Betty’s Bytes

Isn’t it incredible that you can take a picture with your digital camera or cell phone and within seconds have it posted online for anyone in the world to see?

Mrs. Brinster is allowing us to view three photos from her recent African safari. What an experience she had that she can now share with us and our students in a flash! Read a little about her trip as written by her son.

“I don’t know what to tell you. Mom wore me out. We started in Nairobi with a trip to the Karen Blixon House. Mom got a little fresh with the giraffe. All I can tell you is that I made sure she washed her face before we had lunch. She flew on a little plane and landed on a dirt landing strip in the middle of the bush. I sat at the far end of the plane and could see her white knuckles from 10 rows away. She’ll tell you it was a piece of cake. Mom took the picture of the two lions above. We were pretty close and there was a minute or two where we thought they might jump into the jeep. We took a balloon safari and had a breakfast overlooking the last of the wildebeest migration. It was an amazing trip and Mom was a great traveling companion.”

An electronic portfolio, also known as a digital or e-portfolio, is an online portfolio that showcases your skills, houses representative samples of your academic work and helps you organize your information.   Digication.com offers a site to house yours and your students’ portfolios; read this article about using Web 2.0 tools on the digication site.

 is a user-friendly site for you and your students.

Technology is now becoming so easy to use that we are no longer having to ask how to use it, but when do we want to use it to engage our students. Visit a site, sign up using your school email, and voila! you are online and ready to go. To sign up at digication.com, click here.

I have written previously about Negroponte’s OLPC Buy One, Give One program  where a child in a developing nation receives a new laptop when you purchase one for $399.  According to Engadget, the non-profit organization claims to be receiving about $2,000,000 worth of donations each day. Schools may purchase in bulk in quantities of 100-999 ($299 each), 1000-9999 ($249 each), or 10,000 and more ($199). The program has been extended through December 31.

Through informal surveys around the school, it seems that fewer than 30% of our students have computers with Internet access in their homes. As you examine your contributions for the year and prepare for the holidays and the new year, consider donating to this program.