Its time once again for another stigmergicweb podcast, and you can find it at: http://www.omegageek.net/podcasts/stigwebpdcst_2005-02-28.mp3. This is the first podcast since upgrading to MixCast Live 0.9.3 – I love the improved metering!! I’ve also upgraded WordPress to version 1.5, which is supposed to give me automagic enclosures when I link to an audio file – sweet! Some show notes: I am grateful to Norm LePage for his offer of help with my audio – how does this one sound, Norm? I would link to Norm, but he has no blog … yet! (hint hint) I quote Seymour Papert, as originally presented about a year ago by Stephen Downes. I highly recommend you read the original article entitled Learning Environmentalism.

The Sofia Project is an open courseware project, similiar to MIT’s OpenCourseware, but geared to the community college level. Eight courses have been published online so far, including a very well developed course on web page design using HTML. I just had a grade 11 class finish a unit on web page design, and I think I will try to integrate the Sofia course content next time around. I think Alan is right – who needs institutional learning object repositories when Google will find all the resources on the web?

The Guru of the Obvious has declared: Join me! Become a Lighips representative! I am a balls-out Nietzchean superman. As the Field Marshall of eLearning Supremacy I survey the battlefield that is higher education, and find it much to my liking. What are you Ed Tech Weblogger, ally or enemy? I, for one, welcome our eLearning Supremacy overlord! ;^)

The lesson plans scripted by textbooks rarely leave room to deviate from standardized curriculum, but such detours are essential to confront and correct students’ misunderstandings. writes Geoff Ruth in No Books, No Problem. Its great to read about other teachers tossing textbooks in their classes. In my Biology classes, I stopped using the textbook completely last year when I realized that the only useful part of the text was the glossary. There are hundreds (or thousands?) of great Biology related web sites that contain accurate and up to date information. As more computers find their way into all classrooms, not just the business education wing, the opportunities for bringing great information into the classroom will explode.

Okay – it only took a few minutes, and there are a couple of tweaks I still want to fix up. Other than that, it looks like its working. That was pretty darn easy! I might try running through a fresh install in a directory just to see how that works. One of the things I really like about WordPress is the painfully easy installation. A little bit of geekiness is required for the install, but it is done quickly. The next item on my to-do list for the blog is getting the categories under control. But that will have to wait, since I have a class to teach in 20 minutes!

An Alternate History of Podcasting – without any mention of Dave or Adam

Studio A build walls now visible Originally uploaded by tod. Tod Maffin has some photos up of the construction of his home studio. For some reason, it reminds me of Les Nessman’s tape walls on the floor on WKRP.

Show notes for Stigmergicweb Podcast # 6: Sound levels are still a bit high, so don’t turn up your headphone volume too much! Hunter S. Thompson suicide – I am saddened to hear of the death of the man who is, in many ways, the person that many bloggers/podcasters are trying to emulate. Alec Couros is recording Skype calls via MixCast Live – I think he’s ready to start podcasting! Open Source in education – as a movement and as a paradigm. OpenAdmin for Schools is a great example. Lots of cool sound effects, and great music by Vagabond! (thanks to Garageband.com) Comments are always welcome.

My posts on the state of schools (conclusion reached – they suck, but I think there is reason for hope) seem to be on the same trail where some of the other ants are wondering. Two recent posts from Darren Cannell – Dark Age of Information/Take Back the Web – and Will Richardson Take Back the Web – are good reading for anyone who thinks that schools need to get with it. Will’s story about a principal who whants to restrict students time on computers instead of teaching them information literacy skills does give one pause. Whether this is attitude is typical of administration or an anomaly is open for discussion. Darren’s cyberglasses may be pessimistic, but my experience with students makes me guardedly optimistic – I think the students may be the ones who force the walls of the … Continue reading »

The latest version of WordPress, nicknamed Strayhorn, has been officially released and is available for download. I have already done so, and I hope to have the blog upgraded later tonight. Wish me luck!