I have posted on my primary blog host a few times about my unhappiness with many of the changes that have been occurring on the site for the last few months.  The reduction of some services, (iTalkr among my favorites) restriction / reduction of widgets and a move for many of these services to accessible to only “supporters.”  That said, overall, I have enjoyed my last 2 1/2 years  blogging on edublogs.org.   I know I have not been the most dedicated blogger on their service (or blogger overall), but I hope that I have made a bit of a difference in at least a few of my readers lives.Every time I happen to look at my cluster map I can’t help but be impressed by the numbers of people who have stopped by to look at my often rambling thoughts.  Looking at it this morning, I still l have that sense of awe. It is humbling when I think it all started with this simple post back in January 2007.

The main goal I have one this educational technology blog is to separate my personal views, ideas, beliefs and interests from direct ties to my school and district.

The views expressed here are entirely my own and do not and should not be implied or directly represent or representative of any organization with which I am affiliated or associated.

Wow! Disclaimer out the way… Let’s have some fun discussing leadership, organization, technology, staff development, and of course educational technology!

- Convergence

Gees, this is feeling like a obituary… sorry about that.  While not an obit, this post is signaling an end of sorts… for the past few months I have been exploring other blogging and website hosts.  I have played with Microsoft Spaces, SquareSpace, Wordpress.com, Blogger, Edublogs “supporter services”, TypePad, as well as self-hosted options like Wordpress MU, and Joomla… For good or bad, for one reason or another I am landing on TypePad.  They do not have the most robust storage, but there is a consistence of service as well as support that I appreciate.  Additionally, while I am still in the process of setting up my blog, I found a number of features that I really am liking: Lists (introduced to those on my spaces account, glad to see they are part of TypePad), easy easy inbound RSS setup, social links, and more.  I know some might say all of those features ar in many of those options you looked at and that is true.  I just feel for me TypePad brought them together in a good easy to use package.

So, it is time for me to make the “jump” to a new blog host, my hope is that many or (hopefully all) of you will come with me to my new TypePad blog.  Additionally, one other thing has bothered me for years… my url… it was always too long or complicated (that was a huge knock against Microsoft Spaces, but my 25GB of storage and pulling a bunch of services together (file, photo, blog, social, made it tempting…) and there is a person in Missouri that holds the rights to just about every vanishingpoint domain until2013… so vanishingpoint.com was out… The fact that he is not doing anything with them makes it all the more frustrating… so I needed to land on something I thought would work and still be relatively part of me… nothing better than your name I figure! Say hello to scottweidig.com

You will still be able to find VanishingPoint, however, it will now be at www.scottweidig.com I am working with search engines to get the new url forwarded as quickly as possible and into their search results.

I do want to say thank you to edublogs.org for hosting me and for everything that they have done for educational blogging overall. Parting is not without great hesitancy or forethought.  I will maintain vanishingpoint.edublogs.org for a while to help my readers hopefully make the transition to the new site (at least I hope you will).

I am hopeful and optimistic about this new chapter for myself and VanishingPoint. I look forward to seeing everyone at www.scottweidig.com

Note: scottweidig.com should go completely live in about 24 hours.

My ever present not wanting to miss a photo opportunity of the boys required me to pull put my iPhone to see what I could do to record the event and here is what I caught:

Now while that is what the camera saw, it is definately now what my eyes viewed at the time… However, with a couple of tools for the iPhone, we can get a bit closer to what the image should look like.

This is pretty cool huh? My favorite in iPhone editing tool is Photogene (iTunes Link), and a second great tool by the same developer is called NoiseBlaster (iTunes Link). Photogene allows for a plethora of editing and enhancing techniques while NoiseBlaster simply allows for exposure correction, and it’s primary purpose of eliminating “noise” (color blotches) from a picture. While the picture would be best served to have had a flash, this is not a bad result from an in-phone image editing tool.

– Post From My iPhone 3Gs

Well if I am going to live in the cloud, I can’t really use my favorite publishing tool Windows Live Writer can I?  So, in keeping with my “cloud initiative” I am looking to potentially use Zoho Writer to directly post to this blog.  Additionally, this is a nice test for Zoho Writer’s capabilities. 

Well, the first issue I had was setting up my blog, I was missing the xml.rpc piece to the blog url… Didn’t know it needed to be there, but this was easily corrected by looking at the FAQ’s for writer… My second issue was trying to get the picture you see above and to the left into this post.  Although the image dialogue box says that you can enter a url for an online photo… the dialogue would NOT let me type or copy and paste the url… when clicking in the filename/url box it would open my My Pictures folder… for me more interestingly, when I put the url in my WIndows File dialogue (like I was going to upload a fiel from my hard drive, Vistas nicely found the file in my temp browser folder, and I was able to select it that way. Hopefully it will upload.  We’ll see in a minute.

Hi Scott,

As a quick introduction I’m from the WOM World / Nokia, a  Nokia-sponsored platform that covers what’s being said online about  Nokia devices and services.

In addition to the blog, we also run a trial program in which we send  but Nokia devices for test and review. The N95 8GB North American  version is one of the latest releases and we’re seeing social media  users like you would be interested in having the device for three  weeks to put it through its paces.

It has the same spec as the regular N95 8GB, so; 5MP Carl Zeiss lens  camera with auto-focus, full GPS, MP3 player with integrated player  keys, dual sliding action, WIFI, etc. But this version comes with  updated software and full US 3G network support. In addition to being  on Symbian, which means it?s open to literally thousands of  applications, everything from Google maps to Twitter.

If you?re interested in a three week trial let us know. We cover all 
courier costs back and forth and are available for you to contact 
should you have any questions or queries during your trial period.

You can have a look at the WOM World / Nokia at: http://www.womworld.com/nokia

Please get in touch and let us know if this is of interest to you.

Many thanks

Colin and the WOM World / Nokia team

Since that time, Colin and I have been exchanging email on setting up the trial and getting general information out of the way etc.  I am excited about testing out the N95.  For years, I was a “Nokia” guy, but due to size and features, I moved over to the Motorola line with the Razors, and now, I absolutely love my Motorola Q Global from AT&T.

Let me give you some idea of what I use my “phone” for:

• Browsing the internet, I have 3 browsers on it depending on site compatibility.  Opera 8.65 (Full version standard and default browser), Pocket IE (as a backup, also standard on the MQG), and SkyFire (Currently in their closed beta, but it is nice and wil be a separate blog post).
• Twitter – Via TinyTwitter for Windows Mobile 6 (Java version too) great little app.
• NewsGator Go! – my RSS reader of choice… hey did you know that you can now RSS you NewsGator’s article clippings… This is SWEET! Blog post coming on this shortly…
• PHOTOS!  I take about 200+ pictures and videos (like the one below)each month with my phone… it is a 2 MP (the best I could buy last November).  I send the photos to flickr, and about 8 family members very often.

• GPS – I LOVE that the MQG is fully GPS enabled.  I use Microsoft’s Live Search Mobile, and occasionally Google Mobile Maps, Live is SO much better on the phone… for everything from turn by turn directions, to looking up stores, movies, gas prices, names, businesses, contacts to geocaching.  It’s awesome.  No secondary device needed.
• Reading ebooks… I love to read, and my preference for personal and professional literature is digital.  No need to worry about light, no need to worry about carrying something extra, no need to worry about finishing your book and not having another one to read… it is all there in the palm of your hand.  annotation, searching, enjoyment in a neat little bundle.
• Text messaging and instant messaging – this is a huge use of mine.  Wether it is sending pictures and video to family, finding out where everyone is, or just checking in, I send about 800 texts a month.  Recently, I was buying a new printer and wanted to consult with my wife about color laser jet or just B/W I knew she was working on her laptop so I started an IM session with her.  It saved us about $300 (the difference between the color LJ and a wireless print router, and the B/W I bought that had wireless networking built right in).
• Watching satellite TV via my slingbox… While I have only used my phone this way about 8 times, I have the ability to connect to my Direct TV dish from anywhere I can get a cell signal… It has been great when Joshua (4yoa) and I were waiting for Mommy to finish a marathon shopping session and he was REALLY bored and squirley… a bit of Scooby Doo and he was all good again.
• Portable digital notebook.  On the rare occassion that I do not actually have my laptop with me, I take notes, messages, tips, information right onto my phone.  OneNote Mobile syncs my Microsoft One Note 2007 from my laptop right to my phone.  I can push information both ways when I sync… pretty cool.  Recently, I have been playing with Evernote (which just came out of closed beta)… while not nearly as robust as OneNote Mobile, it has the capability to push information right to the web and pull it back.  Additionally, Evernote, syncs with just about every application on my laptop so I have access to my notes at just about any time I have an Internet connection… which with an unlimited data plan and the capability to tether my phone to my laptop is well… just about always…
• Laptop tethering for Internet use… I started tethering about 6 months ago when I was in a conference and could not get a reliable wireless signal.  While I do not do this often, when I do it still amazes me how well the 3G network handles data networking.
• MP3 – Podcast – I use my MQG to listen to music, both satellite radio and music from Rhapsody sync’d to my data card.  Additionally, I have begun podcasting into the internal voice notes application.  I have also used it to record my son’s voices… I have a great recording of Noah laughing
• Oh yeah… and for phone calls…

 I am looking forward to seeing what the N95 capabilities are.  I really like the fact that there is a 5MP camera with Zeiss lens… I can guarantee that I will stress this unit when I get it even if I can only have it for the 3 weeks.  I will keep you aware of how the trial goes once I receive the … ahem… “phone”.

~Scott

• I am 2 staff members short for the busiest time of our year for prepping the building…
• The majority of my administrative staff has been vacationing while I am worried about a major main office move and construction cut over…
• I have been creating a mitigation plan for images this year as it looks like the individual responsible for them (see above) will not return to work for 2-4 more months…
• My wife began a new Masters Program (her 3rd) in library science and I have been a single father (again)…
• Both of my children (see pictures and videos on the left) have recently decided that sleep is an option they would rather not exercise at this moment…
• I got a Wii and Wii Fit in the last 2 weeks, and cannot seem to stop playing Tiger Woods 08 golf and the Wii Fit in my little free time… or Lego Indiana Jones if my wife is around… she is hooked!
• My family is starting and struggling with Geocaching (but in love with it)…
• General laziness… feeling that when there is time, I have been too tired

Ok, maybe it is the little Wii Balance Board that nicely chastises me, “Oh, too busy to work out yesterday?” when I miss a body test each day. Or simply that I need to procrastinate and avoid doing any real work for a bit so I can put pressure on myself in the future, but I need to start getting thoughts, ideas, and information out of my head for cathartic reasons.

Here are some coming posts:

• Contacted my Nokia… going to test the N95
• RSSing my Reader…
• A Digital Notebook by any other name…
• Do you Jott?
• The building of a conference…
• Go  Web? … Are you looking?
• Wii wants to Play…
• Do you have the Cache?
• … more …

Looking forward to building conversations.  Hope you all are having a great summer!

-Scott

We had a few goals for the sessions:

• Concept Exposure: We wanted to introduce a number of concepts (and tools) to them, and we really wanted to stress that when leveraging technology in curriculum DO NOT focus on the tool… focus completely on the concept and skill you are introducing and let that drive your “tool choice.”
• Investigation: We needed to provide both time and the incentive for participants to learn the concepts and then encourage (sometimes force) them to explore and experiment with various tools that might fulfill the concepts…
• Direction and Commitment: We did NOT want this to be a typical  “sit and get” with little or no follow through to actually put what you learn into practice. i.e. really make at least one of these concepts truly integral to their personal professional learning or to their classroom.
• Repository: We wanted to have a repository for the participants not only to reference, but to provide practice and to help build out as a future resource… enter: Web20School

I can’t speak for the participants, but I can speak for Mike Bachrodt and myself and I am happy to say that the last four days have been a joy and we have one more left!  I can also say that all of the wonderful teachers we have attending the sessions have gone from amazingly overwhelmed to focused, passionate learners each with a different concept and tool set that they are excited to find all of the nuances of bring into their lives and classrooms.

Here is some of what they have discovered and created:

ToonDoo was a hit!  Here is the first comic of Karl Craddock (scroll left and right)

Samantha Serrano and Jim Nowak blogging

This really has been an amazing week!  I am looking forward to tomorrow and a bit sad at the prospect of the week ending.