Thu Jun 30, 2005
NECC Day 2 Recap
Day 2 of NECC found me spending lots of time in the exhibit hall, scouting out new offerings from the huge array of vendors present, watching presentations, and talking to technical support folks from our existing suppliers.
Apple had a great hour-long presentation from two teachers where they demonstrated science and productivity tools. NoteTaker from AquaMinds is a very cool little tool that allows teachers to populate a student notebook with lessons, or for use by a student for keeping class notes and assignments on their computer. This was another example of how powerful one-to-one computing can be, where students have the opportunity to keep all of their school work on their own laptop, taking it home at the end of the day to explore on their own the ideas their teachers introduced during the day. A significant point made by the presenters was how the digital divide widens without equal access to these kinds of tools. Those students who have access to technology tools can go home at the end of the day, continue their investigations, and extend their learning. Those without, of course, have no such opportunity.
At the end of the day I found myself in a room with some of the real leaders in the world of educational blogging. Will Richardson was present as well as some folks who's names I recognize and others I frankly did not. Will's Blogroll at Bloglines is a great collection of links to the most active educational bloggers in the world and a good introduction to what's available. (But oddly enough, does not list thisblog. Go figure.)
The room was about evenly divided among the hard-core edu-bloggers and a group of teachers who see the value of blogging in education, but haven't taken a dip into the deep end as yet. There was much discussion centered around the challenges of convincing administrators that blogging is a good idea and a valuable activity for students (if you can get past the hurdle of just explaining blogging in the first place), how to maintain student privacy and keep them focused on the appropriate use for classroom blogs, and the tehnical challenges of getting blogs and wikis set up in a school network.
Interesting to me was the fact that the majorityof the teachers in the room who were blogging with their students are doing so solely on their internal school servers without making feeds and student writing available to the outside world. As we move forward with making blogs available in our school district this would seem to be the model that we will follow as well. We have too many concerns about student privacy and security to publish the conversations our students are likely to have outside the school building. The consensus seemed to be that what matters is the conversation, collaboration, and communication that blogs allow students to have with each other and with their teacher and not using '"traditonal" blogging methods of publishin RSS feeds to the wider world.
On the topic of tools that allow blogging to happen in an educational space a number were mentioned by the uber-bloggers in attendance. I'll be checking out these:
IncSub
ISticki
Clarty Innovations
ELGG
BlogMeister
The day--and early morning--ended with the Macromedia Education Leaders dinner. What could be better than to be in a room with a group of teachers, adminstrators, authors, and assorted company reps from Macromedia all jazzed about what we can do with our kids and the great wide world of web publishing, eLearning, animation and graphic design, talking about big ideas and where technology infused education is heading? As always it was a fascinating experience, and we all expressed the firm hope that this program will continue as the acquistion of Macromedia moves forward.
6 Words You Should Not Agree to at 1:30 in the Morning
Why don't we split another pitcher?
Wed Jun 29, 2005
NECC Day 1 Recap
My first day at NECC was filled as usual with a combination of wandering the exhibit hall goggling at all the exhibits and vendor offerings and attending workshops to see what was really going on in the world of education. I always find that it's important to maintain a perspective between what's being hawked by the companies out to make a buck on educational technology and what's really happening in the classrooms. Not that there's anything wrong with turning a profit, but the hype is always at a fever-pitch at these conferences and it's important not to get too taken in by the promises to change education "one learner at a time."
I started my morning having breakfast with the Microsoft education team watching presentations on two very impressive tools. (As an added bonus I got to sit next to Kathy Schrock and tell her in person how important her work on gathering web resources for teachers was to me when I was new to this whole Internet in the classroom thing.)
Microsoft announced an important new set of desktop security tools aimed at education with their new Shared Computer Toolkit. Currently in beta, the toolkit provides an easy interface for establishing security policies on computers running Windows XP to prevent everything from browsing onto the school server or simply removing icons from the desktop. The product was impressive in demonstration mode and may provide a more cost-effective method for maintaining computers in classrooms and libraries in such a way that each user is presented with the options they need to perform their work without the distraction or problems caused by unfettered access to settings or the ability to make changes. No word on pricing yet, but the salesman in th Microsoft booth later related that the prices would be "very favorable". Of course, I want to know if it's favorable to them or to us. The public beta is free and can be downloaded at the link above.
Microsoft also announced two new tools for users of their Office products in education. Learning Essentials for Microsoft Office (link to press release) is a very exciting new offering that provides education-specific templates as well as a host of tutorials on using Office products in a variety of classroom projects. It appears that a great deal of thought and work with actual teachers has gone into the production of this resource, resulting in a terrific set of tools that will be free to schools that purchase Office products with a volume license. As I've seen so many times in schools there are a huge number of teachers who are what I call the middle tier of technology users--comfortable with using the software but unsure of how to get the most out of the tools at their disposal. This product appears to be aimed squarely at them and should help those teachers move themselves (and their kids) to the next level.
Finally, the new Microsoft Student 2006 tool was announced at the show with a brief look at some of the cool new things being offered in this pacage. I was really blown away by the graphing calculator and the search functions built into this one. Again, pricing information was sketchy, but assuming the cost is not too steep--and if we can find a way to get the product into the hands of every student, and not just those with the means to make a purchase, it could be invaluable, especially for home study.
The other highlight of my day was the morning session on blogging and literacy put on by Susim Munshi and Susan Switzer of Chicago Public Schools. Their work at Learn2Blog showcases some of the many ways that blogging and literacy can be combined in the classroom. I particularly like the blogging activities examples that they provide. Authentic learning. Gotta love it!
Sun Jun 26, 2005
Gearing Up for NECC
I'll be heading out tomorrow for the annual National Education Computing Conference (NECC) in Philadelphia.
I'm a sucker for these conferences. So many great ideas floating around and so much to digest in the vendor hall. As always I'm looking forward to seeing what the talented teachers in our country (and in others) are doing with technology in their classrooms, and particularly the exciting things their kids are doing. So far my calendar includes two sessions on blogging in the classroom: Read, Write, and Blog: Literacy in the Information Age and Lessons Learned: A Panel Discussion about Creating Educational Communities Online. Obviously methods for increasing collaboration and communication among students using online tools is high on my list.
For those who might want to say howdy drop on by the Macromedia booth (#1340) on Tuesday morning at 10:00 am or Wednesday at 3:30 pm. I'll be doing some presentations on how we use Macromedia products in our district as part of my participation in the Macromedia Education Leaders program. I'll be hanging around the booth immediately following my 30 minute talks and would love to meet some of my fellow edu-geeks of the world. And just to keep things really interesting I'll be doing a live Breeze meeting with some teachers back home at 11:00 from the booth on Tuesday.
Lots to do this week, but it's fun and exciting work. I'll be walking the vendor hall with fellow skeptic and one of the smartest people I know, Dr. Deb M., and buddy Debbie W. has given me some things to check out for her while I'm there. And of course, I'm looking forward to spending some time with other teachers who are deeply entrenched in the fascinating world of web and interactive design and all the cool things it allows us to do with our kids.
Sat Jun 25, 2005
Internet Famous Everywhere But Home
Yesterday I spend a little time with a photographer from The Palm Beach Post, having my picture taken for a story on teachers/educators who blog that will run sometime in the near future. I guess things are slow on the education beat over the Summer. (And, assuming one of the pictures of my mug actually runs, let me just apologize right now for the effect it may have on the 150,000 or so readers of the paper.)
As weird as it was to pose for a photographer here at blogging headquarters, the experience brings home again how utterly strange it is to have this multiple personality thing going on. As I told my wife about the interview I did on Thursday with the Post reporter her reaction was typical. "You know, you have this whole other life that you lead, over in your office, tapping away at the keyboard. It's just so weird that you have all that stuff going on and it's completely separate from your "regular" life."
Yeah, that pretty well sums it up. I have a family and day job where I go on like everyone else does. Get in the truck, head to work. Do my job and come home. The usual family commitments and interactions. Hobbies. Friends. Normal.
But then there's the other stuff I do, all related to my online activities. Books I've written that are fairly popular (for software books anyway), a wide circle of close friends that I mostly interact with only online. The 100+ tutorials I've written for Community MX on Macromedia products. Heck, I'm even a character in a cartoon series.
And of course, this blog, while not on the scale of some of the heavy hitters in the blogging world, gets a respectable number of readers, for which I am grateful while remaining somewhat puzzled. So, yes I'm Internet famous.
Now, if I can just find a way to work the two together. Particularly with my wife.
"Take out the trash? Come on honey. Famous people don't take out the trash. For gosh sakes, have you seen the number of unique visitors I've gotten at the blog lately?"
"That's nice Mr. Internet Famous. But the trash still needs to go out."
"Shouldn't you be showering me with affection? Marveling at my famousness and success? Drawing personal satisfaction from the accomplishments of your husband? Come on honey, thousands of people know me as a web design guru, expert on educational technology, forward-thinking genius and all around brilliant guy. You don't really expect me to do those mundane chores around the house do you?"
"Honey. Just take out the trash would you?"
"But these hands are meant for typing and designing. My mind is made for thinking and writing. Surely you can't expect me to take time out from serving up my brilliance to people around the world to take out trash."
"Oh brother. Has all that typing made you go soft in the head? Look, the trash is full. It needs to go out. It's not virtual. It's right there in the kitchen overflowing. Unless you can find a way to get your famousness to take out the trash for you, I suggest you get up from the computer and take it out."
Rats. There has to be a way to get some practical benefits out of this Internet famous thing. I just haven't figured out how to do it yet.
In Praise of Randy Wayne White
I've just finished reading Randy Wayne White's newest paperback offering--Tampa Burn. If anyone is the heir to the great John D. McDonald, who kick-started the whole South Florida crime genre many years ago, it's this former fishing guide from Ft. Myers. Like a good conch chowder, White mixes spicy action and suspense in his books (the main character, Doc Ford, is a marine biologist who happens to be a former government assassin) with bits of chewy digressions on relationships, the state of the world, and particularly the weird place we Floridians call home.
One passage in this book really jumped out at me, where he described the "experience" of driving in Miami:
We were clover-leafing our way down into the city, jockeying among six fast lanes blurred with cars operated by Haitians, Jamaicans, Dominicans, and other tropical immigrants whose donkey-cart driving skills were superb at five miles an hour, but lethal at eighty. Thrown into the mix were Winnebago Buckeyes, German tourists, and Friendly Sam New Yorkers, plus Cuban Americans who actually knew their way around the badly marked highways, and so used horn and accelerator as weapons of intimidation.
Driving in Miami, even midmorning on a Wednesday, is not for the faint of heart.
That's what I call perfect pitch, capturing the flavor of the moment in a few sparse lines. It is something White excels at, and something that makes the appearance of a new book from him always welcome.
Fri Jun 24, 2005
6 Words You Don't Want to Hear After Performing a Major Site Update
Hey! My web pages are gone!
Wed Jun 22, 2005
A Tale of Two Interfaces: Why RIAs Matter to the Consumer
I'm in the market for some lettering for my boat, and have been doing a little research at the various on-line outlets for getting that done. There are plenty to choose from, but I was struck by the vast difference between the interfaces available for ordering the signs through web forms. I know, I'm a geek, but seeing side-by-side comparisons of the different methods used to customize and preview these signs really made the value of a Rich Internet Application (RIA for the uninitiated) stand out to me. As a consumer I was immediately drawn to one site where Flash was used in place of the standard HTML and backend methods employed by most. Even if I weren't plugged in to the world of web design, and particularly the uses of Macromedia products for creating web interfaces, I would have selected the Flash-based site over the others just because it was easier for me to see what I was creating and the number of back and forth transactions between me (mouse clicks here, back button there) and the form.
The winner in my impromptu sweepstakes is MyBoatSign.com where you can easily enter the name of your boat, select the text, set the colors, and choose effects for the lettering. When each selection is made the preview window is automatically updated, without any additional work outside the form. In other words, all of my design work happens in a live transaction with the form itself. It feels natural and intuitive and it invites experimentation. Since the user interface is so engaging I find that it's more likely for me to spend time at the site. And that can lead to an order.
Contrast that site with one of the many that uses standard drop-down boxes and a preview button to show the results of your settings. BoatUS Graphics and Lettering, for example, requires that I select the type face from a drop-down list. What? No preview of what the type looks like? Well, that's not very helpful. I suppose I could open up Word or some other program and see what each font looks like, but that not only takes me away from the ordering window, it takes me out of the browser altogether. Not good.
And the same goes for the other parts of that interface. In the RIA I see color swatches and live preview, but in the standard format I get another drop-down to choose colors. By their name. What do some of those names mean anyway? What exactly is chocolate? Or Tealite? I can't tell until I click the Preview button. Oh, and don't choose the wrong combination of font and effects, or you'll be clicking Preview and getting a warning that there is something wrong. Then it's back to the form, make the change required by the red-lettered warning (if you can remember what it was, since you had to go back and no longer see the warning) and try your preview again. Yeck! Maybe I'll just try somewhere else.
What does all this mean? It means that the interface in a web form most definitely matters to the consumer. It means that the successful form allows me to see everything in one place, with a nearly live preview of every change I make, without having to move around from drop-down to drop-down. It keeps me engaged in the ordering process and what I'm trying to create without having to think about the form at all. And as a consumer, that's more likely to lead to the most important step of all. Reaching for my credit card and placing my order.
Sun Jun 19, 2005
On Father's Day 2005
It hasn't been the easiest year to be a Dad at my house in 2005. Oh, not all that much has changed with me, but the changes in my daughter have made for an exciting and yet oh-so-scary year. Somehow I know that it's just the beginning.
A friend told me at work that she believes having a teenage daughter is God's way of punishing men for the rotten things we did as teenagers. If that's the case, I'm in pretty serious trouble here. As my daughter heads into her teen years there is every indication that she will be an active, popular, and accomplished kid, and physically beautiful in ways that are scaring the beejeezus out of me.
Everything has moved so quickly this year, that it's easy to see why so many parents get the same advice from the seasoned pros out there. "Hang on", they say, "you're in for a wild ride." Or, "You'll turn around a few years from now, wonder where your little girl went, and realize that she's married and has kids of her own." Gee, thanks. That's very helpful.
Meanwhile, I'm trying to deal with both the social and physical changes that have happened this year. I know this will mortify my daughter, but the physical changes in her have had an effect on me that I never would have expected. I mean, one day she's this cute kid, bopping around, playing with dolls, watching SpongeBob Squarepants on TV, and the next she has...God, I can hardly say this.....
Curves.
And....and....and.....protrusions.
Hey! How did that happen? Get all that stuff back in there! I'm not ready to deal with this!
But, of course, it's too late, and I don't really want her to remain a little girl. I know it's an exciting time for her and her friends, as they take a real active interest in boys for the first time, start putting away the little girl things they used to enjoy, and begin the transformation into a teenager.
From reading texts on adolescent development and from teaching middle school for many years, I know all of this is normal and healthy and to be desired. She needs to pull away from her parents a bit, establish who she is, where she fits in, who her friends are, and who she wants to be. I know all of that is normal, and in some perverse way I've always enjoyed seeing other kids going through these topsy-turvy years with a mixture of amusement and amazement. Every year, no matter the backgrounds of the kids, the transition inevitably takes place. Except now I get to see the change happen up close and personal. And to that I say, Yikes!
OK, so how does a modern-day enlightened Dad deal with this? Uh, beats me. As soon as I'm able to find the father of a teenage girl who has remained rational I'll let you know. Me, I'm hanging on while trying to let go at the same time. I know she needs space and freedom, so her Mom and I try to provide that while being sure she understands that there are boundaries that can't be crossed and rules that have to be followed. And that her freedom (not to mention future well-being) depends on maintaining her parent's trust. Beyond that we're spectators in many ways.
As the Dad though, I have a special role to play in her life. The way I treat her Mom will be the way she should expect to be treated as she moves past a fascination with boys and into her dating years. And knowing that I love her unconditionally, regardless of how goofy she may get in the next few years will also be important to her.
But honey, never forget this: Dads have secret mystical powers that can see into the minds of teenage boys and determine their intentions, because we were those boys ourselves a long time ago. We know. We remember.
Which is why I will be researching security systems and high powered automatic weapons in the very near future.
Tue Jun 14, 2005
Dude! Jimmy Carter is on this cellphone!
A funny story in our local newspaper tells the tale of a cell phone gone missing and the "enterprising" busboy who found it in the restaurant. Seems local celeb Jimmy Buffett left his cell phone at his table after a night of partying, only to have the busboy pick it up and share his find with some buds. Jimmy Carter got a call, which must have gone something like this:
"Dude! Is this Jimmy Carter?"
"Who is this?"
"Whoa! I can't believe I'm talking to Jimmy Carter. You were like President and stuff weren't you?"
"Really. Who is this?"
"Dude, did you know Jimmy Buffet has you on his cell phone? Hey! Two Jimmy's. Pretty funny huh?"
"Click."
You just have to love this line:
"We were sitting around smoking weed and strolling down the list on Jimmy's phone, going 'Wow!' "
Ummm, dude. Here's a hint for you. When you've already been busted for pot it's probably best not to share with a newspaper reporter that you were "sitting around smoking weed". I'm just sayin'.
Fri Jun 10, 2005
130 Gorgeous Designs
Cameron Moll is running another Screen Grab Confab over at his Authentic Boredom blog, where designers post a 320 X 320 pixel grab of something they're working on. The comment count is at 130 as I write this, and while each one isn't gorgeous I sure found myself saying "Oooh, I like that" an awful lot.
Microsoft Releases New Graphics Application
Acrylic is Microsoft's latest stab into the world of drawing and illustration software and is being touted by Redmond as "an innovative illustration, painting and graphics tool that provides exciting creative capabilities for designers working in print, web, video, and interactive media."
I've had a quick run through with Acrylic this afternoon and like much of what I see. It seems there will be a pretty steep learning curve for what is in essence a painting application, but I do like some of the effects the program is able to achieve and the tools methodology. This is a beta, so there are bound to be changes coming to the user interface, which I find to be both sparse and overcrowded at the same time. A preference to turn labels on for tools would be a good start since the tool icons in use are meaningless to me as a new user. Still, as with any graphics application it's what you're able to create that really matters, and what I've seen of Acrylic so far looks very very nice.
Acrylic is built on top of the Creature House Expression software program that Microsoft bought a few years ago, but clearly they have set their sights much higher than what was possible in Expression, aiming at the professional market owned by Freehand and Illustrator and Corel. (Umm, you might want to not capitalize the word Freehand in your menu choices there folks. I have a feeling that there's a trademark violation in there somewhere.)
Thu Jun 09, 2005
Digital Literacy and the Role of the Everyday Teacher
School's out and that means it's workshop season. I've spent a bunch of time this week conducting sessions on our school district's educational portal--PalmBeachLearns.org. Whew! I almost forgot how much energy it takes to lead a workshop full of inquisitive, interested, and occasionally bored and overfed teachers.
As usual for me, my mind tends to race as I give these sessions and interact with the participants. Ostensibly the workshops were designed to give the teachers an overview of our learning portal. But as I talked I found that the urge to get on my soapbox was too powerful, and I ended up talking about digital literacy as much as I discussed the web-based tools that we provide for the kids and teachers and parents (and even administrators) in our county.
And it came down to this: If our kids are going to become digitally literate and be prepared for the future they need mentoring and leadership and modeling from all of our teachers. Across disciplines and in every class kids need to see their teachers modeling the kind of behavior that information workers use right now. The same kinds of skills that will be essential for kids in their jobs 5, 10 years from now. And that means teachers have a long way to go to catch up to the present--much less think about our student's future.
Those skills include knowing how to retrieve, analyze, categorize, and filter information. How to find the right source of information online with the right tool. How to use the range of information sources available today, from web pages to search engines to directories to newsgroups to e-mail lists to wikis and blogs the range of information sources is overwhelming but incredibly valuable.
That's a mighty tall order for busy teachers, but as I told the folks in the workshop, our students are already doing these things. They're also publishing online, uploading photos, and creating videos. They already participate in online communities of all sorts. And where is their adult leadership coming from? Who is showing them how to make the most and avoid the worst of the online world?
I hope it is our teachers.
Wed Jun 08, 2005
Awesome Fireworks Text Command
Senocular has added an awesome new text extension to his list of cool Fireworks tools. With this extension you'll be able to manipulate text in some pretty interesting ways, including changing case. My favorite is the ability to add a paragraph of the famous Lorem Ipsum text directly onto my Fireworks canvas. Sure, you can get that kind of placeholder text in other places online, but being able to insert the text directly in Fireworks without having to switch over to Firefox is going to save me lots of time during design time.
via Alan Musselman.
Tue Jun 07, 2005
Home Projects and Episodes of Marital Discord
For her birthday this year my wife asked for a new toilet. OK, a new bathroom vanity, sink, and fixtures are part of the deal, but asking for a toilet for your birthday does at least sound funnier.
As I've told a few of my married lady coworkers about my wife's choice of gifts--assuming they would be amused--I found that asking for home improvement projects as birthday gifts is not uncommon.
"Hey, I asked for a new roof one year."
"I got new shades for the bedroom one year."
"Shoot, I asked for a garden shed and some manure for the garden once."
Huh.
OK, so the scam here fellas is that our women are double-dipping on us. I certainly fell into that trap. Not only did I give up time on multiple weekends to make home center excursions and knuckle-busting installations, you can be darn sure that I also needed to come up with something a little more "thoughtful and personal" to go along with the practical. Outsmarted again.
But the real story here is the new metric I've developed to gauge the relative success or failure of a project. It goes like this:
For every home improvement project there will be what I call Episodes of Marital Discord, or EMD's. Divide the number of hours spent on the project by the EMD's and you have a good indicator of just how well your project went.
The bathroom remodel at our house had only 1.5 EMD's over the course of 12 hours, for an effective EMD project factor of .125. That is a very good number.
I have been involved in projects--usually those that we are going to do "together"--where the EMD rate has been as high as 1.0. It is not good to have an argument, disagreement, or misplaced nag every hour as you slog through wallpaper removal, painting, furniture relocation, or any of the other myriad projects our women talk us into. When the EMD rate soars to those levels there is a direct correlation to the BPH rate--Beers Per Hour.
In our case I feel that the EMD rate could actually have been lower if it weren't for the 2 hours it took for us to choose a toilet. Never mind that the model that we went home with was the very one that I had manhandled onto a cart, only to remove it and then lug it down from the shelf later on.
Who knew that there were so many things to consider when buying a toilet? I mean, I've seen them arrayed in all their porcelain glory at the home center, but I never imagined that I'd spend a perfectly good Sunday afternoon walking back and forth before them, judging shapes, flow rates, flushability, and dimensions. (Am I the only person that thinks advertising your toilet by touting its ability to flush a basket of golf balls to be a little scary.)
So I think I can be excused for finally losing my patience as we rolled into hour two of the Great Toilet Shopping Expedition when we still hadn't made a selection. I say "we" only in the physical sense that we were both present at the same time and place of course. After first asserting, and then finally mumbling as fatigue set in that whatever toilet my wife wanted was perfectly OK with me I finally snapped. "Oh for God's sake honey, just choose one would you?"
My wife, bless her heart (which, by the way, is Southern for "You're pissing me off but I love you anyway) came back with a perfectly good line:
"You just think of the toilet as a place to go." (To which I think, Yes, and your point is?)
"I look at the choice as part of the decorating scheme for the bathroom."
Well of course. If it were up to men we'd just dig a hole in the bathroom floor. Maybe we'd throw some boards over the hole for safety purposes, but left to our own devices a man's idea of decorating is pretty primitive.
OK, score one for her and that particular EMD is resolved. But I maintain that no man can stand around discussing toilets for over an hour without losing it.
The rest of the project went pretty much as expected. 3 additional trips to the hardware store (Another project metric by the way. Extra Hardware Purchases--or EHP--per project hours can be an effective way to measure the success of your remodel job.) for plumbing parts. Two unexplainable leaks requiring complete disassembly and reassembly of said plumbing parts, and two cuts and/or scrapes. The rate of Bad Words per Hour (BWH) was about in line with previous projects involving water supply and waste removal.
And for her thoughtful and personal gift? An iPod Shuffle.
See. My wife is no dummy.
And neither am I.
Thu Jun 02, 2005
The Keller Theory of Permanence
One of my coworkers tossed off a line in a meeting last week that I think was good enough to paraphrase into a basic rule of the workplace. With absolutely no apologies for my shameless theft of his original idea, I offer The Keller Theory of Permanence:
No job transfer, reassignment, retirement, or other personnel change is permanent until cake has been served.
Community MX Releases JumpStarts Vegas
Community MX, the on-line journal for web developers using Macromedia products, has released another in our series of JumpStarts packages. JumpStart Vegas as described by Sheri German in this overview of the package, contains all the images and code you'll need to quickly create an entire web site "using valid XHTML 1.0 markup and formatted using valid CSS 2.1 styling. Vegas also follows the WAI and Section 508 accessibility guidelines." (Disclaimer: I am a partner at Community MX and share in the proceeds of sales with the other 30 writers and developers.)
I gave a 3 hour session at TODCON Vegas last month using just this package to develop a site, and as usual I found the collection of files, the included images, and the wealth of commented and referenced CSS to be incredibly useful as I continue to learn more advanced layout techniques. Not to mention the source Fireworks PNG file that was designed by the incomparable Linda Rathgeber. (Be sure to check the color palette that Linda created and placed into a locked and hidden layer in the Fireworks file. A great technique for capturing color values.)
This package also includes Paul Newman's awesome Flash Slide Show extension that allows you to really quickly add a slide show to a page. Just upload your images, make some changes to the included XML file by modifying image names, and you can have a custom slide show with transitions between images or other effects in less than 30 minutes.
JumpStart Vegas is free to Community MX subscribers and TODCON attendees, or $45 for a one off purchase.
Wed Jun 01, 2005
How Vendors Drive Ed Tech Spending
Stephen Downes points to an interesting article titled Thwarted innovation: what happened to e-learning and why and draws this conclusions:
...the causes for the supposed bust: "there has yet to emerge a viable market for e-learning products... students do want to be connected, but principally to one another... most faculty still teach as they were taught." Well, sure: if you market the wrong product delivered the wrong way to people who want something else, sure, it's going to go bust.
That got me to thinking about the whole pendulum swing of marketing ed tech products to schools. eLearning may be about to swing out of favor (and I agree that the jury is still far from in on that) as the latest push from the major vendors begins. There's a definite cycle to how products are marketed and the never-ending pursuit of a profit. Hey, nothing wrong with profit, or are these companies doing anything untoward. They're just doing business. And that includes new methods for using technology in the education market, which means new ideas and services have to be launched. All well and good.
The problem from education's side is that the majority of decision makers are not from the world of either business or technology. They're teachers and former teachers and principals and on and on right up to the top in most cases. Bright, talented, educated people who care about kids but really struggle sometimes to hack their way out of the education technology thicket. They know lots of technology is good and that parents expect it, but what kind of technology. And this is where the vendors come in, demonstrating possibilities, building applications, designing software and selling their services.
What we educators have to watch out for are those overblown promises that vendors will happily provide but then be unable to deliver on. If I had a nickel for every demonstration I've seen of a technology product that was going to "revolutionize the classroom", well, I'd have a whole bunch of nickels. The danger is that we see something bright and shiny this year only to find that it's been replaced by new bright and shiny objects the following year. Let's see, we've had distributed networking, the Internet in every classroom, free web pages for teachers, data-driven decision making, eLearning, and now portals. Who knows what the next big thing will be? There is an ebb and flow to marketing, release of products and services, and what's considered best practices. It's easy to get pulled into the hype and spend lots of money on something that later on you say--"Now what were we trying to accomplish with that?"
And that takes us to the nub of the matter. As educators and administrators we have to have a goal in mind and keep our eye on that prize all the time. Every decision has to be framed in light of how it will directly impact the student in the classroom and the teacher's ability to teach. All the hoopla and hype about education technology--and the pressure that vendors put on for us to make new purchases--has to been seen in the light of what's best for the kids. When we waver from that and get distracted by another shiny new technology toy we do our kids a disservice.