Michigan Conference: License Plates, Geeks, & Handouts
Tuesday, November 8, 2005 at 9:25PM 
I had a great time at the 5th Annual Handheld Computers in Education Conference in Holland Michigan last week. You'll hear more about this conference in the next edition of Soft Reset.
I found it ironic because I snapped the photo you see at the right on the way to the Omaha airport bound for Michigan. I took the photo because I knew that at least a couple of the handheld users at the conference would have the same thought as me when seeing a license plate that contains PDB. Not many of the 150 listeners to my presentation laughed when my freshly taken digital photo appeared on the screen. However, Palm users should be familiar with files that end with the extension .pdb, which stands for Palm DataBase. The extension associates these files with Palm Desktop, much like .doc associates files with Microsoft Word and .ppt associated files with PowerPoint. Quizzler quizzes, eBooks, and Dropairs Pair Boards are files that use the .pdb extension. Anyhow, my excitement of seeing this license plate made me realize that I am a geek. Going the extra step and taking a photo of that plate only confirmed my suspicions of geekiness. I'm pretty sure all 150 participants laughed at my realization (but I think they knew my level of geekiness the second they met me).
The conference featured 32 breakout sessions. Whether you attended the conference or not, I encourage you to check out the online handouts, many of them are PDF files. There handouts page includes links to great information like Making Your Own eBooks for palmOne Handhelds and Surfing the Web on a Handheld from Mike Curtis, Using a Handheld as Part of Your Assistive Technology Toolkit from Gayle Minnick-Underwood, Free Must-Have Palm OS Handheld Applications for the Classroom by Christine Tomasino, and much more!
Reader Comments (9)
I learned a lot and really enjoyed myself at the conference. Meeting Tony and other educators using handhelds was fantastic. I wish I could have won one of the cool door prizes.
I'm also responding to an earlier question about document cameras.
I'm using my handheld in a class presentation tomorrow and I don't have access to a document camera.
What I do have access to a camcorder (my own) and a large screen TV in the classroom. Using a blue milk crate, a stick, a plastic bowl, and some screws I made my own document Camera.
And it works great!
If anyone wants to see it I'll be happy to email the pictures.
Dale Ehrhart
It was great to meet you last week, Dale!
I have got to see your homemade document camera! Please email me photos and I'll post them in the blog!
I've sent the pictures.....It's a thing of beauty.
My wife didn't stop mocking me even after I threatened to start buying imaging equipment.
Dale
Tony, I always laugh when I see license plates that start PRC... so I guess you are not the only geek out there.
Kate, it's great to hear that you laugh when you see PRC on license plates. I'm not alone! I have only seen that one last week. Sounds like you see them all the time. You're so lucky!
At the last moment, I checked out the old, "much more" link. Darned sure glad I did! What a jackpot of information. Can't wait to burn up some of the toner on the laser printer at school!
Thanks for taking the time to provide that for us!
Casey
http://SpecialEducator.us
Oh dear oh dear!
Where can I see the pics of the homemade document camera, email to bud.malone@teltronic.com
My wife is a teacher and has had me searching ebay and the like for a doc camera, since I'm an electronics tech I may try making one, we have a toshiba lcd projector already. Bud Malone
Here's my blog posting with the http://learninginhand.com/blog/2005/11/homemade-document-camera-solution.html" REL="nofollow">photos of the homemade document camera.