I encountered a post by Ryan Paul describing a Google research project. As I understand the post, Google researchers have been able to capture audio from a television program, analyze the audio, and use the information gained from the analysis to suggest web links a viewer might investigate to gain more information associated with the topics covered on the television program. Again, if I understand the technology, the technique identifies the show from the pattern of the input (it does not actually understand the text) and then provides links matched to a database of programs identified by pattern fingerprints.
I am teaching a course this summer focused on multimedia authoring. In keeping with the focus of the class, the students and I will be creating a wiki. On a theoretical level, I find the idea of communal authoring very intriguing. On a practical level, I can’t escape the concern that the work of my students will be vandalized. It is not so much that the original material cannot be recovered, it is more the problem of what comments are inserted and how those who work in K-12 settings interpret such experiences. What is the point of working with such environments if the participants are then unwilling to transfer the experiences to new situations.
In keeping with this concern, I have locked the wiki down to the most conservative level allowed. As system administrator, I must enroll users who then select a new password. Using this approach, MediaWiki allows all enrolled users to edit all posts. What I would prefer would be a different set of constraints – a user could protect personal posts, but unprotected pages could be edited by anyone. Perhaps I have yet to discover the combination of settings that allow such options.
I will likely offer more comments on my experiences with a class-based wiki as I see how things go. It is really not possible to say too much about such technologies based on what one accomplish with the software alone. This is one of those areas in which you really need a combination of technology skills and experience with the tools in action.
Now that I am a grandparent (or elder), I am back to evaluating comments made regarding generational differences in technology use and the significance of such differences. Yes, I am a little sensitive about concerns that those of us who have acquired geezer status are no longer “hip” (ask for a translation if this term is not in your vocab).
3DWiredSafety offers a nice summary of a recent Pew study concerning generational differences in use of the Internet. The chart used to conclude the post is especially useful. Younger users do use the net for a greater variety of activities, but there are areas in which “adults” are more frequent users. Kids don’t pay bills online, check their financial information or arrange for travel. They are also less likely to send email. Adults are less likely to download music and IM.
Relevant questions become when do such differences reflect differences in generational interests (i.e., kids do kid things and adults do adult things) rather than what might be interpreted as a resistance to useful change, when are such differences “important”, and when important who should take note. I assume there is much in these data for marketing types. Those fighting for the teen fashion dollar should make sure they have a web presence. Those interested in shaping political opinions of adults should also work on their web sites.
This blog software was just updated. I begin my summer teaching duties tomorrow and wanted to make sure my blog software was current. This upgrade process is always a little tricky and one should almost expect some difficulties. This time a plugin I had added had to be deactivated to install the new software and the attempted activation of the updated software generated an error message because the plugin was not active. This is the type of catch-22 one encounters when combining products (the blog software and the plugin). No matter how carefully instructions are written, the author really has no idea of what has been done to tweak the system so it is impossible to write complete instructions for every unknown user. The messages for those willing to take on running a personal server are as follows:
backup in case you must backup (I just thought of this – cute huh),
don’t panic and do something stupid, and
treat the situation like a learning opportunity
These comment are mainly for my wife who must frequently listen to my frustration during the time period between when I find myself in this type of situation and before I figure out the solution. “Mark, what would your students say if they would hear you say those things.” Anyway, I did figure out what was wrong and generated a solution.
By the way, the purpose of the upgrade was to provide better security. Hopefully, you will be unable to tell the difference. However, whether you know it or not, we are all now more secure. 🙂
I do owe WordPress some recognition. This is great software and I recommend it to those of you looking to run a blog on your own equipment.
It is the end of the K-12 school year in Grand Forks. Some classes are wrapping up projects before everyone takes off for the summer. Students from Mrs. Bethke’s 5th-grade class were off to Valley 4000 to share their completed projects with their partners for the year.
Student and partner have met monthly and become friends. Some of these meetings have focused on social outings – the celebration of Christmas and Cinco de Mayo, playing a little bingo, and a talent show.
The partners also spend time discussing historical events. Participants from Valley share stories and memories of one-room schools, the depression, and life on the farm some 70 years ago. The young students ask questions during interviews and learn. They take notes, they make audio and video recordings, and organize the information they collect. Students are using technology to capture and perserve history – KidPix, Inspiration, audio recording, Library of Congress images, iMovie, and Quicktime.
At the end of the year, it is time to give something back. The students integrative their work, save it as a DVD, and present copies to their partners. The last meeting allows them to demonstrate what they have done. Imagine sharing a DVD of personal reflections with your 95-year-old partner (see below). Her comment – “You are never too old to learn something new.” Well put – no matter what your age, there is always the opportunity to learn from each other.
Cindy and I spent the evening in Abbot Hospital is Minneapolis waiting for our first grandchild. Addison Tanner (girl) was born at 9:57 this morning. Mom and daughter are doing well. Mark and Cindy are tired.
I am writing from the computer in the waiting room. A picture will follow.
Pretty cool! I would now like to be known as elder Grabe.
Miguel Guhlin, in an techLearning article (registration may be required for free access), proposes that knowledge workers will need to develop new skills to be competitive in a read/write world. This is an interesting article because of the effort to argue for the development of specific skills (a combination of higher order thinking and design skills in my opinion) and links to open source and free options for developing/applying these aptitudes. I tend to focus on Mac multimedia tools so those who follow this blog may appreciate the attendtion to Windows apps (e.g., Photostory and MovieMaker).
Note to semi-techie-types – this article ends with suggestions for adding MySQL and PHP capabilities to both Mac (MAMP) and Windows (WAMP) platforms. Over the years, I have found that setting up a new server with PHP and MySQL capabilities (actually it is mostly MySQL that causes me problems) requires that I relearn a bunch of things that I then promptly forget until the next time. Efforts to automate such installations is worth a look.
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