This weekend I updated my iPhone to the new version that includes the Wi-Fi music store. This is also the version that makes “bricks” out of “hacked iPhones,” whereby owners tried to leave AT&T.

My iPhone works well with the update. Among the things to notice (of course), is the iTunes Music Store, with its purple button hanging off alone there in the bottom row. The keyboard includes new foreign characters (such as the upside down question mark used in Spanish), and then there is the case of my ringtones.

My custom ringtones are listed, but they do not sound. They fire blanks. Not happy.

Apple is in the business of selling ringtones. Er, snippets of songs you already bought and want to cut-up into a less-than 30 second chunk and pay for again. I have no interest. None of the songs I’ve bought on iTunes are ringtone-capable. In fact, I made some of my own ringtones based on pieces of music I composed myself.

And they disabled these?

While they may feel they have the right to disable ringtones I made from CDs, to disable my own sounds/music seems rather presumptuous. Of course, I subscribe to the idea that these ringtones for $1 bit is obnoxious to start with.

The ringtones started a number of Apple complaints being posted online. I am finally feeling the complaint personally now.. that the iPhone is a tad “too closed” for my taste. While I honor Apple’s right to sell me music, and too ringtones, I don’t have to buy them. But come on, I can’t make my own? Isn’t Apple about creative content sharing? I write a GarageBand song? Why not on my iPhone?

I think ultimately the device that is open enough for people — for apps or ringtones of whatever else — will ultimately be the favored product. iPhone won’t have the interface/experience advantage forever…

One of my more favorite blogs, 43 Folders got a remake and is chock-full of new content.

On the topic of productivity, tonight I went to the University of Richmond to hear the Shanghai Quartet perform. They played three works by the composers Mozart, Ligeti, and Dvorak. They were pretty good. After living here in Richmond for so many years, I had yet to hear this quartet play.

Watching/hearing them play got me thinking about how they sound, and that they did it so well. They are, we could ably say, virtuosos. And I think many of us in our lives have virtuoso qualities. If we aren’t exhibiting them, why not? And is it possible to identify what we are virtuosos at, and expand upon that more?

I personally find myself more able at creative tasks. I prefer creative tasks, for sure. I think they allow me to practice this quality of virtuosity. Enter the zone, so to speak… time whizzes by. Great things are produced… a product is left behind.

So much of what Merlin Mann focuses on in 43 Folders is the GTD stuff, getting things done, but I am ready for some discourse on doing things so well, in terms of a virtuosic way, at our fullest potential.

I received word today about some details regarding my forthcoming book. The official title is now RSS for Educators: Blogs, Newsfeeds, Podcasts, and Wikis in the Classroom and will be published by ISTE. It will be 120 pages, and sell for non-ISTE members at $29.95.

It will appear in the Spring 2008 ISTE Publications Catalog, and be available in March, 2008.

Karen Richardson recently wrote about her lament on the focus of tools instead of… something else with regards to technology-using teachers. Warlick chimed-in on her post, evidently he feels still it’s literacy that ought to be focused-upon.

I am not at all against looking/examining/thinking about our jobs as educators differently, “in a new light,” by changing our focus. Sometimes, changing focus changes perspectives. And change in education is hard to come by, so whatever works, use it, I say.

But I feel however far you travel, you will eventually come back to the tools, at hand. Why? Because once you convince a teacher to teach differently, to my hopes, in a constructionist’s guise, with a focus on project-based approaches, you will inevitably consider how to accomplish your teaching goals. And what tools are appropriate? Or, which tools are available?

Judi Harris, in an article linked from Karen’s blog suggests that teachers needn’t change their teaching for technology to be effective. But when I go into so many classrooms, I see a variety of practices that demand change. Technology used simply for convenience (Look ma! These word processors can check your spelling!) Teachers talking about a topic, then the lesson ends with notetaking. No matter if the notes are on an overhead or a PowerPoint slide.

It’s no wonder those classes in PowerPoint “went down” so easy for teachers. New tool, but same old approach. I think technology, especially today’s Web 2.0 technologies, can profoundly transform the way we think and learn… and while our approach to teaching and learning should evolve, so will the technologies available.

Ignoring the tools, I feel, says something else: the tools don’t matter. It’s the approach. Maybe so. But not much work gets done without the tools.

The classes I offer after school for teachers are focused typically on some tools. But this focus has changed for me and my approach over the years. It’s no longer software training, for sure. But some of the workshops inevitably focus upon a tool or more… If for instance we’re going to talk about the benefits of podcasts… we’ll at some point have to learn how to make one. The best tools, incidentally, are those that get in the way, so to say, the least. Jottit is a new tool that emerged yesterday (yes, just yesterday) that takes this maxim of simplicity to heart.

I had a very good experience this August talking to our entire staff on the needs of digital learners. I think I provided some with “inspiration” for considering the use of new tools. A rationale, if you will. But we can’t ignore these tools, can we?

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