$100 Laptop - Software Only - Jooce Style March 30, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, OLPC, Opinion, Tools.1 comment so far
Business Week has an interesting article about Jooce. It is a virtual desktop that allows a single access point to be used by many individuals. They make their money through advertising, but it removes the need for each user to have their own hardware or network connection. There are other solutions in this space, some of which I have bookmarked in del.icio.us and tagged as webOS. http://del.icio.us/mwoolums/webOS. I hadn’t thought of web OS solutions in this context, and am not sure how this solves much for classroom use, because you still need equipment, whether it is a lab with one computer for each child, or a mini-lab where students work in small groups or as part of a rotation. Still, in places where there may only be a few access points or limited disk space, virtual (online) desktops make sense.
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/mar2008/gb20080325_844094.htm
Alltop Needs More Tools March 29, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Opinion, Tools.1 comment so far
I’ve noticed a few mentions for Alltop lately. It is sort of a mashup of RSS feeds and a search directory. It has general categories for things like Culture and Geekery, with sub categories for Design, Gadgets, and so forth. Alltop is really handy to see the top sites for the categories in which you are interested.
Alltop is helpful in several ways. For one, it lets you find sources of influence. Finding who to follow, whose voice to listen to in the sea of information, is an exercise critical thinking, and Alltop helps by identifying those voices who are speaking with enough clarity for others to listen. Alltop also assists in bringing focus. By clicking on the link for a sub category, you find yourself with a simplified list of posts from each top site. Each item is a link to that specific article, blog, or tweet. As an RSS aggregator, it does a great job of reducing clutter.
Alltop could be even more helpful in a couple of ways. Sometimes even a plain listing of what is posted can be confusing and intimidating. Taking a look at the twitter collection, I find it takes a lot of time to read through everything just in case I might miss something. A tag cloud would be very helpful, collecting key words and displaying them by size. Sometimes I just want to get a sense for what people are talking about, and that would let me focus better on the specifics in which I might be interested.
Alltop could also open up to users and allow them to create their own categories, both private and shared. I’ve always thought the best suggestions came from word-of-mouth sources. Alltop could easily be a source for my own Alltop stories, the voices I listen to, the suggestions of other voices to which I should listen. I know there are other tools for providing exposure, like Digg, but those tend to get dominated by a few noisy contributors. Alltop brings the simplicity of Google to a sea of feeds, tweets, blogs, and so forth. I just want it to be even better.
10 Million Fans Can’t All Be Wrong March 28, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Data, Tools.1 comment so far
Tech Crunch and others are reporting that Wikipedia has reached a milestone: 10 million articles. That is quite an achievement for something that is free to everyone. On a side note, only 2.3 million of those are in English.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/28/10-millionth-article-written-on-wikipedia/
Bebo Fighters March 28, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Articles/Videos, Opinion.add a comment
The BBC is reporting the arrest of six teenagers after they used the online social networking site Bebo. This is a story because it illustrates that kids can be very resourceful and are likely to use online resources as a daily part of their lives. This isn’t a story because kids organizing a fight by talking in the hallway or meeting up in neighborhoods just isn’t interesting.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/derbyshire/7318816.stm
Bit by BitTorrent March 27, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Articles/Videos, Tools.add a comment
When keeping track of all the new technology, or Web 2.0 specifically, it isn’t an easy task. One technology that I haven’t mentioned at all, but that fits the idea of the end users being in charge of the content, is BitTorrent. What is BitTorrent? In my mind, it is a distributed file sharing protocol. But what does that mean? Andy Carvin posted a question on Twitter asking for analogies for BitTorrent, and several people posted some very good ones that help explain what it is.
I like to think of BitTorrent as ‘the network is my hard drive.’ In other words, the location of the information isn’t as important as my access to it. What I wonder about is how BitTorrent can impact education. Imagine a district or school or classroom that isn’t concerned with having all of the answers, but instead is dedicated to making the best use of those answers or resources regardless of where they are located. I think BitTorrent is a great analogy for the way education should be structured. We each have a small part to contribute.
http://www.andycarvin.com/archives/2008/03/in_search_of_the_perfect_bit_torrent_ana.html
Online Record Keeping March 27, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Conference Sessions.add a comment
I’m teaching an online class that includes assignments for individual blogs as a reflective journal, comments on each other’s blogs, and shared bookmarks in del.icio.us. I have to say that RSS is certainly helpful, but with tracking a dozen or so different blogs, comments, and del.icio.us accounts, this is something of an accounting nightmare. Any suggestions on how to better bundle this all up into one place (currently using Safari for RSS feeds, and Protopage so others can also see everything) I’d appreciate suggestions and be happy to look into alternatives.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/liboni/375555508/
Who Knew? Social Computer Gamers? March 26, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Articles/Videos.add a comment
By way of a Howard Rheingold tweet, Physorg.com (anyone know who they are?) has posted an article about how computer games can make kids more social. Common opinion, and a certain car commercial that wants to rethink stuff, notwithstanding…
…in two recent studies of kindergarten and first-grade students, Ching has observed that children find ways to transform their experiences with technology into fun, highly organized group activities. She also found that technology-based activities can be explicitly designed to foster social reflection and advanced planning among young children.
http://www.physorg.com/news125684705.html
Diigo Video March 26, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Tools.add a comment
By way of a CoolCatTeacher (Vicki Davis) tweet, here is a YouTube video that explains Diigo. Having watched it, Diigo sort of has a Flock feel to it, but without the extra browser. Of course Flock has additional drag and drop integration with blogs, but Diigo has an easier Facebook side to networking.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0RvAkTuL02A
21st Century Bookshelf March 25, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Book Review.add a comment
From a tweet by Gary Stager, here is an Amazon bookstore devoted to the 10 essential books that should be on the bookshelf of every 21st Century educator. Educators still read and value books, right? Looks like I have a lot of reading to do. I think I’ll make use of my local library though, instead of buying them from Amazon.
http://astore.amazon.com/constructivistconsortium-20/
Interested in Timelines? March 25, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Tools.add a comment
Library Power has a nice discussion about a couple of online timeline tools, Mnemograph and Xtimeliner. Timelines can be very helpful in organizing information, outlining stories, or to compare changes over time.
http://libpower.blogspot.com/2008/03/what-time-is-it.html
Mr. Winkle Goes to School March 24, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Articles/Videos.add a comment
Mathew Needleman has posted an interesting video on his Creating Lifelong Learners blog called Mr. Winkle Wakes. It tells the story of a man who wakes up after sleeping for 100 years. He is very uncomfortable in an office building and a hospital because of all the changes and technology in use there, but he feels very comfortable at a school, where things are essentially unchanged. The blog post is linked below, and the Teachertube version is embedded here. Enjoy!
Download Video: Posted by videointheclassroom at TeacherTube.com.
http://www.needleworkspictures.com/ocr/blog/
Net Neutrality Update for March 2008 March 22, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Net Neutrality, Opinion.add a comment
I haven’t mentioned Net Neutrality for a while, but in case you were wondering, it is still an important issue. If you are a little unsure about what Net Neutrality is, imagine that everyone in the US is receiving a service, and then that service provider decides to change the rules and charge people based on different ways that service might be used. If your electrical service provider decided today that they would charge extra for connecting solar energy devices in your home, that would be a deterrent to moving to alternative energy sources, right? What if they also decided to charge extra if you wanted to watch TV shows that argued against your right to use solar powered devices? That wouldn’t sit so comfortably, would it? Take it one step further and this service provider makes could make it financially almost impossible to purchase any devices that were not manufactured by them. Suddenly you are locked into a system that determines what you can do with the service instead of working for you.
Now I’m not saying that the electrical company is doing that, but your Internet service provider might be. Did you know that “nearly 99 percent of all residential connections are provided by incumbent cable or phone companies” (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-karr/americas-internet-future_b_92763.html?) Your cable company already decides which channels you have access to on your TV. Do you also want them to decide which Internet sites you have access to on your computer or cell phone? That is an essential question to Net Neutrality.
Earlier this year, Verizon and AT&T plunked down a combined $16.3 billion for the largest blocks of licenses to use the public spectrum up for sale on the “700 band.” (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/timothy-karr/americas-internet-future_b_92763.html)
This means that a limited resource to provide Internet access was just sold to those same few limited companies that already make decisions about who does get access, and potentially what those subscribers are allowed to do with their access.Another part of Net Neutrality has to do with access. Many urban areas have considered (or have already started providing) free or reduced cost wireless access. In some places, this effort is falling short because there just isn’t enough profit for the providers.
EarthLink announced on Feb. 7 that “the operations of the municipal Wi-Fi assets were no longer consistent with the company’s strategic direction.” Philadelphia officials say they are not sure when or if the promised network will now be completed.For Cesar DeLaRosa, 15, however, the concern is more specific. He said he was worried about his science project on global warming.“If we don’t have Internet, that means I’ve got to take the bus to the public library after dark, and around here, that’s not always real safe,” Cesar said, seated in front of his family’s new computer in a gritty section of Hunting Park in North Philadelphia. His family is among the 1,000 or so low-income households that now have free or discounted Wi-Fi access through the city’s project, and many of them worry about losing access that they cannot otherwise afford (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/22/us/22wireless.html.)
This means that our friendly ISP is already limiting who can participate in this great social collaboration experiment. It isn’t all hopeless though. Even the ISPs have to account for market forces.
Prices for Internet service on the broader market also began dropping to a level that, while above what many poor people could afford, was below what municipal Wi-Fi providers were offering, so the companies had to lower their rates even further, making investment in infrastructure even more risky, he said (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/22/us/22wireless.html.)
So what’s next? The issue of Net Neutrality is still being debated. Legislation is working its way through congress (http://www.whereabill.org/#110_s215.) The FCC is holding meetings (http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/03/20/18487350.php There are even things you can do to participate in this on-going debate (http://www.savetheinternet.com/=faq#help.) Your voice is important, but only as long as others have the ability to hear you.
This article was inspired by a single twitter from Will Richardson.
Timebridge March 22, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Tools.1 comment so far
By way of Lucy Gray (with one of the best education monikers of elemenous - lmno’s) here is a tool that provides easy access to calender sharing that combines with your current status to provide a sort of time-based twitter-ish service. For those of you that are organized around a schedule, this might be very handy.
Wikipedia How To March 21, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Tools.add a comment
MediaShift has a great post on steps to being a model Wikipedian. While some items are specific to only Wikipedia “6. Get Familiar with the Talk Pages.” other items apply to almost any collaborative or social-centric site. I really like “5. Be Bold: Don’t Get Discouraged.” and “4. Assume Good Faith.” These suggestions sort of remind me of the idea that we learned everything we needed in kindergarten.
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2008/03/demystifying_wikipediahow_to_b.html
Twitter Everywhere March 21, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Tools.Tags: T
add a comment
Noticed two different blog posts on Twitter this morning. Each provides a different look into why one twitters.
http://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk/no_good_reason/2008/03/more-twitter-ty.html
http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/archives/003307.html
