ClappingTree’s Web 2.0

LEARNT BELATEDLY after bible class last Sat how to put Avantgo channels into my Tungsten E. My ‘teacher’ was an old man who called himself GMGW (general manager - general worker) and who taught himself all kinds of things — including how to transfer daily updates from the Web into his PDA.

It was like discovering a treasure trove. All i did was: registered for a free account, downloaded and ran the Avantgo program on my PC, selected some recommended channels (e.g. ChannelNewsAsia, CNET, Straits Times, Washington Post and Wired) within AvantGo, added some personal channels (e.g. Creighton University’s Daily Reflections and Mobile Gabriel (click “Subscribe”), Universalis), and then synchronized my PDA. Also downloaded the BibleReader, as well as the Douay-Rheims (w/deuterocanonical books), the Modern King James Version - MKJV and the Latin Vulgate from Olive Tree.

Now, i can browse lots of interesting stuff offline on my Tungsten — news, features, technology reviews, as well as different versions of the bible, daily mass readings, reflections, morning and evening prayers. Hmm, Avantgo has been around since 2001. Some of my colleagues had in fact been working on some PDA projects at least one or two years ago. Currently, there are supposed to be more than 1,200 Avantgo Web sites! Surely, after filtering out the “dross”, some can be put to good educational uses?

(See also Teaching & Learning with PDAs.)