EdVentures in Technology
teaching, learning and change
Archive for July, 2007
July 20, 2007 at 1:25 pm · Filed under ce5560
As we discussed, we are modifying the focus of this course based on your needs. Rather than approach it from a pedagogical approach, we will be looking more deeply at the technical aspects of the development and management of web-based services. There are no required readings for this course however there are two books that I would highly recommend for your bookshelf. The first is Will Richardson’s “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms.” This is a great read on the pedagogical implementation of web technologies in the classroom. The other is Elisabeth and Eric Freeman’s “Head First HTML with CSS and XHTML” which I’ve found to be a wonderfully practical introduction to programming in HTML and is a great reference for those who need to know more about the inner workings of the code.
So for us, the first step is to find a home. As our explorations will require us to have deeper access to the dark and dirty recesses of the web, we will need to have two things to start:
First of all you will need an identity, a web address where folks can find you. This may be perhaps the most challenging of tasks as you will likely find that many of the names that you would hope to use are already taken, whether they are in active use or are simply being “squatted” on my domain name speculators. In the past I have used a number of different domain name registrar services but have recently used GoDaddy.com with great success. You can shop around and find domains available at a number of pricing levels but it seems that if you are paying more than $10 annually, you’re paying too much.
The first thing that you will likely notice is the wide range of choices in TLDs or Top Level Domains. If you follow the last link to the Wikipedia entry and click show next to the box entitled Generic top-level domains, you will see a list of common TLDs such as .com, .net, .org, etc. When you search on GoDaddy, you can select from a wide range of TLDs in the drop down but the results page is much more useful as it displays not only the TLD you selected, but the availability of other TLDs as well. For example, searching on my domain, whitemountaintech, shows that both the .com and .net are not available but that the .us, .info, .org are.
Take care in selecting your domain name, particularly if this site is going to have a life beyond this course. You want to ensure that it is memorable to your prospective audience.
Don’t buy the domain name yet though. Check out your hosting options next as you will need to know the IP addresses in order to point your new domain name to your hosting service. There are a number of hosting services out there. Some domain name registrars such as GoDaddy provide the option to have your site hosted by them. But as with any big purchase, make sure that you shop around. While many hosts offer the same basic array of services such as email, web space, etc. There are add-on features such as CPanel, Fantastico, email lists, streaming media services, etc. that you will want to investigate. The bottom line is that although it is possible to move your domain from one host to another, it is not without a level of complexity that makes it a rather unpleasant process for even the most hard-core of system administrators!
When I first launched my sites, I used a service called Hasweb.com primarily because it had the features I was looking for at a price that was just right for me - US$48 per year. Now this only let me host one domain name but that was ok because I wanted to use this as a springboard to learn the nuances of site management. I now use Dreamhost and a number of my fellow edutechies use Bluehost. Both of these run a bit more, closer to US$100-120 annually, although they also provide the ability to host multiple domains and have commensurately higher storage and bandwidth allowances.
So here is your homework.
- Select and purchase a domain name.
- Select and subscribe to a hosting service.
- Connect your domain name to your hosting service.
- Using the information provided by your host, explore the features available to you and learn more about what each does.
- Once you’ve done this, please respond via comment to this post.
[tags]ce5560, ce5560-summer2007, course, grad-course[/tags]
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July 11, 2007 at 4:03 pm · Filed under EdTech, Higher Education, PSU E-Learning Blog
Announced at the corporate keynote at BbWorld07, SafeAssign is a plagiarism prevention service integrated with the LMS that attempt to uncover and/or deter plagiarism while educating the campus community about what plagiarism is. Leveraging a dedicated assignment tool, assignments are uploaded to a central service which compares the submission against their databases and other submitted works held in the Global Reference Database. Any institution running any of the newer Blackboard Learning Systems is eligible to download and install the PowerLink/Building Block for their campus free of charge. Future platform deliveries will have this service embedded and will not require separate installation.
SafeAssign checks submitted papers (Word, RTF, PDF, TXT, HTML and ZIP packages of these) against the Internet using Windows Live Search technology. Blackboard has partnered with ProQuest ABI/Inform and searches against their 2.5 million articles database. SafeAssign also checks against a local institutional database of locally submitted work, as well as a Global Reference Database which is comprised of submissions volunteered by students from SafeAssign campuses. Obviously this database is expected to grow over time as the SafeAssign system is adopted by Blackboard institutions. It is important to note that the Global Reference Database is an opt-in service that students may elect to take advantage of in order to protect their own work.
Beyond the course integration aspect, SafeAssign also boasts a Direct Submit feature that allows faculty (not students as of the current release) to check documents on a “one-off” basis if they receive work that triggers their “spidey-sense.”
Gradebook integration is not yet available for CE/Vista campuses meaning that after the creation of the assignment, the faculty member will also need to create a new grading column in order to provide a grade value. It is expected that a patch will be issued that will provide this service in the coming months.
General Counsel Matthew Small noted that this new service will in no way affect the PowerLink or Building Block servicing TurnItIn, and the general flavor is that TurnItIn is still considered a strong corporate partner. Greg Ritter pointed out that those institutions currently employing TurnItIn may be loath to move away and abandon the student submissions collected through their use of the TurnItIn service.
[tags]blackboard, bbworld07, safeassign, turnitin, plagiarism[/tags]
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July 10, 2007 at 10:55 pm · Filed under EdTech, Higher Education, PSU E-Learning Blog, TechTalk
Today’s keynote had a couple of huge announcements, one of which may have an incredible impact on one of their partner vendors, TurnItIn.
CIO Michael Chasen announced that starting today all of the Blackboard Learning Systems: Blackboard, CE and Vista are able to download and install via either Building Blocks or PowerLinks, a new anti-plagiarism tool, SafeAssign. The tool can act either stand-alone locally or, like TurnItIn, it can upload student work to a centralized database that will then “protect” a student’s intellectual property from inappropriate use by other user’s of SafeAssign. There were a couple of interesting features such as a direction citation tool that identifies the specific resource that appears to have been used and the ability to allow students to “opt in” to the service (which I believe can be turned off administratively thereby effectively mandating use of the service). I wonder what kind of financial impact this will have on TurnItIn when Blackboard institutions learn that they can save the tens of thousands of dollars they spend on their annual subscription costs?
In other news, Chasen also announced the availability of a new tool intended to bridge the three learning environments. Available with the licensing of one of their three systems: Community, Content or Outcomes, is their Learning Environment Connector. Although a QA tech I was speaking with thought it was already available, I haven’t been able to find it on their site to link to as of yet. The idea is that schools will be able to bridge users to other Bb LMSes, as well as to the three Systems. This is big news as it is the first sign that the company is working to bring the formerly disparate environments together. In our own university system in New Hampshire, it means that Plymouth State which employs the Campus Edition version of the LMS may well be able to leverage the community and content systems that both UNH and Granite State College were only able to access as they were Blackboard sites. Rather than worry about the differences in our LMS, we can now focus on developing points of collaboration and tangency for our respective and some times cross-pollinating student bodies.
[tags]blackboard, bbworld07, chasen, turnitin, safeassign[/tags]
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July 10, 2007 at 10:19 pm · Filed under EdTech, Higher Education, PSU E-Learning Blog, TechTalk
I’m down in Boston, Mass. and today was day one of Blackboard’s user conference. Steven Leavitt of Freakonomics fame gave the opening keynote and did an admirable job. My takeaway points:
- Incentives matter - For both good and bad. Leavitt opines that anything worth winning is worth cheating for. My take, if you make the prize too valuable, people will often cheat to obtain it (he sites the example of tax returns prior to the requirement to include your dependents SSNs and the overnight “disappearance” of over 7 million children that tax year). But also, folks like to feel like they are valued and therefore it is important to ensure that the incentive is relative to the task.
- One small idea can tip the balance - In the example above, a single IRS employee made the suggestion twice over a period of years. His suggestion, once acted upon, has meant an over 30 billion dollar increase in revenue. You never know when your one simple suggestion could have such an enormous impact, so act!
- Education is ripe for a revolution - We’re still trying to teach the same way we did 40 years ago. The corporate world has evolved, why hasn’t education? By the way, Leavitt also mentioned that the idea of tenure in the world of higher education has to go because it no longer serves it’s original purpose and now simply ensures that mediocrity is rewarded. I’m sure that will stir the pot with educators but perhaps he has a point.
I just finished listening to Tapscott’s Wikinomics, perhaps I should now add Leavitt’s Freakonomics to my list.
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July 5, 2007 at 8:00 am · Filed under PELI, Teaching & Learning
Well, it sounds as if everything went well last night with the arrival of our 15 participants in this year’s Pakistani Educational Leadership Institute, or PELI for short. Although their departure wasn’t all that smooth as it appears that they were caught up in the chaos surrounding a siege on a mosque. Apparently the shooting started while they were leaving for the airport and they just made the airport before the curfew went into effect! Our ITA colleague in Pakistan, Beena Raza, is still sorting through some things back there.
Their transit took them through Heathrow and even with all the recent trouble over there, it appears that it didn’t slow them down as they made it into Logan Airport around 8:30 p.m. EST last evening. As I type, they are probably still making up for lost sleep and aren’t due to make an appearance until our brunch around 11 a.m. local.
The focus of this year’s Institute is on assessment. As this is the fourth year that the Institute has run, it was felt that it was time to bring over some of the senior educational leadership and close the loop on our prior work. I’ll keep folks apprised of our progress as the next three weeks unfold.
[tags]peli, peli2007, pakistan, education, leadership[/tags]
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July 3, 2007 at 7:18 pm · Filed under Library, Random Thoughts
A brief look at one of the themes developing in my feeds over the past couple of weeks is enough to wear down even the most ardent tech evangelist and change agent. The continuation of the devaluation of user contributed content begun by Jaron Lanier’s Digital Maoism: The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism last May is seeing a resurgence as Andrew Keen’s The Cult of the Amateur has just hit the stands, and a Wired commentary by Tony Long just landed in my feed reader entitled Internet Smackdown: The Amateur vs. the Professional. I should have known by his title, The Luddite, that he wasn’t what you might call a “fanboy.” Thankfully Lawrence Lessig, in his own fashion, has posted an interesting perspective on Keen’s work, it’s a self-deprecating parody!
I haven’t had an opportunity to read Keen’s book yet and no doubt I will however what really has my head spinning are the treatises posted by former American Library Association (ALA) president Michael Gorman on the Brittanica Blog: Web 2.0: The Sleep of Reason, part I, Web 2.0: The Sleep of Reason, part II and most recently, The Siren Song of the Internet, part I and The Siren Song of the Internet, part II. Ironic that he’s posting at all, given the way Gorman decries blogs and blogging.
Gorman is throwing out a red herring. The problem isn’t as simplistic as attempting to define who is a professional and who is an amateur. That line gets more blurry by the day, as does the criteria by which we have come to define professional. As a matter of fact I don’t believe that is the problem at all. For me, the problem boils down simply to our growing inability to practice and teach the complex skill of critical analysis. The source of information should always be suspect regardless of medium. Most any human communication possesses an inherent amount of bias, feeling, emotion, passion. We would place no more weight on a watercooler discussion than we should on what we find online. What is needed is the development of a skill set that enables us to evaluate, test and substantiate our sources of information. The next step is to continually test and refine our positions, paradigms and beliefs against our peers so as to never assume that our understanding, our learning, is finite.
I read and appreciated Clay Shirky’s responses to Gorman’s attestations.
And Stephen Downes reflected a Michael Ohlert post which echoes my own sentiments about Gorman’s leaps in logic.
If nothing else, Gorman has at least sparked a spirited discussion amongst the IT and library staff here at Plymouth State University!
(Note: This was intended to be a more indepth post but my notes were lost when my computer kindly “coughed.” Insert friendly reminder to all to please “save as you go.” Notepad doesn’t auto-save! )
[tags]gorman, brittanica, amateur, professional, authorship[/tags]
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July 3, 2007 at 5:05 pm · Filed under Creativity, Learning Theory, Random Thoughts, Teaching & Learning
Now that I have your attention, I will shamelessly admit that the title was just a hook. Yes, you should read this book. If not for yourself, for your children or for your neighborhood’s children. My thanks to Christian Long over at think:lab for his post which brought The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn and Hal Iggulden to my attention.
I just happened to be online in a Borders bookstore after an off-campus meeting when his post came in to my reader. Checked out the author’s site, watched their video, and immediately bought the book for my own motley crew. My seven year old is already hard at work on his knots, having mastered the reef knot and clove hitch, working on developing his own mnemonic for the figure-8 and trying to figure out the bowline.
What I love about this book is that it encourages kids (and those of us refusing to grow up) to get out and play like we used to. As has been pointed out in the blogosphere, learning is messy. So is life. Yes there will be bumps, bruises and tears along the way, but they make the laughter, joy and happiness (dare I say learning?) all the sweeter. This book is just one more reminder.
Now get out there and play!
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