Saturday, November 27, 2010

Sharable Bits: Healthy Computer Use, Technology in Education, Magic iPad Fiddle

Blog post: Eye health in a digital world



Why it's worth sharing: A good reminder that there are several tools and approaches we can use to avoid health issues related to the use of digital devices. And as someone with several vision problems, I pay extra attention to what we can do to protect our vision. The blog post provides great starting tips, especially the one about taking regular breaks and remembering to blink (sounds obvious, but it isn't when you are engaged in an epic game battle or get caught in the flow). A tool I often like to use is Time Out, a simple break reminder app for Mac OS X.

Blog post: Technology in Education

Why it's worth sharing: A great showcase of technology use in education that work and are simple to understand. Always handy to have such lists ready when talking to technology skeptics, who think of anything digital as pure evil. Especially with the media habit of presenting the digital risks before the benefits. The recent NYTimes article Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction does explore both sides, but the headline is still all about distraction. Isn't it time to challenge that perception?

Video: Fiddle Quartet on the iPad


Why it's worth sharing: Seeing phones and tablets turned into music instruments with the help of magical mobile apps never stops to amaze me. And I can't wait to get an iPad just to try Magic Fiddle, the latest app from Smule (developers of Ocarina), which turns your iPad into a fiddle. Isn't it great to have a single, affordable device that works as dozens of instruments? I sure do hope it brings the joys of playing musical instruments into the hands of more people.

Related posts:

Sharable Bits is a series of weekly posts that will highlight some of the most interesting bits and bytes that I stumble upon. No bad news, just ideas that inspire, touch or entertain in a unique way.

Note: This is just an archive post. The blog has moved to a new home at blog.ialja.com, where you will also find a copy of the entire blog.