made a number of interesting announcements this week and now I’m longing for a new iMac. However, Apple didn’t announce the iTunes feature I really wanted to see; I want iTunes to filter incoming podcasts into playlists and upload them that way to my iPod.
The problem I’m having is that some of the podcasts I regularly listen to are actually snippets of things from the Australian Broadcasting Corp, or the BBC or NPR. These segments are typically only 3-8 minutes long. When I’m listening to these shows on my iPod, I don’t want to keep stopping every few minutes to select a new show, so I’ve been organizing them into playlists, such as News and Tech and Education. However, that makes for lots of management on my part and requires me to actually remember what I’ve listened to and what I haven’t.
It seems like this feature shouldn’t be too difficult to add. My NetNewsWire Lite is able to manage my podcast subscriptions, and those subscriptions can be organized into folders. I’ll have to play with the preferences to see if that program is smart enough to upload them in folders to iTunes. If it isn’t, I’m hoping Apple will add that feature soon. Do any of you know of a program that already does this? Any developers out there looking for a new project?
Finally sat down to get my Moodle working. It was at this point I realized that the hosting service I was signing up with didn’t include a domain. I never dreamed I needed to purchase a domain on top of the hosting fees.
I guess my ignorance is based on prior experience. My .Mac account includes a domain. My educational ISP includes a domain. In my experience, the domain has always been provided. I didn’t expect it to be the domain of my choosing; I assumed it would be like my .Mac one. That domain is clearly part of .Mac based on its address. Unfortunately, neither of these sites appear to have what I need for hosting Moodle, and my ISP, Comcast, doesn’t provide space.
And so, before I even have my site up and running I have learned to check that the hosting fee includes a domain. I have also learned to check that the host has Fantastico so that Moodle and other good things can be installed with a single click. Finally, I have learned to check to see what type of control panel is provided to help me manage the site. Some hosts have no central control panel. Others have well-organized one.
I’ll let you know where I end up.
I’m one of those lucky folks who was able to get a free iPod by purchasing an Apple laptop. I already had a wonderful old Archos Jukebox, so I didn’t expect an iPod to be a big deal in my life.
I was wrong.
It isn’t difficult to drag MP3 files onto and off of the Jukebox, but that process is much more cumbersome than just plugging in my iPod and letting iTunes sync up all the new podcasts and remove all the ones I’ve heard. My morning jog is now a delight as I decide if I’ll listen to the latest Open Source show with Christopher Lydon, or maybe there is a new Educational Technologists Coast to Coast podcast waiting to challenge me, or maybe Bud Hunt has recorded another gem that will help me move closer to the constructivist curriculum that I long to have in my classroom.
The list of podcasts that I’m exploring goes on and on, and I’m loving every minute of it. Even cleaning the kitchen is less of a chore when I can pull the shows I want to listen to rather than being at the mercy of what the radio stations decide to broadcast at that time. This is especially true now that my local public radio station seems to play the same shows over and over throughout the day.
Listening while I jog and while working around the house would have been enough of an addiction, but then at Target I discovered that Timex produces a $20 radio that comes with an auxiliary cable that plugs into an mp3 player’s headphone jack, allowing the MP3 files to be played through the radio’s speakers. I realize that iPod accessories abound in stores, but many of the accessories cost more than the iPod. In contrast, this radio is so reasonably priced that I bought one for work. Now I can listen to my iPod there even though the district’s web filters prevent me from downloading any podcasts onto my computer. The radio doesn’t have the sound quality of the more expensive systems, but it’s working just fine for listening to podcasts.
The only real problem with all of this comes from listening to Radio Willow Web. Hearing the high quality podcasts those elementary children put out makes me itch to be podcasting with my students. However, I should probably get them blogging first. And I should get my Moodle up and running, and…
I just started getting a pile of pseudo-comments/bot-generated advertisement messages to this blog. I’ve deleted them, but had to chuckle when I noticed that the very day those comments appeared, my counter of new visitors hit 666. Just a coincidence?
Thankfully, Blogger has added protection in the form of word verification. Hopefully that will greatly reduce this problem. Word verification is very easy to activate. In the settings pane of the Blogger Dashboard, go to the Comments section. Scroll down to the option that reads
Show word verification for comments?
Toggle the feature on, and there you have it. I thought I’d need to go to a fancier blogging tool to get this feature. It seems Blogger added it just in time for me, and no doubt countless others being plagued by bots.
At long last, I have plenty of good news…
- My missing savings from Malaysia is safely transferred to my US bank account.
- I have a home (and only about 20 more boxes to unpack).
- My new job is going well. I can tell this group of students will be intrigued and hopefully empowered by blogging.
- I now have a year’s worth of web space waiting for me to find the time to install Moodle on it. (A big thanks to Bud Hunt for his inspiring blog and podcasts, his patience with my barrage of questions, and his encouragement.)
- My new laptop arrived today. I feel like I have wings.
Just about everything is new in this job. I’m amazed at the changes in public education and in my district over the four years I was overseas. New national tests, new state tests, new curriculum in almost every subject area. I’m still sorting through it all, so I can’t dive into my online projects yet. However, just knowing that they are out there. I hope to have more to report soon.
Tomorrow I officially start my new teaching job. I’m back in the district I taught in before heading to Kuala Lumpur to work as a computer specialist in an international school. My new job is as a grade five classroom teacher. I enjoy fifth graders and look forward to having my own homeroom again. However, I am dearly missing the technology opportunities from my overseas job, which is why instead of reading curriculum manuals, I’m thinking about how to use technology to give my students more voice and choice in the curriculum. (Or more likely, it is BECAUSE I’ve been reading manuals that I’m looking for other options.)
Towards that end, I listened to another great podcast from Bud the Teacher. As usual, he challenged me to think further outside the box. This time he discussed Moodle. I’ve been staring at the Moodle web site and thinking it would meet my needs. It is an object-oriented environment with great components, such discussion groups, places to share documents, Hot Potato quizzes and other Good Things. Now I need to figure out where to host it and how to install it.
To host it, I have a .Mac account, web space at my ISP (TIES), or possibly our school web server. I don’t know if the data transfer limit on the .Mac account would be a problem, or if the ISP space or school space are true options. TIES hasn’t replied to the questions I emailed to them, and I don’t know enough about what is involved to ask intelligent questions of someone in the district tech department. Ideally, this would be something the building tech aide and I can do on our own, because the overworked district tech department doesn’t have the time to help me with this.
Once I find a place to host it, I can’t tell if this is something I can realistically do myself. From the Moodle website it looks like I need to install SQL, but I have so little knowledge I can’t tell if I need an SQL server (is there such a best?) or if SQL installs onto a server with a different OS, such as Linux. And since I have no knowledge of SQL, I don’t know if I can realistically install and manage the software. I’d love to learn SQL– it is on my to-do list for next summer. Until then, I need to focus on new job and on unpacking more of the mountains of boxes in the garage and the basement etc..
I did spend time playing around in Nicenet again. It is still and option. I could make each student their own course within my Nicenet account. That would allow for private conferences between the students and myself. We could also have a class space where they could talk with each other. I haven’t gotten my brain around that latter option, but I know it has potential. However, I suspect my new principal would rather I get back to reading manuals rather than indulging in this lovely mental field trip, so I must get back to work.
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