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"In Japan, the word otaku refers to people who have obsessive, minute interests-especially stuff like anime or videogames. It comes from a term for "someone else's house"-otaku live in their own, enclosed worlds. Or, at least, their lives follow patterns that are well outside the norm. Looking back, we were American otakus. "

Interesting to think about how Geek culture has changed over the past three decades.

But perhaps the rarest thing about Digi-Comp is the combination of hands-on and minds-on fun it affords. It definitely still has things to teach*, like Boolean logic and problem-solving... and it's rewarding to build and use. That's why Minds-On Toys decided to reintroduce it in an affordable kit format, with a thorough and professional revamp of the original documentation.

Just ordered myself one of these for christmas, an elastic-band powered computer that comes as a DIY kit. I can hardly wait to turn up.

A shared space is an easy way for you to share mini-collaborative applications, like scheduling tools or games, with your friends or colleagues. The spaces include a whiteboard as well as planning, productivity, game and polling spaces. It's part of Google Labs

Printed media used to allow us to read in the places we found most comfortable ... Unfortunately, as news and media moves online, it moves us away from these places and into our desk chairs .. I've found that as devices become more mobile, it's not only changing where we read, but when. Today, I'd like to show you some of the data behind this movement.

"One of the essentials in Reading this year is one-on-one conferencing with students. When I saw that The CAFE suggested using three-ring binders with tons of copies for each student, I went mentally-fetal. It wouldn't just be one three-ring binder I'd need to organize. I have three classes! Knowing that much paperwork would overwhelm me, I set about devising a system. I settled on Evernote with an iPad I've borrowed from my district's IT department. I want to lay out a few screenshots of how it works and why I like it."

This neat tool from Google, ChartTool is a simple-to-use chart-making service that lets you simply paste in your data and play around with how it looks. It's never been easier to whip up charts that are actually easy to use and update. In fact, embedding these charts on web pages is quite simple thanks to the embed API. You can even make QR codes in just a few seconds and quickly get an embed code to add it to your website. While ChartTool does not create as many of those fancy 3-D charts that Excel does (it still makes quite a few), it likely will be able to in the future. However, if you're in a rush and need to whip up some exact charts without all the fluff, this is the tool for you.

"A feature that has long been request by educators has finally arrived in iPad 2: video mirroring. Video mirroring shows exactly what's on your device's screen on a second display, like a projector, television, or monitor. We're used to video mirroring with laptops--many teachers do this everyday. iPad 2 requires either the Apple VGA Adapter or Apple Digital AV Adapter. The VGA adapter connects to most projectors while the digital adapter connects to HDMI, which is common on newer televisions. Apple Digital AV Adapter also outputs sound while the VGA adapter outputs only video to the display."

"Togetherville is a new type of online community specifically designed for kids 6 to 10. However, any kid under 13 can join. Kids play and connect with real-life friends and family in a safe, child-friendly place with parents and trusted adults close by, just like in a real neighborhood. The site mimics the experience of adult social networking sites, but it's age-appropriate and parent-monitored. "

Provides an email address that deposits attachments directly to your Dropbox. Ideal for teachers managing student work submission.

A pretty cool little All you have to do is connect with Dropbox, get your unique email address, and start sending files! After a few minutes they will automatically appear in your "Attachments" folder. We have some great features too, like automatic archive unzipping, folder organization, and plain text and html message copying, with more on the way! So what are you waiting for?tool.  

Spreadsheet lessons. Several assignments. This website seems like aa really good website to introduce Spreadsheets and teaching students how to utlize spreadsheets.

"From the new iPhone 4 to the Flip HD cameras, it's never been easier for teachers to have a classroom full of video cameras. In fact, your principal won't even mind since all of these high-tech video cameras won't cost the school a penny. There are likely hundreds of ways to use a video camera in the classroom. Tom Barrett has come up with dozens of creative ways to use video cameras in the classroom, and we've embedded his presentation below."

Some great uses of an iPhone or Flipcam video.

"When it comes to upgrading education to the 21st Century, those who are less supportive of change, often hide behind, or are frightened of acronyms like FERPA, CIPA, COPPA. This is sometimes done intentionally for convenience, or unwittingly out of ignorance."

This is a great article. It highlights that if schools / departments / governments ask students what they want from a school, the majority of kids will take it seriously.

This looks like a pretty good mindmapping tool.  I am not a huge fan of digital mind mapping but this looks the goods.  

"Google's Chromebook for Business program could entice a lot of organizations to consider ditching Windows for Chrome OS. Learn why and see how it could save big money."

"With support from the Governor 's Productivity Investment Fund and the Virginia Department of Education, Radford University and participating schools in southwestern Virginia are exploring how the iPod Touch can be used to enhance effective teaching and learning. The last several years have seen an explosion in the amount of young people playing video games as well as the number of children and adolescents using mobile handheld technologies, such as portable music players, gaming platforms, and smart phones. As school systems struggle with how best to deal with this cultural and technological shift, it is highly likely that the technology will continue to progress towards more powerful, wireless handheld computers that can deliver high quality, multimedia, computer processing power. Viewing this phenomenon as neither a panacea nor a plague, the iLearn team is exploring if and how these technologies can be leveraged for enhanced learning. "

"At first Snozerr looks like most audio recorders, until you notice the button for the camera. This app gives you the ability to take photos while recording audio; each picture is timestamped to the point in the recording where the photo was taken, and you can easily synchronize the images with the audio for later playback. This combination of features makes Snozerr an ideal app for students recording lectures and workers recording presentations with lots of infographics. You can use the timestamped photos to target the interesting parts of the lecture and ignore the non-relevant parts. All of the voice and photo files created in one session are linked together, so it is easy to share content with your peers. The app also supports nested hierarchical organization, dual cameras, and sending files by email."

"Welcome to the Storyboard Generator. You can choose a script and create a storyboard. Try building your own storyboard using background location photographs. Once done, you can save and share your storyboard video with friends. Remember to register with Generator first if you would like to save your storyboard."

Share This MTV clip from 1995 is excellent. It shows reporters and celebrities telling us all about this wonderful new thing called the "internet" - all of a sudden it's everywhere and it's so popular! (Thanks, Sandra Bullock.) While a lot has changed, the issues of the internet as of 1995 weren't all that different from what they are nowadays, actually. Then as now, the web was mostly being used for chatting to like-minded people. But there was a lot more fear around it, with much concern about hackers and debates about protecting children from porn. Not that you could really look at pictures, porn or otherwise, back then, with dial-up being the connection of the day. Remember those crackly modems? We don't miss those. The word "cyber", on the other hand, that looks due for a revival. Who's with me?

This binder is an attempt to collect and organize Digital Citizenship resources by age (grade level). Often when we think of Digital Citizenship, we only think about the safety aspects of it but being a digital citizen is much more than just being safe. The nine elements of Digital Citizenship as outlined in the book Digital Citizenship in Schools by Mike Ribble and Gerald Bailey are: Digital Etiquette Digital Communication Digital Literacy Digital Access Digital Commerce Digital Law Digital Rights & Responsibilities Digital Health & Wellness Digital Security (self-protection) Source: http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Nine_Elements.html If you would like to collaborate on this binder, please send the email address that you used when signing up with Live Binders to stmcomputers@gmail.com.