Category: General

You get a server, you get a server, ….

I intend to write a couple of posts that explore issues that are related to whether content creators should serve their content themselves or rely on a service to host the content. In exploring background material for these posts, I could not help considering my own history. Strange as it may sound, I ended up trying to establish how I did what I did. Trying to establish my own behavior was a bit of a challenge as some of these personal experiences happened long ago. 

If you have long been a Macintosh user, it may surprise you to learn that any Macintosh could quickly be turned into a server. So, think of a Mac on your office desk on which you did your daily work and imagine this computer had a folder that any HTML docs placed in this folder would be immediately available on the Internet.

This option was built into all versions of the Apple OS Lion and earlier. I used to do a lot of K12 staff development sessions and I enjoyed explaining to the educators that I could turn one of their Macs into a server in less than 5 minutes. Macs are built on Linux (BSD I think) and at the time came with the Apache server software built in. Most of the servers on the Web still run on more recent versions of Apache. Anyway, the issue with the demonstration for teachers was that most computers are connected to the internet with a dynamic and not a static IP. This translates as the IP with a dynamic connection may be different each time you connect. The IP is often called a dotted quad and looks like 75.168.107.115. You can locate your present IP using this link. You can use either the dotted quad or the site name to connect to the site. The familiar approach using the site name happens through a DNS server (domain name server) so when you use the Internet you enter a site name which ends up being converted to a dotted quad. However, even with a dynamic connection, as long as you are connected others can connect to your server by using the dotted quad.

As I was remembering the tests I did using the Mac as a server, I realized there could be a way to look back in time at this behavior. The Internet Archive project operates a system called the WayBack Machine that attempts to archive Internet content for historic use. I had static Internet connections at that time and was allowed several reliable IPs because of the research I did. I remembered the address for my office desktop machine was grabe.psych.und.nodak.edu (my name, department, university) and I entered this address in the Wayback Machine. Sure enough, the page served from this desktop had been stored for posterity.

I can tell looking at this page that it was not coded in HTML by hand. At that time Apple offered a web development tool called iWeb as part of its basic productivity suite of software tools. iWeb provided a graphic interface for laying out web pages and then generated the HTML automatically. This would have been the only way I could have included something like a guestbook on the site.

So, there was a time when any user who wanted to have their own website posted from their personal server was part of the vision (the date on the page above was 2003, but Wayback says it was first created in 2001). The idea of Web 2.0 was emerging and alternate terms for this trend were the read/write web and the participatory web. The read/write web probably is the most descriptive meaning the Internet was not just for the consumption of content, but also for the creation and sharing of content. How this is done now is through a site both creators and consumers visit (e.g., Facebook, Twitter), but there was a time a different approach was being explored and anyone who wanted to operate a server could.

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Online synchronization and online storage are not the same thing

I  was listening to this episode of a podcast on iPhone photography dealing with iCloud storage that revealed information about iCloud that I had not understood or at least considered carefully. I have been using iCloud as a backup for several apps because the online service allows me to work on the same files from several devices. You have one iCloud account for all of the Apple devices you own. What I had failed to recognize was what synchronization actually means. The iPhone photography discussion concerned the issue serious iPhone photographers have with the capacity limit they encounter when keeping thousands of photographs on their phone. The auto-backup to iCloud is not really a solution because images are deleted from iCloud when deleted from the phone. This is what synchronization means. Yes, Apple does offer an approach that downgrades the quality of images on your phone while keeping full quality images in the cloud if you use this option, but just the idea of not considering when I delete something on a device, the synchronized file in the cloud is also deleted was a revaluation. Note – Apple does recognize this issue and provides a way to recover deleted iCloud files for thirty days. My concern was more general in that I could have deleted old files thinking there was a backup when this was not the case. 

Here is a kind of experiment you can perform. If you are an Apple user, visit iCloud.com and open iCloud Drive. Take a photo file copy it to the drive from your desktop and then copy the same file to the Documents folder on your computer. It will soon appear in the documents folder in iCloud. Now, on your computer, delete the photo from the documents folder. If you look in iCloud, you will find that the photo still exists on the iCloud drive, but not in the documents folder on the ICloud Drive.

This image shows iCloud (online) and the Cloud Drive as a subfolder.

Within Drive you have synchronized folders and other files

The file stored within the synched Documents folder. This is the file that would be removed when the file was remove from the computer.

Photos are not an issue for me because all my photos are automatically backed up to Google Photos and I also use a backup service for my desktop computer so I can probably recover any file whether it is in the iCloud service or not. However, coming to the understanding that I have does give me some concern about relying on iCloud storage. I use iCloud as a way to access certain files from different devices and this is probably not ideal. I have hundreds of highlighted and annotated PDFs I keep for use with Bookends and Highlights, the note-taking files I use with Obsidian, and the documents I have written with Scrivener are vulnerable in this way. All assume synchronization and are vulnerable to universal deletion.

What to do?

The typical recommendation for backup is to have a copy on a local computer, a local separate storage device, and online. I have decided it makes the most sense for my personal situation to periodically duplicate the synchronized document folders that I am concerned about and upload these folders to Google. Apple makes it very cumbersome to download content from the iCloud. You must download files one at a time rather than select all and then download or download a folder. This limitation is not practical when you have hundreds of files you might want to backup once downloaded from iCloud.I may need to purchase a little more Google Drive storage, but the security is worth it.

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Reality of Learning Tactics

Folks like me and many I follow get all excited about the latest learning tactics and the research that investigates if and why the tactics work. Every once in a while I think back to some observations I made while lecturing to large groups of undergraduates who took Introductory and Educational Psychology.

After an introduction to the Cornell Note-Taking system, I asked if anyone recognized what I was describing from middle-school or high school. Typically, a third-or so of the students would raise their hands. I then would ask how many were using the Cornell system to take notes on my presentation. In doing this for many years, I think I may have found one or two students who were using the system. For the occasional ed psych prof who reads my posts, give these questions a try and see what you discover.

I often ask about this experience in my grad courses seeking an explanation. Nothing much ever emerges from this request, but I would often observe that more research should be focused on the barriers to the adoption of proven study tactics. The Cornell system is simple enough. It can’t be exposure since the Cornell system is introduced in K12 and college study skill programs. Maybe the younger students were required to show that they were using the system.

The one exception I can think of to my observation regarding college student application of study tactics is the use of flash cards. At least some students in fields that require the memory for lots of specifics (I tend to think of PT and OT students) I noticed breaking out their decks of cards while waiting for my classes to begin. So there is this interesting exception to investigate. Why flash cards and note Cornell notes?

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Educational Influencers

I came across several studies from a group that have been investigating what could be described as education influences. Those of us who have attended educational conferences and followed educational topics on social media likely can identify several of the individuals these scholars now study. Back when Cindy and I attended several tech conferences a year, the same names seemed to surface across conferences as invited or highlighted speakers. Social media has increased the visibility of individuals who would qualify in this category.

The cast of characters seems somewhat different as some of the individuals I saw at conferences do not all expend their energy posting to social media. Others by way of high level of online activity and a message that attracts followers seem to have emerged without face to face appearances. More and more the payed invitations to present at conferences probably follows rather than precedes social media activity.

Because I come from a research tradition and attend researched focused conferences as well as what I would describe as conferences that were mainly attended by practitioners, I have always been intrigued by the lack of overlap between what seem two different worlds. The “rockstars” of one setting seem either invisible or avoiding the other setting. My training would argue that this is not the way it is supposed to work. 

Personal observations aside I have come across a group investigating educational influencers and recommend their observations for consideration (see references at the conclusion of this post). 

The work of the individuals I am now reading focus heavily on the role of social media and identify two concepts of interest – the micro-celebrity and the social media influencer. I will try to summarize their thinking but as always I encourage the reading of primary sources. 

A micro-celebrity comes across as an ordinary person (probably a teacher or administrator in the beginning) who takes advantage of thoughtful self-presentation skills and engagement with online individuals they might encounter to increase their perceived status. They weave in their personal lives in their social media presentation and interactions to develop a sense of authenticity and connectedness. To some, the sense that one is reading or listening to the experiences of regular people is consistent with the understanding of social media as a democratic environment. 

Once established some micro-celebrities take advantage of their followers to accept compensation for endorsing products and practices. The articles I cite seem to focus more on compensation for focusing on others and commercial products, but I would suggest that many I categorize in this group promote themselves and their own content. For example, they suggest their potential as a conference presenters or providers of professional development. Authors of texts and resources such as those available through teachers pay teachers would be included. 

Without completely condemning this trend, the scholars studying this phenomena note that this process of micro-celebrity emerging as influences can have detrimental consequences. One area they have investigated is the qualify of resources available through teachers pay teachers focusing on content for the teaching of history. Analysis of these resources indicating that some of the resources are inaccurate and some even racist.  They point to a concern that services such as teachers pay teachers exercise little effort a quality control. They have lobbied for improvements in such efforts. The concerns they express seem similar to what so many regulators are concerned about with the general lack of monitoring of information quality from politicians appearing on social media sites. 

Carpenter, J. P., Shelton, C. C., & Schroeder, S. E. (2022). The education influencer: A new player in the educator professional landscape. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 1-16.

Harris, L. M., Archambault, L., & Shelton, C. C. (2021). Issues of quality on Teachers Pay Teachers: an exploration of best-selling US history resources. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 1-19. [for a resource not behind a pay wall see this article from Slate]

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The advantages of digital reading

In the past year or so, I am guessing educators have become aware of a controversy related to whether learners are best able to learn from content presented on paper or a screen.  I am certain some researchers will continue to compare the comprehension of content appearing in a book versus on a screen, but whether or not such research reaches a conclusion one way or the other (see reference from recent meta-analysis), we have already switched to heavily relying on information we can access from our devices. It makes more sense to accept that learning with a phone, tablet, or computer will be involved in a significant proportion of our learning experience and consider how best to use the unique capabilities of these devices. What does digital reading look like and what presently neglected skills are being ignored that educators can help learners acquire? 

I do many different kinds of reading and I think this is true of many learners. I read for pleasure and I read to learn. Those who study reading probably can come up with many more meaningful categories, but these two are sufficient for my argument. I like to describe these reading activities as associated with shallow and deep goals. Some who study different reading activities seem to describe deep reading a little differently than I do. My use of the term implies the intent to learn, retain, and apply information gleaned from reading. I also see an opportunity for digital reading when retention and application follow initial exposure to text by longer periods of time than would be involved in the delay until the next examination. A unique advantage of digital reading is the opportunity to externalize immediate insights and personal interpretations in ways that take advantage of storage, organization, and search capabilities of technology. Some describe this as using technology as a second brain. Accept that human memory is far from perfect. If we think about reading a little differently and consider that reading could also involve efforts at external storage, the time invested in reading to learn may have a bigger return on investment in the future.

What follows are four books (linked to the Kindle version from Amazon) that take on the notion of digital reading. Yes, I have included one of my books among them although this book is focused more on how educators can take advantage of technology to facilitate how students learn when they read. All of these sources explain what I mean by the externalization opportunities technology make available. If you want a single recommendation, it would be “How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking”. I find the title a bit misleading as the text is concerned with far more than taking notes. The author considers learning from reading and learning more generally. I make this recommendation because offers both solid theory and concrete suggestions for practice. 

Grabe – Designing Instruction Using Layering Services: Educators and students guiding learning

Cohn – Skim, Dive, Surface: Teaching Digital Reading

Kalir & Garcia – Annotation

Ahrens – How to Take Smart Notes: One Simple Technique to Boost Writing, Learning and Thinking – for Students, Academics and Nonfiction Book Writers

My Diigo account should provide me notes on all of these books.

Reference:

Furenes, M. I., Kucirkova, N., & Bus, A. G. (2021). A comparison of children’s reading on paper versus screen: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 0034654321998074.

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Social bookmarking

I have not written about social bookmarking for some time and like technology in general this category of apps continues to apps. Some of these advances have included the opportunity to store highlights and notes from digital books and to share this information with a specified group or with any interested party.

For the unfamiliar, here is how I see this evolution. When we started with web browsers, we were initially provided the opportunity to store links we wanted to revisit within the browser. Improvements included the opportunity to organize bookmarks into folders and to add tags and descriptions to allow a larger and larger collection to be searched. Eventually, it was possible to store such collections online providing the opportunity to work from different locations with different devices. Eventually, it became possible to share this information or at least designated subset with others. Why not share useful resources? Recent innovations include the addition of advanced note taking capabilities and automatic storage of digital book notes.

My long term favorite has been Diigo. You can explore the public potential of Diigo by examining my notes.

For those interested in sharing insights from books, my recommendation would be Goodreads. I have had a Goodreads account for several years, but I had not paid much attention. Recently, I learned that Goodreads allows for the storage and sharing of annotations. These annotations can be shared. I have not made the effort to download the highlights for all of my books – this is a security measure to allow individuals to decide what they want to offer as a social service. Try “How to take smart notes” to see what the sharing of notes looks like.

Applications for educators? Social bookmarking sites offer a great opportunity to share resources with others having similar interests (e.g., history teachers) or to offer a collection of resources to students.

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Writing to learn and more

I have a long term interest in student note-taking and how it might be improved. A somewhat shorter fascination has been the role of writing in content area learning and this is a topic I consider with a focus on the role of technology in a graduate course I teach. Recently, I read a book by Sonke Ahrens with the rather lengthy title – How to take smart notes: One simple technique to boost writing, learning and thinking – for students, academics and nonfiction book writers (reference included at the end of this post). I don’t think the title adequately conveys the breadth of what the book covers. I see it as a book about what learning is and the role writing can play in facilitating the process of learning. By including a consideration of several technology tools, the author brings together many of my interests.

I decided I would try to write several posts on this topic based on my own experiences and interests. These posts may not appear here sequentially, but I promise to offer several posts I will link in some way. My intent is to describe several digital tools I use or have used in what some might describe as a reading to writing workflow. Most academics have related experiences on this process. My focus on digital tools is more in keeping with the core focus of this blog. 

A little history

Several of the authors I have read recently mention what I consider historical perspectives on the role of technology that were already familiar to me and that I have found intriguing. 

In 1945 (no I did not read it immediately upon its publication), Vannevar Bush wrote an article for The Atlantic titled “As we may think”. Bush advocated for the importance of scientific research in the war effort and was partly responsible for what we now recognize as the National Science Foundation. In the Atlantic article, Bush offers early insight into the challenge of processing the enormous about of information that was and continues to be available. He lamented that … For years inventions have extended man’s physical powers rather than the powers of his mind. His solution was the memex – a hypothetical contraption based in the mass storage method of the time (microfilm). This device allowed a user to link together elements of information as a trail that would provide associative insights (as we may think – associative memory). The notion of links among elements of information is often recognized as very similar to the “world wide web” (internet) and the reason many tech folks recognize Bush and the fanaticized memex. The key idea here – technology be a tool for learning through the external representation of ideas and their connections.

Steve Jobs offered what became a famous analogy describing how he saw the potential of the personal computer. He described the efficiency of human movement as far inferior to other animals, but with the assistance of an external device (the bicycle) human movement was far more efficient. This is how he saw the potential benefit of the PC – a bicycle for the mind. At this point in time, the question might be how well does the present use of technology in education match with this goal? Does it facilitate the process of learning and the application of what has been learned?

Ahrens book – https://www.amazon.com/How-Take-Smart-Notes-Nonfiction-ebook/dp/B06WVYW33Y

Bush’s As we may think – https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/303881/

Steve Jobs Bicycle for the mind – https://youtu.be/ob_GX50Za6c

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