Site Reorganization and Additions
Learning in Hand began in 2001 as part of my fifth grade classroom website as a way to share what my students and I were doing with Palm handhelds. In 2004, Learning in Hand became its own website and added information about Pocket PCs. Learning in Hand's focus on student-centered technology continued through the years by adding resources for podcasting and iPods. At long last I've taken the time to reorganize the site so it is easier to browse for the information you're interested in.
The site's main pages are now Blog, Podcasts, PDAs, iPods, Netbooks, Mobile Web, About, and Search.
Podcasts contains a link to Learning in Hand's popular Podcasting section. It also links to the three podcasts hosted here at learninginhand.com: Learning in Hand: iPods, Our City Podcast, and Soft Reset.
PDAs is the section all about Palm handhelds and Pocket PCs. I've always been against calling handhelds PDAs (an initialism for Personal Digital Assistants). But, I needed a word to describe handhelds that run Palm or Windows Mobile and are not phones. I couldn't just use the word "handheld" because nowadays that term encompasses so many different kinds of devices. PDAs seems to be the best way to describe these so that's what the section is labeled. The PDAs section contains links to Palm and Pocket PC/Windows Mobile software, lesson plans, classroom management advice, eBooks, and lots more.
The iPods portion of Learning in Hand has great information for users of iPods with Click Wheels. Most iPod users who visit can find things they never knew an iPod could do. In particular, the Gallery of Educational Image Sets has some cool educational photos sets to load on students' iPods. A brand new addition to Learning in Hand is Do So Much with an iPod touch. I'm finding the iPod touch (the iPod that's just like an iPhone--minus the the phone functions, camera, microphone, and speaker). iPod touch users can surf the web using the iPod's Safari browser. There are also web sites that are designed for the iPhone/iPod touch screen called Web Apps. Then, there are also real software applications that can be downloaded from the iTunes App Store. Of course, an iPod touch is an iPod, so it plays audio and video and displays photos. Furthermore, this new section shares loads of tips and tricks for using an iPod touch.
Another new section is Netbooks and it discusses tiny, affordable computers. These computers don't have much memory or storage space, but that's ok. They can connect to the Web through Wi-Fi and access thousands of web applications. To help teachers out, the page has a list of web applications that I've recently bookmarked. You can see all of the ones I've bookmarked here. I suspect the Netbooks pages will be updated quite a bit in the coming year as they become more and more popular.
The Mobile Web section is all about using the Internet on devices with small screens, like mobile phones, PDAs, and iPod touch. There are sample sites, advice for finding mobile sites, tips for use in a classroom, and information about creating your own mobile site.
Clicking About will bring up information about me, along with links to my other websites and Twitter page. This is also the page where you can email me and where you can check out my Presentation and Speaking Information.
Search uses Google to search Learning in Hand and is a good way to find something when you're not sure which section it is in. If after searching you can't find something you know is on the site, email me and I'd be happy to point you in the right direction. Note that during the reorganization I did not change any URLs, so all pages you have bookmarked are still there. Also note that the discussion forums have been removed as they were very rarely used. One more note: clicking the site's name or logo at the top of each page will take you to Learning in Hand's home page.
While I was busy reorganizing and adding content, I also gave the site a little facelift. I hope you like the changes!