Serendipity35

HigherEd BlogCon 2006 seeks to engage the Higher Education community in a conversation on the use of blogs, wikis, RSS, audio and video podcasts, social networks, and other digital tools in a range of areas in academe. Oh yeah, it's being held online, April 3 -28. And it's free.

Participants will publish articles, podcasts, and screencasts sharing their findings and experiences using these new technologies and inviting your participation through comments and questions.

The first presentation that caught my eye was one on alternatives to the traditional lecture: "Giving the students what they want: Short, to-the-point e-lectures" by Mark E. Ott

It's a PowerPoint with audio. Nothing new there. But I like that he talks about using such things (he likes the term screencasts) to do things other than lecture - like review for exams.

Watch the presentation - here are some points to consider:

• the way you need to chunk material into small, digestible sections.
• copyright considerations (what you use in class under "fair use" isn't fair when you post it online for any viewer)
• how a screencast is like a podcast/vodcast. It's like an “enhanced podcast" though not probably intended for viewing on a mobile device like a video iPod with its small screen.

In these days of shrinking budgets, a conference that won't require reimbursement seems a natural.

Check out the event and presentations at http://www.higheredblogcon.com/

Wikipedia is incredibly popular. Especially with students doing research. However, it is not as popular as an acceptable source with many teachers. I know of faculty who will not accept it as a research source. (Which won't stop students from using it.)

The general complaints against Wikipedia stem from the idea that it is wide open for contributors to post inaccurate information.

I won't argue all the points here, especially since the well-respected science journal Nature already did. They recently published an article concluding that ( for articles on science) Wikipedia is about as accurate as the Encyclopedia Britannica.

And, of course, Britannica released a rebuttal that disputes Nature's. You can download a pdf of it.

Check the links and decide for yourself. Just don't pretend it will go away.

I was rereading two novels by the late Douglas Adams the past month - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul

When Adams was finsihed with the Hitchhiker's series, he came up with this diptych starring Dirk Gently, an eccentric who runs a self-titled Holistic Detective Agency. He doesn't use many/any traditional detective methods, but in a odd Holmesian way he seeks the "fundamental interconnectedness of things."

Dirk says: "I see the solution to each problem as being detectable in the pattern and web of the whole. The connections between causes and effects are often much more subtle and complex than we with our rough and ready understanding of the physical world might naturally suppose."

One of his specialities is finding missing cats. Of course, he uses Schrodinger's quantum mechanics equation to find them. (Why use that, you ask? Check out this book.)

Adams was the script-editor for Dr. Who from 1978-1979. Unfortunately, a lot of people don't like sci-fi, so they avoid the Hitchhiker books. That's really a shame. It's not Star Wars and all that. When I taught his first book, I always read the first few pages aloud and had students read the rest of chapter one silently before they decided if they wanted to read that book or choose another. There were always a few who laughed out loud at some line along the way.The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

If you're still disinclined to trying his books, do the same thing with the Dirk Gently books. I think you'll be happily surprised.

The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul

, the second Dirk book, is described at Amazon.com like this: "When a passenger check-in desk at London's Heathrow Airport disappears in a ball of orange flame, the explosion is deemed an act of God. But which god, wonders holistic detective Dirk Gently? What god would be hanging around Heathrow trying to catch the 3:37 to Oslo? And what has this to do with Dirk's latest--and late-- client, found only this morning with his head revolving atop the hit record "Hot Potato"? Amid the hostile attentions of a stray eagle and the trauma of a very dirty refrigerator, Dirk Gently will once again solve the mysteries of the universe..." It's full of gods. Norse ones.

Dirk also has a I-Ching calculator that helps him find answers. There's one online that is based on the one Dirk uses in the book The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul. Don't adjust your monitor. The "red" key IS blue.

How to use it:

1. Concentrate soulfully on the question which is besieging you.
2. Write It Down.
3. Ponder It.
4. Enjoy the Silence.
5. Achieve Inner Harmony and Tranquility.
6. Push the Red Button.

Need to use the calculator? Click here

I am not a video game player at all. I've been reading about the use
of gaming in education, but I'm not convinced of the value yet. My kids
didn't have video games when they were young. I have never sat with a
joystick in my hands for hours and hours. In fact, I have only
completed ONE computer or video game. It was a crude, all text game that I had on a big old floppy disk and that ran on my Apple IIe computer. It was based on The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

It was sold by Infocom in 1985. It was one of the best-selling games of 1985 (250,000 copies that year) It was really "interactive fiction." I am delighted to say that the old clunk classic is available online at http://www.douglasadams.com/creations/infocomjava.html

There are also a few jazzed-up, modern, Flash versions at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hitchhikers/game.shtml

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"There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something more bizarrely inexplicable.

There is another theory which states that this has already happened." ~ Douglas Adams

I'm blogging from this seminar today. It's a one-day seminar designed for non-technical professionals about podcasts, blogs, and wikis. We had 4 experts that presented information on these tools. Our audience was primarily corporate, though we had some academic attendees too.

New Technologies in Communications: Podcasting - Presented by Steve Lubetkin, Lubetkin & Co. Communications, LLC, Cherry Hill New Jersey  Podcasts, digital audio programs delivered through Internet-related technologies, can enable communications professionals to reach narrowly-targeted audiences more effectively than mass marketing techniques. Steve's talk ranged from defining podcasts. the ways that podcasts are being used in business, downloading and listening to podcasts (using iTunes, subscribing to podcasts, devices for viewing podcasts) and especially on using podcasts to promote products and services. Though this was not a hands-on session by any means, Steve addressed some software and hardware that works well for podcasting and an overview of the technical steps involved in creating a podcast.

Steve has come from the traditional PR world to consulting on technology - especially podcasting - for corporate clients. Check out some of Steve's podcast work at http://lubetkin.libsyn.com/ and his blog at lubetkinsotherblog.blogspot.com

Corporate and Organizational Weblogging: From First Steps to Communities of Practice” Presented by Dr. Drew Ross, Visiting Fellow, Oxford University  Organizational and Corporate Blogs are transforming the way in which groups communicate-- both within companies/organizations and to the rest of the world. This seminar will bring the participants up to full speed on the world of work-related weblogging and will enable participates to transfer knowledge and engage in informed thinking about how blogs might operate within their own organization. With a focus on using weblogs to encourage (and house, in some cases) Communities of Practice (CoPs), the workshop will engage participants in some real-life problem-based thinking about the technical, ethical, and social aspects of work weblogging, with examples and vignettes from real-life weblogging situations. 
Drew created a demo blog for today at https://organizationblogs.workpress.com

"Wikis At Work" - Presented by Tim Kellers, IT Liaison, Continuing Professional Education, NJIT and me (Ken Ronkowitz), Manager, Instructional Technology & Media Services, NJIT  So this was my session. Honestly, I prefer blogging to wiki-ing, but then again they serve different needs. Wikis are often described as collaborative web sites" and are being used for project management, knowledge sharing, and proposal writing. The benefits of this collaborative approach include reducing daily phone calls, e-mails and meeting time as well as encouraging collaboration. Internet research firm, the Gartner Group, predicts that Wikis will become mainstream collaboration tools in at least 50% of companies by 2009. Peter Thoeny, the creator of TWiki, a leading Wiki program, says at least 20,000 downloads of his software are being used by businesses. Walt Disney, SAP, Adobe, Nokia, Novell, and Motorola are among the corporations using Wikis for collaboration. We were presenting information on how wikis are being used right now and how an organization (be it a company or school) might use them.

We were pretty focused on open-source wiki software (since we are using Mediawiki software here at NJIT and in the seminar) but we addressed a few commercial products that are available. As with most open-source software, eventually, someone steps in (think Red Hat) and adds the IT support for those people who want/need it by offering commercial Wiki products. However, knowing that our audience today is primarily made up of small business people, we discussed server installation, support and security considerations for those who do not have an IT department behind them.

SOME THEMES THAT RAN THROUGH THE DAY

• There was a lot of talk and concern about security - how to protect your content, whether you really want to go "public."
• Using open-source software vs. commercial products and hosting content on your own server vs. somewhere else. Small businesses seem more willing to use a commercial product & hosting than the university.
• Copyright and intellectual property concerns - from small items like what images can you use from other sites (including just linking), to the cut/paste blogging that goes on from site to site, preventing search engines from finding your materials, the passing on of video & audio (podcast & otherwise) via email and posting at sites like YouTube and others, password protecting a blog or wiki and the archiving of you online material by sites like Google, Yahoo and archive.org.
• Questions about making money or commercializing your blog, podcast or wiki.
• Vandalism & spamming to public blogs and wikis.