Chris Betcher

I really like iTunes. It's a wonderful piece of software that just works as expected and does it's job really well. I've been asked to talk at the PowerUp conference on the Gold Coast this weekend and was given an open opportunity to talk about whatever I wanted. Although I think the Web 2.0 story is the one most people still need to hear, the general feeling was that there were already plenty of people talking about web 2.0 stuff, so something a bit different would be good. (Besides, my other session will be about web 2.0 stuff anyway, looking at tools for collaboration) I'm a bit wary of being caught out without Internet access when I present... I've been in situations before where I was told there would be access, where there was access, where I should have been able to get access, but for whatever reason the firewall gods were not smiling upon me and I had none. I don't expect that to be the case this weekend, and of course I plan to present it live......

There is obviously a great deal of interest among teachers regarding the possible educational uses of online video sharing sites such as YouTube and Google Video . Tons of new copycat services are popping up all over the web, with cryptic Web2.o names like iFilm , Viddler , Viddyou , Umundo and even the unambiguously named TeacherTube . It's clear that the use of short video snippets is proving very popular with lots of people. I attended a workshop a few years ago where I heard a talk by Hall Davidson . If you've not heard of Hall Davidson before he is the guy behind United Streaming , which I understand has since been acquired by Discovery Learning. Hall was really pushing this notion of giving teachers and kids access to short, sharp, to-the-point video clips in order to engage the learner and effectively impart a specific concept. He proposed that video was an exceptionally powerful medium, but that we don't need to sit a class in front of a TV to watch a full 60...

I've taken up running lately. That might not sound very impressive to you, but as a childhood asthmatic who could never even run 100 metres without falling in a heap, the fact that I can now run for over 5km (and improving all the time) is a big deal for me. I don't know what happened over the last few years, but my asthma just sort of got better and now I can do all sorts of things that I was never really able to do before... I like it! Of course, technology has played a big part in keeping me motivated too. Since I discovered the joy of the Nike+iPod combination I've found it much easier to stay focussed and motivated about running. For those that don't know about this little gem of technology, the Nike+ kit comprises of a sensor that goes in or on your shoe and a receiver that connects to your ipod Nano. The sensor contains an accelerometer which detects your footsteps, reports them wirelessly to the receiver which then calculates your statistics as you run. ...

There's a lot of talk in the music industry about how to protect music from copyright infringement and illegal use. Record companies as a whole were fairly slow to give in to the whole music download idea because they see it as a threat to their empires... for years the record companies had an exclusive stronghold on the production and distribution of music. As the world has gotten flatter and the gap between an idea in a musician's head and the release of that musical idea to a waiting public has gotten smaller, cheaper and easier, the role of the record company has shrunk in importance. So as we've witnessed the rise of digital music across the Internet, we've also seen the record companies fight tooth and nail to hang on their ivory towers. They've used their legal muscle to crush filesharing services like Napster and Morpheus, while others such as Limewire have so far somehow managed to avoid being taken down. The reasoning goes that if people are allowed to...

"...but not an idea whose time has come", wrote Victor Hugo. I just read a wonderful post over on the Fischbowl blog about a school ban on the use of certain "electronic devices" in class. The school I'm currently teaching at has just implemented a similar policy, and I think it sucks. I was quite horrified when I heard the "new rule" for the start of the school year at my school here in Canada. "No iPods, Cellphones or other electronic devices in class at any time". I can see little point in introducing rules that clearly cannot be enforced. I approached the vice principal after our first staff meeting and quizzed him about it, pointing out that I felt there were many educationally sound uses of an iPod in class, from class podcast projects to their use as a portable hard drive to some quiet private music to work to without bothering the rest of the class. He nodded sagely and said that of course, if it was for educational purposes it wou...