We have gathered with our family and friends at a rented cabin in Wisconsin. It is a beautiful location and we have enjoyed the opportunity to relax and view the great scenery.
Eventually, we revert to our natural tendencies. We gave Wiis for Christmas. During a trip to MSP in the fall, we heard that Target had the Wii. We stopped at Targets along the way back to Grand Forks and were able to purchase 4. Coming up with one for each family in December would have been impossible. We have set up a projector and a sheet in the basement. Let the games begin.
Many, including those in the education sector who take advantage of free services, have benefited from the many free Web 2.0 resources that are available at no cost. Some analysts are now predicting that a major funding source for such ventures, advertising, may be reaching a saturation point. As more and more ventures are launched, the array of services may reach the point at which very few generate enough funding to keep going. Consumers may follow new developments leaving existing services without the attention to generate necessary revenue.
The options at present appear to be advertising or creating a service that will be purchased by Google/Yahoo/Microsoft. Perhaps 2008 will surface a new option.
We are in Iowa for a few days attempting to visit my mom. I say attempting because my mom lives in a nursing home and Cindy and I both have bad colds. Because of the delicate conditions of the residents, you are not supposed to enter if you are ill. I guess that makes sense.
I have been following the race for the presidency, but I now realize that I have been following the process at a distance. The experience is very different in Iowa. This morning while watching Charles Osgood’s Sunday news program I saw the same seasonal Obama ad three times – it is the one that ends with a slightly different intonation of the the phrase “I approve THIS message” and his two kids say Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday. I am guessing Barak wishes you a Merry Christmas too, but he may not be able to afford the greeting as frequently where you live. I didn’t notice the same repetition with ads from other candidates but nearly every ad spot was for a candidate. I do not watch a lot of television, but I had viewed none of these ads before.
The Sioux City Journal, the local paper here, has endorsed Obama and Romney. I think the Des Moines Register, a more influential paper, endorsed Clinton and McCain. I am thinking my fascination with the Iowa political scene will wane about the time I leave the state in a couple of days. The opportunity to move in and out of this political preoccupation has been weird.
Hey, in case I am off-line for a few days, Merry Christmas from Cindy and me.
We are on the road somewhere in southern North Dakota making the long car trip to Iowa to visit my mom. I have a new tech toy to play with on the trip. The rest of my family are power cell phone users and they purchased a multiple-purpose cell phone for me in the hopes I would participate. After a year on months in which my minutes accumulated to less than an hour, I have been cut off. I now have a simple cell phone (no Internet), but I received a “wifi stick” for my laptop in trade. I prefer email and I have Internet access I can use from nearly anywhere. This was a good investment.I just read Will Richardson’s recent post lamenting the lack of group focus among educational bloggers. It is a valid observation and I would agree. Blogs are such flexible tools and the variety of purposes blogs serve is one source of the difficulty. My analysis of my own behavior is that I use this blog to store bits and pieces of info I pick up (hence the title of this blog). I do this for myself, but share if anyone else is interested. I read a few blogs written by others, but I don’t see myself participating in a group enterprise.Consider how blogs differ from other “tools”. Perhaps there are too many access points. With a wiki or a listserv, everything cycles through a common point even when different topics are addressed. With blogs there is no leader, no one to initiate or integrate for others, and an independence that encourages self absorption. You can use a blog like a listserv, but different tools afford different opportunities. Blogs are personalized publishing tools. Other tools are probably better if a group focus in desired.
The PEW Internet and American Life Project has released another report on Teens and Social Media. The report released just a few days ago is based on data collected in 2006 and allows comparisons with similar surveys from 2004 and 2000.The report indicates:
93% of adolescents report using the Internet (hence the data reported on “Internet users” need be adjusted downward only a bit to reflect general adolescent use)
64% of 12-17 year olds participate in at least one content-creation activity
39% share artistic creations (including photos)
28% have created a blog
27% maintain a personal web page
55% have a profile on a social networking site (mostly MySpace)
In general, participation has increased since 2004 (see chart)
One of the points the authors argue is that content creation is often a way to start conversations. Teens report a high proportion of their media receive comments.With the exception of video, girls are more likely to produce content (e.g., 35% vs. 20% for blogs).There is some evidence of an awareness of safety issues. For example, uploaded photos are offered to only some potential observers (restricted access) most or some of the time (77%).
There are data on contact with strangers in a separate document describing the survey and offering question by question data. If PEW keeps to past practices, there will be a later report on online safety.
I found some of the data in available in the description of the questionnaire to be of interest. Here are a couple of items not included in the report.
Location of access:
I find this variable of interest partly in reaction to filtering that often occurs in schools. If students access from locations outside of schools, it might be argued that filtering access within schools ignores issues students are likely to encounter elsewhere.
Access at any time:
89% from home
75% from school
70% from home of friend or relative
50% from library
It seems strange that 25% claim not to access the Internet at school (this % has increased since 2004 – school is less likely to be an access point).
Location of most frequent access:
77% from home
18% from school
I wish someone was doing general studies of school technology use like Becker did a decade ago. The PEW data are very general and leave many of my questions unanswered.Issues raised the data cannot answer:Very little really provided about educational use.
Was access from school related to a class assignment or is it more likely the school provides access used to meet nonacademic needs?
How frequently was access from home related to a school task?
What proportion of the content creation was related to school assignments/activities?
It is reported that blog activity is quite common.
What is the post frequency?
How frequently is blog activity located within a social networking site.
What topics do adolescents address in their blogs?
Lenhart, Amanda, Mary Madden, Alexandra Rankin Macgill, and Aaron Smith. “Teens and Social Media.” PEW Internet & American Life Project.
Our XO arrived this evening. I was beginning to worry. We will be on the road for the holidays and I had hoped to have the computer along so I could explore. It showed up just in time.
One of the first things you notice is just how small it is. I am writing this post from the new machine and I am making more keyboarding errors than usual. I do understand that the machine was intended for children and not for adults. I have been following Doug Johnson’s experiences as he has been commenting on experiences with his new machine. He is correct in noting that if you made the commitment to purchase the pair of OLPC XOs you should not expect the traditional experience. He describes his package as containing the computer, the power supply and a couple of sheets of sketchy instructions. Unless I was so excited in opening the box that I discarded some of the contents, I do not think our package came with instructions.
The lack of specific instructions will likely be an issue. I was able to connect to our wireless after a lot of trial and error. For some reason, I was unable to figure out which combination of attributes should be used to describe the protection scheme we use on our network. I was able to finally make the connection, but I am still unsure that I understand exactly what I did. Unfortunately, this pattern of learning seems to be typical leaving me in a constant state of exploration. Perhaps the exploration is supposed to be part of the fun.
My “break” officially begins today. I now have a couple of weeks to relax and catch up on tasks I have been putting off.Today, I decided I should update the software that runs this blog (WordPress).
The maxim “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” doesn’t always apply to open software. Patches for various problems, including security issues, are constantly being incorporated into new versions and it is considered irresponsible to operate vulnerable software. The downside of upgrading is that things that worked before often break.
The software that operates this blog was created by many talented people. There is the main program that is capable of operating a basic blog, but also plugins that perform special functions. Unfortunately, sometimes plugins that worked before conflict with changes made to the basic software. That is what has happened to me. The plugins I have been using to “tag” my posts, generate a tag cloud, and retrieve posts by tag no longer work. I have found a replacement, but I now have to decide if I want to retag my posts. There are more than 1000 posts so it will be a considerable amount of work. Still, I added the original tag plugin only a year or so ago and many original posts could not be located by tag.
I guess I will start and see how far I get. Working backwards is probably the best strategy. If I decide to abandon the task, at least the most recent and probably most relevant material will be tagged.
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