The Wired Homeschool

App Review – Word of the Day – The Wired Homeschool

By John Wilkerson on December 3, 2010 in App Reviews, Apps for Homeschooling

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It’s Friday and that means it’s time for an iPhone app review. This is a new series of blog posts I’ll be releasing every Friday here at The Wired Hoemschool to supplement the podcast. I hope you like this series. If you have an app you’d like me to review, please contact me via email: wiredhs [at] gmail [dot] com

Word of the Day is available for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch running iOS 3.0 or later. For 99 cents you get a new word every day that you can teach yourself and your children.

Features include:

A full year of words and definitions
The ability to go back and forth to see up to 15 words per day
Email an interesting word or definition to a friend, or just to send a reminder to yourself to use that word in a sentence

This is a great way to bolster your vocabulary. It has a simple interface and a great list of words. If you’re not up for spending 99 cents on the app you can download the ad-supported lite version. It’s free but you lose the ability to send email.

You can find more “of the day” apps at the Ethan Productions website.

Now I need to find a way to use “louche” in a sentence.

Scholaric Review – WHS 20

By John Wilkerson on December 1, 2010 in Podcast

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Note: Since this interview the application has been re-branded as Scholaric and the links and information may be out of date.

Jeff Schmitz has put together a promising online lesson planning tool for homeschoolers: Cognitius. Today’s podcast will feature a review of Cognitius as well as some other news about the podcast.

Cognitius prides itself in being simple but effective:

The simplest homeschool record keeping system available. Fewer settings. No unnecessary features. Only one field required to enter a lesson.

It delivers on that promise and is quite easy to use. This is a beta application, meaning it’s still being actively developed, so it’s important to remember that everything will not be perfect. However, Jeff is listening to feed back and your use of the software and feedback will help to improve Cognitius over time.

I highly recommend that you check it out, give it a test drive and let Jeff know what you think about the tool.

Please remember to “Like” this podcast on Facebook by going tohttps://www.thewiredhomeschool.com/facebook

Next week I plan to provide a review of 4 browsers that you can use on your Mac or Windows computer.

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If you’d like to leave feedback about this or any other episode you can call and leave a voice mail by calling 518-290-0228, send email to feedback@thewiredhomeschool.com, or leave a comment on the blog. Follow me on Twitter: @jwilkers. Also follow the podcast on Twitter: @wiredhs. Join the Facebook page over at http://facebook.com/wiredhs

Music: Poofy Reel by Kevin Macleod.

The Wired Homeschool is a proud member of the Tech Podcast Network. For more family-friendly tech podcasts visit techpodcasts.com

Thanks for Listening – WHS 19

By John Wilkerson on November 24, 2010 in Podcast

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Just a quick podcast this week to say, “Thanks for listening!”

Please rate and review in iTunes. Also, please nominate this podcast in the “Education” category at Podcastawards.com

If you’d like to leave feedback about this or any other episode you can call and leave a voice mail by calling 518-290-0228, send email to wiredhs [at] gmail [dot] com, or leave a comment on the blog. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter: @jwilkers.

Google Docs vs Windows Live Office – WHS 18

By John Wilkerson on November 17, 2010 in Podcast

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Last week I compared MS Office to Open Office. This week I’ll be talking about Google Docs and Windows Live Office.

Google Docs has been around for long time and when Micorsoft announced that they would be releasing a competing product many people scoffed at the idea. I think that if you’re familiar with MS Office you’ll find Windows Live Office much easier to use and understand. While Office Live doesn’t have the collaborative features of Google Docs 90% of you will be able to use Office Live and not miss a step.

Google Docs has been aroound a little longer has more features plus near real-time collaboration that will allow you to work with others and change the document on the fly. It supports more formats for importing but when it comes to basic editing features there’s not much there that Office Live doesn’t have.

It’s really a toss-up when it comes to which product to use. If you already have a Windows Live id then use Office Live. If you already have a Google account use Google Docs. Have both? Try them both out. I will say this: if you;re looking for the highest level of compatibility with Office documents you’ll want to stick with Office Live.

Please rate and review in iTunes. Also, please nominate this podcast in the “Education” category at Podcastawards.com

OpenOffice vs Microsoft Office 2010 – WHS 17

By John Wilkerson on November 10, 2010 in Podcast

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Last week I provided a general overview of various office productivity software suites: Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, Google Docs, and Windows Live Office. This week I bring you a very high-level comparison of OpenOffice and Microsoft Office, two products that you can install today.

Both products will meet the needs of 99% of homeschoolers out there. You may run into a few compatibility issues with OpenOffice especially when importing documents from other suites like Word Perfect.

If you’re used to the MS Office interface (especially the ribbon) there will be a learning curve if you switch to OpenOffice. I was often frustrated when we switched because I couldn’t find a tool or feature.

Both products are stable and perform very well. OpenOffice is a little lighter with regard to CPU and memory usage because it lacks some of the bells and whistles that are in MS Office and this translates to a little bit better performance. If you have a new computer you probably won’t notice the difference, though.

If price is an issue (and it often is for homeschoolers) then OpenOffice is the choice for yo. Unless wait until Office goes on sale after the holidays or decide to purchase it when you buy a new PC you’ll probably pay close to the retail price: $149. Microsoft does offer discounts to homeschoolers so you may be able to purchase MS Office at a reduced price if you’re eligible.

That’s it for this week. Next week I’ll cover Google Docs and Windows Live Office.

Please rate and review in iTunes and nominate this podcast in the “Education” category atPodcastawards.com

Web sites for each product: office.microsoft.com and openoffice.org

Other reviews:

ITPro Head-to-Head Comparison
How-to Geek Review of OpenOffice

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Last week I compared MS Office to Open Office. This week I’ll be talking about Google Docs and Windows Live Office.