This post is for one of my readers who tried to convince me that the Allyn and Bacon rep told her Houghton Mifflin would be owned by Allyn & Bacon.
Information released to the press today seems to indicate that the Riverdeep purchase of Houghton Mifflin is still a go.
At first blush, we’re smaller, they’re bigger, we’re software, they’re traditional print,” O’Callaghan said. “The real synergy between our businesses is that we’re an educational publishing company just like them, but we’re doing it on different mediums aimed at different funding sources.
Why do I care? Our book is published by Houghton Mifflin and part of my professional future rides on what happens to Houghton Mifflin. Even if this deal goes through, the new owner may sell of the higher ed resources. However, I think being interested in technology enhanced education within a company that is focused on educational software applications may enable some interesting opportunies. Of course, I said the same thing when Houghton Mifflin was sold to Vivendi.
Pardon this personal diversion – content of more general interest soon.
The Seattle Times reports the Gates Foundation has provided the Bellevue school district nearly 2 million to post the districts entire curriclum. The article contends that the site will be wiki-like allowing external input and possible lesson ratings.
While there are many “lesson web sites” available, I suppose what makes this effort unique is the real time nature of the content (this is what our students are studying now) and the completeness/interrelatedness of the material.
The article also promises that the site will offer some video content. As a teacher educator, I hope that the video is “realistic” and offers a glimpse of daily classroom life rather than carefully selected examples. While my understanding is that the resource is not intended for professional development, I have long felt a range of video cases would be very helpful.
Andy Carvin has a different take on this project and relates it more to the opencourseware efforts at institutions such as MIT.
Bellevue has already developed a substantial online description of the district’s curriculum.
Quintura is developing a new search service that relies on a unique interface. The initial search requests returns “hits” and a tag cloud. Clicking on tags within the cloud both brings additional tags to the fore and allows tags to be added to the original search request for secondary searches.
I like the description of typical search as “recovery” and reliance on social tagging as discovery. This search approach appears to offer a combination.
I am fascinated by social software and experiment with applications in a wide variety of domains. My present interest is last.fm. This service provides software for analyzing personal musical preferences and locating others with similar musical tastes. The system works in the background while I listen to my iTunes and accumulates data on my listening preferences. The system then matches my preferences with the preferences of other users. In theory, one benefit is supposed to be the opportunity to locate new music by identifying unique tracks or artists in the lists of others with similar tastes.
The logic is similar to the “discovery” principle associated with social bookmarking. The argument is that search is limited by personal perspective and a social environment can expand this perspective by using the experience of others. With music, you would buy the same artists you already like. By exploring the interests of others with similar tastes, you might discover something you like that is still compatible with your general interests. I have yet to purchase anything “unique” as a result of using this software, but the concept is fun to explore.
Click this chart for additional information on my personal listening habits.
We are now back in Grand Forks. We arrived at about 11 in the evening and I got out of bed today at 2 in the afternoon. I am still a little bit foggy, but I wanted to complete my entries on the China trip before I go back to work tomorrow. So, with some lychee tea in my lazy tea cup (it has an inner holder for the tea that is removed once the tea has brewed), I will see what I can generate.
The China trip was an unplanned opportunity for me. I went as a guest of my wife who was attending a conference bringing together US and Chinese educators. While we saw some very interesting things and were not restricted in how we used free time, our impressions were limited by time, location, and the events that dominated our attention. I know it is also likely we do not understand the limitations on our impressions (e.g., the television channels we viewed in the hotel are not necessarily available to the general public through their means of access). If nothing else, I will continue to cross-references my new first hand experiences with the information sources I encounter on a daily basis. Already, I am more aware of information that references China (the Tom Friedman article in today’s local paper concerned environmental issues in China – my reference to Friedman’s China visit). My limited experiences do compliment my reading on advances in rapidly developing countries and how such advances might influence education and technology in the US (Friedman’s The World is Flat, Buderi and Huangs’ Guanxi (Windows and China) and China Inc).
Some observations:
Existing infrastructure is not always a liability – visionaries appear to be able to learn from best practices and leap over the intermediate steps more advanced nations or organizations had to go through to get to a level of practice. Innovation can sometimes be achieved by observation.
I assume others make the same assumptions I do and being in a very different place makes it obvious this is not the case. Here is an example. I was extremely impressed by commitment to learning that is evident in the students (Note – we likely saw the very high end schools). However, stepping back and viewing the total context, it is evident what the cost of not taking advantage of academic opportunity might be. College education brings so many advantages and these advantages are not just for the individual, but also for the family. Invest in your child because this child is also your own future. I wonder what the cost of failure really is?
“Face” is so important. Doing the “right thing” reflects strongly on you, your family, your company, etc.
I understand that the world has become flat and China is really a place to see this happen. The economic benefits of a cheap and highly motivated work force is obvious. There is no way to compete with such opportunities. However, I am guessing that the curve of development is also imfluenced by factors that limit the trajectory. Cheap labor is not unlimited – as people turn income into expectations cheap labor will become more expensive. Rapid development creates debts that must eventually be paid (e.g., reliance on dirty energy and the creation of health hazards). In the end, I am guessing that factors such as education and values will be what sustains improvement.
I am becoming a little self-conscious about my size. I am a little taller than the average U.S. male and weigh more than I should, but here people look at me. I started to notice this yesterday.
It started during our visit to the Forbidden City. They asked us to wear these strange hats so that the tour guides could keep track of us in the crowds. I started to notice that the hats brought a great deal of attention to our group and people were taking pictures. Chinese tourists with their personal cameras, people with nice video equipment and some professionals who seemed to be there to film what we guessed was an ad spot started pointing their cameras at us. Actually, I soon realized that I was generating more than my fair share of photo opportunities. The hat does look pretty funny on me and I started to feel like I was the leader of visitors from another galaxy. I now have a collection of pictures of people taking pictures of me. I started walking over to those with expensive digital cameras and asking if I could have a look to see what their pictures looked like. We compared cameras – it was great fun.
My second “size” experience came later last evening. We were shopping for bargains in a place called the Silk Market. The sales persons are extremely aggressive in presenting their goods to tourists. I am not a great shopper under any circumstances, but having salespersons grab me to make me stop walking was pretty extreme.
The one line that did get my attention – Big Buddha – We got size fit you too!
I have decided to pursue my diet which much greater vigor once I get home.
Great Wall
Today was really the last day of our trip and the only day the entire group spent as tourists. The destination was the Great Wall.
Even though the site has become terribly commercialized, the Great Wall is still very impressive.
Walking the Great Wall is strenuous, but we did very well. Check out the following photo.
We took this picture on the way down as a way to show just how steep the incline is. There is also something else impressive about this picture. Moving up and down the wall is a great physical feat – the steepness quickly leaves you winded. The steps, when there are steps, are sometimes twice the height you might be used to in walking the steps in your home. This said – notice what Cindy is carrying. The vendors are everywhere and somehow manage to haul their wares up the path. Despite the struggle to get up and down Cindy had to shop.
You buy it, you carry it was my policy.
We get up at 4 in the morning for the long journey home. I will probably put together one more post on this trip and then it is back to technology and teaching.
Our Internet access has worked great, but we have encountered one “issue”. Cindy was trying to write about our viewing of Tiananmen Square when we visited the Hall of the People and was attempting to locate the proper spelling. She found that the entry in Wikipedia was “reset” when she attempted to load the link provided by Google. I am guessing that situation is peculiar to our location and you will be able to access the entry.
We visited again today.
Our guide provided the following explanation. The students were protesting corruption. As more and more individuals joined the protest, Beijing was in chaos. The Chinese people value harmony and tranquility and the situation was dire as services were shut down. The government had to move to restore order. Things are much better now and the government has taken action against those who are corrupt. The country is gradually becoming more open and this is a good thing.
The Internet has played a significant role in change. Our guide says that he can use the Internet to find out what he needs to know even when there is nothing in the newspapers or on television.
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