Day: September 9, 2003

The Chronicle of Higher Ed recently sponsored an interactive discussion with Dr. James Gee, author of What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. See my previous post 8/23 describing this book.

I read on Slash.Dot that today is the anniversary of the first computer bug. The Navy historical archives retain primary source material on Grace Hopper and this event.

Software companies wanting to promote their productivity tools and educational institutions in need of staff development offer each other some great opportunities. Tools that I know how to use or have an inexpensive way to learn how to use are more attractive to me. If I am aware of the opportunity, this would provide companies willing to provide me free or inexpensive training a great marketing opportunity. While some skills I would learn could be applied with similar tools, certain skills would not. All things being equal (e.g., price), I would probably also be fairly loyal to a company that was supportive of my development.

I happen to be a fan of Adobe GoLive (web authoring tool) and Adobe makes an attempt to use this approach. Check out Adobe’s online tutorials for educators and the program for high school students.

Kids.us, the domain promising content appropriate for a young audience, is online. NeuStar, the company responsible for registering sites wanting to use this domain, requires registrants to submit their content for review prior to website activation. The only link I found was to the Smithsonian so we will have to see whether companies make the effort or see any advantage in this approach.