Saturday, November 26, 2005

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Honey, I Blew Up The Blog

Well, in the midst of everything today, I managed to totally hose my WordPress installation at theeducationalmac.com. So, I am redirecting it here until I can rebuild, make it faster, stronger, better.
I was wondering why I was keeping this blog up. Redundancy is everything!

The Educational Mac Vcast #1

This is my first attempt at a Videocast. This is my experience at the Apple Store grand opening at The Gateway in Salt Lake City. Having now had about 24 hours to think about it, I am glad that I went. It really was all about the experience. I really didn't spend that much time in the store, I wanted to give others the chance to get in, but I am looking forward to going back in a week or so and really spend some time. I am happy that Apple finally brought a store to Utah and I hope it is only the first of several.
I'll see you in a few! Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

Saturday, November 19, 2005

A fun time about to be had-Apple Store @ The Gateway

I am going to chronicle my adventure at the grand opening of the Apple Store here in Salt Lake City. I arrived at about 12:30 am and made a short trip into The Gateway to check out the store. The plywood barriers were all down. Plastic covers the windows, and three gentlemen have formed the line. They tell me how to park close and invite me to share the power they have run. Between the power and the Apple Store's Wireless, I am pretty much set for the night.
3:30 am and we were joined by a young couple about 2:00 am. 6 in line and counting. It is quiet except for the occasional train passing behind The Gateway.
Actually managed to sleep for a couple of hours. Woke a few minutes before 6:00 to other voices and see about another 15 in line. Lots of personal Mac histories being shared.
7:40 am and the crowd is starting to grow. There are about 75-80 in line now. The interesting thing is that about 1/4 of them have their Powerbooks or iBooks out. Hmmm... I wonder what their doing. The general contractor is onsite and waiting for the managers to get in. There are now 3 security guards waiting as well and the window washer is working on the outside glass. When the managerss get here they will peel the plastic of off the inside class and clean it.
9:00 am - 1 hour to go. I would estimate the crowd to be between 300-400 at this point but I can't tell for sure any more. The employees are coming out about every five minutes to excite the crowd. The mall management is starting to look a little worried.
9:20 am-The first guy in line is interviewed by a local newstation, then the first three are interviewed by a newspaper reporter for the Salt Lake Tribune. He even gets to me, so I guess I will be in the paper tomorrow.
10:00 am- They allow the first 70 or so people in. Store employees cheering, music blaring, it was awesome. As anyone leaves the store they allow another in. The queue is still huge. As I left I would imaging there were still 500-600 people in line. I talked to an employee who has worked at two other openings and she said this rivaled either one of those. Photos here Podcast and Vidcast to follow by tomorrow.

Friday, November 18, 2005

Here's to the Crazy Ones

The Apple Store in Salt Lake will be opening in a little under 20 hours from now. I will be heading downtown about midnight to check on the line. I don't have to be first, but I do want to be early. I will have picture, a podcast, and even my first vcast from the event posted sometime Saturday or Sunday. If you are from the are and will be at the grand opening look for me. I'll have a bunch of gear with me and shouldn't be too hard to find.

Monday, November 14, 2005

Salt Lake City Apple Store To Open This Weekend

The first Apple Store in Utah will open at 10:00 am this Saturday, November 19th. I have been waiting for this for a long time. I will be there bright and early.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

I can't wait to get to the car

Steve Dembo at Teach 42 is back with a podcast and it looks like he is back in the saddle again. I can't wait to get to the car an listen to his new show.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

My Grand Experiment

I began a new professional development class in my district tonight. The title of the course is Using Social Software to Teach the Core Curriculum. I have 8 brave women taking the class. As a group they had very little knowledge about social software. We started with blogs tonight. I gave them a couple of current articles on blogging to read. We set up accounts for each of them at Bloglines and Blogger. We set about 5 feeds I want them to look at over the next week. We also set up a blog on Blogger for the class. They will be commenting on my posts and hopefully creating some posts of their own.
I have the commenting locked down to members of the blog, but if you are interested in follow the progress of these teachers and would like to comment, drop me a line and I will invite you in.
In the coming weeks we will be tackling Wiki's, del.icio.us, and Flickr. I am set for a wild ride. See You in a Few!