December 2007 Archives

So after Allan introduced me to the Chumby on ETS Talk 36 a couple weeks ago, I decided to ask Santa for one. Well, under the tree this morning there was a shiny new web-enabled widget player. What I like about it is the openness of the platform. All I’ve done so [...]

T. B. Lee is a smart guy. Really smart as a matter of fact. He writes about the emergence of conversations related to the social graph. He wonders why the word graph and as always provides terrific insight. It is worth a read and would make a great blog post starter.

http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/node/215

Hi and welcome to our course site ... you've arrived at the blog for C&I 597C at Penn State.  Our course, Disruptive Technologies for Teaching and Learning will hopefully be an exciting opportunity to engage in a long-term conversation about how we can create new learning opportunities related to emerging technologies and design.  Take a look around ... both Scott and I will be posting all sorts of things here throughout the semester.

Let's get started ... our Introductory Podcast will give you some sense of what this whole course is all about.  We've setup a space on iTunes U that we'll use to share all of our course podcasts ... during the semester we'll ask you to create your own and share them with the class.  Getting familiar with the iTunes U site will be a good first step.  As a matter of fact, we'll spend time talking about podcasting, iTunes U, and how all of this can be used to transform teaching a learning.  At any rate, grab the podcast and leave us a comment.  By the way, if you are familiar with RSS you can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes and then you can enjoy episodes as soon as they are ready. 

The development of a virtual community takes time ... we have an entire semester, but we'd like to get it started immediately.  Even though this is a face to face course, one of our goals is for us all to connect well beyond the walls of the classroom.  To that end, one of the first things we need you to do is to create a personal blog using the Blogs at Penn State toolset.  It is really very easy and if you need help you can visit the PSU Blogger Community Hub.This serves two important purposes for us ... one is so we can meet each of you and learn a little about you. Really all we are asking you to do is create a short introduction on your own blogs. This assignment has a second purpose as well , it gets you all in the space and posting right away. All we are asking you to do is create a quick post that adresses the following:Your nameWhere you're fromWhat are your interestsWhy you are taking this classAnything interesting about youHow would you describe your overall comfort level with the use of technology?Does technology interest you?Talk a little about how you see technology influencing teaching and learning.

We will not be in class for week 1 ... we'll be doing some virtual stuff instead.  It doesn't mean you get a pass for the first week, we're asking you to get familiar with some of the themes and with some of the technologies we'll be using throughout the semester.  It may feel like we're throwing a lot at you, but if you just go down the list and check each item off you'll be in good shape. The first thing you need to do is listen to our  introductory  podcast.  This should give you a good idea of what we are thinking about and how the general structure of the class will work.  Sticking with the media thing, we'd like you to watch this short video produced at Kansas State that gives a perspective on Web 2.0 ... it is an  interesting  perspective and one we'll be revisiting very soon.Now that you've gotten that out of the way we'd like you to dive into the Web 2.0 world and create your own blog.  We're asking you to use the Blogs at Penn State toolset.  This is a new service that should allow you to easily manage your online stuff.  Another thing we'll be spending a lot of time talking about is how what you do in an online environment shapes your overall identity.  So think critically about how you create this new piece to your persona.  If you run into trouble, go over to the PSU Blogger Community Support space.Once your blog is created we'd like you to make three distinct posts ... the first is a simple personal introduction (you can find what we are looking for here).  The other two are a little more in depth and require you to think a little more critically on your own.  We'd like you to create a post that answers "What do you think disruptive technology means."  Finally, take a minute and reflect on the Web 2.0 video and share some thoughts and your reactions.Another big component to this course will be the Pligg site -- Pligg is an open source social ratings tool (much like the commercial site, Digg.com).  We would like you to do a few things related to this technology this week.  First, please read the short white paper, "7 Things You Should Know About Social Ratings."  This will give you a little background.  Next get an account at our Pligg site.  While you are there, add your RSS feed to the site -- this will start automatically inserting your blog posts into the site.  Finally after posts begin appearing, vote on the posts that are of most interest to you.  The posts that get the most votes will rise to the top and form the basis for our discussion in week 2 when we meet face to face.So that's it for week 1 ... seems like a lot of stuff, but it shouldn't take you too long.  Enjoy and we will see you in week 2!

We will not be in class for week 1 ... we'll be doing some virtual stuff instead.  It doesn't mean you get a pass for the first week, we're asking you to get familiar with some of the themes and with some of the technologies we'll be using throughout the semester.  It may feel like we're throwing a lot at you, but if you just go down the list and check each item off you'll be in good shape.

The development of a virtual community takes time ... we have an entire semester, but we'd like to get it started immediately.  Even though this is a face to face course, one of our goals is for us all to connect well beyond the walls of the classroom.  To that end, one of the first things we need you to do is to create a personal blog using the Blogs at Penn State toolset.  It is really very easy and if you need help you can visit the PSU Blogger Community Hub.

This serves two important purposes for us ... one is so we can meet each of you and learn a little about you. Really all we are asking you to do is create a short introduction on your own blogs. This assignment has a second purpose as well — it gets you all in the space and posting right away. All we are asking you to do is create a quick post that adresses the following:

• Your name
• Where you're from
• What are your interests
• Why you are taking this class
• Anything interesting about you
• How would you describe your overall comfort level with the use of technology?
• Does technology interest you?
• Talk a little about how you see technology influencing teaching and learning.

Let's get started ... our Introductory Podcast will give you some sense of what this whole course is all about.  We've setup a space on iTunes U that we'll use to share all of our course podcasts ... during the semester we'll ask you to create your own and share them with the class.  Getting familiar with the iTunes U site will be a good first step.  As a matter of fact, we'll spend time talking about podcasting, iTunes U, and how all of this can be used to transform teaching a learning.  At any rate, grab the podcast and leave us a comment.  By the way, if you are familiar with RSS you can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes and then you can enjoy episodes as soon as they are ready. 

Hi and welcome to our course site ... you've arrived at the blog for C&I 597C at Penn State.  Our course, Disruptive Technologies for Teaching and Learning will hopefully be an exciting opportunity to engage in a long-term conversation about how we can create new learning opportunities related to emerging technologies and design.  Take a look around ... both Scott and I will be posting all sorts of things here throughout the semester.

A very interesting way to use a blog platform as a book author. This is new stuff, but feels like the right thing to think about as an alternative activity in a blog.

http://www.futureofthebook.org/blog/archives/2007/07/commentpress_10.html

A nice summary discussing the potential for the blog environment to take over as the social hub to our online identities.

http://gigaom.com/2007/12/11/the-next-social-network-wordpress/

Very interesting post looking at one future of social networks.

http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2007/12/10/the-inside-out-social-network/

We had our last staff meeting of the year this morning here at ETS … I was going to cancel given the amazingly bad weather we are having, but late last night I decided not to do that and instead to forgo the usual house cleaning, project updates and operational policy discussions and simply say [...]

Just a quick pointer to the fact that after a few months of talk and lots of whispers Moveable Type 4.1 has gone open source. This makes our decision to adopt MT at PSU that much stronger, IMHO. This gives us a chance to really do some very interesting things with a very [...]

The 2008 Teaching and Learning with Technology Symposium will be held on March 29, 2008 at the Penn Stater. I think it would be an excellent way to hear faculty stories about how these technologies are changing the way they interact with their students and how students make sense of what they are learning. If you go to the site now, there are several session recordings and interviews that will help to illustrate the potential for these technologies to impact campus culture.

http://symposium.tlt.psu.edu

Just got back to my office after a lunch meeting and thought I’d do a little RSS before my 1:30 … tried to hit Google Reader and I see the following:

The rest of the Internets is fine, just Google … no calendar either. Never thought I’d see that one.
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Scott McDonald and I are co-teaching a course in Penn State’s College of Education this Spring. We’re teaching Curriculum & Instruction 597, Disruptive Technologies for Teaching and Learning. One of the things we’ve decided to do is produce a course podcast as much as possible. Today we sat down and recorded the [...]

I actually took the whole weekend off from email and work. It is something I haven’t done in a very long time and it actually felt pretty good. I stayed on email all day Friday and did my last check around 6 PM, then just packed it in for the weekend. I [...]

A story about the use of podcasting in higher education.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/business/09novel.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

We are looking very closely at Apple’s Podcast Producer for use in and around campus. I wrote a little about it the other day while sitting in a meeting … this morning I opened the QuickTime player on my MBP to record a very quick piece of audio. When I went to the [...]

Ok, so less than 10 minutes after posting about how nicely QuickTime plays with a Podcast Producer Server I decided to take a look at some of Apple’s other content creation tools and see if there is really a concerted effort across the board to encourage instant publishing. What I was curious about is [...]

So after a couple of days of talking with people around the office, Brad Kozlek executed a sweet little piece of thinking. He was interested in creating a local version of Feed2JS that would be auto-published by the Blogs at Penn State. The content below is coming right out of his site … [...]

This afternoon the ETS Talk Crew sat down and produced ETS Talk 35. Sort of a milestone … we spend the better part of 45 minutes talking about Digital Commons and the examples cming out of the project, some RSS thinking that has been going on around the office, and think out loud a [...]

Coming off my post last night about selective RSS I got several comments and a handful of office “stop bys” this morning that got me thinking more and more about RSS and all things recycled content. It has me looking at three things I think would compliment any educational blogging environment if we start [...]

I haven’t been all that active here for the last few days. I’ve been spending most of my blogging bandwidth testing out the new and improved Blogs at Penn State tools powered by Movable Type 4. It has occupied really all of my blogging budget if you will. With that said I [...]

This is a brilliant little podcast out of WNYC. This episode is about technology and its impact on community and social interactions. Seemed appropriate for our class.

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=152249110&s=143441&i=21047153