What constitutes distance?

Here in Greeley, Colorado, we have some perspective on distances that are really different from those I grew up with in rural Maine. In Maine, it was a long way to Portland — a trip of some 30 miles. Here, Ft Collins is just down the street — a trip of almost 50 miles. Why?

Colorado has some other odd ideas. If you ask somebody in Greeley how far it is to Denver, the answer is, “Not that far.” But if you ask people in Denver how far it is to Greeley, the answer is, “Oh, that’s almost into Wyoming, isn’t it?” Boulder is a whole ‘nother issue — being as how Boulder is described as 25 square miles surrounded by Reality. You don’t so much travel to Boulder as become Boulder. But I digress.
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Posted in Technology | 16 Comments »

There is a method in my madness. The feed readers serve an important purpose in the course but I haven’t talked much about it yet.

At this point many of you have got to be thinking, “Why are we all over the map with these things?”

That’s easy. I need you to all try the various tools so you have a better depth of understanding for the tools and what they are before we get into more exotic notions. The best way is to use them.
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Posted in Technology | 12 Comments »

Yes. Jumping into this course can be overwhelming at first but treat it like eating an elephant. Just take one bite at a time.

One of the goals for this semester is to help you understand what distance education really is — not just what Blackboard is trying to sell or what “the literature” says about it — but what it really is. To do that, you’ll need to spend some time looking at a lot of different tools and environments. We’re starting out small (hard to believe) with the basic communications toolset.
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Posted in Technology | 14 Comments »

On Friday nights in the late 60’s and early 70’s — before Tom Cruise was out of grade school — millions of Americans tuned into the music of Lalo Schifrin and the episodes that usually started with the famous words, “Good morning, Mr. Phelps.” In the height of the Cold War, we were fascinated by the spy gadgetry and technological expertise — not to mention the weird plot twists. It was “The Sting” meets “James Bond” and fans loved it.
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Posted in Education | 2 Comments »