EPIC 2014 is a fantastic future documentary showing the convergence on online media into a single personalized, customized media source/filter. Much is currently written about the dangers of an overly centralized and privately controlled media, but what would happen if our media became overly decentralized and publicly created. The name of the fictional Googlezon customer (citizen?) should give a chuckle to anyone who remembers that 20 years ago was famous for more than just being the year that the Macintosh made its debut! (How’s that for an obtuse clue) Thanks to Alec and Stephen for pointing to this one.

Ten Most Wanted Design Bugs::Via Slashdot, a list of 7 bugs (apparently the list itself is a bit of a prototype) in computer design from fabled Mac UI designer Bruce Tognazzini. My favourite pet peeve that made the list is the Apple Dock found in OS X – the Gnome panel is so much easier to use, or even (shudder) the Windows taskbar since they both hide nicely at the bottom of the screen, and comply nicely with Fitt’s Law.

I stumbled across a great resource for WordPress users while checking through my referrer logs. If you are using WordPress as a blogging tool, WordPress Planet offers lots of tweaks, hacks and WordPressy goodness!

After successfully recording, uploading, and linking to the inaugural podcast, I have added the enclosure mod to WordPress. If you are subscribing to this blog through an RSS reader like bloglines, this revision may have caused my last 10 posts to show up in your feed reader again. Sorry about that, but in exchange for the inconvenience, I will offer a brief description of the WordPress enclosure mod installation, a process I found almost ridiculously easy: Add fields to the wp_posts table. A file, wordpress_enclosures_mod.sql, is included in the download, so you can just cut and paste the commands into MyPHPAdmin (if you have access to that tool – it will also work from the command line, if you don’t have MyPHPAdmin). Copy edit-forms.php, edit-forms-advanced.php and post.php to your wp-admin directory. You will need to overwrite the existing files, or … Continue reading »

As Adam Curry would say … Boi-oi-oing!!. Time for me to hop on the podcast bandwagon. Here’s podcast #1. Show notes Opening Music – Things to do When You’re Alone by 46 Ounces Alec Couros blogging presentation. Alec blogs at http://www.educationaltechnology.ca/couros Fostering Critical Thinking in an Online Environment Communities of Inquiry website Nine Myths About Design – from Katy Campbell’s workshop session (recorded and blogged by Rick Schwier) Update – I just installed a WordPress enclosure mod, so hopefully I now have an RSS feed that includes the enclosure for the podcast. Closing Music – 1981 by 46 Ounces Addendum – I just listened to the podcast, and the recording software seems to have skipped in a couple of places, and I need some practice fading clips in and out. Kinda reminds me of early punk music – not very … Continue reading »

I spent the day at an ID conference in Saskatoon. It was a great time – I reconnected with many friends, and the sessions got a few lobes of my brain that had been dormant fired up again. I have entered my notes for a couple of the sessions for posterity.

Here are my notes from Walter Archer’s session at the Saskatoon ID conference. This is basically just a notes dump, without bothering to pretty it up (lack of wireless access at the conference forced me to do notes in a text editor instead of straight blogging) See http://www.communitiesofinquiry.com for paper’s that he refers to. Walter’s experience with online teaching goes back to 1988. The community of inquiry model includes: * Social presence, * teaching presence * cognitive presence. * how these interact and intersect Notes some skepticism about the usefulness of this model, but decided not to cancel since Dirk Morrison used it in his present’n :^) Main purpose of higher learning is to acquire critical thinking, so how is this done in an online environment. The original project was done by Terry Anderson, Randy Garrison, and Walter Archer. Liam … Continue reading »

Alec Couros at ID conference Originally uploaded by omegageek. It was great to see Alec again, and a true treat to hear him talking about using Weblogs for educational purposes (Link is to Alec’s powerpoint for the session). Here’s my summary. Alec talked about what a blog is (a reverse chronological listing of posts). Many blogs can include comments and trackback (notifies your server when someone quotes you or talks about something you posted) Advantages of using blogs as a tool little technical prowess required (no web design, HTML, FTP, server permission) Live, web based interface for instant publication Simple syndication Captures knowledge in a collection – Alec now writes about the pages he bookmarks instead of just bookmarking (rate of bookmarking has decreased). Reflective journaling. Promotes conversation, individual (and sometimes group) voice, info literacy, critical reading, critical thinking. Great … Continue reading »

Have a Ball #2 Originally uploaded by omegageek. Rick Schwier brought me back a Cubs baseball from Chicago, probably to help me get over the sorrow of not getting to AECT in Chicago. Thanks buddy!

Cubs baseball Originally uploaded by omegageek. The cubs baseball that Rick brought back for me from Chicago! Oh yeah, next year is the year!!