XplanaZine

Here’s our take on news that matters for Tuesday, February 14. Today’s theme is windows of opportunity , and here are a some links to headlines about technology that is changing the way we live and learn.

• Gaming — Here’s an interesting product review of the Vsmile TV learning system for kids. It;s designed for children 3-7 and the review gives some nice insight into how user age affects product design.

• Blogging, Podcasting, and Vodcasting — Motorola and Yahoo showed off a mobile podcasting solution at 3GM World Congress yesterday.
  The demonstration, using Yahoo’s Music Engine, pushes songs to a Motorola phone and also lets consumers directly download podcasts over-the-air to their
  handset using an integrated application.

• Handhelds – You didn’t think Microsoft was just going to wait around while BlackBerry struggled with its patent problem, did you? Microsoft is moving aggressively with its own “push” e-mail solution and is hoping to take a big chunk of business from Blackberry. Also, Ben-Q-Siemens is joining the wave of cell phone manufacturers who are putting Flash Lite on their handsets.
• Social Networks – Companies are concerned about the potential effects of blogs that are critical, but they are also discovering that the technology may be the best way to re-connect employees and bolster internal communication.

Now, here’s a recap of our favorite posts from the edublogging community from the past 48 hours.

• From David Warlick : Post on ten reasons why the federal government should increase funding for education.
• From Scott Wilson : Post on tracking student activity in VLEs and e-learning tools.
• From Graham Attwell : Post on on personal learning environments as e-portfolios (a comment on Jeremy Hiebert’s post).
• From Michael Feldstein: Post on Apple’s stake in Higher Education.
• From Dean Shareski : Post on gaming and technology in schools.
• From Jesse Wilbur : Podcast on the opportunity and need for new online book technology.
• From Albert Ip: Post on information, language, knowledge, and connectedness (3rd post of 3)