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Saturday, January 28, 2006
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The End of Cyberspace
Goodbye, virtual world. Hello, new
world.
About the end of cyberspace
Cyberspace is a "metaphor we live by," born two decades ago at the
intersection of computers, networks, ideas, and experience. It has
reflected our experiences with information technology, and also shaped
the way we think about new technologies and the challenges they
present. It had been a vivid and useful metaphor for decades; but in a
rapidly-emerging world of mobile, always-on information devices (and
eventually cybernetic implants, prosthetics, and swarm intelligence),
the rules that define the relationship between information, places, and
daily life are going to be rewritten. As the Internet becomes more
pervasive-- as it moves off desktops and screen and becomes embedded in
things, spaces, and minds-- cyberspace will disappear.
About this blog
This blog is about what happens next. It's about the end of cyberspace,
but more important, about what new possibilities will emerge as new
technologies, interfaces, use practices, games, legal theory,
regulation, and culture adjust-- and eventually dissolve-- the
boundaries between the virtual and physical worlds.
10:14:38 AM 
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20 Business Principles They Don't Teach in
Business School
Miz Liz on Biz
biz.erati.com, January 27, 2006
Experience is a fabulous teacher. It gives depth to skills and
substance to what we learn from books and from college professors. Life
and business really are about two things -- showing up with your mind
engaged and paying attention to what people actually do and how things
actually work.
8. It's hard to have an unbiased world
view, when you're in love with the information in your own head.
10. Never blindly buy into someone else's sense of urgency.
12. We use the same words, but don't be surprised when they mean
different things.
15. When change is a new boss, new client, new owner, you have just
started a new job.
17. Being good at what you do is important, but a strong personal brand
includes both good and easy to work with.
18. If you do the work right, you won't have to do it over.
Those, of course, are just 20 out of what's probably 20 million. I
mentioned I am good at mistakes. Didn't I? But I'm a quick study too.
Failing isn't the problem. It's not failing and recovering fast enough.
Neither is taking a well-considered risk. It's refusing to adjust
course as you go that can get you in trouble. I learned that years ago
from reading and listening to Tom Peters.
Know that you'll always be adjusting course.
7:01:05 AM
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Out with old media; in with... what?
The old gatekeepers are getting
weaker by the day. Will anybody step up to take their place?
By Justin Fox, FORTUNE editor-at-large, January 19, 2006
...This is not an unprecedented state
of affairs -- big American cities used to have lots of different
newspapers, each with pronounced political leanings and articles
explicitly shaded to reinforce those leanings. There is nothing natural
or inherently superior about the monolithic media institutions of the
mid-to-late 20th century.
But there is still a need for the community-building, consensus-shaping
role that the best of the media gatekeepers can play. The question is,
who's going to play it? And how are they going to make it work
economically?...
For those who place classifieds or read them, the new era of Craiglist,
Monster.com, and the like is undeniably better than the old
newspaper-dominated one. But for decades, classified ads subsidized
journalism. Now they won't.
This is the way of economic progress, and as a business journalist who
has on occasion applauded creative destruction as it wreaked havoc upon
other people's industries, I can't exactly complain about it.
But it does raise some subversive thoughts: Are Americans willing to
pay for what's good for them? Are there great new fortunes to be made
in telling us what to pay attention to, or is this business of media
gatekeeping going to be chiefly a sideline (think Oprah Winfrey and her
book club)? Is there a role for public broadcasting as the last
uniting, subsidized medium?
6:11:28 AM
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Monday, January 16, 2006
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Wikipedia has this description:
A system of record is an information
storage system (likely to be a computer system) which is the data
source, for a given data element or piece information. The need to
identify the Systems of Record can become acute in large organisations,
where Management Information (or MIS) systems have been built by taking
copies of output data from multiple (source) systems, re-processing the
data and then re-presenting it for their own business uses.
Where the Integrity of the data (element) is vital, it must either be
extracted directly from its System of Record or be linked directly to
its System of Record. Where there is no direct link with the System of
Record, the integrity, and hence validity, of the data is open to
question.
[ System of
Record, wikipedia]
I'd argue that the term is really about how the age old records
(births, deaths, deeds, citizenship) are parts of systems of recording.
We rely on the paper document (the record) because we trust the system
that created it and sustained it (the system of record).
Now, in digital form, we think we have something new, something
transient that we need to lock down.
We do, but it's the system as much as the digital "record."
The record - digital or paper or parchment - has little value
unless we have a method to assure us and future participants
that this record, created this day, about this event, by this person or
persons
is a reliable record
through time.
This need isn't new.
Even if the form is.
12:28:39 PM
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I've been posting "news" items without much comment. I ponder why,
resolve to comment more. Then don't.
I can't really expect others to view this as a serious blog if all I do
is re-headline what the prospective reader reads every where. So what do I
add?
The reality is that we, all of us, have a tendency to think about a
problem in isolation.
I'm trained to think about "systems" - but, still, systems in
isolation.
But we live in a world where no system is truly isolated.
This winter's fresh fruit in the grocery store down the street comes
from South America
& the fresh shitake mushrooms from China. That's how global the
economy has become.
The health care system of the United States is not isolated from that
of China, India or Europe.
A decade ago I knew a German fellow who'd worked in the US nearly all
of his adult life.
He'd retired here. But once a year he went to Germany for a health
checkup,
even for a hip replacement.
Now we expect Wal-Mart to be competitive but play by US rules,
not by International economic reality.
True, they helped create this economic reality,
but to expect US companies to adhere to U.S.A. 20th century business
models
in a 21st century international market is to doom all of the USofA to
3rd class status in the coming decades.
That's the comment for today.
The Question: How do we adjust from being the "super power" to being a
top tier competitor in an international market place?
What do we do to adapt to the digital world - the world where market
changes are instant and constant?
What does environmentalism mean now?
Does the term "organic" food mean anything?
Does "universal" health care or "universal" social security have a
place?
As
noted earlier today, we are now an Agent Nation, not an Owner
Nation.
So how do we have checks & balances on the agents for different
systems?
Not just those with narrow interests but with those that interact in
complex ways to alter our life.
It comes down to, I think, the intersections where we barely notice te
interaction of systems.
Or the resulting unintended
consequences.
11:57:51 AM
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Only work if there is a feedback loop.
No record is bad. No feedback (correction) loop is worse.
Lacking proof from most of the states,
federal officials are concerned that many foster children are not being
visited regularly by caseworkers. [ washingtonpost.com
- A Section]
11:27:19 AM
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USATODAY.com - Dozens of
drug-prescription plans. More than 8,000 mutual funds. Fixed-rate,
interest-only and option ARM mortgages. Regular 401(k) plans vs. Roth
401(k)s. Countless flavors of bank accounts.
Choice is a hallmark of capitalism, and most of us would agree that having too many choices is far better than having no choices. A growing body of research, though, shows Americans have become so besieged by choices that many feel paralyzed and confused.
[ Yahoo! News: Business]
Magazine
Preview: 10,000 Channels
"Startups Take on Google and Yahoo to
Solve Video Search"
Red Herring, January 23, 2006
print issue
When computer science professor Avideh Zakhor and her graduate students
set out to create a video search engine at the University of
California, Berkeley, in 1999, their web crawling ultimately resulted
in a stockpile of some 45,000 clips. Fast-forward six years, to a point
where Yahoo alone boasts 15 million clips in its video repository....
[ Red Herring]
11:21:57 AM
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10:54:23 AM
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10:42:13 AM
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Sunday, January 15, 2006
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As school administrators consider ways
to make technology more accessible to more students--and as broadband
networks continue to play a larger role in the delivery of everyday
instruction--information technology (IT) experts contend a new
"game-changing"
In the THE Journal, Geoffrey Fletcher,
editor at large of THE Journal posed a couple of questions of the ed
tech community relating to the book
The
World is Flat. Here are my thoughts on two of them.
Q1 -- How do we deal with 'Globilization 3.0'?
Globalization 3.0 is a concept that suggests that, due to the current
state of fiber optic connectivity and the wide availability of powerful
hardware and software tools, individuals are now able to collaborate
and compete globally.
We simply have to "deal with it." It's here. We can no longer deny the
fact that a huge talent pool of highly educated and sorted young people
can do the back office (and also highly specialized) work of most
Fortune 500 companies for pennies on the dollar. We need to focus on
what we do best, which is, innovating. (We also need to insist that our
legislators demand that our innovations stop being blatantly stolen by
some of these same countries.)
So maybe a better question is, "How do we produce a generation of
innovators?" ...
Q2- What role does technology play as a part of the solution?
Once you have defined a quality educational experience that creates
deep and innovative thinking, simply apply technology to it. For
example, if collecting, drawing meaning from data is important, use
technolgies related to this topic. Data loggers, lego robotics, data
bases, spreadsheets and web browsers could be suited to the task. Let's
not apply them, though, unless they encourage deep thinking. Producing
another generation of "Powerpointlessness" (Jamie McKenszie's term)
will not help! Not every deep and thoughful science or mathematical
experience may require an educational technology but there are many
times when it can help to enhance the lesson by engaging and empowering
the student.
Although, this wasn't asked, I think another factor that gives the 2nd
and 3rd world students an advantage is their desire. They want to
better their lives and they know that the key to doing it is education.
They get it. This is exactly the same ethic that waves of immigrants in
our own country have embodied. Consider this. When a young worker gets
a job at a call center (a job that would be relatively undesireable to
many top U.S. sytudents) it could result in health care benefits for
their entire family! That's a life changing incentive. I look at my own
son (granted, a decent student) with his PSP, iPod, and the many other
adornments of an upper middle class American teen life and I wonder,
"Will be able to muster the "ganas"
it will take to make it in a 'Globalization 3.0' world?"
7:53:57 AM
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"Today, the United States is the only industrialized nation in the
world that depends on employers to finance the medical needs of most of
its population."
The decline of job-based health
insurance is changing almost every aspect of the U.S. health care
system. Many predict those changes will soon end in a dramatic crisis
for families, governments and business.
Requiring Wal-Mart to fund health care for their employees will not
solve this.
7:28:16 AM
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Wednesday, December 28, 2005
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A Eurostat study says Europe has
digital divide... and these are interesting but not all that
surprising:"A gap remains between users and nonusers or between 'haves'
and 'have-nots'," according to Eurostat, the European Uniion's
statistics agency. The survey found that 85 percent of school or
university students aged 16 to 24 used the Internet, while only 13
percent of people aged between 55 and 74 went online during the survey.
The poll was conducted across the 25-nation EU between April and June
2004, questioning 204,029 people. No margin of error was given. Only 25
percent of those who had not completed high school used the Internet,
with the figure rising to 52 percent for those who attained a secondary
school diploma and to 77 percent for college or university graduates.
Only 40 percent of unemployed people used the Internet, compared to 60
percent of those with a job, the survey said. In total, average
Internet use across the EU stood at 47 percent. A similar U.S. survey
found Internet use in the United States in 2003 stood at 55 percent.
Eurostat said the low Internet use had several causes, including
"missing infrastructure or access; missing incentives to use
information and communications technologies; lack of the computer
literacy or skills necessary to take part in the information society."
The survey found that computer use and use of the Internet was highest
in the Nordic countries of Denmark (76 percent), Finland (70 percent),
and Sweden (82 percent), while the lowest rates were found in Greece
(20 percent).The statistics on Greece were a surprise. Maybe the Greeks
still talk to one another rather than going online...I'm thinking
positive cultural influences a la My Big Fat Greek Wedding....
"Only 40 percent of unemployed people used the Internet,
compared to 60 percent of those with a job, the survey said."
"The survey found that 85 percent of school or university students aged
16 to 24 used the Internet,
while only 13 percent of people aged
between 55 and 74 went online during the survey."
1:34:25 PM
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Allen Shore writing for happynews.com
shares some less than happy news in his article, "Love'em and
squeeze'em: Charitable thoughts from the helping sector". The
technology gap also shows through in the Stanford review. Some 76
percent of nonprofits from the Bay Area have Web sites, compared to
fewer than 27 percent nationally. A recent commentary by another
nonprofit resource group, Npower, adds to this picture as well. It
asserted that while conventional businesses have a technical support
staff to operational staff ratio of 1:100 (down from 1:50 just a few
years ago), nonprofit organizations have a ratio of about 1:30 -
another squeeze on their resources, and an issue of concern as
technology becomes increasingly important. If ever there was a place
where students (and career changing professionals) interested in web
design and maintenance could plug-in and make a difference, the
non-profit sector is it. Sure, they can be demanding and difficult to
work with... but so too wil be some future paying client, so get over
it! Jump in there and help someone, you'd be amazed at how gratifying
the experience can be. (IMHO)...
If the citizen doesn't have the resources to find appropriate digital
services
and the local social service support providers don't have resources
either....
1:28:31 PM
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but the "customer" does not...
in this case, the customer suffers.
Self-imposed
digital divide
"After lagging the broader US
population in online usage, African Americans are starting to catch up.
A new report from eMarketer explains why. African-American Internet
users make up 10.5% of the total online population, according to
eMarketer. "But amid the good news, there is still frustration," says
Ms. Debra Aho Williamson, Senior Analyst at eMarketer and author of the
African Americans Online report. "Just 50% to 60% of African American
households have computers, versus 70% of white households. Though
African Americans are increasingly using the Internet at work, home
access is a strong driver of frequency of use." A greater concern,
however, is that the remaining lag in usage may also be self-imposed.
"The most worrying factor," says Ms. Williamson, "is that a large
percentage of African Americans don't appear to be interested in going
online, even if they have the money and education to do it." "Some of
the digital divide is self-imposed," Bruce Gordon, head of the NAACP,
told Businessweek in October 2005. "A computer and a DSL line don't
cost that much anymore. We need to convince more households to buy
computers and go online." It still bothers me that so much digital
divide publicity points to differences between blacks and whites.
Asians and Hispanics, just to name a few, are generally included in
national research but rarely included in publicised reports... I'm just
sayin'...
[ Generational
Gaps in Technology & the Digital Divide]
I left the blogger's editorialising in - that does not mean I agree.
The key value of this entry is the description of a particular group.
I suspect various groups are all over the place on this.
My larger concern is the general lag of senior citizens
and the impact on their ability to get appropriate services and
assistance.
1:20:51 PM
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Ok, I misremembered
I am ready for real 'news' about the
Digital Divide...the same studies from the Pew Internet and American
Life Project keep popping up in newspapers (as filler, I suppose). One
of the more recent comes from IndyStar.com: "Many hurt by digital
divide want to be there, study says".
If we depend solely upon the Pew statistics, "32% of american adults
remain unconnected from the Internet (narrowly defining what digital
divide means)." Let's expand that 32% of americans to see who is
missing out:
1. 15% of non-internet users live in a household with an internet
connection
2. 78% of people 70 years old and older are not using the internet
3. Blacks and those without high school education seem to lag behind
4. There is a group that is simply not interested (too busy)
5. Approximately 30% of the non-connected simply do not have access
available to them....
(above was reformatted for clarity)
1:07:39 PM
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the number of non-Internet surfers in the USofA is 22%
As a card carrying AARP member, it
still feels strange to hear that "Seniors struggle to cross the digital
divide". Oh, I understand the image. Blue hair-ed, bi-focal-ed,
bald-ed, and wrinkl-ed people simply do not fit the image of today's...
nearly all of that 22% are over 60.
12:51:46 PM
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Many in the "digital divide" biz are either focused on descrepancies
caused by geography or economic standing.
But as described here, there are other, more subtle divides - educating
the educator is one, educating the various professionals assisting the
educator.
Or assisting the healthcare provider, or... well anyone in a position
to bridge the divide.
There are all kinds of divides in this
country. When we talk about a digital divide there are many other
factors that create the problems we have.
Academic Gulf
...There is no substitute for going to
a good school. I hang out on the lists of some of the great schools. It
keeps me humble....
Learning Divide
Do we want kids to really love learning?
There is the divide between book
learning, and learning for the 21st century. We have to be idiots to
think that we can lock up kids in a school and make them learn without
the media. These children grew up in the media. We are the ones who
have to make adjustments. I will admit that I was one of those smarties
who read the book the first day. The reader. Remember those boring
texts, and who also finished the science book early. If we had one. I
think my imagination went a little wild with all the time I had....
A nine year old kid with an understanding of the use of a computer can
access more than the knowledge that is presented to teachers in some
schools of education. There is the problem of rich content and
meaningful content. Think Astronomy, Earth Science, Geography, Physics.
I really don't think people want the kids to learn these subjects.
Reading won't get it. We did not get to Mars reading a book.
But the Hubble is having its eyes put out and will not be financed.
Too bad.
Technologists vs Teachers
Teacher are responsible for content, technologists only need to know
that the machine works.
Technologist and teachers are still at different ends of the spectrum.
Some people give us really good tools. But there are barriers. There is
the fact that we are told how to teach and then measured for that.
There is the barrier of the interruptions in the classroom for any and
everything. Sometimes teachers feel like traffic cops, but maybe not,
since they have no authority. There is the barrier of permission. The
person in the school office, that administrator is the key to what you
can do. Ask me about it, I learned to move when I found myself in
danger. But there is nothing like being given tools that you don't have
enough information to use well or programs that help create a learning
environment in your paticular classroom. The expertise for content does
not always reside in a technologists. They don't have to teach....
I belong to the Digital Divide Network.
I am what some would call a seasoned teacher, and I love the classroom
action. I was surprised to see a recent college graduate create a space
devoted to digital divide for the classrooms. I joined....
The digital divide, the mental divide, racism, and the omission of
minority groups from technology, science, math and engineering is
something I have been working with for many years, in person, from
need, out of frustration and out of an attempt to explain to what I
call the "suits" that the digital divide still exists in America. In
many cases they send kids to the special classes during math and
science. The integrity of the classroom and the use of time deserves
its own special space.
The divide is not just colored by race. There are distant and rural
components. The state has some input, and even the E-rate use is
dependent on some skills of use, that is, to be able to apply there has
to be some resident knowledge. I had a friend who was very ill, who was
in charge of e-rate submission, who was insistent on dictating his
work from a hospital bed, though he was deathly ill. It was because it
can all be so complicated. The funding is also so needed that it has
become a priority for the continuation of the use of technology in poor
areas.Many poor schools had no knowledge of how to get funded for
e-rate . It is more than a tad complicated.
I also was in a school in rural Kentucky where "Baby Turn me Over "was
the technology application that the community had invested in.
The rate of pregnancies make this technology application very
desirable as a predictor for young mothers and fathers.
There are schools who have grant writers, and school systems who have
these people who create grant funding opportunities. This is not the
case for a lot of schools. Teachers, administrators, and community
workers have a lot to do, and time to teach, and time to be more
involved with technology is not a given. In fact, a teacher I know said
to me, " It is four o'clock, and I am going home, I don't get paid for
overtime, and I will get the same salary as you!" The point here is
that there are some schools where if you want the grant you write it.
If you get the permission.
In the beginning, technology is a time sink....
Beyond The Web Page
There was a time when we talked about knowing technology , if you could
create a web page. So there were lots of classes that were given on
creating web pages. That is a time sink, but ptobably a necessary
understanding. So all the kids can make a web page.. then wha? I think
you start with content.
Content
Content is , to me, the king. There is a lot of cost involved in being
a
person helping students to construct knowledge. Because of budgetary
constraints, many books are bought on a ten year cycle.
If we thought the book was the basis of knowledge.. and many people do,
even over that time, the book should not stand alone as the basis of
knowledge.
Getting Help
I happen to be of color, and have been burned in the crucible. I have
been told no so often, for various and sundry reasons, that I could be
portrayed as a yo-yo in animation. I am sure that to many people I am a
nuisance. What I learned to do, was to change schools, or create a
space for myself with national training, or to spend every summer, in
some kind of a training.
Then were the Eisenhower Grants, and so there were also the
courses that allowed me to learn.
At first, the training was for science and math. In the schools that I
went to , we had these subjects for teachers and they were not robust.
Even the pure sciences were amended and changed to be for teachers.
That means, Physics for Teachers.. not physics. Those of us that did
not go to "quality' schools have to run to catch up in many cases to
just be on the academic levels of the schools of choice.
I worked in a very comfortable suburban community where we seemingly
had most of everything. But I knew that it depended on the community
and the local principal, as well as the school board permission. What
often helped was to be able to demonstrate what it was that you were
doing in ways that made it difficult to say no to a teacher embracing
technology.
I say that because there were always the people who were in charge of
us as teachers and who made choices in the way of tools, technology and
curriculum. There was also a subgroup of "teachers" the favorites, who
were on these little committees that make the choices sometimes of
textbooks, and tools. How to get to be one of those teachers , if you
wanted that was a matter of the leadership in the school, how old the
current 'expert" in the school was, and
if you could wedge in something on your own. I chose grants as
permission to do something different.
I liked looking at Emily's exercise in a class where they looked at
software. I liked thinking that she had permission to think about
software without the kiss of the local administration. Can you tell
that
I don't think that the committees work?
So I am encouraged by the start of this community. Of course, there are
only a few of us. I hope that we will have more community in this
project. I intend to link it to the SITE conference in Phoenix as a
different example of learning community.
In medieval times, the scripters, the
careful monks who painstakingly copied books, held most of written
knowledge in their hands. In those Dark Ages, very few were privileged
to be a part of the sharing of knowledge. Even after the invention of
the printing press, the movement of ideas was based on a person's
ability to read and to have access to books. During the time it took
for literacy to increase and books to become affordable, the town crier
played a key role in disseminating information.
Many teachers without technology are not far removed from those
primitive ways of communicating. Many of us are still using books for
our basic teaching and our voices for delivering the instructional
program. Moving from chalk, talk, and book to technology requires a
transformation of our teaching. That will require ongoing support --
financial, technical, and human.
The results with our students more than justify these investments. No
teacher involved in the exploration, evaluation, excitement, and
individualization of technology as a tool in learning can fail to see
the effects on students.
What
skill sets will be most important to the next generation of journalists?
Let's assume that the war between
journalists and bloggers (citizen/volunteer journalists) will end some
day. Electronic media delivery will evolve into something that we may
not yet understand...but some students in higher education are
preparing themselves for the work force every semester without a clue
as to real world expectations. In terms of technology, what kinds of
skills do you believe will be most important for the next generation of
professional journalists? Should they know, understand, and actively
engage the blogosphere? Will they be expected to capture and deliver
digital images? Do they need experience in audio recording for
podcasting purposes? Will video capture and editing become something
that is needed in a journalist's tool box? Is there a need for
understanding online discussion ( interviewing) whether that be
synchronous or asynchronous? What role will the technologies of social
networking systems play? This is not a quiz. Your answers will not
affect your final grade. Your responses will not be held against you in
journalism court. Relax, tell me what you think, please....
[ Generational
Gaps in Technology & the Digital Divide]
12:24:08 PM
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There are many groups working on "digital divide" issues.
These efforts can cross-pollinate what works.
Some examples:
for those inclined to social action:
Welcome
to the Digital Divide Network!
"The Digital Divide Network is the
Internet's largest community for
educators, activists, policy makers and concerned citizens working to
bridge the digital divide."
Note that these organizations provide guidance in the digital divide
issues that can cross-pollinate to other focal groups.
Technology
.. What we need to know?
"The lack of familiarity with
technology has given rise to a number of
misconceptions. For example, most people think that technology is
little more than the application of science to solve practical
problems. They are not aware that modern technology is the fruit of a
complex interplay between science, engineering, politics, ethics, law,
and other factors. People who operate under this misconception have a
limited ability to think critically about technology[~]to guide the
development and use of a technology to ensure that it provides the
greatest benefit for the greatest number of citizens. Another common
misconception is that technology is either all good or all bad rather
than what people and society make it. They misunderstand that the
purpose for which we use a technology may be good or bad, but not the
technology itself. Realistically, every technology will be more
advantageous for some people, animals, plants, generations, or purposes
than for others"
Because few people today have direct, hands-on experience with
technology, technological literacy depends largely on what people learn
in the classroom, particularly in elementary and secondary school.
This information comes from a document from the National Academy of
Sciences that few people probably have ever seen.
The whole book is on line for your perusal and learning.
http://www.nap.edu/execsumm/0309082625.html
Bonnie Bracey [ Chalk
and Technology Talk..Creating Learning Landscapes]
CivicSpace
My DDN blog has been pulling feeds from
my site, so some of you may have noticed that I've been writing a lot
about content management systems recently, particularly CivicSpace and
Drupal.
I thought I'd post here to provide a general introduction to the idea
of a CMS, and to outline some of the reasons I think every nonprofit
should be considering a move to Drupal for a website management system.
To begin with, CMS = "Content Management System". For more information
on what a CMS is, visit my page on Nonprofit CMS.
A CMS like Drupal, or its big brother CivicSpace, is designed to do one
thing (and to do it well)...seperate content from technology. This
means that the content provider for a nonprofit no longer needs to send
content to a technologist (normally a highly-paid website designer /
developer) who then becomes responsible for that content appearing on
the web...with a CMS, the technologist merely handles the initial
installation, and not much more. The content creator has the ability to
enter new content, edit existing pages, and even design new kinds of
pages...all without requiring an education in website development. The
system handles everything technological in the background....
[ Dave
Chakrabarti's Blog]
The George Lucas Educational
Foundation, has created some professional development modules, that are
designed to help teachers explore teaching ideas.
These free teaching modules were developed by education faculty and
professional developers. They can be used as extension units in
existing courses, or can be used independently in workshops and
meetings.
Each module includes articles, video footage, PowerPoint®
presentations, and class activities. They draw from the wealth of
GLEF's archives of best practices and correlate with ISTE/NCATE NETS
standards.
These are the existing resources:
Innovative Classrooms
- Project-Based Learning
- Assessment
- Technology Integration
- Technology Integration: Language Arts & Social Studies
- Technology Integration: Math & Science
- Exploratory Learning with a Digital Microscope
- Project-Based Learning, An Integral Approach: CSI
- Theory of Multiple Intelligences
Educational Leadership
- View of the Principal and the Job
- Teacher Supervision & Development
http://www.glef.org/foundation/courseware.php
There are many other resources on the site that extend learning.
9:54:45 AM
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Tuesday, December 27, 2005
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And self expression and exploration.
....Combined, the two developments
speak to some fundamental changes in the way the public views news and
other mass information: People have grown increasingly mistrustful of
U.S. media organizations' historical claims of objectivity (long
ridiculed by European journalists as impossible), and many citizens are
willing to take on reporting responsibilities of their own through
blogs, wikis, social networks or other online vehicles.
Many hope that the result will be a return to the country's
journalistic roots, with news that actually reflects the concerns of
ordinary people--a concept that, for whatever reason, seems to have
gotten lost in the last couple hundred years.
[has some comments on the site]
Self portrait tuesday
is about self expression and exploration. The idea is each tuesday you
post a self portrait on your blog, give a brief explanation of the
picture - you may include your state of mind, what you were trying to
do, technical information about the image etc. Link back to the list of
other SPT people - thus enabling everyone to share and explore each
others self portrait experience.
from the site (has links in the
following)
How it got started:
Self-portrait Tuesday (SPT) started a few months back when I posted a
self-portrait on my personal/craft/art weblog. I wrote a little about
why I take self-portraits and this seemed to spark something in some of
my readers. A few of them started to post Self-portraits too ( bird in
the hand, port2port, scrapalicious and Nikkishell were enthusiastic) So
self-portrait Tuesday was started. After a few weeks it had started to
become quite popular, so I put a list together for everyone to check
out each other[base ']s SPT's. Soon a self-portrait Tuesday flickr group was
created (by Joy at scrapalicious) and more people joined.
Power
to the (online) people
In prehistoric times, i.e., before the Internet, getting a political
movement off the ground meant getting your hands dirty. You had to go
find your target audience and talk to them, find volunteers to go
knocking on doors or cold-call people on the phone. There were letters
to write and envelopes to stuff, and it was just a lot of work. Then
along came the 'Net, where you could publish one web page and the whole
world could find it. Easy-to-use e-mail lists, and later on, instant
messaging and blogs, also helped simplifying the process of drumming up
support from your friends, neighbors, and countrymen....
The Associated Press just released a story detailing the efforts of a
few individual citizens who got tired of waiting for change, and took
matters into their own hands. The causes run the gamut from the
admirable and the game-changing to the offbeat and ridiculous; the
article's examples range from a stay-at-home mom who felt disempowered
when MoveOn.org lost momentum after John Kerry's loss in the 2004
elections, and decided to run her own political mailing list, to a
woman who organized a group of pug owners (yeah, the ugly dog) to save
a punk rock club on the edge of extinction....
Flickr, 2005 -
Your Single Best Photo - pool
Flickr submitters retain ALL rights to photos they submit.
The restrictions on use vary - so see the photographer's site on flickr
for what is allowed.
(The links only below are highly restricted, only viewable at Flickr,
while the shown pictures have some uses permitted.)
Two
Hands
versailles
it's
the biggest lightbulb
oaxaca, mexico
Ouarzazate
Tangier
Clouds - Tucson AZ
Where bricks go to die
Mesa Verde
Jaiphur, India
Napa Valley (from hot air balloon)
You might consider the photo-journalism here.
Not the headline journalism,
but the common joy and beauty found across the landscape.
This is a small sample of the submissions that I relate to
out ot the 1100+ photos submited.
1:30:26 PM
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Having seen the hype for "the net"
I'm cautious about what "Web 2.0"
or "Web 3.0" portends.
But there be a culture shift
beginning in the arts,
the creative sections of this digital age.
10:28:18 AM
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And an explosion of commentary on it
maybe it's the year-end navel scanning?
but... could it be true?
Daniel Gross writes:
What
Makes a Nation More Productive? It's Not Just Technology - New
York Times : Today, as bubble-era books like "Dow 36,000" collect
dust on library shelves, evidence is mounting that there may be a new
economy after all. In the late 1990's, growth in labor productivity -
the amount of output per hour per worker - kicked into a higher gear.
[snip]
...One mystery of recent years has been
the enduring gap in productivity growth between the United States and
Europe. In this case, another structural force - regulation - may be at
work. "In economies with less regulation, companies can use information
communications technology that link sectors to one another in ways that
create joint productivity," said Gail Fosler, executive vice president
and chief economist at the Conference Board. Because domestic retailers
don't face the same sorts of restrictions on working hours and road use
that European retailers do, for example, the Americans have been better
able to use technology to manage trucking fleets, deliveries and
inventory....
Yes, it could be true.
But there remains the question about the Luddites.
A clue may be in this link.
Maybe
Telecommuting Just Isn't Meant To Be
For years and years, we've discussed
various trends in telecommuting, noting earlier this year that high
gas prices and public
transit strikes might help push the trend even further. However,
the problems
of telecommuting continue to mean that it's just not for everyone.
The NY Times notes that, even in the transit strike last week, many
workers who could have telecommuted preferred
to brave the cold and go into the office. There are a variety of
reasons given -- from the traditional need for "face time" to the basic
separation between home and work life. For many, it appears, the
"commute" is more than just the function of getting from home to the
office and back again, but a mental separator to keep work out of home
life. That's one issue that's not so easy to break down with
technology. Still, it will be interesting to see if that's more a
generational issue. I would imagine that today's multi-tasking,
instant-messaging, text-messaging, listening-to-music, watching-tv,
surfing-the-web all at once kids might not have as much need to
separate home life from work life.
[ Techdirt Corporate
Intelligence: Techdirt Wireless News]
Two things stick out for me
- well, we are primates after all - we need others around. In part
to know what we feel.
- "a mental separator to keep work out of home
life" - this is linked to primates and feelings. But there is more
here. We tend to think of home as "safe," we can let our guard down
(well somewhat). Bringing work into it, brings the risks - the flight
or fight urges from "that" place to "this" place.
With no separator, the worries of both might feed on each other.
Or one might bury the other.
Some love the mix, the variety of "always connected" but others resist.
That might be the defining issue in this culture shift to the "digital
age".
And why there is a digital divide.
Well, there is also Kurzweil and his idea of Singularity.
"The Singularity" is a phrase borrowed
from the astrophysics of black holes. The phrase has varied meanings;
as used by Vernor Vinge and Raymond Kurzweil, it refers to the idea
that accelerating technology will lead to superhuman machine
intelligence that will soon exceed human intelligence, probably by the
year 2030. The results on the other side of the "event horizon," they
say, are unpredictable. We'll try anyway.
THE
SINGULARITY : A TALK WITH RAY KURZWEIL [3.25.01]
We are entering a new era. I call it "the Singularity." It's a merger
between human intelligence and machine intelligence is going to create
something bigger than itself. It's the cutting edge of evolution on our
planet. One can make a strong case that it's actually the cutting edge
of the evolution of intelligence in general, because there's no
indication that it's occurred anywhere else. To me that is what human
civilization is all about. It is part of our destiny and part of the
destiny of evolution to continue to progress ever faster, and to grow
the power of intelligence exponentially.To contemplate stopping that [~]
to think human beings are fine the way they are [~] is a misplaced fond
remembrance of what human beings used to be. What human beings are is a
species that has undergone a cultural and technological evolution, and
it's the nature of evolution that it accelerates, and that its powers
grow exponentially, and that's what we're talking about. The next stage
of this will be to amplify our own intellectual powers with the results
of our technology.
The
Intuitive Linear View versus the
Historical Exponential View
Most long range forecasts of technical feasibility in future time
periods dramatically underestimate the power of future technology
because they are based on what I call the " intuitive linear" view of
technological progress rather than the " historical exponential view."
To express this another way, it is not the case that we will experience
a hundred years of progress in the twenty-first century; rather we will
witness on the order of twenty thousand years of progress (at today's
rate of progress, that is).
Well, he is an optimist.
What I think we need to worry about is:
- What if he's even half right?
- What do we do as a significant number of our fellow tourists
trekking into the future
do not want even 25 years of technological progress in the next 25
years.
They want every thing to be the same as now -
expect what they wish or need will change
(say treatment for my family's illnesses but let me pay for it doing
the work I've always done).
The difficulty is less the resistance to change, its the resistance to
adopting (changing) the financial, legal, medical, social environment
for accommodating the prospective change. For even considering what is
structurally needed for even the "every thing to be the same as now -
expect what they wish or need will change."
10:19:36 AM
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they can do more with
voice applications then just dial a phone number
From the article
...Most new cellphones have
voice-recognition software already included; on some others the
software can be downloaded. With the most advanced software, users can
dictate a text or e-mail message, find a calendar item on the phone or
jump directly to a ring tone and buy it with a simple command like
"Madonna ring tone."
This last possibility is especially appealing for carriers, which have
content on their mobile portals they are trying to sell clients, most
of whom cannot be bothered to click through multiple menus to find what
might interest them.
"The challenge has been getting people to realize they can do more with
voice applications then just dial a phone number," said Collin Holmes,
director of product marketing for V-Enable, a San Diego-based company
that makes voice-recognition search software....
9:10:28 AM
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No internet connection cuts off a main
artery of life. On a short
holiday a variety of computers broke down, the internet connection blew
up, or just, whatever. Suddenly there went the knowledge, the
connectedness, the information of usual daily life.
We are in the world of the
information haves and have nots. Cut
yourself off from the net for three days and you realize how dramatic
that divide is already and will become.
actually... think about it
it speaks volumes
about the silence
the have nots hear
It's like living in the world of color
thinking black and white
is good enough.
8:34:17 AM
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Monday, December 26, 2005
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The world is too complex to be
condensed into a list of rules.
David Kadavy
I've noticed in my short existence that I
tend to do many things differently from most people. Some of those
things probably work just as well, whereas others make me wonder "why
doesn't everyone do this?" Here are eight things that may make you feel
like you're cheating the system, too (in no particular order):...
8. Don't Make Lists of Rules
- or Follow Them (They All End This Way) -
Such things are only made by bloggers hoping
to get lots of del.icio.us
bookmarks.
The world is too complex to be condensed into
a list of rules.
12:59:05 PM
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Don't let fear of failure hold you
back; if we are not failing we are not trying anything innovative.
James Torio
What
Is A Blog? New Media Culture 101
James Torio has recently taken on the challenge to write about blogs
and media phenomenon they represent: blogs are social change tools,
business venues, support and development instruments, wonderful
marketing channels, gateways to innovative learner-centered education
and peer-review journals for. ...
...What bloggers have yet failed to achieve in full, is having been
able to clearly communicate and explain the power that these tools
offer to the non-technical person. The immense opportunity yet untapped
by our many brothers and sisters who while having a sharp mind and
desire to have an impact by communicating to others their ideas are
still stuck in sending emails to their network of contacts....
Learning
- Educational Technologies :: Robin Good's Latest News]
Communication as we know it is rapidly
changing. We have an abundance of tools and we have only begun to
figure out their potential. Communication is no longer about sending
messages but opening up a dialogue and providing content that people
will want to share with others. People are using media on their terms;
when they want it, how they want it and what they want to do with it.
It is time to join the conversation.
Failure
is never quite as freighting as regret....
I stumbled upon this the other night and can't shake it out of me mind.
Failure is trying to achieve something but failing short, or not
getting the desired results. You learn and grow from failure, I think
somewhere along the line somebody gave failure a negative connotation
it doesn[base ']t deserve.
I remember years ago watching an interview on TV with Michael
Jordon; there he was sitting on the bleachers in what looked like a
high school gym, sitting around him were high school basketball players.
The man conducting the interview said to Jordan, "You are
undoubtedly the greatest basketball player who ever lived, how does it
feel to fail and not make it as a professional baseball player?"
As I lay there on my couch I began to sit up, I suddenly had that
nervous feeling in my stomach as I wait in anticipation to hear what
Jordan is going to say.
In a calm, warm voice he said, "I tried the best that I could, and
that is all I can do."
That statement has been burned in my brain for years; it's about trying
your best!
Regret on the other hand, well that is freighting; regret is not
thinking things through, not trying hard enough, knowing you could have
done things differently, giving up.
We learn from failure, regret eats at us because somewhere inside of
us we know we should have tried harder or could have made smatter
decisions.
Don't let fear of failure hold you back; if we are not failing we are
not trying anything innovative. Failure is never quite as freighting as
regret....
[everyhuman] aka James Torio
12:44:47 PM
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briefly
The trick, of course, is getting the "if" right.
Complete.
8:12:29 AM
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Sunday, November 13, 2005
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Something to file away of that physical displacement with digital
placement held steady
(of course, if it's just you, a laptop and cellphone, there be several
WiFi hotspots)
Esthr posted a
photo:
at Worktopia,
you can check
out temporary office or meeting space - in general, a notoriously
inefficient market.
7:48:29 AM
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© Copyright 2006 Russ Savage.
Last update: 1/28/06; 10:15:19 AM.
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