Flickr on My WordPress

This is driving me a little crazy … I’ve been trying to get the FAlbum plugin working in WordPress and I can’t get it going. I was all excited when I saw that D’Arcy said it was so easy … hmm — user error I guess on my end. I have been following some great directions over at andreaslinde.de … seems so easy, but I keep getting an error when I try to place it on a WordPress page. Works fine when I leave the file in the default location. Just doesn’t want to work. If you want to see what happens, click the Photos link in the header. Any advice from the smart people out there. Help!

Update: So, D’Arcy dropped a comment on me the fixed it in less than 30 seconds. Damn, that dude is smart.

Update 2: Hmm, works perfectly except for the sidebar error I am getting. I am just not sure if I blew something up a bit when I finally got the code out and replaced.

227 … Why the 227?

The below is a little strange, but it holds some serious significance. I’ll be talking about it soon. But let’s just say that I have spent a TON of time in places with that number and I’ll be spending a LOT more time in that place. “Strange days, indeed …”

WordPress Upgrade

I finally did something about my WP install. I went ahead and moved to the latest release — I was trapped at 1.5 because of all the hacks I had done to get it looking how I wanted. I just decided it was a godd idea to start clean. For some reason everything feels so much snappier — from creating new posts, to doing admin stuff, to load times, and more. I dumped Kubrick for K2 … So far I really like it. I also couldn’t fall too far behind D’Arcy … Lots to get working again … you know, I was all about the rotating banner images (someone want to create a plugin to do that?). If there’s anyone out there who knows how to get that rolling again with K2, let me know — I’ll buy beers. I miss that. There are other things, but since I am making all sorts of changes in my life, I thought my blog should follow.

More posts in the coming days … lots to discuss.

Web 2.0? Let’s Go Back to the Future

Just doing my typical morning run through my bloglines — yes I am back to bloglines after a stint on NetNewsWire Pro — and I came across probably the best learning opportunity of the year … The Web 1.0 Conference. Quite possibly the funniest thing I’ve seen lately in the geek culture that I call home. If you were around back in the day, then you’ll get it.

It reminded me of the conferences and sessions I used to attend when I was a WebMaster for Cogence Media in 1995. Those were the days when you could walk into the office of your company’s president and tell him about the power of the Internets and have him just sort of look at you with a glazed over look that said, “WTF are you talking about?” Yes, I did time as a corporate webmaster — I am not ashamed to admit it. As a matter of fact, we did some really nice stuff with shockwave and, wait for it, frames. Too cool.

At any rate, I have spent the last 18 months or so screaming at the top of my lungs about this Web 2.0 stuff … people are starting to get it in pockets and there are some good conversations going on out there about what it really means. Before we get way to far out in front, it might be time to go back and rediscover the beauty of the blink tag. Oh, those were the days.

Amazing Stuff … Digital Natives at Home

My parents just got a new 14″ iBook from Apple … I was at their house last weekend with my family and got it setup and gave my Mom some directions. They have had Macs in the house for about 20 years (we had the origingal 128k Mac back in the day), but they’ve never really become power users. Sure they could do email, browse the web, and use Word … beyond that it was a no-go and those tasks seemed to be tough.

Enter the new iBook and there has been this amazing transfermation! My Mom is on the thing half the day browsing the web wirelessly, looking up directions on Mapquest, booking rooms, invoking dashboard (her favorite part), using iTunes and her new Nano … all from an hour long hands on demo. The most stunning and unexpected thing has been that she and my Dad really seem to get it … it is wonderful to see. The coolest part for me? They are using it to communicate with me on my terms, using my modes — they have either texted me, audio chatted, or like today, video chatted me with iChat everyday this week. Now that is cool. I even have the screen shot to prove it.

RSS for Education

I have been an avid RSS user for quite some time now. I find it the only way to stay current with news, blogs, and the types of sites I enjoy. I think my reading habits have changed as a result of my RSS adoption … I read so much more stuff in such a short amount of time that it just blows my mind. I have tried all sorts of news readers — from web based sites like bloglines (my current tool) to desktop applications like NetNewsWire Pro (that I loved until they made me pay for it). To tell you the truth, the best part about using RSS to get news and information really has little to do with the tools you use, it is about the results.Yesterday I came across this report, “RSS Users Visit Three Times as Many News Web Sites as Non-Users” via Nielsen//NetRatings. It is a very simple look at how RSS effects people’s reading habits. If you look at it you’ll notice that they really looked at this in a very simple way. As simple as it is, it hits home the point — this technology has the potential to change the amount of content we are willing to browse. If I had to visit 10 news sites a day and slog through all the front page messes just to find the new content, I doubt I would take the time. Now jump up to the 130 feeds I have in my bloglines account … no way! In the RSS world, you subscribe and wait for the updates to be pushed to you. Simple. Effective. Quick.

This semester I am teaching and I have my students posting in a multi-user blog, the Blogs@110. Each student has their own blog and with it their own RSS feed. I can use the enhanced category/tag browser to create customized feeds that I can subscribe to. For example, I can see all items that are new that are “Assignments, Blog Entries, Podcasts” in a feed. That is such a time saver for me. In the past, I would have used a learning management system, some drop boxes, and a bunch of message boards to have stuents discuss and turn in work. To get to it, I would have to log in, navigate the system, and then get to the work. Fifteen minutes later I would usually find out that there isn’t any new content in the space. With the blog and RSS it just shows up in my bloglines account along with all my other feeds. Makes life so much easier.

What else is RSS good for? I’d love to know how it is getting used in your classrooms or in your lives in general. Drop a comment and let me know.

Sloan Semester Part III

Just waiting for students … check out the PSU press release.

Sloan Semester, Part II

I am scheduled to teach IST 110 during a special eight-week semester under the Sloan Semester project. I am one of two faculty at PSU who have come forward to teach courses so far. I am very happy we are participating … you can’t imagine the administrative overhead it seemed to cause. At any rate, being a part of it makes me proud. Also making me proud is that my alma mater, West Virginia University, is also participating. It looks like they are offering something like 15 courses. Good work WVU! I received what I believed to be a world-class education at WVU and it makes me so happy to see that there will be opportunities for others to experience that.

BTW, since I am teaching a special section of IST 110 (if anyone registers), I’ll want to try some different things. One thing I know I will focus attention on is how recovery efforts were bolstered by so many web 2.0 technologies — flickr, wikis, google maps, etc. While FEMA and other Federal responses were crawling around trying to figure out what to do, so many people jumped in and used information technology to help. I am sure focusing web 2.0 on that context will yield some amazing student perspectives. As always, I will share those and will encourage you all to join the conversation. I’ll keep you posted.