With recent news of the government having to use RSS feeds to report stimulus news, with a White House blog, and members of congress tweeting during Obama’s recent speech, it seems this read/write Web stuff is really going maintream.

Some time ago, I ran into the official TSA blog (recent post), which almost seemed like a joke. I don’t know anyone who really trusts or has good feelings about the folks who screen you at the airport.

Yet, the official TSA blog reads like a really honest entity, I mean, how many government publications title something 3 oz or 3.4 oz? What gives??? with three question marks, to boot.

Bob, Jay, Lynn, Nico, and Paul are the writers behind the blog, and I have to give them some credit for keeping the communication honest and “real.” Who is to say it’s the blog medium or the folks writing, but there here’s an example of a real inside-look of a government entity that we’d likely never have seen before.

So give them a try, and hopefully you can take a few lessons away from the experience. A blog seems to be the only appropriate online space where you’d get an answer about what all the guards are doing, standing off to the side, as you walk through a checkpoint.

Apple this week released the beta version of Safari, version 4. I have been using the beta now for almost 3 months, but this “new” version has introduced a lot of design modifications, namely, changes to the interface. I applaud Apple for mucking around with UI: this beta will hopefully provide them with good data about how these decisions pan out for users.

The tabs at the top are the most interesting feature, and while I think that accidently closing the tab is likely to happen, I think the tabs at the top are a sign. I believe the tabs at the top make perfect sense. Not for a desktop computer, but for a touch-screen one.

Hitting the very top of a touch screen, such as the one on the iPhone, is difficult to do. Imagine if Apple were working on a hybrid computer: more powerful than an iPhone, yet handheld, and one that features a larger touch screen.

The tabs at the top might just make sense. Then, there is the case of “zoom,” and a new “text-only” version. Previously, text only was the default. But on iPhone, zooming by a pinching method results in the entire display scaling.

Then another interesting feature is the one where you can view favorites in a 3D style array, as if we were viewing all of your favorite sites across multiple monitors. What better way to choose a site than from an appetizing menu.

While I certainly enjoy the faster load times with this new version of Safari, I have convinced myself it contains features that signal a version for use on a larger touch-screen device, i.e., an OS X-enabled tablet.

Over the weekend, Monday, and Tuesday, Bea and I were at the VSTE Conference in Virginia Beach.

I’ve been a member of VSTE since 2000 and would encourage everyone of our teachers to join too–the membership is now complimentary. What do you get? Access to the energy, enthusiasm, and expertise of over 5000 educators across Virginia. VSTE today is less about technology and more about the integration of great teaching and learning ideas.

I presented a session on our teacher blogging initiative that we began in 2005. I also led a workshop on Adobe Photoshop. Both sessions went well, and of course I learned a lot from the vendors, experts, and presenters who attended.

Bea’s presentation was on Video Across the Curriculum, and if you haven’t been using video in your class this year, you ought to learn about what benefits it can bring to the learning experience. She was able to share examples from Mrs. Ware at Randolph, Mrs. Winfield at GMS, and Ms. Edwards at GMS. If you’re at GHS or GMS, please do ask her to talk about putting together a video project with your class. They can take on many different shapes. With the newer video cameras Mrs. Cross has available now, it’s easier than ever to capture video, too.

This was my favorite photo from the conference:

For my workshop today, I’ve put together a set of images for use in Photoshop.

I’m looking forward to seeing a lot of familiar faces at the upcoming Virginia Society for Technology in Education conference in Virginia Beach! Today I’ve posted the handout for my “bring your laptop” session on blogging best practices. This presentation is also available in a movie format, which I published earlier this week in the Technology Times Live podcast.

At VSTE this February I will also be leading a workshop session on Adobe Photoshop. Some of the topics we’ll cover are already covered here on Hendron’s Digest. Hope to see YOU at VSTE.