Last day in Utrecht
Today mom and I went to the flower market that was just outside our hotel. I’ve never seen so many lovely blooms in one place. Did you know there are dark red hydrangeas? And here, you can get an amazing arrangement of roses, lilies, and astilbe for 12 euro? In the states, that same arrangement would cost nearly $60. It was lovely. We moved from there to the “clothing” market, which was just fabric… lots and lots of lovely lovely lovely fabric. It was wonderful. I found the fabric for my new kitchen curtains that my mom will likely have to make. From there we went to the church where a choir and orchestra was practicing a Bach concert. I’ve never heard lovlier music.
This morning I met with Paul Kirschner (a.k.a. angel of mercy) who has helped me come out of my dissertation writing funk. In a true display of cognitive apprenticeship, he intends to help me actually wade through the last bits of my PhD work (or, if you want to look at things differently… through the REAL bits of my PhD work). For the first time in months, I feel unblocked and free to write away. I intend to start as soon as I get home.
Social Newtork Sites… everyone is doing it
A new study by MarketingVox found that 1 in every 4 online users are using social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin, etc… About half of those log on every day. Let me repeat that… every day. Now that is some “stickiness.” These folks come back daily to engage with their friends and colleagues, by playing games, joining groups, finding and sharing resources, and build out their online identity and reputation. If only educational software had such stickiness. Really, can we please start leveraging these systems to support teaching and learning? Please?
Let the fear of online predators in MySpace be gone, or at least be managed in a less reactive manner. I can’t tell you how many teachers and administrators I’ve spoken to who just see these environments as the devil… unable to see their potential for teaching and learning.
From urbanite to discontented suburbanite to farmgirl
[Personal post] So Rob and I have sold our house and are moving a couple of miles west of where we are now. We are currently in a subdivision and it has recently become a bit cramped. So here are the reasons why I’ll never be seduced by the “prettiness” of a subdivision again…
There are a number of retired couples in our subdivision. Most are kind and pleasant, but one or two just cause trouble. With the covenants in hand, our neighbor who my husband calls “Ebenezer” has called the police on us for having our truck bed 1 foot over the sidewalk. In his words “I like to use the sidewalk.” This same guy has complained to Animal Control that our dogs were in the park without a leash. The park is the reason we bought the place… open green space where we can let our dogs romp. And finally, the covenants explicitly state that I’m not allowed to have farm animals… no goats or chickens allowed. Brutal. Add that to the guilt I feel about the deagriculturalization that is happening in Cache Valley because of development and I’m done. When it was just the guilt, I could repress my feelings, but once you threaten to put down my dog because it’s off a leash, I’m outie.
So, although at one time in my life I saw myself living in urban areas for the rest of my living days, I’m going to become a farmgirl. We are moving to a place with over an acre of land surrounded on 2 sides by hay fields. We’re going to get goats (I think I want some Nigerian Dwarf Goats… they are sweet natured, good milkers, and good breeders. Leslie lady, if you want to make soap from my goat milk, call me) and chickens. Think about it… a chicken is one of the only pets/animals you can have that will give you something concrete and nourishing every day. I love fresh eggs. My border collie/australian shepherd mix who is going crazy in our teeny tiny back yard will finally get to herd- something she was bred to do. Our little rat dog mutt who thinks she is the boss of anything living will get a lesson or two from a head-butting billy goat. I may even get a horse in a year or two. Our new place has a 3 stall barn and shed where we can put all the animals I’ll ever need to keep myself from going crazy working from home 
And the coup d’etat… The garage is extra wide and extra long so Rob’s work truck can fit. We’ll have storage galore, and will have plenty of room for dogs to romp and (eventually) kids to grow.
WiFi for Rural Connectivity by Intel
Intel has new technology that boosts the signal reach of WiFi using radio signals. It’s cheap, it stretches for tens of miles further than anything else, and it will mean good things for rural environments (and that’s not just Cache Valley, where I live with the cows… Think India, South America, Africa, Asia…). One step at a time and we’ll get everyone to join our club (you know… Google, Starbucks, MySpace, and eCommerce). And, of course, this is good news for anyone interested in things like breaking down barriers to entry, allowing for participatory dialogue between individuals in developing areas, and opening up access to education.
via Kate Green
Blackboard approaches the dark side
Blackboard just won a lawsuit against a Canadian-based learning management system called Desire2Learn and is well on their way to becoming evil.
In 2006 Blackboard was awarded a patent that covers a single person having multiple roles in an LMS: for example, a Teaching Assistant might be a student in one class and an instructor in another. <http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/02/1217219&tid=155> Mr. Small (the trial lawyer for Blackboard) said Blackboard never claimed to have invented the course-management system. What the company did invent, he said, is “a course-management system where a single user with a single log-on could have multiple roles across multiple classes.” For instance, a person who was a student in one course and a teaching assistant in another could log on once and access all of his course materials.- Francis Long of Knowplace
Blackboard promises to play nice with open source or as they say “home-grown” course management systems as long as they aren’t bundled with proprietary software. But we’ll see. Having multiple roles in an LMS is often critical for the LMS administrators to function. So, to quote another organization that I watch with doubtful hopes that it won’t take over the world, to Blackboard I say…”Don’t be Evil.” -Google.
JCMC Issue on Social Networking Sites is interesting
JCMC just put out an issue dedicated to social networking sites. Articles cover blog behavior, dealing with I/M interruptions at work, and of course, social networking sites. You Tube, Facebook, Creative Commons, political discourse online, and more. Happy reading.
Whereigo: GPS-enabled adventures in the real world
January 17, 2008, 1:38 pm
Filed under:
community,
culture,
design,
development,
entertainment,
mashup,
openness,
socialsoftware,
travel,
web2.0 Marion has brought me out of blog writing funk by showing me Whereigo…
Wherigo is a toolset for creating and playing GPS-enabled adventures in the real world. Use GPS technology to guide you to physical locations and interact with virtual objects and characters -Whereigo site
This allows for legitimate crossover interactions between humans, locations, and literally anything a person can imagine virtually. I can see this being big with virtual gamers, but also with people like my mom who takes tours to Europe every summer. My mother can take a tour of people to the Louvre where they go on a treasure hunt for famous artwork. There are very cool applications with history, as well… Imagine taking a 6th grade class to an Anasazi ruin in the Four Corners area. As they walk through the ruins, they encounter a 12 year old Anasazi boy going through a coming of age ritual and become a part of his experience.
Location anchored virtual experiences. Cool. Marion put together a tour of Temple Square in Salt Lake City. If you are traveling this way, download it and enjoy!
