We went, and we walked through a lot of orange gates. If you went to see "it" then you were disappointed -- after you saw one gate, you saw them all. But that wasn't it. The "it" wasn't to see, the "it" was to be there and experience it. The day, the snow, the people, the park, the experience -- that was worth going for.
2/28/2005
2/27/2005
Digital Gen Gap
I love trolling the sales aisles in bookstores, and often end up buying something even when I have way too many books on my "to read" shelf at home. I can't pass up a bargain, and even more so I can't pass up a great find.
A couple of weeks ago, in the sale aisle at Barnes & Noble, I discovered The Connected Family: bridging the digital generation gap by Seymour Papert for half price. It was right next to The History of Embalming, which is actually what caught my eye at first -- but I wasn't even tempted to crack the binding on that. However The Connected Family looked right up my alley, and the price was right, so I couldn't pass it up.
The book was published in 1996, which in computer terms seems like a million years ago. But the discussion is really as relevant now as it was then. In the book he starts by discussing how kids today relate to technology, and then goes on to counsel us parents on how to help nuture and participate in the act of discovery through technology. That part felt a little dated to me. But in the second part he start discussion use of the LOGO programming language, which he developed. And through this how empowering computers could be when kids where given suitable tools to create their own computer projects. He gives examples of both student multimedia projects and using LOGO to create games. His idea is to allow experimentation and progressive building, sort of like building something with Legos. You start with a pile of possibilities and just put things together, maybe pull a few off and reposition them, and generally mess around until you end up with some cool creation. He talks about social toys, that in a computer setting allow kids to create their own characters that interact in their own world.
In schools he is stronly advocating one computer per student -- which in 1996 was a little radical. But then he'd been pushing this point since the 1960's, and it seems he played a strong role in helping Maine launch its one-one middle school computer initiative.
The book jacket lists Seymor as holding the Lego Chair for Learning Research at MIT. A search at MIT shows him still listed on the MIT Media Lab faculty list, and affiliated with the Future of Learning Group. His long career seems to be characterized by forward thinking, and pushing for innovation in the field of education.
A couple of weeks ago, in the sale aisle at Barnes & Noble, I discovered The Connected Family: bridging the digital generation gap by Seymour Papert for half price. It was right next to The History of Embalming, which is actually what caught my eye at first -- but I wasn't even tempted to crack the binding on that. However The Connected Family looked right up my alley, and the price was right, so I couldn't pass it up.
The book was published in 1996, which in computer terms seems like a million years ago. But the discussion is really as relevant now as it was then. In the book he starts by discussing how kids today relate to technology, and then goes on to counsel us parents on how to help nuture and participate in the act of discovery through technology. That part felt a little dated to me. But in the second part he start discussion use of the LOGO programming language, which he developed. And through this how empowering computers could be when kids where given suitable tools to create their own computer projects. He gives examples of both student multimedia projects and using LOGO to create games. His idea is to allow experimentation and progressive building, sort of like building something with Legos. You start with a pile of possibilities and just put things together, maybe pull a few off and reposition them, and generally mess around until you end up with some cool creation. He talks about social toys, that in a computer setting allow kids to create their own characters that interact in their own world.
In schools he is stronly advocating one computer per student -- which in 1996 was a little radical. But then he'd been pushing this point since the 1960's, and it seems he played a strong role in helping Maine launch its one-one middle school computer initiative.
The book jacket lists Seymor as holding the Lego Chair for Learning Research at MIT. A search at MIT shows him still listed on the MIT Media Lab faculty list, and affiliated with the Future of Learning Group. His long career seems to be characterized by forward thinking, and pushing for innovation in the field of education.
2/26/2005
Would the Beatles Really Mind?
The Grey Album, takes Jay-Z's Black Album and remizes it using bits 'n pieces of the Beatles White Album. And copyright holder to the White Album, EMI, has issued a cease and desist order to DJ Danger Mouse, creater of this mixed up concept. Somehow EMI's position struck me as a little unfair, and I decided to locate a copy of the album and check it out for myself. It seems EMI has been shutting down distributors of the album, but they keep cropping up. In fact there was a mass protest on February 24, with hundreds of sites posting a copy of the album for free download.
And after listening to the album I don't get what EMI is miffed about! There are certainly background bits recognizable as coming from the Beatles, but its just that -- chopped up samples. What really comes across is Jay-Z's raps. Now in fact the album is not my cup of tea BUT it seems to me that EMI is really crossing the line here. This is not a stealing of the Beatles songs, it taking elements of them and making something completely new. That's the creative process, and DJ Danger Mouse seems to be the one who needs protection in this case.
2/23/2005
My new girl friend
We found Ethan's camera and the photos from our January trip up to Vermont. A fun filled weekend of skiing at Killington and a very happy hour (or two) at Long Trail Brewery. Take a look
2/22/2005
10x10 view of the news
10x10 view of the news
In "A Fluid Look at the News" Wired highlights the work of Jonathan Harris on the 10 x 10 site. The site offers a visual view of the hour's news, with images drawn from news stories and linked to the stories. Its hard to describe exactly how it all works -- you just need to go there and check it out for yourself. Jonathan describes it as "Every hour, 10x10 collects the 100 words and pictures that matter most on a global scale, and presents them as a single image, taken to encapsulate that moment in time." His work looks great, and he is now on my radar screen for further investigation. Text is OK, but a visual imagery is a powerful way to represent vast amounts on information in a context that allows the human reader to quickly process it.
I like 10 x 10, but it is not my favorite news aggregator. Take a look at this site. It is all text, but with the boxes, colors and other visual cues it provides a lot of information on the hour's news. Check out the views for other countries, which offers a great view of how they view the news too.
2/21/2005
Fluent with IT
Being Fluent with Information Technology (1999), Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, National Research Council. The report is available on line at http://books.nap.edu/books/030906399X/html/index.html .
The study responds to the question of why the FITness concept is important in a contemporary education. The prevelance of computer hardware and software in our daily lives is a fairly recent event. As of 2005 the personal computer has only been in wide use for some 20 years, and the internet for 10 years. Many people using technology struggle to make them work, and there is a widespread feeling that users would like to feel a greater sense of control with their technologies. Computer technology, when used properly, has been demonstrated to produce great benefits in productivity and effectiveness. And people are generally curious about computer technologies, and interested in learning more about the subject.
2/17/2005
Digital Worlds
A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace:
John Perry Barlow, Electronic Freedom Foundation, February 1996
I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind.
We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere
may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular,
without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity.
Cory Ondrejka, creator of the online world Second Life, has a talk on IT Conversations that I was listening in the car today. Actually the talk was so good I listened to it a second time while at the gym. The thing that struck me was the idea that it is now possible to create compelling digitals worlds where people can easily interact with the environment with other people. These worlds can be complex and self-organizing. When the participants in these spaces are given the proper tools they often work actively to build new objects and experiences for themselves and their fellow inhabitants. The worlds he is describing may often end up in the "game" category, but they are far more than mere games. They are complex systems with social structures, economies, and other elements of real-world human interaction.
I have yet to see any "learning system" that spontaneously invites this type of active participation -- maybe we are using the wrong models?
John Perry Barlow, Electronic Freedom Foundation, February 1996
We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere
may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular,
without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity.
Cory Ondrejka, creator of the online world Second Life, has a talk on IT Conversations that I was listening in the car today. Actually the talk was so good I listened to it a second time while at the gym. The thing that struck me was the idea that it is now possible to create compelling digitals worlds where people can easily interact with the environment with other people. These worlds can be complex and self-organizing. When the participants in these spaces are given the proper tools they often work actively to build new objects and experiences for themselves and their fellow inhabitants. The worlds he is describing may often end up in the "game" category, but they are far more than mere games. They are complex systems with social structures, economies, and other elements of real-world human interaction.
I have yet to see any "learning system" that spontaneously invites this type of active participation -- maybe we are using the wrong models?
2/16/2005
The Read/Write Web at Weblogg-ed
Will Richardson's blog, Weblogg-ed is always interesting, and has led me to a lot of really great resources. His post today, Weblogg-ed - The Read/Write Web in the Classroom :, is worth a read. I like the thought that the power of the read/write web helps pressure a transformation in education from the outside. And I don't agree that "the man" will shut it down if "they" feel too threatened. But you can judge for yourself.
flickrGraph
My own flickr site is languishing somewhat. Ethan's camera has gone missing, along with a crop of great ski pictures and my good memory card. But my friend Andy was showing off his new Canon Elph a couple of weeks ago and its pretty sweet -- maybe when I get the tax refund...
I don't know what this site is good for, but whatever it is, its really cool. Maybe, for instance, if you had a big class photo blogging architectural examples. If they cross linked to similar examples on their classmate's pages the resulting map might offer an interesting way to navigate the site. Just one idea.
I often point people to the Newsmap (by the same group) which is a really useful way to see the days hot news. It seems to me that there has got to be more visual ways to help provide a context for digital information, and help us poor overloaded souls make sense of it. I don't know if either example here is "it", but they are certainly very good trys.
I don't know what this site is good for, but whatever it is, its really cool. Maybe, for instance, if you had a big class photo blogging architectural examples. If they cross linked to similar examples on their classmate's pages the resulting map might offer an interesting way to navigate the site. Just one idea.
I often point people to the Newsmap (by the same group) which is a really useful way to see the days hot news. It seems to me that there has got to be more visual ways to help provide a context for digital information, and help us poor overloaded souls make sense of it. I don't know if either example here is "it", but they are certainly very good trys.
2/13/2005
LMS and Games
When developing Learning Management Systems, ePortfolio systems and other educational learning environments we need to stop thinking of them as software projects. What we need to do it take a page from the game development world. Learning systems should:
- Provide a sense of "place"
- Provide enough challenge to be engaging but not frustrating
- Offer a flexible, user defined space
- Allow social collaboration
- Give connection and access to other learners
- Reward for success but a low penalty for failure
- Feedback that immediately defines success and failure
- Encourage experimentation
- Sequential experience (a storyline)
- Quick access to supporting resources
- An engaging experience
- Distribution to a wide variety of devices
National Education Technology Plan
I have been reading the recently released National Education Technology Plan. It is quite well written, and anyone who has kids in public school, and/or cares about education in our country should take time to read it. The official title is Toward A New Golden Age In American Education, HOW THE INTERNET, THE LAW AND TODAY’S STUDENTS ARE REVOLUTIONIZING EXPECTATIONS. The plan does take every opportunity to herald the benefits of the NLCB legislation, and credit it as the driver behind almost any and every educational success in the last couple of years. But given that Congress is the intended audience for the plan, this can be forgiven.
There report offers some real promise for the desires of the current group of students, or the "millennials." 96% say doing well in school is important to them, 94% plan to continue education after high school, and 88% say going to college is critical. The problem is apparent when you compare this to the 12th grade proficiency ratings in math and science, which are below 30%. Obviously something is broken and needs fixing.
The plan provides some specific examples of successes with technology, highlights the importance of 1 - 1 student to computer ratios, and emphasizes the importance of teacher training. I'd expand that to teacher and administrator technology training. And that training needs to be done utilizing technology.
The need for some revolution in how we design and deliver education to our students is clear. But what we need to do is not think that simply pasting technology into existing educational structures will have the desired effect. Unless our teachers jump into the technology waters, and learn how to swim themselves, they will never be able to serve a leaders for this millennial generation.
There report offers some real promise for the desires of the current group of students, or the "millennials." 96% say doing well in school is important to them, 94% plan to continue education after high school, and 88% say going to college is critical. The problem is apparent when you compare this to the 12th grade proficiency ratings in math and science, which are below 30%. Obviously something is broken and needs fixing.
The plan provides some specific examples of successes with technology, highlights the importance of 1 - 1 student to computer ratios, and emphasizes the importance of teacher training. I'd expand that to teacher and administrator technology training. And that training needs to be done utilizing technology.
The need for some revolution in how we design and deliver education to our students is clear. But what we need to do is not think that simply pasting technology into existing educational structures will have the desired effect. Unless our teachers jump into the technology waters, and learn how to swim themselves, they will never be able to serve a leaders for this millennial generation.
2/10/2005
Games and Learning
According to an article in today's (2/10) New York Times Circuits, on an average day over 200,000 people are playing in the on line World of War craft. And these are players over 13 -- maybe not adults, but not 7 year olds either. My 13 year old son is regularly playing in the on line version of Halo 2. And through the headset system he can talk to, and hear the other players talking. He's played with people from China, Texas, Ireland, Iran, but the English are his favorites -- loves the accent. Other on line games, such as the SIMS, have their own followings with hundreds of thousands of players.
The SIMS are going to college, but is college going to the SIMS? It seems that the role of games and game environments is something we'll need to deal with in higher ed over the next 10 years.
We are certainly moving towards a teaching environment that is much more heavily technology dependent. In another article in yesterday's Times (2/9), on the front page, they told to story of a high school in Branson, Colorado, a town of just 77 people, who now have over 1,000 student registered in their online school. The state pays them almost $6 million a year for educating these students. There are many similar example around the country of the popularity of online learning opportunities.
There is a great presentation from IT Conversations on the role of games in education. The speakers are Jaron Lanier is the Founder of VPL Research and Advisor to the National Tele-Immersion Initiative and Will Wright a Co-Founder of Maxis; and Creator of Sim City. Actually the title of the talk is Interface, or something like that. But they raise a lot of good point about game play and its role in education. For instance they introduce the idea that experiencing a virtual world makes you hungrier for real-world experiences. As complex as they are getting, virtual worlds are still a poor imitation of reality. But they also offer a safe environment, where failure have little actual consequence, to experience and explore new ideas.
I don't think games or a game environment will take over online education. But as we move in this direction we need to work towards understanding how games work, and how they can be added to our "tool box" of resources that make up the overall virtual classroom.
Some other resources:
Gamasutra
Serious Games Summit
GameMaker
The SIMS are going to college, but is college going to the SIMS? It seems that the role of games and game environments is something we'll need to deal with in higher ed over the next 10 years.
We are certainly moving towards a teaching environment that is much more heavily technology dependent. In another article in yesterday's Times (2/9), on the front page, they told to story of a high school in Branson, Colorado, a town of just 77 people, who now have over 1,000 student registered in their online school. The state pays them almost $6 million a year for educating these students. There are many similar example around the country of the popularity of online learning opportunities.
There is a great presentation from IT Conversations on the role of games in education. The speakers are Jaron Lanier is the Founder of VPL Research and Advisor to the National Tele-Immersion Initiative and Will Wright a Co-Founder of Maxis; and Creator of Sim City. Actually the title of the talk is Interface, or something like that. But they raise a lot of good point about game play and its role in education. For instance they introduce the idea that experiencing a virtual world makes you hungrier for real-world experiences. As complex as they are getting, virtual worlds are still a poor imitation of reality. But they also offer a safe environment, where failure have little actual consequence, to experience and explore new ideas.
I don't think games or a game environment will take over online education. But as we move in this direction we need to work towards understanding how games work, and how they can be added to our "tool box" of resources that make up the overall virtual classroom.
Some other resources:
Gamasutra
Serious Games Summit
GameMaker
2/08/2005
Mind/Brain Learning Principles
Mind/Brain Learning Principles by Renate Nummela Caine and Geoffrey Caine
This is a very interesting article. I'm not quite sure where the scholarship comes from, but it rings pretty true to me. Here are their principles
This is a very interesting article. I'm not quite sure where the scholarship comes from, but it rings pretty true to me. Here are their principles
- The brain is a complex adaptive system
- The brain is a social brain
- The search for meaning is innate
- The search for meaning occurs through patterning
- Emotions are critical to patterning
- Every brain simultaneously perceives and creates parts and wholes
- Learning involves both focused attention and peripheral perception
- Learning always involves consious and uncouscious processes
- We have at least two ways of organizing memory
- Learning is developmental
- Complex learning is enhanced by challenge and inhibited by threat
- Every brain is uniquely organized
2/04/2005
Conferences and Technology
A recent article at Educause, Social Software and the
Future of Conferences – Right Now, explores how technology might be utilized to enhance the social aspects of participating in a conference.
They have some great ideas here. Last summer I attended the FlashForward2004 conference in NYC, which was a great experience. They had a Flash social site set up, and encouraged everyone to utilize it both before, during and after the conference. I logged in with the account they supplied me and the concept was pretty good. I went through a registration process where I entered all sorts of professional and personal information. Once logged in I could see a world of other registrees, and those with the interested closest to mine were closer to me as visual circles. I could view potions of other people profiles, and there was some internal email and IM capabilities. Anyhow the concept was cool and the graphics were neat (all Flash driven don't you know!) but you can see how much sticking power it had -- I can't even find the bookmark anymore! And I'd imagine my experience wasn't unique.
One really neat social software-meets-conference experience occurred in a session featuring Colin Moock. He was presenting on experiments he's been working on with interactive websites. One aspect of this is you can see who else is on a website when you are and you can see where they move their mouse. In this case it helps you see which are the most clicked links, almost like dog-ears in a book, which help you see which are the most read pages. Another metaphor is a path through the woods -- you may not know where it leads, but if others have gone there, there must be something good at the end.
It was really neat talk and his website at http://www.moock.org has more information on this. But the really cool thing that happend is he started demonstrating this is a confernce room full of people with wireless-network-enabled laptops. And so as he was demonstrating his website people starting logging in and clicking around. Pretty soon there were words and doodles starting to appear as a result of the clicks. A couple of HIs and even a penis appeared. Needless to say this free exchange happening on the display behind him started to be a little distracting for Mr. Moock. But it was a really effective, and unintended, example of how attractive his ideas were.
One idea I have been kicking around for a couple of years it to host my own weekend conference. I'd love to get a bunch of smart people together to talk about smart things. And I think I'll get there sooner or later. But I also realized I could start to put together my own online, virtual conference, AND invite all my favorite speakers. The audio presentations at IT Conversations, http://www.itconversations.com has a lot of good stuff. So far the talks by Douglas Rushkoff and Malcolm Gladwell are my top two favorites. So I can make them my keynote speakers for day one and day two! Anyhow, in my spare time (ha ha) I may actually try to put something together. But until then take a look yourself, and load them into your iPod.
Future of Conferences – Right Now, explores how technology might be utilized to enhance the social aspects of participating in a conference.
They have some great ideas here. Last summer I attended the FlashForward2004 conference in NYC, which was a great experience. They had a Flash social site set up, and encouraged everyone to utilize it both before, during and after the conference. I logged in with the account they supplied me and the concept was pretty good. I went through a registration process where I entered all sorts of professional and personal information. Once logged in I could see a world of other registrees, and those with the interested closest to mine were closer to me as visual circles. I could view potions of other people profiles, and there was some internal email and IM capabilities. Anyhow the concept was cool and the graphics were neat (all Flash driven don't you know!) but you can see how much sticking power it had -- I can't even find the bookmark anymore! And I'd imagine my experience wasn't unique.
One really neat social software-meets-conference experience occurred in a session featuring Colin Moock. He was presenting on experiments he's been working on with interactive websites. One aspect of this is you can see who else is on a website when you are and you can see where they move their mouse. In this case it helps you see which are the most clicked links, almost like dog-ears in a book, which help you see which are the most read pages. Another metaphor is a path through the woods -- you may not know where it leads, but if others have gone there, there must be something good at the end.
It was really neat talk and his website at http://www.moock.org has more information on this. But the really cool thing that happend is he started demonstrating this is a confernce room full of people with wireless-network-enabled laptops. And so as he was demonstrating his website people starting logging in and clicking around. Pretty soon there were words and doodles starting to appear as a result of the clicks. A couple of HIs and even a penis appeared. Needless to say this free exchange happening on the display behind him started to be a little distracting for Mr. Moock. But it was a really effective, and unintended, example of how attractive his ideas were.
One idea I have been kicking around for a couple of years it to host my own weekend conference. I'd love to get a bunch of smart people together to talk about smart things. And I think I'll get there sooner or later. But I also realized I could start to put together my own online, virtual conference, AND invite all my favorite speakers. The audio presentations at IT Conversations, http://www.itconversations.com has a lot of good stuff. So far the talks by Douglas Rushkoff and Malcolm Gladwell are my top two favorites. So I can make them my keynote speakers for day one and day two! Anyhow, in my spare time (ha ha) I may actually try to put something together. But until then take a look yourself, and load them into your iPod.
2/02/2005
Thoughts on Learning Management Systems
I have been thinking a lot about Learning Management Systems (LMS), or Course Management Systems (CMS), or whatever else you might want to call them. In my role as chief technology advocate here at the Yale School of Drama (YSD) I am chairing a faculty technology planning committee, and we are considering advocating wider faculty use of Yale's LMS options. Currently Yale uses an internally developed system called CLASSES, but it looks like we may be moving to Sakai over the next couple of years. And I am not just a planner, I am a user as well. I am taking classes at the on line Capella University, and they just migrated their classroom environment to WEBCT.
Let me say right upfront that as a student I don't like WEBCT. I just find it to be a very inflexible learning environment. My list of complaints grows every day, mostly around items such as it doesn't auto link web addresses in postings, you can't edit your own posts, and other simple user interface/usability issues. The vexing thing is that the features I expect are standard on most other web-based applications I use, so it seems reasonable to expect them in this environment. A more serious issue is that the WEBCT environment seems to be a series of small boxes. In order to get to see the current discussions, for instance, I need to drill through several levels, and finally reach a point where I can see the detail of just one post. The problem is that I often want to respond based on a couple of prior postings, but can't see them when I am doing my own post. This design might be intended to minimize student confusion, but I find it very limiting, and it makes it difficult to see information in its larger context.
I had a demonstration with Yale's test version of Sakai yesterday, and in contrast I really like it. With the little testing I have done I find it to be quite flexible, and it has many nice features. The killer feature, as far as I am concerned, is its ability to integrate RSS feeds. I am getting my web design class posted on the server now, and am eagerly looking forward to working further with it. I'll report back how my students find it, and my impressions after using it in a real classroom situation.
The best aspect of Sakai is its open-source roots, and the ability for the institution to customize the portal based on their requirements. For instance I was discussing the availability of a blogging tool with the Yale project head. That may be coming in version 2.0, but if not it is not a big deal for Yale to grab one of the open source blogging tools and integrate it with our Sakai portal. That is the type of flexibility that I have come to expect in my web experiences, and I am sure exactly what our students are expecting.
The larger issue is whether we even need to be deploying LMS'. George Siemens at elearnspace offers an interesting review of the pluses and minuses of LMS' at http://www.elearnspace.org/Articles/lms.htm . At incorporated subversion they have another perspective on the topic at http://incsub.org/blog/?p=202. Both are great articles and well worth checking out.
In the end there are plenty of organizational needs at university's and I don't think our need for some type of LMS will go away. But I am all in favor of the open source, open standards route, and am looking forward to my further foray's with SAKAI.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)