The 2006 Nebraska Educational Association's spring conference was held April 27 and 28 in Omaha. People not from the area may be surprised at just how large this conference is. There were over 140 breakout sessions and dozens of poster gallery displays. There were several sessions about podcasting, among them was my session, "Radio for Kids, by Kids." Unfortunately, there were zero sessions for handheld computers. I would have gladly presented a handheld session had I known they would not be represented at all. Three years ago the conference had a special strand dedicated to handhelds; you could join a breakout session about handheld computing each hour for two days. It was great. But, podcasting was certainly the all of the talk of the presenters and participants at the NETA conference. In fact, there is a NETA Conference 2006 Podcast where you can listen to 14 recordings of keynote and featured sessions.

This year's conference theme was Discovering Digital Treasure. I discovered many tidbits from the sessions I attended. Allow me to share a few you may be interested in:

Apple users are probably familiar with the "teardrop" sound when they adjust a Mac's volume. This sound can be distracting, especially when playing audio for a group of students or teachers. Janet Hill from Apple shared with me that if you hold down the Shift key while pressing the Volume Up or Volume Down buttons, you won't hear the teardrop noise as you adjust the volume.

I attended Janet Hill's presentation about iWeb. It's Mac software that is part of Apple's iLife '06. It makes it really easy to drag and drop photos, audio, podcasts, and movies into a page for the web. Janet showed a video from Louisa-Muscatine Elementary about using iPods with special education students. Which, by the way, their site was made using iWeb.

Many people really want to use iPod for recording voice (especially podcasters). With older iPods that do not play video, you can purchase an iTalk. However, that same iTalk will not work with the current fifth generation of iPods that can play video because the connector has changed. Janet Hill, an Education Development Executive for Apple, says that companies like Griffin, Belkin, and Extreme Mac all have plans to release a voice recorder for the newest iPods. She says that she's been told a recorder will be available next month. However, after seeing a prototype for one in January, she's been told every month that a recorder will be released "next month." Whenever a recorder attachment is finally available, you can be sure there will be a large back order because many people want to record audio with their new iPods.

The very humorous and down-to-Earth Leslie Fisher presented several sessions both days. You can listen to them through the NETA Conference 2006 Podcast. Check out the slide shows that she used for Great Gadgets and MP3. I've got to tell you, Leslie is so funny and was my favorite presenter at this conference. Take a listen and look at her sample podcast she made using iWeb and iLife '06.

Dan Schmit presented "KidCast: Podcasting in the Classroom" Friday afternoon. His presentation is available from the NETA Conference Podcast. Dan also has an online handout and a wonderful podcast about podcasting called KidCast. Dan began the session by recording a podcast with a group of audience members. He used a unidirectional microphone that is sensitive to sounds from only one person, so as each person recorded, he or she moved in front of the mic. Besides unidirectional microphones, there's also omnidirectional. Omnidirectional microphones, like those found built into computers, pick up sound from every direction, including background noise. During his presentation, Dan mentioned a list of software programs that create RSS feeds. I'd like to add that there is a free RSS feed maker called Free Podcast Maker.

If you're a Windows user, have you tried Sony's free ACID XPress? It's a lot like Apple's GarageBand where you can record your voice and add musical loops. ACIDplanet.com offers an "8pack" of free loops each Friday for ACID XPress. So far, here are the ones I've downloaded over the last dozen weeks: Bon Voyage, Boo Unit, Clean Up, Lambient, Music Theory, Phone Home, Picked Apart, Queep Queep, Rhythmical, Shadow Puppets, Shameless Plug, Skins, and Your Place. The 8packs have fun names--and it's really fun to use the new loops in your podcast!

If you're a Mac user, you too should be downloading the free weekly 8-packs from ACIDplanet.com. Each pack has eight WAV files that can also be used as GarageBand loops. Simply drag a WAV file into your song. Or, drag the folder into your loop browser to add them to your library of loops. In addition, Bitshift Audio is offering 40 MB of free loops for GarageBand. Since these are AIFF files, they can be used in other audio programs, like ACID XPress. If you or your students are tired of the same old loops, I highly recommend these freebies!

Our City Podcast is in the news! The Northwest Indiana Times published Nothing But 'Net For Valpo Project. The reporter, Elizabeth Holmes, visited Central Elementary School in Valparaiso, Indiana recently. Fourth and second grade students were working with high schoolers to create a podcast for the Our City series of podcasts by kids. The article may be short, but the school has some really big ideas for inter-grade collaboration on podcasts.

The episode for Valparaiso will be available soon (and I can't wait to hear it myself). Subscribe to Our City Podcast in iTunes by clicking here and it will automatically be downloaded to your computer when the show is available.

Remember, you're welcome to create an edition of Our City Podcast with the kids you know. There are plenty of resources to help you along, including a planning guide to help students with segments. Simply send the finished sound file with some information to me and I'll do the publishing. Participating in Our City is a great way to try out podcasting!

My school's podcast, Radio WillowWeb, has episodes by learners in grades second through fifth. Our very first show was by second graders. However, we've never produced a podcast with first graders--until now. Here are some things I learned working with these very young students on a podcast:

• We chose the topic of space since students have learned a lot about this topic that they wanted to share with others.
• The scripts were dictated to the classroom teacher. This sped up the process and allowed the teacher and students to discuss the content.
• Practicing their scripts with adults at home over spring break was really helpful for the students.
• When recording break up what the youngsters are to say into small sections. A whole paragraph is too much for most first graders to read fluently and confidently. In fact, some may have problems with one sentence. The beauty of non-linear audio editing software like GarageBand is that you can split clips and piece them together. In fact, one of the students would say just a couple of words at a time and I edited them together. The final product makes it sound like it was one continuous recording.
• A couple of students were not fluent readers. I had the most success with these students when I took their scripts away and had them repeat after me. Again, clips were strung together to make it seem like the segment was said all at once.
• For those that read from a script, I pointed to the words (kind of like karaoke), so they wouldn't speak too quickly or too slowly. I made sure that students paused at commas and periods.
• GarageBand 3 has new voice tracks that reduce background noise that we tried out. We recorded in Willowdale's media center. It's a room full of noise, but I cannot hear the noise the end product.

GarageBand 3's Podcasting Studio has a choice of voice tracks. I chose a Noisy track to reduce the background noise--and it worked well!

Tune into Radio WillowWeb's Willowcast #18 and listen to how well these first graders did. Do we dare podcast with kindergartners next?

An Easter egg in a software program is a hidden surprise. Easter eggs are usually activated when a user enters a sequence of commands. Easter eggs could be an animation or other special feature. There are plenty of Easter eggs in the Palm Operating System. Students love revealing these Palm OS 5 Easter eggs (as posted here March 2005):

Guys in Suits:
Start the Giraffe game and place your stylus in the lower right corner. Then press the up button. You'll see a photo of two people in suits!

A Real Easter Egg:
Go into Prefs and select Power. Draw a small circle with your stylus in the lower right corner of the screen (it usually takes a couple tries). A small egg will appear!

Fiery Credits:
With the Easter egg showing, tap Home. Select the Options menu and choose About Applications. Hold the Down button while you tap OK. Repeat the process of choosing About Applications, holding the Down button, and tapping OK two more times. Flaming credits will appear on the third try, but you must keep holding the Down button.

Taxi Cab:
Be sure the Easter egg is showing in the Power preferences. Next, in any application, hold the Down button while drawing a line from the middle of the Graffiti area to the left edge of the screen (between the Home and Menu buttons). A taxi will drive across your screen!

Inchworm:
Go into Prefs and select Power. Using Graffiti, enter a pound sign (#). Wait ten seconds and an inchworm will make its way across your screen!

Windows Mobile handhelds don't seem to have these kinds of Easter eggs. However, take a look at the Egg Heaven 2000 site. It's the place that catalogs Easter eggs in handhelds, Windows, Macintosh, DVDs, games, and more.

After finding surprises in their handhelds (or elsewhere), try asking students what Easter eggs they would leave for others if they created a computer program. How would someone find the egg? What would it show?

Although it's not a hidden surprise, you may also be interested in Easter Eggs 2002. It is a Palm puzzle game where you try to change all of the eggs on the screen to the same color. Enjoy!

An exponent is a number placed to the upper right of a base number. It shows the number of times the base number is multiplied by itself. Sometimes, instead of placing the exponent to the upper right, a ^ is used to indicate the exponent. Here are some examples:

• 3^2 = 3 x 3 = 9
• 5^4 = 5 x 5 x 5 x 5 = 624
• 8^6 = 8 x 8 x 8 x 8 x 8 x 8 = 262,144

Scientific calculators have an x^y button for calculating exponents. Also, a fun Google trick is to enter "8^6" in the search box. Google will do the calculations for you and display "8^6 = 262 144.". In fact, you can use Google to calculate all sorts of things.

To practice exponents, you may want to have students complete this quiz for Quizzler (Palm or Windows Mobile). It quizzes students over exponents and bases up to 10 in multiple choice format. Here's the text of the quiz in case you'd like to make changes.

Now I'd like to tell you about new handheld software for exponents! PowerPlay is a Palm game that gets students working with bases and exponents. Students guess missing bases or exponents in equations. They score fewer points the closer their guesses are to the actual numbers that complete each equation. After 10 rounds, students are given a final score. Lower scores are better. The top five scores are recorded on the Leader Board for each level of play. Students can choose to fill in bases or exponents. There are Easy and Hard levels for the two forms of game play, making a total of four different games. Unlike the Quizzler quiz, PowerPlay is more than drill and skill. PowerPlay is a game that gives students some number sense. As they play, learners get a sense about the surprisingly fast growth numbers show when an exponent is applied.

Easy games use bases between 2 and 8, and 10. Easy games use exponents between 1 and 6. Hard games use bases between 4 and 12. Hard games uses exponents between 5 and 12.

PowerPlay is yet another collaboration with Brian Schau. It has similarities with Simplify and Angles and is freeware. PowerPlay is probably most appropriate for students in grades 4 or 5 and above. Thanks Brian!

Soft Reset Show #12 features a Skype conference call with Tony, Mike, and a graduate class in Lexington, South Carolina. Educators in the class pose great questions for Tony and Mike to respond to. Also, find out who bought all of Palm's remaining Zire 72s. Be sure to listen for Mike to learn a new handheld term: silo.

Show Notes:

• Tony's Tip: Download software from PalmGear.com or PocketGear.com.. Click "Advanced Search" to search for freeware. Also, remind yourself about great software, write it in your teacher's manual so you'll remember to use it next year.
• Mike's Tip: Use Google to look for software by including "Palm" or "Windows Mobile" in your search, but be specific. Also, Mike explains what he does with software after he downloads it.
• learninginhand's Palm and Windows Mobile software categories.
• Quizzler and Making Quizzler Quizzes Handout.
• eBook Studio & Dropairs Pair Board Maker.
• K12 Handhelds' Integrating Handhelds Into the Writing Curriculum.
• The French Pod Class podcast.
• Program to draw and write with: theQuickie!.
• eBooks by fourth graders in Missouri.
• Use of handhelds with second graders.
• Practice math facts with MathAce.
• Sketchy.
• Palm TX.and a discussion about its WiFi companionability.
• DB - free database application and HanDBase
• Handy Shopper.
• Probeware: Pasco, Vernier, ImagiProbe, OnSet Data Logging, and Hobo Data Loggers.
• Purchase thicker stylus/pens.
• Activities for 4 year olds: Beret Applications & Count (quit by entering q8 in Graffiti).
• Handheld usage agreements.
• Download Skype--it's free for Mac and Windows.
• SillySentences for Palm.
• Visit Soft Reset's Discussion Forum to discuss the show!
• Leave a voicemail for us to play on the show! 206-333-1942
• Email Tony and Mike at softresetpodcast@gmail.com.

Enjoy the show! Click an icon below to listen or subscribe.

March has come and gone but the messages left on the learninginhand's Discussion Forums are still around for your reading pleasure. Here is your monthly recap of some of the conversations.

• Derek introduces himself and tells us about students in his class becoming Roving Reporters.
• Marc is looking for a way to evaluate his school's Palm program. If you know of any surveys or questionnaires that might help him, please reply to his topic.
• Tony links to The 1-to-1 Stories Project blog post titled "Teaching Technology Quickly."
• Tony tells about the results of a survey about communication. Only 5% of communication was by pen and paper of those who took the survey between the ages of 15 and 24.
• Brian inquires about sources that sell bulk refurbished handhelds. Glenn asks if refurbished is really the way he wants to go.
• Wendy wants to know about any good keyboarding programs for Palm handhelds. It turns out there's not a lot out there that give keyboarding instruction, but there are plenty of ways you could use a handheld and keyboard for typing practice.
• Brian and Ian let us know about a few Windows Mobile programs that aren't already listed in learninginhand's Pocket PC software section.
• Tony shares information about AudioBay, software for creating and publishing podcasts directly from your handheld. Read how Ian gave it a try and listen to his sample podcast.
• Wendy writes about how amazed she is at how much students learn when creating a podcast.
• Wendy seeks some opinions about the impact of audio podcasting versus video podcasting. Tony chimes in with his opinion.
• Brian starts a discussion about schools blocking podcasts.
• Tony shares photos of Engadget's birthday cake contest.
• Forum members continue to add their opinions on what they want to hear as future topics on the Soft Reset podcast.
• Kevin wants to know about recording Skype conversations. Tony and Mike use Skype to record Soft Reset and Tony shares how they do it.
• Tony started a topic about favorite handheld games to go along with Soft Reset #11: Great Games. So far, no one has given a shout out to their favorite one.
• The forums have their own RSS feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/forums. I use this feed to subscribe through Bloglines.

Each month a forum contributor is randomly selected to receive a pair of learninginhand stylus-pens. March's winner is Brian Smith Congratulations!