ReQall Recalls for You

If you have a cell phone, an iPhone or a Blackberry, you may want to check out reQall. It’s a memory aid that’s voice-enabled and acts like your personal assistant for phones, the Web, Outlook, Google Calendar, email, Evernote, text messaging, instant messaging, Firefox, iCal and News Feed.  Using reQall is as simple as placing a call and telling reQall what you want to remember—like shopping lists, reminders about meetings and doctors’ appointments, notes about lesson plans, calendar items, etc. Your words are translated into text, which can be used in a variety of ways. There’s even a Memory Jogger that “ can also predict when you'll forget and send you periodic "’memory refreshers’ to prevent forgetting.” Think of telling your kids about this memory aid, for it would be excellent for reminders about long term projects, papers, reports, and homework. The standard version is free; the Pro version is $24.99 a year or $2.99 a month. If you are interested in this memory aid, watch this  YouTube video about reQall.

Everything You Need to Know About Wireless

A new Case Study has been added to our Power to Learn Internet Smarts Library. Everything You Need to Know About Wireless is an interactive slide show that will help you and your children better understand how wireless technologies work. Emphasis is placed not only on the technical aspects but on avoidance of pitfalls that may arise when using wireless technologies such as laptops, smart phones, and PDAs. —And don’t forget to put the other case studies—Social Networking: Don’t Give Yourself Away; Digital Permanence: Forever is a long time; Cyberbullying: Not Just Name Calling; Misinformation: Truth or Spoof; Fair Use: Beg, Borrow or Steal?; Keeping Personal Information Private; and Music Downloading:Paying the Piper—to work in your disccusions about digital safety with your kids.

Share Files with DropBox

Instead of attaching files to email and saving on USB drives, try sharing files with Dropbox. Dropbox for Windows, Mac, and Linux is a place where you can store your files online and across computers. If you use different computers at home and school, it’s a great way to have your files available in both locations and also available through your mobile digital devices. When you edit and save a file, it saves the edits on all your computers. In fact, you can even go back and look at the history of your edits. If you want to share your files with others, put the files in your Dropbox and share the link to the files. When you put your files in the Dropbox, the files are automatically backed up on the Dropbox servers. You get 2GB of storage free, but can opt to pay for additional storage up to 100GB.

Get Help To Print Less

Hard to believe but a leading manufacturer of printers wants to help you do less printing. Citing customer satisfaction, Lexmark is offering a free program to add a Web toolbar that gives users more ways to block those ads, links, and boxes that so often print off of a web site, eating up expensive ink. Lexmark has versions available for both Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox browsers and the tools help you do things with just one click- like converting Web page into black and white for printing. The Web software also extends the "printer-friendly" features many sites offer. Often those printer-friendly versions still carry logos and other graphics; the Lexmark tools let you eliminate those as well. BTW - most of the features work regardless of whether your printer was made by Lexmark, Hewlett-Packard or another rival.

Have You Tried Google Docs?

Why are teachers, parents and students using Google Docs? In a YouTube video, teachers, administrators, and students tell why they like this free application as alternative to Microsoft Office. It's a way to have students work together and to publish on their own. One teacher commented that students want to do their best because they know their work is not just for their classroom anymore. Another said that Google Docs makes classrooms more efficient and more interactive. What Google Docs does is allow you to upload and save from your desktop, edit whenever and wherever you want, and decide who can access what you do. —And your files are stored safely online. Why not take a tour of how you and your kids can create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations online? Something to think about if you are getting a new computer set up at your house for the school year.

Free AntiVirus/Spyware Programs

Would you like to keep your computer safe (or at least safer), but don't want to pay up for virus protection? Check out "Top antivirus/spyware programs" in the tips section of the CNET site for some free or low-cost solutions. You can also download these programs from the CNET site.

Gaming Resources for Parents

The Entertainment Software Rating Board has really beefed up their site with lots of resources and links for parents on parent controls of gaming systems, a gaming discussion guide and sites that review games. You can also sign up for their free newsletter on the topic of ratings for games as well as the issues of violence in games, the gender gap and more.

The Organized Family: Bento to the Rescue

If you are using Mac OS X Leopard, you'll certainly want to take a look at Bento. It's a personal database with an iTunes-like interface. When you load it onto your computer, it automatically enters your address book and calendar information into its database. Those who have used FileMaker will find Bento much less complicated. That's because it's designed for computer users who just want to get the project done. It comes with 20 ready-to-use templates to help you get organized with just about any type of project. Besides working on your Apple computer, it can be used with iPhone and Mac through the Address Book and iCal. Your information can be displayed in a number of ways such as spreadsheet format or form format. It is a great way to keep a sports team organized, your Christmas card list in order and any kind of collection in line. Why not take a tour of Bento or watch the video to see if this product is for you? For less than $50, it looks like a great way for parents without much spare time to get organized or even for kids to keep track of a collection.

Summer Time: How About Some Weather Games?

Weather Channel Kids! offers a nice selection of educational activities for kids including a Weather Center, Weather Education (weather encyclopedia, glossary, resources for kids and teachers), Let's Play (fun ideas for inside or outside) Cool Clips (awesome weather), and Weather Ready (dealing with severe weather, too much sunshine, etc.) There's also a Photo Gallery with albums filled with pictures of sky and beaches, hurricanes and tornados, thunderstorms and flooding, and winter storms. The Games section includes Forecast Earth, Seek and Find, Word Search, Interactive Weather Forecast, Severe Weather Challenge, Watershed Worries, Jigsaw Puzzles, and weather mazes. If you need help using the kids' section of the Weather Channel site, there are guides for you and for your kids, too.

Web Tools for Different Types of Learners

If you are the parent of a child with a learning difference you know how hard it is to find just the right technology resource for your struggling student. One place you might want to bookmark is Christina Laun's 100 Helpful Web Tools for Every Kind of Learner. Laun's excellent list provides links to sites that include mind-mapping, photos, video, charts and diagrams for visual learning; podcasts, presentation tools, auditory tools, text readers, and audio books for auditory learners; and note-taking tools, interaction, bookmarking, and collaboration for kinesthetic learners. Think links like Flash Card Machine, del.icio.us, Audible, Project Gutenburg, PhotoStory, and Audacity, but keep in mind that this list was created for college students, so you'll want to be sure to check the sites before recommending them to your kids. Social networking sites are included.