A tribute to a friend

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I just found out that a friend of mine from high school died a few months ago. I googled his obituary, and I came across a website dedicated to his memory. His name was SSG Milford Dean Lacquement, Jr. Or as we called him in school, Deano.

I tried to e-mail his family with my memories of him, but the e-mail came back returned. But I want someone to know, so I'm posting the message here. So here's to you, Deano. You were a good man. Thanks for who you were.

FACEBOOK revisited

Now, I have to admit that I LOVE Facebook. Now, I'm not an addict (that sounds hilarious to even write), but I use it to communicate with my students. You know, it's the whole "meet them where they are" thing. And here at Oklahoma State, 98% of the students I've taught (speaking specifically about the undergrads--I just get my grad students' cell phone numbers) use Facebook CONSTANTLY. So I began using it. But I've always been intrigued by the stuff that people will put about themselves on it--even when they know people look at it. I keep mine pretty inocuous, but some people don't know what TMI is all about.

Site updates

Man, this term has been BUSY. I've been reading a lot, but I haven't been posting. I'm trying to keep up with what's going on, and I've been updating my Del.icio.us bookmarks (as well as those for our undergrad EdTech course), but blogging hasn't been in the schedule this week.

I have added some blogs to my EdTech blogs page, and I'm trying to find a Del.icio.us plugin that I like for WordPress.

At any rate, here are some of the new websites I've found:

A GREAT new blog!

I found a great new EdTech blog today: Alvin's Educational Technology Blog. It's full of many, many tips on how to be more efficient, etc. when computing.

I highly recommend it!

Crash course in Learning Theory

I just ran across this, and I think it's great. Go see the Crash Course in Learning Theory. Talk about tailoring instruction to today's crowd!

BTW, I've also started browsing the blog it comes from, Creating Passionate Users. It's a hoot!

Wikis in the classroom

I'm always on the lookout for integration ideas and how to explain the benefits of Web 2.0 to people. Today as I read the Cool Cat Teacher Blog, I ran across the following slideshow by Adam Frey (founder of Wikispaces) on Wikis in the classroom. See it after the jump.

One summer term ends, and another begins

WHEW. Final grades from the June session are in.

Now I'm into the July session. I'm helping get one of the EDTC 3123 (undergrad preservice teacher technology course) going for our new faculty member, Pasha Antonenko, and I'm teaching EDTC 5773, Instructional Systems Management (Project Management). So, I'm busy again. We're using dotProject in 5773, and so far it's working okay. I've never used it before, so we'll see.

At any rate, tomorrow for the 4th we're going to my sister Donna's place to go swimming. It should be fun.

Everyone be safe!

Rededication . . .

Wow. I didn't see that one coming.

I've spent the last hour or so doing what I do every day--skimming over the various EdTech blogs to see if there is anything new or of interest. Now before anyone says anything, YES, I know about RSS feeds. I just like going out and visiting the different sites. I found feedreaders boring.

At any rate, I came across a post on Shrubbloggers about Angie Arndt. Now I have to warn you--her story is tragic, actually, that's not even strong enough to describe it, and it is graphic. Suffice it to say that this sweet looking girl was murdered by the people at her day care. As I read the article (and I don't know why I did), all I could imagine was someone trying to make my Natalie sit still. Yeah, good luck with that. When I finished reading, I recognized that I was crying.

Why?

iPhone? Not in this lifetime . . .

I just don't get it. I don't get what all the hoopla is about this new iPhone. Yeah, it has cool features, but so does every other piece of technology out there. I just think it's kind of funny all the hoopla out there surrounding it. Do you know why? Because it's just a phone. I can spend $300 less and still make the same phone calls. My phone plays .mp3s and has calendars and contacts, too. But it's not snazzy--I get that.

You know, this sounds really wierd coming from me. I love toys. I just don't get this one.

Maybe it's Apple backlash. You know what I mean? It just seems that Mac users are so evangelical about it. I hear them talking about how you can't do on a PC what you can do on a Mac (and man, are those commercials hilarious!), but I haven't found anything on my Mac (yes, I use one at work--I'm using it right now) that I can't do on my PC. It just hasn't happened for me.

So am I going to go out and have a fit over the iPhone? Nope. Besides, there's no way my wife would okay that purchase . . .