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"Even though it's October it still feels very much like the beginning of the year. One of the first thoughts that many teachers have about their students is "they look so little!" It's true. Those tall confident students that left us have gone on to be "little" to next year's teacher and we have our own new crop of "little" people to educate. This becomes even more pronounced in a technology classroom. Everything takes longer, typing, starting, opening, finding, searching. Whatever it is they need time to figure it out. Patience is key. So what can we do?"

"I did a quick search, delving a few pages deep in the results, but couldn't find what I wanted. I thought that it would be useful if a trailer could be planned in advance, rather than shoot footage and hope that there was enough of the various types of scenes to fit the trailer templates. I know that we should design a trailer around our content, but it is also nice to be able to create one quickly from the templates."

"I haven't had a lot of time in the last few weeks to spend searching for great mobile apps. But with a hat tip to Jaime H. and through a conversation with a couple of great teachers in Illinois, I did run across three that I really like. I think you will too."

"The free Kepler Explorer app for iPhone and iPad allows users to explore some 2,000 planetary systems discovered by NASA's Kepler Mission. The Kepler Mission scans the Milky Way galaxy in search of Earth-size planets in the habitable zones of the stars they orbit."

"If you just snagged yourself Apple's new iPad and you're still wondering where the complete owners manual is, search no further. Even if you're already tapping your way through some of the basic functions on your shiny new device, you'll find this free user guide to be a priceless eBook for your collection."

"Khan Academy, the wildly popular Youtube lecture series, is slated to launch its iPad app any minute now in Apple's store. The enhanced version of Khan Academy will include time-syncing between devices--no Internet connection required, an interactive transcript of the lectures for easy searching, and a handy scrubber for moving between parts of the lectures. Perhaps more importantly, now that more schools have begun adopting Khan's lectures for their own classrooms, the free iPad app could possibly replace or supplement textbooks, saving cash-strapped schools and students a lot of money."

"Research and compare Education Apps for iPad and iPhone. search and sort using price, developer, release date, age group, and more."

"Despite months of speculation, many doubted Google would ever bring its terrific Chrome browser to iOS. But the search giant has put an end to the rumors by finally releasing it, and it's kicking off this week's must-have apps roundup. We also have a new weather app for those who like to keep it simple, arguably the best Google Analytics client for iOS, and more"

"I searched all summer for a fun Back-to-School activity. Well. . . unfortunately I couldn't find anything!! So, I have been racking my brain to come up with something exciting for Open House. This is when my kids will find out who their teacher will be for the year, and they will also find out that we will have 30 iPads in our classroom!! Yay! I decided to incorporate the QR scans and create an Open House Scavenger Hunt to give the parents and kids the information needed to begin the new school year. As the students arrived, there was an iPad and the first page of the scavenger hunt on their desk. They were instructed to work through the scavenger hunt with the help of their parents. Here is what I created:"

"This week's pick is Qwiki - an amazing app that lets you explore 3 million topics and presents each of them in a fun, exciting way that gets you hooked right away. Here's a bit of its App Store intro: Qwiki combines thousands of sources to present concise, interactive summaries of millions of people, places and things in an experience optimized for the iPad. Explore topics by searching or browse a worldwide map highlighting landmarks, monuments, cities, towns, and more."

"To make things more difficult for the new iPad owner (grin) or perhaps you have a class set and are wondering what to load, I offer Doug's Dozen. Taken from the experience of a guy who has nothing better to do that search for the best in class in any application, I took a look at the top applications that I use regularly and offer them below for your thoughts, criticisms, and one-up-ed-ness."

"AppStart is a great app for finding the apps that fits your needs. Open up the Apps icon on your new iPad and search for AppStart, install it and off you go! The app includes an introductory video explaining how to use the app (it's very simple!) and then start finding apps!"

"Quick, before the school year ends, share this app with your teens and maybe their parents. Quick, before the school year ends, download this app yourself. You're going to want to start using the genre search to support readers' advisory tomorrow!!!"

Tim Stahmer's writing on the iPod Touch

A search on "ipod touch" on Tim Stahmer's blog (www.assortedstuff.com) pulls up some interesting perspective.

"In 1987, Apple produced a concept video demonstrating a future computer called the Knowledge Navigator. The tablet-like device offered the user a natural language interface, video conferencing, multi-touch display and access to a global network of information. Siri understands what you say, accomplishes tasks for you and adapts to your preferences over time.mSiri can help you find and plan things to do. While seemingly the product of an overactive imagination, Apple's recent acquisition of Siri brings Apple a lot closer to that vision than ever before. Siri reportedly was born from the CALO artificial intelligence project which sought to fulfill a call for a "a cognitive computer system should be able to learn from its experience, as well as by being advised." Apple's value in acquiring Siri appears to be focused on this personal assistance technology. "

Siri is an excellent iPhone app that uses both text and voice to search for locations and much more information.