Digital Edu

Great Idea

2012-01-25T14:04:00.000-08:00

This obviously won't be a scientific study, but it should be very interesting to see the final results. We should never be afraid to hear directly from our students.

Future U

2012-01-25T11:26:00.000-08:00

My boss just sent me a great article about the future of higher education. It cites a book I'm currently reading called The Innovative University by Clayton Chistensen and Henry Eyring. Both the article and the book are worth reading for anyone interested in how higher education will have to adapt to stay relevant.

iTunes U

2012-01-19T08:42:00.000-08:00

Oops - I jumped the gun a little bit on my last post and there was more news from Apple this morning. They also announced a new iTunes U app that will host full courses that you can take for free or (I assume) for a fee at some point in the future. They have had this content for a while in iTunes but they are obviously making a big push in education now and so they are breaking this out into its own app. I just downloaded it and it pretty much works the same way it did in iTunes.

It will be very interesting to see how this develops in relationship to the burgeoning Open Courseware initiatives. It could be a battle between an open and closed environment that we are now seeing with iOS and Android. There is a lot to keep track of in this space and it's a really exciting time to be working in education. Stay tuned!

iBook Textbooks

2012-01-19T08:06:00.000-08:00

Some very exciting news coming out of Apple this morning. They have released an upgrade for the iBook app that is geared specifically for textbooks. This was fairly expected but the real surprise was the free authoring environment they are also releasing that will make it very easy for instructors to write their own textbooks. Of course it only runs on Macs, but Apple isn't exactly known for making it easy to use their stuff on Windows.

I believe this has enormous potential and could revolutionize the textbook industry, just like the iTunes did for the music industry. Textbooks from all of the major publishers are available now for $14.99 and imagine what it will be like when instructors all over the country can start producing their own materials. The best will get voted up and the worst will get voted down and the students will be the real winners.

A Fresh Start

2012-01-11T09:21:00.000-08:00

I realize that my blog posting in 2011 was pretty much nonexistent which I also realize was a huge disappointment to both of the faithful readers of DigitalEdu. I'm going to see if I can do something about that and will be trying to update this site more often. I've refreshed the look a bit and am exploring some of the new features Blogger is offering to see if I can make this a more interesting site to visit.

Let me know if you have any ideas, and thanks for visiting!

Presentation at Cuyamaca College

2011-01-19T20:40:00.000-08:00

Today I had the great privilege of speaking at the Spring 2011 Convocation at Cuyamaca College. This is a new presentation I'm doing that discusses the massive transformations that have occurred in our culture as a result of technology. We examine a number of industries that have undergone radical change and then dive deep into the music industry. I trace the technological evolution from Thomas Edison to Steve Jobs and suggest that higher education might be following a similar path. It's a challenging discussion and I was really impressed with the group at Cuyamaca. They were incredibly hospitable and I greatly appreciated their interest and their feedback. It was a good day.

New Mobile Keyboard

2011-01-05T20:22:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure if this is the answer, but it's a very interesting question. If the keyboard was being invented today, how would we design it for a mobile device? I doubt it would look like what I have on my iPhone.

Ken Robinson on Changing Education Paradigms

2010-12-19T12:41:00.000-08:00

Just watched this very interesting talk on the fundamental problems with education today. Check it out:

Using Data To Evaluate Teachers

2010-12-12T12:03:00.000-08:00

Glad to see that people are using real data to evaluate teachers.

Read the full article.

Presentation at West LA College

2010-11-22T14:12:00.000-08:00

On Friday I did a new presentation for the West LA College Leadership Retreat. This was the third time I have been at West LA and they are always very hospitable. It was the first time I did a new presentation I just put together and I really appreciated the response I got from the audience. If you were there, you can find the PowerPoint file here. If you weren't there, the file probably won't make a lot of sense, but feel free to take a look.

CCCApply Workshop

2010-04-22T19:35:00.000-07:00

I spoke today at the CCCApply state workshop at Pasadena City College and had a great time. If you are reading this because of my shameless plug, thanks for stopping by. The GTD links I mentioned are in the right column of this page. Enjoy!

Augmented Reality Maps

2010-02-18T06:56:00.000-08:00

Once again I apologize to both of my faithful readers for the long absence on this blog. Life is good, but very busy. I'm always fascinated by the human/computer interface and I love to see innovative ideas. This video demonstrates a layering of information on top of the Bing Map system from Microsoft. It doesn't take much imagination to see how this could be used in an educational environment.

Teaching is About the Students

2009-10-02T21:09:00.000-07:00

I thought you might be interested in seeing the following video clip. Aside from the remarkable performance of an obviously gifted young orator, it's a great reminder about the importance of the teaching profession.

Socialnomics

2009-08-15T14:53:00.000-07:00

Here is another interesting video that talks about the explosive growth of social media. The message is more for businesses, but I think it has applicability for those of us in higher education as well. I'm seeing a rising level of consciousness on this topic in higher ed, but I don't think we've really caught on yet how much the world has changed around us. Enjoy.

I Think I'm an Edupunk

2009-08-07T20:44:00.000-07:00

Just ran across a new term - "edupunk" in an article in Fast Company magazine. The article is entitled Who Needs Harvard and it discusses how the new open source model of technology is being applied to education. The article raises some great issues about the relevance of the traditional higher education model in a new world of distributed knowledge.

While Googling edupunk I ran across this video which I think does a really nice job illustrating the challenge we face in higher education. Not so much a challenge as a complete and total shift in how knowledge is acquired and disseminated. It's changing everything about the way education should work - but are we ready for it?

We Choose The Moon

2009-07-16T08:21:00.000-07:00

If you haven't already seen it, you should check out We Choose the Moon - it's a recreation of the Apollo 11 lunar mission. It uses a wide range of media (web, streaming audio/video, twitter) and is broadcasting behind the scenes footage in real time exactly 40 years after it happened.

It's a great example of how modern technology can shed new light on a historic event. I can remember my Mom forcing me when I was 8 years old to watch the live broadcast of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. She told me that one day I would be telling my kids and grandkids that I saw it happen live. I don't remember what I wanted to do rather than watch it, but at the time it didn't seem like such a significant event. Thanks Mom!

West LA College Tech Fair

2009-05-29T07:45:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I spoke at the West LA College Tech Fair. They bring in a series of speakers throughout the semester to update faculty on the use of technology. I already did my iPod Generation speech for them at their leadership retreat in November so they asked me to come up with something different. I titled my presentation "Technology is Supposed to Make Our Lives Easier - So Why Doesn't It?".

I think there are two main reasons - one is unrealistic expectations and the other is poor technology design. Technology can help us do some things really well, but it's not the ultimate silver bullet that will solve all problems. Those of us who design technological solutions need to remember that - and need to remember to put the user at the center of the solution.

In the second half I talked about the Getting Things Done (GTD) personal productivity process and demonstrated some cool (and free) web-based tools they could use to stay productive and reduce their stress at work.

I enjoyed the time at West LA, but the timing was unfortunate. Their president preceded my presentation with a discussion about their massive budget cuts - including the cancellation of the entire summer schedule. There were a lot of students in the audience concerned about their ability to maintain their full-time status, which has a big impact for many of them on their financial aid and veteran's benefits. For me it put a very human face on the budget situation and I'm grateful they still extended a warm welcome during a difficult time.

CACCRAO Conference

2009-05-06T14:01:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday I spoke at the CACCRAO conference in San Diego and did two presentations. One was on MAP and Getting Things Done (GTD) and the second was my iPod Generation speech. I enjoyed the time with the group, and if you are reading this due to my numerous and shameful blog plugs, you can find the links in the right column of this page. Enjoy.

(And for everyone else, it stands for California Association of Community College Registrars and Admissions Officers).

iPod Gen at So Cal CEO Conference

2009-04-23T22:18:00.000-07:00

Today I gave my iPod Generation speech at the Southern California CEO Conference. It was quite an honor to be asked and I really enjoyed my time with so many chancellors and presidents. I was impressed with how tech savvy a group it was, and I noticed a large number of iPhones in the audience. Who knew CEOs were so hip?

If you are reading this because you were at the conference, welcome to my blog. The iPod Generation links are in the right column. Enjoy!

New Mexico

2009-04-12T19:02:00.001-07:00

Every year during spring break the high school youth group from my church heads off for a week of service and for the last five years I have had the great privilege to go with them. This year we went to a Navajo Indian reservation in New Mexico with 25 kids and 10 adults. It was a truly amazing week. One of the things I like best about it is I have to completely unplug from the grid. No Internet access for a full week is a great way to focus on the things that are truly important.

This year we ran into a long list of problems (engine blowing out in the box truck south of Barstow, temperatures in the 20s at night, one kid getting bit in the face by a pit bull, a sandstorm destroying our tents, etc.) It was very gratifying to see this group of young people respond to these problems with an amazing attitude and great flexibility. These problems could have beaten them down, but instead it brought the group closer together and they stayed focused on the reason they came - to serve other people.

We divided up into four work teams and my team went to the home of an older gentleman whose hot water heater burst on the same day he was at the hospital watching his wife of 35 years pass away. He didn't have the money to replace the floor so we did it for him. What a great sight it was to see a team of young people work so hard for this man they had never met before last week. One of the family members asked us where we were from, and when we told her she said, "Wow - I didn't expect you to be from Orange County. That's not the image I have of that place".

That's because she never met our youth group. They are an amazing group of young people and it was an honor to spend the week with them.

iPod Gen at the HSACCC conference.

2009-03-06T16:55:00.000-08:00

Today I gave my iPod Generation presentation at the Health Services Association California Community Colleges (HSACCC). The venue was the Mission Inn in Riverside, CA and it had to be one of the coolest hotels I have ever seen. The building was over 100 years old and the room we were in looked like an old chapel - complete with stained glass windows. I wasn't sure if I should do the presentation, or preach a sermon.

The group was composed primarily of Health Center Directors, RNs and psychologists. I really enjoyed the time with them - during the presentation and just chatting before and after. One of the things I really love about doing this presentation before such varied groups is to see higher education through so many different perspectives. One example: I suggested to them that they might want to create a Facebook account for their health centers and use it to promote their services to students. I was asked about liability issues if a suicidal student used Facebook to ask for help during off-hours and they didn't respond in time. That's the kind of scenario that I never have to think of as an IT geek (thankfully), but that's the world they live in every day.

Hopefully I left them with some things to think about - they certainly did so for me.

Microsoft Tag

2009-03-01T19:19:00.000-08:00

Both of my faithful DigitalEdu readers know that I'm always interested to see innovative new ideas when it comes to the computer/human interface. Microsoft has a new idea with something they are calling Microsoft Tag. They are trying to solve the big drawback in the new generation of mobile devices. Anyone who has used one knows how frustrating it can be to type on it because the keyboards are so small. I've got an iPhone and it can be a maddening experience to type on it. I'm getting better at it over time and I've learned to just keep on typing because their algorithm that filters out the typos is pretty darn good. Typing a URL won't work with that though, and one typo makes it a meaningless string of text.

Enter Microsoft Tag. It's a way to encode information in a graphic and it uses the camera on your cell phone to grab the image, send it to their server to decode, and then it triggers an action associated with your device. You can encode text, a URL, trigger a text message or a phone call. It requires that you preload their software on your phone, but that's a simple one-time process. I created the tag for this web site in about 5 minutes (pictured to the right). Go ahead and try it out and you'll be able to get all of the miniatured wonders of DigitalEdu on your phone without once touching the keyboard.

Obviously posting this on a web site doesn't make sense because you can just click on a link much easier. But picture a restaurant or store encoding the directions to their location in a print ad. Or having this on a business card so it automatically loads all of the information into your address book. Or having the graphic on a bus stop sign and it gives you real-time status of when the next bus will arrive.

I don't know if this will catch on but it's a real interesting idea.

Facebook Will Rot Your Brain

2009-02-23T18:33:00.000-08:00

Ran across an interesting article from a British web site with the rather provocative title "Social websites harm children's brains: Chilling warning to parents from top neuroscientist". You can read the full article here. Now I'm not a top neuroscientist so I can't judge the science, but based on what I read, it sounds like a lot of hooey (yes, that's a technical term). Here's a quote from the article:

Sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Bebo are said to shorten attention spans, encourage instant gratification and make young people more self-centred.

Hello? Since when have young people not had short attention spans, wanted instant gratification and been self-centered? Check out this quote:

The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they allow disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children now are tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.

That one is allegedly Plato quoting Socrates. We think we have it bad today - at least my teenagers don't "gobble up dainties" (I think).

My point is, let's not blame the technology for a problem that has existed for centuries. Every generation thinks the subsequent one is filled with losers. Socrates just didn't have the Internet around to take the blame for it.

Perspective

2009-02-21T17:53:00.000-08:00

The clip below I think provides some refreshing perspective on how spoiled technology has made us. Enjoy.

My Academic Plan Update

2009-02-18T21:31:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted anything recently about our My Academic Plan (MAP) project and there is a lot going on. First of all, a quick overview. MAP went online at the end of April 2007 and it has been used by over 17,000 students to create roughly 38,000 academic plans. It was the result of a concerted effort of our counselors, some students and a couple of very talented developers - Pratik Modi and Shaun Collett. I have never worked with a design team that was more dedicated to seeing a project succeed as this group. It really is a privilege to work with them.

MAP was awarded a 2007 Focus Award from our state chancellor's office and they also gave us a small grant to explore the feasibility of turning MAP into a system that could support other colleges. We are in the midst of that feasibility study right now and are having conversations with several software companies to find one that would be a good partner with us. We are presenting MAP at a number of conferences and we are in conversations with several colleges who are interested in purchasing it.

I love this project because from the very beginning the focus was on the students. We came up with a very student-centered design and all of this exciting work going on around it remains secondary to the fact that our students are being served. Very cool.

Siftables

2009-02-16T09:47:00.000-08:00

I'm fascinated by the human/computer interface and I love to see new and innovative ways to allow people to do their work (or play). Check out the video below - it's a demonstration by David Merrill, an MIT grad student, on a new type of interface using building blocks that recognize each other and adapt their behavior accordingly.

Did You Know 3.0

2008-12-14T15:32:00.000-08:00

The latest in the series of "Did You Know" videos is below. A lot of the material is recycled from past videos, but it's still a compelling illustration of how quickly things are changing in this world. Will those of us in higher education remain relevant? Only time will tell...

College Communication

2008-12-14T15:28:00.000-08:00

A nice post by Sarah Perez on the ReadWriteWeb blog about the way young people communicate today. Not a big surprise to anyone who has been following the trends to see that texting is the number one preference. I wonder how many colleges and universities utilize texting? We don't at SOCCCD yet - but we are looking into it.

iPod Gen at West LA

2008-11-21T18:44:00.000-08:00

Today I spoke at the leadership retreat for West LA College and had a great time. I did two sessions and was once again assigned the dreaded post-lunch position. Fortunately both groups were very attentive and responsive and I really enjoyed talking with them. At lunch I ran into a friend from Jr High who works there which made it even more fun. When I spoke at LA Pierce College, I ran into a friend from high school, so does this mean the next time I'm going to find someone from elementary school?

If you are reading this because of my (once again) shameless plug at the session today - welcome and don't forget to click refresh a few times.

A Humble Proposal to Save Democracy

2008-11-02T17:58:00.000-08:00

I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that democracy doesn’t work. I don’t know how anyone can view the current crop of leadership we have in Washington D.C. – in either party - and come to any other logical conclusion. What’s worse is that I’m not seeing a lot of hope on the horizon right now. Take this election (please). Do I vote for the tall, handsome smooth-talking inexperienced secret Muslim socialist who wants to give my money to people who didn’t earn it, or the old angry guy whose vice-presidential selection’s sole qualification appears to be the ability to field dress a moose on the Alaskan tundra? Now, you might think that I’ve taken a very complicated decision and overly simplified it, but I read all of that on the Internet, so I know it’s true.

I was trying to figure out why we keep getting stuck with such poor candidates to pick from, when it struck me. We are getting the exact leadership we deserve because we are a nation of predominantly stupid and/or ignorant people. Now you might object to this assertion for one of two reasons. First, you might yourself be a stupid and/or ignorant person (henceforth we shall refer to them (you) by the acronym SIP – I love acronyms –I’m a geek after all). Secondly, you might not be a SIP yourself, but you might object out of a misguided sense of compassion. If you doubt me, just take a look around the next time you are in line at the grocery store. Are these the people you want selecting the most powerful person on the planet?

The only possible explanation for the abject losers we have in leadership is that we have SIPs picking them. It explains a lot of other things also. Primetime television. Oprah. QVC. Commercials. Network news that reduces complex topics to sound bites. I gave up watching any news on television a long time ago because my brain got tired of filtering out all of the hype to try to get one small, golden juicy fact nugget. I turned it on the other day and couldn’t believe how much action was taking place on the screen. Headlines were flashing at the top, there were two different banners with scrolling text below, the corporate logo was spinning at random intervals and all of this was on a slowly morphing background. Good Lord - I got dizzy just trying to assimilate it all. Is this what they have done to keep people watching? And if this is what it takes, are the people picking our leaders qualified to do so?

A cold chill runs down my spine when I hear of yet another “Get Out the Vote” campaign. The problem is not that we have too few people voting. The problem is that we have far too many people voting. If someone has to be enticed to drag his lazy butt out of the Barcalounger to do something as critical as participate in democracy, maybe we don’t want him drooling in a voting booth, picking people whose name sounds familiar.

Fortunately, technology can save us from the SIPs, and it’s actually quite simple. Thanks to the infamous Florida chads, most voting in this country has now gone electronic. I propose that every citizen be required to take a short quiz before they vote. The questions will not be too difficult, but they will help determine if the person we are entrusting with selecting the future leadership of our country is paying enough attention – or has the raw brain power to form cohesive thought.

A bipartisan panel should select the questions to avoid rigging it toward one party, but here are a few of my suggestions:

1. Name two of the three branches of the federal government.

Republican and Democrat
Executive and Judicial
Agriculture and State
FBI and CIA

2. Name one Supreme Court Justice.

David Souter
Diana Ross
Greta Van Sustern
Judge Judi

3. How many times a week do you watch the Jerry Springer Show?

Every day
Once a week
Occasionally
Who’s Jerry Springer?

4. How many times a week do you watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart?

Every day
Once a week
Occasionally
Who’s Jon Stewart?

I’m sure we could get a panel to come up with ten good questions. If the person doesn’t get a decent score – say 6 of them right, then his vote doesn’t count. And this is what is beautiful about my proposal – we never reveal the score to the voters, and we always let them go through the motions of voting, even when we know their votes are going to be discarded. My experience is that a SIP rarely ever recognizes his own – shall we say - sippiness, so everyone gets that good feeling of participating in the process, without damaging the country with their ignorant decision-making.

Now at this point, you no doubt are thinking this is a brilliant idea (unless you’re a SIP) and could not get any better. Think again, my friend. I believe we should take it a step further and if someone gets an abysmally low score – say 3 or lower - then we not only don’t count his vote, we actually deduct one vote from the candidates he selected. We have now built in a disincentive for candidates to pander to the SIPs. They won’t want stupid or ignorant people to vote for them, so 30 second misleading commercials (such as “My opponent wants to raise your taxes to fund mandatory pornography classes for kindergartners”) will disappear overnight.

So, there it is – my humble proposal to save democracy. What do you think?

One of the Hurdles of Upgrading Technology

2008-10-25T13:06:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Google!

2008-09-27T17:48:00.000-07:00

I'm not alone in being a big admirer of Google. No company has had a bigger impact in how we acquire information and they have huge plans for the future. It's always exciting to see what new product they have coming out - like Chrome, their brand new web browser that I think is just their first step into taking over the desktop from Microsoft.

Google is celebrating their 10th anniversary and you can read this interactive timeline to see how much they have accomplished in ten short years. It will be interesting to see what they do over the next ten.

Citrus College

2008-09-26T13:14:00.001-07:00

I spoke yesterday afternoon and this morning at Citrus College in Glendora and it was great. They put me in a beautiful new building called the "Center for Innovation". What a great name for a building, and I certainly sensed a desire from their faculty to carry out that vision. We had a great discussion about how to use technology to more effectively reach our students, and I really appreciate their invitation to

Visual Computing

2008-08-30T10:01:00.000-07:00

I just read an interesting article about the NVision conference that happened this week in Silicon Valley. It focused on the changes that are happening in the computer industry that are putting more attention on a visual style interface. Here is a quote from Chris Malachowsky, a co-founder of a graphics card company:

"It used to be about the computing part, but the emphasis is shifting. It is not so much about the computation but how it is presented and seen by people."

At last! People are really starting to get it. We can create the greatest systems (or online courses) in the world, but if we make the interfaces difficult to use, then we won't be successful. It's not about the system, it's about how the system helps people. We won't help them if the system just gets in the way.

Check out the article - it reveals some fascinating trends

LA Pierce College

2008-08-30T05:47:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I spoke at the LA Pierce College Faculty Convocation and it was great. I always enjoy doing my "iPod Generation" speech because it's something I feel very passionate about, but this was even better than usual because I attended Pierce right out of high school (a very long time ago). Just walking around campus brought back a lot of great memories and I got some wonderful feedback from some of the people afterwards. Thanks Pierce College - for your kind hospitality yesterday and for getting me off to a great start in my career!

Yesterday

2008-08-22T20:47:00.000-07:00

(This week my family went through a major transition as my daughter moved away to college. I wrote the following in response to the strange set of emotions this event has elicited in me. I promise I'll get back to the kinds of postings you expect from an emotionless geek after this brief indulgence.)

It seems like just yesterday, my little girl was shyly hiding behind my legs any time a stranger was near… Today she is a beautiful, confident and fiercely independent young woman.

Yesterday we dropped her off at college and drove away without her… Today she is beginning a grand new adventure without us – as it should be.

Yesterday I knew this day would come… Today I wished it hadn’t - yet it also feels strangely right.

Yesterday when she was a baby she would fall asleep with her head resting on my chest… Today she sleeps on a pillow hundreds of miles away – so why does my chest feel so heavy?

Yesterday she thought everything I said was true… Today she argues with me about politics (or anything) – and holds her own.

Yesterday my son was tormented by his older sister… Today he thinks being tormented sounds pretty good.

Yesterday it was my job to protect and manage… Today it is to advise (when asked).

Yesterday my daughter begged us to leave the big city we stopped in during a vacation because the homeless people frightened her… Today she is living in that same city.

Yesterday she was my little girl… Today, she still is. And she will be tomorrow.

Yesterday when she was a toddler she came up to me and handed me a rock, explaining that it was because she loves me… Today she tells me the same thing through a text message (but I still have the rock).

Yesterday it was hard to remember what it was like before I was a Dad… Today I’m wondering how the time went by so quickly.

Yesterday I thought there was nothing more important than being a good Dad... Today I understand even more why that’s true.

Yesterday I wished I had spent more time with her… Today it’s too late.

So how are you going to spend your time today… so you don’t regret it tomorrow?

Geek Report at IVC Only

2008-08-15T15:01:00.001-07:00

For any Saddleback faculty reading this - I turned in my paperwork too late to get into the Fall in-service schedule at Saddleback. I'm trying to see if I might be able to set up another time later in the semester if there is enough interest.

I am doing my "Geek Report" at IVC on Monday, August 18th at 1:00 in A 207.

LA City College Student Services Retreat

2008-08-06T19:58:00.000-07:00

I spoke today at the LA City College student services retreat and it was a real treat. The organizing committee was very hospitable and the audience was great. Very attentive - I always seem to get the post-lunch time slot, yet they were right there with me. In talking with people before and after, I was struck once again by the dedication of people in student services in a community college. They have a very difficult job that has to be done with scarce resources, and I appreciated their passion in serving students in the best way possible.

If any of you from today are reading this post - thanks for the great experience. The links I mentioned are in the right column of this page. And thanks for atrtificially inflating my hit count as I requested. Please feel free to hit "refresh" on your browser a few times to make it look even better.

Unintended Consequences and Continuous Partial Attention

2008-07-29T11:12:00.000-07:00

Our state legislature here in California, in their infinite wisdom, recently enacted a law that makes it a crime to talk on a cell phone if you hold the phone in your hand, but not if you use some kind of hands-free device, like a bluetooth headset. This despite the fact that virtually every study on the subject came to the conclusion that it doesn't make you any safer to drive hands-free on the phone compared to holding the phone to your ear.

Politicians are never ones to let silly things like facts get in the way of passing legislation that attempts to modify the behavior of millions of people, so we are now dealing with the unintended consequences of their action. The first of which I noticed while in line at the Home Depot the other day. I was just about the only customer in the three lines around me that did not have a bluetooth device sticking out of his/her ear. Obviously people either forget that it's in there, or it's too inconvenient to remove and replace it every time you get in your car. I used to see this every once in a while, but now just about everyone I see looks like an extra from the latest Star Trek movie, blue light pulsing mysteriously in their ear as they communicate with their Romulan Overlord.

I am going to perform a public service right here on the virtual pages of Digital Edu for those of you who do not have a loved one who cares enough about you to tell you the unvarnished truth about your appearance. Ready? Here it is. If you walk around with one of those thingees sticking out of your ear, you look stupid. Really, really stupid. And it doesn't change that fact just because everyone around you has one also. The Borg may be taking over, but it can't make you look cool. Another more pleasant unintended consequence is that since I refuse to wear one, for the first time in my life, I'm the least geeky looking guy in the room. No small feat, that.

It also makes me wonder - when did we get to the point when we feel like we must be in constant communication with everyone else, at all times, and under any circumstances? When did it become a travesty to allow a phone call to go to voicemail? At work I rarely pick up my phone if I'm in the middle of something because I don't think the person calling me gets to decide what my highest priority is at that particular second. I can always call them back (or not). My family knows that if it's an emergency just immediately call back and I'll be sure and pick up.

One of the unintended consequences of this wonderful mobile communication technology is that we rarely have time any more when we are not plugged in to the ever increasing (and demanding) communication grid. At what point does the technology stop serving us and start ruling us? If we have a Pavlovian response to a ringing noise and stop whatever we are doing to answer the call, or return the text message, or reply to an IM, or pick up that email, do we really control our time? If we don't control our time, do we control ourselves?

I joke about it, but it is actually a serious problem that is starting to receive attention. Some are calling it "Continuous Partial Attention" or CPA. It describes that state we are in when we are continously interrupted to respond to an incoming message that demands our immediate attention. A recent study estimates it costs the US economy $650 billion dollars a year. An article in New Scientist magazine stated that overexposure to information lowers a person's IQ score in a manner similar to smoking marijuana.

So what do we do about it? Simple - unplug every once in a while. The world will continue to rotate on its axis if you don't answer that email right away. The person calling you to chat will still be your friend if you don't pick up. The text messages can wait. Unplug, relax and maybe even spend some time thinking and reflecting rather than constantly being on the hunt for new information.

Oh yeah, and also take that thing out of your ear. You look stupid.

New Virtual Spaces

2008-07-08T21:04:00.001-07:00

My apologies to both of my faithful readers of DigitalEdu for the long absence in blogging. Life just gets real busy at times, and something has to get tossed overboard. For me, it was blogging, but I'm hoping to get back into more regular postings. There is certainly plenty to blog about.

I've been following SecondLife for a couple of years now, and have been intrigued by the potential of a virtual world. Today I ran across two new virtual environments, both of which can be accessed from within your web browser. They do require that you install a plug-in, but that's easier than a complete program installation like SecondLife.

The first is called Vivaty and allows you to post items like pictures and YouTube videos in a virtual space. It appears on your Facebook page and your friends can dive into the virtual world to enjoy your information in a 3-D environment - as long as they are using IE on Windows, anyway. The second environment looks really promising, if for no other reason than it is from Google - my all time favorite software company. It's called Lively and it at least supports Firefox, but is also currently limited to Windows.

If you go to check them out, I suspect your first reaction might be a bit dissapointing. They seem rudimentary, the avatars look cartoonish, and the motion is a bit jerky. When I see something like this, I think back to the first time I used a web browser - Mosaic 1.0. There were very few web sites, they all had gray backgrounds with left-justified text which couldn't even wrap around images, and worst of all, they didn't contain useful information. The web became powerful because lots of really smart people turned it into the most powerful communication mechanism in human history.

I suspect that years from now we will be enjoying our fully immersive 3-D virtual worlds and we'll be looking back at these first steps with the same kind of wistful memory I have of Mosaic. All they need are some really smart people with the imagination and drive to make them into powerful and useful tools. Are you one of those people?

Geek Report

2008-04-25T07:34:00.000-07:00

I have been doing in-service presentations for the faculty at our two colleges for many years, and it has evolved into something called the Geek Report. I try to highlight technology trends that might be helpful to them, whether in their personal lives (such as GTD), or things that could help them in teaching (such as Second Life). Tom Weisrock, who does a fantastic job organizing the in-service week at Saddleback College, produced this graphic to advertise my session in the fall. I don't know what this says about me (or about how much free time Tom has), but I got a chuckle out of it. You can click on it to view Tom's handiwork in full detail.

It Takes a College

2008-04-12T20:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I spoke at our state student services conference in LA - "It Takes a College" - and did my iPod Generation speech. It was my first general session so it was a bit nerve-wracking facing such a large audience. I was the only thing standing between them and lunch so I was motivated to keep it lively. No one fell asleep (that I could see), so I think it went OK. Once again, it was a great crowd and I really appreciated the opportunity. It's a topic I really believe in and I hope I started some conversations that will continue on their campuses.

Two young ladies in a graduate program at UCLA spoke with me afterwards and posed a very interesting question regarding liability. If we start interfacing our systems with sites like Facebook or MySpace (which I think is a great idea), how do we ensure our institutions don't become liable for that content? If those students have items on their sites that are unseemly right next to information from our colleges, will that create an association in people's minds that will be unfavorable?

When the producer/consumer model of information is upended, it raises questions that don't necessarily have easy answers. We could just avoid it entirely and stick with our static (AKA boring) web sites that don't really serve students, but that certainly isn't appealing. We are at the beginning stages of an entirely new era of communication and the rules and policies haven't caught up yet.

Life 40 Years From Now

2008-03-26T09:53:00.000-07:00

Kurt Dowdle tipped me off to this fascinating article from Mechanics Illustrated magazine in 1968. It predicts what life will be like in 40 years. Read it and see if it accurately describes what your life is like now. This should give anyone pause who is making predictions today on how technology is going to alter our lives in the future.

Information Revolution

2008-03-24T16:19:00.000-07:00

Another great video from Mike Wesch of Kansas State University. This one is on the nature of information in a digital age. Enjoy!

Artificial Intelligence in Second Life

2008-03-20T09:36:00.001-07:00

There is a very interesting article about an avatar in Second Life that is not controlled by a human, but by software (thanks to Ted Leath for sending it to me). As the article points out, the future possibilities for this kind of system are endless - I think particularly in education.

Keep an Eye on This

2008-03-09T14:31:00.001-07:00

Robert Scoble is a technology blogger who I read on a regular basis. He wrote a post about some new technology that Microsoft previewed recently that actually made him cry. It's called World Wide Telescope and it sounds very exciting. It appears to be similar to Google Earth Sky View, but sounds like it is even better. This could be a great tool for teaching science and astronomy classes, and hopefully they'll make it available to the public soon. You can read more about it on their web site.

Expressing Ideas Through Images

2008-03-01T06:51:00.000-08:00

Christian Long, on his think:lab blog, directed me to see an amazing set of images produced by a photographer/artist named Chris Jordan. He transforms statistics into stunning images that are both beautiful and disturbing at the same time. He makes some fairly powerful statements about our consumer culture.

Check out Christian's article and then be sure and click on the link to the images themselves. It's worth your time.

ACCCA Conference

2008-02-21T19:15:00.000-08:00

Today I spoke at the ACCCA conference on the iPod Generation. My energy level was pretty low since I just got back from Mexico yesterday (see post below), but it was a very engaged audience so I got motivated pretty quickly and we had a great conversation. There were some really good questions and one person talked about how in her classes she has her students listen to her lectures prior to her class and then she uses all the class time for interactive activities. What an awesome idea! (If you are that person, please email me because I would love to ask you some more questions).

Mexico 2008

2008-02-21T18:58:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I returned from our youth group's annual house building trip to Mexico. I have written on this topic the last few years, so I won't go into all of the details (in the hopes that you will search the archives and read more). This year it was even more special because my son is now in high school so I had both my kids with me for the first time.

As in the past, it was an amazing and inspiring experience. I can't adequately describe how fulfilling it is to see young people so committed to changing the lives of people they have never met, and will never see again. They experienced 6 days of camping with no hot water, electricity, flush toilets or showers and experienced frigid temperatures at night. On top of that, they had to rise shortly after dawn, and work until dark to build a house in 4 days using only hand tools.

What an amazing group of young people! I'm honored to be associated with them.

India

2008-02-09T07:36:00.000-08:00

I returned two weeks ago from one of the most fascinating places I have ever visited. I spent a week in India along with three people from Neudesic - the company we are partnering with to create our new student system. Neudesic has an India branch and they are going to start developing parts of our new system. I was asked to join a team going there to bring the India team up to speed on the project. I jumped at the chance and it was a fascinating week.

India is such a study in contrasts. It has an intriguing mix of cultures - Hindu and Muslim, poor and rich, eastern and western. We drove every day from our nice hotel to a brand new office building, yet in-between we saw temporary shacks housing construction workers and cows wandering the streets. We spent most of our time in Hyderabad where the Neudesic India office is located, and it is a city that is rapidly growing. There was a high level of energy and everyone seemed to be on the move. Words cannot adequately describe the traffic and what it's like to ride in it. We had a local driver because driving in India is not for the faint of heart!

In the picture you can see the Neudesic India/SOCCCD team. I was really impressed with them and I look forward to seeing them contribute high quality work to our project.

Lifehacker on Jott

2008-01-11T21:36:00.000-08:00

Yesterday in my faculty in-service sessions I demonstrated a great service called Jott. Lifehacker has an article today that provides a really nice overview of Jott.

I discovered by reading this article, and checking the Jott web site, that this service uses a combination of software and humans to transcribe voice messages into text. I didn't know that any human intervention was involved. It does explain how amazingly accurate it is, but also makes me think back to some of the messages I have sent myself while testing it. Oops! I think I'll be a little more careful from now on. It is possible to set your account settings so no humans are involved. I may try that and see if the performance or accuracy changes.

In any case, it's a great service and I use it all the time when I think of something I need to remember and I'm not in a place where I can record it in my to-do list.

Using Technology to Get Things Done

2008-01-10T07:07:00.001-08:00

Today I'm doing a faculty in-service at each of our colleges on the Getting Things Done (GTD) productivity system by David Allen. I'm going to talk a little bit about the GTD principles and then demonstrate some technology tools that can be use to get yourself more organized and keep email from dominating your life. Links to all of the systems I mention are in the right column on this blog under "GTD Links".

A Great Deal

2007-12-27T16:51:00.000-08:00

Everything I know about the Internet, I must now admit, is due to Gabe and Max. Enjoy.

It's a Wonderful Internet

2007-12-26T18:43:00.000-08:00

Check out this clever site that illustrates how much life has changed with the Internet:

http://www.itsawonderfulinternet.com

CCCSFAAA Conference

2007-12-14T21:44:00.000-08:00

I spoke today at the CCCSFAAA Conference in San Francisco on the topic of Multi-Generational Learning. It was a great audience - very attentive, interested and engaged. If you are reading this blog because you were there and I (once again) shamelessly plugged it to artificially inflate my pathetic hit count - welcome! The links I mentioned are in the right column under the header "iPod Generation Links". You can find an older version of my slides by clicking on "Recent Presentations" in the "Other Links" section. I'll post my latest set of slides soon.

Blah

2007-12-10T14:16:00.001-08:00

Blah Blah Blah

Ralph Gaston

2007-11-18T06:53:00.000-08:00

I’m an orphan now. My Dad passed away on November 8th. It was not entirely unexpected - he was 84 and in declining health, but it was, and still is, a major blow to me. I’ve wanted to write about him for over a week, but am only now able to do so.

My Dad never did anything to make himself famous. He didn’t run for public office or break any world records or record music or act in movies. He was a pharmaceutical salesman. He was as solid as a rock. He worked for the same company for over 30 years, lived in the house I grew up in for 34 years and was married to my Mom for 51 years until her death in January 2002. He was a World War II veteran. He loved to hike and backpack and fish in the Sierras. He had a jeep that he used to take us on adventures out in the desert. He had a great sense of humor and loved to laugh and to make others laugh.

My Dad loved the holidays – Christmas most of all. Our house was always the most decorated one on the street with a life size nativity scene and Santa and elves off to the side. All of them lit up by floodlights. He loved “A Christmas Carol” and when my brothers and I were little we would turn out all the lights in the house except the ones on the Christmas tree. We would lay on the floor and fall asleep to his deep voice reading us that classic tale.

My Dad was a family man. We never once doubted that we were the most important part of his life. He would be the first to tell you his greatest accomplishment was raising his four boys. We were his life and his career never came before us.

I remember my Dad as a somewhat stoic Mid-Westerner - he wasn’t one to wear his emotions on his sleeve. I saw a deeper side of him later in life as we grew closer and as he came to need us for help and assistance, but it turns out that he was a far more emotional man than I ever knew. My brother Mike was going through some boxes to find pictures for his memorial service and came across a small notebook labeled “Tender Moments”. Today we would call it a journal. My Dad recorded times in his life that were particularly poignant, virtually all of them having to do with my brothers and me. It turns out that my Dad was a man of deep emotion and some of his writings border on poetry. It was a wonderful gift to find and it’s difficult to read without getting choked up.

My brother Mike read one of the notations at my Dad’s memorial service. It noted that my Mom asked my two older brothers what they would remember about their Dad if he died. Steve responded quickly, “Well, that he loved us”. My Dad wrote the following over 40 years ago, “How else could I possibly ask to be remembered by my sons”.

Rest in peace, Dad. It is exactly how we remember you.

Modern Education

2007-11-14T13:44:00.000-08:00

Another great video that presents the challenges facing us in education - and done in a very compelling style. Enjoy.

RSM/Coto Rotary

2007-10-31T17:25:00.000-07:00

This morning I gave my iPod Generation presentation to the Rancho Santa Margarita/Coto de Caza Rotary Club. It was really interesting to me to hear their reaction to it since I primarily give this presentation to educators. One audience member was a part-time professor, but the rest worked in the private sector yet they face all of the same challenges we do in education. We want to make our message relevant to a generation of students who think differently than we do.

I appreciated the chance to speak to a different group of people (and appreciated the great breakfast also).

Virtual World Interoperability

2007-10-12T08:09:00.000-07:00

More interesting news about virtual worlds in this CNET article. A very impressive group of companies are meeting and discussing the ability to transfer identities from one virtual world to another. This could be a very interesting development, particularly for students. It could wind up being similar in concept to an ePortfolio. A student's virtual identity could transfer across virtual worlds used by different educational institutions.

Virtual Worlds via Google

2007-10-09T20:53:00.000-07:00

Some very exciting news from an article on CNET today. Google is working with a virtual world developer called Multiverse Network to integrate Google tools with their environment. People will be able to use the Sketchup 3D modeling tool and imagery from Google Earth when they create locations in the Multiverse virtual world.

This could open up all kinds of great opportunities for educators. There is a very steep learning curve to create spaces in areas like Second Life. If Google can put some of their engineering expertise into the creation of tools that are easy to use then it will lower the threshold considerably and open virtual worlds to a much larger group of educators. Unleashing the creativity of teachers into amazing new technology like virtual worlds has enormous potential.

Did You Know 2.0

2007-09-21T11:51:00.001-07:00

Great video - a sequel to the original "Did You Know" video and well worth watching.

Google Earth and Law Enforcement

2007-09-14T15:39:00.001-07:00

More GE news! There is an interesting article on CNET about how law enforcement is using Google Earth in some interesting ways. The images are not timely enough for direct law enforcement, but police have used it to check the terrain around suspected marijuana fields and counties are using it to check for house expansions completed without a permit. This is one way to know when something is a truly transformational technology - people wind up using it in ways that no one could have predicted.

Google Earth in Education

2007-09-13T10:08:00.000-07:00

The Google Earth blog has a great article about the uses of Google Earth in education. GE is truly one of the greatest pieces of software ever written and if you are a teacher you should check out the article. It provides links to numerous resources you can use on a wide range of topics.

How to know if you have too much money

2007-09-07T07:44:00.001-07:00

If you can do something like this.

NSBA Study

2007-09-05T09:30:00.000-07:00

A very interesting study was released recently from the National School Boards Association called "Creating and Connecting". It deals with the use of social networking tools by teenagers. An amazing 96% of online teens report the use of social networking technology and 9-17 year-olds report spending almost as much time on those networks as they spend watching television. Over 40% post comments at least once a week and over 20% do so every day.

You can get the report here.

This is obviously a very engaging environment and one that I think could be leveraged in an educational setting. This week when I was speaking to a group of K-12 teachers I tried to demonstrate Facebook, yet I was blocked by their network access policies. I understand the concerns about the appropriate use of software while at school, but this seems to be a misguided policy, and several teachers in the audience expressed their frustration to me. They said at home they often come across great educational materials, only to discover that it's blocked when they try to use it in the classroom. How are we going to reach kids if we don't do so using tools that are effective?

Serrano and RSM Intermediate

2007-09-04T13:50:00.000-07:00

Today I gave my iPod Generation speech at Serrano and Rancho Santa Margarita Intermediate schools. They were both great audiences and I enjoyed it a lot. RSM was particularly interesting since both my kids went there. You can imagine how thrilled they were that their Dad was speaking to their former teachers (I could almost hear them cringing as I was speaking).

I need to clarify something for anyone reading this who has heard my presentation. I use my kids a lot in the speech to highlight the differences between my generation and theirs. I have some fun with it and I'm concerned that it might come across as me being critical of my kids - instead of poking fun at the differences (which is my intent). I am truly blessed with two remarkable young people and I am exceedingly proud of them and proud to be their Dad. I'm a very fortunate man for many reasons, chief among them being my kids.

Social Networking Site for Collegians

2007-08-30T14:20:00.001-07:00

CNET has an interesting article about the usage of social networking sites among college students and lists some sites that were new to me. Check it out.

Capo USD Adult Ed

2007-08-29T19:55:00.000-07:00

Today I did my "iPod Generation" presentation for the Capistrano Unified School District adult education teacher in-service. It was a really nice group. We were crammed into a hot stuffy room at the end of a long day, yet there was a lot of great energy there. Their facilities were not exactly state-of-the-art (adult ed tends to be at the end of the priority list in a K-12 district), yet their passion for their work was palpable. I was speaking to several of them beforehand and it was great to hear of their love for teaching. Most of them teach ESL students and many of the classes are focused on basic life skills. None of the people in that room are going to get rich doing what they do, but they do it because they love teaching. What an awesome profession!

Afterwards a high school computer instructor pointed out that while students today adapt to technology in ways that are amazing, often that knowledge is not very deep. They may think they know how to use MS Office, but they are still lining up columns by hitting the space bar. This is a great point and one that I am going to incorporate into future presentations. Just because they often learn technology faster than us old fogies, we can't assume that this generations of students is technically proficient. They still need solid technical education.

Jott

2007-08-16T19:37:00.000-07:00

I did an in-service presentation called "Geek Report" at each of our colleges this week and had a great time exploring geeky stuff with our faculty. I always appreciate their dedication to students and interest in learning new things.

I ran out of time at the Saddleback presentation and didn't get to mention one of the cool new services that I have been using a lot. You should check out Jott.com - it's an amazing service you can set up to transcribe voice messages into text and then have it sent out to email or a cell phone text message. I have reached that age where I forget things a lot and often remember them when I am driving home or somewhere where it's not convenient to write myself a note. I set up my email address on Jott and have their phone number on speed dial on my cell. I can make a quick call, say something like, "Don't forget to reschedule the design meeting on Thursday", and when I come into work the next day that message is in an email to me.

It's a great service, and for now it's free!

Steve Gaston

2007-08-14T07:38:00.000-07:00

Today I am going to attend the memorial service for my brother Steve. He died last week one day after his 55th birthday, finally felled by the cruel effects of the Parkinson’s disease he fought so long with an inspiring level of grace and dignity. I have three older brothers and it seems so strange now to think that there are only three “Gaston Boys” around instead of four. My brother Dave and I going to deliver parts of the eulogy and my brother Mike, who is a pastor, will officiate at the service. Steve was the quietest among us and today it’s our turn to turn the spotlight on him.

It’s an impossible task to adequately summarize the life of anyone in a few short words, but I feel compelled to give you a glimpse of my brother, despite the futile task of reducing his life to a brief posting in a seldom read blog.

His life was marked by a series of obstacles. He almost died at birth and had to grapple with a number of neurological and physical ailments his entire life. He did so with his usual manner – quietly and patiently chipping away at the problem until he had it solved. To give you a sense of how he approached these series of obstacles, let me tell you of a conversation we had when I first learned of his Parkinson’s diagnosis. I asked him how he was doing and he said, “Other than learning I have an incurable brain disease, I’m doing OK”. Only Steve could have said that without a trace of irony or sarcasm. He had a new problem to solve and he set about it without a complaint.

Steve was the most helpful person I have ever known and he was always the first person to volunteer and the last person to leave. He derived great joy from helping others and had no desire to receive recognition for this work. The only complaint I heard him make about his disease was how it kept him from helping people – he was the one who now needed assistance and it tore him up inside. If you could have seen his rapidly deteriorating physical condition the last few years, you would have been amazed that this was his primary concern.

I suppose some might say that he didn’t ultimately overcome this last obstacle of his life, but I would disagree. Parkinson’s may have gradually chipped away at his body, but it never robbed him of his dignity or reduced him to self-pity. He may have lost the battle, but he won the war. Because of his faith I believe he is truly in a better place today - standing tall and straight again after years of being trapped in an increasingly constrained shell of a body. He joins my Mom in heaven and I’m sure he immediately set about seeing if there was anyone that needed a helping hand.

CCULAA Conference

2007-07-23T19:14:00.000-07:00

I spoke today at the CCULAA Conference and gave my iPod Generation presentation. It was a great crowd - very engaged and active particularly since it was at 4:00 in the afternoon on a hot muggy day. I plugged my humble little blog, so if you are reading this as a result, welcome!

Internet Crash

2007-07-20T06:36:00.000-07:00

Some really startling news. Glad I had my blog backed up to a jump drive!

Keep it Simple

2007-07-15T16:52:00.000-07:00

Pictured to the right is the remote control for my DVD player at home. Why post such a fascinating image for my two faithful readers of DigitalEdu to peruse? It is a great illustration of something I've been thinking of a lot lately. Simplicity.

There are 41 buttons on the remote for my DVD player. We use it maybe once or twice a week and we use it to simply play movies. I need buttons to play, stop and pause. I have no idea what the other buttons are supposed to do and I don't have the time or inclination to find out. All I want to do is play movies. I have a button to "Prog" and another one to "A-B". Because there is so much clutter on the device, I rarely hit the right button the first time. It's not like I'm a Luddite - I love technology but I just don't want to change my behavior to match their device. I want their device to adapt to me. Why can't there just be one button? When the DVD isn't playing, the button would start, while it's running it will pause, while it's paused, it would stop. That way I only need to hit one button and the device will change the behavior based on my current context.

It's obvious to me why the device is like this - the engineers were too lazy to put more effort into the user interface and the project manager didn't view it as the end user - he/she viewed it like an engineer. Compare this kind of device with the iPhone. There's a good reason people become so fanatical over Apple products. Apple puts an enormous amount of work into the user interface (the iPhone has one button on the front and the software adapts to the current activity the person is performing). They make it simple, they make it elegant and they make it fun. I have recently started using a MacBook Pro after being away from a Mac for a long time and it is a beautiful machine to use.

I also know why more devices are not like the iPhone. It is a lot of work to make complex activities appear simple. That's true whether it's hardware, software, or a teacher trying to explain a complex problem to her students. Last Monday we went live with a new registration system and we spent a lot of time working on the interface and trying to make it as simple and straightforward as possible. We spent hours going over every form widget and every word to see if we could make it cleaner and simpler. We conducted numerous focus groups with students and staff to find out what was important, and what wasn't. So far, the results look encouraging, but we're keeping a close eye on the statistics to see if students are using it with more accuracy and getting through the process faster.

I would much rather have our systems look like the iPhone than my DVD remote. Keep it simple.

Microsoft Surface

2007-05-30T10:21:00.000-07:00

Microsoft announced today a remarkable new interface called Microsoft Surface. It is an entirely touch and gesture based interface and the demos look very impressive. Initially it will be out of the price range of your typical individual, but I'm sure that will come down over time.

At this point it's hard to tell if this is just marketing hype or a truly new innovation in computing. What always impresses me though is when systems adapt to the natural way that people behave. In the demo videos, people shrink and enlarge photographs by squeezing or spreading their fingers together. They download pictures by setting a camera on the surface, and the system automatically connects to the camera and "spreads" the pictures out for viewing.

It doesn't take much imagination to see how a system like this could be used effectively in education. Any time the interface doesn't get in the way, we have a much better opportunity for learning.

It looks very exciting and it's great to see something this innovative come from Microsoft. Check it out!

MAP Go-Live

2007-05-06T13:28:00.000-07:00

I want to apologize to both of my faithful DigitalEdu readers for the rather sparse blogging of late. Both my professional and personal lives have been incredibly busy lately and it's been tough to to find any time.

Got a few minutes right now and I'm very pleased to announce here that we went live with our "My Academic Plan" project on April 26th. I am very pleased with how it turned out. Our design team did an amazing job on this project, and I can't say enough about them. It was one of the best experiences I have ever had on a project. Their dedication to creating a truly great academic planning tool for our students was amazing. It was a long road, but I believe our students are going to benefit from all the hard work.

MAP is now available for all students through our new MySite 2.0 portal, and available to any staff member by request. If you are not in our district, I created a MAP Information Page that gives you some information which includes a demo login you can use to check it out.

One question any developer always asks is "If we build it, will they come?". No one wants to put a lot of work into a system and then find out that nobody really wants it. That was answered for me when I checked our stats for the first week. We had 840 plans created in the first week of availability, and we have yet to do any promotion. When you count the over 400 plans that were created during the focus groups, it means we are already above 1,200 plans. That is the part I love about my job. When we first made the link live I was watching the stats, seeing students using MAP for the first time and realizing that we were truly helping them make better decisions about their course selection. Very cool!

A Great Week

2007-04-15T18:18:00.000-07:00

I got back yesterday with my daughter from our annual trip to Mexico with the high school youth group from my church. This was my third year and each time it is different, and each time it has been an amazing experience. I am never more tired, dirty and fulfilled then during this week. We camp in an area provided by the sponsor - Amor Ministries - but have no running water, electricity, flush toilets or showers. You can imagine what it is like to take 27 middle class kids out of the South Orange County bubble and expose them to what life is like for a majority of the world. If you based your imagination on the image of teenagers on television then you would imagine a nightmare. It was anything but. Every year I am impressed by the quality of these young people. They spent the time digging trenches and leveling ground and sawing wood and hammering nails and mixing cement and framing walls and applying stucco and playing with the neighborhood kids. They did it all with very little complaining and with a sense of purpose that was admirable. It was truly an honor to be working alongside with them.

We have two major goals - one is to build a house in 4 days using nothing but hand tools. The other is to let the family know that God loves them and we are there to provide tangible evidence of that love. I can only imagine what goes through the mind of the family to see three vans pull up, a group of noisy, boisterous teenagers pour out, and in a few days, transform their life. I can't think of a better way to spend a week and coming back to my regular job seems so trivial in comparison.

Amazing Interface

2007-03-30T08:19:00.000-07:00

Rob Hartman, the Saddleback College Webmaster, sent me a link to the video below. It shows an interface of the future that is pretty amazing. Imagine how this could be used in the classroom.

http://www.fastcompany.com/video/player.html?bctid=422563006

Immersive Environments

2007-03-29T09:08:00.000-07:00

If you want to see what is happening with technology and young people today, then you should read this article that describes what MTV is doing with virtual worlds. I think there is a very exciting trend toward fully immersive environments and it's something that deserves the attention of those of us in higher education. There is a lot of potential here to create some very effective learning environments.

The other day I joined an interesting conference in Second Life. I listened to a live audio feed of an Educause conference that was taking place in Raleigh, North Carolina, but I listened to it while "sitting" in a virtual amphitheater in Second Life with about 20-30 other people, all represented by their avatars. The topic was Immersive Learning Environments so it was a very fitting way to listen in. Frankly, it was not very effective for a couple of reasons. The technology still has a ways to go - there was no live video (only rotating still pictures) and the audio kept dropping out. What was most irritating however was related to human nature (which unfortunately technology has yet to overcome). Just like in real world conferences, a lot of people arrived late, were disruptive, and kept asking stupid questions. I think the potential for creating a very compelling, interactive and immersive environment with this kind of technology is huge. I suppose it's inevitable that we'll have to let real people (with all of their annoying habits) use it.

Did You Know

2007-03-23T12:43:00.000-07:00

Interesting video from Karl Fisch:

Bringing People Together

2007-03-03T16:52:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while, something happens to people I know and love that puts life in perspective. This past week, Katie Holland, the 17 year old daughter of my good friend Dan Holland, was in a horrible accident while working on a horse ranch near their home in Montana. She lost her leg and is facing a long time of recovery - they have been told to expect a two month hospital stay. She was airlifted to a hospital in Seattle that has an excellent reputation for this kind of trauma. If you are the praying type, please pray for her and her entire family. As the parent of two kids, I can't imagine the ordeal this has been and they have a long road ahead of them.

A web site has been set up to keep people updated on her status:

www.caringbridge.org/visit/katieholland

It's a great example of how technology can be used effectively to bring people together during a time like this. The family doesn't have to relive the experience over and over again and get worn out by answering every call and email. Those of us who care about them can get the latest news on her status, and we get to read all of the wonderful comments that are being left by people all over the country.

Blackboard Scholar

2007-02-22T12:43:00.000-08:00

I attended a webinar today on a new product from Blackboard called Scholar. It looks pretty interesting, but I have mixed feelings about their approach. Scholar is a social bookmarking service that can be completely integrated with Blackboard. It has all the usual capabilities of posting bookmarks, tagging, searching, browser integration, etc. Very much like Del.icio.us - which is the service I use every day. Services like del.icio.us are wide open to any content, where Scholar is intended to aggregate links related to specific pre-defined disciplines. Instructors can utilize this source to research the best sites on the web for the topic they are teaching. They created some pretty nifty interfaces into the Blackboard system, both for producing and consuming the content. They made it very easy for an instructor to incorporate the information in their courses.

Sounds great so far, right? A large software company is paying attention to Web 2.0 and integrating a free service into their product. So why my mixed feelings? Scholar is free to consume for anyone, but to produce content you have to access it through a Blackboard server. You can't create an account on Scholar.com - it has to be done through a Blackboard building block.

Now, Blackboard can obviously do anything they want since they are writing the software, and they are making it available for anyone to search and read at no cost. However, they seem to be making a big deal about this as a service to the higher education community. I think it would be a much better service if they didn't constrain the producers to only their paying customers. There are other services out there like Harvard's H20 and University of Pennsylvania's Penntags that perform a similar service without the restriction. Given the major black eye Blackboard has received from their patent issue, it would seem that opening up Scholar to everyone would generate some goodwill from the higher ed community.

Connected Classroom

2007-02-16T08:14:00.000-08:00

Here is a really nice video clip that illustrates a lot of what I have been talking about in my iPod Generation talks. It's called Connected Classroom and I found it on the think:lab blog.

Teachers and Marketers

2007-02-12T12:30:00.000-08:00

Kathy Sierra has written a very interesting article about the role that teachers and marketers play in society, and what they can learn from each other. As usual from Kathy, it is provocative and interesting.

NOAA in Second Life

2007-02-10T15:50:00.000-08:00

I am growing increasingly intrigued by the possibilities of using Second Life in education. Just wish I had the time to play around with it more! Here is a nice video clip that illustrates how the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is using Second Life for educational purposes.

Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us

2007-02-07T21:08:00.000-08:00

Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University, has created a very interesting video that explains the evolution of the web and what Web 2.0 really is all about. Check it out:

Universities and the "Virtual Future"

2007-02-07T14:06:00.000-08:00

There is an interesting article on Cnet about the future of universities. I especially liked this quote from Charles Reed, the CSU chancellor, when talking about face-to-face versus the virtual world:

"It's not an either-or thing. We need the 'high touch,' but we need the high tech at the same time."

I think that is the right approach. Pure distance education is not for everyone, but a combination of face-to-face time augmented by a compelling, interactive virtual experience could be for just about everyone. The article also mentions some exciting developments in integrating virtual worlds like Second Life with course management systems.

iPod Generation (Reprise)

2007-02-07T11:41:00.000-08:00

I did my "iPod Generation" presentation for the Saddleback College High School Guidance Counselors Day today. It's been a while since I did that spiel and it was good to get the slides updated (they are posted under "Recent Presentations" in the right column). Once again I made a pathetic appeal for people to visit my blog, so if you are here because of it, welcome! I'm glad you have joined my two faithful readers and hopefully the server will handle the increased load.

It was a great audience and I got a very positive response. There were a few requests to come visit the high schools for staff development, which I would really enjoy. All of us in education owe it to our students to stay on top of technology trends so we can serve them better. I love being part of that conversation - it's one of the best parts of my job.

I'm also speaking at the IVC HS Counselor Day in March. I did the iPod Generation speech last year for them, so this year I'll be talking about Web 2.0 and doing a demonstration of our new MAP (My Academic Plan) system.

Yet Another Sign of the Impending Apocalypse

2007-01-30T17:38:00.000-08:00

Newsweek magazine has an article this week on the seemingly impossible merger of geek culture and hip-hop. It is known as Nerdcore and believe it or not has a growing list of "artists" (sarcastic use of quotes intentional) and followers. I'm sure that I'm just too old to understand the appeal of any variation of hip-hop. To me, it all sounds like semi-literate ramblings spoken to an annoying beat.

I particularly liked one quote in the article from Jason Tanz who has written a book on rap and white America:

"Nerdcore is expressing yourself and not apologizing for it. But they don't want to win over the streets - they're kind of scared of the streets."

I did a little bit of Googling to find some nerdcore lyrics and ran across this lovely little ditty from a rapper named MC Hawking. The title is UFT for the MC.

Trash Talk
Right now!
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.

Verse 1
I am a scientist.
I am a physicist.
I know what I want, and I know how to get it,
I want to unlock the universe.

Chorus
Yes, I want a unified field theory.
It's the only one for me.

Verse 2
A unified field theory,
it's coming some day wait and see.
A theory to combine electromagnetivity,
with the weak and strong forces and gravity.

Chorus
Yes, I want a unified field theory.
Not Newtonian gravity.

Verse 3
Einstein tried, but he couldn't see,
the random state of the galaxies.
But quantum theory will be key,
to a unified field theory.

Chorus
Yes, I want a unified field theory.
Not relativity.

Verse 4
Right now the best bet seems to be,
the work being done in M-Theory.
Time will tell but I guarantee,
they ain't gonna find it at MIT.

Chorus
The institute won't beat me.
Ain't gonna happen G.

Outro
Cause, I want a unified field theory.
Yes, I want a unified field theory.
You know what I mean?
Yes, I want a unified field theory.
And a Nobel prize for me.

O yeah!
Uhh!

Only in America!

Second Life

2007-01-14T19:53:00.000-08:00

There is a fascinating trend on the Internet that I have been wanting to post about for quite a while, but just haven't had the time. Some people believe that the next logical step for the web is to move from a two dimensional space using a book metaphor (i.e. web page) to a three dimensional space. One technology that might fulfill this prediction is something called a Multi User Virtual Environment (or MUVE for the acronym inclined). The most famous of these is called Second Life and it has been growing rapidly due to a lot of media attention recently. In a MUVE you are represented by an avatar, which you can usually customize to meet your particular whim.

I first started using Second Life about a year ago and, like many people, I quickly stopped because I didn't really see much use for it. The primary usage seemed to be for (how should I put this) non family-friendly activities. Evidently people think avatar-on-avatar action is kinda hot. I kept reading more about it, and a couple of months ago decided to give it another shot. It truly is a remarkable place since everything you see in this world is created by members of the community. A number of educators are starting to explore ways to use SL, and it's very exciting to see the level of creativity that is taking place. You can read more about the educational uses of SL on their education page. If you are interested I would recommend signing up for the email list that is on that page. It is very active and a lot of great ideas are being posted.

Be aware that there is a significant learning curve to using SL and you should not skip the orientation that is available the first time you sign on. It is run by a company called Linden Labs and they have had significant growing pains with the recent rapid growth. The site can be quite flaky at times so be patient if you want to learn how to use it.

I think this kind of site has enormous potential in education. It can make distance learning more personal and engaging (the average session time in SL is somewhere around 3 hours and it can be fairly addicting once you get started). The other day I was checking out the SDSU virtual campus that is in the picture and a person "walked" up to me and started chatting. She was a language instructor at a private school in Belgium and we "talked" for a while about how SL is being used in education. It was a pretty fascinating experience and was much more engaging than just a typical text-based chat. It is being used by professors at Harvard Law, SDSU, UC Davis, Ball State, Stanford, and many others. You can find a complete list here.

The Truth About Google Earth

2007-01-08T11:58:00.000-08:00

I always wondered how they did it - now we know...

Busy Week

2007-01-06T11:04:00.000-08:00

In-Service week is over and it was a busy time. I spoke at 6 sessions, talked about Web 2.0, My Academic Plan (MAP), MySite 2.0 and blogging. It was a great week and I had the chance to talk to a lot of instructors who are doing some very cool things. At least one person who attended my blogging session has now taken the plunge and created a blog - Kris Leppien-Christensen. Check out his blog.

Blog Listing

2006-12-31T13:40:00.000-08:00

I've added a new feature to DigitalEdu called "Edublogs I Read". It's a list of links to other blogs that deal with education and technology. One of the things I love about blogging is the rich resource it provides to people who are interested in learning. These are all blogs that I read on a regular basis and often learn a lot from them. Hope you enjoy them also. I'll update the list as I find new blogs worth reading.

Happy New Year!

Time Magazine Person of the Year

2006-12-18T15:16:00.000-08:00

Time magazine announced their annual "Person of the Year" and it's you. That's right. You are the person of the year. The cover on the physical magazine (yes - I don't just read blogs) even has a mirror on it so when you look at it you see yourself. Of course, if you are just reading blogs and not writing your own, then they are really talking about me and not you (so start writing!). To be factually accurate (a raison d’être* of DigitalEdu) it's not a mirror but a piece of reflective mylar that creates a rather disturbingly distorted image of one's face. Frankly, it's a bit of a hoot to see myself move from a pinhead (magazine in a convex shape) to a multi-headed monster (slightly concave).

The editors at Time have recognized the fairly dramatic change that has taken place on the Internet in the last couple of years as the web has shifted from a producer/consumer model of information flow to a more participatory architecture. It has been dubbed Web 2.0 and blogs, wikis and RSS are emerging from the geek ghetto into the mainstream of American culture. It is shifting the national dialogue away from the powerful elite toward - well - toward anyone who has an opinion and doesn't mind sharing it. Evidently, that is a whole lot of people. According to my favorite blog search/index site, Technorati, every day about 100,000 new blogs are created and 1.3 million new blog postings are created. That's a lot of dialogue.

The timing of this article in Time is perfect because in January I'm speaking during our faculty in-service on this very issue. I'm doing a presentation called "Geek Report: Web 2.0" at the Chancellor's In-Service session and then at each campus I'm doing a session called "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Blogging - But Were Afraid to Ask". I've been working on the presentations the last few days and I was beginning to worry that the topics might be a bit on the geeky side. Now, thanks to Time - I'm mainstream USA!

* Look it up

Edublog Awards

2006-12-17T19:19:00.000-08:00

I didn't realize it until recently, but someone is giving out awards for educational blogging. I think it's a bit odd to turn blogging into a competitive sport and would rather not participate in such an unsavory activity (in other words, I didn't win anything). You should be able to find some good information by visiting the winners.

I've been using the Google Reader site to keep track of blogs and it's amazing how quickly my list grows. I'm subscribed to over 70 blogs - about 11 of them are dedicated purely to educational technology. The Google Reader is a great service and makes it very easy to skim through articles until one catches my eye.

CASFAA Conference

2006-12-04T17:16:00.000-08:00

I gave my "iPod Generation" presentation at the CASFAA conference in Ontario today. It was a great group - very interested and engaged in what I had to say. I have been giving this presentation for about a year and a half now, and each time I always ask questions such as "How many people have an IM screen name?" or "How many people have used Wikipedia or Google Earth?". The largest percentage of people who would raise their hand before today was about 1/3 of the audience, but today I had half or more respond positively. I figure this is due to one of the following possible reasons:

The technology is working its way into the mainstream
This audience was younger and more open to trying new technology (hence the iPod Generation)
Financial Aid people are very hip

It was interesting to see the difference in population at this conference. I'm usually at technology conferences where you have a large gathering of people with (at best) rudimentary social skills. It was interesting to see a conference with "normal people" engaging in actual conversation instead of staring at their laptops. Interesting, but creepy nonetheless. It will be good to back among the geeks tomorrow.

Web 2.0 Awards

2006-12-04T09:26:00.000-08:00

David Barkol, one of our amazing Neudesic consultants, sent me a link to a site that lists Web 2.0 award winners. If you want to see the sites that are the very best of Web 2.0, check it out.

John Seely Brown on Web 2.0 and Education

2006-12-03T10:34:00.000-08:00

There is a nice article on the CNET web site that quotes John Seely Brown on how Web 2.0 technologies can impact education. The quote I liked the best:

Rather than treat pedagogy as the transfer of knowledge from teachers who are experts to students who are receptacles, educators should consider more hands-on and informal types of learning. These methods are closer to an apprenticeship, a farther-reaching, more multilayered approach than traditional formal education, he said.

Mohammed Aref

2006-12-03T10:04:00.000-08:00

There is an amazing article on the front page of the LA Times today regarding a teacher in Afghanistan by the name of Mohammed Aref. The Taliban have been making a resurgence in the area in which he was teaching, and he had been warned through a "night letter" attached to his house that he needed to stop teaching. He chose to ignore the warning and about two weeks later a man on a motorcycle drove into the schoolyard and fired six shots into the teacher from an AK47. The article stated:

Aref had no way to defend himself. His only weapons were his faith in knowledge, some tattered books and a piece of chalk. He died in the dirt in front of horrified pupils.

What an amazing man. He chose to place the education of children over his own life. The article went on to describe a number of other educators in the same life-threatening situation. One woman has taken to carrying a pistol with her at all times to defend herself.

It's interesting to me that those who want to impose tyranny on a population see education as a threat. If your ideas can not stand the test of critical thinking, and you cannot bring yourself to reexamine those ideas, then I suppose it makes sense (in a sick and twisted way) to eliminate those who would teach people to think.

Ultimately I think that is what education is all about. Not just teaching a set of facts to be memorized, but to train people to think critically and to challenge the ideas of the status quo. I'm proud to be working in an industry that has that as its "end product". Let's hope that people like Mohammed Aref are able to succeed and train children who can think for themselves.

Web 2.0 and Education

2006-12-02T11:20:00.000-08:00

There is a great article on the Educause web site regarding Web 2.0 and higher education. This is a topic that I've been thinking of a lot lately and plan on speaking about it during our in-service week in January.