An experiment starts

So, for those of you that don't know it: the college I work for is pretty conservative. Not that this is a bad thing in of itself, but sometimes it makes people like me a bit uncomfortable.

Today, I'm starting a new experiment. I've had my job change just a bit, and now I'm free to focus my very small group of employees on media technology (no more computer support!). One of the challenges with this is that a large percentage of our faculty do not approach us for support. Either they don't want to explore more technology, or they don't think we are a viable resource for them. Either way, I've got to crack that nut. So, I'm going to try something unheard of on this campus: having a sense of humor in how we do business. Starting today, we'll refer to ourselves as the "Media Geeks" and put a lot of focus in hanging ourselves out there for all to laugh at (with?). We're going to give top notch service, but we're not going to take ourselves too seriously. Support for this move is minimal - in fact, I don't really think my boss even really knows what I'm up to! We'll see how far I get before I'm told to pull back. Wish me luck!

Fans and Fears of 'Lecture Capture'

November 9, 2009

DENVER — If professors record their lectures and put them online, will students still come to class? http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6532970396651990710

___________________

I've had this discussion so many times and so many ways that I'm starting to really get tired of it. It's the usual discourse: "OMG! What are you thinking! They'll never see people again. They'll stop learning. I didn't have all this crap when I learned and now I'm a professor. They'll steal my class and replace me! "

Come on people! Your job is to TEACH !!! Okay, not all of you. many of the loudest voices are those that don't teach at all, but rather research, write books, and take the "I'm better than that" approach. I've only come across a few people that I'd consider really good teachers that didn't agree with lecture capture as one of the tools that can be used to improve comprehension and retention of material.

As I've ranted before: No technology is a silver bullet. You still have to be a great instructor. You have to engage your learners. This means that even with lecture capture, you still have to be involved in your courses. You may have to use other technology (chat, GWave, blogs, Skype, etc.) to communicate, but you still have to have two way communication. The "Sage on the Stage" problem is even worse with lecture capture, so simply turning on the camera and thinking that's going to take care of it for you is foolish.

Get your heads out of the sand. Learning IS changing. Contrary to popular belief, this isn't the first time it's changed. Remember when you used to write equations in the sand for your students? Of course you don't!!!! That was a long time ago, and technology changed. It didn't represent the end of all learning, in fact, I'd argue it didn't change the process of learning all that much at all. Neither will lecture capture, cell phones, the Internet, or any other life changing technology. However, it WILL change the way we DELIVER our instruction, and certainly our students expect that, want it and will embrace it. I can't see the downside of any of my students embracing learning!

I don't know everything. I'm tired of institutions of learning (and their instructors) claiming they KNOW the best way to teach. That's a cheap, easy way out. That's the mantra of the teacher that's finished learning or the organization that is afraid to shake things up with change. Let me ask you one question: If your college or university is so great at teaching, why did University of Phoenix post a 26% increase in income the first quarter of this year while so many "traditional" institutions were cutting back and laying people off?

I'm on the Google Powermeter

Okay, it's not really education related, unless you count educating yourself. I just received my TED5000 and this thing is SWEET! My dad came over yesterday and helped me put it in. With the exception of the very scary (but relatively easy) installation in the breaker box, things went well. We did have quite a challenge getting the gateway on a circuit that was noise free. This thing really doesn't want to work if there is ANY noise on the line. If you're a geek like me, chances are there are noisy devices on every outlet in the house! Once we accomplished that, the rest of the installation went along great. The software monitors your usage in real time and maintains a history (the really useful part). I went ahead and opted for the remote display as well, and spend the rest of the night saying things like "Hey, I just discovered my computer is costing me five cents an hour!", or "Look, I can tell by the increase in kilowatts that our heat just came on!", which of course resulted in responses like "Yeah, 'cause the roaring furnace fan wasn't a dead give away.". Okay, maybe my enthusiasm went a bit too far.
Today, I keep looking at my iGoogle gadget about every five minutes to see what the Powermeter is doing. Granted, it doesn't really show me updates that often, but I just can't help myself!
For $239 I feel like I got the greatest eco-geek toy ever. The best part? It's back ordered now for 3 - 6 weeks, which means I'll continue to be the only person I know that has one for a while. Geeky bragging rights are mine!

Cisco to buy video firm Tandberg for $3 billion

I already have a challenge getting my Polycom systems to play nice on my Cisco network. I wonder how this could impact that? Also, Cisco is famous for forcing you into buying new hardware every few years by jacking up the support costs significantly each year that a product ages. While I understand their business model, lots of colleges us video conferencing to lower the cost of education. I'm not sure the acquisition of Tandberg is going to help lower costs for us any!

Cisco to buy video firm Tandberg for $3 billion: "As part of its expansion into videoconferencing and collaboration, Cisco Systems antes up for the Norwegian video communications company."

The Mobile Campus

The Mobile Campus: "

What did Abilene Christian University learn in its first year as a self-appointed guinea pig for mobile learning technology?

"
I've been fortunate enough to meet Dr. Rankin a couple of times now. When you hear him talk about technology you quickly realize the experiment at Abilene Christian is educationally significant, even if the statistics are a little sketchy. Those of us in the Ed.Tech. field continue to follow their progress closely as they continue to pioneer mobile learning!

Why Not Lab Time for 'Soft' Disciplines?

Why Not Lab Time for 'Soft' Disciplines?: "Regularly scheduled lab time has long been an accepted standard in science courses. Now there may be an argument for extending the standard to include all disciplines...."

An excellent point! We know that homework is often not as productive as time spent with a teacher. Having a dedicated time every week to actually "apply" the things being taught, with a TA or instructor close by would, in my opinion, greatly increase grades and retention! What do you think?

Volkswagen's 170 mpg car

Volkswagen's 170 mpg car: "

The VW L1 concept falls short of its goal to go 100 kilometers on 1 liter of fuel.

(Credit: CNET)

In 2002, Volkswagen designed a concept car that could go 100 kilometers on 1 liter of fuel, equivalent to about 235 mpg. This year, Volkswagen shows off the second generation of the 1 liter concept, the L1, with the intention of production by 2013. Using an extremely light and aerodynamic body and a diesel-electric parallel hybrid power train, the new L1 falls short of its fuel efficiency goal, requiring 1.38 liters of diesel to cover 100 kilometers, or 170 mpg. Still, not bad.

The L1's cabin uses virtual rearview mirrors and instruments.

(Credit: CNET)

Volkswagen designers looked at glider design to evolve the L1 concept, resulting in a narrow body with two seats in tandem, the single passenger consigned to a rear seat. Access to the L1 is through a hinged canopy, which should inspire Top Gun fantasies for the driver. Furthering those fantasies are the camera-based rearview OLEDs, offering a 180 degree view behind the car. In keeping with the high-tech cabin, the speedometer and other instruments are all virtual. Although we didn't see a stereo in the cabin, there are volume controls on the steering wheel.

However much the cabin might inspire feelings of piloting a fighter jet, the performance will make the driver envy scooter riders. The L1 takes 14.3 seconds to get to 62 mph. However, the top speed is a reasonable 99 mph. To power the L1, Volkswagen developed a new .8-liter version of its TDI engine with only two cylinders. The driver can select between Eco and Sport modes: in the former, the engine produces 27 horsepower, while in Sport it peaks at 39 horsepower. Being a diesel, its torque is much higher, hitting 74 pound-feet at 1,900rpm.

...

Originally posted at Frankfurt Auto Show 2009

"

5 Ways We're Diminishing Learning by Assuming Face-to-Face Instruction Is Best -- THE Journal

5 Ways We're Diminishing Learning by Assuming Face-to-Face Instruction Is Best -- THE Journal: "5 Ways We're Diminishing Learning by Assuming Face-to-Face Instruction Is Best"

I need ideas!

Okay, I'm at a loss. I have nothing interesting to rant about, other than a complete lack of cool phones on Verizon, and there's been enough ranting about that.

So, give me your ideas. Any cool software out there that I really should be checking out?

Technology I'm digging right now

There are two things I'm playing with that I'm really digging. The first is a product called Evernote (www.evernote.com). From the website: "Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible andsearchable at any time, from anywhere. ". A big thanks to Dave for convincing me to check this free product out. Right now I'm using the desktop version on my Macs and PCs and it's doing a really good job of keeping all my notes synced between computers. I'm not quite as impressed with the web version. While it is fabulous, the need to save changes before leaving the site has caused me to lose notes several times. I need the product to either save every so often automatically, or alert me with bright flashing lights and buzzers or something. However, that's a really small issue to take with an otherwise spectacular product! I'm quickly becoming addicted to finding my notes where ever I go. I've not played with the search much, but it appears to be pretty good. I seem to remember it saying it recognizes text in images, but that doesn't seem to be working for me - very possibly because of user error.

The other thing I'm getting hung up on is NetVibes (www.netvibes.com). This is much like many of the other "home page" things you find, such as iGoogle. You use widgets to place things like Twitter, Facebook, news, websites, etc. all on your page. You can have multiple tabs, and multiple pages. Not revolutionary but very nicely done. An added bonus is the ability to share pages with others. I can see creating a programming related page of links, news, random widgets and allowing access to my students.

As a final note, I'd like to address the Web 3.0 vs. 2010 Web debate that I hope will be heating up even more. I'm a big fan of useless catch phrases and Web 2.0 tops my list. As an educator, constantly fighting to have some point of reference that I can hold up for people that don't understand how far behind they are, having a year is a simple one. When I ask people that don't know much about technology why they don't use Windows 95, they say "because that's old". Were I to ask them if using Web 1.0 was okay, they'd probably say "Sure!". Year numbers provide a frame of reference to those that aren't as clued in; and that's a good thing. Feel free to bash my opinion and offer your own. I'm still willing to reconsider, but I'm going with 2010 Web until someone talks me out of it. TheEduGeek.

Getting Social

I've always been a chameleon. The greatest survival tactic I know is to try to fit into any setting. Styles would come and go depending on my friends. Who can forget the long hair and roach clips with feathers, the camo ball caps, the parachute pants? None of those things were really me. When I stepped on stage, that was the closest to "real" as I got, and frankly that was usually an idealistic self image that I presented so that no one would see how terrified I was that someone would see behind my curtain, so to speak.

As a person that has spent most of his life avoiding letting anyone see his "real" self, social media presents some interesting challenges. Even as a gamer, I never had conversations or really even liked games that had a chance of exposing me as a person. Now, here I am having to jump with both feet into all manner of personal exposition. Facebook, Twitter, Blogging! Is there no end to the places I'm forced to interact, albeit asynchronously, with the entire world???

In this new world where Millennials are happily posting pictures of underage drinking, describing sexual preferences, and all manner of amazing debauchery, I see that I need to come to grips with my puritanical online self and start embracing a more social online presence. I'm not suggesting that I start describing my sex life, or bashing people at work, but rather that I at least attempt a small bit of the online lifestyle many young college students think perfectly normal.

I've certainly ranted about the need to embrace this social media, but I suppose I need to walk the walk. To this end, I reach out to my fellow education professionals. We need to stop complaining that our students don't know how to learn, or regarding technology as a distraction. The world has changed, just as it always does. We've got to get with the program! This is evolution, fellow instructors. We evolve, or we die out. This week I'll be playing with Twitter, Netvibes, SlideShare, and various other groovy technologies as I learn about them. Wish me luck and feel free to join me! theedugeek

Why Apple is unprepared for the future

I'm a big fan of my Mac, but when it comes to thinking about how we'll live and work in the future, I rarely think of hardware or software from Apple. Unfortunately, Apple has repeatedly proven that they'll expend massive time and effort reinventing the look and feel of technology that is antiquated, at best!

Take the laptop for instance. Right now, I'm highly focused on allowing my users to work from anywhere, anytime. I'm spending my time and effort developing infrastructure that allows users to use inexpensive, small, lightweight devices to access my systems. The MacBook Air is the only product remotely capable of fitting this bill, and it doesn't even compete on the same plane of existence as the netbook. No, I don't want to use a netbook for everything, but if I'm working in the cloud anyhow, I don't need a full blown laptop. Strike one for Apple. I'll buy my users five netbooks for every Air I could buy.

Now for software. I love the Apple "experience". It's simple, slick and beautiful. But it's based heavily on local resources. All of the "i" products (iTunes, iLife, etc.) are great products for what they do. Virtually any user can jump right in and, as long as they only do it the Apple way, get right up and running. However, and this is a big one, woe be to the user that doesn't rely on local resources! Remember, I just said I live in the cloud, right? So, even within my home I have a server where I keep my music and pictures and files and so forth all on my server. I've got five computers in multiple flavors that all need to get to the same resources. The "i" stuff doesn't like that. Of course many of these products will work with the Mac cloud... but I'm not paying that kind of money for online storage that I can get for free or cheap from anyone else.

Within five years, I expect I'll be supporting a user base made up of mosly low power processors that simply connect to my infrastructure and let all the processing happen there. Further, "my" infrastructure may not even be "mine" but simply reside on someone elses infrastructure. Where will Apple fit into that? The iTouch and iPhone are GREAT devices, but at the same price as a netbook, and no ability to RDP they are quickly being exchanged for other, more flexible, devices. The real irony of this is that Apple chose to move to a UNIX environment; an operating system that is arguably best for supporting the sort of infrastructure I'm bulding!

I'm not going to rant on. Suffices to say that if Mac wants to play in my park they're going to have to step up their game in cloud computing support. I hope they do. I'll surely miss them if they don't.

Mac versus PC

So, I get asked this question a lot. I have been a die hard Microsoft / Intel PC guy since Dos 5.0 (we'll not discuss my TRS80 programming days). However, last year I moved to Macbook Pro at work, and at home shortly there after. It's been a while now, and I feel like I can offer my opinion to anyone that is curious.

Cost. Yes, it is more expensive. Everything about it seems more expensive. I don't know who's coming up with the numbers for making Mac look equal or cheaper than PC in the long run. Clearly these are the same people that Statistics is a real math.

User experience: Mac is superior in many, many ways. It's clear that this is a company that honors form over function in some cases, but generally that's okay with most users since rarely do I meet anyone that effectively uses more than 20% of the OS abilities anyhow.

Software: User mileage may vary. When I first got my Mac, I found myself paying obscene amounts for software that did very basic things. As I've grown more familiar with where the users are, I've found more and more shareware and freeware. I still think ultimately you'll pay more for software than with a PC, but if you're reasonably clever and brave, you can find most of what you need out there.

Power: Ah, this is where the computer geek meets Tim, "the toolman" Taylor. I got sucked into buying a Mac Pro at home (for three times what I usually pay for a computer) because I run ProTools, and the 64bit version was Mac only. That meant to get the horsepower and RAM I needed, I had to go Mac. I've not regretted the decision. There is something about seeing those eight cores all peg to 100% during a render that is sooooo satisfying.

Functionality: This used to be a problem, but now with Parallells and Fusion you can easily run Microsoft OS, so if you've got something you can't find (or don't want to pay for) on Mac OS, this is a fantastic option (with enough RAM, you'll never even notice it running).

So, long story short? If you've got the cash, I like the Mac better - though only really when you get to the high end lines. For software development, graphics, audio and video creation I'm a bit more limited for the same money, but I'm able to do LOTS more at the same time which more than makes up the difference I'm paying for the software and hardware.

I'm not ranting today

Sometimes an article can better summarize my thoughts than my ranting can. http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2009/04/17/stokes

Here we go again...

I'm thinking today about my upcoming summer semester. Once again I'll return to the joy and misery of student life in pursuit of ever higher education. As I ponder, I remember just how BAD the experience has been so far. Somehow, the subject that I have such great personal passion for has had all the life sucked out of it by genuinely bad instructional practices. So, today I offer some suggestions to my future professors:

1. Actually TEACH the class (or at least pretend to). Yes, I know the idea is to create the course and then go drink your latte while doing research to collect a larger paycheck and earn more kudos for the University. Sorry, but I'd like to be able to get something for my $1800 other than "go read the book and write a report". I'd settle for a paragraph or two of information that can only be related by someone that's lived the life. Anything to give me more than just a textbook.

2. Update your content. Hey, if you're going to drink your latte and do research then at least have a graduate student review the material. Trust me, despite what your syllabus may say, RealVideo is NOT the most popular video delivery media on the Internet anymore.

3. Return my emails. Yes, I really do work at 3am, that's why I'm a distance learning student. I don't expect you to read it at 3:05am, but at least in the next day or two would be fabulous!

4. Answer my question, not the question you think I should have asked... If I'm asking the wrong questions, then tell me that first!

5. Get to know me, at least a little. I don't want to have dinner with you, but at least understand the way I think enough to honestly grade my papers if you're going to ask questions that are subject to personal interpretation.

6. This one goes to the school: Provide the subject you're selling! In my case the program is grossly out of date, and in almost every case has failed to even follow by the practices it actually teaches (do as I say, not as I do!). Luckily, since it's been pretty much just reading the textbooks, I can at least learn the right things on my own!

A note from the "No Duh?" department

So in an article in The Journal (http://www.thejournal.com/articles/24227) they note that adoption of social networking in K-12 schools is hindered by security concerns and general stupidity (oops, the actual term was "teachers themselves doubt the instructional value or appropriateness of online social networking").
Yeah, there can't possibly be any instructional value in a place where like minded people can come together and share stories, concerns, feelings, reach out to each other for support, share news and information, etc. Oh, wait... didn't I just describe schools, churches, and any manner of other social gathering places?
This just underlines a point that keeps coming up for me. Why in the heck would you become a teacher if you're not willing to LEARN??? Technology has always been the evil "they" of instruction. "They" are always making us learn new technology. "They" are forcing us to reach outside our little bubble of reality to see the larger world at work. "They" think we should change the way we teach every hundred years or so. HOW DARE "THEY"???

Okay. Sorry. I just had to get that off my chest. In defense of many teachers, I know many, many teachers that don't feel or act this way. Often those more progressive teachers are stifled by administrators (read: former stupid teachers) that themselves have a huge fear of change.

So, come on! Get with it. Social networking, love it or hate it, does exist in the world of our students. As such, it MUST be part of our instructional platform. Get out and create a site, find some friends and give it a shot. You don't have to love it, or even be active in it. But for goodness sake, at least make an honest attempt at understanding why your students love it. That'll at least put you one step closer to relevance!

Today is the first day!

Today marks the first day of my attempt at a regular blog. This will be my outlet to discuss (and rant) about all things geeky in the world of education. Wish me luck!