This weekend, the blogosphere has been a-buzz with contrasting opinions on the implementation of “silent” on the iPhone. Read Hivelogic to get up to speed if necessary.

Short version: iPhone’s silent switch is actually not a “Silent Mode” in the Nokia or Blackberry sense of the word. It is a “Ringer Off” switch. That means that certain user-triggered activities, will still produce noise. Apple notes this in the iPhone User Manual:

Important: Clock alarms, audio apps such as Music, and many games still play sounds through the built-in speaker when iPhone is in silent mode.

Nevertheless, some bloggers are calling for the switch to be changed to a Mute-All switch. This would do away with one of my favourite iPhone design decisions. In fact, I have overslept at least one important business meeting because I’d left my Blackberry on silent the night before.

I need a phone that:

• Stops making noise (phone calls, emails, messages) when I go to bed,
• and then starts making a lot of noise when its time for me to wake up (alarm clock).

It’s pretty simple.

Students attending independent schools (which sit the equivalent IEB tests) performed exceptionally well. Of the 8 285 candidates, 98,4% passed and 85,5% obtained university entrance.

To make sense of these results I gathered government data for the last four years:

Matric pass rate, per year (Overall pass rate and university entrance obtained, respectively):

• 2008: 62,5% and 20,2%
• 2009: 60,7% and 19,6%
• 2010: 67,8% and 23,5%
• 2011: 70,2% and 24,3%

On the surface these statistics paint a picture of rapidly improving standards. However, given the pressure on government to both prove the value of the “new curriculum” and improve performance – especially in rural South Africa – one must ask the poignant questions.

Is the difficulty of final examinations being gradually reduced to improve performance? Are marks being adjusted upwards to compensate? And, critically, are school-leavers educated at a level to indeed enter university or adequately equipped find a job after school?

Update: NGO Equal Education highlights a concerning reduction in the number of candidates: 496 090, down 41 453 from 537 543 in 2010. They also note that 923 463 learners started Grade One in 2000 indicating an approximate 46,3% drop-out rate over twelve years of schooling.

Sources:

• 2008 Matric Results
• 2009 Matric Results
• 2010 Matric Results
• 2011 Matric Results

The C64 featured a whopping 1Mhz CPU, 16Kb of RAM, and 16-colour TV display output. Input was via the built-in keyboard or plug-in joy-sticks. Storage was via an external floppy drive or tape recorder. The tape drive would take up to 30 minutes to load-in a game or programme.

Most notable, however, is that it popularised the use of modems for telecommunications between computers. America Online (AOL) started life as an online service for exclusively for Commodore owners called Quantum Link and offered email, chat, downloads and online games. In fact the original Dungeons & Dragons game, Neverwinter Nights, launched as an AOL game for the C64.

But, unfortunately, I never owned a one (though, it seems I still could). Nor did I have access to the Internet until the late 90′s. My first computer was a 286 PC-clone running DOS 5.0. For the first few years it only ran NewsMaster II and WordPerfect 5.1. After I learned a few DOS commands (and accidentally executed “rd C:/”) an older friend installed several games. This introduced me to Police Quest, Space Quest, California Games and more. A few years later I upgraded to a 486 with a colour monitor before the Pentium era began.

It is amazing to think that the utterly gigantic and world-changing industry of personal computing is little more than 30 years old.

What was your first computer?

• How many times a week do you forget your online banking credentials?
• How often do you find yourself surrounded by scraps of paper covered in scribblings?
• When last did you actually scan and file notes from your last telephone call or minutes of a meeting?
• Ever just wanted to jot down a few words in a safe place as you think of them?
• How do you remember the list of items you need to discuss with Joe when next you meet?

If you’re anything like me, paper just doesn’t work for such moments. If I don’t lose that scrap of paper between the office and home, I’ll almost certainly forget to scan and file it for later retrieval. People like us need “a system”. Here’s mine:

Storage

Everything I write gets stored in one or more text files. You’d typically open such files in TextEdit or Notepad. As of today, my notes directory contains 433 .txt files. This gives me the freedom to open access my notes in any application I choose and the peace-of-mind of not being tied to a single piece of software.

Desktop Writing

This is where the magic happens. What we want in a note-taking application is the ability to quickly and efficiently search for information. I’d like to introduce you to two applications: NotationalVelocity (for Mac) and ResophNotes (for Windows).

NotationalVelocity was developed in 2002 by software developer, Zachary Schneiro to solve his problem of tracking short, unrelated snippets of information. Resoph is a great alternative for Windows users that works in a similar way.

Let’s divide the user interface into three parts, top to bottom:

1. Text field (highlighted in yellow, below),
2. a list of notes sorted by their last modified date, and
3. the text editor.

The Text field has the uncanny (and awesome) ability to both search and create notes. As you type, a full-text, incremental, live search is done across all of your notes. That is, within both the filename and file contents. If you hit Return (or Enter) at any point, you generate a new note with its title set to whatever you just typed. From there, the cursor is automatically moved to the third area – the note editor, and you just start typing your note. It feels incredibly natural.

The list of notes shows every note in your notes directory – along with a preview of their contents and date last modified. As you search, this list will update in realtime to show matching notes.

Notational and Resoph also save automatically as you type, so you’ll never lose a note again.

Syncing

But what use is a folder of notes on one computer? We need to get our notes onto “the cloud” for safe keeping and easy access. Enter SimpleNote.

SimpleNote is an online note-syncing service that automatically syncs with NotationalVelocity and ResophNotes. Simply sign-up for a free account and give Notational or Resoph your username and password. In next to no time, you’ll have access to your notes offline and online.

Going Mobile

And it get’s better: If you have a iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, you can download the SimpleNote iOS app (again, for free) and have access to all of your notes – complete with searching and tagging. This is great for note-taking during meetings, conferences and calls.

So, go and get that set up and let me know how it goes. I’ll post some power-user tips in the coming days.

Links

• Notational Velocity for Mac
• ResophNotes for Windows
• SimpleNote
• SimpleNote for iOS

This last year was the best and most difficult year I’ve had. But it’s also been incredibly rewarding. Today marks the end to another three-year period which began when I joined Umoya at the end of 2008.

In that time I’ve got to:

• build staffroom and provide services to 30 local schools,
• design uniti and have it used in the 2012 Soccer World Cup,
• deliver FireWeb to fire stations and wild-fire agencies throughout the country,
• speak at Microsoft TechEd Africa and various other events,
• start EdTechConf with my co-founders and appear on radio and in the media,
• and share Cyber-safety workshops with kids, parents and teachers at schools around South Africa.

All this while getting married, buying a house, and fulfilling my role as a shareholder and development manager at Umoya. It’s been a period of giving love and attention to a range of projects and activities. I’ve learned a lot.

But, as you can probably imagine by reading the above, it’s lead to me attention-switching between four or five significant projects each day. Enough. I think I’d rather be great at one or two things, and not simply good at many. It’s time for some changes.

Earlier this month I wrote down three bullet points on a scrap of paper:

• Reduce the diversity of my projects,
• increase the depth at which I engaged in each of them, and
• focus on projects that are aligned to my passion.

Finding my passion

My entire family are teachers. Literally. Grand-mother, father, mother, brother, wife, mother-in-law, and aunt. I’m surrounded by them. Ironically, I made a concerted effort not to go into teaching. I guess you can’t go against your genes.

Starting EdTechConf this year has been nothing short of life changing. I’ve been privileged to work with several schools – from private schools in Grahamstown to under-resourced schools on the Cape Flats. Across the board the cry is clear: “We seem to be losing learners to the realities of the 21st century.”

Poor schools are unable to provide teachers, classrooms and textbooks to learners while wealthy schools can’t pique the interest of digital-native-kids who expect a learning experience that is aligned with their multimedia lifestyles.

Thankfully there are solutions. And some of them involve the marriage of my expertise and passion – namely, technology and education.

I think the future of learning is the intersection of technology and education with the creative arts. I hope to dedicate the next three years to figuring out what this looks like, and how we deliver it to those who need it most.

Product

So, we’re doubling down on staffroom. We think its brilliant, and our users say that its a massive time and stress reducer. This year we’ll ship staffroom v4 – a beautiful redesign of the staffroom interface with several new and hotly requested features.

Then it’s time to move beyond school admin and assessment. We’ve been quietly working since June 2011 on something new, which I can not wait to show you. It’s called Umoya Funda and is already being rolled out at two pilot schools in Cape Town. A lot more on this soon.

Writing

I’ll be writing in greater quantity on a smaller range of topics. Given my purpose statement above, expect posts about Tech, Education and Learning. Some posts will simply be links, others will be short commentary on something topical, and others will be long form (like this tome). I’ll provide independent RSS feeds for when you want to skip the links and just get the long stuff, or vice-versa.

I’ve set a goal of 52 posts in 2012 and I fully intend to meet that. Hold me to this.

Talking

I love sharing ideas. This year we’ll run more EdTechConf events – hopefully in many more cities. We already have four local events confirmed and expect to add several more through the first quarter. We’ll also be announcing EdTechConf ThinkShops – one day workshops on particular topics for school leaders, teachers, and parents.

I’ve also embarked upon a personal project to produce a podcast. It’s going to be casual, informal, and hopefully useful to people. Think of it as a spoken version of what I’ll be writing about, along with interviews of friends and interesting people in the education and technology industry. I’ve acquired most of the neccesary studio equipment, hired a producer, and began lining up guests. I hope to begin broadcasting in mid-January.

tl;dr

So in short, I’m making the change from “Software Guy” to “Education guy that makes software”. I’ll still be advising the Uniti and FireWeb development teams at Umoya, but my primary focus for the next little while is going to be on staffroom, UmoyaFunda, EdTechConf and education in general.

Here’s to an exciting new chapter, 2012. Happy New Year.

Hudsons make the best burgers in town. Their restaurant on Kloof Street is also well-known for playing excellent music at high volume. Here is last night’s playlist, thanks to Shazam:

• Praise You – Fatboy Slim
• Electric Avenue – Eddy Grant
• Hotel California – Eagles
• Stupify – Disturbed
• Money For Nothing – Dire Straits
• Girl U Want – Devo
• Pour Some Sugar On Me – Def Leppard
• An Honest Mistake - The Bravery
• Could You Be Loved – Bob Marley
• Paranoid – Black Sabbath
• Dancing With Myself – Billy Idol
• I Just Want – Foghat

They’re back this year, and the line-up is looking good.

I’ve attended only a few summer concerts over my 24 years in Cape Town. Amy and I keep meaning to go, but end up forgetting. This year, we’re going to change that.

There are 21 concerts starting this Saturday 20 November with Locnville & Jax Panik and ending with Hot Water & Wreslerish on 1 April 2012. Between those dates there are some fantastic acts including: The Parlotones (11 Dec), Zebra and Giraffe (26 Dec), Johnny Clegg (15 Jan), Goldfish (11 Mar), and Freshly Ground (18 Mar).

Old Mutual Summer Concerts at Kirstenbosch → Programme

It’s just two weeks to go until EdTechConf Extended at Elkanah House.

Earlier this year we held the inaugural EdTechConf at the International School of Cape Town. 120 teachers, principals and ICT managers gathered together to learn and share best practices for implementing educational technology in teaching and learning.

Dates: Friday 30 September (8am to 5pm) and Saturday 1 October (8am to 3pm)
Venue: Elkanah House (85 Sunningdale Drive, Sunningdale)

Space is limited but registration is still open for a few more days. Register now and avoid disappointment!

My colleagues at Umoya Networks will be providing free wifi to every delegate – so be sure to bring your laptops, iPads and phones so that you can “tweet along” with the conference proceedings.

The conference, held at the International School of Cape Town in Wynberg, was attended by 110 delegates from more than 50 city schools. Tim Keller, an organiser, said by referring to cellphones as “mobile learning devices” mindsets could be changed about their use in classrooms.

Absolutely amazing response to our little event in the last month.  It looks like we’ll be doing it again sooner than we thought.  More on that soon.

MP3: Tim Keller on the John Maytham Show