What I Bought in 2009

I thought I'd look back on 2009 by sharing what technology and technology-related products I purchased during the year (inspired by David Pogue's blog post). Yes, it does add up to a pretty penny. I'm thankful for eBay and the ability to easily sell my purchases when I replace them with newer and shinier ones.

Hardware

iMac 27" Quad-Core
I moved up from a 3 year old 24" iMac to a brand new 27" iMac. I love having the extra screen space. The display is extra wide, making it perfect for having two windows open side-by-side. This is the most powerful computer I've ever used. It actually has four processing cores (most Macs have 2 cores). Although most software doesn't take full advantage of the processing power, that will be changing. I have really enjoyed editing video on this machine. The iMac's included touch-sensitive Magic Mouse is pretty nice too.

Acer AZ5610 Touchscreen All-in-One Desktop PC
I'm not just a Mac user. I'm really digging Windows 7 and I'm fascinated by touchscreen computers, so I bought an Acer desktop computer with a touchscreen. It's like using a giant iPhone. Although the screen does get smudgy, it only bothers me when the display is off because that's the only time I see fingerprints. Compared to the iMac, the Acer AZ5610 has a cheap feel and a loud fan.

iPhone 3GS
I've owned all three versions of the iPhone. Yes, I stood in line to buy the original iPhone in 2007. I upgraded from the 3G to the 3GS because I wanted the extra processor speed and video camera. The 3GS feels snappier and apps launch more quickly. Just last week there's a new app that allows older iPhones to take video. However, the video quality is very poor, especially compared to the 3GS's.

I sold my iPhone 3G 16GB on eBay for $315. You might wonder why someone would pay that much when they could get a new one for $99. That $99 price is with a two-year contract. For those that don't want a contract, are already under contract, or have lost or broken their phone, it's cheaper to buy a used phone than to pay the full $399 price tag.

iPod nano with Video
My Flip video camera broke this year. I was going to replace it. Instead, for about the same price, I bought an iPod nano. The newest nano sports a built-in video camera and microphone. The quality is nearly as good as my Flip (not HD) and it also has the advantage of being an iPod. (I know what you're thinking--I have an iPhone 3GS that already takes video. I really bought this iPod for when I conduct workshops about iPods.)

MiFi
I've used a USB wireless connection card to connect to the internet for a couple of years. Since I travel so much, I like being able to go online no matter where I am. It's also nice to have a backup for the few occasions my cable internet goes out at home. The trouble with a USB card is that you can only use it with one computer at a time. While MiFi can connect to a computer with a USB cable, it's main feature is that it creates a Wi-Fi network where up to five devices can connect at once. This has been useful for going online with an iPod touch.

Nikon D60
The D60 is digital SLR camera, which is a higher-end camera with a removable lens. A point-and-shoot camera is more compact, but an SLR gives you more control over the image. Even though I've had the camera for nine months, I have yet to watch its instructional DVD. I need to view this because I know I could be taking better pictures with this camera.

CableDrop Multi-Purpose Cable Clips
As you might image, I have lots of cords and cables draped around my desk. I have lots of gadgets to plug in. The problem is that when I unplug a device, the cord annoyingly falls behind my desk. This happened a lot with my laptop power cord. Not any more now that I use a CableDrop clip. It adheres to the back of my desk and keeps my cable in place. Unlike the my previous masking tape solution, this one looks better and allows the cord to slide up and down.

5 Outlet Squid Surge Protector
I bought two of these recently when they went on sale at Buy.com for $10 each. (If you follow me on Twitter, I like to share when I find exceptional deals.) When not on sale, they're twice that price. Unlike a typical power strip, the Squid's outlets are separate so large power adapters never take up more than one outlet. I've learned that not all power strips are also surge protectors, but this one is.

Monoprice Accessories
I have made several purchases from monoprice.com. I wrote about the site's selection of iPod and iPhone accessories in August. Their cases are less than $2, wall chargers are $4, and external battery packs are $9. I've also bought MacBook video adapters and HDMI cables from Monoprice. These prices are a fraction of what I would have paid at retailers like Apple, Best Buy, and Amazon.

Software

iPhone Apps
I've spend over $100 in the App Store in 2009 (but my free apps far outnumber my paid apps). Some that I bought this year include TomTom USA, CNN Mobile, Sketchy, Red Laser, ESPN Spelling Bee, ReelDirector, and The RAG.

Airlock
Airlock is Macintosh software that allows the computer to lock itself when I am not nearby. How does Airlock know if I am near? It senses if my iPhone is in proximity using Bluetooth. Since I always have my phone in my pocket or in my hand, my computer essentially knows if I'm nearby. I work in all sorts of locations with my laptop. So if somehow my laptop is swiped, at least my data is locked down. If I'm a classroom teacher, Airlock would be a very convenient method of locking nosy students out of my computer when I'm not around.

ScreenFlow 2.0
ScreenFlow is Mac-only software for making screencasts. I bought ScreenFlow a couple years ago and loved it so much I paid for the 2.0 upgrade that came out a couple months ago. I've used ScreenFlow to make informercials and how-tos. I also use ScreenFlow in combination with iMovie to create video episodes of the Learning in Hand: iPods podcast.

Snow Leopard
I shelled out $29 to upgrade my MacBook Pro from OSX 10.5 to 10.6. There really aren't that many differences. Supposedly my computer is faster, but I can't tell.

iLife '09
The iLife '09 suite of Mac software was released in January. iPhoto has the most useful new features for me, including facial recognition and publishing to Flickr and Facebook. iMovie '09 brings back many of the options that went missing in iMovie '08. In fact, I have almost stopped using iMovie HD (from 2006) because iMovie '09 is now meeting more of my needs.

READ Poster

I visited Richland County School District One in South Carolina in February. MaryAnn Sansonetti wrote about my 24 hours in her district. Richland One does great stuff with technology and it was such a pleasure to visit. One thing they do is make READ posters. They take photos of visitors, principals, teachers, community leaders, and even beauty pageant winners. The photos are put into a background and the word READ is spelled across the top. They have a printer that prints out large posters in full color and you can see these posters throughout the district's buildings. I have the honor of being featured on one of these READ posters!

For more about the posters, read MaryAnn's post, READ Posters...You Can Be on One Too!

10 Years Later: Cheaper, Easier

I wrote an article titled 10 Years Later: Cheaper, Easier for February's StarTeaching Features for Teachers. Here it is:

In 1998 not many people could publish on the World Wide Web. Sure, big companies like Yahoo! and CNN had websites. But, the typical Internet citizen was limited to being a consumer of the Web. As a fifth grade teacher at the time, I was really excited about the possibilities of students distributing their work online. Before I had access to a classroom website I had students write book reviews and post them on Amazon.com. Students did indeed love publishing on the World Wide Web. They took their work more seriously because they weren't writing book reviews for only the teacher's eyes--they had a real-world purpose for writing.

Eventually my school district made it possible for me to have a classroom site. My students named it Planet 5th. Planet 5th was full of student writing, artwork, photos, and videos. In fact, my students and I started to think of our classroom as a Web publishing organization. We took great pride in building Planet 5th over the course of the school year.

One of my favorite year-long projects was The Daily Planet. It was our daily log of the day's events, written by a student who was the "roving reporter" for the day. The reporter's job was to write an article about that day's activities and learning. Each of my students were fortunate enough to have a Palm handheld computer with attachable keyboard so the reporter could type the article at school or at home. The next day I would get the reporter's article off the handheld and put it up on Planet 5th. I would also include photos the reporter took with a digital camera. Students loved being the roving reporter and their writing certainly improved over the course of the school year.

My fifth graders left with Planet 5th on a CD-ROM, giving them a evidence of their learning and preserving memories of their final year in elementary school. Their collection of work became a digital portfolio and each student made a page for Planet 5th to show their growth as a learner.

As much as students loved Planet 5th, they loved those Palm handhelds even more. We began using them in 2001. At that time, handhelds did not have Wi-Fi (and schools did not have wireless networks). We used the handhelds primarily for drill and practice activities, word processing, and organization. Without Internet access, the uses for the handhelds were somewhat limited.

Fast forward ten years to 2008. While I have left my own classroom to empower students and teachers with technology as an independent consultant, I am thrilled that my vision of technology in the classroom has become much easier to realize for typical teachers.

The Web has moved from being published only by companies to everyone having the ability to be online content producers. Anyone can post a video to YouTube, a podcast to iTunes, or a blog on Blogger. In fact, blogging has made the roving reporter activity a manageable one in many classrooms. Unlike years ago, blog services make publishing a snap. No knowledge of Dreamweaver, HTML, or FTP is required.

Today, almost all handheld and portable devices are Wi-Fi enabled. With access to the Internet, these devices can get to those online videos, podcasts, and blogs. And for about the same price paid for our Palm handhelds in 2001, schools can buy a complete laptop. The ASUS Eee PC and the XO are two in the growing list of ultra-small and ultra affordable laptops. Additionally, according to Apple, the iPod touch is becoming a "mainstream Wi-Fi mobile platform." A bevy of applications are on their way for the iPod touch and there's no denying it has a powerful Web browser. And we mustn't forget handheld computers from the likes of Palm and HP are packing lots of useful features nowadays.

There's no denying the Internet is essential for teaching and learning. It's important that every student can access the information, tools, and social interactions the Web offers. I'm pleased that 2008 brings affordable, portable computers so the Internet can be in the hands of students. I want to see more schools invite these devices into their doors with the goal of each and every student having the educational benefits of a computer and the Web. An extraordinary classroom experience can be a reality for teachers and students!

Announcing TonyVincent.net

TonyVincent.net is online! While learninginhand.com covers the world of learning with tools that fit in students' and teachers' hands, TonyVincent.net focuses on online and digital technologies. Here are just some of the topics TonyVincent.net will cover: online publishing, Google Earth, digital video, RSS feeds, Wikipedia, information literacy, free software, and Web 2.0 services. These "internety" topics and handheld computing will often overlap and probably give me headaches when trying to figure out on to which site to post the content.

Currently, TonyVincent.net features a blog and forums. Unlike the learninginhand site where I use Dreamweaver to upload an HTML file for each page, TonyVincent.net uses a content management system (Drupal for those who want to know this kind of stuff). What does that exactly mean? With Drupal I'll be able to organize content on TonyVincent.net with just a couple of mouse clicks. Once there's more content, I will to have TonyVincent.net sorted by subject area. Posting in blog-format is a great convenience for the blogger, but it isn't so great for a reader who wants information on one topic. So watch for site organization and features to be added in the future. You can also look forward to layout changes and lots of tweaks as I improve the site.

As Dale pointed out in a blog comment, it takes some effort to keep up with all of the content I provide online. If you really want to keep up on everything I post, subscribe to my RSS feeds:

• Learning in Hand Blog: Handheld computing, podcasting, and iPods
  http://feeds.feedburner.com/learninginhand
• Learning in Hand Forums: Discussions about handheld computing, podcasting, and iPods
  http//feeds.feedburner.com/forums
• TonyVincent.net: Education & Technology for Teachers
  http://tonyvincent.net/?q=rss.xml
• Soft Reset Podcast: The podcast for those using handhelds in education
  http://feeds.feedburner.com/SoftReset
• Our City Podcast: Learn about cities from the kids who live there
  http://feeds.feedburner.com/OurCity
• Learning in Hand: iPods Podcast: Using iPods for teaching and learning
  http://vincent.libsyn.com/rss
• TonyVincent.info: My online scrapbook of what I'm finding or doing online
  http://tonyvincent.info/rss

Now here's the beauty of RSS: subscribe with a service like Bloglines or Google Reader, and you don't have to visit each source individually. Just subscribe to the RSS feeds and log into Bloglines each day to see what's new. Many teachers have asked for step-by-step directions for subscribing with Bloglines. Jump on over to my post, Subscribe to Sites with Bloglines, at TonyVincent.net for help. I hope TonyVincent.net will also provide you with help, resources, news, lessons, strategies, and guidance for years to come...