Thursday, July 26, 2007
Communication Inebriation
Ok, so a lot of MAC people talked about how bad the chat room conference was... and I believe you all. I did a cell phone conversation, which I think was probably a lot better, but don't get discouraged about chat programs, they are really nice for what they do. And, to illustrate, a story:
I was in Turkey last year, and there were a decent amount of events going on in the states that I missed: Tigers going to the world series, midterm elections in which Grandholm and the Democrats won (yay!) and proposal two passed in Michigan (boo!), and, the Michigan vs. OSU football game.
Now, I'm not a huge football fan, but in undergrad, it was such a huge deal, and I was surrounded by people that considered it a huge deal, and it became a big event in my life and in my social group. So, the year after we all part ways, I'm in Turkey, some other friends are in Seattle and one in Boston. They all can watch the game, but I would have no way of finding a station that carried it, and we would have to stay awake until about 4 am to watch the whole thing.
It was a hard time, and my girlfriend and I were really missing home and homey things, so we were kinda depressed, thinking about our friends at home getting together. However, we decided to try and make it work.
We found a webpage that would voice-broadcast the game live, found a conference room in which all of our friends could sign in, found an all-night internet cafe, and got the ESPN game tracker. And we hung out with our friends and watched football.
It was really just what we needed. We lost the game, but the shared experiences and shared conversation, even only text-based, was really great.
However, I'll be surprised if text-based web communication will last more than 5 years. There is already the technology to do large-scale voice conferencing over the web. Skype is a great tool, as is Ventrilo if anyone has used that. The only thing holding it back in my mind is that the big telecommunication companies won't stand for free, web-based communication. But once they see the writing on the wall and jump on board, text chat will become like dial-up. Nice, but outdated.
I was in Turkey last year, and there were a decent amount of events going on in the states that I missed: Tigers going to the world series, midterm elections in which Grandholm and the Democrats won (yay!) and proposal two passed in Michigan (boo!), and, the Michigan vs. OSU football game.
Now, I'm not a huge football fan, but in undergrad, it was such a huge deal, and I was surrounded by people that considered it a huge deal, and it became a big event in my life and in my social group. So, the year after we all part ways, I'm in Turkey, some other friends are in Seattle and one in Boston. They all can watch the game, but I would have no way of finding a station that carried it, and we would have to stay awake until about 4 am to watch the whole thing.
It was a hard time, and my girlfriend and I were really missing home and homey things, so we were kinda depressed, thinking about our friends at home getting together. However, we decided to try and make it work.
We found a webpage that would voice-broadcast the game live, found a conference room in which all of our friends could sign in, found an all-night internet cafe, and got the ESPN game tracker. And we hung out with our friends and watched football.
It was really just what we needed. We lost the game, but the shared experiences and shared conversation, even only text-based, was really great.
However, I'll be surprised if text-based web communication will last more than 5 years. There is already the technology to do large-scale voice conferencing over the web. Skype is a great tool, as is Ventrilo if anyone has used that. The only thing holding it back in my mind is that the big telecommunication companies won't stand for free, web-based communication. But once they see the writing on the wall and jump on board, text chat will become like dial-up. Nice, but outdated.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Word of the Late-Night
So, Michael wanted people to post their crazy comment words, and I got a nice one.
qomaizd
I don't know what it means exactly, but I'm pretty sure when Kevin and Lynne came to UM, they totally got qomaizd.
qomaizd
I don't know what it means exactly, but I'm pretty sure when Kevin and Lynne came to UM, they totally got qomaizd.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Wherefore Wiki....
So, in this past week, I've been in a world of wikis. Not anything structured like wikipedia or something, but I've used wikis in order to facilitate and aid group work, so I now am watching 3 wikis for 3 different projects.
I've come to the conclusion that I have too many projects.
Really, though, I really enjoy the wiki design. I get really excited in a group, and say, "Ok guys, I really think we should have a wiki because they are useful for this format." This is the first week I have ever used a wiki, I know as little as everyone else, but I like to present myself as an expert.
But really, I feel like the wiki is the next evolution of online communication. Bear with me as I engage in rampant speculation. E-mail has been around as long as the internet has been. I remember using an old MS-DOS computer and it had a very basic internet connection (prodigy, if anyone remembers), and it had e-mail. However, only 3 people around the country had e-mail, so there were not too many people to talk to.
E-mail had advantages over letters, but not phones. E-mails were fast, but it was difficult to carry on a conversation over e-mail, and if something had to be done or there needed to be dialogue, e-mail was not the best way to do it.
Next on the step of internet evolution was AIM, which revolutionized high-school social standards nation-wide. I remember I didn't use AIM until a freshman in college (around 2003) and I felt really left out in high school. The problems in AIM is that it functioned like a phone that people unplugged all the time. You had to be "plugged in" in order to communicate, so many times the important person was not available to talk to. Thus, phones still proved more useful.
Next there was the blog, which did have some aspects that were better than the phone. You could write whatever you liked, and it was widely accessible and permanent. People could browse at their leisure and even comment.
Wikis, however, do one better than blogs. Wikis are essentially blank slates for text-based creation, that is available constantly as a resource, message board, posting board, brainstorm, etc. I believe it is perfect for group projects in that everyone can imput information or ideas that everyone else can access, and there are no time windows that are inherent in meetings, conference calls, and chat sessions.
The drawback that I've seen so far from examples of school wikis is that they are not being used all that much, which I suppose is a significant drawback. If anyone has any good ones they'd like to link, I'd love to look at a few, but I see them essentially as class blogs, with the teacher creating and designing but students are generally only responding, not engaging in creation themselves.
Like so many other things in schools, I believe this motivation has to come from students. As Tamara says, being forced to comment on something feels false and creepy, like kissing your uncle.
I've come to the conclusion that I have too many projects.
Really, though, I really enjoy the wiki design. I get really excited in a group, and say, "Ok guys, I really think we should have a wiki because they are useful for this format." This is the first week I have ever used a wiki, I know as little as everyone else, but I like to present myself as an expert.
But really, I feel like the wiki is the next evolution of online communication. Bear with me as I engage in rampant speculation. E-mail has been around as long as the internet has been. I remember using an old MS-DOS computer and it had a very basic internet connection (prodigy, if anyone remembers), and it had e-mail. However, only 3 people around the country had e-mail, so there were not too many people to talk to.
E-mail had advantages over letters, but not phones. E-mails were fast, but it was difficult to carry on a conversation over e-mail, and if something had to be done or there needed to be dialogue, e-mail was not the best way to do it.
Next on the step of internet evolution was AIM, which revolutionized high-school social standards nation-wide. I remember I didn't use AIM until a freshman in college (around 2003) and I felt really left out in high school. The problems in AIM is that it functioned like a phone that people unplugged all the time. You had to be "plugged in" in order to communicate, so many times the important person was not available to talk to. Thus, phones still proved more useful.
Next there was the blog, which did have some aspects that were better than the phone. You could write whatever you liked, and it was widely accessible and permanent. People could browse at their leisure and even comment.
Wikis, however, do one better than blogs. Wikis are essentially blank slates for text-based creation, that is available constantly as a resource, message board, posting board, brainstorm, etc. I believe it is perfect for group projects in that everyone can imput information or ideas that everyone else can access, and there are no time windows that are inherent in meetings, conference calls, and chat sessions.
The drawback that I've seen so far from examples of school wikis is that they are not being used all that much, which I suppose is a significant drawback. If anyone has any good ones they'd like to link, I'd love to look at a few, but I see them essentially as class blogs, with the teacher creating and designing but students are generally only responding, not engaging in creation themselves.
Like so many other things in schools, I believe this motivation has to come from students. As Tamara says, being forced to comment on something feels false and creepy, like kissing your uncle.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Supreme court follows suit of Michigan....
by rejecting racially based school admissions, (see the article here). Definitely a land-mark ruling, and one that saddens me. What is more sad is the poll attached to the article. I tried to cut and paste, but it didn't work, but the results at the time of writing this post, the answer to the question, "Do you think race should play any role in school admission decisions?," are 16% yes with 14089 votes and 84% no with 72642 votes. It seems like the death toll for Affirmative Action.
It will be interesting to see how institutions tip-toe around this issue though. I would expect some new system based around income or geography to come into place. Just because we deny race in admissions legally, it doesn't mean it isn't a factor.
It will be interesting to see how institutions tip-toe around this issue though. I would expect some new system based around income or geography to come into place. Just because we deny race in admissions legally, it doesn't mean it isn't a factor.
Appetizers: A taste of things to come
For your first course, I'll be starting you with a bit of reflection, followed by some tasty analysis, with a delicious dessert of conclusions.
So far, I'm really excited about the class. I was pretty excited before class, when I read the syllabus and learned what we were doing, but now I'm even more excited. The idea of classroom blogs had never entered my mind, but, after reading all of the articles about them, I really started thinking that this was something I could use. It is something that excites kids and makes them want to do the work. Not only work, but really makes them be aware of the quality of the project, since they are presenting their work to the world at large. I've always been kind of into technology, but I've never really considered the possibilities of some of the more modern technologies and how they might be integrated into the classroom. The other exciting part is that this technology is only a few years old, and we are some of the first teachers to use it in the classroom. It is a time of breaking new ground, changing the face of education and seeing where it can take us.
But, before I get too excited, I do realize that there are limitations. I just finished reading the first three chapters in Jonathan Kozol's book, "Savage Inequalities," which describes schools in minority areas that are literally crumbling around them. How far blogs are removed from their world. In a school that doesn't have the funding for toilet paper, what good is a blog?
However, if we think of this another way, in the world of wired colleges and a world of business that is more frequently reliant on computer systems and internet access, these are the very people who NEED exposure to the technology as a prerequisite to succeed. We can say "These people have trouble getting heat, what use would they have for a computer?" However, if we want them to move forward and up in the world, if we want to create opportunities for them in the world and have them be equal or better to any rich kid living in the suburbs, we need to arm that child with computer-savvy as well as intelligence and knowledge. It would be a challenge, but its possible that if we deny them the technology that is given to other students, we only create another barrier to their success.
So, I guess I would say I'm excited to try to incorporate technology into a classroom, and find ways of giving kids regardless of access equal exposure and proficiency in its use.
So far, I'm really excited about the class. I was pretty excited before class, when I read the syllabus and learned what we were doing, but now I'm even more excited. The idea of classroom blogs had never entered my mind, but, after reading all of the articles about them, I really started thinking that this was something I could use. It is something that excites kids and makes them want to do the work. Not only work, but really makes them be aware of the quality of the project, since they are presenting their work to the world at large. I've always been kind of into technology, but I've never really considered the possibilities of some of the more modern technologies and how they might be integrated into the classroom. The other exciting part is that this technology is only a few years old, and we are some of the first teachers to use it in the classroom. It is a time of breaking new ground, changing the face of education and seeing where it can take us.
But, before I get too excited, I do realize that there are limitations. I just finished reading the first three chapters in Jonathan Kozol's book, "Savage Inequalities," which describes schools in minority areas that are literally crumbling around them. How far blogs are removed from their world. In a school that doesn't have the funding for toilet paper, what good is a blog?
However, if we think of this another way, in the world of wired colleges and a world of business that is more frequently reliant on computer systems and internet access, these are the very people who NEED exposure to the technology as a prerequisite to succeed. We can say "These people have trouble getting heat, what use would they have for a computer?" However, if we want them to move forward and up in the world, if we want to create opportunities for them in the world and have them be equal or better to any rich kid living in the suburbs, we need to arm that child with computer-savvy as well as intelligence and knowledge. It would be a challenge, but its possible that if we deny them the technology that is given to other students, we only create another barrier to their success.
So, I guess I would say I'm excited to try to incorporate technology into a classroom, and find ways of giving kids regardless of access equal exposure and proficiency in its use.
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