It appears that Oprah has become fascinated with reading books on a Kindle. The financial folks are projecting a bump in Kindle sales.You certainly will get no negative reaction from me. I wonder if Kindle reading is subject to the same hurdles that have prompted the recent discussion of the downside of reading from a screen (a recent discussion on WWWEDU focused on Nielson’s description of typical online scanning patterns and the concerns of some that this was encouraging a shallow style of interaction with text). I am guessing the content available for the Kindle offers little to those who want to skim. I don’t think I will invest in another gadget, but I hope a more general purpose “tablet” will eventually become available. I keep hoping Apple will offer a larger version of the “Touch” which I see as about half-way there.
Now, if we could direct Oprah toward other financial targets. How about hybrid cars?
In general, I think that the distinction between those who grow up with technology and those who have discovered technology after first learning to relate to their world is other ways is not that important. For me, there is a great difference between skill and perspective. I accept the reality that younger folks have a different perspective than I – some specific uses of technology are all they have known. Sometimes those with a different perspective can take advantage of the awareness of change to understand things on a deeper level and to develop greater skill. The acceptance of “this is the way the world is” is far from equivalent to understanding why the world is this way.
My oldest granddaughter, a digital native, contacted me via interactive video this morning to let me know she had made a jack-o-lantern. In my head, the carving of a pumpkin seemed pretty risky for such a young child, but it turns out she has pasted pieces of colored paper on a plastic milk jug.
Andrew Keen (Cult of the Amateur) predicts that the downturn in the economy will deal a blow to open source software and information. This position is similar to my concern expressed several days ago that the economy may lead to the termination of free online services that are attractive to educators.
Mass unemployment and a deep economic recession comprise the most effective antidote to the utopian ideals of open-source radicals. (Keen)
As I have considered the present situation, I have generated several concerns not presented by Keen. Free resources will be less likely because:
companies may withdraw a commitment to “exploratory time” for employees – e.g., Google allows employees time (20% I think) to work on personally defined initiatives instead of requiring them to spend 100% of paid time on assigned projects. BTW – universities often offer a similar opportunity (e.g., 20% time for secondary activities that pay – clinical psychologists seeing clients). The original motive as I understand it was to offer creative people an opportunity to be creative within the company as a way to keep them from going off to form their own companies. The threat of individuals leaving is greatly reduced in times of constriction.
companies may withdraw web services and open source projects that do not directly generate revenue and only promote the company (e.g., Google services that do not display ads)
individuals stressed by competition will be reluctant to contribute their time for the “good of the group”.
The interdependence of energy, global warming, the economy, and the flat world continue to fascinate me. Despite the intended focus of this blog, other issues sometimes simply require our attention.
PBS aired a Frontline special this evening focused on this identical set of interrelated topics. The entire program is available online with related in-depth material. What a tremendous resource.
Segment 8 contains an interview with T. Boone Pickens and his take on wind power. Check out the reference to North Dakota in this segment.
Here is an update to my recent post describing problems with Bloglines.
My Bloglines account is working again and it appears others have had the same experience. This link from TechCrunch provides additional information regarding the financial challenges faced by the company.
Ok – first, the title will end up being an overgeneralization, but I could not resist. I thought perhaps I would get some points for “cute”.
I recently read a post from MacWorld on flashcard generators for the iPod touch. While I am assuming that this is mostly an option for individuals at present, I do experiment with apps and I was curious about what was available. What I mean is that it likely uncommon that a high proportion of students in any given class would have an iPod touch or phone, but these devices are frequently purchased by individual students who are probably looking to take full advantage of their investment.
I decided to purchase iFlipr because the MacWorld article seemed to give it the highest recommendation and the cost was $3 (a 10 card version was available for free, but I decided I was getting something out of the program even if I only post something here and it was appropriate to pay). BTW – I am not going to offer a complete description of the process of generating your own flashcards here because a nice video can be found at the iFlipr site.
Flashcards go way back. I mean flashcards were around when I was in grade school. When I was in grade school and WAY BACK are equivalent. For the flash card , the standard flashcard has a question on one side and the answer on other. You attempt to answer the question and then flip the card over to see if you were correct. Elementary students might use them to drill on math facts. I see many college students who still prepare flashcards for courses requiring a great deal of memorization.
The flashcards tools for the “touch” and for some cell phones presents the front side of a card. iFlipr requires “self scoring”, but some other systems might make use of a multiple choice format. The idea is that you “think” of the answer and then flip the card to see if you are correct. You then mark the card as correct or incorrect. Different systems then offer different options. Perhaps, the cards simply continue to be presented at random until you quit. iFlipr offers a presentation option that displays “unknown” cards more frequently.
I found the creation of a set of cards a very easy process. I happened to have some images of macroinvertebrates Cindy had collected on a recent field trip and my exploration stack presented the picture of a critter on the front and the name on the back.
If I was a student and I owned a touch and I frequently took classes that required lots of memorization (e.g., languages, biology, chemistry), I would find it reasonable to invest $3 in this type of software.
I suppose we could get into a long discussion regarding the value of memorization. I will save you the trouble. There is too much memorization in schools, but sometimes it is essential to know some thing rather than look them up.
Technology can be buggy so it sometimes tough to know when a problem is really a problem.
I have been having problems with my Bloglines account for some time. Several of the feeds were not working and I was getting the red exclamation point indicator.
Bloglines explaines the problem as follows:
Bloglines has encountered an error trying to fetch the latest version of this feed. Bloglines handles errors automatically, no action is required by you. The error was:
The feed does not appear to exist. This can be caused by the feed URL being incorrect, or it can be caused by a configuration issue with the server hosting the feed. If this error continues, you should check the feed URL and, if it is wrong, subscribe to the correct URL.
While it sounds like a temporary situation, temporary has now stretched to several weeks.
Now it appears this may be something more serious – others have the same problem and are speculating regarding the state of the company.
I take more than the casual interest in such matters. When you invest time in explaining how these tools work for others, it is an issue when the tool you decide to focus on goes out of style or simply shuts down.
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