Featured Courses at P2PU – 23rd September 2011 | P2PU Blog

Featured Courses at P2PU – 23rd September 2011 | P2PU Blog:

Looks like the good folks over at P2PU.org are featuring a few courses for the Fall.

Hack this Poem - for poetry writers and those who love poetry.
Beginning Game Dev with HTML5 - This could be interesting to me.
The Philosophy of Death - "What does it mean to die..." and to think about death philosophically. Probably a good course, but I'm going to skip.
'The Art of Music - from Amateur to Professional' - This might be a cool course for those involved with Artistshousemusic.org

Access two Gmail accounts at once in the same browser - Official Gmail Blog

Access two Gmail accounts at once in the same browser - Official Gmail Blog: Now, you can visit google.com/accounts and click the link next to "Multiple sign-in."

Hello blog readers!

I've decided to finally use this feature. In the past I have had access to other Gmail accounts, but I've never felt the need to go to the step. However now that I'm working as the webmaster at http://www.mushroommaestros.com, I'm going to try out this multiple sign.

Don't feel I'll use it that much but it might really change my workflow. I definitely think it will help Ray and Patty deal with personal and business Gmail accounts.

Signing up for the service, I see that Google understands the potential for screwing things up. I can imagine someone sending something from the wrong account, which could cause all kinds of havoc. So they make you check the box that you understand the way it works.

It's actually a cool design element.

Once you turn it on - it being multiple sign in, you click in the drop-down menu and it asks you to sign into a new account. Easy cheesy.

Seth's Blog: Confusing obedience with self-control

Seth's Blog: Confusing obedience with self-control: Compliant sergeants rarely become great generals.

Seth, once again lays it out as plain as day. Schools and companies reward obedience. that's nothing new. The problem is the part where the 'obedient' transforms to be 'self-reliant' - where 'control' becomes 'self control' - when we realize that we control our life.

It's a subject not taught in school, certainly not explicitly. We've created generations of people who require an external control. I see the problems students make when trying to live on their own. they seek out some form of external control - a job, a boyfriend/girlfriend, even a cause or community.

One way to get through school is to forfeit yourself. or rather, your self-control, identity...

This little blog post by Seth Godin has really given me quite a bit to think about.

It's funny there was a book that I found while learning to teach in Taiwan. It was called all kinds of minds and written by a North Carolinian pediatrician named Dr. Mel Levine. It seemed that he was an advocate for children and took their perspective in dealing with an out of touch school system. He went on to write another book about how young adults adjusts to life in the larger society outside of school and parents - moving out on their own.

I wanted to link to his work so I searched for him-and it turns out he was a pedophile. 50 some adults have come forward to accuse him. the day after the lawsuit was filed, in February of this year, the shit-bird shot himself.

What the hell is wrong with this place. 50 kids! 50 lives. and now no recourse. No chance to settle the matter. How crazy is that.

Anyway, schools and institutions should do more to help students become self-reliant and transform themselves from followers to leaders. I believe that, as we recognize this as a problem, new solutions will manifest. The whole OER, tutorial culture, P2PU.org, Edu-Punk, DIY-U movement shows promise of helping guide our institutions to a more student centered future.

Oh, and doctors should not rape kids.

playr.co.uk - Zilch, Codecademy and the Badges

playr.co.uk - Zilch

Honey Badger may not care, but I DO care about Badges. I'm only human.

I came across a very cool interactive JavaScript tutorial site... now wait a minute it's not a traditional tutorial site. It's worth a look to see how it guides you through the lessons. I'll write a more detailed post about it later.

But I wanted to mention one of the things I like about it which is: badges

Badges-sometimes called achievements-are little rewards and reminders of accomplishments you have done. Think about Boy Scout or Brownie badges - or gold stars on the board or your assignments. They may sound simple or silly but they are powerful reinforcements for motivating and sustaining action.

Game designers know this. Educators sort of know, but are doing it well. Take for example code Academy contrasted with zilch (the game I linked to at the beginning of this post)

Both are doing it, but zilch has a full 120 badges to earn with fun and engaging titles like - 'falling on your face' and 'rolling like there's no tomorrow'

What kind of badge does a university course have? A,B,C,D,F. five lousy badges.

Designing a Website’s Introductory Text: Tips and Examples

Designing a Website’s Introductory Text: Tips and Examples

It turns out that people aren't reading on the web. They scan. We know this intuitively, because that's what we do. We know this from research, like this study from Jakob Nielsen about the reading pattern for Web content.

Burdened with this knowledge, do we really ever change our website designs?

I recently reviewed my experience with fivesecondstest.com over on my user testing project-better user experience.

These posts have forced me to see the light. From this moment forward I will strive to write better headlines and introductory text that are engaging and meaningful.

Website introductory text is possibly the only thing that is read - make sure that it delivers the right message.

The Future of Publishing - created by DK (UK) - YouTube

The Future of Publishing - created by DK (UK) - YouTube

Cool Video. Watch it all the way - even if you want to shut it off. There are two points to make here. 1) You have to listen to the market. 2) Don't project your negative assumptions.

Seth's Blog: Back to (the wrong) school

Seth's Blog: Back to (the wrong) school: If you do a job where someone tells you exactly what to do, they will find someone cheaper than you to do it. And yet our schools are churning out kids who are stuck looking for jobs where the boss tells them exactly what to do.

Seth tellin' it like it is. I saw a post in USA Today related to this and the UnSchooling movement. Parents are saying "No, Thank you." to state education for their kids - and getting decent results.

For me, as a non-parent, I would not put my kids in the industrial educational system.
John Taylor Gatto is my thought leader when it comes to this... Although he is getting a bit on the wild side of late.

Of course, it could be good to listen to the students.



PS: More updates to follow - my poor neglected readers.

Use a Binder Clip to Hold Your Grocery List in Your Cart

Use a Binder Clip to Hold Your Grocery List in Your Cart: "This came about because I'd started carrying around a mid-sized paper clip in the inner pocket of my winter coat late last year. I like having useful stuff on-hand, like hand sanitizer or a mini Leatherman, and added the binder clip as an afterthought one day. Then, one day, while trying to either make my printed shopping list easy to yank out of my pocket, or trying to anchor it inside the top basket without falling out of the two gaps they create for children's legs, I felt the binder clip in my pocket and thought, what the hey."

Hell Yes! This is the kind of usefull stuff that I expect from lifehacker. Simple. Free. Useful tips and tricks - HACKS - that make life easier.

Isn't the easy life what we are all looking for? Granted, fishing around for the grocery list in your pocket isn't a big stumbling block to the easy life, but every little bit helps. And, I LIKE looking cool in the supermarket.

Doing stuff like this makes me feel like "Hey, I design my life. I can change. I'm not stuck in a rut that is railroading me towards an unknown or unexamined life-goal."

Re-arrange my #PLE - #PLENK2010

Re-arrange my #PLE - #PLENK2010: "To try to follow the course in an adequate way I’ve made some changes/adjustments to my PLE. Probably some of this could be usefull and help to organize someone PLE."

Paulo Simões, a fellow #PLENK2010 learner, posted about how he set up his feeds and blogs in order to efficiently participate in the course.

He and I have:

created a folder to receive emails from the course
created a search column in TweetDeck (he uses Hootsuite) for PLENK
bookmarked a Google Search for PLENK2010 (I suppose I'll need to check this manually)
designated a blog for posting material for the public. His is a special blog for that purpose, but I'm going to use my old personal blog (THIS BLOG, Newmania!)

I feel prepared and ready to go... let the learnings begin!

A List Apart: Articles: Elevate Web Design at the University Level

A List Apart: Articles: Elevate Web Design at the University Level: "We need to connect educators and practicing professionals through web and educational conferences. We need to encourage conversation between local web professionals and higher educational institutions."

Institutions risk becoming irrelevant if they are not in touch with the needs of industry and the workplace.

I'm very glad that my program - The Master's of Instructional Technology at UNCW - has a strong tie to and focus on job preparation. They do this through genuine, authentic projects which are featured in every course. And, interaction and involvement from community members and alumni.

It's my hope that they drive further with this philosophy and increase the community involvement. There aren't alot of examples of this and I hope they take their rightful position of leadership in affecting positive change in the industry and school.

Inspired by Obama, cyclist riding from L.A. to D.C. | StarNewsOnline.com | Star-News | Wilmington, NC

Inspired by Obama, cyclist riding from L.A. to D.C. | StarNewsOnline.com | Star-News | Wilmington, NC: "Once Ryan Bowen decided to ride a bicycle from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., for Barack Obama’s inauguration, almost everything else took care of itself."

Just went down to the Durham Bike Co-Op yesterday and got the bike all fixed up. This story is inspiring me to ride to work... but it's cold outside.

An interesting link and an update

RefWorks Home Page: "RefWorks -- an online research management, writing and collaboration tool -- is designed to help researchers easily gather, manage, store and share all types of information, as well as generate citations and bibliographies."

That's the interesting link. I think it might be a cool information sharing tool - like Diigo and Delicious - but it uses the existing University / scholarly standards of APA and bibliographies.

Anyway, a professor at DUSON (Duke school of nursing) turned me on to it and it's being used in the Duke Library. I am living and working in Durham NC now as a support specialist. Basically, it's the same thing that I was doing in Wilmington at UNC W, but I have my own office (WITH MY NAME ON THE DOOR!). I've been here about two months and I'm beginning to settle in. I'm sharing a house with a law student and his dog, Cosmo.

With the new job, I've been involved in many topics in instructional design and technology. Currently -- this weekend -- I've been interested in assessment and measurement. I've been tasked with evaluating courses at work. I want to get involved with the Blackboard exemplary course program. And Doug Noon is thinking about it. And Shane Baptista is thinking about it. So, I'm thinking about it, too.

We really become what we measure. This of course is a universal. ( I always find the universal. )For instance, high school measures memorization of vocabulary. It's easy. It's standardized. The results are students who can repeat vocabulary for a multiple-choice test, but who cannot use that vocabulary with understanding for problem solving and analysis.

Okay -- I'll tell a story. Bonnie Hellgate, my 9th grade English teacher. She was doing vocabulary tests -- basically spelling tests. The word was S T I N G Y. STINGY. I knew the definition and how to spell it. She had never asked how to pronounce it... Before that day. Anyway, I didn't get that question right. And as I recall, I had to take ninth-grade English again that summer.

Moral of the story -- We are what we measure. I didn't know she would measure pronunciation. So, I didn't know how to pronounce it. Universally speaking, I think this idea of measurement extends beyond the classroom. One of my favorite Bob Marley lyrics is "I know you don't know/what this life is really worth ". Perhaps Bob implies that he knows what life is really worth. That he could develop a test for a worthy life. But I don't think so. I think the reason he knows I don't know, is that he doesn't know himself. And he wants people to stop judging him. So I think it circles back to non-judgment.

So perhaps the take away is to assess/evaluate/measure without judgment. Can that be done? How can we assess students learning/progression/ability/competency without cold, critical judgment, which I think disrespects the learner and ... well, soul crushing.

School shouldn't crush the soul.

Have fun out there and be good.
n

Connectivism & Connective Knowledge

Connectivism & Connective Knowledge

Stephen Downes and George Siemens, along with Dave Cormier have an interesting project going on... the more I know about it, the more I like it. These dudes are the smartest in the room - because the 'KNOW' more? No, because there are creating the biggest networks.

boom!

(Video) Five Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do : DivineCaroline

(Video) Five Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do : DivineCaroline: "Tinkering School"

A great short video about raising kids in a modern overly safe world.

Why I think it's cool: It made me think of a few things actually. 1) I'm reading a book by Mel Levine in which he talks about spoiled, over protected children who can't deal with adult non-parent mediated life. You can't deal with it b/c they were never taught about it. I think problem based learning can fix this - meaning setting learners/users/students/kids loose on a problem and let them make mistakes/get cut or bruised/break something - the key is not a safe physical environment, it's a safe emotional environment. The teacher/parent/designer says I'll protect you when you get hurt, not "I'll protect you from getting hurt".

okay 2) I thought about my Grandfather. He taught me to do dangerous things safely. He taught me to shoot, gave me pocket knifes constantly. He taught me to drive (that was tuff on him) and he taught me about gasoline and fire. All of this was done in the context of his farm and with such reverence and care for the dangers of life, that I'm forever grateful.

3) Millennial students are moving farther away from this type of experience and are become risk averse AND careless/ reckless at the same time. The aren't learning the lessons from grandpa on the farm. If they carry a pocket knife - they might use it to stab someone, or if they carry a gun...

Why I think you should watch the video: I think we all have to do our part to help childern we interact with to understand dangers and learn the lessons of safety... learn by doing, not listen to adults lecture or reading safety labels.

To find out more about the speaker, Gever Tulley and "The tinkering school", check out the blog - http://www.tinkeringschool.com/blog/

Hello 2008

Bathroom Sink Popup and Stopper Problems from the Natural Handyman Home Repair and Do It Yourself website




Without going into too much detail, this site and this graphic helped me out tremendously this morning. ... It's a good thing. hehe - I clogged the drain when I shaved off my beard on the day of the epiphany which happened also to be the day my Grandfather, John, died.

He was a good guy. He may have been a Taoist - Christian Taoist.

yep

Infinite Thinking Machine

Infinite Thinking Machine: "I'll frequently ask my audiences of educational technologists why Apache, MySQL, PHP, and/or Python--all current building blocks of the Web, and which can be obtained for free and run on older computers--aren't being taught in schools"

Oh yes!

Sorry about the long Hiatus (sp?) from posting but I'm been busy (! /smile)

Anyway, I'm all about educational paradox and FOSS. The paradox is that this stuff is free and useful, yet school continue to teach with stuff that's expensive and pointless.

phenomenal genius guy - Lin Yutang

Like LinYuTang, I am a reasonable nudist. He is a really pretty cool
and I think ready for a surge in popularity. A friend recently said she only skinny dips in her bath tub and it reminded me of this essay.

16

ON BEING NAKED

NUDISM has come to America, I am told. Let it come! I

just fail to see what harm it can do. I have been a nudist all

my life without my knowing it.

Now it should be clearly understood at the beginning that

I am a reasonable nudist, as against the doctrinaire and fa­

natic nudists, as I always am a reasonable vegetarian as dis­

tinguished from the fanatic vegetarians. Like all Chinese,

and following the old doctrine of the Golden Mean, I am all

for nudism at certain hours and in certain circumstances, in

the bathtub, for instance, but I am dead against going down

Broadway in the native garb my mother gave me. I can hon­
estly
tell you that it is beautiful to feel naked in one's bath (that's all
I could find online) It's in the book "with love and irony"

His famous book is "The importance of
living". He is 'phenomenal genius guy' of mine, because for all his
smarts he still lives as he pleases. He wrote this about wisdom‘The wisest man is therefore he who loafs most gracefully.’

The Idler » Idle Idols: Lin Yutang

On Wisdom: ‘The wisest man is therefore he who loafs most gracefully.’

It's August, Ya'll

WALT WHITMAN, LEAVES OF GRASS

I know I am solid and sound,

To me the converging objects of the universe perpetually flow,
All are written to me, and I must get what the writing means.



I know I am deathless,
I know this orbit of mine cannot be swept by a carpenter's compass,
I know I shall not pass like a child's carlacue cut with a burnt
stick at night.



I know I am august,

I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or be understood,

I see that the elementary laws never apologize,


I exist as I am, that is enough,
If no other in the world be aware I sit content,
And if each and all be aware I sit content.

My Future Job

IT Development and Training Specialist job in Durham, NC: Technology and Pharmaceutical/Biotech careers - Yahoo HotJobs

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:

.Bachelor's degree in Education, Computer Science or related area or equivalent combination of education, training, and experience that provides the individual with the required knowledge, skills, and abilities
.Two - Five years experience in the development and delivery of IT training
.Or equivalent combination of education, training and experience that provide the individual with the required knowledge, skills, and abilities

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

.Ability to Design and development of learning and training materials
.Excellent verbal/written communication skills
.Ability to apply adult learning theory
.Model building skills
.Problem-solving abilities
.Ability to understand and apply project management skills
.Performance observation skills
.Ability to understand and apply job tools/aids techniques
.Ability to interact successfully in front of large groups
.Strong presentation skills
.Excellent interpersonal skills; ability to motivate and coach others
.Ability to work independently
.Ability to prioritize well
.Ability to multitask
.Positive attitude and ability to work well with others
.Advanced computer skills

I think the MIT program can give me these skills. Which ones will I focus on? Which need work?

Ernie Cline's NerdPorn

Dance, Monkeys, Dance - Flash animation

From the guy who brougth you the Dance, Monkeys, Dance animation:

Nerd Porn: