Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
PDF --> Word converter
It simply isn't clear where we are to post many things ... so I'll do it here for fun. I tried the PDF --> Word converter last night and I have yet -- say at least 16 hours -- to hear back from them. Then again, maybe the PDF I sent to them was too difficult?
I tried to put a link to the PDF into this blog, but was not able to do so.
I tried to put a link to the PDF into this blog, but was not able to do so.
“Is Google Making Us Stupid?” By Nicholas Carr.
“Is Google Making Us Stupid?” By Nicholas Carr.
I wasn’t certain as to where we were to post our responses to this article.
1. “The Web has been a godsend to me as a writer.” Undoubtedly as to the availability of information, but economically?
2. My approach would be more along the lines that the ever more competitive economy -- the competitive World Economy -- is pressuring us to read spend less time reading on any specific topic. If one were to desire to do so, one could avoid the short articles and largely or exclusively read novels and journals (on paper or on-line). [I see the interesting discussion of the development of the clock and its interaction with human behavior in the same light.]
Even the author writes: “The Internet … [is] … becoming our map and our clock, our printing press and our typewriter, our calculator and our telephone, and our radio and TV.” Exactly, i.e., it is replacing existing technology. I believe it is competition that is driving most of us to shorter amounts of time spent reading about any given topic, not the internet per se.
3. He mentions Taylor’s “one best method” which reminds me of the almost political mantra -- and vacuity -- of the slogan “best practices.” What a load of hooey.
I wasn’t certain as to where we were to post our responses to this article.
1. “The Web has been a godsend to me as a writer.” Undoubtedly as to the availability of information, but economically?
2. My approach would be more along the lines that the ever more competitive economy -- the competitive World Economy -- is pressuring us to read spend less time reading on any specific topic. If one were to desire to do so, one could avoid the short articles and largely or exclusively read novels and journals (on paper or on-line). [I see the interesting discussion of the development of the clock and its interaction with human behavior in the same light.]
Even the author writes: “The Internet … [is] … becoming our map and our clock, our printing press and our typewriter, our calculator and our telephone, and our radio and TV.” Exactly, i.e., it is replacing existing technology. I believe it is competition that is driving most of us to shorter amounts of time spent reading about any given topic, not the internet per se.
3. He mentions Taylor’s “one best method” which reminds me of the almost political mantra -- and vacuity -- of the slogan “best practices.” What a load of hooey.
Friday, July 15, 2011
Reflections after 1 week
One week has gone by and I'm working through the day 3 homework. The videos have been very interesting. The sixth sense video was very intriguing and a little disturbing. After watching that video it isn't a stretch to imagine a chip implanted in your head that allows you do all those things without having any device. All this information could simply show up on the cornea of the eye. All those science fiction movies like Blade Runner don't seem at all silly knowing what's on the horizon in technology. It's very interesting, exciting, intimidating, overwhelming, and intriguing. I'm not really sure what to think of that technology shown in the video. I'm not sure I would want all that information. I believe it would take a lot of the uncertainty out of life and it's the uncertainty that makes it interesting.
Tom Hanninen
Tom Hanninen
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Dear Lightspeed,
One of the questions we were asked to think about in one of the discussion posts was the message either promoted or discouraged by our district’s content filter. My district uses Lightspeed and the blocked content message and I know each other well, especially when it comes to using wikispaces. The filter is not a consistent problem. It strikes random students on different days anytime. I’ve even been the victim of this prohibition. It is beyond frustrating. I gave up on having each one of my 9th graders having a wiki very early in the school year last year. I couldn’t link to my wiki in Moodle for students to use because some but not all would be blocked. I would have to log in to individual laptops and then log in to wikispaces and set up stations for students to move through and about 40% of the time I would even be blocked. This process would take upwards of a half an hour. If I don’t have a prep period before a class where I need to do this, I’m in trouble. I’ve brought this up to the tech department and they worked some magic unblocking individual sites in the filter, but there was no change. One of my goals for this course was to use my wiki better, but I guess I forgot about the Baker vs. Blocker battle. It is a shame. I know that a common misery teachers share is lack of time in the day. If it doesn’t work, we have to give up quickly and move on because there is more to do, something to grade and a different class waiting behind that next bell. So Lightspeed, all I really ask it that you make a decision. Block my wiki so I can move on to the next plan or don’t. My job is pretty difficult already, stop making it more tricky.
Sixth sense
WOW I just watched the video on the Sixth Sense project. Talk about the world of Star Trek. This is an amazing project and to think that the necessary equipment I believe the speaker said cost less than $400 and can be used and projected anywhere. And it is available now. Can you image the impact this will have on education?
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