The Enclosure Bundle

I may have written about this in the past, but I thought it was timely after just reading a nice piece called the Podcast Theory Gap by Susan Smith Nash … it got me thinking again about podcasting and what I will be doing this fall. I also just listened to Lessig’s Free Culture talk from OSCON 2002 again and re-realized how powerful well designed mixed-media (dare I say multimedia?) pieces can be if done well.

What I am planning to do is create a series of Enclosure Bundles throughout the semester. The concept of the bundle is to place an audio file, a PDF of a case, some slides, an assignment, and other items into a package, zip it up and deliver it via RSS. The pieces will add up to some sort of educational experience that I am hoping will provide some level of educational value. My students last fall weren’t really into the podcast thing (here is a link to when I introduced it to them), but I have a feeling if I can bring some more depth to my enclosures, they will enjoy them. Hey, they might even learn something. Has anyone been doing this?

I’m Not Sure …

I came across this little read over at Wired.com today … discusses the so called, Kutztown 13. A group of kids in High School that figured out how to side step the school districts “security” on the school-supplied iBooks. Looks like they then used the machines, without the security software, to download terrible things like iChat … now all 13 are being charged with a felony by the district. To me, it seems extreme. The district used a great scheme to protect the admin passwords … they taped them to the back of hte machines. Jeez. Not sure what to think about this one.

Microsoft. Nuff Said

I try really hard to stay away from this kind of stuff, but how in the hell do they get away with it? Another wonderful warning from the software giant … three more “critical” security issues. It just never ceases to amaze my that 95% of the computing universe uses this stuff … some people even defend it. This is the kind of statement I really try to stay away from, but I just can’t help myself — it reminds me of our current adminstration. There I said it. I know I shouldn’t have, but this is just too much. At any rate, enjoy the update, from MSNBC no less.

Changes are Coming … Slowly

So I have been spending almost all of my time over at my other blogs — mostly at the blogs@pgsit. Now that the Governor’s School has ended, it is time to get back to this site. I have to admit I was getting set to post this over at my Learning & Innovation site, but my hosting company’s servers are down (yet again) … tangent here, but I was just getting ready to set my wife up with an account there for her new WordPress blog … she is on blogger.com at the moment, but has just recently been invited to join a larger blog network and is ready for the features something like WP can offer. Sorry about those details. On to my thoughts …I am starting to notice some nice traction in the use of blogs and podcasting in education. I have written before what I think about the use of blogs as communication and community tools (I’ll give you a hint … I like them), so I will just point you to those comments. In today’s New York Times, there is a piece in the Technology section titled, New Tools: Blogs, Podcasts and Virtual Classrooms. The piece, written by Ethan Todras-Whitehill, talks about the growth of podcasting and blogging in the classroom. It is amazing to see the pictures of the kids producing the Room 208 podcast. It really shows you how powerful all this stuff is. I saw something the other day from some website about how tired they were hearing about podcasting … this isn’t a direct quote, but it was something like, “podcasting is stupid because it is just a fancy name for audio on the web.” Even if I do share a little bit of the same issue about the whole “audio on the web” thing, I feel as though the podcasting revolution has allowed teachers to get really creative with what they ask of their students. Even though blogs have been around far longer than podcasts, the whole podcasting thing has really highlighted the importance of having a publishing system that can carry your voice (literally and figuratively) out on the RSS feed. If you can’t figure it out, that is what is so amazing about this stuff — its reach.

I had my students do a ton of podcasting this past five weeks at PGSIT — with varying levels of quality and interest. What was very apparent however was that when the things they were podcasting about made sense to them, they really got into it. When I read the Times article, this one quote jumps out at my and rings true …

“I want to give these kids the tools to say, ‘Hey, my voice is important in this world,’ ” Mr. Arquillos said after the yearlong experiment. “This blog helps me do that.”

To me that is good stuff. There was also a quote in there that just drives me crazy — political ramblings aside –

“Still, some educators are not completely sold on the value of interactivity. “If interactivity becomes the fundamental basis of the educational process, how do we judge merit?” asked Robbie McClintock, a learning technologies expert at Teachers College of Columbia University.”

If I were at my personal space, I’d have more to say. At any rate, if you read the story, you’ll see why it drives me crazy in the next little paragraph.

Moving on … speaking of changes, you see that mouse Apple released? I can’t believe they invented a four button mouse! Who woulda ever thought of that? Sorry … of course I’ll buy one … but I won’t like the name — ever. Well, its good to be back and its good to have some time to focus on this space.

Apple’s Little Surprise

To tell you the truth, I’m not even sure its worth writing about … not that it isn’t the coolest mouse around — because, from what I can see, it is. Its just that so many people write reviews of Apple … either positive or negative that it just seems pointless. I have to say I didn’t even know about it until one of my students IM’d me to ask if I’d ordered one yet … hmm, losing my edge perhaps?

At any rate, leave it to Apple to do something that actually changes the way we think about stuff. I know its only a mouse, but it really does the same stuff a lot of other mice in a more elegant fashion. But, at the end of the day, it moves a pointer around the screen. So thanks, Apple, now I have to buy more of your stuff … at least I’ll be in Philly this weekend so I can pick one up at the King of Prussia Apple Store — if they have them. Until then, its back to my old fashioned scroll mouse. I hate feeling so yesterday. Sigh.

WTF, PGSIT?

I’ve been talking about PGSIT so much recently, but I guess I never really said what it is … well, here’s a little blurb I wrote for the IST website about it … The School of Information Sciences and Technology and the IST Solutions Institute is once again hosting the PA Governor’s School for Information Technology (PGSIT). Each year we invite the best and brightest minds from the Commonwealth of PA to take part in a rigorous five-week resident learning experience. Consisting of faculty from the School of IST and 40 rising high school juniors, the PGSIT Scholars are once again learning the ins and outs of the Information Sciences.

The Scholars are here working in teams to solve real world IST challenges, create new opportunities through their community service projects, and learn from some of the top minds in the information sciences. It is truly a life changing opportunity for both the Scholars and the program faculty. This year, you can watch what is going on with PGSIT by visiting the Blogs@PGSIT. Here I am teaching in the IST Building’s Cybertorium …

My class is a modified IST 110 class that I am calling “Web 2.0: The Read/Write Evolution” … check it out here. Now you know.

A Little H2O …

I’m not sure what to make of this quite yet, but from what I have seen (and understood) this could be quite interesting. Its out of the Berkman Center at Harvard Law, so I gotta figure there is something to it … the H2O Playlist site … it lets you make playlists of interesting topics that can be shared. I like the concept … If I get around to it, I’ll post more after I’ve had a chance to bang on it a little longer.

Base Camp Really Works

I have been doing research realted to project management toolsets … I have always been good at keeping track of multiple projects, but the time has come to really upgrade the tools we have in place so everyone at the Solutions Institute can be in the loop. We had been using some decent open source tools to keep track all sorts of things, but the interface seemed to keep us from really taking advantage of the stuff and it was a real pain giving our student workers and clients access to our file shares. Recently I started really looking into the tools that 37signals builds — both Backpack and Basecamp are very well designed and fit the needs they are addressing. Yesterday we went ahead and got our own Basecamp account and are loving how it all works.

One of the things we wanted was obviously a strong suite of project management tools, but the other reason we went with the 37signals stuff was that it is a lesson in good design. We are moving so much further towards new ways of building interfaces and applications that having these tools gives us a glimpse into the minds of some very smart people.

So far,a day into it, we are really enjoying the tools. It is nice to know we have a document storage solution that is accessible by the team anywhere at anytime, lets all my staff see the big picture, and gives us a way to organize all of our project tasks. Good stuff.