Find my iPhone

Do you worry about these little $200+ devices slipping out of sight? Well I do and here is a partial solution that I found. Ok, so it is a little late since iCloud is right around the corner, but you can use Find my iPhone to track your iPod Touch's. Go to Settings (or straight to mail if an account hasn't already been set up)/ Mail, Contacts, Calendars. Then click Add Account... and choose MobileMe. If you have iOS 4.2.1 or later, it will ask for you username and password. I put our school iTunes account information in and that worked. Then it prompts you to turn on Find my iPhone. Say Yes. Now go to any computer and go to https://me.com/find. Use the same iTunes account to log in and voila! You will see a map with pretty accurate details as to where your iPod Touch / iPad is. You can do this for several devices at once. I have about 20 so far and no problems. The device has to hit WiFi for it to be tracked. If nothing else, it could be a very good deterrent for sticky fingers in a school. Enjoy.

iOS 5 just around the corner

I just read a nice article about the new iOS 5 coming this fall. It seems like some helpful items for the classroom my be in store as long as the network and proxy's will cooperate. Being able to upgrade and sync straight from the device may remove that extra step which can be confusing if you've never done that before. Although many of the updates are phone specific, it does seem that there will be a new chat feature that could be used for some collaboration... your in the classroom and you student wants to go to the library. Well, send them a chat that it is time to come back ; ) Ok, maybe not so good for bathroom breaks. My favorite update on the list... click and hold any word - anywhere - and access its definition. I can be typing in notes, click on the word that I just typed and get the definition to see if that is the word I really wanted to use... fantastic! I hope there is a thesaurus attached. There are some new Twitter integration aspects that might be nice. There could be a tweet job for a student(s)... "Just learned about subtracting fractions - don't forget to have common denominators." Tweet a quick picture before the teacher erases the board and your golden! The iOS 5 TBA is this fall of 2011.

Discovery Education and the iPad meet

So Discovery Education has a mobile version of their website, however it was built specifically to fit an iPad. If you try to access it from an iPod or iPhone, you will see the page... well, part of the page at least. Anyway, go to http://mobile.discoveryeducation.com/users/login and use your regular login and password and enjoy Discovery Education in the palm of your hands.