The question “Do you know who your kids are playing with?” takes on a whole new meaning to parents today compared with parents of 30 years ago. My parents could just look out the front window or head to the neighborhood park and answer those questions because of who we were with. They took us to “play dates” or we even hung out at the community pool. The friend we played with were the ones they could see. Of course they weren’t with us every waking minute of the day- and there those friends that you only had at school but for the most part it was a pretty straight forward question with a straight forward answer.Read more...

I have to preface that I have not fully taken the plunge to shopping online but I know many people who have. After getting up and going shopping at 3 am on Black Friday I wondered if I had missed an opportunity to fully use technology to enhance my shopping experience. Many of the stores also support online retail and the deals that were present in the stores were also available online. Would I have been better off shopping from home in my pajamas instead of getting dressed and going out in the cold and rain to get the deals I desired? I decided that I didn’t have enough information to make an informed decision and should research some alternatives so I can make an informed decision next year. Read more...

Recently a friend wrote a note to my son. When I asked him what it said he responded “I don’t know I can’t read it.” Now it wasn’t because of the handwriting – well okay maybe it was a bit – but it was because of the cursive. He has gotten use to seeing text in the printed form – I mean come on how many of us select and use a font that looks like cursive? We don’t. It is difficult to read- needs to be a larger font in order for others to make sense of what is being shared. I mean newspapers must have been on to something because they have been using type print since newspapers started.Read more...

Over the past ten years, I have seen more and more online or virtual professional development opportunities become available. Although I have been facilitating and taking online courses since 2000 I have not totally made the switch to an entire virtual professional development environment. I am a huge fan of any learning opportunity that I can do from the comforts of my own home but I occasionally like attending training face-to-face. Read more...

Each year as summer comes to an end, households across the United States prepare for “Going Back to School.” This brings about many emotions for parents, students, teachers and administrators. As a parent I am happy to see my kids get back into a routine. This year they are both learning new routines as they are attending new schools – my daughter is entering her first year of middle school and my son is a freshman in High School. As a teacher I find myself questioning what more can I do to prepare my students and hope that I have set them up for a successful semester.  I think the key lies in communication. There are many technological solutions that can assist us in being successful communicators.Read more...

Typically, when you use and interact with something daily it tends to lose its luster. You take it for granted and using it may even be mundane. My relationship with Adobe® Acrobat® began many moons ago. My basic interaction with the software was to use it to create a PDF from a word document. As the software was improved and upgraded, I still used Acrobat® for turning something into a PDF. Over a year ago a colleague shared with me that you could use Acrobat® to create editable and savable files. This allowed the team to create a certificate that could be used to support multiple trainings. Wow- what a time saver!  Read more...