I'm excited to tell you about Insert Drawing, a new feature we've added to Google Docs. Now you can create and insert rich, colorful drawings into documents, presentations and spreadsheets, to illustrate your ideas or just for fun.

It's easy to create drawings using lines, free hand scribbles, text labels and a large choice of shapes that you can move, resize, rotate and adjust. Group, order, align and distribute and other features are available when you select objects you've drawn. You can also customize a range of shape properties, from line widths to fill color, and from arrowheads to font size, and much more. If you change your mind, there is undo and redo. You can collaborate with a friend or colleague on a drawing, or work alone, just as you can in Google Docs today.

Fabulous stuff, watch out Microsoft, here we come...... :)

Dear “Powered Up Writing” Students, Teachers, and Parents,

Across LPS, we have pilot projects of ASUS EeePCs in classrooms.  We hope that you are enjoying the new computers and are learning more than ever before.  Many people are asking about how your classroom has changed now that you have the EeePC laptops.  Can you help us tell your story?

Here are some questions we have:

How does having a laptop computer help students write better?

What happens in your classroom now that you have laptops that could not happen before?

Now that you have had laptops in your classroom, how would you feel if you didn’t have them next year?

What do next year’s 5^th grade students coming to your classroom have to look forward to?

Over the last decade, Social Media has slowly evolved not only as a new content publishing, sharing, and discovery medium, but more importantly as a peer-to-peer looking glass into the real world conversations that affect the perception, engagement, and overall direction of the brands we represent.

Socialized media didn't invent "conversations," it simply organized and amplified them.

Last year, people around the world spent 33 billion minutes talking to people in other countries via Skype, a free computer-to-computer voice service — more time than they spent on such calls via any single long-distance telephone provider, says a new report.

"Only five years after its launch, Skype has emerged as the largest provider of cross-border voice communications in the world," said the report released by the U.S.-based market-research firm Telegeography on Tuesday.

Cautionary tales from the 'what-were-you-thinking' department.

Children will no longer have to study the Victorians or the second world war under proposals to overhaul the primary school curriculum, the Guardian has learned.

However, the draft plans will require children to master Twitter and Wikipedia and give teachers far more freedom to decide what youngsters should be concentrating on in classes.

The proposed curriculum, which would mark the biggest change to primary schooling in a decade, strips away hundreds of specifications about the scientific, geographical and historical knowledge pupils must accumulate before they are 11 to allow schools greater flexibility in what they teach.

It emphasises traditional areas of learning - including phonics, the chronology of history and mental arithmetic - but includes more modern media and web-based skills as well as a greater focus on environmental education.

The plans have been drawn up by Sir Jim Rose, the former Ofsted chief who was appointed by ministers to overhaul the primary school curriculum, and are due to be published next month.

Diigo Educator Account

From 1

Table of contents

1. 1. Follow these easy steps to get started:

Follow these easy steps to get started:

Step 1:    Apply for an Educator Account 

• Visit the Diigo Education page http://www.diigo.com/education
  (Note: please make sure that you are first signed into your diigo account prior to submitting your application.)
  
  
• Fill out the application, and submit.  Please share as much info as possible to facilitate the approval process.  
  
  Note: We only accept school email to verify educator identity.  If you don't have one or need assistance, please contact us at education@diigo.com.  Deterring potential abuse is an important consideration for us. Thanks for your understanding.

New Zealand has withdrawn a controversial law which could have forced firms to disconnect internet users accused of illegal use of material such as music or films.

The Copyright Amendment Act would have put the onus on internet service providers (ISPs) to ban users accused of copyright breaches, even if allegations were unproven.

"Section 92a is not going to come into force as originally written. We have now asked the minister of commerce to start work on a replacement section," Prime Minister John Key told reporters.

To see more on this story see http://johnp.wordpress.com/2009/02/22/the-kiwis-need-our-help/

We are seeing reports of a backlash to laptops in the classroom - not surprisingly the Chronicle of Ancient Education is right in there to tell us about "professors increasingly frustrated by students who use laptops for non-class activities." Meanwhile, in the real world, the state of Main - well known for its pioneering laptop program - is now set to expand its laptop initiative. Because the technology really works, if you can get past the grump.

Some interesting discussion and links re laptops in college classrooms.

WHEN they first hit the market, netbooks were aimed at anyone looking for a low-cost device to access the internet and carry out basic computing tasks.

The frustration factor resulting from their small screens and keyboards was offset by long battery life and the fact that they could be slipped easily them into a small bag or large pocket. In fact, it was possible to carry one around all day and literally forget you had it.

As their popularity increased, more vendors entered the category, each with its own interpretation of what a netbook should be.

Some decided larger screens were needed, while others added beefed-up storage and better processors.

As a result, the line between netbook and notebook has blurred.

Indeed, for growing numbers of mobile workers, a netbook can perform all the functions that previously required a fully fledged notebook PC.

Now electronics newcomer Kogan has changed the game rules again by launching a sub-$500 10in netbook targeted squarely at the growing number of people using cloud computing services.

Another look at the everchanging netbook market in Australia.