EduTainment: Fun Ways to Learn with Technology

With all the new technological gadgets and mobile electronic devices available such as SMART phones, tablets, laptop PCs, there has never been a better time to embrace a lifetime of learning. So long as you are connected through a wireless network also known as wifi, you have educators and lessons with you whenever and wherever you need them.

If you are a homeowner, you might want to start with YouTube. On www.youtube.com, you can find both professionals and amateurs who have created videos that teach everything from software to soufflés, from Do-It-Yourself projects to learning how to ride a bike. If it can be done, there’s a demo of how to do it on YouTube.

However, if you are a professional in such industries as healthcare, architecture, engineering or education, you will need to earn continuing education credits from an accredited organization. You will find that these institutions of higher-education have also embraced delivering important information through creative content.

According to Dee Morgillo MEd., MT(ASCP) Vice President of Inquisit, an accredited education organization for healthcare, “Studies definitively show that students of any age or background learn faster and retain more information when the material is presented in a more entertaining manner. The studies are so conclusive that it has created the new word of ‘Edu-tainment’ to describe classes that use creative content to involve and educate students.” Ms. Morgillo also writes a very entertaining blog designed to “DeeMystify” healthcare education. You can find the blog at http://demystify.blogspot.com or through the Inquisit website at www.inquisit.org .

If you are a parent, student or educator and you want to make learning more enjoyable in the classroom or at home, you may want to check out these fun and interesting web sites for content:

·         How Stuff Works - http://www.howstuffworks.com  - An award winning site of videos, games and more

·         Steve Spangler Science - http://www.stevespanglerscience.com  - easy science experiments to do at home or in the classroom

·         EdHeads - http://www.edheads.org/ - promises to activate the mind

·         Khan Academy - http://www.khanacademy.org – The ultimate in creative content, they have been recommended and endorsed by Bill Gates founder of Microsoft Corp.

·         National Geographic - http://www.nationalgeographic.com – stunning visual content and a special area for kids to interactively learn about the planet, its creatures and environment

If you are a student and have a SMART Phone or tablet, the app store is filled with fun and inventive game-like apps designed to make learning fun. Specifically, you may want to download the following applications:

·         SpellingCity – a fun way to learn spelling and vocabulary words

·         iWorldQuiz Lite – learn the world map in minutes

·         Mythbusters App  - award- winning app – it’s $2.99 but worth every penny

·         Math vs Zombies – math is the weapon of choice against zombie attacks

The amazing thing is that these are only a few of the cool apps and websites available to make learning fun, interesting and edu-taining.

I hope these recommendations help you to seek out many other fun ways to learn.

Check-Out FREE eBooks via the Northland Library Website

In cooperation with Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County Library Association, Northland Public Library offers a FREE e-lending library of over 25,000 titles of eBooks (electronic books) for you to temporarily download to an electronic device such as a Tablet (iPad, Kindle Fire), SMART phone (iPhone, Android) or Reader (Nook, Kindle Touch).

You can choose to check-out an eBook for 7, 14, or 21 days. The best part is: NO RETURNS and NO LATE FEES. The eBook that you have checked-out simply expires on the end-date and is automatically returned to the pool of titles for someone else to check-out. In addition, you can have 10 titles checked-out at any given time.

Typically, there are several copies of each title available for check-out. If no copies are available, you can choose to “Place a Hold” so that you are added to a waitlist and as copies are returned, you will receive an email that a copy is available once you have advanced through the waitlist. However, if you simply cannot wait until a copy is available, you can choose to “Buy it Now” to pay for the title to download and it will never expire.

This e-lending library service is offered through free Internet software called “Overdrive”. To get Overdrive, go to www.northlandlibrary.org and click on the “eBooks & More” tab. Scroll down and you will see an entry for Overdrive that includes Getting Started information and a List of Compatible Devices, so you can know if your device will enable you to check-out free eBooks. Click the icon next to the entry and you enter Overdrive.

Here are some recommended tips for using Overdrive:

·         Know what kind of device you have or want to use. For example, is it a Kindle, a Nook, an iPad, something else? Overdrive will work differently depending on the type of electronic device you want to use. For example, when you check-out an eBook you will need to select the Kindle format if your device is any type of Kindle or uses a Kindle App. H,owever you will need to choose the ePUB format, if your device is something else such as a Nook or iPad.

·         Make sure your electronic device is charged. Many devices recommend charging for a full 24 hours before you use your device for the first time.

·         Have an email account. Your electronic device, as well as, Overdrive will need to email you.

·         Sign up for an account that corresponds to your device. For example, if you have a Kindle then you will need an Amazon account; if you have an iPad then you will need and iTunes account; if you have a Nook then you will need a Barnes and Noble account and so forth. Be sure and know your Username and Password for the account.

·         Most importantly: Have a VALID, up-to-date, Library Card. Library Cards expire every 2 years even if you are a frequent user. Drop by Northland to update your library card because you will need to enter the number on your library card (without spaces) in order to login to Overdrive when you find a book you want to check-out.

Overdrive is full of fun and convenient features, such as selecting “Available Now” under the Advanced Search so you can avoid seeing all the books that are completely checked out. Under “My Digital Account”, you can see which titles you currently have out and how many days you have left for each before they expire. As you browse, you can add a book that you may want to read at a future time to a wishlist then you can check it out or place it on hold at a later date. Under “Digital Media Home” you can see all the new titles, titles for children, titles that are always available and my personal favorite: “Recently Returned” - which lists those books that my fellow readers in the area have most recently checked-out. It is a great way to find a great book (or maybe as a Pittsburgher, I’m just a little-bit ‘nebby’).

For more information about eBooks, go to the Northland Public Library website at www.northlandlibrary.org . They update the site frequently to list all their programs, events and e-services. Many classes fill up fast so be sure and sign-up early.
I hope you will join me in the cyber version of the Northland Public Library.

Back-to-School Technology

Whether you are going to High School or College, there have been significant developments in technology to help you be more efficient, organized and effective in your academic pursuits. Innovative computers, hand-held devices and mobile apps have all been created specifically for the needs of students.

Before you purchase any technology, find out if your school or major recommends any specific technology such as the mobile apps created by Blackboard®, Pearson® or other school-related tracking systems of classes, assignments and grades. If they don’t use or offer a mobile app, then you may want to download myHomework® to your SMART® phone. It can help you track what’s due and when, course schedules and much more.

Going back-to-school may be a good time to purchase a new computer. I highly recommend a tablet PC such as the HP EliteBook® or the Lenovo ThinkPad® that can swivel between tablet and laptop and can run Microsoft® Office®. These computers can also take advantage of the many “inking” features in the Microsoft Office suite of products particularly the product OneNote® which is specifically designed for taking notes either with the tablet PC’s digital pen or via the keyboard. OneNote comes with every Microsoft Office package. If you need to purchase Microsoft Office, you may want to check with your school to see if they have special educational pricing offers from Microsoft.

For purchasing a new computer, you can comparison shop for great deals on computers including tablet PC’s, through www.newegg.com. However, if you can wait a few months, the Microsoft Surface^TM will be out and it promises to be the best in thin, light-weight-while-powerful, tablet PC’s.

For the more traditional pen and paper note-taking, you may want to consider a smartpen such as the echo® smartpen from Livescribe®. It writes notes with traditional ink but it also records the lecture as an audio file. You can then upload both the notes and the corresponding audio to your computer once you are home thereby eliminating the need to carry your computer around. The echo smartpen can hold 400 or 800 hours of audio depending on the amount of memory you purchase. You can also listen to the audio-playback via the built-in speaker or through earphones you attach to the smartpen. The echo smartpen can work with any kind of paper or you can purchase notebooks that have features and commands printed at the bottom of every page for use with your smartpen. These notebooks can usually be purchased anywhere you purchase office supplies.

Finally, if you have an eReader such as a Kindle® or Nook®, many text books are available at significantly reduced costs. I hope these recommendations help you to have a fun academic year and inspire you to embrace a lifetime of learning.

Family Fun with Geocaching!

Geocaching is a world-wide phenomenon. It is a treasure hunt and a family-fun activity for all ages! All you need is a GPS-device and an account on www.geocaching.com.

You begin by registering on the www.geocaching.com web site. You will need to create a special “geocaching name” for you or your team. For example, there’s the Cuddy Cache Crew, Team LegoTJL, and Noctivagan, the silvered hair bat. You can then look for coordinates and descriptions of geocaches near you. Next, you enter the coordinates of the caches that you want to find into your GPS and off you go to hunt and explore.

People all over the world hide water-proof containers and log the GPS coordinates on www.geocaching.com. The containers range in size from large to micro. The larger containers contain various “swag” such as Happy Meal® toys, key chains, company giveaways and so forth. The rule is that if you take something out, you need to put something back into the container. So you should always bring some items of swag along to leave behind in the caches.

Through geocaching, our family team of all ages is out together, hiking in fresh air and sunshine, learning how to use a GPS and best of all, hunting for buried treasure.

Caches are located all over the world – from parks to parking lots, from drive up, convenient “stop and go” to much more difficult ones that require SCUBA diving.

The locations can vary in terrain and difficulty so caches are rated on a scale of 1 to 5 for each with 5 being the toughest. These ratings help people pick the caches suitable for their abilities.  Terrain 5 generally means that special equipment is required such as climbing gear.  Difficulty describes how hard the item is to solve or find.  For example, you could have an item in the middle of a flat field with a terrain of 1, but it is so well hidden that there is a difficulty of 5.

The caches are also categorized in various ways such as dog-friendly so even the family pet can participate. Other categories include night caches with reflectors, caches that are wheelchair accessible and ones that require you to solve a puzzle first to determine the coordinates.

When we go geocaching with a group, our dear friends The Cuddy Cache Crew taught us the following protocol: The first one to find the cache saunters away and calls out “leprechaun” – meaning the cache has been spotted. Then in turn, as each member of the group spots the cache, he or she saunters away and calls “leprechaun”. This way everyone has a chance to find it before it is pulled out of its hiding spot. The only problem is that this requires a good deal of self-discipline. Many times the first person to spot the cache is just too excited and forgets to be coy before yelling “leprechaun”.

Geocaching.com also offers a mobile app so you can interact with the web site while you are hunting for caches, including asking for hints, logging finds, or reporting a lost cache, also known as a “muggled” cache.

You can also use your SMART Phone’s GPS functionality to find the coordinates. However, a regular GPS available from DeLorme®, Megellin® or Garmin® is more accurate in pin-pointing a cache. If you have children under the age of twelve, I highly recommend the GeoMate Jr®. It is designed for smaller hands, has bigger buttons, and is extremely accurate and very easy to use.

Geocaching.com has everything you need to get started but they also have lots of fun and interesting items for the more advanced cacher. There are collectible medallions called “path tags” and teams can design and mint their own coin to distribute into caches. My personal favorite items are the “Travel Bugs”. Each travel bug has a unique identification code that you can log with geocaching.com and the location where it was first found.  As fellow cachers find the travel bug, they move it to another cache. You can then watch the progress of the travel bug around the world. On a recent trip to Europe we took a travel bug from Frick Park and placed it in a cache in Ireland. It is now somewhere in The Netherlands.

There are also geocaching events where geocachers get together to swap stories, trade collectibles and offer tips and advice. Just last month, Team LegoTJL, sponsored an Easter Cache Hunt and Picnic in North Park and plans to make it an annual event.

I asked Tommy and Andy, the six and ten year old members of the Cuddy Cache Crew, why they like to geocache. The six year old simply said, “Cuz it’s good”. I think that pretty much says it all.

 

I hope any readers out there that are fellow geocachers will add an anecdote or two about their geo-caching adventures or share important fun facts about geocaching on the Northern Connection magazine’s Facebook page

Must-Have Mobile Apps

In last month’s article, I recommended the mobile app RedLaser® because RedLaser scans bar codes of items in the stores and then lets you know where that same item can be found for less. Since then, several readers shared with me their stories of the huge savings they are enjoying due to my recommendation and have asked me to recommend other mobile apps that I consider to be absolute must-haves. What follows is a list of mobile apps that I have come to depend on for savings and convenience. It is my hope that you will find them useful as well.

For life here in the ‘burgh, I highly recommend the Giant Eagle® Mobile App and the mobile app known as ParkPGH^TM. Once you download the Giant Eagle Mobile App, you register your Giant Eagle Advantage Card® number with the app. Then, through the eOffers^TM feature, you can “clip” digital coupons by just selecting the various featured items you want. You can “clip” items at anywhere, anytime, prior to scanning your Giant Eagle Advantage Card at the register. When your Giant Eagle Advantage Card is scanned at checkout, all the discounts and savings automatically come off the total bill. I save with their digital coupons according to my schedule and without the bother of scissors or paper coupons. According to Dan Donovan, the official spokesperson for Giant Eagle, there is “more than $100 in savings currently available via eOffers. It has become another way for our customers to find value by shopping with us”. I know that I personally reap the benefits of this mobile app every time I go grocery shopping. The Giant Eagle Mobile App is available on iPhone, Android and via a mobile web site.

ParkPGH gives you the current status of the parking garages in downtown Pittsburgh by indicating which garages have “Availability”, are “Approaching Capacity” or are “Full”. I never head into downtown without first checking this app so I know exactly which garages are still available.  ParkPGH was created by The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust. J. Kevin McMahon, President and CEO of The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust said, “Our goal in launching ParkPGH is to reduce stress for arts patrons, increase more impromptu visits to the District, decrease the number of latecomers to performances and further improve the overall visitor experience of enjoying Downtown retail and entertainment.” Based on my own experience, The Pittsburgh Cultural Trust has definitely achieved their goals while offering a tremendous public service to all Pittsburghers.

I also recommend OpenTable® for Pittsburgh or any city. It shows the currently available reservations at local area restaurants. Therefore, if you need an immediate reservation, you can start OpenTable, see who has an available time, make the reservation and receive a confirmation number. I save an extraordinary amount of time by using OpenTable.

For business, I recommend BUMP®. With BUMP, you can exchange information with other SMART® phone users by selecting the information you want to share and then clicking the phones together like wine glasses. This method is ideal for exchanging contact information and is quickly replacing the traditional business card exchange, particularly at business lunches. The best part is that it doesn’t matter what type of SMART phone you have. For example, you can click iPhone® to iPhone, Android® to Android or even iPhone to Android and vice versa.

For travel, TripIt® is an absolute must. TripIt puts your travel itinerary from any booking site into your calendar for you and enables you to share your itinerary with others. This mobile app is such a convenience and timesaver for anyone who travels that I even recommend the premium version of TripItPro® which is currently priced at $49/year.

Overall, I endorse any mobile app that promotes hands-free use of my SMART phone. For this reason, I strongly recommend Vlingo®. With this FREE mobile app, you can talk to your phone and receive verbal responses to your commands. For example, with Vlingo, you can ask your phone “where is the nearest Italian restaurant?” and it will read your choices to you. Additionally, the most critical feature is that Vlingo will send texts to people in your contact list. Simply dictate your message and the text is sent.

This list contains my current recommendations for mobile apps but as more and more mobile apps become available, I will keep you informed which apps are must-haves.  Meanwhile, if you have a mobile app that is a must-have for you, please post about it on Northern Connection magazine’s Facebook page

Considering Wi-Fi For Your New Home?

Mobile devices such as tablets, laptops and SMART® phones are pushing more and more home owners to install their own wireless Internet (or Wi-Fi) so they can access the Internet from anywhere in the home. Even though I am always an advocate of do-it-yourself technology, I highly recommend selecting a professional service when it comes to installing Wi-Fi into the home; first because of potential sources of interference, such as walls or other electronic devices and second because a home requires certain security measures installed for private access to the Internet.

There is also a significant amount of equipment required for installing Wi-Fi including splitters, routers, a hub, access points, signal boosters and much more. In addition, according to Ralph Anderson, Vice President of  GreyFox Services (a local company who are experts in installing Wi-Fi into new and existing homes), “A professional service such as GreyFox Services needs to consider all aspects of the Wi-Fi installation, both  inside and out. It may appear to the Internet service provider that ample signal is coming to the house, however, once inside the house, if the signal is being split into multiple rooms and devices, it could be spreading the signal too thin for adequate service.”

Therefore, following is a list of items to consider even when using a professional service:

Age of the Home: The newer the home, the easier it is to install technology. Ideally, a newly built home or one being constructed will incorporate the necessary technology from the planning stage. If you are buying an older home, you need to consider how the house was built. For example in my own home, I did not find out until after I purchased it that the walls were made of plaster spread on top of chicken-wire. All this wire interferes with our wireless devices and we have had to buy “boosters” to increase the Internet signal throughout the home. When considering the cost of the stronger equipment needed for whole home Wi-Fi, my advice would be to research your home buying options carefully.

Placement of Equipment Cabinet: Due to the amount of equipment needed, an in-home location for a shelf or cabinet is required. Again, newer construction should have planned for a cabinet or shelf to be placed in the ideal location for Internet access. However, this is not so for older construction. The ideal location could possibly be in the den, laundry room or garage. A professional service such as GreyFox Services can assist with the ideal placement of the equipment, access points, etc. throughout the home.

Internet Provider: Depending on the location of your home you may or may not have a choice of an Internet provider. Some companies are now bundling Internet access with your cable and phone service. The key here is to shop around and get the best possible deal but also research which one has the best customer service record and least amount of outages. Also, if you can choose between more than one company, do not be afraid to negotiate among the companies for better rates and services.

Other Potential Sources of Interference: Besides walls and how they are constructed, other electronic equipment can interfere with the Wi-Fi and vice-versa such as baby-monitors and your phone’s cordless handsets. Be sure to make a list of all electronic devices you are planning to use in the home when you meet with the professional services so they can plan accordingly.

Security: Within the home, the Wi-Fi has to be setup so that a “Security Key” is required to gain access to the Internet. Originally, many home-owners were setting up the Wi-Fi with public access only to have the connection hacked, used by neighbors, or have strangers sitting in their driveway using their Internet access. This “Security Key” can be either a long string of characters and numbers or a secret phrase that is meaningful to you and easy for you to remember.

Budget: Make sure that you do your homework and be very aware of the costs associated with Wi-Fi access and add that cost into your buying plans. While you can get bargains, Wi-Fi is still an additional expense associated with the purchase of your home. This list of considerations contains my current recommendations for installing Wi-Fi into the home.  Meanwhile, if you have any questions or comments, please post about it on Northern Connection magazine’s Facebook page