Google Creator – Efficient Web Page Creation

Google has added a new tool to its collection of online resources. Google Page Creator is a template-based web authoring tool. A web author interacts with the tool using a browser much in the way one would interact with a blog tool. Google hosts the site (you are allowed 100 mb of content at present). Obtaining permission to use the site is developing in a similar fashion to that used to gain access to Gmail – you submit your name and wait. I was allowed to use the tool after a wait of less than two weeks.

My initial page appears below (the real thing can be viewed at http://markgrabe.googlepages.com/).

Google Creator

Google Page Creator is still under development and evaluation so it would be dangerous to predict exactly where Google intends to go with this tool. Unlike other Google tools that include ads, it is unclear to me how this service will be supported. Perhaps it is another tool intended to draw users into the overall Google web of services (some of which generate revenue through ads).

I think online web authoring tools have educational potential. Tools such as this offer some multimedia authoring benefits beyond blog tools and are easier to use than dedicated, desktop-based authoring software.

The way Google tends to do things, these tools will represent a significant challenge for competitors. I like the new iWeb tool that came as part of iLife06. However, I had to pay for iLife and I pay for my .mac account. The cost is not high, but if Page Creator will eventually be available to all comers, schools may find Creator an attractive opportunity.

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Apple Turns 30

Guess what – I am a fan of Apple Computer. I suffer with some of the heavy handed administrative mentality that seems to typify many of the large tech companies, but I love the role of creative underdog. My big fear is this company will forget its roots and become like other companies that have grown quickly to dominate markets and then focused on domination rather than quality and creativity.

Anyway – this seems to be Apple’s 30th (yes, we were using the products from the beginning). This may sound strange, but the role of technology in culture/society is the one issue with which I feel a historical connection. Actually, 9/11 has changed this sense of experiencing the impact of history as it happens, but that is a much less pleasant and unproductive topic. The San Francisco Chronicle has a podcast series with many of the key players in Apple’s history. I remember driving to Fargo to meet Guy Kawasaki at an Apple User’s Group meeting. Listen to his podcast and you get a sense of the enthusiasm people with his way of thinking can generate.

Ironically, there is no interview with Steve. Perhaps they are saving him for the grand finale. 🙂

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Newsweek on Web 2.0

The lead story in the latest Newsweek (April 3) is focused on “new” web applications (“Putting the We in WEB). The discussion, which covers MySpace, Flikr, etc. and a collection of Web 2.0 startups I have not encountered (e.g., Plum, Jajah), includes interviews with founders of some of the more well-known services. The interviews provide some insight into what the writers (Steven Levy & Brad Stone) and company founders see as the key features of new offerings (e.g., community, user-generated content).

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NCLB – Four Year Year Review

I was listening to Public Radio this morning and the news program had a piece on No Child Left Behind. The discussion was focused around a recent report by the Center on Education Policy summarizing the 4 year record of NCLB.

The report basically concludes that results are mixed. Aside from issues of whether or not expectations are adequately funded and whether the approach is appropriately punitive, I think a major conclusion is that math and reading benefit at the cost of attention to other activities (an example used is history). Advocates claim that fundamental skills (i.e., reading) provide the basis for learning everything else (i.e., social studies). Critics note that what have been reported as achievement gains attributed to the program are deceptive and simply result from the common practice of school/teacher decisions to reduce the time spent on other topics. Hence, we claim to teach social studies in elementary school, but tend to actually do little of this as the time for achievement tests measuring reading and math approach.

Thomas Friedman had an article on a related topic this past week (sorry – I can’t link you to the NYTimes editorial). Examining the priorities of education from an international perspective, he notes that the U.S. is worried that students cannot compete in math and science (I guess the focus is on more advanced levels of education) and this is a concern for future economic competitiveness. In contrast, other countries worry that a lack of interest in the humanities will reduce higher level thinking capabilities so necessary for creative approaches in many fields. Everyone sees the connection between education and commerce and everyone is concerned (anxiety is the word Friedman uses) that national educational practices will limit the nation’s capacity to compete.

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ProfCast

Here is another example of software you can use to create podcasts. Profcast is a Mac-only product ($35) that can be used to convert a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation into a podcast. The slides are embedded within the podcast and appear within the “album art” window of iTunes.

The link provided below will download a sample I have created. This “podcast” will open within iTunes. If you have Quicktime player loaded on your system, you might also right click on this link and download the file. The file can then be opened and played within Quicktime. If you try this second technique, you will find that you can expand the “slides” to their original size.

socialbookmark2006

The social bookmark site I describe in this example is also available for examination.

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