Robert Baird on Educational Technology

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Use Google Docs for business research

I've been collecting my bike commuter data with a simple bike computer (distance; avg speed; top speed; drive time) and placing this in a Google Docs spreadsheet. This is a manual data entry process, but once inside Google Docs one can do some really cool things with the data. The new "gadgets" are very cool and help visualize data. They are easier to apply than the kind of features you see in Microsoft Office, although they are similar. Here is a tiny url link to my published bike data: http://tinyurl.com/yjnumm7

Google Docs in Plain English

great example of simple animation with very good explanatory power.

Teachers and Principals Talk about Google Docs

A compelling series of testimonials for the use of Google Docs with students.

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

Wired 14.06: The Rise of Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing ideas . . . ideas from those with "no formal expertise." All hail the DIY crowd and the limits of the expert class.

Wired 14.06: The Rise of Crowdsourcing: "This shouldn’t be surprising, notes Karim Lakhani, a lecturer in technology and innovation at MIT, who has studied InnoCentive. “The strength of a network like InnoCentive’s is exactly the diversity of intellectual background,” he says. Lakhani and his three coauthors surveyed 166 problems posted to InnoCentive from 26 different firms. “We actually found the odds of a solver’s success increased in fields in which they had no formal expertise,” Lakhani says. He has put his finger on a central tenet of network theory, what pioneering sociologist Mark Granovetter describes as “the strength of weak ties.” The most efficient networks are those that link to the broadest range of information, knowledge, and experience."

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

GiSTEQ PhotoTrakr Review

Picture geocoding is the "hot" GPS topic of 2007 and GpsPasSion published a comprehensive guide in March. As with many budding areas, the user needs to piece together various solutions and figure out what works best. Many users including myself will enjoy experimenting but a "turn-key" solution is needed for more people to join in the fun and when it is well designed even advanced users will enjoy using it. I'll admit that this introduction was a bit long, but it summarizes my point of view on GiSTEQ's PhotoTrackr solution.

http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=85458