EdVentures in Technology
teaching, learning and change
May 27, 2008 at 12:30 pm · Filed under Diigo Links
April 11, 2008 at 12:30 pm · Filed under Diigo Links
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RSS « Learning 2.0 @ SIAST - Annotated
This week’s discovery exercises focus on learning about RSS feeds and using Google Reader (a free online newsreader) to bring your feeds together. If there is another online reader that you are more comfortable with, or that you already use, please feel free to use it.
tags: rss, learning-activity, siast
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This week’s discovery exercises focus on learning about RSS feeds and using
Google Reader (a free online newsreader) to bring your feeds together. If there is another online reader that you are more comfortable with, or that you already use, please feel free to use it.
January 27, 2008 at 10:43 pm · Filed under Random Thoughts, TechTalk
I’ve been offline for quite a while. Much of it has to do with my workload at the University but the other part is that where I live in rural New Hampshire, high-speed Internet access is mostly a sweet dream. Trying to maintain a digital identity with a dial-up connection that maxes out at 22kbps was simply an exercise in frustration. Well even that came to an end last week when our phone line suddenly went dead. Turns out that frost heaves pushed up our buried phone cable (which apparently was poorly buried by whoever installed it) and it was promptly cut when our plow guy cleaned our driveway during the last snowstorm.
That led to a decision point: do we continue to pay for a landline when both my wife and I have cell phones with excellent service here at home? Is it worth it just to suffer through on a questionable dial-up connection? Turns out that neither one of us believed it was. So begins our experiment with disconnecting from the physical and going ethereal (ok, wireless). For the cost of our landline at about $50-60/month and the cost of our dial-up connection via PeoplePC at about $10/month, we could get set up with Verizon’s Broadband Access wireless Internet service at $60/month.
I had reservations about how the service would fare at our home but I figured I’d give it a shot. I tried to swing by our local computer guy but his office is closed on the weekend. So I traveled down to another Verizon store and purchased a USB720 wireless adapter and service.
Interestingly, each connector is assigned its own phone number. I wondered how they managed to keep track of service and it turns out they do key it to a phone number. It strikes me as a bit limiting in that it would almost make more sense to attach an IPv6 number instead but I know little about the infrastructure that comprises their network.I was concerned about signing on to a contract but Verizon does have a 15-day return policy and I figured that would be plenty of time to test the typical use cases I would be employing. So now it came down to testing the device. Installation was a snap. Drop in the CD, run the configuration app wizard, attach the device and connect to the Verizon network. In less than 5 minutes I was online and connecting at 684 Kbps download/480 Kbps upload. Now this isn’t great compared to the possible connect speed of the Broadband Access service (600 Kbps – 1.4 Mbps download/500 Kbps – 800 Kbps upload), but considering that we are on the fringes of the deployment of this service and compared to my old connection speed of 22 kbps, I ain’t complaining!
SpeedTest Results - Round 1
Speed Test Results - Round 2
I was even able to install the VZAccess software on my wife’s laptop and our home desktop so that they could use it as well. So far, so good, as all three connected successfully. The only caveat to the plan is that they have a cap of 5 GB per month:
“If usage exceeds 5 GB per line during any billing period, we reserve the right to reduce throughput speeds of any application that would otherwise exceed such speed to a maximum of approximately 200 Kbps. These speeds are subject to change, in our reasonable discretion, in order to address network issues.”
It will be interesting to see how much bandwidth I consume on a monthly basis and the VZAccess software should allow me to track this.
[tags]verizon, wireless, internet, isp, online, usb720[/tags]
Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite 
June 21, 2007 at 10:16 pm · Filed under Teaching & Learning, Web 2.0
My thanks to Danah Boyd who brought to my attention testimony she and a number of others including a professor from my undergraduate alma mater, Dr. David Finkelhor of the University of New Hampshire, provided to the Advisory Committee to the Congressional Internet Caucus. Their testimony has been posted online and includes video (note this version requires Real Player, but read on for links to a YouTube version), audio (43MB) and transcript of the proceedings which lasted just under an hour and a half.
I highly recommend either viewing, listening to or reading this testimony. Read also Danah’s posts which are substantiated by statistical data and do far more justice to the topic than I can. It is interesting to see and hear from experts in the field, particularly as their testimony is often at odds with the fear pandering and net paranoia espoused by our media, and in some cases our government officials. Take for instance this sobering fact. When it comes to sexual predation, strangers account for only 10% of those cases. The predominant offender? Parents at 78.5% of reported cases.
As a parent myself, I understand and advocate for a greater level of parental involvement in the lives of our children. Any child predation is too much. However, it is also important for us to work from facts rather than assumptions. The bottom line is that online predation is far less a threat to our children than the lack of parental involvement, guidance and love in their lives. We don’t need more legislation, we need more communication!
[tags]online, youth, victimization, predation, netcaucus[/tags]
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February 10, 2007 at 11:48 am · Filed under Diigo Links
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- Another voice for a sea change in the praxis of higher education, this article has some pertinent insights into how those of us in higher education must begin to address and challenge some of the older paradigms which are inhibiting our ability to transform our praxis into one more suitable to the 21st century. - post by edventures
- A great article on internet-based teaching and learning resources by Bryan Alexander, Research Director for the National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education. It touches upon practical uses of blogs, wikis, podcasts and virtual worlds in addition to social imaging. One topic that I think would be of particular interest to librarians is that of social bookmarking – using online tools to create and share dynamic lists of readings or resources that might be specific to their area of specialization. - post by edventures
EDUCAUSE Quarterly | Volume 30 Number 1 2007 Annotated
suppose for a moment that it’s the 1930s…”
…You’re the captain of the luxury liner, the Queen Mary, steaming across the Atlantic to New York. Suddenly, you hear a low drone. You look up and see a Pan Am Clipper, winging its way from London to New York. Would you realize that the age of steamships is about to end? Would the steamship company understand that its business actually is transportation, not ships?
Students offer Net advice to colleges | CNET News.com
ALA | Using technology in teaching and learning
The Creative Educator
December 20, 2006 at 12:56 pm · Filed under Connectivism, Higher Education, Web 2.0
This one is on my virtual calendar!
The Learning Technologies Centre at the University of Manitoba is hosting the Connectivism Online Conference. Thanks in large part to the efforts of George Siemens, this wholly online (oh and did I mention, FREE!) conference runs from 2-9 February 2007 and will feature the likes of Stephen Downes, Terry Anderson, Bill Kerr (link to presentation material) and Will Richardson as well as George Siemens himself.
This event will employ both Moodle and e-lluminate and will cover such areas as:
“…trends in K-12 sector, trends in higher education, research and net pedagogy, technological and societal trends, and connective knowledge and connectivism.”
I am looking forward to this event and hope that you will join me there!
Note: Bill Kerr’s link has been updated to reflect his new location and he kindly offered a link to his presentation material.
[tags]occ2007[/tags]
technorati tags:occ2007, connectivism, learning, online, conference
Blogged with Flock
October 25, 2006 at 8:29 pm · Filed under Higher Education, Readings
Authored by Kaye Shelton and George Saltsman, this book is part of the USDLA series on Distance Learning, this book discusses issues surrounding the logistics, practices and politics of administering an online education program.
An Administrator’s Guide to Online Education
ISBN: 1-59311-424-9
Technorati Tags: OnlineEd, reading, online, education, administrator
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