Just a quick midsummer’s post to let you know about two new ways to access my blog:
- Odiogo is an excellent text-to-speech service that has voice-enabled my blogposts. If listening is more your style than reading, click on the “Listen Now” icon just below each post title. You can stream the blogpost online, add it to your iTunes, download the .mp3, or click on the “More” option to subscribe to the podcast or send it to Facebook, Digg, Delicious, and all the other usual suspects. I invite you to subscribe to my Odiogo feed to receive the audio version of my blog in your reader/player of choice.
- The good folks at MoFuse provide a free (and optionally ad-free!) mobile interface for your blog. If you have your own domain name, you can also map it to your new mobile site. The mobile version of this blog can be accessed at http://m.apaceofchange.com.
Multiplicity of access is something that’s been on my mind lately; I don’t think that adding a voice to my blog is anything but a drop in an otherwise huge bucket, but as these tools come across my path, I try to be mindful of how students can utilize them – at least the concept, if not the specific tool (e.g., mobile phone access, text-to-speech). Of course, the fact that I’m no longer in the classroom is turning out to be a double-edged sword in this regard – theoretically, I can reach more students in my current position than I could as a classroom teacher, BUT my removal from “the trenches” means that I now have an extra degree of separation to overcome in order to identify those in need and implement those changes. I plan on being more proactive in that regard this coming school year, however, and I’ll be sure to report on my progress (or lack thereof) here.
I hope your summer has been as enjoyable as mine has been thus far; a little hard to believe there’s only four or five weeks left for some of us.
four or five weeks? um…try an induction start day of august 3.
i like the mobile site fix – that seems to me to be an essential part of every website. why doesn’t wikipedia have it?
.-= Jeff Pierce´s last blog ..The Ivory Tower, Part One =-.
Damian, I’ll be interested to see how your interactions with students and teachers go. Making connections to students and teachers (regardless of tech) can be a challenge.
And I have about 4 weeks left, but don’t tell my brain that; it’s been worrying since summer began.
.-= Paul Villavisanis´s last blog ..Linchpin =-.
@Jeff: Try http://mobile.wikipedia.org/ – it ain’t pretty, but it’s access.
@Paul, you and I must go back around the same time in late August. My wife doesn’t go back til after Labor Day, but I keep telling myself that when June 12th rolls around and I’m curled up in bed while she’s up and getting ready for her last two weeks of school, I’m going to feel aaaall right.