EdVentures in Technology
teaching, learning and change
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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April 22, 2007 at 11:59 pm · Filed under Twitter Log
- Sox over the Yanks 7-5. w00t! #
- @jutecht: Howzit bruddah? How’s your rescuee? #
- @jutecht: Yeah, that’s how we ended up with our fish, and our rabbit, and our mouse, and our ball python. Good luck with that! #
- @jutecht: I’m very sorry to hear about the kitten Jeff. At least she was knew love before the end. #
- Minor scare this morning - our short tail ball python escaped from her cage and was MIA. Found her in the kids toys. Hunting maybe? #
- Starting vacation - a whole week. What am I going to do? #
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April 21, 2007 at 11:59 pm · Filed under Twitter Log
- 2800 hits yesterday - Holy smoke! More than double my best day ever. #
- Good morning to my Twitter friends! It’s glorious mornings like these that I wish our conversations were real rather than virtual. #
- @jutecht: Rock on Jeff, that’s one lucky kitten. Still trying to convince our rescued ball python she wants to eat! #
- 70+ degrees and I’m still shoveling snow! Only in New England… But at least I can sit on my deck again! #
- Summer is coming - Beach volleyball on the tube, Sox v. Yanks this afternoon. My first sunburn at yesterday’s media support event. Oh joy! #
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April 19, 2007 at 11:59 pm · Filed under Twitter Log
- At home after school concert, watching the Sox and trying to relax. I don’t think I’m succeeding. #
- Coming out of a great meeting with a faculty member. We’re working on getting two of their courses online for the summer term. #
- Bb dev phone conference in 15 minutes. #
- Heading to hold a faculty workshop on Microsoft Vista and Office 2007 #
- None of our faculty apparently care about new OS’s or versions of Office. Wonder if they will care in the fall? #
- Back from a WebCT workshop on the Assignment tool. #
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April 13, 2007 at 11:59 pm · Filed under Twitter Log
- @librarianmer: Glad to hear you arrived safely. Good luck in NY! #
- Trying to figure out YackPack on my PBwiki #
- It looks like I’ve got a message but I can’t see how to play it back. Scratch, scratch, scratch??? #
- Have I mentioned how much I HATE dial-up!!! #
- Um ok, I’m getting it now. Turns out that little number in the bottom right is just identifying that someone else is on the page with me. #
- Wondering how useful a sync tool like the YackPack widget would actually be in a collaborative environment… #
- At TLC Meeting to kick off the morning. #
- Just got back from planning our summer classroom tech upgrades - it’s gonna be a busy time! #
- Upgraded Skype to 3.1 and installed TalkAndWrite Extra for whiteboard augmentation. #
- Prepping for a PBwiki presentation after lunch. #
- Listening to the first part of the wiki workshop #
- Back from wiki workshop - low turnout
#
- Exploring BlogBridge Feed Library and having a bear of a time editing folders. #
- Turns out there is a FeedLibrary bug on this hosted site. Techs are investigating. #
- Still playing with FeedLibrary. It’s got a lot of potential to open up RSS to my faculty! #
- Heading home for the weekend. Got a test run of BlogBridge’s Feed Library up at http://plymouth.blogbridge.com #
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April 12, 2007 at 11:59 pm · Filed under Twitter Log
- Ok jutecht your Mariners are beating my Sox 3-0 #
- @jutecht: What is the time differential for you and I? It’s 8:30 EST here. I think -5 GMT but with Daylight savings it’s hard to remember. #
- Ack… Sox losing in a no-hitter thru 6. #
- @dnorman: Does BlogBridge have an autofind function or do you have to manually add all your feeds? #
- At Cafe Monte Alto grabbing my double-decaf cap with a shot of coconut and a touch of cocoa. Mmmmm…. #
- Exploring YackPack (http://yackpack.com) to create new communication channels #
- @elsua: I’m not tracking Johnt, what’s the scoop? #
- @librarianmer: May I add my best wishes on a safe flight - I’m not looking forward to the commute back home tonight from Plymouth, NH! #
- In a Distance Ed Planning meeting #
- In a phone conference with Blackboard #
- Done with the Bb phone conference, thinking about heading home soon due to weather conditions. #
- Working with PBwiki for a faculty workshop tomorrow. #
- Heading home on slippery roads, wish me luck! #
- @coolcatteacher: Vicki I’m so sorry to hear about your dog, will Butterfinger be ok? #
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April 9, 2007 at 11:59 pm · Filed under Twitter Log
- @jutecht: Hey man, how goes the WPMU battle? Any progress? #
- @jutecht: Let me know if there’s anything I can do to help. I’ve got some folks at PSU who might have some ideas tomorrow morning our time. #
- @grahamwegner: Glad to hear you’re all feeling better. At least you still have the chocolate waiting for you
#
- Catching the BoSox at Texas, but suffering thru the ESPN commentators. YUK!!! Thanks for the reminder timlauer! #
- Joe Morgan ain’t no RemDawg that’s for sure! #
- @jutecht: Congrats J! Glad to hear you got it worked thru! #
- Dates for the 2007 K-12 Online Conference: 8-27 October. I can’t wait! #
- Off to Registrar interview and then to meet with the Uni. Pres and VP for Finance on fund raiser tech support. #
- CIO running interference with the Pres, so I’m at lunch! #
- Writing a review of Moodle: A complete guide to successful learning using Moodle by William H. Rice IV, May 2006 Packt Publishing. #
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April 6, 2007 at 11:59 pm · Filed under Twitter Log
- @jutecht: Mornin’ Jeff #
- @jutecht: I’m still recovering from shoveling nasty wet snow - wishing I was somewhere warmer right now #
- Hitting the rack and looking for inspiration somewhere… #
- Working with a faculty member on a Student Response System pilot. Anyone else using these and have an opinion? #
- Back in my office #
- Working on a review of PacktPub’s Moodle - A complete guide to successful learning using Moodle. #
- @jefflebow: Wish I could head down there with you, PodcampNYC sounds like a blast. #
- @elsua: The problem with snow days is that work in addition to snow accumulate!!! Now I’m shoveling virtual snow
#
- @elsua: I’m ready for spring! Waiting for the rock to dry so I can go climbing! #
- Ok, so the new My Google Maps tool - ROCKS! Here’s to the death of boring history classes! #
- Check out the C-Net vid - http://urltea.com/3xu #
- @elsua: So where are you at geographically these days? #
- Filling out course proposal for #
- Grad course: Teaching & Learning in the 21st-century classroom #
- Heading to lunch #
- Wes Fryer’s podcasts 142 and 143 have thoughts spinning about evolving the model of education we use - it’s broken - how do we fix it? #
- Education leapfrog - abandon an evolution in education in favor of a radical leap forward. #
- Think cell phones in developing nations, they bypassed landlines almost entirely. #
- Education leapfrog - abandon an evolution in education in favor of a radical leap forward. #
- Testing VoIP on campus #
- Turned in winterim course proposal, yea! #
- Dreamhost mySQL FTL? #
- Dreamhost mySQL back #
- Upgrading my WP blogs to 2.1.3 #
- @brlamb, @dnorman: Yah, brag about shorts, we got nuthin’ but snow here.
http://flickr.com/photos/63586135@N00/448631253 #
- Correct snowfall pic link: http://flickr.com/photos/edventures/448631253/ #
- Heading home to celebrate Hunter’s 7th & Ethan’s 3rd birthdays tomorrow. Yup, you got it same day three years apart. #
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April 5, 2007 at 12:30 pm · Filed under Diigo Links
UMichingan School of Information - MSI: Social Computing Graduate Program
- Interesting offering beginning in the Fall of 2007 but the site doesn’t give any indication that any of its courses are available online.
- post by edventures
Mozilla Labs: The Coop
- A prototype nextgen browser which obviously recognizes the value of Flock’s contributions considering the screenshots on the Lab page. I’m thinking that if Twitter support and shared webpage browsing were included that this could be a terrific real-time point-to-point collaboration environment. Wonder how much weight this is being given in the Lab venue?
- post by edventures
Epsilen Environment - An ePortfolio tool
- Currently providing free accounts to holders of a .edu email address during their beta period with the expectation that this will turn into a commercial venture aimed at K-12 and Higher Ed institutions, although not dismissing corporate utility. My test profile can be viewed at: http://jemartin.plymouth.epsilen.com
- post by edventures
Schoolhouse 2 - The homework manager for Mac.
- A free, education oriented OneNote equivalent for Macs which features:
- Tasks
- Notes
- File Attachments
- Classcasting
- Smart Notebooks
- Grades
- post by edventures
Create a custom Google Map from published Google Spreadsheets
- This tutorial allows you to create customized Google maps using your own data as maintained in a a published Google Spreadsheet.
- post by edventures
Swivel - a data presentation tool
- A wild tool for mashing up data and presenting it in graphic format online.
- post by edventures
April 4, 2007 at 11:59 pm · Filed under Twitter Log
So for those wondering, these posts are tests of the Twitter to blog option of the Twitter Tools Plugin. I’m curious to see if or how this stream of consciousness post adds value to my blog. Probably less interesting to those following on RSS but personally, I’ve been finding utility in Twitter from the standpoint that folks Tweet on things that wouldn’t necessarily be blog-worthy but have value to those in their network. As an example, I’ve shared a few interesting Tweets with Luis Suarez, D’Arcy Norman and Jeff Utecht and added a new node (and kindred spirit) to my network - Jeff VanDrimmelen of UNC-Chapel Hill.
If you are curious about Twitter, feel free to add me to your list http://twitter.com/edventures as the search features leave a lot to be desired. Right now I use the trial and error method. Find someone I know, check out their friends and add those that are mutual and in some cases, make new connections I might not have otherwise.
Not sure how long I’ll keep posting these Twitter updates. I do wish there was a way to set it to post privately so that I can continue to log my days but not bore the world.
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