Artificial Intelligence in Second Life

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's a Wonderful Internet

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

http://www.itsawonderfulinternet.com

CCCSFAAA Conference

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

Blah Blah Blah

Ralph Gaston

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

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

RSM/Coto Rotary

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

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

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

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

Google Earth and Law Enforcement

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

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

If you can do something like this.

NSBA Study

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Keep it Simple

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

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

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

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

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

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

Interesting video from Karl Fisch:

Bringing People Together

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

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

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

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

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

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"

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)

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

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

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

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

Busy Week

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

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

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

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

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:

1. The technology is working its way into the mainstream
2. This audience was younger and more open to trying new technology (hence the iPod Generation)
   
3. 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

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

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

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

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.

Progress!

I wanted to alert both of my faithful readers of DigitalEdu to some exciting news before it hits the media. People magazine this week lists the sexiest men alive and I moved up from 170,312,117th place to 170,312,116th! Fortunately for me, Milton Friedman recently passed away so it opened up a slot for me.

I can hardly wait for Wired magazine to come out with their "palest geek" issue. Keep your fingers crossed!

My Life (sigh...)

Agile Learning

We use an agile software development methodology called scrum in our IT department. Our consultants from Microsoft and Neudesic introduced it to us and I've become a big believer in it. I like it for a lot of reasons, but mostly for two:

1. Responsiveness to Users: Agile methodologies emphasize a quick turnaround between gathering requirements and getting a product in front of the users. I've found that there is nothing better than having a smart group of people beat up a prototype that we've worked on. Painful at times, but writing reams of documentation does not create good software. The only thing that creates good software is writing code while listening to the users.
   
2. Teamwork: The methodology uses a daily meeting - called the scrum - where each member of the team reports on what was accomplished yesterday, what he/she hopes to accomplish today, and if there is anything blocking progress. The meeting is limited to 15 minutes so it does not become a big time sink. It emphasizes teamwork and accountability and I've seen it in action now for about a year. It works great.

The idea behind most of the agile software development methodologies is that the traditional method (know as waterfall - see this site for a parody) was too rigid and doesn't model how the real world works.

Kathy Sierra, one of my favorite bloggers, has written a very thought provoking article where she mentions the need for Agile Learning. She points out that recent studies are showing that the skills that are taught in mathematics, science and engineering classes are not the skills that are needed in those occupations. It's good stuff and has provoked a flurry of comments. Check it out.

Web 2.0 Tools for Educators

Brian Benzinger on a blog called "Solution Watch" has written a 3-part series on Web 2.0 sites with potential use for educators. I haven't read the entire series yet, but so far it looks like a great summary - if nothing else just for the list. Check it out.

A Day Without the Internet

Scott Adams (author of the hilarious Dilbert comic strip) writes a funny, and at times very thoughtful, blog. He posted yesterday on what it was like without the Internet for a day. His reaction sounds very much like what mine would be (particularly when he talks about driving somewhere without checking it out first in Google Earth).

Scrybe

There is a very exciting product about to be released in a public beta. Currently you can only see it in a video, but it is already generating a lot of buzz. It is an online organizer (calendar, notes, task list, etc) and if the video is accurate, this is one of the most amazing web-based services I have seen. It is doing some things with AJAX that I have not seen anywhere else. Check it out.

The Zone of Mediocrity

Kathy Sierra has (yet another) great post on her "Creating Passionate Users" blog regarding the Zone of Mediocrity. A definite must-read for anyone tired of doing things the usual way.

Finally!

Whew! It took me years, but at last I finally found it.

Google Earth for Educators

There is a nice post on the Google Earth Blog regarding the use of this amazing software in education. I can't imagine teaching a class without it - I look for excuses to use it when I'm teaching the youth group at my church.

Student Collaboration

I went to a very interesting session today from the University of Pennsylvania. They created a social bookmarking system that allows students, faculty and librarians to tag, create and share content. It was modeled after del.icio.us and it was a great example of the use of Web 2.0 technology in education.

There are some other interesting sites emerging that enable student collaboration outside of the classroom. One is stu.dicio.us which allows students to post their class notes online, and uses a tagging mechanism to link notes from the same class. Another example is NoteMesh which uses a wiki to create a collaborative work space for students to share.

Educause Day 2

Today started with a fascinating keynote from Ray Kurzweil. This is one very smart fella. He started off by reciting the past predictions he has made that came true. It sounded a lot like ego to me, so I started to check out mentally, but I realized later that he was doing it to set the stage for some remarkable predictions he made later in the presentation. He spent considerable time going through a series of slides showing the exponential growth in computing power and a similar trend downward in cost. His basic premise is that we can predict the future because the trends are exponential and predictable. Here are a few of his predictions:

• Artificial red blood cells that will oxygenate your tissue so much more efficiently that you will be able to sit on the bottom of your pool for 4 hours
• Images will be sent directly to our retinas from eyeglasses and will provide a full virtual reality. Eventually neural implants will provide all of our senses with input, making the virtual world indistinguishable from the physical world.
• Computers will disappear as they are integrated into our clothing or eye glasses
• Full reverse engineering of the human brain
• Computers passing the Turing Test.
• Non biological intelligence
• Human life expectancy will accelerate rapidly in our lifetime - adding a year to the average life for each year of development after they completely decipher the human genome
• The Olympics will be cancelled because advances in biological sciences will make human bodies perform in ways we cannot even imagine now

He demonstrated a prototype of a phone that automatically translated spoken words from English to French and back. Two people speaking dissimilar languages could communicate over the phone with ease. He predicted this capability would become part of our cell phones within 10 years.

It was pretty amazing stuff and if he hadn't shown how good his track record is, I might dismiss it as science fiction. Very exciting stuff!

I went to a couple of other sessions on student-centered design and open source alternatives. Another good day, but it will be good to head home tomorrow.

Educause Day 1

I'm at the Educause conference and had a good day today. Here are the highlights:

Vinton Cerf gave the keynote speech and it was pretty interesting. His basic premise is that the term "computer science" is a misnomer because virtually none of the principles of science apply to software development. We can't predict how many bugs will be in software, how bad they will be, or how to effectively eliminate them from future code. He had a really good point, but didn't really offer a solution to it. He used the term "iPod Generation" which I have been using for a couple of years in various presentations. I thought about suing him for copyright infringement, but seeing that he invented the Internet, I thought I would cut him a little slack.

I went to a fascinating session on using gaming as an educational mechanism. The University of North Carolina at Greensboro created an economics course that is presented as a video game. The quality was amazing - it was exciting to see people in higher education doing something so innovative and responsive to this generation of students. This is something that Marc Prensky has been talking about for some time now.

I did a presentation on our new system - My Academic Plan (MAP). I had a good audience and had some very positive feedback. (And yes, I once again made a shameless plug for this blog, so if you are reading this as a result - welcome.)

The last session was a very thought provoking discussion of a growing movement in higher ed to create a next generation community source Student Services System (SSS). I loved their emphasis on service and the need to create a robust, extensible framework to offer high quality services to students. It gave me a lot to think about.

This was the best day I've had at a conference in a long time. Looking forward to tomorrow...

Mexico the Sequel

Back in April I posted about a trip to Mexico I took with the youth group from my church. Our students formed a real bond with Julio and Laura and their kids and our kids wanted to do even more for them. I figured over time the memory would fade and our students would move on to other ideas. I was wrong.

They raised $465 from the youth group and wanted to go back down to Mexico to buy the family a bed and anything else they needed. So on Saturday we headed south again and, once again, it was a wonderful experience. It turned out to be Julio's birthday so it was a great surprise for them to see us (we had no way to get hold of them ahead of time so just had to hope they would be home). We were able to buy them a bunk bed for the kids, a dresser for the whole family and bags of food. Laura and Julio cooked us a delicious meal and we got to sit in the house that we built - and that they turned into a home. It felt like a big family - American and Mexican.

I had a busy week last week and another one ahead of me so frankly I really didn't want to spend the whole day on the road, but I was so glad I did. It's such a great experience seeing a group of teenagers doing something so completely selfless. It did my heart good.

And, I got to be geeky also! When we go down to build houses, the logistics are handled by the people at Amor Ministries. This time we were on our own and had to find their house which is on a dirt road somewhere between Tecate and Tijuana. Fortunately I had marked the location of the house in my GPSr and used Google Earth to figure out which roads to take to get there. Then I found a great little program called GEtrax which allowed me to track our position in real time in Google Earth on my laptop (it used cached images since I had no Internet connection). It was great technology used for a great cause.

Emerging Technologies

I ran across an interesting article today on one of the tech sites. It is an interview with Jason Pontin from MIT on some of the emerging technologies that are not IT related. There is a lot of fascinating stuff going on out there - check it out.

Elgg.net

I ran across an interesting site: elgg.net. It bills itself as an "online social network for those interested in education, learning technology and new approaches to teaching and learning". Looks like it could be an interesting site - I've added it to my list of RSS feeds.

Geocaching

One of my hobbies that I have done for a while is geocaching. I mentioned this to some friends the other day, and I was surprised they had never heard of it, so I figured it was a subject worth a post.

Geocaching is basically a high-tech treasure hunt. People all over the world are hiding small waterproof containers and then posting the GPS coordinates on web sites like geocaching.com. You can go to the site, enter your zip code, and get a list of hidden caches near you. You will be amazed how many there are (right now there are 6,540 within a 50 mile radius of my house). Using a GPS receiver (can be purchased for about a 100 bucks) you can follow the coordinates and hunt for the hidden treasure. Most caches contain a log book to sign, and many have little trinkets that you can take - as long as you put something of yours in to replace it.

It was started in May 2000 by Dave Ulmer in Oregon and has spread rapidly - there are currently over 317,000 caches around the world. One of the things I like about it is that it helps me find interesting places that I probably would never have seen. Most caches are placed in a site that has some kind of intrinsic value. It might be a beautiful view, or a hidden stream, or historical interest, but there is usually something worthwhile about the location other than the hidden cache. It's a great combination of mystery, exercise and geekiness.

A lot more information can be found (as always) on the Wikipedia page.

Blackboard Patent

Blackboard was recently awarded a patent covering Learning Management Systems (LMS) and has launched their first lawsuit against Desire2Learn - one of their only existing commercial competitors (since they purchased WebCT last year - their only significant competitor).

I'm no patent lawyer, but this whole thing smells really bad to me. There is a big difference between a copyright which protects your intellectual property (the expression of an idea) and a patent - which can protect the idea itself. The academic community should be very concerned about this action which is obviously intended to stifle competition and will (in my opinion) ultimately stifle innovation.

I have been a Blackboard administrator since 1999. I first saw Blackboard at CAUSE98 in Seattle when they were one of the small startup companies with a very small booth in the back. Overall I have been pleased with their product - I think it does the job well and despite a few bumps along the way I have been satisfied with the service we have received from them. However I have not seen anything groundbreaking or innovative that warrants a patent that would prohibit others from using the same idea. Did they invent a discussion board? Or delivering files through the web? Or online tests?

It's a good product, and virtually everyone I have dealt with at Blackboard has been great, but I think they have made a big mistake with this action. The higher education community is not a typical business market and will not react the same. This looks like a decision made by a lawyer, not a technologist or academic. There was already a movement away from commercial LMS toward open source (Moodle and Sakai) and I think this is just going to accelerate that process.

The academic blogosphere is pretty active about this, and I haven't seen anything positive about it. You can see the latest here. The president of Educause sent out a letter yesterday on this topic - you can read it here.

Dropping Knowledge

I ran across an interesting site today called DroppingKnowledge.com. They are collecting questions from people all over the world and they are going to present the top 100 questions to a group of 112 people sitting around the world's largest table in Berlin on September 9th. I have a couple of reactions to this idea.:

1) The first is what an amazing tool the Internet is for such a project. Imagine attempting a feat like this just a short while ago before the Internet became ubiquitous. Now we can have people all over the world submit questions, edit them, vote on them and begin a global conversation that could become the genesis for a new age of cross cultural cooperation. This humble little effort just might usher in a new era of peaceful co-existence.

2) My second thought is what a total crock this whole thing is. Maybe I'm a bit cynical (you wouldn't be the first person to accuse me of it), but this looks to me like the world's largest committee. Ever been on a committee? Ever see anything worthwhile come out of a committee? I also can't help wonder about the political agenda of the organizers when I see that Cindy Sheehan is a participant. Is she really one of the 112 world's greatest thinkers, or does she represent a political philosophy that they want publicized? Hey - I'm just asking questions!

The group seems very heavily weighted toward writers, poets and artists. I have nothing against those vocations, but wouldn't it have made more sense to get people together who have actually solved problems instead of just asked the questions? I suspect this group would find any corporate executive suspect, but somebody who has actually met a payroll might have some insights into solving poverty. Of course, someone in that line of work might not be able to get the day off to sit around a big table solving the world's problems with DJ Spooky.

Here are a few of my favorite questions posed on the site so far (and no, I'm not making these up - typos were left intact):

• Do fish feel thirst?
• Why the Human Being is so stupid?
• What is the significance of pareidolia?
• Will managers with MBA's suck the soul out of business and society to the point where there is a revolt by worker and consumer?
• why?
• How long will the hype around this service last after the meeting has passed?
• why is it so hard and complicated to mentally handle a broken-up relationship?
• Who cares for growing and CONNECTING the tools and methods of collective intelligence and wisdom into a people-powered ecosystem of solutions, complex enough to match the complexity of our world problematique? (This is NOT a rhetorical question.)
• If trees spoke, would they tell us another history?
• Might the Q/A or Problem/Solution process divert us from seeking unifying synergy within our vast diversity of cognitive/affective competencies? Might we interact as if we have no adequate expertize, but have the potential to gain what we need?
• Do I have to patent myself or my dna genes, that noone takes my dna and clones me?
• how does sewage affect algae growth?

Well I'll overlook the insult of not being asked to sit at the table (the invitation is probably in the mail), but I will contribute my questions:

• Why does one sock always disappear in the laundry? Where are they?
• Why is "pair of pants" plural, but "bra" is singular?
• Why is there air?
• If a mute swears, does his mother wash his hands with soap?
• What's another word for synonym?
• If a man speaks in the forest and there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?
• What should you do when you see an endangered animal that is eating an endangered plant?

OK, OK, I didn't make all of them up. I found them on the Internet (most were attributed to George Carlin), but I still want to know the answers!

Oops!

This is one of those situations that is very funny - as long as it happens to someone else. A CNN anchor had her microphone on and was talking to someone in the bathroom. The sound feed was played live on top of a speech from George Bush. Fortunately for her, she said some very nice things about her husband, but unfortunately for family relations, she called her sister-in-law a "control freak". Thanksgiving dinner should be a fun time in that house this year.

You can watch the clip at YouTube.

Google vs. Microsoft Heating Up

Google just announced their first shot at taking on Microsoft Office. They are offering a free service designed for small and medium sized businesses to host email, chat, calendar and web page creation. Word processing and spreadsheets will be rolled in soon. This is going to be very interesting and I think is a harbinger of things to come. Instead of having huge, bloated programs installed on our PCs, I think we'll be consuming software as subscribed services. We'll only pay for the functions we use, and upgrades will be handled by the hosting service. Keep your eyes on this...

More details here.

50 Coolest Websites

Time magazine recently published a list of the 50 coolest web sites. Faithful readers of DigitalEdu (both of you) will be shocked to discover that we were not included in the list. Don't let this inexplicable oversight keep you from enjoying the list. It really is remarkable the level of innovation that is appearing on the web recently. I wish the academic community was at the forefront of it, but that is not the case.

Goggles

I'm a big fan of mapping technology and I think Google Maps is the best mapping web site and Google Earth is most likely the coolest program ever written - particularly for the price. In my in-service presentation last week I talked about mashups and how interesting it is to see people use technology in a way that the original producers never anticipated. Well, my son showed me a pretty cool site that uses the Google technology to create a rudimentary flight simulator. It's called Goggles - check it out!

In-Service Week

It's been a very busy week - I did presentations every day on various topics, and I thoroughly enjoyed (as always) talking to the faculty. There was a lot of interest in my sessions on the latest trends on the Internet. I plugged this blog at every session, so if any of you are reading this as a result, welcome! Please feel free to use the comments area to post any ideas you have about ways we can leverage technology in an academic setting.

User Generated Sites Among Fastest Growing

This isn't earth shattering news to anyone who is following developments on the web, but Nielsen/Net Ratings announced last week that half of the fastest growing web sites on the Internet are ones that are based on user developed content (like MySpace, YouTube and Flickr).

This is in-service week at our colleges and I'm doing a session called "Geek Report" where I'll be talking about the latest trends on the Internet. What I'm really interested in talking about is how we can harness this obvious desire for people (particularly teens) to be active participants on the web. I am going to pose that question to the attendees and I'll post any good ideas here later in the week.

Vacationing in the Digital Age

I'm back from two weeks in the mountains and it was a great experience. One of the weeks was spent in Mammoth - a place I went every year growing up. The picture you see here was taken at Crystal Lake which is a beautiful alpine lake I visited a number of times in the past. I discovered on the hike however that one of two things had happened since the last time I was in Mammoth:

1. The trail became about 40% steeper
2. I became old

Given how volatile the geology is in Mammoth, I'd like to think it's the former, but I suspect the latter is more likely. It's also the first time in a long time that I have hiked into the backcountry and I must say that technology has certainly improved. Having a GPS receiver was wonderful - it was great knowing I could wander off the trail a bit and not worry about finding my way back (a veritable digital trail of bread crumbs). I was surprised to discover I had cell service (shows you just how "back" in the backcountry I was), which came in handy because I had the lake all to myself and spent too much time reveling in the beauty of the place. I was able to call my wife and let her know that I was running late and not to worry.

This wonderful technology has a downside of course, which I discovered as I was packing. My checklist went something like this:

Laptop? Check.
Video games for family installed on laptop? Check.
Broadband wireless card? Check.
Power cord for Laptop? Check.
Cell phone? Check.
Cell phone charger cord? Check.
iPod? Check.
New songs downloaded for the trip? Check.
USB cable for iPod to re-charge from laptop? Check.
Cable to connect iPod to car stereo? Check.
GPS Receiver? Check.
Extra Batteries for GPSr? Check.
Route programmed into GPSr? Check.
Alternate route programmed into GPSr? Check.
Take a virtual tour of route using Google Earth? Check.
Program interesting side trips found using Google Earth into GPSr? Check.

You get the idea - looks like a trip into the land of the perennially Anal Retentive Geeks (imagine what my wife has to deal with). I did manage to avoid checking my work email the entire time however, so I'll consider myself relatively normal (and my family enjoyed the video games).

In Memory of Joan Anderson

On Saturday I went to the memorial service for a dear friend - Joan Anderson. Her husband Matt is one of my best friends and we have been praying for Joan for 9 years as she battled two rounds of breast cancer. She is the one in the white shirt in the picture - even when she was dealing with the horrible side effects of chemo she would often join a group of us who play volleyball on Sunday afternoons.

It was a remarkable service as our church was packed with about 600 people who came to celebrate the life of this extraordinary woman. Matt and their three kids spoke at the service and they were unbelievably eloquent. Matt told us that in the 9 years she fought the cancer, he never once heard her complain - not once. Her son told us that the cancer did not beat his Mom because she never let it stop her from doing the things in life that she wanted to do. One of her daughters spoke movingly of her Mom's amazing optimism and the smile that was constantly on her lips. She encouraged us to "pay it forward" by treating people more kindly, by smiling at people who need to see a smile, by focusing on others instead of ourselves. These were all constant traits of Joan - despite the horrendous struggle she faced every day. They told us of her love of dance and how on her last day she came downstairs while her son was playing the guitar and she somehow managed to do some dance steps even while she was hooked up to oxygen and her life on this earth was fading.

I have known some amazing people in my life, and I am blessed with some remarkable friends, but I have never known anyone quite like Joan. The world is a darker place today because of Joan's absence, but I know heaven is a brighter place as she dances with the Lord she loved so much.

The world needs more people like Joan and I hope that her example will lead many of us at that service to be more like her. A little less self-centered, a little more loving, a little more caring, a little more dedicated to being positive and optimistic. Maybe, just maybe, if enough of us act more like Joan, we can help make up for the void that her absence has created in the lives of all of us who knew her. Maybe...

Design Definition

I was reading Guy Kawasaki's blog yesterday and came across this definition of design from a blog called Design Matters: "Design consists of creating things for clients who may not know what they want, until they see what you've done, then they know exactly what they want, but it's not what you did."

I love the design process and that statement has got to be the most concise and clear definition I have ever heard. It's also very helpful because if we take it to heart, it helps get the designer's ego out of the way. We are going through a user interface redesign right now on a project we have been working on for some time. We went over the interface over a period of months in our design team sessions and we thought we had it nailed - until we actually got it into the hands of the people who were going to use it. Then they told us it was all wrong, even though they were all on the design team that created it! It was tempting to say "too bad" and get them to use it anyway, but instead we are completely redesigning the UI.

It's easy to get frustrated over a situation like this, but this definition of design helps put it in perspective. Most people can't describe what they want, but they know what they don't want - once they see it.

UPDATE: I heard from a member of the design team on the project I reference in this post and he took exception to what I wrote here. He thought I was criticizing the team so let me clarify. Virtually every project I have ever worked on has had the same experience. Software developers do not think like "normal" people. We approach the user interface in a different way so I have found that when we build it in a way that makes sense to us, it often doesn't work for our users. Even when we get the users heavily involved in the design process, until they actually get their hands on it their feedback is not that useful. We had a lot of input on the design of this system, but it was all from demonstrations where I controlled the mouse and I knew exactly where to click (and not to click). As soon as they used it themselves, they told me it was not going to work.

That's why I loved the definition of design that is the subject of this post. It reminded me of why it's so important to not only get lots of feedback during the design, but to get a working prototype into the hands of users as soon as possible. The design team I'm working with on this project is the best I've experienced in 20 years of building software and we are producing an amazing system that is going to be an incredible service to our students.

(OK, I'll stop sucking up now and hopefully I won't get beat up at our next design meeting.)