DV for Teachers

John Udell thinks through User-generated content vs. reader-created context:

Everything about this buzzphrase annoys me. First, calling people “users” is pernicious. It distances and dehumanizes, and should be stricken from the IT vocabulary (see Those clueless users) as well as from the publishing vocabulary. IT has customers and clients, not users. IT-oriented publishers have readers, not users.

Second, “content” is a word that reminds me more of sausage than of storytelling (see Sausage, traffic, and clueless users). As writers and editors we don’t “generate” “content,” we tell stories that inform, educate, and entertain—or should.

He is exactly right. Though he’s writing for a tech industry audience, the ideas apply to education and indeed to anyone who reads or writes on the web. The term “user” is almost as bad as the word “consumer,” a corruption of the idea of a “customer.” You are no more a consumer or user of this site – which is text and pictures, thank you, not just “content” – than you are a consumer of books or newspapers or radio or television. You’re a reader, or a listener, or a viewer; you have a mind, and with the web, you can respond to what you read or listen to or view with more than a letter, or an email; you can publish a response or critique. That’s the small-d democratic innovation of the web. If your response – or indeed anything you publish here – is thoughtful enough and well enough presented, you can and will find an audience… who can respond the same way.

There are still far too many in the world who think about such exchanges of ideas incorrectly, and in one dimension: as content to be consumed. They’re wrong, and the more we publish on the web, the more likely they are to either change their minds or lose their influence.

This post is more than comments and links that I hope you find useful; this post is a marker for me. I had to put something up here, not just in my journal or calendar, about what I’ve learned and seen at this conference and the impact this experience has had on me. The sessions, workshops, and conversations here have inspired me to a new sense of purpose personally and professionally: to find more ways to teach and talk about the power of media and storytelling to hook students into learning, making the process something they can own, can see the point in. The list after the jump is a catalog of the most significant things of the last few days. (more…)

Daring Fireball points to news of a “trojan” for Mac OS X. Key exceprts from the Ambrosia Software Web Board -> New MacOS X trojan/virus alert where the news was posted, by Andrew Welch, president of Mac software developer Ambrosia Software:

• You cannot simply “catch” the virus. Even if someone does send you the “latestpics.tgz” file, you cannot be infected unless you unarchive the file, and then open it
• This should probably be classified as a Trojan, not a virus, because it doesn’t self-propagate externally (though it could arguably be called a very non-virulent virus)
• It does not exploit any security holes; rather it uses “social engineering” to get the user to launch it on their system

  Please go and read it; some of it is technical, but it’s worth trying to understand. The fault here is less the Mac operating system than naivete or misplaced trust. Don’t open it if you don’t know what it is and what’s in it. Andrew Welch summed up the discussion thread (as it stands at this point) this way:

  Regardless of anything, explicit user actions are needed for anyone to become infected by OSX/Oomp-A—if you don’t download, decompress, and then double click on the file, you can’t become infected by it. It tries to fool the user into doing this, because it is at its core a rather simplistically written program.

This is Jason Kottke’s entire post:

The Pixar model of making creative products: “We’ve made the leap from an idea-centered business to a people-centered business. Instead of developing ideas, we develop people. Instead of investing in ideas, we invest in people. We’re trying to create a culture of learning, filled with lifelong learners. It’s no trick for talented people to be interesting, but it’s a gift to be interested. We want an organization filled with interested people.” Pixar University sounds amazing.

I haven’t read the article yet, but just this excerpt, and Jason’s comment, illustrate an educational philosophy that is the exception when it should be the standard. “It’s a gift to be interested.” That describes every child in the world, yet this gift is so often just trashed. How many kids are still interested in middle school, high school? If you’re a teacher, your students want to give this gift to you. Treat it as the valuable gem it is.

I found the font I’m using at the top of the site here. I like it. It was free, too.

eSchool News online – Top 10 ed-tech stories of 2005, Part 1
bq. In this special retrospective, the editors of eSchool News list what they consider to be the 10 most significant educational technology stories of 2005.

Take a look at some of the trends affecting technology in education, and keep an eye on what’s going on in your own state, district, and school. Be ready.

What was I thinking? I posted on a DVD tutorial without wishing you all a happy new year in my first post of 2006. These aren’t resolutions, really, but changes I want to make in my life:

• fear less, act more
• give til it hurts
• smile whether I want to or not
• take fewer but better photos and post more of them
• blog here or there all the time, even when I’m not online
• draw
• cook

• listen

  Make this a year that makes you a better person and the world a better place.

I just realized that my time stamp for my posts is off – Userland’s Manila server doesn’t automatically change to reflect Daylight Savings Time. I don’t want to bite the hand that feeds me – yep, it’s my blog, it’s my responsibility, they’re hosting it for free, I owe them – for this blog. We’ve bought licenses for Manila at our center, I’m also a paying customer, so I think I can criticize.

This little glitch is unfortunately indicative of the limitations of Manila and of Userland’s support, and especially its documentation. Look at this not unusual post on the support list. Manila is a very powerful tool, but other tools, I suspect, offer similar functionality with much less administrative complexity and with better guidance.——-

Tom Friedman on why technology matters – it’s short and to the point. Please read it.

”...the last straw was when I couldn’t get cellphone service while visiting I.B.M.’s headquarters in Armonk, N.Y.

But don’t worry – Congress is on the case. It dropped everything last week to pass a bill to protect gun makers from shooting victims’ lawsuits. The fact that the U.S. has fallen to 16th in the world in broadband connectivity aroused no interest. Look, I don’t even like cellphones, but this is not about gadgets. The world is moving to an Internet-based platform for commerce, education, innovation and entertainment. Wealth and productivity will go to those countries or companies that get more of their innovators, educators, students, workers and suppliers connected to this platform via computers, phones and P.D.A.’s.”

Via Doc Searls.——-

Dave Winer at Scripting News: