Do you need Blogsy? Answer a quick survey to win a free* app!

Rather than handing in paper and killing trees [NOTE: the trees are already dead.], students will be doing the majority of their homework on a class blog. I have in-depth instructions on how to set one up, and I'm always available to tutor you through it as well, but simply setting up a blog is not enough.

A good blog includes pictures and video and interesting formatting, all with the purpose of earning (and keeping) your audience's attention. Typing up the information is really easy to do on your iPad--I mean, with a secret email address, you can even do it on Evernote or QuickOffice or the Mail app. However, if I'm going to give you TOAST points for including all the good elements of a blogpost, you're going to need to include some extra media.

This is where Blogsy, a favorite app of mine, comes into play. With this program, you can easily create a post that includes media, formatting, and clarity, all in a very easy-to-use package. Last semester, I wrote a primer on how to set up your blog with Blogsy, a must-read for TAPA students. We'll do some in-class training, too, for those of you struggling to figure it out. However, before any of that happens, we need to do something important: GET YOU THE APP.

You can just to to the App Store and buy it yourself, or I can purchase it for you and gift it to you in class. It's up to you, but you've got to let me know as soon as possible. This link (and the QR code to the left) will take you to a form you can fill out that will tell me if you need to buy it, if you want me to buy it for you, or if you already have it. This is a required app for Webb classes, and I will be giving you a quiz that includes the question:

DO YOU HAVE BLOGSY INSTALLED?

Those are fake smiles. They're actually angry.

If it's not, you're losing points, your grades will suffer, you'll probably not graduate from high school, and you'll have to spend the rest of your life giving pedicures to crocodiles. For free.

So, one more time:

TAKE THE QUICK 15-SECOND SURVEY TO LET ME KNOW HOW YOU ARE GETTING BLOGSY ONTO YOUR IPAD. RIGHT NOW.

Good.

*The app isn't really free, but I will freely buy it for you with your money. Sorry.

Salutations, Mr. Jobs.

I haven't always been an Apple fanboy. For a long time, I refused to give in to the idea that their products could be so much better than everything else anyone could make. I refused to give them a chance, time and time again choosing to select products without that little logo on them.

It would have been my first iPod, an iPod Photo (with the click wheel) that changed my life and my mind. Not to overstate it, but that little guy went along with me as my most important "luxury item" on my year as a Student Missionary in Kenya. With music I carefully loaded before leaving the States, I trekked through savannas, investigated slums, explored Africa, and really, explored myself. I learned more in that one year than in any other year of my life, and the soundtrack I associate with it played off that little device. It sounds silly, but when I think of that stupid little toy, I think of... change. Improvement. Better-ing.

Steve Jobs led that revolution. Don't think about iPhones or iPods or MacBooks or any of that other stuff. Just think about this: Jobs was the kind of guy who had a vision, had a dream, and fought to make that dream a reality. Whether you're a "Mac guy" or not—doesn't matter. Be an "idea guy," and you can appreciate this man's legacy.

I can hear my students right now: "TEACH-AH! APPLE IS GOING TO GO OUT OF BUSINESS NOW! WHERE WILL I BE ABLE TO BUY MY IPHONE 7.3S?" You're missing the point, guys. Apple will be fine. You'll be fine. The Jobs family will be fine. The point is that, today, the world has one less dreamer, one less difference-maker, one less inspiration. How are you going to fill those shoes?