Kerry shares a fascination with the technology innovations that are increasing the quality of life for those with disabilities or special needs.
Check out my Pinterest board on the topic.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:56 — 24.0MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS | More
I love all things tech but there’s one topic that captures my fancy like none other: Technology for the Disabled. Tech companies are just now starting to pay attention to those with disabilities and innovation is bubbling up around their specific needs.
Over the years, I’ve collected anything that I noticed that fit into this category and I saved it to a Pinterest board called Tech for Disabilities and Special Needs. I’m posting it here because I reference this board again and again during Geek to the Core Episode 5.
Let me know if there’s anything I should add to the board.
(Photo by Orcam)
(Click on the title of the board to see the whole thing or each individual image will take you to that specific pin.)
My computer mentor turned 94 today. She thinks she’s a “total geek when it comes to this computer stuff” and she’s right. She’s the most important geek in my life – my grama.
Grama Marian was the first person I knew with a computer, a Commodore 64. She would tell me that computers were the way of the future and that I needed to know how to use them. Grama bought typing programs to make sure I knew how type but she also had Frogger to make sure it was fun. (click on the Frogger link, you can play it!)
Years later, I graduated with two AAS degrees in software and computerized business and asked her if she remembered telling me about the importance of technology. She smiled and acted coy. Don’t let that lady fool you, she’s as smart as anyone I’ve ever met though she would try to talk you out of believing it. Continue reading
Over a year ago, I was walking out of a board meeting for a non-profit organization and talking with a fellow board member. It so happens he’s the father of a woman I went to college with so we’ve known each other a long time. He asked what I’d been up to and where I was headed. I told him I was going to Sonoma State University for my Professional Social Media Certification class.
He asked, “Oh? What class are you taking?”
I said, “No, I’m teaching the class.”
Maybe he still thinks of me as a college kid though almost 20 years has passed since then but the look on his face was priceless. I felt like I’d “made it.” Continue reading
I’m pleased to be offering a Social Media Workshop for Teens at Windsor High School for Fall 2014. This ten week after school workshop is designed to: have students set goals; create a strategy and system for social media use; have a viable project or process at completion; understand the benefits, obstacles, and challenges of social media; and to have job skills at the end of the course.
Students will create an actionable social media campaign portfolio project to be presented at the last class. By the end of the workshop, each student will be able to demonstrate the following skills and have higher than entry-level abilities:
When I was a kid, I thought being a motivational speaker, the kind that got us out of class for an hour, was the coolest job. It had entertainment, performances, excitement, motivation, information, fun, and everyone’s happy not to be studying.
Now that I’m on a school campus doing just that a couple times per week, I still think it’s cool. I speak to elementary, middle, high school, junior college, or university kids whenever I get the chance. Sometimes it’s a career day, sometimes it’s about cyberbullying, saving the world with passion and technology, or teaching a specific social media tool like Facebook. The fact that I know they aren’t getting that valuable information anywhere else makes this my personal mission. It just never gets old. Continue reading
In response to the major internet threat that is Heartbleed, there are quite a few passwords that you need to change RIGHT NOW. Take a look at the grid that Mashable has prepared so you know what services you use that you need to protect.
I get asked a lot about password protection. This is what I do:
I save mine in an Excel spreadsheet (I make a practice of never using the word “password” in documents) listing all the services in my personal and business life. When I change something, I update the list at the same time. This document is password protected. My estate manager knows where this document is on my computer (it’s not on the cloud) and how to access it for when I pass away.
Take a look at this blog I wrote about other ways you can protect your business and assets. #legacymanagement
Not a hardcore programming, rocket scientist, mathematical genius. I’m a girl that likes gadgets, science fiction movies, imagination, and possibilities. My dad was a radio operator when he served in Vietnam, he built model airplanes and cars, built full size experimental aircraft, and has a very technically oriented mind. I watched him enjoy his hobbies for years but it wasn’t until the personal computer became commonplace that I discovered my tech passion.
Though I’d worked on many different kinds of computers throughout my childhood, the first I’d ever had in my own home was a Windows 95 machine I bought at the age of 18. The awe inspiring magic that is the internet (no, really) made me feel like those happy cows that dance in pastures after being let out. It never gets old, I just love being able to look up anything my heart desires. I’m a knowledge junkie. Continue reading
There are a lot of curation tools for all the social media and news sites that you use. There’s simply too much to read so some kind of organization system is necessary. I needed one and you probably do too.
My very simple “Read it Later” is Continue reading
There are a mind boggling amount of social media tools available and I don’t expect you to use all of them. No one does. Which ones are right for your business or objectives? The ones that are important to your target audience, the ones THEY use. That said, if you’re going to set up the tools, you do need to actually use them. If that means less accounts, then that’s a good thing.
Not sure of a new tool? Research it to see what it does and if it is used by the demographic you are targeting (I like to use Continue reading