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.