I've used computers for a long time. My first was the Commodore 64, and it was sweet. Mail Order Monsters, Summer Games, Hard Hat Mack, and the adventure in Zork. I even taught myself a little bit of Basic programming to make it do stuff. In high school, we got a new computer that had Windows 3.1. As a teenager, I spent my own money to upgrade Windows 95 and have had every version of Windows since then. So I am a little biased.
This year, I was given a MacBook to use in my classroom. Having used it for a few months now, I have decided that I am definitely a PC. The advertisers say that Macs just work. Well, it doesn't. I tried to play an avi file in class yesterday. Avi just may be the most ubiquitous movie format in the world. It wouldn't play. Five minutes later, after downloading a separate program, I could play it. Safari cannot use the same toolbars and extensions as Firefox. Programs never seem to fully close. My Word document is gone, but the formatting toolbar is still there? I can't see what documents are open in the dock.
The huge, multitouch touchpad on the other hand is fabulous. I can do most things with it now without missing the mouse. The battery also lasts much longer than any PC laptop I've used. It boots up like a flash compared to my windows laptops. So there are some nice things about it.
Aesthetically and ergonomically, the Mac's ok. But it's not a couch or a painting. I'm a PC.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
Diigo
This week two of my classes are venturing into the land of social collaboration with Diigo. It will allow social bookmarking, but more importantly it offers annotation tools for use on the web. Now we can write notes in the margins of web pages, and those notes can appear on any web enabled computer.
So far, I'm impressed with Diigo's education program. It gives enough control to the teachers to manage users in their class. Teachers can create accounts for students, set and retrieve passwords, and add and remove users from groups. After hosting my own moodle, online services that don't give teachers these powers seem woefully limited. If can't help student who has forgotten their password, that student will miss out that class.
So far, I'm impressed with Diigo's education program. It gives enough control to the teachers to manage users in their class. Teachers can create accounts for students, set and retrieve passwords, and add and remove users from groups. After hosting my own moodle, online services that don't give teachers these powers seem woefully limited. If can't help student who has forgotten their password, that student will miss out that class.
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