Technology News, Product Reviews, Deals & How-To's

10 Best Drawing Tablets to Unleash Your Creativity Whether you are an artist, graphic designer, or architect, a drawing tablet is an essential tool in this digital age. Allowing you to quickly transfer digital drawings into articulated masterpieces, they are a must for any creative professional and can allow hobbyists to take their digital art to the next level. Figuring out the best tablets for drawing isn't always easy, so we've taken some of the guesswork out of the equation. What you'll end up with depends both on your needs, and your budget, but the good news is that with such a wide variety of graphics tablets on the market, there's something for everyone.

21st Century Educator I recently found this article written by Richard Skemp that Gary Davis (@republicofmath) highlighted on his blog (update: link broken). I recommend reading the whole article. Skemp describes the difference between instrumental and relational understanding, and how the word understanding is used by different people to mean different types of understanding. Free Books A lot of people keep asking about a good list of programming books. Hence, we are building this list to save your time and to spread the knowledge. Some of these books will definitely help us to evolve our coding skills and thought processes for developing better solutions.

Beginner Geek: How To Edit Your Hosts File On occasion you will need to edit the hosts file on your machine. Sometimes because of an attack or prank, and others so that you can simply and freely control access to websites and network traffic. hosts files have been in use since ARPANET. They were used to resolve hosts names before DNS. hosts files would be massive documents used to aide the network name resolution. Edward Cotton « BSSP Negotiator Rises TV FINAL TEST TEST DRIVES raise the river vs. move the ocean Tebow and the Super Bowl Negotiator Rises TV FINAL TEST TEST DRIVES FINAL TEST TEST DRIVESMINI raise the river vs. move the oceanthe redford centerraise the river vs. move the ocean Tebow and the Super BowlT-Mobile Negotiator Rises TVPriceline MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM MOXKAT GRVIDAROKUMERRY CHRISTMAS FROM MOXKAT GRVIDA

4 Social Media Listening Strategies for 21st Century School Leaders In their book Why Social Media Matters: School Communication in the Digital Age authors Kitty Porterfield and Meg Carnes argue that for school leaders to use social media effectively, they not only use it to communicate out information, they must also engage in listening to what stakeholders are saying. "Listening online gives leaders insight into their communities in a way that face-to-face meetings and surveys do not." It is through social media that people sometimes reveal their true feelings. If they do not think you are listening, they may say things quite unlike those occasions when they think you are. Using social media to listen to what your stakeholders are saying is another way for you to get in touch with what they really want.

Emergency Bowtie Hey ladies this one’s for you. Do you have a boyfriend that forgets to get you flowers, never cleans up, and is too lazy to show you any affection? Well, I can’t help you with that, but the Emergency Bowtie can turn any self-centered slob into a self-center slob with a bowtie….and believe me, that’s a world of difference. This Emergence Bowtie comes in a neat little storage tin so you can have it on you at all times. If you and your man are out and about and suddenly your parents are headed your way, pull it out and put it on him. 100 Websites You Should Know and Use (updated!) Entertainment Meet David Peterson, who developed Dothraki for Game of Thrones There are seven different words in Dothraki for striking another person with a sword.

brainmail_issue73 In this issue: LIP READING PHONES DRIFT FROM NATURE MARKET METAPHORS SELF IMAGE DELUSION And much, much more... ------------------------------------------------------------ ____ ____ ___ _____ ____ ______ ______ * / __ )/ __ \/ | / _/ | / / |/ / | / _/ / / __ / /_/ / /| | / // |/ / /|_/ / /| | / // / / /_/ / _ _/ ___ |_/ // /| / / / / ___ |_/ // /___ /_____/_/ |_/_/ |_/___/_/ |_/_/ /_/_/ |_/___/_____/ *Feeding hungry minds since 2004 ------------------------------------------------------------ Brainmail email issue 73 - March 2011 ------------------------------------------------------------ Brainmail is a free monthly (usually) newsletter dedicated to current and future trends, statistics and other nuggets of information.

6 Reasons School Leaders Shouldn't Ignore Social Media as Communication Tool In their book Why Social Media Matters: School Communication in the Digital Age, Kitty Porterfield and Meg Carnes make a strong case for school leaders engaging in the use of social media as a means of communication. As they so clearly point out, "School leaders must be able to communicate with all their stakeholders, from the staff members in their buildings to the parents and other stakeholders in their communities." In times past, school leaders could do that through published newsletters and similar communication channels. In the 21st century, our stakeholders expect a more interactive form of communication, often that form is social media. In their book, Porterfield and Carnes, provide a list of 10 current realities of social media that no matter how hard district leaders try to block, filter, or policy our way through, these realities are ours and we can't change them.

Worst Case Scenario Survival Card Game Do you know what you’re supposed to do when you’re being chased by a swarm of angry bees? How about fending off a shark when you’re out swimming and happen to see one approaching you? These are obviously situations you won’t normally find yourself in, but that doesn’t mean there’s no possibility of it ever happening. Disruptive versus Radical Innovations Clayton Christenson’s seminal The Innovator’s Dilemma is now 10 years old, and its central idea of “disruptive innovation” is now part of the everyday language of innovation. Recently, I finally read the book after having loosely tossed the term around for a few years. I was shocked to discover that I had misunderstood the concept and made glib assumptions based on sloppy journalistic references. Properly penitent, I began using the term correctly and discovered, to my further shock, that nearly everybody else around me was also using the term incorrectly. By misunderstanding this one critical term, we lose much of the understanding of the innovator’s dilemma discovered by Christenson.

A Principal’s Guide to Android Apps: 25 Apps to Get You Started I am probably one of the few principals in this country who purchased an Android Tablet rather than an iPad. I already had access to a first generation iPad, and I wanted a 7 inch device instead of the a 10 inch, so I purchased an Galaxy Tab 7.7. I have not regretted it at all. In fact, there are very good reasons for getting an Android tablet instead, among them is the cost considerations and access to a few apps not currently available for the iPad. If you are considering an Android tablet just remember one important principle regarding any electronic device: It is only as good at the apps or software you use.