Addicted to Google Apps

My first PERSONAL (thanks, Susan!) Web 2.0 venture was del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/derrylyons) at the urging of David Warlick last November. (I'd dabbled with Airset and wikis with Susan Brooks-Young in years past, played with Moodle, etc. but it never really "stuck" personally.)

After Jim Hirsch's IT Leadership Summit yesterday, I'm now an account-holding Google-r, and oh has my life changed.

(Patrick Crispin does some great workshops on using the Google Search Engine, and welcomes you on his site at www.netsquirrel.com)

I created my personalized home page (www.google.com/ig) and started adding "gadgets".

• Google Reader for my RSS feeds (reader.google.com)
• Had to add Dilbert and Weather.com
• Then Gmail
• Then Google Docs (docs.google.com)

...a new tab for mapping...

• Incidentlog.com for Seattle 911 dispatches
• Traffic for Seattle
• (Starbucks map not a gadget yet, but a link... www.findbyclick.com)

...a new tab for reference tools...

• Wikipedia
• Whitepages.com
• Document to PDF
• UPS Package Tracking
• Bible Verses
• Spell Check

...and a play tab for "gadgets" (AKA do-it-yourself plug-ins)

"Oh the places you'll go"...

ncce2007

NCCE 2007 IT Leadership Summit

A great time today with Jim Hirsch, Assoc. Supt for Tech & Academic Services in the Plano Independent School District. There's no way I can fold in the rich conversations we had, but I'll at least capture the highlights.

First, Jim welcomed visitors to his online resource page at http://k-12.pisd.edu/c@es/

We discussed three core areas: Open Technologies, which was a great distinction between Open Source and Open Technologies (which include Open Source, but also so many Web 2.0 services as well).

We then moved on to Cyber Security, including resources from CoSN and their self-assessment checklist http://securedistrict.org

Our final topic was Personal Computing, and while it includes 1:1 laptops (great presentation by Laurie Longo of Shoreline SD (http://learn.shorelineschools.org/kellogg/llongo/) it also includes other mobile devices such as Ultra Mobile PC's (http://www.umpc.com)

So my outcomes...

• I need to get "plugged back in" and "sharpen my saw" with the magazines and info sources that are out there (Wired, Fast Company, ed sources from other countries)
• I finally set up my gmail.com account (derry.lyons@gmail.com, if you're so inclined) and embark on my next round of Web 2.0 ~ online documents, Google Talk, and even blogger.com is happier now that my blog has been converted over. Wish me luck!

So much more to think about and do... "the conversation has just started..."

ncce2007