I’ve said for a long time that the biggest problem with iTunes is that it really only plays nicely with iPods. I’m apparently not alone.
OSLO (Reuters) - A Norway consumer agency said it aims to take computer group Apple to court over what it calls unfair barriers to playing music from the iTunes music store on devices other than Apple's iPod.
The issue here is that iTunes is rapidly becoming a kind of dumbed down podcatcher for a lot of people who still fail to understand the power of RSS and their relationship to podcasting.
It doesn’t help that the alternatives are overly complicated and stupidly difficult to deal with.
When considering the role of teacher, don’t forget the idea that a teacher is often a designer. A couple of years ago in my very old blog, I wrote about communities and their relationship to the course and student.
This notion of community in online environments is one that’s near and dear to my heart — the whole notion that somebody sitting at a computer tied to a network with 200million people on it can be “isolated” is a fascinating construct. None of my non-academic friends around the world understand this notion any better than I do. But here’s Rob Wall talking about how it works in education.
When we were talking about exotic tools last week, I mentioned Twitter. Most of you said “Bleah.”
I (Jane Hart) am often asked for the names of (e-)learning professionals - from both education and corporate learning - as well as other related professionals to follow on Twitter.
I started this list with 101 names on it, now thanks to many people who have submitted recommendations, it has grown. If you know someone you think should be on the list, email me.
I’m not the only one who thinks Twitter may have potential. Here’s a list of people to follow. I’m not on it, but there are a lot of the people that I follow here, so I’m in good company.
Chemistry gives us two concepts for how to combine solids and liquids. A solution is when the particles of solid are dissolved by the liquid. A suspension is when the particles “float” in the liquid. Salt and sugar will dissolve in water, and once mixed, the combination is stable. The salt or sugar will not separate. It’s possible to mix sand and water to form a suspension, but over time, the sand will settle out unless more agitation is applied.
As we consider the combination of tools, content, and students, I think these mental models provide a metaphor to help us understand things like “text books” in a new light. A text combines words and pictures in a way that, ideally, creates a entity that’s different from words or pictures alone. Adding graphics to words creates a new thing — a kind of cognitive solution. Whether the solution is salty or sweet really depends on the precise nature of the words and pictures, but the point is that the text can’t be subdivided again without changing the nature of the product.
Classes are more like suspensions. We can add or subtract, modify and append, but the key to keeping the nature of the class consistent is the need to periodically apply agitation so that the components don’t settle out. I can add a text, subtract a chat, bring in outside speakers, and make almost any kind of change we could think of, and as long as I keep applying energy, the suspension will maintain integrity.
As you consider your tools and your class designs, remember that you need to know how the various tools work individually as a precursor to how they work together. Once you start combining them, the critical skill is knowing how they work together and what proportions meet your goals.
As I’m struggling with this laptop upgrade problem, it has reminded me of one important lesson. Blogging isn’t only about writing. It’s about reading as well. I’m reminded of this because my aggregator is only partially populated with subscriptions. As a result, I’m missing some of the more inspirational choices I normally pull from for these daily posts. Will Richardson over at Weblogg-ed talked about this a lot awhile back and it’s very true.
On one hand, I’ve been thinking I need to prune back some of the 500 subscriptions I normally have. That’s a lot of noise and many people do go thru a build and purge cycle with their ‘gators. Perhaps it’s time for my list to be cut down.
On the other hand, I usually group them by subject and “read-level” so that those blogs that are “must read” are at the top of a subject (like Education) and those that are “if I have time” are near the bottom. Carrying the extras doesn’t really hurt me because I’m pretty ruthless about “mark as read” and moving on. Having all that extra stuff to use means that I have a wider choice of material from which to pick when it comes time to write.
Something tells me that by the time I get this list rebuilt, it’s not going to be a lot shorter.
We often talk about global perspectives but, unless you’re really looking, you might not see them. The Learning 2.008 conference just wrapped up in Shanghai and Jeff Utecht has a nice little photo album and recap.
Learning 2.008: A moment. I think these pictures tell the story better than I can. I always have this weird feeling when the conference is over. Part of me is so relieved that it’s over and another part of me never wanted it to end. I was tired, running on pure adrenalin by the end of it but so excited to see educators learning together and from each other.
If you weren’t seeing this unfold on your aggregators, then you need to add a few people to your list.
A couple years ago - which is nearly a decade in Internet Years, the topic of technology integration was making the rounds. A colleague up in Canada had this to say about it almost two years ago today:
There are a couple of things you should note about this post.
Dean references another blogger (Jeff Utecht of the Thinking Stick) and adds his own take on it.
Dean is one of a collection of Canadian Edubloggers that is always pressing the envelope - not by pushing technology (altho he does) but by examining the practice in meaningful and metacognitive ways.
We still talk about “technology integration” even after all this time.
Ron made a comment about not knowing what Second Life is and noting that he just hadn’t had the time to check it out. Here’s a little video explanation of why the New Media Consortium thinks it’s important. The propaganda isn’t as interesting as the view of their campus. Yes, this is what it looks like in-world.
Designing a course is a bit like creating a recipe. The idea is to come up with the steps you need to end up with a desired outcome. You use a variety of tools and techniques, add in a collection of ingredients, and end up with a meal - sorta.
The problem is that while we approach teaching as if it were a recipe - use these ingredients in that proportion and the outcome is assured - the problem is that learning is too much like eating. Even if the cook does everything right, some meals just aren’t to everyone’s taste.
What are some strategies for dealing with that? How much “just hold your nose and eat it!” can a teacher get away with?
