MacJournal and Professional Development

First off, I have to say that I’m still undecided on whether I prefer MacJournal or Evernote as my main journalling software. I like features of both packages, and probably having both of them at my disposal is the best solution for me at the moment. The key for me is whether or not I can access my journal information online, but particularly from my iPhone. On this count, Evernote wins in my books. However, I feel that the available features in MacJournal are overall more powerful.

Today, I was using my MacJournal program to take notes during a keynote lecture for the teacher conference I was attending. I realized as I was typing my notes that MacJournal has the ability to both record video and audio. As an experiment, I wrote my notes, but simultaneously used the voice recording features of the software.

Given the fact that I was sitting several rows up from the keynote speaker, and that the MacBook Pro’s built-in microphone faces the user (I presume), I can’t say that the quality of the recorded sound was the greatest. However, it certainly could be understood. Here are some of the advantages that I foresee using this approach to sit in traditional lectures and workshops:

• You have a sense of reassurance. If you miss hearing something, you know you’ve got it recorded and you can always listen to it later.
• The recorded session can be saved as a podcast.
• The notes you take can also be uploaded as a webpage (maybe for those who missed the address/workshop/class) ** insert URL here**

As an experiment, I uploaded the notes I took in MacJournal and the sound file that I created using the program. In order to get the sound file to appear on the web page, I first had to export it as a podcast and then drag it back into my MacJournal document. I don’t see this as a big deal, but it is a minor inconvenience. If you’d like to see the file I uploaded, it is available here.

I’m sure there are others, but these are the ones that immediately come to mind. One disadvantage that I saw was that if I tried to switch to a different note within the journal file, the recording automatically stopped. However, if the screen saver kicked in, the recording did continue (perhaps a saving grace to those who might nod off during a lesson/lecture/worskhop/keynote address).

You can download a demo version of MacJournal from the Mariner Software home page. One final thing that impressed me was the blog that is kept by the software’s developer, Dan Schimpf.

There are other packages, and I continue to investigate them. Each does something very well, but lacks other features that interest me. I guess only time will tell which one eventually wins out.

MacJournal

After an absence that took far too long, I’ve returned for yet another post. This one promises to be short, as it seems I have more time to write longer posts in the summer when I’m working for SFU’s TLITE program, or when I’m supposedly on vacation.

Today’s post is about this nifty little program I came across while browsing in the Mac store today. it’s certainly not a new product, but since it’s new to me, I thought I’d write about it here. It’s called MacJournal, and it’s produced by Mariner Software. This software is meant to act as a personal journal. You can use it to collect your thoughts, develop projects, and a variety of other things. What drew me to this package was its ability to upload journal entries directly to popular blogs such as Wordpress and Blogger. I’m also very impressed by its ability to download existing blog entries. In less than a minute, all of the entries for the blogs I have created on the ‘net were downloaded into separate notebooks.

In some ways, it mirrors some of the functionality of one of my other ‘very cool idea-saving packages’: Evernote. While I love what Evernote offers, so far as I know, the free version does not allow me to upload the notes I generate in Evernote directly to a blog. If I’m wrong, then I’m out the $40 CDN I paid for MacJournal. Even so, there’s much here for me to explore in this software, and I have a sense that it’s going to help on the productivity side of things. No more forgotten great ideas? Maybe not, but maybe fewer of them will get lost along the way!

As always, I’m interested in demonstrating the software that I’m playing with in the blog entries here. My experiment with MacJournal is no exception. In fact, this blog entry was entirely composed in, and uploaded from MacJournal. As an added bonus, i save the Journal file to my iDisk, so it’s always available to me (regardless of the Mac I’m using at the time!). All I can say is ‘cool’.

EdTechTalk Podcast

This should be a relatively short post... As more and more technology options become available for educators, it becomes harder to keep up with some of the latest innovations. I used to be a frequent reader of technology magazines (yes, yes, the geeky ones!), but find that I don't have time to read them now.

This is one of the reasons I turned to podcasts. I listen to technology podcasts while driving in my car. My iPod is hooked up to a small FM transmitter so I hear the podcasts (and some of my tunes) via my car radio.

I recently came across the EdTechTalk podcast. The two episodes I've listened to so far have moderators from Canada and the United States (meaning that there is a more 'North American' flavour to the show, as opposed to one that is more centered on our neighbours to the South).

After just two podcasts, I'm a fan! A significant portion of the podcast includes discussion of recent links that the moderators have found. When listening to this portion of the show, I regularly pause my iPod so that I can send myself a reminder of the links they mention (I use Jott to accomplish this with the help of my cell phone). During the past two episodes, I've sent myself at least 10 messages via Jott, and I can't wait for next week's episode to come out.

While the 'Links' portion of the show finds me constantly pausing and sending myself jotts, I also really enjoy the discussion of various topics and issues between the moderators.

If you're looking for a podcast that informs you of some of the latest tech offerings for teachers, consider EdTechTalk!

Scratch

Okay, so maybe I'm the last one to know about this tool, but today I attended a presentation by Peter on the Scratch programming/animation environment. I loved what I saw. I was particularly impressed by:

• The ease with which a 'program' can be written
• The ease with which sprites can be manipulated
• The ability to perform some relatively complex tasks within a student-friendly environment
• Many other things!

Despite promising myself that I'd take the night off (I should have known better), I had to play with this software. In about 30 minutes, I managed to create a 'program' that includes animated sprites, automatic movement, random variables and painting.

I see potential for teaching kids valuable problem-solving through the use of such a student-friendly environment, and I suspect this potential could be across several areas of the curriculum. I'm not sure about how I might use this type of software, because I've spent less time thinking about the practical applications (which I'm sure are there), and more time just 'playing'.

If you'd like to see my first attempt at producing something with this package, you can visit the page on the Scratch website where I've uploaded it.

I'd just like to take a minute in my blog to thank Peter for sharing this with me today. One of the things I love about TLITE is that the students and the mentors share in the learning. I know I certainly learned something really cool today, and I appreciate it very much.