I would not describe Volgograd as a visually beautiful place. Certainly, there are many, many impressive monuments and there is the mighty Volga. However, there are not the manicured and lush lawns that are familiar to many of us. Open areas seem dry and weedy. Then, there are the roads. I would have found the roads difficult to imagine – broken up with an amazing numbers of potholes. Drivers must constantly swerve about to avoid the deep and frequent obstacles. Still, they seem to be able to manage an impressive and often dangerous speed. The buildings also are nondescript. Mostly dull looking and repetitive in design.
Given this outward appearance, what lies within might not be predicted. The flats (apartments) are very nice and comfortable. For those of us interest in technology, the Internet is very fast and there are plenty of iPhones, iPads, and big screen televisions.
In speaking with people I have met, it seems the difference between the outside and the inside is a matter of control. What individuals feel they can influence lies behind the steel doors of their flats. They may be frustrated by what is outside, but believe factors beyond their control determine what happens there. What happens within is different. This they can control and this is where you find individuality and creativity expressed.
There is probably a larger lesson here. Perhaps it is that when we want others to respond to external expectations we must convey some opportunity for control. Without allowing a sense of ownership, it can be difficult to get a glimpse of the potential that lies within.
We are in St. Petersburg trying to get our bodies to accept the time difference. The hotel is within walking distance of the airport and in an industrial area so we have seen little. At this point it is difficult to appreciate we are far from home or exactly were we are. English is not a problem in the hotel.
However, you do find immediate differences. The hotel beverage service seems to rely on instant coffee and I am trying to figure out how to recharge my gadgets without frying them.
The outlets look different. I understand this is 220. To me that translates as the power source to my stove. I know Apple products work well from previous trips. I am not certain about other devices. It must be some combination of a plugin and a converter. The various items I brought to deal with electrical issues list countries on them. I suppose this is to prevent my from experimenting. I do not see Russia listed. More later if I do not burn out my equipment. 😉
This blog will take a different direction for a few weeks. We leave this evening for a three week stint in Russia and I might as well take advantage of this unique opportunity as a source for my posts.
The picture? We had a tough time getting our visas. We had to drive to the FEDEX distribution site to get the visas this morning because the “there by 10” thing does not work for rural areas. Waiting for delivery would not have allowed enough time to make our flight. It looks like we cut this far too close.
You may have never heard of an RSS feed. I begin with this statement because I would have assumed the opposite. I would have guessed anyone reading blogs would have heard of and be using RSS. I have learned otherwise. When Google announced that it would shut down Reader I asked my graduate educational technology class what they planned to do for a replacement and I was met with several blank looks. It is important to understand that not everyone sees the world as you do.
Following the elimination of Reader (an RSS aggregator used directly or indirectly by many who made use of RSS), there was a good deal of online commentary on the purpose of RSS (e.g., TechCrunch). The point seems to be that Google knows all and must have decided that RSS readers and RSS were no longer necessary. This was a surprise to me, but when I searched the question “is RSS relevant” I was able to find negative reactions as far back as 2006.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) offers a way to identify changes to web content. So, instead of visiting say 25 blogs (or other web content) you might follow to see if the author has generated anything new, you can make use of an RSS reader that will identify what has changed. RSS saves a great deal of time. Visit one service instead of many sites. If you were a blogger, you wanted to be certain readers could subscribe to the feed from your site. If you were a reader, RSS was about increasing your efficiency and probably increasing the number and range of sites you followed.
Sometimes we seem to tire of good OLD ideas and gravitate toward the new and shiny. This does not seem productive or efficient, but it may be human nature. We seem attracted to the changes in our environment as a survival mechanism.
I think about learning from online content as search and discovery. Search implies I know what I want to know and I use powerful tools to locate the best sources for this information. Discovery implies I admit to being unaware of information that would potentially be quite important and commit to scanning recommendations to see what invites my attention.
RSS is a good way to discover. It is like making a commitment to a news source and then reviewing what this source offers. There is danger in the biased selection of sources, but with a little self discipline a variety of sources can be identified.
What has changed in the world of information consumption? I suppose that services like Twitter, Google+ and to a lesser extent Facebook offer a source for recommendations. Individuals who you identify as trusted sources (really?) offer suggestions and you follow up. This is pretty much the only reason I use Twitter. To my taste, there is too much junk in the Twitter feed. Even with careful selection of individuals, there seems to be so much spam.
The blogs I write do send a short message to Twitter so others who do not use RSS, but who might be interested in my comments know when a new post has been generated. You may have identified this post from a Twitter link. The use of Twitter to identify your blog posts is controversial. I am not certain why. I suppose it is regarded by some as self promotion. A one tweet per post model is fine with me. I do find it annoying when multiple tweets advertise the same blog post.
I guess the concern is that the RSS model is preferred by geeks and others have moved on. Facebook and Google+ bring a stream of content from those these individuals chose to follow and that is evidently enough. A quick scan of Twitter might be used to fill in the gaps. Perhaps Google abandoned Reader because it offered little benefit to the their business and because RSS does compete with a function of Google+.
For the time being, I will continue to promote RSS with my students. I see this as promoting the contribution of bloggers. I am concerned that the audience and hence the motivation for an active blogging community will suffer when social media moves exclusively to Twitter, Google+ and Facebook.
BTW – RSS did not disappear with Reader and my recommendation for a Reader replacement is Feedly
Cengage, one of the major publishers of college textbooks, has filed for bankruptcy in an effort to stabilize the financial fortunes of the company. We had a relationship with Cengage for many years beginning when Cengage picked up our book when taking over the holdings of Houghton-Mifflin.
Chief executive Hanson claimed the step “will reduce our debt and improve our capital structure to support our long-term business strategy of transitioning from traditional print models to digital educational and research material”.
About five years ago, we tried to explain to Cengage that digital textbooks were coming and our book on the integration of technology would offer a great opportunity to explore new ways to offer content. We never were able to work out an agreement, but there is now some satisfaction in suggesting that they should have explored early instead of putting themselves in the position of trying to catch up.
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