Ben's Education & Tech Blog

        Last weekend, starting on the 2nd of November, I began a serious week of Google in Education Activities.  On Saturday, I presented on two topics at the RSSD Ninja Academy in Texas.  I was able to do this through one of my favorite Google Apps, Hangouts!  Both sessions went really well, and they got me prepared for presenting at and attending the Midwest Google Summit.

Part 3 Final Thoughts      Google Glass has been a pretty great experience so far, and I have generally enjoyed using it.  The past few weeks I have been doing more at home and not needing to where Glass as much.  I do have to say that getting directions has continued to be amazing.  I use directions, sending/receiving messages, and checking notifications very often while on Glass and this all works pretty well.  The software continues to update and get better. XE8 just came out and added some cool features that I think will be really big as more software and apps are developed for Glass.  

     In part 1 (which you can read here  if you missed it) of the my first impressions, I discussed mostly hardware.  In part 2, I will talk about the software, user interface/experience and Glassware apps.  I decided a third and maybe a fourth part might be smart to keep things a little shorter.  I plan on writing about the experience of using Glass in public and the implications of Glass in Education.  With that said, let's get to it!

          You can read some other more  professional reviews  of Glass and even check out a  complete teardown of Glass  by clicking the links or doing a simple Google search.  I would like to focus on what the everyday user will find.        I have had Google Glass for a little over a week now, and I can say that it is certainly a revolutionary product. Glass is certainly still in it's infancy.  There are not too many apps available and we have no idea what the final product is going to look like for consumers, but in this post, I will attempt to address the different parts of Glass and the experience of getting Glass as an Explorer.  I will try to give some suggestions for using Glass in it's current state.  I will also offer some of my ideas on how the Glass team can make some improvements before they release it to everyone.  

     On June 22nd, 2013, my life changed a bit.  I had been waiting, anticipating, and agonizing over the moment I would walk on the grounds of the Googleplex to get my Glass.  This year has been an incredible journey thus far.  My wife andd I moved into a new home in February, and at the end of March, we went on an amazing trip to St. Louis on the spur of the moment, and it was there that I received my notification that I had been selected to take part in the Glass Explorers program. It was on April Fools Day that my Google Plus notification came.  I thought someone was messing with me at first! 

I'm a teacher and a track coach, so I haven't taken a vacation in the spring for about a decade.  This year, my wife, who is also a track coach, and I decided we needed to get out of the cold winter grip of Wisconsin and go somewhere.  After a bit of geometry and help from +Google Maps   we determined that St. Louis would be within driving distance for the 4 day trip that we had in mind.  From the moment we left and until we got back, +Google  services were not only helpful, but key in our having a successful, exciting, and fun trip.