You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'Google' category.
So today has been a very full day. We started off with David Pogue’s presentation. Poor guy woke-up to a dead hard-drive. He said he had to throw together the presentation – and minus some small technical issues, it was a great presentation.
David Pogue focused on a few technologies that are going to be big or bigger. There was Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) or the idea of using a phone through a wireless connection – it already exists, but he sees a lot of potential. He talked about some other technologies – one in particular that is here and now is what Google is doing with information on the phone.
If you’re not familiar with Google SMS – I’ve made a quick Jing video to shows of how it works and how you can use it (Check out the Jing Project from TechSmith). http://screencast.com/t/NTesNX2a10o — Oh yeah, and it’s free (both Google SMS and Jing)
I also like Google 411. You dial 1-800-goog-411 (1-800-4664-411). You say you’re location, what you’re looking for and they will connect you. You can also get a business address as well. If you want you can get a text message of the information as well – super handy if you don’t want to write down the number.
Check out the Google video:
Ryan and I taught a Camtasia Studio session that went pretty well. We’ve talked about tightening up the presentation a little, and making sure we dig into the content faster – even if that means we pause at regular intervals to present information we normally give up front.
We also participated in one-on-one sessions. It’s a good opportunity, although pretty limited since we are only doing 2 sessions, with each session having two people participate.
It’s interesting to hear what different folks in the industry are doing. Of course there is a lot of buzz about simulations and needing to do simulations. I heard this at the e-Learning guilds DevLearn conference last November as well.
It’s funny in Grad school 4 years ago I was looking at this. So I was on the bleeding edge, looking at this opportunity coming down the pike… and I actually walked away from it. Partly because I was worried it wasn’t going to be something that I could build a career on, and honestly partly because I had family and friends that ribbed me about the games side of it (What? You’re playing games in grad school?)
So I probably missed one of those opportunities of a life time- but then again – is the simulation trend here to stay, or is it another tool that will go in the tool boxes and only pulled out when the hammer and duct tape won’t cut it?
In this month’s issue of Fast Company, they named Google as the most innovative company.
I have mixed feelings about Google. I think they create a lot of cool software, and I am a frequent user of their products.
Regardless of whether I use the products, or have some thoughts about why they really offer so many benefits (and the type they do). Why I bring this up, and why I can admire Google is something that came out in the Fast Company article.
I think there is something to their willingness to take huge risks. This willingness to take risks has let them to some great innovation and great ideas.
While probably most organizations could benefit from some more risk, probably a lot feel like they can’t afford to risk. And while I think that businesses obviously need make decisions that make sense for them- I think that as learners we all could afford to a few more risks in learning.
How often do we really take a risk to learn something new?
Especially in business settings, are we afraid to try to learn something new — or do we hold back because the settings we’re in dictate that failure, even in learning something is a negative?
Tomorrow I give a presentation about what we can do to be awesome as an organization… and I think I am going to put forth the idea that we need to take more risk… at least in learning.
What do you think? How does your organization do? What areas do you feel would be helpful to take more risk in?
How can we risk more in our processes to Learn?
So yesterday I started looking around in Google Labs. I tend to look around there every once and a while to see what’s new.
Posted is a feature that I never had saw before, Google Voice Local Search.
Google Voice Local Search allows you to call 1-800-GOOG-411 – say the city and state, then the business, or category. Then Google returns the phone number, and if you want details, you can get an address too.
First of all – I’m sure that the voice recognition technology is not really that new – but won’t this help make that technology better. This technology – while employed in a limited scope at this point – there are always future possibilities. If a learner could say a word and have options presented to them… it could open up exploratory learning in a whole new dimension. I haven’t sat and just thought about possibilities, but I’m sure I could come up with a number of potential opportunities.
Second- it’s free (as for now). I’ve never before used 411. I think the price is too high, and never had a need for the service. Using Google’s free service, I think I can find a use or two now.
Like I said, sometimes Google is so cool – Google 411 is cool. Now, if we can just help Google to look towards helping apply their cool technology to improving education.
