Alvin's Educational Technology Blog

Here is a new design for a power strip from Kreative Power.  It’s called a Powramid and should be available for purchase in February.  The idea behind the Powramid is the create a six-plug power strip oriented so all the plugs can be used at the same time.

I will definitely get one of these for my road bag.  During our recent trip I had a standard power strip for two cell phones, two MP3 players, a computer and a set of external speakers.  Because everything except the computer had a large power adapter, we could only plug about half of the devices in at a time.  The problem has been solved.

Buzz is a real inspiration to me.  He is a retired superintendent that has a working understanding of technology.  That is an unusual combination.

Over lunch today he showed me his latest time-saving technique using a technology that he read about in a magazine.  Jott is a free transcription service.  After you setup an account, you can call the toll-free number and leave yourself (or anyone else in your contact list) a message.  Jott then transcribes that voice mail into ASCII text and emails it to you.  You can talk up to 30 seconds at a time.  The translation accuracy is very good.

Buzz uses Jott to keep track of his mileage when visiting schools.  When he gets to his destination he calls Jott and says, “Toledo Public Schools forty-eight miles.”  Jott then emails him that information.  Way to go, Buzz.

OpenStreetMap is a new kind of wiki.  Instead of adding content as text and graphics, you can edit the map of the world.

There are GPS tracing options to make it easier to add sections of road.  Hop in your car with you GPS and drive the route you want to add.  Then dump the data from your GPS into the map.

There could be some real potential for educational projects with this site.