The new system will be known as the Wii U, and the company plans to release it between April and December of next year. It will be compatible with existing Wii games and controllers, so consumers won’t necessarily have to replace software and accessories they already have (unless they want to take advantage of the new system’s capabilities). And unlike the Wii, which was stuck in the low-def era, the new console generates and displays graphics in full 1080p high-definition.
I’m pretty sure that Isle of Tune is my new favorite website. I showed it to some 4th graders and they practically ran to their computers to try it out for themselves. It’s an incredibly clever and adorable music sequencer. I look forward to the iPad app with additional features sometime soon.
Before I kick off my 2011 in earnest, I figured I’d take a moment to just sit back and look at the holy crap, I can’t believe how awesome this year was.
So here’s a very random summation of my favorite things from the past year. No, you do not get a new car.
Favorite new job: Technology Integration Specialist at Pine Glen School. I really can’t believe I get paid to work with a bunch of teachers who really care about kids and are willing to try new stuff with their students. It’s not been without its challenges, but I really love this job.
Favorite city to move to: I still miss Philadelphia, but Boston is a great place to live. Great public transportation system takes me to work and frequently downtown into the city, which is an eminently walkable place.
Favorite conference to organize: You already know the answer to this is Edcamp Philly. Look for the sequel this year, as well as Edcamp Boston in May!
Favorite personal triumph: My photohanging in an art gallery.
Favorite thing to find out I’m good at: I’m not terrible at providing meaningful professional development sessions.
Favorite city I visited: Washington, DC. I went twice, on the coldest days and the hottest days of the year there. I had a good time on both occasions.
Favorite new piece of technology: TheiPad. I had access to one for a few months, and it took up almost all of the time I previously spent on my computer. I think that if the new version this year comes through with the hoped-for built-in cameras, it’s going to make for an incredibly strong learning device for the classroom that’s going to be hard to match at the price Apple’s selling it for.
Favorite books: For fiction, it would have to be the book that I just finished on New Year’s Eve, Cast of Shadows by Kevin Guifoile, a meticulously written near-future science fiction murder mystery about cloning and online gaming that repeatedly blew my mind. For nonfiction, Dark Tide by Stephen Puleo is actually both fascinating and has very strong writing. It tells the tale of the Boston Molasses Flood of 1919, and Puleo smartly weaves the strands of American life in World War I throughout the story. I came for the molasses, I stayed for the tales of immigrants and anarchists. Special consideration goes to Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter by Seth-Grahame Smith for deftly blending fiction and non-fiction in the funniest thing I read all year. For children’s books, the best thing I read was Savvy by Ingrid Law, a book that reads like the X-Men meets typical Young Adult coming-of-age story, but with probably the most unique verbal style out of anything that I read all year.
Favorite movie: Other movies may have been better, but I most enjoyedScott Pilgrim vs. the World out of any of the new movies I saw in 2010. It was just pure fun.
Favorite TV shows: Community is the funniest thing on television right now, and The Walking Dead smartly surprises even people who have read the comics by changing things up in smart ways.
Favorite album: Florence and the Machine’s Lungs is pretty much designed with me in mind. Female vocals, orchestral strings, unique percussion, and it rocks? This album grabbed me from the first listen and still hasn’t let go.
Favorite video game: Mass Effect 2. Pretty much every change they made from the first one was for the better.
Due to a lack of funds (hey, I’m moving!), going to ISTE this year was just not going to happen. Fortunately for me, a confluence of factors turned this weekend into a conference weekend anyway, complete with networking with Twitter friends.
My wife was out of town for the weekend, and a good friend of mine just so happened to be going to DC for the annual American Library Association conference. He had an extra bed in his paid-for by work hotel room and invited me to join him. One bus trip later, and I’m in DC.
Something many people don’t know about me: I was a teenage librarian. In high school I spent a year working after school in my high school’s library, and then two years working in my town’s public library in their children’s department. It was a formative experience that definitely helped set me on my future career path as an educator. Given that, I spent the $25 for the exhibits floor pass.
In a lucky coincidence, I saw that Melissa Techman was going to be in DC on Saturday for the conference. A year ago at NECC, I went down for a day and had lunch with a bunch of special educators and a few other “friends of sped,” Melissa being one of said friends. In some nice symmetry, this year I got to go out to lunch as a friend of libraries with Melissa, Diane Cordell (a long-time Twitter friend that I finally got to meet in person), Gretchen Caserotti, Cathy Jo Nelson, and Kathy Ishizuka. We had plenty of good food and better conversation, as was the case last year.
Kathy is the Technology Editor for the School Library Journal, and later wrote me an e-mail asking for my impressions of the conference. Here’s what I wrote in reply:
It’s funny, this is the second year in a row that I’ve been to the Washington Convention Center and only been able to see the exhibits floor for a conference. The floor is pretty much like the floor of any other large convention: it’s heavy on the free stuff and phony marketing interactions. On the plus side for ALA, this convention didn’t seem to have any strange cult-like booths like the SMART booth at NECC last year.
As a special educator,I was really disappointed on the floor by the assistive technology pavilion, which didn’t seem to really have much in the way of assistive technology at all that I could see. I’d imagine that people with reading difficulties are one of those underserved populations that could stand to have more opportunities for access, and there wasn’t much of that there.
I noticed a definite trend toward making friendlier spaces for the visiting public. Lots of furniture and shelves that look cozy and inviting. I noticed in one booth they were featuring gaming stations to try and get the teenage demographic back into libraries. In the same tone, it was nice to see a good-sized presence of companies that produce comic books and graphic novels there.
On a side note: I’m somewhat surprised by the number of companies that specialize in moving libraries.
Just from the bits and pieces I picked up on from talking to some people and listening in on some others, it’s interesting to see many of the same shared anxieties that teachers and librarians share right now. Increasing technology and decreasing tax revenues are big stressors on both groups, and I very much get the feeling that we’re in the midst of a major reordering of the way the world works for all of us. I think the concern for both groups at the moment is to get out in front of the changes to help guide them in a positive fashion.
