Sleep is for the Week – a weekly(ish) roundup, Edition 1

I’m going to try a weekly roundup of edtech news and releases. I hope it will be a little easier to digest and more compact than several emails per day.
This week:

  • Chrome. Huh?
  • Monte Vista Christian School Conference – Education in a Changing World
  • Delicious – social bookmarking
  • Learning over Lunch (LoL)
  • Blogging Fever

Early this year, I made some negative statements about Google Chrome in a Learning over Lunch session. I’ve also blogged about this from time to time. It’s a good time to revisit those and explain things a little more.

Chrome. Huh?

What’s bad about Chrome?

Google makes most of its money from advertising. Google clients can target their ads according to the age, gender, location, language, faith, education of their markets. In fact, I’m putting this extremely mildly. The accuracy with which advertisers can target their ads is jaw dropping. As a Google ads client, I know.

How does Google know so much about me?

They know because you Googled something, and they remembered. Your browser, particularly if it’s Chrome, is helping them remember. Google tracks where you’ve been, what you like, how long you spend on sites and Chrome tracks it better than anything else.
So that’s my main beef with Chrome. But this has been in the news this week.

What’s good about Chrome?

Chrome is hands-down the fastest browser. All of Google’s services work perfectly in Chrome. And we use loads of Google Apps at Elim. YouTube is a Google service, and I’m pretty sure it works better in Chrome.

I’m freaking out! What do I do?!

Chrome, Firefox and Safari all remember passwords, and after a little convincing will give them up. The difference is that Chrome will do it at the drop of a hat. I suggest that you use Safari or Firefox and remember to lock your computer when you’re not right next to it. Too many things just don’t work in Internet Explorer.

Monte Vista Christian School Conference – Education in a Changing World

A bunch of teachers from Elim were privileged to attend this conference in California. Sir Ken Robinson and Alan November were keynotes, and they’re some of my heroes. I’m so stoked for Murray, Mark, Mandy and Chhaya – sounds like they had a blast.

Delicious – social bookmarking

I rediscovered Delicious when I was preparing for a presentation at the Educ8now conference in July. Basically, I can collect a bunch of links and publish them in a nice way. Easy.

Learning over Lunch – Lol

I’ve made a bunch of screencasts for school this week. Here are the two that I made for my Learning over Lunch sessions on ultranet.

 

Blogging Fever

Finally, I’m overwhelmed with the outbreak of blogging that’s happened at Elim in the last month or so. So overwhelmed, that I fear I may miss one out! But here it is: a list of teacher blogs from Elim Christian College:

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