Tom Caswell

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  • Top 15 Android Apps – June 2010 Edition

    Android image

    I’ve been doing this every 6 months for the last couple years, so it’s time for another “top Android app” list. As of June 2010, here are the apps I recommend for those with Android devices (several are also available for iPhone and iPod Touch). These apps are all free or close enough, with the exception of Documents To Go. They can all be downloaded from the Android Market:

    Productivity/document management stuff (or “tricks you wish you could teach your smart phone”)

    1. Blackmoon File Browser (allows all kinds of Gmail attachments, not just images and PDFs). This is a must-have if you want to attach anything other than photos to your emails.
    2. Astro: A free file manager that lets you navigate around your phone and SD card, unzip files, etc. It also allows an “Open As” option  — so you can open word docs as text, etc.
    3. DroidBox: If you store your files on DropBox, DroidBox is worth the $1-2.
    4. NewsRob: A nice, free news reader that syncs to GoogleReader. I still like BeyondPod for nice podcast/news reader integration on Android. You can set it up to grab your favorite podcasts on a schedule, or only if there is wifi around. It’s worth the few dollars they want.
    5. Docs Pics: This app lets you connect with Google Docs and upload/download your latest docs and photos.
    6. Documents To Go: The free version lets you view and edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files (along with PDFs, but that doesn’t matter as much now that Adobe Reader for Android is out). I don’t normally need to edit Office documents from my phone, but it’s nice to be able to pull it off in a pinch so I paid for the full app when I saw it for $10.
    7. ROM Manager: This app does a nice job simplifying the process of updating new ROMs and backing up old ones for those of us who use Cyanogen Mod and other custom Android system software. CM Updater is also nice, and basically acts as an alternative to the over-the-air updates for rooted Android phones.

    Fun and games:

    1. doubleTwist is an app that allows Android devices to integrate more smoothly with iTunes, including sending existing iTunes playlists to Android. This surely beats recreating the same playlists on Android!
    2. Movies is a must-have. It pulls in show times, trailers, and Rotten Tomatoes reviews. Plus it also integrates with Flickster, Facebook, and even Netflix. This is the best app I have found for filling up my instant and movie queues from my Android phone.
    3. Twitter is the “official” app and is pretty nice, although I still sometimes prefer the clean interface of Twidroid. If you are into Twitter you may as well try both free apps and see which you prefer.
    4. C:geo is a sweet little geocaching app. Probably the best I’ve ever found on any platform for locating geocaches in the field. If you know what geocaching is, you’ll know why this is cool. If not, move on.
    5. GPS Logger is one I haven’t used much, but it promises to be a favorite. It’s a data logger that lets you record location data while you take pictures with your digital camera. Assuming the date/time of your camera and Android device are the same, you can use the file GPS Logger creates to geotag your photos using something like GPSPhotoLinker (Mac only) or GPicSync (Mac/PC/Linux). Your geotagged photos will look exactly the same, but each one will have hidden location data that Picasa, Flickr, iPhoto, and other apps can use to plot your photos on a map. This is awesome if you like to hike or travel!
    6. My Tracks is the best tracking app I have found. Allows users to records their hikes, runs, rides, trips, etc. and share the trip via Google Maps, or export the raw data points via GPX, KML, or CSV. RideTrac and Trail Guru are also good apps, but I like My Tracks better for its clean user interface and seamless Google Maps integration. I think I can use My Tracks to record the same data I need to go back and geotag my photos as well, and if this is the case it would be the clear choice.
    7. Tux Rider only works on newer phones like the Droid and the Nexus One, and I think it’s because it has some kind of 3D graphics acceleration going on. If you have one of these devices, it’s definitely worth a try. It’s the Android version of Tux Racer, and you steer by tipping the device from side to side. I think there is an iPhone/iPod Touch version out as well.
    8. Gem Miner is a very addictive little game that lets you play the role of a miner, digging gems, buying equipment, etc. Very fun!

  • What Video Auto-Captioning Means for OER

    Ever since YouTube’s official auto-captioning feature launch in early March 2010 (with a private beta back in November 2009), I can’t stop thinking about the enormous significance for OER and for the web in general. It’s huge.

    As you probably know, David Wiley was recently able to convince Sal Khan of the Khan Academy to start using a CC-BY license on his 1200+ educational videos. Since all of Sal’s Open Educational Resources (yes, we can call it OER now) are delivered via YouTube they benefit from Google’s yummy, new auto-transcription and auto-translation features. I have experimented with viewing Sal’s video mini-lectures with both English and French captions. The English audio transcription seems fairly accurate, and the French translation (auto-generated from the English subtitles) has a little more that is “lost in auto-translation.” This definitely deserves it’s “beta” label, but it is impressive nonetheless when you consider it is all auto-generated.

    So what does video auto-captioning mean for OER?

    • accessibility (readable by someone with a screen reader or braille output device)
    • discoverability (easy for others to find you via Google, etc.)
    • searchability (easy to find the specific part you are looking for – i. e. searchable video)
    • low-bandwidth access (if text transcripts are made available separately)
    • translateability (I think I made that word up)

    Once you have an easy way to transcribe video content, several new possibilities open up. While not perfect, the auto-captioned content is definitely more accessible to users with visual and/or aural disabilities. (I just hope future iterations of auto-captioning will allow the content author to invite/approve users to edit these auto-captions, similar to the dotSub model.) But increased accessibility is only one way we can benefit. Now that you have captions, you can search them. Auto-captioning will make it possible to find a particular video on the web, or even a particular segment within a video using a keyword search. Soon you will “Google” through video for a particular scene. MIT is already doing video search (see their Lecture Browser and Spoken Media Project). Finally, raw text video transcriptions use less bandwidth than the original video content, which meets another critical need: access in low-bandwidth areas or places where the cost of bandwidth can be prohibitive. I’ll stop there for now, but it is clear to me that with the explosion of online videos and related rich media, video auto-captioning is a major step forward for the web.

  • Let’s Ban Paper Too: What Public Schools 1.0 Can Learn From Web 2.0

    Let me start with a video clip. I came across this video by Soomo Publishing, a group I learned at the Connexions 2010 conference. (Soomo is in the business of creating “ready-to-use collections of rich web assignments” using a student subscription model.) Soomo takes some liberties at the end of the video, so if you’re a dyed-in-the-wool historian you may want to skip over this one.

    I think this clip is brilliant.

    It is exactly this kind of virally catchy, think-outside-the-box content that can pique students’ interest in a particular historical event.

    But this is only a hook.

    With the proper questions and encouragement, a teacher can help students unpack the meaning of something like the Soomo clip on the American Revolution. Video is not just entertainment. Viewing the clip can lead to some interesting classroom discussions if the teacher is willing to listen as well as lecture. Master teachers are able to adapt last year’s lesson to this year’s students. This kind of teaching takes more effort than one-way lecture because it requires giving students more control, more two-way interaction.

    That’s the whole point of Web 2.0.

    Web 2.0 gives users more control. It’s a 2-way “conversation” that starts with a web page projecting information in one direction and allows the audience to respond with comments, ratings, user-generated video, status messages, etc. Some of the most successful sites have figured out how to give their users more of a voice. They are no longer simply readers, viewers, or users. They are contributors. Schools can learn a great deal from the Web 2.0 movement. People (including students) want to participate, not just watch or read.

    Don’t stop there.

    I think it would be great if students could dig into some of the great online sources to research and collaboratively create a reenactment of a particular historical event. A project I am involved with is helping teachers to do just that. TwHistory.org helps teachers, students, and history enthusiasts to create historical reenactments using Twitter. More info for teachers is available on the TwHistory teacher’s corner. Are you concerned about the implications of using Web 2.0 tools in schools? So am I. These tools have huge potential. I would even compare it to the invention of paper.

    Let’s ban paper too.

    Blocking Twitter, YouTube, and other social media sites is like banning access to paper in schools because it could be used to read, write, or draw something inappropriate. I taught at a public high school, in a computer-based classroom for 5 years. I understand the issues. Educational consultant Chris O’Neal said it well at the start of a YouTube teacher tutorial he made for Edutopia: “I think of YouTube as, like a giant video flea market. Lots of cool finds mixed in with a lot of crazy junk.” So let’s start by unblocking YouTube in schools (or perhaps finding a suitable alternative, such as TeacherTube, SchoolTube, or Edublogs TV). Social media sites like YouTube are today’s creative canvas.

  • New Media and Learning Symposium: WoW!

    Augmented Reality in the Classroom - NML Presentation by Craig Knapp
    Augmented Reality in the Classroom – NML Presentation by Craig Kapp

    I go to a lot of conferences. And I have given a number of presentations in the past few years — almost 30 of them (I think that’s a lot for a grad student). Today Craig Kapp’s presentation called “Augmented Reality in Learning” absolutely blew me away. I have never seen (well, virtually seen) a session with so much energy!

    This year’s NMC Symposium on New Media and Learning was help entirely in a private instance of Second Life, a virtual world called “Hakone.” It was great to present TwHistory with Marion Jensen, alongside new media greats like Constance Steinkuehler, Brett Bixler, and Craig Kapp. A big thank you to Larry, Alan, and all the organizers! I have posted photos of the conference as well. For me, this experience shattered any notion that a virtual conference is somehow less engaging or interesting. Au contraire!

    Back to Craig Kapp. In all his spare time as a full-time doctoral student at NYU (I can relate), Craig is working on ZooBurst, an AR storytelling tool that lets anyone create their own 3D pop-up book. He invited those who are interested to take part in the public beta. (I had signed up before his talk was over.)

    (more…)

  • Recent celebrations…

    Sorry if this comes off as bragging, but I am very grateful for all the media mentions and other opportunities that have come my way over the past couple months. I’ve decided to do a brain dump here before I forget everything. Here we go:

    1. MIT, USU, eduCommons, and enPraxis were all mentioned in the January issue of EDU TECH, a higher ed magazine in India. The entire magazine is available here: http://issuu.com/eduindia/docs/january_2010.

    2. The local Herald Journal newspaper did a nice article on the TwHistory.org project in January: http://news.hjnews.com/news/article_82e18eda-2b7e-56b8-9f0d-b31cb9acd272.html.

    3. There was another article in the Herald Journal a couple weeks ago on some efforts I got involved with via Stanford to use Web 2.0 ideas to help provide crisis relief in Haiti and Chile. They had me talk on education, but I mainly touched on my vision for micro-learning in the short term. I spoke of “Train the Trainer” types of activities that could be implemented to spread basic skills and knowledge so the progress doesn’t stop when the aid workers leave. http://news.hjnews.com/features/article_7b8e2eda-2b9f-11df-9864-001cc4c002e0.html

    4. Last week I interviewed Martha Kanter, Under Secretary of the US Department of Education last week about Open Educational Resources (OER). It’s a long story how I got this opportunity, but I think it’s significant. Under Secretary Kanter is directly under Arnie Duncan in the Obama Administration, responsible for higher ed. The interview was published today in the OCW Consortium March 2010 Newsletter. I have attached a PDF as well. It is noteworthy that with the passage of the Health Care and Education Affordability Act, approximately $3 billion in federal funding ($600,000,000/year for 5 years) has been allocated to states, non-profits, and other institutions for educational programs and projects to boost the college graduation rate and lower cost of post-secondary education. Open Educational Resources projects such as Open Textbooks fall into this category. Interestingly, Martha Kanter has been involved with OER efforts for over a decade, so it is likely that some OER programs will get a big boost from the current administration.

    5. I co-wrote a grant proposal with Marion Jensen (another INST PhD student) to the Talis Incubator (a private organization that is funding innovative projects in Open Education space) to develop TwHistory.org, a site for online historical reenactments using Twitter. Our TwHistory proposal has made it to the final round, and was one of only eight proposals selected to advance.

    6. I also helped write another Talis grant proposal with enPraxis, this one is focused on converting content packages between educational repositories. It too has advanced to the final round. I am thrilled that USU has two of the final eight spots in a very competitive round of Open Education funding. I expect that three of the eight finalists will be funded.