NorthStarNerd.Org

Dedication

Occasionally in life you meet someone who teaches you about dedication and ideals. Dj is my teacher. Last night we had dinner near Rockefeller Center in New York City. I learned that Dj will move back to China in January to help the children of China. Given Dj has given up a career as a Microsoft software engineer to pursue his dream of helping the kids, my own efforts in China seem small by comparison.

Good luck Dj! I hope to see you in China next Fall.

• 2008: LingYun Dorm Project
• 2007: Rebuilding JiaYou's School: Initial Post | JiaYou | Home from JiaYou

Finding and Filtering New Content

The amount of information found via the web is amazing, and hard to assimilate.  One method for finding new content is to check reputable awards sites. One very good award web site to follow is the "Eddies", also known as the Edublog award site. Dating back to 2004, these awards recognize top blogs in the educational field ... from corporate to educational.

This year's nominees find me reviewing and subscribing to three new blogs (and maintaining my subscription to Tony Karrer's eLearning Technology):

1. Clive on Learning - from the United Kingdom
2. Mobile Learning - from Australia
3. Technology Enhanced Learning - from Germany

It goes without saying that without the use RSS, you receive only imited value from new content. If RSS is still a new concept to you, link and watch this short video. You will then need software. Here is my software recommendation, GreatNews, along with some screencasts.

One final point, note how the three blogs which I am newly monitoring are from countries other than my own. If you don't believe that culture affects one's viewpoint on many subjects, please reconsider. The intelligent person recognizes the affect of their own cultural norms, and tries to move beyond those imitations.

Enjoy a Christmas Concert This Weekend

Most college Christmas concerts are this weekend. The choirs, bands and orchestras give some amazing performances. Instead of entering the shopping foray, enjoy some Christmas spirit. Use the Google query given below to find a performance at a local college.  Replace the name "Wartburg" with the name of your preferred school and re-run the query.

• Google Christmas Concert Query

I'll be attending these two concerts this weekend:

• Christmas with Wartburg
• Festival at Christmas (Bethel College)

Camtasia and SnagIt for Free

This is hard to believe, but true. TechSmith is offering older versions of both Snagit and Camtasia for free. Actually, this is a great marketing move on their part to capture an increased share of the screencasting and eLearning authoring market. I'm sure their strategy is if you like the product, you'll pay for an upgrade in the future.  Act fast! Who knows how long this offer will be active.

My thanks to Tony Karrer who keyed me into this offer.

• Download Camtasia 3.1.3
• Register product
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• Download SnagIt 7.2.5 (English)
• Download SnagIt 7.2.5 (German)
• Download SnagIt 7.2.5 (French)
• Register product

Carbon vs. America's Top Model

America's Top Model (#7) winds hands down over Carbon (#97) according to Wikirage. If you're ever curious to learn what netizens are creating over at Wikipedia, link to Wikirage. In my case, I wanted to see what articles had the most unique editors ... an indication of an involved community. Looks like true knowledge creation takes a back seat to celebrities even on Wikipedia. My thanks to "CC" who commented on this blog and keyed me in to this tool.  Finally, I wish I knew something about Carbon and could contribute to the article. My own Wikipedia edits have been quite small.
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