Blurts

You might want to explore a new Google labs experiment – Google Living Story. Living story is a way to process and follow important news stories. It organizes content around topics (e.g., health care) by time and resource type (articles, people, images). A time line shows developments and also tracks what you have viewed. An explanation appears on Google news. 

The organization of content in this fashion offers some clear advantages over traditional online presentation and personal organization through search. My first reaction was that this was quite useful. I began to think about how this was done. If it is simply a way to organize content through some type of tagging system that feeds into a template, I would that the content provides should learn and develop their own version. However, I wonder is this has the potential to work in a different way. If publishers tagged content in a predictable fashion, it would seem reasonable that search of this database of resources might result in content organized in such a fashion – image, date, topic identifier(s); article, date, topic identifier(s). The information says you cannot apply this to a topic of your choice, but I hope that is where this is going.

You may have watched this piece from Anderson Cooper on 60 minutes last night. Interesting – a pretty hard core set of expectations for teachers, but make sure you understand the commitment required from students and parents.

Steve Hargadon conducts interviews with authors and industry leaders for Elluminate. The collection is extensive. These interviews are available through several outlets, but if you want to investigate I would suggest you begin with Hargadon’s Future of Education Ning. You may end up following the series as a podcast feed, but the Ning is a better way to review the list of guests.

If the guests have written a book, I have usually read it. Reading the book is a good start and offers lots of detail, but the author is in control in this approach. I have always thought it would be productive to get several authors with different views together and let them debate/discuss. This never seems to happen. Hargadon is not exactly neutral, but I think he does a good job of interviewing these various authorities. The interaction adds to the information you get from the book. 

BTW – Elluminate provides a public venue and the interaction with Hargadon is extended by interaction with listeners. I have not made the effort to participate in this way. I tend to use the stored content to look for individuals I recognize and what to hear them offer comment on the positions they have taken.

This is interesting (to me). I have pretty much ceased purchasing music from Apple because I nearly always have an Internet connection and LaLa is a less expensive source. Now, it appears Apple may be acquiring LaLa to offer a service I see as a more direct alternative to the Zune model.

Update, NY Times now says this is a done deal.

If you are unfamiliar with LaLa, think of it as your musical collection stored on the web (you can also purchase MP3s for download). For 10 cents per song, you purcahse access to a song and can stream it when desired. This is different that other services such as Pandora or LastFM which offers free music, but not directly under your control. I have commented on such services in my other blog.

Article from Minneapolis Pioneer Press blogger features Leo Laporte and his expanding online tech empire. More than podcasts now.

WatchKnow – a wiki for locating and organizing educational videos for kids. Relevant content exists, but the problem has been finding them. A wiki allowing text and “category” editing. Watch the overview video from Larry Sanger (from wikipedia).