Sunday, March 27, 2011

iPad, Feedler Pro & EverNote - great combo for sharing

For some time now I have been looking for an easy way to share those entries from the various blogs I read with some of my colleagues at school. What I wanted was a way to take those posts from my RSS aggregator (Google Reader) which I access via Feedler Pro from my iPad, and collect several different posts into the one message, keeping all the graphics and formatting.

Feeddler Pro has just added the option of sending a blog entry to EverNote. I have had an EverNote account for over a year now, just never really used it much. That's about to change.

I can now send the full articles from Feedler Pro directly to EverNote. Then by logging onto my MacBook Pro or Dell tablet I can use the full version of EverNote to merge the articles according to then tags I gave them on my iPad - and from there email the result to those who I think should get them.

Not perfect - but it works better than any other way I've found so far.

Here are a few screen shots showing the process.




Screen from Feedler Pro showing full options.



Once merged in EverNote you can email the set of articles (either from iPad or other computer).

Why do I email the merged article rather than just send links to the original? I want to make it as easy as I can for my colleagues to see the info - and I don't want to take the risk that they might not follow the link ...


Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Is this the future of K-12 education?

Bill Gates hints to the audience at the end of this TED talk by Salman Khan that "you have just seen a glimpse of the future of education". I wonder if you agree?

To start with, here's the talk - it's 20 minutes worth, but it is worth it imho, particularly if you are a teacher of maths, science or geography - and from memory the Khan Academy also has a growing library of accounting and economic resources too.



So, is it the future of education?
Alan November gave a recent interview on TV in the US where he quoted brain research stating that "if you make the mistake at home in your homework, chances are you'll make the same mistake in the test - even if the error is corrected the next day".

So, maybe Khan is right.
With digital video content -

  • you can watch it as long as you like
  • you can rewind it as often as you like
  • you don't need to be made feel uncomfortable by taking "an age" to get the point about something
  • you will always get a consistent approach from the video
  • you won't be told "I've already explained that twice"
Are you prepared to turn your classrooms around as Khan suggests?
What might some of the pros and cons of this approach be?