I’ve been following what is going on with the Napster program at other Universities … As most of you know, there’s been the program going on here at PSU for about 12 months now. It started as a limited pilot to take a look the impact on bandwidth, if students liked it, and how the press would react to the whole thing. The Dean of the School of IST even taught a course last year looking at the issues. All in all it’s been a fairly well received program (although initially there were a few angry students). I say that with a little angst for a couple of reasons — one being that it is a service provided by a commercial entity that has a questionable reputation (even if it is by name association only) and that it isn’t compatible with Macs. I know that doesn’t bother most people out there reading this post because you’re using a Windows-based PC. But, it might surprise you to know that LINUX and Macs are actually picking up some market share on our campus — let alone campuses across the country. As a side note, I’ve invited Sam Haldeman, PSU’s project manager for the Napster initiative, into class to talk about its impact and the main reasons behind investing in it. I’ll save the reasons of why for later … education is one, but there are some other interesting things out there.

Cornell University recently announced it too would be rolling out a Napster program for students. It’s a little different there because they have actually come right out and said that about $20.00 of the student fees would support it across the board. To my knowledge PSU hasn’t put a price tag on the project and really haven’t said how much of student fees go towards paying for it. Cornell has a slightly larger percentage of Mac users on its campus — 7% vs. about 4% at PSU. Seems the student run newspaper has picked up on this and is crying foul!

I’m really wondering why more students here haven’t stepped up and said anything? Maybe we are just more complacent here at PSU … or is it that the University hasn’t laid out the cost structure? Don’t get me wrong, the dorms have cable and that has to be paid for, right? Just thought I’d throw this one out there for your thoughts … anyone have anything to say here? Love to hear your impressions of the PSU Napster deal and your reaction to the debate going on at Cornell–>

In Topic 1, The Information Society, there is a lot made of the ever-growing pervasive nature of technology in our culture and cultures around the World. If you spend some time reading through the course readings you’ll notice how quickly we have changed from a farming society, to an industrial one, and now to an information-driven society … as those shifts have happened, we’ve seen a crazy amount of technologies emerge that are so tightly tied to our everyday existance its actually impossible to seperate it all.

Everything — and I mean everything — is so tightly integrated with technology at one level or another we are using it at all times. From email, to eCommerce, to networks, to cell phones it is just a part of who we are … as a matter of fact our whole “iPod in Education” thread from the last several days is a powerful example of what this topic is getting at — we have changed and our expectations center on instant access and total, pervasive connectivity. Take a look at the readings and post your response here and if someone upsets you with their ideas, tell us (and them) why … make sure you tell us who you are … remember these are graded. Take a look at the rubric here before you post so you understand my expectations.

Discussion Activity

How do you think this increased connectedness is going to impact us as a society? Consider and discuss both the positive and negative aspects of this change.

So I read all the posts about the iPod in education from your perspectives … really great comments, so thanks for posting. There were a lot that I found interesting and it got me thinking … what I did was actually read the first couple lessons of our 110 readings for the week and linked them here (Topic 1 Lesson 1 & Lesson 2). Give it a try and let me know if you like this better than reading and if it would make its way to your personal MP3 player … I’m not sure listening to my voice outside of class is what you want to do. Please give it a try and let me know what you think–>

I saw this article a while back and thought you’d all be interested. It goes on to disucss what I think we all already thought — the movie industry is next! Take a look and let us know what you think. I know that you are all very familiar with the downloading issues on college campuses (and beyond) as it relates to music, but what most of you don’t realize is that it is only the tip of the ice berg. Your problem assignment this semester is going to deal with this topic so you might just want to start getting your head wrapped around it. What can the movie industry, game industry, and software industry in general do to hit this head on and not end up in the download hell the music industry has found itself in?

What if I would have walked in the first day and handed all of you a brand new iPod? All loaded up with lectures for the semester, orientation information, the PSU fight song, and other nifty little “educational” things? Would it make you all feel real warm and fuzzy about the class? IST? Penn State? Would it make you want to learn more, or simply want to erase all that stuff and load it up with 5,000 songs?

As part of the Apple Digital Campus project, one of our partner schools, Duke University did just that — they handed out 1,400 iPods to the incoming freshman class. We knew about this months ago and actually got to see the prototype iPods with the little Blue Devil emblem on the back (they ended up not using it, but it was cool!) and got to listen to some content. Its a cool project, but man did it get some bad press. Here’s a decent little read that says why its good … what do you all think? Good or bad? What would you do with a new piece of technology that is designed to play music, but is delivered in an educational setting? BTW, one of the classes using the iPod at Duke is essentially IST 110. I have my own thoughts, how about you–>

For the last 5 years or so, I’ve been a big user of computer mediated communication for teaching and learning purposes. I’ve always used a message board style discussion area … early on it was a homegrown, open source toolset — in the last couple of years its been ANGEL. I am trying to move away from that for a number of reasons — the number one being that my number one audience, my students, started demanding something different. So, for the first time, its going to be a blog. Take a look at the linked article and see what you think about this perspective on the big differences between the two.

Looking forward to hearing what you all have to say. See you tomorrow–>