edushizzle: Comments

Comment on "Trying Out Kaltura"

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:03:41 -0500

Funny you should mention this. I just sent Mark a much overdue email earlier today.

Media Commons will be managing a limited pilot group this semester (Fall). Hopefully it will go into wide release for the Spring Semester.

- Brad Kozlek

Comment on "Trying Out Kaltura"

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 15:55:33 -0500

Hey Brad. Looks like we're one step closer. I know that some folks in Training Services are interested in when this integration is going to be official so they can add it to their blogs training. Lots of people looking forward to it.

- ALLAN SHAWN GYORKE

Comment on "Model For Blog Comments"

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 11:45:43 -0500

I like disqus comments, connects conversations across the web.

- hanum

Comment on "why do you use buzz?"

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:26:40 -0500

I think the biggest difficulty here is Twitter is an independent service so we know when we use it, or do not use it, what is implied. Buzz was not clear to most of us because we don't know what kind of interactions we have with our existing network, and what information we already have there may be revealed. What makes it harder is Buzz requires a Google account so it keeps some users from using it. Another thing is, does Buzz have API like twitter yet?

- TK Lee

Comment on "why do you use buzz?"

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 14:32:29 -0500

I don't feel like I am using buzz. I feel like buzz is using me. It came like a thief in the night and before I knew it I was linked up to more than a handful of folks, some of whom I wouldn't necessarily be comfortable sharing twitter-esque content with. My spidey-sense tells me that buzz will become my preferred outlet for all thoughts random and otherwise... but right now I, like you, am having a difficult time figuring out how and why to use it.

- adam

Comment on "The future of multitasking?"

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 10:23:50 -0500

Another example of computation done server side is evernote. All the optical character recognition is done on evernote's server. I don't need to run a separate task to do that on my computer, phone, tablet, etc.

I am wondering if multitasking, like the file system, is an arcane piece of legacy computing. Perhaps humans are better off without having to incur the cognitive load of managing a computer's tasks.

I am not absolutely saying the iPhone shouldn't have multitasking. Maybe Apple will find a way to make it work in some sort of invisible manner for the user. Maybe (although I tend to doubt it) in the long run we will find that the we give up too much by making the computer more transparent to humans.

This is just one piece of a new computing landscape that is dovetailing with the proliferation of iphone-like and android-like devices.

Perhaps the event handling you mention are better suited to a piece of extension code, from a human-computer interaction perspective.

- Brad Kozlek

Comment on "The future of multitasking?"

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 20:41:32 -0500

I am not calling iPhone OS a step forward for mobile device, but I am conjecturing that it may foretell the future of personal computing.

No doubt, that future is not here yet. All the pieces are not in place.

I understand your concerns about optimizing battery life and network bandwidth, but there was once a time when using computing cycles to control a graphical user was considered wasteful.

I am willing to bet that of the current students who have transcoded a video, the vast majority have done so exclusively using online services like youtube.

- Brad Kozlek

Comment on "The future of multitasking?"

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 12:41:12 -0500

How will you upload the (sizable) video to "the cloud" to be encoded without clobbering the network? If you try to upload a large file to "the cloud," you'll deplete your battery because the device has to power the network interface for a prolonged period of time.

Alternatively, the device manufacturer could add dedicated capabilities to the device (either on a dedicated chip or a module on a SoC) to encode the video on the device. I suspect this could lead to longer battery life.

On a broader point, the lack of background apps isn't just about power users wanting to multitask. iPhone OS's lack of background apps or any sort of callback system limits features. For example, on Android, an app can register callbacks with the OS that will fire when certain conditions occur (such as the GPS being activated by another app, or the 802.11 nic associating with a essid). Calling the iPhone OS a step forward for mobile devices is rather... suspect.

- Derek Morr

Comment on "ELI 2010 Travel Report"

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 20:38:56 -0500

Brad,

It's highly interesting to me that there are people who still believe Web 2.0 has no place whatsoever in education. I read a while ago something that stuck with me. The concept of the modern university was developed in the 13th-14th century as a place to prepare students for the world they are to enter.

One could, therefore, argue that those fighting this technology are going against the concept of what a university is supposed to do.

Cole,

That place of comfort is getting decidedly less comfy. It's getting kind of hard to ignore all this stuff.

- Jamie Oberdick

Comment on "ELI 2010 Travel Report"

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:25:26 -0500

Thanks for the comment. The two mindsets have been observed in the field. I hate to sound like a broken record, but if man creates his world based on the media he uses, as McLuhan suggests, then the world is being reshaped fundamentally the more we adopt these new communication tools.

- Brad Kozlek

Comment on "ELI 2010 Travel Report"

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 23:14:39 -0500

Brad ... excellent thoughts. Funny how the theme of the event is so well represented by the "two mindsets" discussed by Lankshear and Knobel in their "Sampling 'the New' in New Literacies." The first mindset shared by the small group of "doubters" is analogous to the idea that we still live in an industrial-like age where technology is just a single element that does not really impact our environment -- that we are essentially culturally the same as we were a century ago. The second mindset is one we both seem to fully embrace in that it assumes things are fundamentally post-industrial and so radically different today *because* of the notions and arrival of the hyper-networked world of Web 2.0. It isn't just people being able to do their work differently because of technology, their world is different because the world has fundamentally changed under our feet.

I think that scares the crap out of a lot of people.

I saw the same divide this year, but I saw it last year (as well as several years prior) as well. I see these same polarized mindsets on our campus and I think the thing those in the first camp are missing is that it isn't the technology per se that is compelling -- it is the fundamental underpinnings of web 2.0 itself -- people. The philosophical foundation of the web 2.0 world is one of connectedness and that to me is something that our educational environment would serve itself well to work to understand.

I think an event like ELI does a great job of gathering people to share conversations. This year I took part in several, but I still see those showing up to bring the conversation back to a place of comfort. And in a lot of ways they are comfortable living in a land that looks thirty years old. Good post, I'm looking forward to talking through more of the issues with you!

- Cole

Comment on "VIewing Area In The New Media Commons Space In Sparks"

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:28:46 -0500

We are very excited to have the dc in Sparks. I know the LAUS office will be making serious use of the equipment and the talents of one Ryan Wetzel.

- Christopher P. Long

Comment on "some reactions to agile and the course forward"

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 14:43:27 -0500

Hey Brad,

We worked with a scrum development team just over a year ago that was creating a kiosk application for Thrifty rentacar customers to do their own check ins. We were developing the web-based training on the application for agents but we got to know their process a bit during our time interacting with them. Oddly, we discovered that the e-learning development methodology is sort of an 'Agile' methodology already. We can sit and chat about some of the things we observed in their effort but the number 1 item we noticed is that the methodology allows for MUCH design change along the way. Found it to be very interesting.

- MATTHEW N MEYER

Comment on "Blogging: Do it for yourself"

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:59:31 -0500

Not sure how I missed this before but this, for lack of a more intellectual term, is "money".

- MATTHEW N MEYER

Comment on "multiple blogs. multiple documents."

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:19:23 -0500

Brad -- I've had the same thoughts. About two years ago, I said, "I'm going to blog in EXACTLY one place." In the last 6 months I've blogged in two places and written some pretty long comments on the blogs of others. I've reconsidered. Were I a student, unless required by a professor, I'd probably have one blog for classes and another for personal stuff, thoughts, etc.

- Jim Leous

Comment on "multiple blogs. multiple documents."

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:25:46 -0500

I'm right there with you over thinking the whole thing. I think that's what we are really supposed to do -- think and talk about this stuff so other people can just enjoy it. Perhaps you were right when you told me I didn't want to be happy with any of it -- maybe it is because part of what we do is to push it all forward? Not quite sure yet, but I am better we could spend some time thinking and talking about it.

- Cole W. Camplese

Comment on "My interest in wave explained more succinctly "

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:31:19 -0500

Yeah, it's definitely got my mind all grokked up. Whether that's a good thing or bad remains to be seen. I'll tell you this much -- the possibilities of Wave are simultaneously mind-boggling and terrifying. I feel like if humans accept this technology and fully integrate it into their modus operandi it could spark the dawning of the age of aquarius.

- Adam Welch

Comment on "My interest in wave explained more succinctly "

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:05:58 -0500

Brad, thanks for expanding on this during our lunchtime discussion today, to help this nondeveloper get a little closer to grokking it.

- MARY ELIZABETH JANZEN

Comment on "Blurring The Boundaries: New Models For Teaching and OER"

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:02:24 -0500

Thanks for this, Brad. You have it exactly right about the strategy to perform research and teaching in the open, with others, using the blogs at PSU platform as the site of digital community.

I would add that all of this is based on the conviction that learning happens in community and that technology can be used to cultivate communities of learning that cut across boundaries in all sorts of ways.

I tried to articulate some of my thinking behind the practice as well as show something of the practice itself in the presentation you mentioned entitled, Integrating Teaching and Research with Technology.

None of this, however, would be possible without the work you, Brad, have done to enable me to develop a digital blog space that fits my teaching and research ideals. You have always been committed to the idea that the pedagogy should drive the technology. This is critical.

Further, I very much appreciate your ongoing commitment to open education. Penn State was founded as a land grant institution designed to make education more accessible as a public good. I see this as the continuation and transformation of this important tradition in a digital age.

- Christopher P. Long

Comment on "misguided wave ideas"

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:00:52 -0500

Words can't begin to describe that video. You make very interesting points, Bradley. It's hard for me to imagine Wave as a protocol and not a juiced-up version of Google Docs. I haven't played with it yet, so I am like a child who wanders into the room in the middle of a movie and wants to know what's going on. Now if Wave can someday render Outlook obsolete, I'll be a happy man. And if you guys need help producing your Wave video... just let me know. I'll call Unkie Dave.

- Adam Welch