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| Macworld Expo 2006 | | Date Created: Jan 11, 2006, 03:39 PM |
| Once again here I am at my yearly pilgrimage to the Apple MacGeek capital of the world. What can I say, I'm a MacGeek at heart. Plus being here in San Francisco doesn't hurt since many of the things I love are here. |
| Yesterday was Steve Jobs' Keynote address to the all of us Mac enthusiasts and loyal followers and I could not help get caught up in the electric atmosphere that is always accompanied by the keynote every year. While I stood in line for over an hour I started to look around at my fellow MacGeeks and made some interesting observations. It seems that most of the Mac users are middle aged white men that possibly at some point in their life were probably viewed as geeks or dorks in school. Now here they were standing in line waiting to see the keynote address of one of the biggest geeks in the world. The funny thing about this is that the line I was standing in was for those of us that were fortunate enough to have purchased a Combo Package which cost approximately $1500 - $2000 per person, and Jobs is one the CEO of one of the most successful computer companies in the world. I wonder who had the last laugh there... |
| It is obvious that the computer industry is dominated by men, but it is nice to see women starting to become experts in this field. As men we cannot continue to dominate this field, and I'm sure that more women could bring a new fresh perspective to an already saturated field of testosterone. Where am I going with that? I have no idea. I just thought it was an interesting point. Anyhow, while in line there was much speculation of what Jobs might be unveiling to the world. A lot where speculating a new iPod with more video, a new desktop computer and so on, but I continued to hang on the hopes that Apple would introduce a new G5 PowerBook. Things got underway with the usual update of the dominance of Apple in the music industry and the world of MP3 players. iTunes and Holiday profits. The numbers where staggering. Really cool!! |
| Jobs then continued to introduce new updates to the entire iLife suite which introduced a new addition to iLife. The suite already comes with 5 very powerful software programs that are connected to our digital life. Now comes iWeb. A new application designed to make publishing a new website easy. Very, very easy and still produce beautiful content. A couple of years ago Apple introduced GarageBand and right away I saw the benefits it would have in the classroom. When I had a chance to I planted the seed of the possiblity that GarageBand had in the classroom and voila! It worked. It has started to spread like wildfire at our school and teachers are using it in the classroom. The kids are creating awesome content with the application. This new software, iWeb, presents the same ideas for me as the technology coordinator of OCEAA. I can already see the benefits of having teachers create their own sites from their computer without having to access the .mac account on the web. No longer will they have to create their pages from a web browser. Now they can create their work straight from their iBooks. Plus all of the new features that iMovie, GarageBand and iPhoto present are exciting. It gives me a whole new energy to push OCEAA to be a digital hub of creative student base projects. Art can take the shape of many things and this suite offers me a great tool to inspire my students to unlock their creative instincts. |
| Also walking around the exhibit hall I have gotten an opportunity to make some valuable connections with people in the computer industry. One of the most valuable contacts was with the Education Specialist at Lego. He mentioned that he would be sending me a free sample of one of their Lego kits and curriculum that could help our Science teacher and help our students with some much needed instruction in this area. Also the 2 day workshop on Dreamweaver has given me some new ideas and instructions on how to improve the website at OCEAA and how to make my work a whole lot easier. Overall, I love coming to this conference for all that it has to offer me and other fellow Apple users. I just wish that Macworld would offere a specialized Education (k-12) strand specifically designed for educators. The education segment is a segment of the Mac community that would benefit a great deal of learning how to implement these powerful tools to be used in the classroom. Hopefully next year there is a little more. I know this Friday there is a symposium targeted to education, so I will have to attend and find out what it's all about. |
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