iPad vs iPad mini (vs the MacBookAir, sort of...)

Takeaway: in a mobile world, is it a fair fight between the iPad/iPad mini & the MacBook...? The iPad stands tall, the beloved Air stays home...

I just spent three days at the annual ACSD conference, this year held in Chicago. As I was packing, I was staring at my devices, trying to decide which to pack. Do I take the MacBookAir, the iPad, the iPad mini...? In the end, I couldn't decide, so I took all three. Here's how that shook out...

Tech Reflections from ASCD 2013

I just finished my first trip to the yearly ASCD conference. It was a lot of fun experiencing a conference of that size from an attendee perspective (in a former life I worked tech conferences such as COMDEX and PC Expo for eWeek). More importantly, it was great to get out of the bubble, so to speak, and see and hear what others are doing...

The paperless bulletin board...

As someone immersed in technology I find it very difficult to maintain a traditional bulletin board outside the computer lab.

I hate printing.

Free Apps for free apps...

One of the best ways to get use to the wide variety of possibilities of the iPad is to take advantage of free apps.

Here are a few free apps that alert you to when other, paid apps, are on sale. Once you "purchase" an app, free or paid, you get all future updates for free too. So, if you find a $4.99 app has gone free one day, download it, it's free, and you'll get all future updates for free too. Any app is worth a test run if it doesn't cost you anything...

My #edtech mantra...

In preparing for a professional development session I wanted to come up with a parting thought, an attempt at wisdom to bestow upon the attendees at the end of the session. I thought long and hard about where I am, where I've come from, what I know, what I've learned, and what tomorrow might bring. I came up with this...

Don't be afraid to fail, don't be afraid to start over, don't be afraid to ask for help... it's technology, it'll change tomorrow anyway....

Mantra is a strong word, but I feel it sums up how I approach technology. The iPad didn't exist 4 years ago. Who knows what what we'll be using 4 years from now.

Try, break, fail, fix, try again, succeed. Rinse and repeat. It'll all be new again soon anyway...