Blurts

There are several very interesting ways to explore images on Flickr (e.g., Tiltviewer). Tag Galaxy allows the entry of a tag and then returns images arranged as shown below Select an image and it pops out and displays accompanying text. The macroinvertebrates in this display are from our collection – use tag Turtle River.

You may encounter an error in connecting to Tiltviewer – Chyrp does some strange things when linking to another page on the same server. This only seems to happen when linking from a single post and not that same post within the context of the blog. I have no idea why or how to fix.

Anyone still interested in this issue?

Here is a post (with video) describing a presentation from Prof. Angela McFarlane. Speaking truth to the techno-romantics. Note problem of short term projects with minimal feedback.

ETS evidently sees an opportunity in this concern and has an exam available to evaluate information and technology proficiencies (iSkills).

I do research on the potential benefits and problems of sharing notes so I pay attention when a commercial organization thinks it can make a profit from this area. I find that students are quite willing to use notes I or a grad student generate, but I have not been successful in getting students to generate notes for each other. GradeGuru appears to think that the approach is to pay students. Potentially not a bad idea.

The immediate concern I would have is with copyright. What about the resources that instructors generate and make available to their students? There is a copyright sensitivity statement, but I am guessing this will work like so many other social sites. The site will not police beyond notification and will take down content someone complains about.

I am not sure what I think about this approach. In a way, Blackboard offers a safer environment by offering control at the institutional level, but this venture may generate more activity by sharing between institutions. The question then becomes what will Intro Psych notes taken at University XX offer to students taking Intro Psych from me. There were some Intro Psych notes available as sample content and the notes were quite complete.

I think the policies of this site could be improved. I know from my experience working on this topic that many instructors do not want to make their notes available. A common concern is attendance. While I do not think attendance is a serious issue, it seems disrespectful to ignore the wishes of course instructors. It would make sense to me to have instructors authorize use of their notes and to determine who can access notes. This is essentially the way services within Blackboard work. I think many instructors will see this as a valuable service and perhaps even participate in the use of this service (my research demonstrated that making outline notes available before class were particularly useful), but some will not and offering a way around their wishes seems disrespectful. 

The guidelines offered by the site talk about appropriate things, but then back away without doing what can be done to assure ethical behavior. The site talks about copyright and suggests the use of institutionally affiliated email addresses, but then does not really make these guidelines requirements. This looks more like a concern for the bottom line than anything else.

I have given up on Apple offering a netbook and I am open to trying something else. We do own an XO, but I am looking for something with more capabilities. Cindy brought home an EeePC from school and I am exploring.

What would I expect in a machine I would purchase? I would want a machine that would allow me to do real work online. Obviously, wifi and the capability to browse. I have been trying to do much of my work online and this would involve searching, writing, and spreadsheet tasks.

So, I was able to connect to our home wifi and set the required WAP password. The browsing experience is pretty good. There seem to be times when there are noticeable delays, but the page does appear. It does seem that more complicated pages (e.g., my igoogle page) takes longer  to render. I have encountered no problems working with my online apps.

The keyboarding experience will take some getting used to. I have relatively large hands, but I am starting to develop a technique. I can’t place my hands over the home keys, but I have developed a “swivel at the wrist” technique that seems to work. The feel of the keyboard is far superior to the XO.

I must admit that I wanted to complete this post using the EeePC. The text has been no problem. I wanted to also see if I could get the image from my camera and then upload it to Picnik for modification. I was not able to figure out how to do this, but I did not spend a lot of time. There are USB ports so I could attach the camera, but I then was stuck. My Canon does not show up as an external device on this machine or on my Mac and I must run software to locate and download images. There must be a way to do this.

I am very tempted to make a purchase. I need an excuse. It would have made a nice Valentine’s Day present. Too late. My wife has a birthday some time iin June.  Too early. I will have to keep thinking. How about stimulate the economy? That explanation may work.

Apple better pay attention. This type of hardware seems a reasonable approach to 1:1.

It turns out you can use Safari on the Touch to visit Amazon and download Kindle books. I must be bored this morning. I gave it a try and it worked flawlessly.

I did a screen capture of a page (see following image) to give you an idea of what the reading experience is like. I decided the publisher would probably not object to my copying the acknowledgements page.

Easy to read. On the Touch, you move from page to page with a flick of a finger. I like this.

I have been following what reviewers have to say about the Kindle. I have been tempted because any new and shiny thing does capture my attention. However, I have tried reading extended ebooks before and I always end up purchasing the real thing.

Now, I am tempted again. Amazon is selling Kindle books for Apple Touch/phone users. I downloaded the app, but you have to load the “book” through a computer (the one I use to connect to my Touch is at home). I will probably give it a try – for $10 it is worth the experience. I do read the NY Times on my Touch from time to time, but that has been the limit of my text oriented use. The screen is certainly readable, but I am thinking not in large doses.

I am not against reading from a device. What I miss is the opportunity to highlight/annotate, etc. Protected files really limit this functionality. Some apps offer a method for overlaying notes, boxes, etc. (take a look at Skim), but the experience seems limiting.

I am not certain what would be “fair” to content providers. I certainly understand the need to protect content from piracy, but there must be some middle ground. Perhaps some system that offers an open file format on one device.

Anyway, Apple device users, Amazon wants to sell stuff to you.

Too bad Amazon had to remove the “read to me” function. $10 audible books (not to be confused with Audible books) that included a text equivalent would be cool.