Author: grabe

Generations and Appreciating A New Start

This is move-in weekend at UND. I love this part of university life – new faces arriving on campus with great hopes for the future. I have always said that one of the great benefits of being a university prof is the opportunity to be part of this annual process of renewal.

Age is becoming an issue. I have worked on a college campus as a prof since 1975. At the faculty meeting on Thursday, one of my age mates announced he was retiring. He is going to work part time doing distance education from Denver. The time for me to make a similar announcement grows nearer. Not quite yet.

Relating is becoming a little more difficult. I used to relate to new students using experiences with my own kids. Now, as one by one my kids have graduated, even this basis for comparison has slipped away.

You would think working with technology would help, but the messages in this field even seem designed to convince me I am out of date – an immigrant instead of a native. However, I was looking through my Flickr account and I came across an image that helped.

This is a screen capture I generated about a month ago with granddaughter Addie. As a young technology user yet to reach her second birthday, Addie likes to use the computer to talk with “grandpy”. She uses a computer to send video over the Internet and at her age I had yet to experience television. Actually, Addie’s television experiences are limited as well, but that is a parental decision.

So, I walk about campus watching freshpersons exploring with their parents while simultaneously texting to their friends who are back home or showing up at other campuses around the country. I don’t even carry a cell phone. Despite the technical skills that I do have I suppose these students may find me hopelessly dated and unable to relate.

Then, it occurs to me. It is all a matter of perspective and an inevitable part of the grand process. Generations are different and understanding is not always easy. Perhaps these new college students are also already dated and maybe too old to see. The new college students may not understand my life style or values, but Addie cannot understand why they don’t go back to their dorm rooms and contact their own grandpys on the computer. Maybe they just don’t know how yet. Maybe their moms are not there to help.

Change happens and we can always learn from each other as long as we recognize that our perspective is just a perspective.

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Don’t Be Evil – Apple

Will the profit motive influence corporate values? Despite the famous “Don’t be Evil” mantra, we already know Google folded under pressure from China and altered search options to block disapproved content.

Now, it appears it is Apple’s turn to evaluate company values. It is reported that the iTunes store is blocked in China. The explanation given is that iTunes recently offered a benefit collection for Tibet.

[Comment from AppleInsider]

FollowUp – Wired

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The Finish – did Phelps really defeat Cavic?

Dennis Stangl tweeted the link to an interesting page concerning the Phelps/Cavic finish in the Olympic 100-meter butterfly. The page author offers information complete with images attempting to demonstrate that Cavic actually wins the race. In addition, the author produces a complicated conspiracy theory associating Phelps with corporate interests willing to rig the outcome for financial gain.

I think the page I mention might make a great starting point for an information literacy lesson. Students likely saw this race or a replay. What was their impression of the outcome? The page presents a somewhat persuasive case until it degenerates into the conspiracy theory, but even that information might be motivating for students. Are there other online resources that would refute the information presented by the author? Who is the author anyway and what are his/her credentials? Could the images be real? Can you locate other online images that appear to support a different conclusion?

NBC page on Phelps

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WonderHowTo

I am a fan of online instructional videos and pay $25 a month for full access to Lynda.com (these are software and programming tutorials). The challenge can be finding good material and sometimes you have to pay to assure material has been carefully created.

HowToVideo is a site dedicated to videos that explain “how to” do something. The site really organizes AND screens resources. There is an education category that teachers may find helpful – many useful demonstrations are explained.

I became familiar with this site via a post on the ReadWriteWeb and you might read this post for a more general description and an explanation of you can add WonderHowTo you your Firefox browser. The explanations offered are intended to match the topics you are viewing. This might be an interesting option in some situations. I wonder how easy it is to turn the feature on and off?

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APA Games Review Mixed

A press release from the 2008 convention of the American Psychological Association summarized papers presented on the topic of video games. The results seem mixed:

  • playing video games can improve cognitive and perceptual skill
  • surgeons who played video games requiring spatial skills and hand dexterity and then performed a drill testing these skills were significantly faster
  • those who played more entertainment games did poorer in school and were at greater risk for obesity
  • those playing violent games were more hostile, less forgiving and believed violence to be normal compared to those who played nonviolent games.

Many types of games and many different consequences.

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Big Talkers

There are many big talkers out there. Folks who have lots to say about situations they do not actually deal with themselves. The folks who criticize authors and book companies probably annoy me the most. They also fail to carefully analyze the book business and appreciate the role that we all play in creating what is pretty much a tragedy of the commons. No one denies that textbooks cost a lot. So does gas. So does beer. So does college tuition.  The big talkers collect their speaker fees for telling the rest of us that the world is changing and digital media requires open access and free sharing of content. Lots of folks welcome this message. Perhaps it eases their conscience when violating copyright. Willingness to pay to hear this message makes it very likely the message will continue to be repeated. The message of entitlement creates a self-perpetuating cycle.

Siva Vaidhyanathan is working on a new book about Google. This is the type of book I cannot resist purchasing. Siva’s book (The Googlization of Everything) is written with the support of the Institute for the Future of the Book. This is an organization with clear intentions of changing the publishing industry. What I admire about this project is that it is consistent with the position of the Institute. It attempts to involve the “audience” in the writing process and the “drafts” are openly available. Take a look at The Googlization of the Everything. No big talkers and no implication of entitlement here – the author is supported by the organization with a position and the content and process is shared. As a reader, you can participate and you can avoid purchasing the book if so desired. However, it is important to understand the circumstances in play here.

BTW – my contribution.

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Online music too costly

From time to time, I write about online music (e.g., lastfm). I enjoy the music, but there are also other interesting issues (e.g., copyright, social networking, online business models). By online music, I am not describing music sharing, but sites that operate much as radio stations with additional features. For example, lastfm maintains a history of the music a user has listened to on his/her computer/ipod. The site then identifies “tastes” and matches users allowing the discovery of new artists and communication (if desired). Favored artists are not perfectly matched across the lists of individuals with similar tastes so the assumption is that there is some value in discovering what is unique in the interest of someone with similar interests.

It appears there is now a serious problem for the online music sites

While all forms of U.S. radio pay royalties to songwriters and publishers through rights organizations such as BMI and Ascap, record labels and recording artists have not received performance royalties from radio in this country, because radio was thought to have a promotional effect on sales. With sales flagging, labels and artists are trying to collect licensing fees from all uses of their music, including radio. Satellite radio stations must pay a small percentage of revenue, while terrestrial radio stations currently pay no royalty to labels and recording artists. (Wired)

Some sites are in greater difficulty than others. Pandora offers music without the benefit of social networking or the storage of data on listening habits. If no one backs down, Pandora would likely be forced to shut down because the ad revenue generated through user visits would not offset the cost of offering music. While a nice feature, lastfm does not have to offer music to provide users a service.

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