Good Afternoon SCH,

First order of business, Daytime will be held:

Cherokee campus: Tomorrow – Day 4 from 12:00 – 1:00 in the Library Instructional Room.

WG Campus: Friday, Day 5 from 10:30 – 11:30 in the Exchange.

I don’t have much much time for humor or fun today so I’m just going to add a link to a blog post I read last night from Andrew Churches which seems relevant considering a MS parent night that I was recently a part of as well as the ongoing discussions regarding our 1:1 program and distractions.  I know we’ve discussed this in previous posts but I’d love to hear from some more thoughts, both sides of the argument if possible! This may come across as my advocation for FB in the classroom, but it’s not.  I simply think that there are many possibilities with social media, whether FB is the platform or not, I simply don’t know (although I have my opinions).  But what I do know is that teaching our students good digital citizenship will not only help them represent themselves properly today with regards to their online reputation, it will prepare them for the future where social media may be the primary source of communication or even the place they go to for jobs.  I think we all know that one of the first places prospective employers turn to when deciding whether or not to hire an individual, is the Web, most notably Facebook.  I recently spoke to several students regarding this topic at our most recent iSite/iChat meeting and it was quite interesting to hear some of the student thoughts.  More to come on that!

Click on this link to read Andrew’s blog - Oh the OUTRAGE…youtube and Facebook!

Considering today’s release of iOS5 I owe it one of the greatest innovators of our time, to at least dedicate a portion of Daytime to yet another example of the genius of Steve Jobbs.  I know many, including myself were disappointed to find out that there would not be a new iPhone 5 forthcoming (for now at least).  However, rest assured that iOS 5 will not be a disappointment.  Similar to how iTunes changed the way we listen to and obtain music, and the haptic capabilities of the iPhone changed the way we use our mobile devices (my 3 year old nephew Gavin steals my iPhone every time I see him and immediately begins playing “Dinosaurs,” “Skateboarding,” or my favorite “Skeeball,” as he likes to call them, without any direction from me), “Siri” Apple’s voice controlled user-interface is going to completely revolutionize the way we user our mobile devices….again.  Check this video out for a quick demo:

For now, given that Siri is in its beta state and has only partnered with Wolfram Alpha and Yelp, the voice recognition artificial intelligence will only work with iPhone’s built-in apps (e-mail, SMS, phone, iPod, calendar, web search, maps).  The Yelp functionality will allow users to find restaurants or businesses, while Wolfram Alpha will allow users to ask certain questions as the video demonstrates.  These partnerships make it rather clear that Apple will release Siri to 3rd party app developers, this is where the possibilities become limitless.

iOS 5 is certainly not limited to the introduction of Siri, click the link below for a Macworld review that highlights many of the new features.  Maybe iPhone 4S stands for iPhone 4-Siri edition???

iOS 5

So much for a short post….

In the words of the great George Costanza, Onward & Upward!!