Locating images for projects is regarded by many as a challenge. When possible, I think there is educational benefit in capturing images personally. However, this option is sometimes not available. Andrew Ferguson (goldengod) explains and provides links to Creative Commons sources. Note that this post was not written with a focus on educational applications. Note also that not all images appearing on the sites mentioned are available under a creative commons agreement.
The trip was going so well, but things have now gone south (or west in this case). The Hawaii flight was a little slow in getting into Las Vegas and Northwest said that 45 minutes would not be enough time to load our bags and passengers must fly with their bags. One in our party has a 6 month old and could have gone without bags so she could get the baby home, but Northwest had already taken the opportunity to give our seats away. There are no open seats for several days – I suppose because of Spring break. We will try to get out stand by at 6 in the morning.
One positive thing about the Las Vegas airport – free wifi.
Rest of the story:
S0, it is Friday and there are no open seats out until Tuesday. We go stand by.
Cindy and Lynn (with baby Addison) are allowed on a 6 AM flight. Women with children and women with broken leg (Cindy) first!
Kim and Jimbo make it on a 12 noon flight. Only room for two.
ME? I am the only one left, but they start allowing “elite” members to go to the head of the list. I am not elite enough.
5:50 PM and somebody fails to show. I get my chance. I have watched this process now for many hours and I have witnessed the angry passengers show up a few minutes to late and confront the individual at the gate to let them board. I am nervous until the door is closed. We taxi to the end of the runway and stop. We all wait. After a couple of minutes, the pilot comes on the intercom and says that his computer is showing an error message. He was able to reset the computer, but the maintenance people want to have a look. Fine with me. We taxi back to the gate and sit there – for a couple of hours.
They open the door to allow the maintenance men into the plane. No one follows to drag me off.
It turns out to be something related to the avionics cooling system. It is like those little fans in your computer says the captain. I get back to MSP sometime after midnight.
PS – I would have updated this blog from the Las Vegas airport, but I left my computer glasses (something like reading glasses) in the plane we took from Hawaii. When I get very tired (evidently sometime past 30 hours), things begin to look fuzzy. Sometimes, it is just better to get up the next day and start over. 🙂
Here is perhaps a glimpse at something new (actually old as an idea, but new as a product).
Here is a new service to keep your eye on (I have probably said this before). Freebase is a new type of user authored information source in which users add both content and connections. It is dangerous to suggest comparisons to the human brain, but one thing our brains appear to do that offers an advantage over simple storage is to connect the units of information we store (nodes and links). Looking up information when we want is great and the reality of access to information on demand argues against the need to memorize. However, what people miss in suggesting that searching the net eliminates the need for personal storage is that we do more than store information. We connect it. The connections we form may be activated when we retrieve this information and the connected information likely has some utility for us or we would not have formed the connections during encoding. The next generation or semantic web may offer potentially useful connections as well as the information we request.
In describing Freebase, blogger Nicholas Carr describes a wiki-like repository layered with user created metadata connecting elements of information.
Esther Dyson offers additional comments on this project.
Blogger.com, now a Google service, has been updated and certain features may interest educators looking for a safe and simple blog opportunity for their classes. These features can be quickly explored by following the “Take a Tour” link from the blogger start page. The features that would seem to suit the needs of educators wanting to provide security for students and create a simple environment within which students can post include the opportunity to add multiple authors to a blog (team blog) and limit viewing to those whose emails are contained within a designated list.
One potential issue – as I read the instructions, users must have a gmail account for permanent access (some type of short term guest pass exists). I know that schools often block Gmail access. My wife contents this is the case because gmail accounts can be created outside of the control of the school and the email addresses are not necessarily identifiable names of individuals.
For those not put off by these restrictions, blogger.com appears to have some very nice features and the blogger is given considerable freedom is setting up his/her blog according to personal preferences.
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We are having a great time in Hawaii. One strange thing – there are chickens everywhere. Very early in the morning just as the sun is coming up, I can hear the surf and the roosters crowing. It is difficult for my still foggy brain to place exactly where I am.
I didn’t do the Spring break thing when I was a college students, but now that I am old I take the opportunity when I can. This year Cindy and I, two of our daughters, Jimbo (a sigificant other), and grand daughter Addison are taking a break in Hawaii (Kauai).
Addison and grandpa ready for takeoff.
Condo view
Huge surf today
I have an amazing record of having a server go off line while I am gone. Sure enough, the server I operate for the department and my book resources cannot be accessed. I used to think having a server go down when I am out of town was some punishment for taking a break. Here is my new hypothesis – when the university has breaks, the physical plant folks like to work on the electrical systems.
This is not an educational topic per se, but the comment does concern the general topic of copyright and appropriate compensation to content producers.
My interest in technology has expanded my interest in music. Most of the music I listen to moves through one of my computers. This interface adds an added dimension because of the potential social network that can be connected to this music. When I purchase something from iTunes, the recommendations alert me to similar artists who may interest me. I am actually more interested in services such as last.fm or mashups such as pandorafm. These sources provide a variety of services that deepen my interest in the music I listen to and the artists who create this content.
It appears that the RIAA intends to increase the royalties demanded of internet radio services. I learned of this because the increase costs threaten the continuation of Pandora. This increase is anticipated to be especially damaging to what were previously regarded as a special category described as small webcasters (e.g., Rogueamoeba). As I read the law, it appears the minimum fee is $500. The cost per performance is about a tenth of a cent. It doesn’t sound like much, but those offering services at the low end typically do not collect money (there may be an occasional request for a donation).
Copyright is such a complex issue to me because different media work in different ways and because the problem is not necessarily that an opportunity exists, but that individuals might inappropriately take advantage of that opportunity (e.g., capturing a personal copy from what was intended as a one time experience). Differences in how we tend to respond to media are interesting. Theoretically, producers may benefit from different exposure models, but such differences are difficult to document. There is a concept I teach in the intro psychology section on motivation that would seem to apply. For example, Maslow’s hierarchy differentiates deficiency needs and growth needs. Responding to a deficiency need reduces the need to respond again. In contrast, responding to a growth need potentially increases the motive to respond again. Music often seems to function like a growth need. Finding a song or artist that you like increases willingness to listen to that same song or artist again. Hence, it has been argued that listening to an occasional song via internet radio increases rather than decreases sales for quality material. Access to most video and text material in most cases operates like a deficiency need. If I have the opportunity to view a movie or read a book for free, there are only a few rare cases in which that opportunity would increase my desire to then purchase that resource and certainly the general impact would be to reduce sales. I guess I believe that producers should have the right to control access to their creative works, but at least in the case of music I would think certain forms of free exposure would offer a financial advantage.
The legislature of the state of Minnesota is considering a bill authored by Wiger, Pappas, Michel, and Robling with the intent of influencing textbook prices. They appear to believe:
As I understand the basic economics, extending the use of books through resale will either
Attempting to mandate the business practices of publishing companies is really unnecessary and misrepresents the scope of the issues that are involved. Extending the number of times a given book is recirculated is really dependent on the behavior of instructors. There is no requirement that instructors must adopt the current edition of a book. There are companies that collect and resell used books for years after new editions are available. Check on Barnes and Noble online for a given textbook and see if other editions are available. Every bookstore knows how to gain access to these books and this is the reason they attempt to impose earlier adoption deadlines on instructors – they want to see how many used books are available before they buy any new copies. Actually, the bookstores contribute little in this process and receive what typically amounts to a 50% markup for buying a book from a student and placing it back on the shelf. Pretty easy money when you only do this when the instructor signs the order to stock the book again. Evidently the legislators associated with this bill ignore this particular source of price inflation. Why not completely bypass bookstores and order used books online?
It is difficult to take such simplistic notions seriously and I always wonder whether legislators don’t understand or purposefully simplify complex issues to play to the stereotypes of the voters who elect them.
BTW – I am personally offended by the high price of coffee. With the exception of McDonalds, most coffee shops I frequent now charge in excess of $2.25 for a large cup of coffee. Perhaps the legislature could look into the cost of coffee.