DV for Teachers

Macintouch this morning points to Thomas Tempelmann’s Find Any File application—

Contrary to Spotlight, it does not use a database but instead uses the file system driver’s fast search operations.

This lets you search for file properties such as name, dates, size, etc., but not for file content (use Spotlight for that)!

Find Any File can find files that Spotlight doesn’t, e.g. those inside bundles and packages and in inside folders that are excluded from Spotlight search (i.e. system files).

And Find Any File is fast. Not always as fast as Spotlight, but faster than other, similar file search tools you might find for the Mac.

I need something like this. Good to find it.

Why did Textile italicize the two middle paragraphs in the block quote above?

This feels difficult. I went to two different conferences in the last three weeks, and came away with more specific information for following up than ever. I heard about wonderful ideas, teaching practices, classroom strategies, new uses of technologies… new to me, anyway, but that’s why we go to these conferences.

So what’s difficult? Part of the difficulty is knowing I’ve been at this job for 10 years now, as of the 7th of July. It’s been a great ten years – I really like what we’ve created here in the ITC. I’ve seen what could be, though – some wonderful innovations that we could emulate at Emory’s Cox Hall, the FCIT at University of South Florida, and the University of Texas at Austin. Now I’m ready to try some of these new things, to plan and share these ideas and this energy, but the students and faculty are either involved in the end of summer semester or on vacation, and as I said, I’ve got other commitments to keep.

So, back to the work I left behind to go to the conferences… valuable work I mostly enjoy for people I like and respect for a purpose I support, but it’s not the exciting stuff I saw at these conferences! While I’m tempted by the new new things, I’ll dig in, and work to keep the energy from these fresh ideas while I do the not so new things. As Dave Winer always says, still diggin’.

I’m in a session called Information Fluency Meets Web 2.0, and it’s one of those “wow my brain is expanding” sessions. Joyce Valenza is a high school librarian who works closely with teachers on teaching strategies, finding and developing online resources, and more. The session will have a podcast up shortly after the conference ends. She’s got a blog about Web 2.0 too. She’s presenting with a teacher from her school who’s worked with her on many of these projects.

Here’s one great idea I wish I’d thought of, combining book trailers and the (often annoying) required reading list: have the students reading the book make a trailer about it. Then, the best of them goes up on the web site for all to see, and at the end of the year, they’re all shown to the students who’ll read the books that summer or the following year. It’s such an obvious idea!

This is the kind of session that NECC is be about at its best: fresh uses of existing tools that produce results, shown with enthusiasm that’s contagious. I just told them that they’ve nuked my brain, and it’s glowing!

I spent all yesterday with Ellen and Will at a workshop celebrating constructivism presented by a new group, the Constructivist Consortium. Six companies got together and invited NECC attendees to this all day, project-based work/play/learn/reflect series of activities. They provided full licensed copies of key software titles for people to install on their laptops and take with them, and lunch, for a paltrey fee of only $25. And they seemed surprised that it sold out in just days. Spending the day feeling like you’‘re playing, and on review, realize you learned a tremendous amount – an excellent educational model, if you ask me.

Will spent both project periods – morning and afternoon – programming interactive projects and games using MicroWorlds EX from LCSI. He has his sights set on a Computational Media major at Georgia Tech, so this was just practice for him.

Ellen networked, especially spending time with Peter Reynolds, author, artist, and a leader (with his twin, Paul) of FableVision.

I spoke with Lauren Elliott about PNN.com, the Personal News Network, a multimedia-rich network/blog site. Lauren is the guy who created Where In the World is Carmen Sandiego

Their mission is a constructivist manifesto for companies; check it out below the fold.