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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Back Up Your Important Files on World Backup Day

As a great reminder to us all that computers crash sometimes--and how sad if you were just finishing up your greatest term paper or had just made that wonderful digital family photo album when it happened--comes:

World Backup Day

"On March 31, as part of the global data-saving initiative, you are encouraged to back up all of your cherished photos and videos, and important documents. If you've ever had a hard disk fail, and not had a backup to fall back on, you'll know that it's a bit like losing a sizable fragment of your soul. If you've never backed up your important files -- or if you only back up sporadically -- do it on World Backup Day!" from the website http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/28/march-31-is-world-backup-day-2011/
Whether you use a usb drive, an external hard drive, or back up to the 'cloud', use tomorrow as the day to save your photos, music, and documents somewhere other than on your computer. Forewarned is forearmed.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Review of the Braillenote Apex by Gabriel

Gabriel has provided us with another great podcast about Humanware's Apex, the newest model of their accessible PDA/braille notetaker. This time, Gabriel talks about a lot of Apex's new features, and he compares the Apex to its previous model, the mPower. Click on the title to download the file and give it a listen!

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Apex Exploration Podcast

One of the questions I asked of our students who wanted to be the first students to win the use of the Apex braille notetakers (See my November, 2010 post for more information on the contest):
"How will you 'give back'?". In other words, how would these contest winners, as premier users in the Los Angeles Unified School District of Humanware's newest accessible PDA, help other students learn about the features, advantages, and ways that using the Apex can help them in their school career? Well, Gabriel, one of the winners, is creating a series of podcasts on how the Apex can be a wonderful (and fun) tool to complete school assignments, read digital books, and even use as a GPS device! Here is the first of his podcasts. If you click on the title/heading of this blogpost, Gabriel's podcast will start downloading to your computer. I apologize to Gabriel for taking so long to get his first show posted, but I had a learning curve to figure out how to post an mp3 file to my blog. See, teachers learn new skills every day, too! So, enjoy Gabriel's first Apex podcast--I think he did a fantastic job!--and check back for another of his podcasts soon, as well as the comments from another of our Apex contest winners.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Celebrate Mardi Gras by Visiting the Bookshare Blog!


Well, it's Mardi Gras, laissez les bons temps roulez! Did you know that Bookshare has a blog? Check out their recommendations for some great New Orleans reading at http://blog.bookshare.org/
They have so many great resources on their website, check out the Training link for more information about how to use their wonderful service!