Working smarter
I realize I have not posted to the blog for a while. I have been micro-blogging with Twitter and Plurk and using Facebook to keep in touch with many of my ed tech colleagues. I also realize that information that normally would have been shared via blogs is getting lost in the "Twitterverse".
I have spent the last few weeks really working on making the Mac my main platform. (All my machines are Intel Macs which are dual-platform.) Those of you that know me know I am a die-hard Windows user and have been called the "terminally left-brained learner". Until OS X, I really was not comfortable using the Mac operating system and still had not spent a lot of time on that side of my computers.
All that changed two weeks ago when I moved to the iPhone 3G and MobileMe and also purchased a new iMac for home. I know there has been some bad press about MobileMe, but I have had nothing but success with everything I have done. In the past, I never had the luxury of an Exchange server and had limited access to IMAP. (IMAP allows one to keep all machines and devices in sync for email, contacts, and calendars, among other things.)
I took the plunge and moved my stand-alone Outlook folders of info up to MobileMe for my personal account, and moved my work folders to our gmail-hosted apps mail for our school domain. I also now am working on the Mac side of the machine for most of my tasks, with brief forays to the Windows side for the use of some applications.
What a difference this has made in the way I do business! IMAP is the greatest thing! No matter what device I use, I have access to all of my folders of data, so I no longer have to say "Oh, that is on my work computer and I can get it for you tomorrow."
In addition, everything is in sync all of the time. I guess maybe I have come late to this party, and all of you already have been conducting business this way for while. In any case, I am much more productive since I can easily use the iPhone for almost everything I need to do when away from the computer and I have all my data at my fingertips all of the time
I just re-read this series of articles from the Economist today, since we are studying it as an administrative team at a retreat next week. I suggest you give it a read if you have a chance. It is fascinating to think about the changes that ubiquitous access to the Internet is starting to bring to the work force.
Kathy
I have spent the last few weeks really working on making the Mac my main platform. (All my machines are Intel Macs which are dual-platform.) Those of you that know me know I am a die-hard Windows user and have been called the "terminally left-brained learner". Until OS X, I really was not comfortable using the Mac operating system and still had not spent a lot of time on that side of my computers.
All that changed two weeks ago when I moved to the iPhone 3G and MobileMe and also purchased a new iMac for home. I know there has been some bad press about MobileMe, but I have had nothing but success with everything I have done. In the past, I never had the luxury of an Exchange server and had limited access to IMAP. (IMAP allows one to keep all machines and devices in sync for email, contacts, and calendars, among other things.)
I took the plunge and moved my stand-alone Outlook folders of info up to MobileMe for my personal account, and moved my work folders to our gmail-hosted apps mail for our school domain. I also now am working on the Mac side of the machine for most of my tasks, with brief forays to the Windows side for the use of some applications.
What a difference this has made in the way I do business! IMAP is the greatest thing! No matter what device I use, I have access to all of my folders of data, so I no longer have to say "Oh, that is on my work computer and I can get it for you tomorrow."
In addition, everything is in sync all of the time. I guess maybe I have come late to this party, and all of you already have been conducting business this way for while. In any case, I am much more productive since I can easily use the iPhone for almost everything I need to do when away from the computer and I have all my data at my fingertips all of the time
I just re-read this series of articles from the Economist today, since we are studying it as an administrative team at a retreat next week. I suggest you give it a read if you have a chance. It is fascinating to think about the changes that ubiquitous access to the Internet is starting to bring to the work force.
Kathy
Labels: Kathy Schrock
posted by Kathy Schrock at 8:42 PM
7 Comments:
So glad to hear you've had positive experiences with Mobile Me so far, Kathy. I have for the most part too, although it seems Mobile Me likes it better when I edit calendar items in Safari on my Mac rather than in Firefox on my WinXP computer at work. I do not have my contacts syncing yet from Mobile Me to my Outlook/Exchange account, but once Microsoft fixes the bug with Entourage 2008 hopefully that will work. Thanks also for the link to those Economist articles, I hadn't seen those.
Punch, Kathy. Kathy, Punch. Hope my blog posts about the iPhone have helped in your new found increase of productivity!
Welcome to the wonderful world of Mac! I'm a recent convert myself (about a year now) and have been quite die-hard, converting everyone in my path. When people ask me "why Mac over PC?" I say the most fun way to explain is to simply watch all the Mac/PC ads. They're funny in how true they are. Well, welcome once again. You'll be glad you switched!
So many converts, it's almost a religious experience! I'm one also Kathy. I purchased my MacBook Pro when attending NECC in San Antonio last month. A group of us Australians went out to the newly opened Apple store and purchased 4-5 machines between us. I've also been a die-hard PC girl but am really getting the swing of the Mac and loving it. Cheers Camilla
Fr. Roderick's Blog is almost all his Twitter comments - maybe you can use ping and then update both (you may already know all of this - i am kind of new to this world so not sure what is obvious and what isn't:)
Kathy,
Thanks for the link to the working smarter articles. I read two and want to go back and read the rest when I have time. I found that when I changed jobs and now work from home my day and way of working has changed greatly.
No commute, more time on task, more time to think. When I need to meet with someone I can do it via Skype or when need be in person.
Also, since I now travel more I make sure my files are always available to me.
Now I just need to work on the "smart" part of working.
Jim Wenzloff
I've been very fortunate with MobileMe since it started (I'm an old .Mac user; in fact, I go back to .Mac's predecessor, "iTools"). Ubiquitous syncing between my Mac and my iPhone has totally changed how I handle scheduling and contact management. I physically link my iPhone to my computer once a week or less, simply to update or install new applications. Everything else happens in the "cloud."
It's really been terrific -- I can be assured that any changes I make to my schedule or contact list will be more-or-less instantly changed on my computer too.
Outside of continued quibbles with the iPhone UI -- lack of copy and paste for example -- it's been a good experience. And it helps that "Sync Services" on the Mac serves as the foundation for most PIM apps in Mac OS X these days, so Address Book and iCal content will stay consistent across the board, regardless of what apps I'm using.
Post a Comment
<< Home