This past Friday, I had the chance to listen to highly placed officials in certain state education agency chastise bloggers/podcasters and explain how it was only common courtesy to ask first before podcasting her words. This in the face of the simple fact that bloggers/podcasters had clearly helped get the very important message in those words out to a much wider audience.

The individuals representing the Agency asked that they not be podcast on anything they said. They need to reconsider that concept, especially when funding and lack of technical expertise to use Web 2.0 tools gets in their way!

Thomas Paine once wrote...

...the irresistable nature of truth, that all it asks, and all it wants is the liberty of appearing...It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.

When the protests was heard, several questions popped into my head:

• Why wouldn't any state education agency--paid for by taxpayer dollars--want bloggers/podcasters to amplify the message they are sharing?
• Why would any state education agency want to limit it's message to distribution by only a few sources, such as an antiquated video-conferencing network that charged school districts to listen to the message?
• Isn't it understood that when speaking on behalf of a state education agency that you ARE on the record? Why put the pressure on bloggers/podcasters to have to ask for permission that is automatically required for public officials working in taxpayer-funded, state education agencies?
• What is the financial relationship between a state education agency and the private video-conferencing network that releases that information? Is it permissible for the private network to trade on public information?

As I listened to the conversation between bloggers/podcasters and the state education agency representatives, I was struck by Clay Shirky's words:

In high-freedom environments, people use social tools for fun. In low-freedom environments they use them for political action.
Source: Clay Shirky Interview

I was struck by his words because there is no reason for objection on behalf of the state education agency. If public information IS public, must be disseminated for the good of students and educators who serve them, then instead of criticizing, the state education agency should be praising efforts to disseminate information. Instead, there was mention of copyrights as a way of restricting the flow of information that is PUBLIC.

If Texas is a low-freedom environment, then it makes sense that Read/Write Web technologies used to disseminate public information would be perceived as tools of the politically active. But there is no political action involved here, is there? The simple reality is that educators need access to public information and the bloggers/podcasters who share it are performing a public service.

As I was re-sorting the blogs I read this evening, trying for that optimal mix of invective and positivity that stimulates my Muse without sending it to the ground amidst an intimidating barrage of content, I stumbled across The Bamboo Project blog entry.

Last week I liveblogging several conference sessions at Brandon Hall. This is the first time I've done this and it added a depth and dimension to my workshop learning that I simply have not experienced before. Liveblogging forced me to listen more carefully to the presenters and the conversations that took place. I found myself paying even more attention to the temperature in the room--were people engaging with the presenters, did the presentations seem to resonate, what were their questions?

Taking notes online also made my notes more multi-dimensional. For every website a presenter mentioned, I was able to grab the link and supporting materials to fill out my notes immediately, something I wouldn't have been able to do if I took notes with my traditional paper and pen. Instead of having scribbled thoughts on a scrap of paper I'd likely never look at again, the posts I developed became rich with resources and links. Further, because I posted them on my blog, they were available not only to me, but to anyone who wanted them.

There's huge learning power in that. Sending one person to a conference can potentially educate your entire organization. The same thing can happen in meetings and as part of daily work. When people are actively engaging with and reflecting on their professional experiences, which blogging encourages us to do, that's where ongoing learning really takes place.

I think my frustration right now is that I've realized how firmly entrenched people are in a sort of passive, one-way view of the web.

Mayhap there is a lesson in my experience. Four years ago when I started blogging and podcasting organization (e.g. TCEA SIG) meetings, I was met with disdain and recrimination by some. But the vast majority recognized the value of what I was doing, not because *I* was doing it, but because the bottom line was simple--it benefited Texas schools, providing them access to information that the State education agency and TCEA were unwilling/unable to provide, sequestering that critical, must act on data for the price of admission.

Fellow Texans, when you encounter public information being hoarded--whether by state education agency, private organizations, or whomever--then podcast without permission. Shout it from the mountain-tops, and get the word out there...only error shrinks from inquiry and public scrutiny.

Oh, and it is possible for state education agencies to rely on other agencies to create podcasts and release information. Consider the podcasts by the Texas Comprehensive Center on behalf of TEA. They describe their goals as providing....

...the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and the state system of support with access to resources designed to support their work in implementing NCLB requirements.

Why not use this as a model for information dissemination, and expertise to rely on, in lieu of services that are obsolete (e.g. state video-conferencing network)?

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Categories: CitizenJournalism, Education, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning, Texas, Transparency

Ok, by way of disclaimer, I'm not telling you why I did this or where it's coming from, or if it has any validity (uh, that's open-ended, right?), and I flunked art in kindergarten and it left deep psychological scars, not to mention an inferiority complex...if I had a therapist, maybe that wouldn't be a problem, but all I have is...well...you (that is, you to inflict this upon).

That said...here goes nothing...don't ask me.

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Categories: Education, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

Image Source: http://www.naturalsciences.org/education/Ecuador/gallery/images/07%20-%20Kids%20on%20Burro.jpg

One of my favorite stories from the Bible is when Joseph, Mary, and their little burro find their way into Bethlehem but find that they have nowhere to stay..."there was no room for them in the inn." It's strange the connections one's brain makes. This email found its way into my inbox:

All of the hotels are booked. No hotels have 2/2/09 available. There are a few rooms for other dates in hotels that are FAR, FAR away. Is TCEA going to get some more blocks of rooms? I have us on the wait list ... with TCEA Housing. We have not booked anything, because with our district it better be in stone before you start the PO process.

Our first real instructional tech meeting is Monday, Sept. 15. Housing only opened on this past Monday. If I was a selfish person, I would have booked myself a room & let anyone else sleep on the floor – there are Kings only available & I was looking yesterday.

This is the only conference I, & a few others, attend for the year. With our new Supt. we are trying to get instructional technology going again… this does not help…Please let me know as soon as you can if there is going to be any revised blocks of rooms for the hotels.

While I'm sure TCEA will make every effort to ensure that the author of this email has a place to stay at TCEA 2009, I can't help but sympathize with the author of the email. I've never had a problem staying at La Quinta Inn and Hotels, or whatever had free Internet access, but for school districts sending LOTS of folks, this has to be a bit frustrating. With the price of gas up so high, who wants to drive every day? And, as such, they were probably going to send a bus to one hotel and get it done.

The challenge TCEA and other large conferences face now is how to minimize the frustration and cost of school districts who must overcome high cost of travelling to the conference. . .TCEA must strive to find some way to include people who just won't be able to make it to the Conference and experience the awesomeness of being in the presence of so many people enthused, excited about ed-tech in Texas.

Could one way of including folks be to create a portal, not unlike what Jeff Utecht and others have done for the Learning 2.0 Conference? Or what Steve Hargadon and ISTE did for NECC 2008? Or what many others are doing, recognizing that even though people can't be present, maybe, just maybe they might be willing to pay a nominal fee to access a wealth of resources? And, let's not forget that there are now many Texas edubloggers and podcasters.

This last point reminds me--now that ISTE/NECC 2008 is past, what work is being done to ensure clear policies that will empower the membership to act in ways (e.g. podcasting/vidcasting for noncommercial-attribution-sharealike use) that are aligned to the ISTE National EdTech Standards for Teachers and Students?

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Categories: Education, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning, Texas

Pretty exciting to witness the launch of the Texas Virtual School Network (TxVSN). I shared my notes from this event earlier and have decided to consolidate them all in my wiki (have to one way or another <smile>).

Tim Holt (Intended Consequences) recorded the 57 minute TETN video conference and shared the link! Awesome! I've taken notes on the information shared in the presentation and share them as link #1 so you don't have to sit through the video, as well as taken the liberty of uploading Tim's video to Edublogs.tv (search on txvsn) and embedding it on the appropriate wiki page (link #1 below).

Relevant Links

1. Miguel's Notes on the 09/05/2008 TxVSN Video-Conference session
2. Miguel's Notes on the 05/2008 conversation with Linda Gillis (ESC-4)
3. TEC-SIG 05/2008 Meeting Notes with Podcast of Presentation
4. My main TxVSN wiki page where I'll be sharing any future notes on this subject
5. Texas Virtual School Network (TxVSN) Web Site - tons of new stuff here
6. Texas VSN Site Coordinator Tutorial Video (WMV format)

On a completely unrelated note, it appears that the TxVSN is using free, open source software to manage its new web site! View the source code for the front page and you see references to DotNetNuke...great to see such a beautiful web site (have to give credit where credit is due) running open source backend!

More background on it...

Versatile – DotNetNuke is an open source web application framework ideal for creating, deploying and managing interactive web, intranet and extranet sites.

User-Friendly – DotNetNuke is designed to make it easy for administrators, content editors, developers, and designers to manage all aspects of their web assets. Wizards, content-sensitive help, and a well-researched user interface provide a superior user experience.

Powerful – DotNetNuke can support multiple websites from a single application installation. In dividing administrative options between host level and individual site level, DotNetNuke allows administrators to manage an unlimited number of websites – each with its own unique appearance and content.

Have you tried DotNetNuke lately? ;->

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Categories: Education, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning, Texas

Although there are a lot of VoiceThread tutorials out there--and in a variety of media formats--I decided that I wasn't happy with any of them for my purposes. Isn't that what always happens? So, this afternoon, I've sat down and created a tutorial that fits how I might use VoiceThread.com with administrators.

I hope the tutorial is useful to others. The tutorial is far from done but I thought I'd share what I have for now. It is shared under Creative Commons Copyright (Sharealike-NonCommercial-Attribution) and available in open document format (I made it with NeoOffice on a Mac but you can open it using OpenOffice).

• PDF Version of the Intro to VoiceThread tutorial
• OpenDocument Format Version of Intro to VoiceThread Tutorial

Up to date copies of the tutorial, supplements, will appear on my Digital Storytelling with Web-Based Tools wiki page. Some more important pieces:

• Page numbers (very important but missing)
• VoiceThread examples and narrative, which is missing.
• Better introduction.

If you improve on it, please share back!

UPDATE 09/07/2008:

Wow, I'd forgotten how much fun it is to prepare a print tutorial. I've made the revisions above to the 09/07/2008 version and here's the new table of contents with what is covered:

How To...

• Register for a VoiceThread Account
• Obtain the Free, PRO, Educator Account
• Add Your Picture to VoiceThread.com
• Put a Slideshow Online
• Share Your VoiceThread with Others
• Exploring Export Options
• Add Audio Comments via the Phone
• Exploring Phone Commenting
• Upload Pre-Recorded Audio
• Add Video Comments
• Add Text Comment
• Great Examples of VoiceThread in K-12

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Categories: Digital_Storytelling, Education, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning, TechTips

At WikiPatterns, the assertion is made that a wiki can be used for project management! I agree, that's exactly what I do with my knowledge management wiki.

Specifically, Stewart Mader (WikiPatterns) writes:

• Organize your project on a wik
• Help your team make the change from trading emails and attachments to gathering, building, and editing information on the wik
• Manage everything related to the project, including background research, notes, URLs, timesheets, meetings agendas & minutes, action items, and finished documents, presentations, and files

What's the hardest step? You'd think it would be #3...just the idea of putting all that data in ONE place is mind-boggling but you know what? It's not. The hardest part is helping "your team make the change from trading emails and attachments." How do you get past it? You make the wiki your top tool for everything and you make sure that whatever wiki you start out with, that that is the one you stick with.

One of the challenges for me is that I like PmWiki.org but it's text-based. Some people just don't get wiki syntax, no matter what I say or do. So, start them on another wiki system but continue to hold on to the system you're accustomed to...and nothing happens. As leader, you have to jump in there whole hog.

I only wish the Moodle wiki was a bit better, more intuitive than what it is. Is anyone using it successfully?

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Categories: MGuhlin.net, Moodle, OpenLearning

The more and more I look at this page, the less satisfied I am that it's doing its job. Of course, the job of that page is to provide easy access to video content featuring kids and educators talking about how they love using technology in education settings.

So, I'm considering something that will allow me to easily share pictures and videos and audio online. At first, I thought it might be a YouTube clone but that was too hard to implement (for me at least). The other possibility is to use something like D-Space, which I'm investigating right now...but I have no idea if it will work or what it looks like.

Maybe integrate Gallery into Moodle but...I wanted it to standalone without folks having to login. videos, audio, pictures...all in one place.

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Categories: Education, MGuhlin.net, Moodle, OpenLearning, TechTips

Paul sent this out earlier today and I volunteered...

L&L's popular Point/Counterpoint section is looking for 500-word arguments on both sides of the question, "Are free tools worth the price?" Many schools design and develop creative solutions that incorporate free Web 2.0 applications, but are these tools worth the pitfalls that can accompany them?

Please contact L&L Managing Editor Paul Wurster (pwurster@iste.org) by Sept 10 if you are interested in advocating either side of this issue. Point/Counterpoint articles are relatively informal. If you are selected, we'll need a high-quality photo and a short (35-word) bio in addition to your 500-word essay. Thanks in advance for a stimulating discussion.

My email to him was brief:

Paul, I'm interested if you'll have me! My district uses quite a few free tools and it's a no-brainer to support them. By free, I mean free, open source software tools, esp web-based ones such as Moodle, Joomla, Wordpress, b2Evolution, and other tools.

What would you say given the chance? I'll post mine here later.

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Categories: Education, GNU/Linux, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

Is this a bogus book deal? Anyone else get this?

We hope you are well. Based on your involvement in research and contributions to the field of Information Science, we invite you to consider collaborating with IGI Global on a forthcoming book publication. In sending this invitation, we hope that you will consider this opportunity to develop a highly regarded and respected project in your emerging discipline. We hope to hear of your interest in potentially collaborating with us on a book publication.

We aim to begin the edited project(s) within the next several weeks, developing the publication(s) for release in mid to late 2009. We are of course flexible with creating schedules based on your availability.

What do you think? Did you get this?

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Categories: MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

This came across in a tweet yesterday...I bookmarked it and thought it worthy of sharing:

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning, TechTips

Image Source: http://ladyada.net/make/simreader/index.html

...how easy it is to access data once it is digitally stored and/or distributed. The ease of access issue is the concern. We've repeatedly heard the line from data miners and law enforcement that goes something like, "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." That is a truism that can't be denied. The problem for all of us comes when erroneous data or erroneous conclusions are drawn from innocent or incorrect data. The problem comes when that ease of access to data lets bad guys use technology and the web to commit a multitude of crimes.

The problem comes when data is treated with less care than it deserves by those entrusted with it and is either stolen, lost, hacked or otherwise abused due to neglect or bad policy. The problem comes when the public fails to understand how widely distributed their private data can become when posted to the web or sent digitally to anyone, anywhere.
Source: Protect Personal and Financial Privacy - Private Eye Says Privacy is Dead

With these two paragraphs in mind, I was amazed to view this video over at CitizenEngineer.com. Lacking an engineering background--not to mention soldering makes me sick--I can still be amazed at the information shared here..."open source" approach.

Learn how a SIM card works (the small card inside GSM cell phones), make a SIM card reader, view deleted messages, phone book entries and clone/crack a SIM card.

This kind of stuff is amazing to me. How do kids learn how to do this?

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Categories: MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning, Privacy

Thanks to @hgilchrist, I found out about a way to setup your own Twitter (yes, bring distraction and powerful networking in house) using Laconica.

Laconica is an open source microblogging tool written in PHP. All data is stored in a MySQL database. Laconica was created as a direct response of a need to create an open source, distributed alternative to Twitter. It is used by the identi.ca microblogging service, which is based closely on Twitter's service.

Laconica supports OpenID for logins and is designed to apply a Creative Commons license to all the traffic that it carries. It's also built to support the OpenMicroBlogging protocol so it can address scalability issues by federating together multiple autonomous servers.

The underpinnings of Laconica include PHP, PEAR, and XMPP. The source can be checked using Darcs. An unofficial Google Code mirror also exists, which can be accessed using Subversion. This is a read-only copy of the source code.
Source: Laconica Open Source Software Project Information

More info here about getting the software.

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Categories: MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning, TechTips

Just slide the copyright sliderule to find out what you need to do...

http://librarycopyright.net/digitalslider/

Via Lifehacker

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Categories: Education, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

Usually, the unforeseen is negative or perceived in that way. In a recent podcast I listened to, Claudia Golden is quoted as saying something like this, Competition had the direct effect of having newspapers provide more information than spin. This meant that newspapers were objective because it was profitable...how can learning 24/7 and making your content available for free be profitable?

Steve Hargadon has a nice long post on PBS and things he likes (well-worth reading), this suggestion jumped out at me:

Speaking of time, Rob Lippincott made reference in a comment to what I consider to be the second inherent tension/dilemma expressed in the meeting: that of feeling that PBS may already be a little late to the Web 2.0 party, but not wanting to rush so that they do things right.

For me, there is another option to both the content and time dilemmas, which is for PBS just to provide the quality content, and by creating some open access to that content, allowing others to build the collaborative or participative structures that promote more interaction without compromising PBS.

I think that the ability to embed PBS-branded content would allow for discussion and participation to take place in many more creative venues than PBS is in a position to actually explore, without ever eroding their quality or trust.

As the founder of several Ning networks that would benefit from educators being able to showcase PBS content within the context of professional development discussions, I see great opportunities; I imagine PBS sees a mess of complex licensing issues for any existing content. :( I'm intrigued with the ability that Diigo has, though, to build community discussions around content without requiring that it be transferred in any way. I wonder if there is something there?

I tend to agree with that perspective. It is important for all organizations to jump into the Web 2.0, but Steve's observation is especially apt. I was sensitized to this idea because Andy Carvin shared a new Ning with me via Twitter...DirectCurrent.

Find them here - http://currentpublicmedia.ning.com/

This post by Steve Behrens in particular did the trick:

Last year, public radio's Digital Distribution Consortium Working Group predicted (see page 10) that freeing content could result in mashups such as "a Hidden Kitchens regional food content site that mashes up DDC audio and video content with Google Maps and Flickr photos about local restaurants and food events; a Science Talk site that draws on DDC science content combined with selected blog posts on related topics."

And there probably will be much more signficant unforeseen innovations, as the DDC authors would probably agree.

This idea of unforeseen innovations and trying to plan for them, to capture them, is something any smart person or organizations wants to do. I like that PBS is considering it and that Steve Hargadon is pondering it.

It's hard though because we're bogged down. Everywhere we look, we see more of the same, until we dare to ask the right question, or as Dr. Joyce Valenza shares in this presentation of Pandoremic (made up) proportions (via Bob Sprankle's Bit by Bit), open the box. Or, consider this quote:

"To know that you are a prisoner of your mind, that you live in an imaginary world of your own creation, is the dawn of wisdom. To want nothing of it, to be ready to abandon it entirely, is earnestness." - Sri Nisargadatta
via Crossroad Dispatches' Rogue Robot

Now that we increasingly have the ability to free content, to make it easier to access, it's tough to imagine the unforeseen.

But to media traditionalists, freeing content also rips it from a relatively concrete "place" (radio station or website) that carries underwriting and is clearly associated with an institution that seeks to generate good will and membership, subscription, foundation or taxpayer support.

Thus the freed content gets much-improved distribution, and probably added value from the mashing-up. But the institutions best positioned to reap revenue are companies like Google that put relatively little money into generating content themselves. 
Source: Steve Behrens in this post entitled What can come of NPR's release of an API giving access to its story database?

What holds us back, holds us down is the desire to make money, to generate revenue. Fortunately, as an educator, as a creator, I don't have to worry about that...for now. Our goal is more to reap the value of the remix, the mash-up and show others how to do it. While it would be nice to get rich doing what you love, pursuing your passions, maybe that's too hopeful? Maybe passion-based learning works, but not passion-based work?

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Categories: CitizenJournalism, Education, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

Today, I had the opportunity to listen to a fascinating free, open source software in K-12 education panel presentation. Steve Hargadon facilitated the session. The session was one of several offered at the Texas Chief Technology Officers' (CTO) Summer 2008 meeting. Find more K-12 Open Technologies goodness online.

You can find my notes for the CTO meeting--sponsored by the Consortium for School Networking--online here at the Share More! Wiki. Plano ISD and Spring ISD participated, which is important because they're both working hard at implementing open source.

Although I'll post a podcast of the session later, some of the key points that jumped out at me include:

• The availability of reports on Open Source use for Moodle, Desktop GNU/Linux, Creative Commons and Open Content, and Enterprise Open Source.
• The wide availability of applications to manage servers, including a new tool for $20 a month phone system called Asterisk. Several businesses in the room--vendors actually--paid close attention to the presentations, making the point that open source DOES make business sense and raising the question (again), "How come school districts don't make the switch?"
• The list of challenges for switching to FOSS solutions.
• Alex Hirsch--son of Plano ISD CTO, Jim Hirsch--was quoted several times by Spring ISD presenters...but they hadn't made the connection that this was Jim's son. Isn't that great?
• “By sending the same tech home with students, we ensure that they have access to educational information available at all times.” Alex Hirsch
• The jaw-dropping cost-savings for replacing Blackboard in Spring ISD? $100,000. Wow.
• Spring ISD's Public Relations campaign...they came up with some slogans:
  * Be all you can be for free * The price is right * Where do you want to go today for free? * The software for the rest of us * May the open source be with you

I'll post the podcast once I can find my microphone...I'm carrying the Dell X1 without a mic (does this have a b uilt-in mic? Hmm).

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: Education, GNU/Linux, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

Tim at Assorted Stuff asks a series of copyright questions. While I don't have the answers personally, I do have a copy of Carol Mann Simpson's Copyright for Schools: A Practical Guide (4th Edition). I've included Tim's questions (in bold lettering) and what I believe are the relevant sections from Carol's book appear in italics:

Does the fact that you work for a company or school district mean that any ideas created during the time they pay you become their intellectual property?

If a classroom teacher create a resources for a class she's teaching, then compiles them into a book she will offer to a publisher, there is a catch. The teacher's district owns the copyright in the resources, barring any contract or agreement that would restrict that arrangement. The reason this is true is that the resources were created as part of the teacher's job. This concept is known as "work for hire." Just about anything a teacher does within the context of his or her job could be claimed as the intellectual property of the school.

If I was an hourly worker, I would think that something I produced off the clock was mine. But most of us are on salary, so are our creative processes part of the mix 24/7?

A common question is to inquire if doing the work at home or on weekends or vacation makes any difference in the work for hire rules. Actually, no, it makes no difference. If the work was done "within the scope of employment" it matters little where or when the work was done. However, if you create something that's clearly not for the job you do for the district (e.g. work was for fourth grade science but you write a college physics textbook in your spare time at home, the school would be hard pressed to convince a court that this work was part of your work as a fourth grade science teacher).

What if I produced some materials during summer break, tried them out in my classroom in the fall, and then wanted to package them for sale to other teachers?

No, according to my reading of Carol's information in italics above.

Supposed I started offering paid workshops using concepts repackaged from my experience in the classroom and what I’ve learned from others (there are plenty of examples of this!).

This one is a little harder, but I wonder if this part wouldn't be relevant: Since a teacher doesn't own the copyright in the work made for hire, he has the same limitations on materials he created as the average teacher-on-the-street...If a teacher changes districts, he should ask the district he is leaving if he may have permission to continue to use and/or adapt those materials. Get that permission in writing.

My reading of this is that you wouldn't have the right to repackage anything from your experience in a classroom that you worked if you didn't have permission from the school district in writing first.

Fascinating stuff to read. I urge you to invest in Carol's book.

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Categories: Education, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

Steve Hargadon has a great post making a list of all the things folks can do...it's not that each of us lacks for a list of our own, but it's fun to see other lists and reflect on our own. And, the more folks that see those lists, the more likely--maybe--that people will start to do these things on their own. I have to wonder, though, if state organizations will want to even want to follow any of this advice, as fixated as some are on the way conferences and events have been run in the past. Perhaps, it's unreasonable to even expect large organizations to use these approaches...top-down control seems to be as essential for large organizations as...well...no need to compare.

Here's Steve's list...you can read the details online:

1. Use a wiki to organize the event.
2. Ask your attendees to volunteer to promote the event, to facilitate sessions, to give speed demos (under 5 minutes) of successful tools or strategies, and to actively participate in whatever session they are in. Let them use the wiki to schedule themselves in to open slots you've created.
3. Encourage independent discussions.
4. Be willing to change, reschedule, and reformulate on the fly. With a "living" wiki agenda, getting participants used to checking the wiki for upcoming sessions or activities allows you to make good changes when you need to.
5. Bring in special guests through video-conferencing tools. Skype video-conferencing deserves a post of its own. Some of my favorite times during an event have been during the lunch break when I've "trolled" the edublogosphere for short Skype conversations. Last week at a workshop in Phoenix, I sent out a twitter message and soon had our group talking with David Jakes , Chris Lehman, Dean Shareski, and Leigh Zeitz . We also interviewed a group of students from a high school technology leadership class, and I must say that the student interview panels I have done remotely are almost always a real highlight of a workshop or conference.

6. Use the wiki as a repository for all notes, brainstorms, links, photos, etc.
7. Encourage blogging, select blog tags, then use Technorati or Google Blog Search to feed into your event wiki the posts written about the event.
8. Take digital photos of the attendees and add them to the wiki or shared document you've created.
9. Record sessions by audio or video, then post them for those who were not able to attend. Good audio recorders are now really easy to find at most office-supply stores.

10. Start a social network or group for meetings or workshops. Ning.com is really good for this (full disclosure: I do consulting work for Ning).
11. Allow, or even promote, "back-channel chatting." You can use a standard IM or chat-client, including Skype.com, or a web-based service like Chatzy.com.
12. Remember electrical power and network needs.
13. Have fun!

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Categories: Education, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

Source: http://tinyurl.com/5muk8r

Wikipedia or Britannica? As a blogger, a web publisher, which would you use? In the past, I'd say, Wikipedia. It's just awesomer, right? But what if you had easy access to Britannica online for free? Peter Suber (Open Access News) shares the announcement via Michael Arrington that free is just a self-fulfilling label away for bloggers...how many edubloggers do you know that wouldn't rush to get free access for Britannica? I can hear it now, "Yes, you become a blogger and automagically get your membership to access Britannica encyclopedia." I bet the librarians are jumping for joy. They can dump Wikipedia--if they ever got on the boat--and embrace Britannica simply by writing about their experiences.

Encyclopedia Britannica often is used in case studies as a definitive example of how new technology can disrupt a business. ... According to Comscore, for every page viewed on Britannica.com, 184 pages are viewed on Wikipedia (3.8 billion v. 21 million pave views per month). ... You can purchase the 32 volume Britannica, which has 65,000 articles and 44 million words, for just $1,400. Or you can access it on the web for $70 per year. And now, you can get access to the online version for free through a new program called Britannica Webshare - provided that you are a “web publisher.” The definition of a web publisher is rather squishy: “This program is intended for people who publish with some regularity on the Internet, be they bloggers, webmasters, or writers. We reserve the right to deny participation to anyone who in our judgment doesn’t qualify.”
Source: TechCrunch via Open Access News

So, for fun, and because I am a web publisher in so many different ways (you reading this Britannica?), I'm out to get a free account:

You get complimentary access to the Encyclopaedia Britannica online and, if you like, an easy way to give your readers background on the topics you write about with links to complete Britannica articles.

Note: This program is intended for people who publish with some regularity on the Internet, be they bloggers, webmasters, or writers. We reserve the right to deny participation to anyone who in our judgment doesn’t qualify.

[after submitting request]
Thank you. Your Britannica WebShare submission has been received.

Give it a whirl....

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Categories: Education, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

View this presentation based on Dan Pink's new book, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need

As a thirty-nine year old who is burned out on academic coursework, as well as on boring drive-by inservices that throw professional development at the Wall (a euphemism for educators) to see what will stick, or worse, what can be made to stick because the lead administrator wants it to, I'm thrilled about online professional learning opportunities. It is a vast expanse of opportunity, yet I shudder at getting people to show up. The path to enlightenment can be long and arduous...and infinitely different for each of us.

Sylvia Martinez (GenYes) calls for a balanced approach of all the different opportunities for professional development. Yet, to be honest, this is the approach I prefer:

Source: Six Degree of Professional Development

Much of what I learn these days falls into the informal category. That is, my professional learning activities include: collegial activities; Personal Learning Networks; Mentoring; Being a mentor; reading, listening to podcasts, watching videos about education/teaching; and blogging or creating other content related to education.

The question is, How did I get to this point? And, should I encourage others to? In chatting with a classroom teacher I know, who works at an elementary school and is a reluctant technology user who email until the last possible moment, it's difficult to imagine her shedding her penchant for traditional professional development, which depends on workshops and special sessions. In fact, if these weren't mandatory, I'm not sure this teacher would engage in professional development.

The reason why is frighteningly simple--the experienced teacher feels comfortable with the work s/he is doing with the students in his/her care. There is no reason to move outside of his/her comfort zone. And, to be honest, that teacher has no desire to at the end of a long day. Participating in academic coursework is done to get a Master's degree that is going to pay a bit more at work, or qualify that person for administration.

Sylvia suggests that mapping out professional development will allow us to achieve a balanced diet of PD. But the fact is, the content of PD flows through the different ways it is delivered/engaged/shared. I'm sure I could spend the rest of my career in the informal category of PD but that would not exclude formal or action research that fuels the podcasts and videos I listen and view. And, having earned as many degrees as I'm going to at this point in my life (last coat of paint is on and that's that...or maybe learning-resistant stain might be more fun), academic coursework just isn't of interest.

As a person who has an affinity for ed-tech, perhaps, this kind of map makes more sense, even though we risk falling into the Doug Belshaw sphere of complaint:

(Image modified to reflect Diigo in the browse section, although one could argue it might push over into the read/write component)

To me, the chart above just provides examples of different ways students--and doesn't that mean adult learners, too?--can share and collaborate with one another. While it's different from the 6 types of PD Sylvia refers to, what it means to me is that there is a world of possibilities within each of the 6 types. As an older educator, I can only hope that technology will sufficiently allow a thorough mix, leaving the six types indistinguishable from one another except for their symbiosis with technology.

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Categories: Education, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

The Open Computer's basic model, at $399, is advertised as featuring a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, 2GB of DDR 2 memory, a 250GB hard disk drive, multi-format DVD writer and integrated graphics. Buying a copy of Leopard adds $155 to the price. This compares to $599 for the Mac Mini, Apple's lowest-cost model, which features less powerful hardware.
Source: ZDnet

Could this Psystar Open Computer be the new dream machine--that runs any OS, including Mac OS X Leopard--at low cost? And, what would my customizations look like?

Perhaps, a more important question, will this company be around long enough to process and ship orders made?

Aside from the legal ramifications of selling "white-box" systems running Apple's Mac OS X, questions have arisen over the exact nature of Psystar, the firm advertising the systems; and even whether it exists. As of Thursday afternoon, Psystar appears to be a small operation that has only recently established a Web presence, and which is struggling to cope with the sudden interest aroused by its Mac clone. The product's name has changed over the past week, from Open Mac to Open Computer. Moreover, the company's postal address has changed several times over the past week.

...The installation of OSX on a non-Apple computer is expressly forbidden by Apple's end-user licensing agreement (EULA). Nevertheless, some lawyers have said Apple will have a hard time stopping firms such as Psystar from breaking the agreement, because of the relative weakness of breach-of-contract disputes.
Source:ZDnet

I had also had fun reading about an EFI that makes it easier to run Mac OS on non-Apple computers. The comments are a bit funny, although I can certainly understand the indignation of someone not being credited for their work...more on the OSX86/EFI discussion here and here. (And no, I have no idea what an EFI is).

One of the comments on Netkas' blog was particularly interesting...I've highlighted the part that appeals to me:

Here’s a fine example of how an amateurial project can be used in an “evil” way to bring disgrace on a wonderful technical project that actually brought thousands of people closer to Apple than anyone else could ever before. . .

Apple buyers were always...hurt that we could by fact obtain a working mac more powerful and cheaper than theirs, and they have tried to stop us in any possible way, without understanding the main purpose of our project. But we lived, and thrived. And now this company jumps out of nowhere, saying “yeah who cares” and uses our faces and our hard work to make $$$.

If any Apple legal person is reading this, I would like to point out that THIS is theft, not what we do. We fiddle with our LEGALLY OBTAINED Operating System for our personal entertainment, we don’t sell anything and we immediately kick from the channels whoever wants to obtain pirate material. And this is a matter of fact. I hope with all my heart that these thieves will be prosecuted, and they are thieves TWO times, as they make profit over the hard work of Apple, and ours.

Remixing in action.

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Categories: Mac, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

I was playing around with Patrick Michaud's PmWiki quite a bit yesterday--trying to add a GUI editor like FCKedit (btw, a bit of trivia I picked up..."FCK" are the creator's initials, not an abbreviation of a 4-letter word!). I was unsuccessful and I'm so committed with content to PMWiki in multiple areas, so I'm not even considering switching wikis...the real challenge is finding a GUI editor that will work on an easy to manage wiki. After playing around with Google Sites and Dekiwiki, I have to admit that PmWiki keeps me coming back to it.

Today, though, has been a bit more fun (mind you, I'm spending only about 15 minutes goofing around, so don't get the wrong idea). Some of the fun looks--a.k.a. skins-- I've experimented with include this one, which should look familiar if you've seen David Warlick's CoLearners' wiki:

but, since David's been using that skin, I decided not to. I also tried out the Triad skin:

and the Skidoo skin:

and the SimpleTab skin:

and the Newspaper skin, which I like because it reminds me of a newspaper and is easy to follow:

I'm not actually pleased with any of them, except the Triad 3 column skin, so I'll probably leave that one enabled for awhile. What do you think?

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Categories: MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning, TechTips

One of the things that's been bugging me is that there's great uStreams taking place but after they happen, they get lost in the ether. Sure, someone has them posted on their blog. Diigo's unique features enable us to all share past, present, and future uStreams that are educational in nature with each other, as well have conversations about them.

At least, *I* think so. If you do, too, visit the EDuStreams Diigo Group. Of course, EDuStreams can also support links to Elluminate sessions (archived or live), and more...it's just bookmarks that are shared with an audience.

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: Education, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning, SocialBookmarkingTools

You may recall that I shared earlier that recommended tags was taking forever to load when I used the Diigo toolbar. This slow load time made it impossible for me to save bookmarks using Diigo's toolbar. I sent up the smoke signals, and the Diigo crew (Joel, Wade, Maggie) jumped into action.

At 10:54 PM, 03/31/2008, I received the following email:

Fixed the problem!!! Please logout and login again. Then everything will be ok! You are one of the earliest diigo users, but we changed authentication method after our first launch which caused some problems to early users. We fixed the problem for all accounts with the similar problems. I really appreciate your detail information. You not only help us find the problem, but also help other users!
Source: Email from Joel (Diigo Support)

What does this mean? It means...

• I can use the Diigo toolbar instead of Digolet (which I liked because it was fast..of course, the toolbar now works as fast with more feature!).
• Other people who were experiencing what I was going through have their problem fixed, too! All they have to do is logout and then log back in.

Way to go, Joel at Diigo.com!!

Now, ask yourself, how often does this kind of support happen? I noticed the problem on a Saturday, they worked through until Monday, being online ALL the time it seemed, to fix the problem. Pretty great. The future is looking bright for Diigo!

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning, SocialBookmarkingTools, TechTips

In my previous entry, I reference Doug Johnson (the venerable Blue Skunk) and the issues he's having. Into my RSS aggregator flows this entry from Doc Searls who points to Kevin's words below:

When copies are super abundant, they become worthless. When copies are super abundant, stuff which can't be copied becomes scarce and valuable. When copies are free, you need to sell things which can not be copied. Well, what can't be copied? There are a number of qualities that can't be copied. Consider "trust." Trust cannot be copied. You can't purchase it. Trust must be earned, over time. It cannot be downloaded. Or faked. Or counterfeited (at least for long). If everything else is equal, you'll always prefer to deal with someone you can trust. So trust is an intangible that has increasing value in a copy saturated world.

I love what this has to say...but, it's only background information to the next idea:

...why would we ever pay for anything that we could get for free? When anyone buys a version of something they could get for free, what are they purchasing? From my study of the network economy I see roughly eight categories of intangible value that we buy when we pay for something that could be free.
Source: Kevin Kelley

How can we educate our kids in these eight categories of intangible value when our focus is on STOPPING them from copying, remixing? Fascinating reading....

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Categories: Education, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

Over at Blue Skunk Blog, Doug Johnson questions our moral fiber:

Having said that, we need some perspective here as well. As a boy, on more than one occasion I stole apples and watermelons from neighboring farmers. Obviously illegal, but in the view of most rational people, more in the realm of mischief and youthful indiscretion than a grand theft punishable by a stint in juvie. Now had I stolen cars or television sets, the nature of the crime would have different – at least in my view. Where one draws the line as to what is serious and what is mischievous varies by individual. Dollar amounts do figure in, I believe, when it comes to determining legally the degree of a crime.

As a parent, I tended to turn a blind eye to the personal use of music of dubious provenance by my son. I did draw the line at having any computer in my house used as site whereby others could obtain illegal music via a peer-to-peer network.

Remixing appears to be a key skill today for our children, and, increasingly for adults...once they unlearn the habits of theft they were taught and teach in school.

Much of what I do at work involves remixing work from a variety of sources...if I fail to cite them, I'd be labelled a plagiarist. Since I do cite them, I can have fun remixing information relevant to my work. Is it any wonder that children will want to remix content from their video games? I'm reminded of mixing and matching different pieces from my toys when I was a kid...now, digital toys should be able to be remixed and shared with others.

Again, I'm reminded of the value of free, open source software and how it can make a difference. What? The rest of the world isn't using free software, creative commons, etc.? Then, it seems critical that educators model the use of Creative Commons content with their students.

Yesterday, someone showed me a digital story developed in PhotoStory...why use PhotoStory? Aside from the fact that David Jakes recommends it, PhotoStory is free. (My preference is for VoiceThread, provided they get that free thing worked out for educator use!).

The resulting products had been posted in our Connections site (Moodle) behind a login and password. For my part, if these student products lack 1) Permission form for publication of student work on the web; 2) Non-copyrighted or creative commons copyright for images or audio; 3) Conversion to a format that can be easily shared on the web (such as MP4), then why bother doing the project? Creating in isolation is a waste of time when there's a global audience able to give feedback and broaden children's understanding of how the world is changing. And, if that isn't enough for you, go read ISTE's National Education Technology Standards for Students:

Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.

Here's what I encountered:

• PhotoStory WMV output that can't be viewed on anything EXCEPT a Windows computer using Windows Media Player...it needed to be converted in MP4 using the Jodix Free Ipod Converter.
• Images that were stock photos and labelled as such...I'd give a lot for Flickr Creative Commons to be accessible, darn the inappropriate images.
• No citations or references for content at all.

I know these are 4th graders, but what did creating this product teach? Sure, it's a cute story about a young girl taking care of her baby sister. But more profound lessons shared were:

1. Use proprietary tools and formats that restrict who can view "your" work.
2. Grab images from anywhere and drop them into your presentation.
3. Don't worry about citing the images or audio because it's just kid's work...not worthy of being shared on the World Wide Web with a global audience.

How long will it take before we are...

• Encouraging teachers to use tools that are available to us to convert proprietary content to formats that are easily shared with others, and work on ALL computer platforms, not just Windows running Windows Media Player 10 and above?
• Showing children and teachers how to use images that are available at no cost, free of the copyright entaglements that prevent remixing and sharing via the Web?
• Allowing our children to make meaningful contributions to a global audience that needs to hear and see digital stories from children to rediscover their humanity?

Some resources:

• Citation Machine for older students (High school plus)
• Bibliographic Citations for Elementary students (Kathy Shrock)
• Image sites:
  *Public Domain Images
  *CompFight.com - searches Flickr UPDATE: This didn't work when trying to get the larger image, just the thumbnails.
  *FlickrCC - now includes PicNik editing as well as inHouse attribution.
• Mashable.com includes a list of 25 audio/image sites worth looking at and trying to see if they are accessible in spite of the district firewall and content filtering.

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: Education, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

In my round-up of Broadcast Learning tools available online at Education World, I neglected to mention one free, open source tool that's available. Although it doesn't quite seem to scale to large numbers of users, like uStream.tv does, it can be usable for smaller numbers, as shown by the image above. Ken Task shared the following one:

The Covcell Project works in the field of language learning and teaching online and of open software development in education. It is funded Moodle stand at BETT 2006 by the Minerva Action of the European Union and runs from October 2005 until September 2007. The partnership includes members from Iceland, Germany, Italy and the Basque Country in Spain. Streaming server implementation for the Covcell project...implements functionality for a) Audio-/Video chat and b) Audio recording assignments

An audio feed can be recorded and streamed to the server by the student and later be evaluated by a teacher...The audio will be saved as FLV (Flash video) files. It can be listened to by the teacher from within their browser or downloaded and opened with a standalone multimedia player application like VLC.

And, in regards to the audio, you can also choose to extract the audio from the FLV and save it as MP3/OGG (depending on your preference) for podcast purposes. More instructions here.

Are you aware of any other possible solutions?

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Categories: Education, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

Now Adobe, which controls Flash and Flash Video, is trying to change that with the introduction of DRM restrictions in version 9 of its Flash Player and version 3 of its Flash Media Server software. Instead of an ordinary web download, these programs can use a proprietary, secret Adobe protocol to talk to each other, encrypting the communication and locking out non-Adobe software players and video tools. We imagine that Adobe has no illusions that this will stop copyright infringement -- any more than dozens of other DRM systems have done so -- but the introduction of encryption does give Adobe and its customers a powerful new legal weapon against competitors and ordinary users through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Recall that the DMCA sets out a blanket ban on tools that help "circumvent" any DRM system (as well as the act of circumvention itself). When Flash Video files are simply hosted on a web site with no encryption, it's unlikely that tools to download, edit, or remix them are illegal. But when encryption enters the picture, entertainment companies argue that fair use is no excuse; Adobe, or customers using Flash Media Server 3, can try to shut down users who break the encryption without having to prove that the users are doing anything copyright-infringing.

Even if users aren't targeted directly, technology developers may be threatened and the technologies the users need driven underground.
Source: Adobe Pushes DRM for Flash

The desire to control others and how they use what you've made is irresistable, isn't it? Yet, releasing control is what is essential...I encourage my colleagues in the blogosphere to release their content without encryption. If you make the decision to control your content by sharing it, rather than encrypting it, and it gets used by many others, how great is that?

And, the next question is, what's our free software alternative to Flash?

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Categories: MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

I was surprised, along with many others, to see Blackboard win its suit against Desire2Learn. I'm disappointed with the Texas judicial system, with Blackboard but that's the way things work. More info on this:

I am writing to update you on the current status of the Blackboard v. Desire2Learn Patent Infringement lawsuit. Earlier today the jury handed down its verdict that the patent is valid and that Blackboard should be awarded damages of approximately $3 million. As you know, Blackboard filed a patent infringement suit against Desire2Learn on July 26, 2006. Blackboard claimed that Desire2Learn was infringing all 44 claims of patent number 6,988,138. Last summer, the Court eliminated the first 35 claims of the suit.

From the time we were first served with the suit we committed to you, our valued clients, as well as to the educational community at large, that we would defend ourselves vigorously in this matter. From the outset of this case we knew that we had an obligation to stand up against Blackboard and that our actions in doing so would be in the best interest of the entire educational community. For the past two weeks, we have been in Lufkin, Texas, heavily engaged in the trial at the Lufkin Federal Courthouse. The case concluded yesterday with closing arguments. The jury deliberated for a number of hours before returning its verdict today.
Source: Desire2Learn

You can read more reactions via Stephen Downes' summary here. and Blackboard's press release. Just as the jury can decide what to do--the rest of us who know better--can decide to take action. As such, I'm posting this button (shown above) on my web site and encouraging you to do the same. I'd like to encourage you, my education colleagues, to boycott Blackboard, to shut it out of the education market altogether. This isn't a new movement, since there are others advocating for this as well.

If you're using Blackboard now in your school district, encourage your folks to switch to something else that is free, open source...Moodle is one possibility.

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Categories: Education, GNU/Linux, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning, Texas

One of my favorite quotes in an article I wrote comes from a book a colleague gave me as a discard. After reading that book, I wrote the following as part of my article Doing the Moodle Mambo: Facilitating New Literacies:

In fact, many teachers, parents, administrators may be--dramatically--groaning in fear, gnashing their teeth at the need for new literacies. They see that the Internet, as its ubiquity increases, as it becomes an ever-changing tool molding itself to the mind of its users, now forces reading, writing and communication to be as changeable as the technology it is dependent upon.

It's so neat to see a study that asserts the following:

As scholarly communication practices are transformed by networked communication, new models can be relevant to communication systems, to publications, and to publishing practices. Perhaps the one common factor in all of the new models relating to scholarly communication is that they are Internet-mediated. Beyond that, new models usually are ‘new’ because they offer a new genre (or form of presentation), a new mode for interaction (between authors, between readers, or between authors and readers), a new business model, a new approach to peer review, or some combination of these.

It would be a mistake to assume all new-model publications are using new business models or new forms of peer review. In fact, it is far more typical for new models to innovate in a single dimension. Although there is regular discussion of possible new peer review models, traditional peer review practices generally are completely compatible with new publishing models, and in fact there are, as yet, very few examples of new model publications practicing novel forms of peer review...

A surprising number of people believe and argue that change can’t, won’t, or just doesn’t need to happen right now. It is distressing how much energy some are putting into efforts to delay change long enough for it to become someone else’s problem. Many of the powers that be demand irrefutable proof that any change can advance scholarly communication without disturbing the current order. Beyond the unproven assumption that the current order is sustainable undisturbed, there are two problems with this attitude. One is that research will languish unnecessarily while they wait. Other researchers, other disciplines, other nations, willing to embrace change now may surge ahead. And the academy may be failing in its commitment to solve important problems facing our society. The second is that others may be willing to take advantage of this inertia to place their interests ahead of researchers’ and scholars’.

Read the full study here.

Reference:

Talk About Talking About New Models of Scholarly Communication. Karla L. Hahn Ann Arbor, MI: Scholarly Publishing Office, University of Michigan, University Library vol. 11, no. 1, Winter 2008

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: Books_Research, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

Nice announcement...

Apple's iTunes U offerings have expanded this week with new content from the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) network and PBS affiliate stations, including KQED in San Francisco and WGBH in Boston. iTunes U is a dedicated area on the iTunes Store that offers users educational content. iTunes U provides institutions of higher education a way of providing students and others with audio and video content -- everything from presentations to lectures, debates, archival footage and more. Because it's based in iTunes, the content is simple to download to a PC or Mac and to transfer to an iPod or iPhone. And Apple provides institutions with a method for uploading content they create and building their own iTunes U sites.

The more that goes online, the harder it is for schools to block iTunes as the provider of content. Of course, this sets up some other problems with iTunes being the clear controller of content...can we trust Apple to be true to the purpose of provider access to content? I don't know.

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: Education, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

Ok, I bought Stewart Mader's WikiPatterns book. It's my spare time reading book at home, the book I pick up when I'm relaxing but feel I ought to be reading something that isn't fiction. Maybe you'd be interested in a list of those types of books?

Stewart has an interesting thing going, recording vidcasts about wikis...so far he has 3:

1. Grassroots is Best
2. Wiki vs Email
3. Your Wiki Isn't Necessarily Wikipedia

Worth checking out....

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Categories: MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

Over the last few years, the Texas Computer Education Association's TEC-SIG group has been struggling to put together a centralized repository for questions and answers. You know the drill...someone asks a question via email to the whole group. 10-12 people respond to the list, while others send responses privately. In the end, it sort of works, but you don't really know.

When I took office as Vice-president a few years ago, I ran on the platform of creating a centralized database for everything. Unfortunately, the efforts failed. Users said they wanted to work with an online database, but no one would host it. Invariably, TCEA staff say they will host it, but they have too many things on their plate running the biggest, awesomest conference in North America (can't tell I'm biased, right?).

For awhile, I was aggregating questions and responses in a wikispace...what's funny is the questions and answers tend to repeat over and over again. A new member comes on board and says, "Yada yada, can you help?" Or, worse, an old member will say, "I'm sorry, I know this has been covered already, but I don't have those emails anymore. Would you mind responding?"

And, of course, we always do (although blogging has made it easier for me to copy-n-paste my stock responses). But now, there's an alternative. How about Google Forms?

The Google Docs Blog posts today about a new feature in Google Docs Spreadsheets called forms. It basically allows you to share a Google Docs Spreadsheet as a form with others and the data they enter in that form is automatically added to a Google Docs Spreadsheet. So rather than sharing a spreadsheet with others, you can send them a form to fill out and the data they enter is automatically entered into a Google Docs Spreadsheet.
Source: Tim Lauer and Hey Jude

Why can't TCEA TEC-SIG officers create a Google Docs account, and have the secretary create the form? We'd have a central repository of data that could be updated over time...and wouldn't impact the parent TCEA organization at all. Power to the users!

When you consider neat tools exist--such as Firefox GoogleDocsBar and/or the Windows Google Docs uploader--to easily share resources like presentations and more, it's a wonder more folks aren't using this to facilitate organizational work.

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Categories: Education, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning, Texas

A colleague gave me 4 CDs. "Check out this book," he said. On the cover of each CD was the title of the book, The Alchemist. I was a bit surprised. My listening stamina for books doesn't usually include online books. So, while reading my RSS feeds, I stumbled across Strange Attractor's Del.icio.us links to Paulo Coelho, author of The Alchemist, giving away copies of his book online.

Not only that, but he set up his own pirate blog to facilitate sharing. "If you love something, you're willing to share with friends and peers. I have to experience the copyright. Enthusiastic about this idea of free download, I put for download a book I wrote specifically for Internet. It is called Stories for Parents, Children, and Grandchildren. I put the book here and had close to 100,000 downloads. In 5 months, we were at 1,000,000 downloads. Ok, fantastic. Now in 2008, and never got a comment on this book. Meaning, you download but you don't read. When people want to read, they buy books. Now, we go to second experience. When my books started selling in Russia, so we have problems with distribution. I found one of my books, pirate edition. Ok, it's selling 1000 copies a year. Russia has a population of more than 100 million people. 1000 copies a year is not that impressive." After he put it online, it sold 10,000 copies. Then, it sold 100,000 copies.

"It was the free download book in the Internet. You reach a critical mass and distribution caught up with demand. In the 3rd year, we had over 1 million copies, and now we have over 100 million copies. You give people the choice to decide whether to buy the book."

After that experience, he set up a blog to track pirate copies of his books on filesharing networks, FTP sites, and so on.

• View Author Paulo Coelho video where he shares his story. Fascinating.
• Visit the Pirate Coelho Blog

The book has now been converted to MP3 and I'll be listening to it on my way to the OTA2008 Conference. Go get your pirate copy, and if Paolo is right, you'll be investing in it soon! One thing is for sure...we do need to rethink copyright and the way the Internet fits in.

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

Img Source: http://www.sircharity.org/images/phillipines-main-image.jpg

Check off the Phillipines as another place that's made the transition to free software in public schools, both servers AND desktops. They're also deploying content management systems (e.g. Joomla and Drupal) so kids can develop content. Isn't this amazing? The Filipinos believe that their kids should develop online content, and sought to provide the tools they need to get the job done. How many North Americans in U.S. public schools believe their children can even be trusted on the Internet, much less provided with the fundamental building blocks--Internet-capable computers running free software and saving money?

What a great problem to have:

23,000 Linux PCs forge education revolution in Philippines
Providing high school students with PCs is seen as a first step to preparing them for a technology-literate future, but in the Philippines many schools cannot afford to provide computing facilities so after a successful deployment of 13,000 Fedora Linux systems from a government grant, plans are underway to roll out another 10,000 based on Ubuntu.

While Gonzalez was teaching the IT dealer network how to profit from open source, Microsoft launched its anti-piracy policy in the Philippines, so he told the government there was an alternative. Also at the time, the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Education launched the PCPS program, or PCs for Public Schools with the aim of providing one PC for each of the 10,000 public high schools in the country. "We wanted to use Fedora 5 and it went all the way to office of [the Filipino] President and they kept passing it around saying 'why would they offer something for free, and how would they support and teach it'," Gonzalez said. "The project dragged on for four to five months to a point where Microsoft matched the price by offering Windows XP for $US20 a copy and throwing in Office for $US30, but we still came out cheaper. Microsoft was also providing free training to high school teachers."

After "jumping through all the hoops", including having the Department of Science and Technology evaluate the Linux solution for its usefulness, ASI got the contract and all 10,000 computers were delivered at the end of December, 2007.

"Because we saved so much we gave the government 3000 additional units, so now another 300 schools have Linux networks," Gonzalez said.
Source: Computer World 01/29/2008

(other distributions to be used include Kubuntu/Edubuntu)

Another fascinating point made in the article is that 80 million Filipinos are sending 20 million text mesages...and they want to figure out how to tie into that with open source. Again, what's amazing is that places like this are unable to bail themselves out with a pile of money, justifying expensive computer systems. Instead, because they have to, they're putting aside their biases, prejudice to one computer system or another, and doing what they have to do for their children.

Given the choice of something or nothing, what would your child do in an American public school? Given the choice of a computer running free software, or doing paper-n-pencil activities, what would your child prefer?

Allowed to choose between creating online content that will be viewed and responded to by a worldwide audience and writing in a notebook that only one person will see, what do you think students would choose? Now here's the clincher--public school kids in America can't make any of those choices. If you're an educator, a parent, a legislator, a business person, make the choice to create and communicate using less expensive tools that allow greater access. Make that choice now and let people know.

Write about it. Bug your IT department. Tell parents.

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: Leadership, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

"Microsoft should provide native support for the ODF file format increasingly used in competitor products and those that are free to use," Becta said in its report. The agency said U.K. schools can consider using Vista or Office 2007 software only when they are buying new batches of PCs. Even then, however, they're advised to take a long looked at alternatives based on Linux and other open source products, such as the OpenOffice.org desktop package.

"Schools and colleges should make pupils, teachers and parents aware of the range of free-to-use products (such as office productivity suites) that are available, and how to use them," Becta said.

The report's conclusions could end up costing Microsoft millions of dollars in lost sales in the U.K. public-sector market. Becta's advisory mirrors similar moves taken by public agencies in the United States. Last year, the Department of Transportation placed a ban on the use of Windows Vista, Office 2007, and Internet Explorer 7 because of cost and compatibility concerns.
Source: Information Week

Read a summary of the key recommendations from BECTA here.

Will U.S. Schools--aside from Indiana and a few pockets of innovation--ever learn?

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

Dave Winer (Scripting News) has been writing about FlickrFan, and I've tuned him out for the most part, but tonight I had a free moment to play. It's described in this way on the local web pages you can access once it's installed:

FlickrFan is a new kind of RSS reader for the Macintosh. You subscribe to feeds of cool pictures and show them on the screen of your laptop, desktop or best of all, a big screen high-def TV in your den, office or living room!

FlickrFan does the following...

• View photos from your Flickr account, selected contacts, tags and high-res AP wire photos
• Pictures can be transferred to the Mac screen saver or viewed in the browser.
• Upload pictures you drop in a special folder.
• Automatically back up all the pictures in your Flickr account on a local disk.
• Archive or delete old pictures, keeping the content of your screen saver fresh.
• Share pictures using Twitter or RSS.

In addition to easy backupWhat caught my eye was Dave's recent posting that FlickrFan can display images from the Library of Congress:

The Library of Congress is partnering with Flickr, releasing pictures that it believes are not copyrighted, through Flickr. Permalink to this paragraph One of the fantastic side-effects of that is that there's an RSS 2.0 feed of those pictures that connects perfectly to FlickrFan.

I took it out for a test spin and it worked fine...except that I had to follow the instructions in the comments about downloading photofan. And, it worked fine.

If you're looking for a beautiful app with splash screen, a catchy-name on the application, forget about it. It took me awhile to understand that everything is routed through to your browser from the OPML application (as shown in the image above).

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: Mac, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

Finally decided to take the chance and install PCLinuxOS 2007 Gnome on my macbook as a dual boot INSTEAD of Ubuntu, which had been running fine, but hey...trying be consistent.

Everything has worked great. Some outstanding items I'll leave for another time:

• Haven't tested wireless
• Need to disable touchpad while typing...the fix on Ubuntu doesn't work the same here.

Ok, that's it...not bad. One interesting point is that I can access my Mac user directory and copy files from it...and they're not protected. I couldn't do that in Ubuntu from scratch, but apparently, in PCLinuxOS 2007, I can.

Totally geeky but fun.

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: Mac, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

Speaking of upgrades, several colleagues who recently purchased a Mac (a fast growing group) asked me recently about whether to buy the soon-to-be-released Office 2008. I don’t know about anyone else but I won’t be buying this package.
Source: Assorted Stuff

I won't be buying either. We're happily using OpenOffice in my home and I use it at work. While we were held captive in the past by Microsoft formats, we can now rest assured that a global community of developers will come to our rescue, liberating us from oppressive regime seeking to dominate our dollars' expenditure.

;->

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: Mac, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

This past week, someone from the TCEA TEC-SIG list--composed of technology directors for school districts in Texas--wrote the following:

Our district is looking at replacing 40% of our PC's with macintosh computers. Are any of you running both platforms? Can you tell me the issues you have had. Or maybe I'm wrong about this. I just want to make sure I have left no stone unturned. :) Thank you.

The response was immediate, generating more traffic than any other topic in the last few months. Some of the responses included the following:

I've been running on an Intel Macbook at home and work. I've been VERY happy, and purchased an entire lab of Intel iMacs. We can boot to Mac/Windows, but we've found VMWare Fusion to be an excellent tool. It allows us to run virtualized Windows applications in a Mac environment. We are now recommending people buy Intel Macs rather than continue getting Dells...after all, when you can have the best of both worlds...

And

In the fall we purchased 4 iMACs for our "Preview Center". They have boot camp and we default them to boot in Windows. We love the large clear monitors and haven't had any big issues to speak of with them. One of them doesn't want to recognize our windows install code - it's running but it keeps asking for the code! Additionally, we are purchasing about 50 of these same units to put in our two computer training labs as we remodel them this spring. I'll know more in a couple of months after we've been running them a while, but so far the staff here that will be using them are "fired up" (excited) about us making this change. I think only a couple of our 48 regional districts use MAC, but our new Instructional Media Technologist is excited about having the choice of platforms since apparently so much video/audio editing is more easily accomplished with some MAC tools. I don't know much about these computers... but I'll be having to learn ! (I have to admit I've been paying more attention to the MAC/PC commercials on television lately!)

and...

At this time we have about 2000 DELL machines and about 400 new iMacs and Macbooks (50%/50%). We have a very large Macintosh presence at our New Technology High School. We have purchased an XServe and integrated our Macs into Active Directory. This is a “marriage” that works well for the most part, of course, the two platforms will never be fully happy. The integration allows students and staff to use their AD Login accounts and their home drives map if permissions are set correctly. The integration also allows us to pull AD user login accounts and groups so that we can push policies in order to control the Mac desktop environment. We have a good push of both platforms at New Tech and the students use both operating systems congruently. Depending on the size of your District, it will definitely require you to have a full time Mac System/Network Specialist alongside a Windows Administrator…we figured that out very quickly. On a further note, we are also currently in the process of testing the dual platform Mac. We have successful implementations of Parallels, however, we are about to start working on our High School iMac lab running OS X Leopard due to overcrowding. We have a new iMac lab for Graphic Arts that will need to run Windows in order to teach a fifth section of BCIS (we need to teach MS Access) simply because we are out of space and our District is growing so rapidly. Trying to image the Windows side is not without its problems. We are still working and documenting as we go and will be happy to share what we discover. We would also love to hear from everyone else. Of course this will open up a huge Mac vs. PC debate. My biggest concern for running “dual platform” is that all users have gotten so comfortable with a Windows platform, that people will return to using the Windows side only and will eventually not use the Mac side. iMacs will be several hundred dollars more expensive, and for that price, I would rather continue to purchase PC based hardware (DELL, etc.) rather than buying a Mac just because it can run both platforms. If we buy a Mac, it will be because both sides will be used, and not just because “it can run Windows”.

and

You will also have the added cost of having to buy Windows Licenses for each copy of Windows you put on a Mac. This will increase costs. While I like the Mac dual boot option or actually triple boot because you can also install Linux, if cost is an issue I would limit my Mac purchases. I totally agree on the neat factor on the triple boot function. As an IT guy this will make me familiar with all OS and thus increase my knowledge base, since currently I am a windows/Linux guy and never ventured in the Mac world due to my previous positions did not necessitate the use of Macs. I am currently looking to getting a few Macs for my school, but the cost is what is prohibiting us right now. As far as intermingling them with a Windows AD, I have noticed some problems but nothing major that would warrant a no go on the adoption of Macs. They can communicate with the file share and our Exchange server, so if you can afford it I would go with the Macs, since it will give your students awareness and usage of another OS besides Windows. While Windows rules the roost (I am not going on a windows bashing, I like windows) I just feel that to properly educate our students we need to expose them to more than just one OS. Imaging Macs are a problem. I know that Symantec ghost has issues.

and

While at NONAME ISD we purchased a few MAC’s for the math department. We had a very hard time getting the dual operating system and network security configurations working right even though we were using Parallels. I don’t know that the AD components every really worked right.

and many more...although I chose to respond privately to the author of the email, I'll share my message to the list below:

My ISD's experience with Intel Macs has been eye-opening. Intel Macs are currently finding their way into our District in ever-increasing numbers. It's all about what you can do with a Mac--that is, you can run Mac apps like iLife/iWork, desktop video, and many more, Windows apps like MS Outlook. The juxtaposition of these on a Mac is powerful. My favorite application was running MovieMaker and have it work flawlessly with the Mac's built-in video camera. Our top administrators can run MS Outlook on Windows ("Unity" mode in VMWare Fusion) while still enjoying the Mac environment...this is great. Instructional Technology Services has a lab of 17 machines that it uses for District professional learning, every one of my team carries a Macbook. We're getting ready to deploy more Mac-based solutions at middle and high school, and already have some in place that tap into the power of the Mac.

I heartily recommend the new Intel Mac that can be all things to each of our special pops, regardless of need.

It's the last sentence that, for me, cries out to be heard. The Intel Mac is obviously a great machine. In reading Assorted Stuff's recent blog entries, one of them citing Clarence, I'm struck by the simple fact that I agree completely with Clarence's point of view. More on that apparent contradiction later. For instance, Clarence writes:

My classroom is beginning to look more like a mish mash each day rather then a coherent arrangement of technology....The point is just that the kids and I are both realizing more each day that the technology is just a channel, a pipe, a point of access to what is really important; the connection, the information, the people out there.
Clarence Fisher (Remote Access) as cited in Assorted Stuff

As I've argued before, when the emphasis on creativity and collaboration at a distance--in line with the new National Education Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S)--then the box is less important. However, I think that when the issue is about CONTROL, we face a much different story. . .control of THE BOX is ALL-IMPORTANT. Bringing Macs into schools is one way to fight back. "HA! You're dumb A.D. won't work on Macs!" Have no doubt, technology in schools is all about CONTROL when we consider that the main reason we're using Windows is because of Active Directory and SMS.

The Intel Mac is a great machine and if public schools have the money to provide them to students, then by all means, go ahead. However, the truth is that schools LACK the funding they need. Since they refuse to look at GNU/Linux based solutions--such as simply loading every machine, new or old, with a GNU/Linux distro--then they will continue to squabble about the best platform.

Arguing about the best platform is a distraction from what we should be arguing about--how to equip every child and educator in our schools with the technology they need to get the job done, and ensuring they have its use modelled in ways that address the NETS-Standards from ISTE. There are ample examples--such as the ones Steve Hargadon has uncovered in the interviews he's conducted--of districts that strategically purchase Macs/Windows machines to complement their installed base of GNU/Linux machines.

I am passionate about the technology I use...whether it's Intel Mac, Asus Eee (i wish), Dell laptop/desktop. If it couldn't get me access to incredible blogs, RSS, digital storytelling tools like VoiceThread.com, media tools like Animoto.com, and the zillions of other tools out there for those embracing the Read/Write Web, then it wouldn't matter how great the technology was...I'd be as isolated, alone as ever...and that just doesn't get it done anymore.

What is needed is Level 5 Technology Leadership about achieving a Level of Technology Implemenation (LOTI) 5 expectations...

As I was reflecting on the power of level 5 leaders, I realized that level 4 of the levels of technology implementation (LOTI 4) isn't good enough anymore. In LOTI 4, technology is routinely used as a tool to identify and solve real life problems. But the truth is that it is often used within the 4 walls of a classroom. What's really needed, especially in light of the refreshed ISTE NETS-S, is LOTI 5. This is where technology access is extended BEYOND the classroom. Now imagine that your district is still chugging along, pushing the same old productivity tools, offering adult learners workshops on how to use productivity tools, and Career and Technology Education (CATE) classes for students that focus on how-to. Are these classes valuable? No doubt. But are they what our teachers and students need for the long-run? No...they are not. So, I need to go back to my Superintendent and give him the news.

Level 5 leadership--with its emphasis on superb results, high standards, personal responsibility, public success--fits hand in hand with LOTI 5.

LOTI 5 encompasses the use of Read/Write Web tools especially when they are used to achieve communication and collaboration at a distance.

At heart, we're going to have to deal with our fear, our fight for control, and allow students to go out into the virtual world...but they can't go alone.

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: Education, Leadership, Mac, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

I wish that this conversation was about converting scope and sequence to include technology, but it's not. The fact is, the problem is focused on how to convert docx files to regular MS Word doc files. I'm sure we'll be dealing with this question in the future. So, how did I deal with this information problem? Let's see...

1. I have about 5 Scope-n-Sequence files that are in Word docx format that I need to convert to a format usable by the Math Dept teacher specialists.
2. Some of the resources I can use to find out how to do this include asking my online network of fellow educators, web search, ask my team, go search the MS web site.
3. I can find these resources online via Twitter, Google, in my office and on the Microsoft site.
4. Usable information from various sources includes the following list (below these steps)
5. I can create a blog entry that summarizes all the sources, as well as add links to my Del.icio.us.
6. I'll know I've completed this successfully if I have converted documents that the Math Specialists can use, and I can share with them how they can do this on their own, even if they do not have MS Word.

Twitter-offered Solutions
In response to this question, is there an easy way to convert docx to doc? I received the following in less than 5 minutes:

• techchick94 @mguhlin--have you tried zamzar.com?
• Tom Turner @mguhlin do you have office 07? and I'm not sure if zamzar has that capability yet
• Silvia langwitches @mguhlin Within Office 2007 you can "save as" .doc Have you tried if Google Docs will open it and then save as? [ACCORDING TO SHAON'S WEBLOG, DOCX ISN'T AVAILABLE YET]
• alexragone @mguhlin There is an Msft download for Office 2003 that allows 2003 to upen 2007 files. OpenOffice does not.
• dlaufenberg @mguhlin zamzar will convert docx to doc and in addition all 07(x) files to regular files.use it often with kids bringing in work from home

Googled Solutions
Keywords used included convert docx to doc

• http://www.docx2doc.com/ - docx2doc.com is the only online service in the world that converts your file in seconds and supports images, tables and advanced formatting.
• Microsoft Compatibility Pack - By using the Compatibility Pack for the 2007 Office system, you can open, edit some items, and save Office Word 2007 documents in previous versions of Word.
• Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac - this converts .docx to .rtf (rich text format) files which can be viewed in Office for Mac and other Mac word processors. (via Shaon's Weblog)
• Open XML Translator for OpenOffice - converts .docx Word documents to .odf and vice versa. (via Shaon's Weblog)

Unfortunately, my browser crashed. I could have easily redone the search using my keywords above, but I think I have enough solutions to try out. I'll let you know which works best!

UPDATE: I decided to take advantage of ZamZar.com, the approach suggested by Diana Laufenberg and TechChick94 (a.k.a. Helen). Below are the steps I followed (right click the images to make them easier to read)

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: Education, Mac, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning, TechTips

MediaCoder Audio Edition is an audio transcoding tool based on MediaCoder. It nicely integrates many audio codecs and tools into an all-in-one software. It decodes almost all popular formats of audio files as well as audio stream in video files and encodes them with all its supported (and even some not claimed supported) audio encoders. All the codecs are included in the standalone software. With CUE Sheet and DVD/VCD/CD support and many additional features, audio enthusiasts can convert all their favorite music freely to any format on-the-fly and in batch.
Read Source

After reading this write-up on MediaCoder Audio Edition (no cost for Windows users), an audio converter, I started reflecting on what I use for audio conversion.

While running XSlimmer on my Macbook applications, I realized that I had quite a few applications on my computer that I seldom used. One of them was a commercial audio converter for WMA files. Instead of that converter, I now use the no-cost, cross-platform Switch Sound Format Converter (not the PLUS version) available for Windows and/or Mac. As I review my list of applications, I thought I might review what applications I use for audio conversion, as well as share a new one I just became aware of.

This list is cross-platform, so don't be surprised to find Win, Mac and GNU/Linux apps mixed in.

1. Switch 1.13 Sound format converter (no-cost version). Converts WMA files to MP3 (OS: Mac, Win)
2. VLC Media Player using the wizard to convert from almost anything to audio. I use this when recording WOW2 interviews. (OS: Mac, Win, GNU/Linux)
3. Audion 3.1 Converts (as well as plays) WMA files. (OS: Mac)
4. Max. (OS: Mac)

On another note, I mentioned in an earlier post how great it was to get MP3 audio files from Magnatune.com and other sites using WGET. On a Mac, you can just use m3u2mp3 to get the job done...sigh.

Another neat audio player caught my attention as I was writing this entry. Although I now use Audion (preferred it to iTunes) to listen to audio files, I liked the quick-starting Cog (on a Mac). Unlike Audion, it can't convert to MP3 from audio CDs or other stuff, but it does have a nice interface. Not sure if I'll keep it for the long run, but for now...why not?

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: Mac, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning, TechTips

...is a question Kassblog's Richard had:

My parents bought our son David a SMaL-based digital camera from Oregon Scientific. I love the price point ($60) for a digital camera for our six-year old, giving him the ability to document experiences and tell stories about them without risking the loss of an expensive camera. One catch is the file format. Some time ago, I banished Microsoft Windows from the home, concluding that such an ill-behaved and resource-hogging operating system did not deserve a place in our home. Unfortunately, the default photo transfer method is a small .exe that runs straight off the camera. We needed a different solution that would work with either Ubuntu or Mac OS.

My response:

Howdy...

For GNU/Linux, Picasa handles RAW...it works on UbuntuLinux, albeit with WINE repositories. Why not give it a shot?

For Mac, GraphicConverter will do the job and do batch conversions. http://www.lemkesoft.com/content/143/import-and-export-formats.html

Another possibility is the cross-platform FOSS RawStudio available at: http://rawstudio.org/

From their web site...

Rawstudio is an open-source program to read and manipulate RAW images from most digital cameras. Rawstudio will convert your RAW files into JPEG, PNG or TIF images which you can then print or send to friends and clients.

Or, you could also use The GIMP with this plug-in - http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: Mac, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning, TechTips

Source: http://www.experientia.com/blog/uploads/2007/04/simplicity.jpg

Steve Hargadon (TechLearning.com Blog) shares his insights in OSS adoption in schools.

My understanding why schools find it so hard to change actually comes out of watching the successful adoption of certain OSS programs. . .the adoption of Moodle by schools actually demonstrates a pattern for Open Source adoption in education (and likely everywhere else) that had not been clearly articulated before: by and large, OSS programs are adopted by schools when they are "non-displacing," that is, when the OSS program is not displacing or replacing another program...This lesson is significant, and it's not exclusive to schools by any means. When a software program has been installed and in use, and when training programs have been held, templates built, lesson plans made, and routines established, it would take a HUGE increase in benefit to switch from one program to another. As long as OSS programs merely duplicate existing programs, no matter how much money might be saved, or how much "freedom" and collaboration encouraged, it really doesn't make sense from an administrative standpoint to switch programs.

Do you agree with this perspective? What in your experience challenges it?

In the meantime, here's my comment:

Steve,fascinating perspective. So, if you could boil it down to 3 points, what would those be? My read is as follows:

1) Suggest FOSS where it is NOT in direct competition to an established technology. One example is Moodle, but others include Read/Write Web tools like blogging, podcasting, digital storytelling.

2) Facilitate discussion about the impact these FOSS tools are having on pedagogy.

3) Avoid focusing on teachers and get leadership to reflect on the impact these FOSS tools are having.

Am I hearing you right?

Posted by Miguel Guhlin at | +Del.icio.us |
Categories: Leadership, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

Image Source: http://www.cobbsheriff.org/Detention/_images/oldJail_Run.jpg

It is undisputed that Defendant possessed unauthorized copies of Plaintiffs' copyrighted sound recordings on his computer ... Virtually all of the sound recordings on Exhibit B are in the ".mp3" format. ... Defendant admitted that he converted these sound recordings from their original format to the .mp3 format for his and his wife's use.
Source: Gizmodo

The first thing I did when I bought my CD of Panamanian music--while visiting Panama this summer--was to rip the music to my computer. I wanted to take no chances that I would lose copies of music I hadn't heard since I was a boy, 20-30 years before. The music transports me back to a time when I was a child, when my mom and dad and I lived in Panama, to a simpler time. I did dread losing the CD, or having it scratched up...in fact, I would hate to lose the CD (which has happened with other's). My MP3 music collection has actually outlived

Yet, that act of digitizing the sound on the CD is considered illegal by some.

The RIAA...has lodged documents which condemns mp3s stored on computers from legally bought CDs as unauthorized copies of copyrighted recordings. . .The RIAA’s new stance that even personal use copies on PCs and mp3 players are still illegal makes . . .every single person in the world who has ripped a song from a disc, ie. 90% of the population [a criminal].
Source: TechBlorge

In the Washington Post article cited, the following appears:

The industry's own Web site says that making a personal copy of a CD that you bought legitimately may not be a legal right, but it "won't usually raise concerns," as long as you don't give away the music or lend it to anyone.

UPDATE 01/01/2008: This Washington Post article has been challenged. I quote the comment below:

I can't stand the RIAA, but what they said in court documents is that it's a violation of copyright law to rip a legally purchased CD and place the music in a P2P file sharing folder. By doing so, the RIAA implies, they're making that music available for illegal access. This is a big difference from you ripping your CDs to your computer so you can play on your MP3 player or iPod...My biggest concern when I see people misinterpreting events such as this, is that this could end up generate an accidental court decision that could be interpreted as ripping MP3s for personal use from legally purchased CDs is illegal. Right now, the copyright issue is related to 'publication' of the ripped music, not the actual conversion of the music. The person putting the music into the shared folder is 'publishing' the music, whether the music is actually distributed or not.
Source: Comment on Matthew Ingram post by Shelley

Consider Jennifer Pariser's, the head of litigation for Sony BMG, point of view, who shares:

In Pariser's view, "when people steal, when they take music without compensation, we are harmed." Pariser has a very broad definition of "stealing." When questioned by Richard Gabriel, lead counsel for the record labels, Pariser suggested that what millions of music fans do is actually theft. The dirty deed? Ripping your own CDs or downloading songs you already own.
Source: Ars Technica

Source: http://www.techcrunch.com/wp-content/riaa.jpg

It seems possible to make a copy of a music CD that you bought so long as you don't give away the music or lend it to anyone. Yet, when you consider that the concept of creativity building on the sharing of others is limited...why do we continue to listen to this music? Why do we continue to buy CDs? Wouldn't it be better to turn to other sources of music?

Other sources of music could include:

• Magnatune.com
• Jamendo -
• SpiralFrog
• Amie Street

SO, HOW TO DOWNLOAD MUSIC?

As much as I find Magnatune.com great to listen to on the Web, I don't have all that much time to sit in front of the computer and just listen. I'd rather download the music as an audio file and listen to it on my MP3 player. One easy way to do that--regardless of your platform--is shared below.

To download music, say from Magnatune.com, you can follow these instructions. Although the instructions there will work for Mac and Windows, you can use WGET to download a whole album using the m3u file available online. The process involves using a program called "WGET." WGET is described in this way:

Wget is a free network utility to retrieve files from the World Wide Web using HTTP and FTP, the two most widely used Internet protocols. It works non-interactively, thus enabling work in the background, after having logged off.

Wget works on GNU/Linux, Windows, and Mac--all shown below.

WGET ON GNU/LINUX
Instructions for Linux (I was running this on PCLinuxOS 2007 for Gnome) appear below:

On Linux, right-click and save the m3u file to a directory. Then, drop to the command line, change to the directory (for example, cd /home/mg/Desktop/m3u) and type in wget -i filename.m3u

This will automatically download every MP3 file in the m3u text file to the directory you're in.

It will essentially look like this:

WGET ON WINDOWS
If you're on Windows, you now have the option of getting a copy of WGET for Windows. Installation is pretty straightforward...simply download the installer, double-click on the installer, and take it from there...

After installing on Windows, just drop to the command line (click START, choose RUN, then type "cmd").

Then, at the command line:

cd C:\Program Files\GnuWin32\bin

Assuming you've created a directory where you want the mp3 files to download (c:\transfado for example), and that you've saved the m3u file from the web site there (e.g. transfado.m3u), then you would type this:

wget -i c:\transfdo\transfado.m3u

This would download the MP3 files to your computer. Right click the image below to view it full-size.

After that, you have a folder entitled "transfado" with all the MP3 songs you "got".

WGET ON MACINTOSH
I was on to a promising start (thanks to Quentin Stafford-Fraser's Blog) on installing WGET for Macintosh, but then found I couldn't copy the files to the appropriate location. I realized I would have to run TERMINAL (it's in your Applications:Utilities folder) then type in the following:

mg-2:~/Desktop/wget mg$ sudo cp wget /usr/local/bin

Password: [my system admin password]

mg-2:~/Desktop/wget mg$ sudo cp wget.1 /usr/local/man/man1

mg-2:~/Desktop/wget mg$ sudo cp wgetrc /usr/local/etc

Everything worked just like on the Windows and GNU/Linux side...it looked like this:

MUSIC SOURCES
For the purposes of GNU/Linux and Windows, I used Anamar's work (pictured below). The Play All Tracks m3u file came from this page. This is my first intro to this music, so I'm going to listen to it and decide if I really want to invest in it. In the meantime, the music is hauntingly beautiful and fascinating, even if I don't understand Portuguese.

For the Mac Wget, I used the Magnatune Compilation for Relaxation/Spa music. I'll probably be deleting these once I listen to them since they didn't quite grab me, but in the meantime, it was fun learning how to use WGET on Mac and Windows (which I hadn't played around with until now).

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Categories: GNU/Linux, Mac, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning, TechTips

The New York Times is reporting on how the NYSE group now feels that Linux is 'mature enough' for the New York Stock Exchange. They are using commodity x86 based Hewlett-Packard hardware and Linux in place of their traditional UNIX machines.
Source: Slashdot

While this announcement is intresting in itself, I found the comments on this Slashdot article to be even more so. In K-12 education, I often hear that Linux just isn't ready...but everyone--except the leadership--knows the truth. The truth is that it's not ready to be supported by the staff you have on hand. So, rather than require people to learn a new operating system and make the switch, you're stuck with an expensive, proprietary system.

The comments made are pretty interesting, especially if they are true. Consider the following:

• When I went to Iraq, I had a laptop running ubuntu. I setup apache2, php5, and mysql5. We created our own "series of tubes" in our barracks area and I supplied our own intranet website...Oh, and America's Army server. This thing ran for several months at a time without a reboot. The only reboots were due to other problems, like when a stray 7.62mm bullet knocked out our generator one time, but as for linux running...this thing ran like a champ. In 11 months of service, it never had a problem. Of course, it wasn't under the same kind of load. But my NIC was usually maxed out for 40% of the day.
• I work for NASA (who coined the term "mission critical") and we think it's ready. The IBM A31p laptops onboard the Space Station were recently switched to Redhat. These are the laptops that command to the core computer system and control the vehicle, not just some random payload. Mission Control in Houston is in the process of switching to RHEL based systems, and should be complete sometime next year.

Fascinating stuff. v

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Categories: MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

Flight simulators...you either love 'em or hate 'em, and well, I've always hated them. They are boring, I end up crashing all the time, and, well, there's no guns on 'em. What's the point?

However, I just KNOW some folks are thrilled (or will be when they find out) about a FOSS flight simulator like this one that works on GNU/Linux, Mac and Windows.

After more than 11 years of development, Flightgear 1.0 has arrived. Flightgear can be played on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, as well as other *nix platforms including FreeBSD, Solaris, and IRIX. Distributed under the GPL, Flightgear is one of the first major Free Software games and has become a flight simulator that rivals it's commercial counterparts. It is a stellar example of enthusiasts coming together to create something for the community.

Download it now.

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Categories: GNU/Linux, Mac, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

Toast8 is a powerful CD/DVD burning tool. Here's an excerpt from an emailed advertisement received today:

Roxio Toast® 8 sets the standard for burning CDs, DVDs, and now, Blu-ray discs on the Mac. Create superior sounding audio CDs with crossfades. Enjoy your TV shows anywhere with exclusive EyeTV burning and TiVoToGo™ transfers to DVD or iPod®. Copy your audio CDs, movies and DVDs.

Yet how many of us really have a need for all these features? Let's take a quick look at less expensive alternatives to some of Toast8's features. If you want to put down $70 for the program, then, please, go ahead. You might want to read this MacInTouch review of Toast8 for a detailed explanation of the features.

I'm a bit of a cheapskate when it comes to software, so I'm ALWAYS going to look for the no-cost, least expensive option to get the job done. This usually means finding single-purpose tools to get the job done.

Toast8 Feature: Burn CDs/DVDs on your Mac.
If we're talking about burning CDs/DVDs on your Mac, you can do that in a variety of ways. My favorite CD burning application is LiquidCD. It allows you to do quite a bit at no cost, except make copies of CDs or DVDs.

...LiquidCD...can read most popular formats such as .iso, .dmg and even .toast, cue/bin and .cdi (DiscJuggler). Some .nrg (Nero) files can be opened as well. Feel like duplicating a CD ? burning a VIDEO_TS folder on a video DVD ? In few seconds, and two maybe three steps, you are ready to start the burn. Is there any other free software with so many features ?

To accomplish that, you may have to spend a little money on a CD duplicator program known as Disco ($30). It's lightweight but covers some of the things LiquidCD can't handle (although that's gotten more difficult with recent releases of LiquidCD).

Toast8 Feature: Copy your audio CDs, movies and DVDs.
If you want to make a copy of a DVD movie, use Handbrake to rip the contents of the DVD, then burn it onto a data CD using LiquidCD, or if you want a copy, use iDVD on your Mac to make a DVD out of the MP4 that results from the HandBrake process.

If you're working with audio, I would suggest ripping the audio tracks of a music CD using Audion. Audion, once a commercial competitor of iTunes, was released as a full-featured program at NO COST. The serial number is provided. That means you can get a fully operational program at no cost with a serial #--which is published on their web site--and then rip audio, use it to play your MP3/OGG files.

I like Audion because, like LiquidCD, it is full-featured program that is easy to use, and close my single-purpose tool requirement...I say close because it does a few other things. Of course, you could use iTunes, but again, I don't want to go through so many clicks to get the job done. Simple, single-purpose tools to get it done work best for me.

Some folks have suggested Songbird, but it's development appears to be lagging and you are installing a more comprehensive program than Audion with many more features you may not want. A brief description of Songbird:

Songbird is a desktop media player mashed-up with the Web. Songbird is committed to playing the music you want, from the sites you want, on the devices you want, challenging the conventions of discovery, purchase, consumption and organization of music on the Internet.

As to how to copy bluray or HD DVDs, no suggestions there. I don't mess with that.

Another approach is to consider using K3b on your GNU/Linux VMWare/Parallels and using that...some relevant articles:

• How to Write a DVD with K3b
• Burning Audio CD from MP3 with K3b (UbuntuLinux)
• Burning ISOs using K3b
• PCLinuxOS - Using K3b Tutorial

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Categories: GNU/Linux, Mac, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning, TechTips

As other countries embrace free, open source software (like Austrian schools learning how to use OpenOffice), especially GNU/Linux distributions on the desktop as alternatives to Windows/Mac, the burning question is, how long before the USA catches on? That said, consider how 10th and 11th grade Vietnamese and foreign students are learning...

It is hard to believe that my 10th and 11th Grade Vietnamese and foreign students at the American International School in Saigon have been using Linux for about one month now. I am very impressed at how fast they were able to use Linux in a short period of time...I decided to test PCLinuxOS with my students. Wow, amazing. Finally a Linux distro that the majority of my students actually liked using. It ran faster than any of the other Linux distros they tried and easily connected to the internet from inside the school (they like to read Yahoo 360 blogs in class). They figured out how to use Konquerer to browse around the different directories in their laptops without me even telling them. As with Macbooks, the Desktop GUI was easy to learn. Thus, I decided to use PCLinuxOS. Source: Kevin Miller, Jr.'s SaigonNezumi, Students Using PCLinuxOS in Vietnam

With all the hoopla about charter schools being the way to go in America, maybe we shouldn't be looking to "charter" schools as THE way to reform education. Maybe, we need to remake schools in the image of the "unbound" American International schools.

While you're dismissing that idea, consider this one:

Now I think I know what the deal is with Ulteo. It's going to be a completely online OS that can be run over a fast internet connection on a remote computer. They don't have the entire system in place, but right now, you can sign up for a free account, and (supposedly) test it. It won't seem to let me try it out, but apparently, they managed to get OpenOffice working. Ulteo will run via a Java virtual machine on your system, communicating with the main system over the Internet. This means that your settings and files will be available anywhere, and can easily be shared. Think Google Docs, but with an entire OS.

Maybe another question to ask is, how fast can we honestly expect schools to change so that they can simply take advantage of this? And, as they drop all the extra software license agreements they've been carrying around, where will that money go and how will it be spent? How can educators get it focused on where it's needed most?

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Categories: Education, MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning

Looking for free open source fonts? Ruth Suehle writes a short entry here, spending more time about the Free Font Manifesto, but does have a link to another article with 40 free fonts.

Personally, my favorite source for fonts is one I shared two Thanksgivings ago--Search Free Fonts.

There are also a lot of Christmas fonts...check 'em out.

There's a bit of whining about installing fonts on Ubuntu, and it's justified. That's why I wrote this blog entry in the first place, but Ubuntu isn't arguably the easiest Linux distro to install fonts on.

Here's what the install of the font looks like on a Mac...

...and what it looks like on PCLinuxOS 2007. What' obvious is how little difference there is in the process!

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Categories: MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning, TechTips

Image Source: Miguel running PCLinux OS with Gnome

Nancy (Random Thoughts) continues sharing her experience with PCLinuxOS. In one of her entries, she writes about PCLinuxOS users:

And I can see why they love it. The only problem I am having is making the switch to KDE. I know some people like it better than Gnome, but I am still trying to find my way around it.

Today, I installed PCLinuxOS with Gnome. Apparently, the choice of GUI is still available to you. Give it a shot, regardless of whether you like KDE, Gnome, and/or XFCE!

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Categories: MGuhlin.net, OpenLearning