Month: May 2005

No Bandwidth

/ Cole Camplese / Leave a comment

I just spent the better part of the weekend without my bandwidth … how did I do it before I had high speed. You may say, “quit bitching and dial up.” Oops, I have VoIP, so that blows that up … no phone service as well! Adelphia (my provider) had the comforting words of, “sorry, we had some unexpected glitches upgrading services …” Glitches? Correct me if I’m wrong Sandy, but aren’t companies like Adelphia supposed to have smart people to guard against glitches? Glitches … that one just blew me away. I’m sure my clients would be fine with me telling them, “sorry, couldn’t roll that out because of a few glitches.” Jeez.

The bigger issue is that I still don’t have access from home. Fine for me, I’m at the office today … my wife is working from home on some stuff — just hope she doesn’t need to connect to anyone or anything. Oh by the way, they are going to give me a credit for the glitch — they sort of miss the point that there is a lot more at stake here than just a couple of days without email … they aren’t factoring in the lost opportunity cost. Oh well, I’d switch providers, but in State College, on my street, all I have to choose from is Adelphia. Please let there be bandwidth when I get home. My computer is really boring at the local level …

Update 2:30 PM 5.16.05: We are back online! The phone works and everything. Thank goodness!

Where is all the Student Content?

/ Cole Camplese / 2 Comments

As I sit here and watch my 3-year-old daughter create amazing pictures with her new, Apple branded colored pencils (very analog) I can’t help but wonder where is all the great stuff our digital native students are creating? Maybe I am missing something on the web, but I haven’t really seen any good student podcasts, good student blogs, or media galleries — just sort of surprises me. I just spent the last couple of days with Apple (hence the colored pencils) talking about how great iLife is … and how easy it is to produce killer content. Some of that I buy, but I am just stunned there aren’t more students at the higher education level taking the time to create — not just consume.

I think it would be very cool if there were a few really killer places that I could listen to higher ed students discuss what’s on their minds in a podcast. It would help us understand them better — in all sorts of contexts. It just strikes me that we talk about all this digital native stuff and we aren’t seeing much evidence of their existence. I know its there … but, I fear it is all locked into proprietary LMS/CMS tools on campuses across the country. I just don’t like that idea … it doesn’t add to the conversation at all. Is it a situation where they are creating and we just can’t get to it? If it is, it is another reason why people need to get out of the idea that everything must live inside a protected toolset. Am I wrong to say that the web is a repository? I know it isn’t ideal, but with search technologies as advanced as they are, one would think its getting close to as powerful as the lousy tools we use in higher ed to store and index stuff.

Shouldn’t we just have our stuff in web space (like virtual drives) that can be moved around via pointers in and out of LMS/CMS tools, blogs, wikis, whatever? RSS could do this … so could the old stand by, hyperlinking. I’d like to be able to learn from the digital natives, but we’ve done such a “good” job of protecting them, we aren’t able to see their work. Someone please tell their students to start producing some evidence of their digital capabilities in a place where we can see it … I know that’s what I’ll be doing with mine this summer — no ANGEL, just a public space that we can begin to share from.

The Mile High Club Never Looked Like This!

/ Cole Camplese / 1 Comment

Sitting on the plane heading out to the west coast it dawned on me — I NEED bandwidth. I try to sit and listen to my iPod, pay attention to the in-flight movie, and generally just try to ease my nerves with a few drinks … but when push comes to shove, I need an active connection. Here I sit in between strangers, kids walking the isles, and disinterested airline employees trying as hard as I can to kill time by typing a blog post in text edit … I even have trouble blogging when I’m not sitting on the live Internet.

I guess I’m not alone in this discovery, but man it feels strange when you actually discover that you have a serious addiction. A crutch that keeps you going. What kind of person NEEDS bandwidth? I’m not the typical net generation participant. I am too old for that. At 32 I am well beyond the “kids who are wired differently …” but it seems to me that all the time I spend in the connected World has moved me somewhere in between old skool (as the kidz would say) and net gen. I’m not kidding around — I need bandwidth. Strange, but true.

I can only imagine what students coming up today — say in middle schools — will be like when they are my age traveling across the country. How in the hell will they keep it together? All I have to say is that someone needs to really figure out bandwidth for the coach class or those kids are going to go postal in mid air! I’ve only had Dashboard for a week or so and it is already part of my World — F12, where the hell is my info? Imagine the kid who will have the type of always-on expectations for the next 15 years. I’m not sure I’m even making any sense … I find myself just rambling. Must be the withdraw hitting me.

Is there a lesson in all this? Something that I need to take back to my classroom? Something that will spark great discussion? You know, I bet there is, but I’ll approach it from a different perspective. The perspective that my students bring to it … with the idea that bandwidth, always on, that pervasive access is good. Too many of my colleagues come at it from the other direction — that we need to get away from it. I wrote somewhere (while I was connected) not too long ago that I am more relaxed when I am ON, not OFF. Man, this flight is reminding me how true that is. Sorry for the rant … its the withdraw talking. I need to get off this plane and get this post published — now, which blog does it go to first? Maybe the airport has a hot spot …

The Realities of Technology?

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Let me start by saying I am so happy my parents are back from their winter home in FL … I got a call this morning from my Mom who told me, “the computer is on, but the screen is dark …” Ok, I’ve been through this before. Usually it’s the USB hub — a cheap-o one I bought at Radio Shack. It has a really lousy power adapter port and it sometimes falls out the back. So we went through the routine for several minutes … nothing wrong. About this time my three year old, Madeline, starts yelling, “Daddy its time for breakfast, get off the phone.” For those of you with kids, at three they don’t seem to get the concept of a tech support call. By the time both my Mom and I gave up I was totally frustrated. Fast forward 45 minutes and the phone rings again — this time as I’m heading out the door. She tells me she fixed it — some more probing on my part and she tells me, “the modem wasn’t turned on …” I ask her to describe the modem and what she describes sounds strangely like the G4 I gave my Dad for his birthday last year. It never ceases to amaze me that my parents, both in Higher Education for over 30 years and owners of technology since the first Mac in 1984 still have trouble with it all. Who’s fault is it? I can tell you this much, the computer industry better figure this stuff out, b/c I think my parents are two of the smarter people in the world. Good thing the auto industry has made it easier for the masses to use their products …

What I did realize however is why all support sections of manuals have these two troubleshooting points first:

  1. Make the sure the computer is plugged in.
  2. Make sure the computer is turned on.

Upon reflection on my way to work though it made me consider just how difficult it is to get certain segments of our teaching population tuned into technology in the classroom. If people who are ex college professors can’t differentiate between common terms like modem, display, and computer we could be in for a longer adoption than what seems reasonable. My wife tells me I need to use Madeline’s labeler to put the words Monitor, Computer, Printer, USB Hub, etc on all the parts to simplify support calls. I now see why it is important to actually teach students what the components of the computer system are even if it seems silly. We have pages in our Online IST 110 courseware that goes over these things and it always drove me crazy that we were “wasting time” teaching these things … its now obvious that these are the building blocks that let them understand how the technology works, and eventually how it can be applied to solve real problems. At any rate, long story to get to the point, but I just thought it was too good to not post. I’m sure I’m not the only one who is the tech support person for the people in their lives that we love (and have talked into using technology).

Our Digital World

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I don’t think I have to really talk about how our World has become so connected … that’s fairly straight forward stuff. We know that we are part of this always-on society that seems to have more and more trouble turning it all off. To some that would seem disconcerting. I mean, how are we ever really supposed to relax, take a step back, gain perspective, or unplug when it is everywhere? I guess for me, the answer is that I can’t — I mean, I’ve tried. Just last week I actually went three days without my laptop, broadband connection, and my obsessive need to check my email and my RSS feeds. I had intended to go three full days, but I walked into the Apple Store in SOHO (NYC) and instead of looking at spending more of my cash on some Apple stuff, I checked my email and my feeds. Strange, but true.I think that’s the point — I am more at ease when I am connected. My parents don’t get that (and I suppose yours don’t either), but it is true. That’s why the whole notion of getting a grip of what is going on in our constantly connected environment is critical if we as educators and researchers are really going to make a difference with our Net Generation students. I walk across the Penn State campus and see more people with cell phones than backpacks … more students reading stuff on their laptops than newspapers … more students listening to iPods than each other. Some say that we’ve entered the age of poor communication — I beg to differ. I teach these kids and they are amazing communicators, amazing multi-taskers, and very strong and intelligent kids. We have to get into that space and figure out how to capture a slice of that mind share — that’s how we’ll make an impact.

I’ll do my best here to explore ways we can do just that — challenge ourselves so we can continue to challenge them. I love that … the notion that I first have to challenge myself to make sure my classrooms (and they aren’t all physical spaces anymore) are exciting and engaging spaces. I’ll spend a little time in the next couple of weeks talking about some of the tools we’ve built at the Solutions Institute that help faculty get into the “flow” with their students — tools that allow us to interact with them … the way they expect. I’ll look at some things we’re doing with iPods that extend beyond the podcast and can actually make it easier to assess and assign work. I’ll be inviting several of my virtual colleagues (they’re real people, but they really only exist out there somewhere in the blogosphere) to throw their ideas into the mix. So far, I’ve convinced D’Arcy Norman from the University of Calgary to by contributor. I’m sure he’ll bring his passion for learning object design and utilization to the fray.

I am going to be in Cupertino meeting with Apple next week to discuss how their tools can change what we as educators can do in and out of the classroom. We are looking to make significant progress in the educational space and this is a great step forward. If you have thoughts, ideas, or recommendations for those discussion, leave comments. This is our space.

Multi iChat … In a Word, Wow!

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I finally got a chance to do the multi-user iChat today … Chatted with my good friends Carl Berger, Peter Hoffman from Apple, and Chris Millet from the Institute. So cool! Take a look:

Multi iChat

Too amazing … you think there are some killer uses for this in education and training? Again, wow!

Beating a Dead Horse .. err, Tiger

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I guess I am the last person on earth who installed Tiger. For a Mac freak, I feel so far behind the curve. I was traveling all week last week — I was actually at the NYC SOHO Apple Store on Friday, but it was like 1 PM (well before the release). I am very impressed with the OS, but I am most excited by the RSS features of Safari. I was lucky enough to have access to Tiger close to a year ago and the RSS feature in Safari was there, but I never took the time to really look at it. The ability to set up a folder in the bookmark bar with RSS feeds and easily aggregate them all into a single page is amazing. I think it will give my reliance on bloglines a run for the money. When it is combined with either tabbed browsing or the underused “snap back” feature it creates an amazing RSS reading/browsing combo.

I love that Apple can use their know how to actually give me something I need — before I know I need it. BTW, Dashboard is cool too … even better than I thought. At any rate, I am happy. Now if the Cisco VPN would work I could be enjoying this on my 12″ PowerBook. Not sure I can go back to that old school OS, Panther!

My New Blog Space … Like I Need Another One

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Well, today I posted my first thoughts over at the ADC Exchange Blog that I am running … the title, written by Apple, is Tools to Enhance Teaching and Learning in a Digital World. A little long, but its what they wanted. I am one of several bloggers writing about interesting (we hope) things going on in the pervasive computing landscape — each of us has a different topic. I think it’ll be a good space over time and I am hoping that we can keep it going. Add it to your blogroll or to your subscriptions and keep track of what is happening over there. I promise to keep posting here, there, and at the blogs@si site!