CogBlogged from ‘April, 2005’

Here is a recent milestone- my first email of warning of copyright infringement. Apparently, my 2003 parody of Ripley’s saying Xxxxxxx Xx or Xxx! (I am bound not to actually use it apparently) in a presentation titled Learning Objects Xxxxxxx Xx or Xxx! was stepping on the toes of the Riplet folks: Maricopa Center for Learning & Instruction RE: Learning Objectives Xxxxxxx Xx or Xxx! Website page http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/mlx/show/believe_it.html Dear Mr. Levine: On behalf of Ripley Entertainment Inc, I am writing to notify you of a trademark infringement discovered on your website.  The title of your Learning Objectives website page, “Xxxxxxx Xx or Xxx!” constitutes unauthorised use of our trademark and we, therefore, must insist that you remove it from your site immediately. Our company is the owner of the world-famous trademarks, “Xxxxxxx Xx or Xxx!”, and “Ripley’s Xxxxxxx Xx or Xxx!”.  These trademarks are registered in the U.S. and Canadian [...]

Tonight I attended a OneBookAZ Authors night, and event sponsored/arranged by our office. OneBookAZ is a project in its (?) third year, where every April, one book is selected as a common one read by groups across the state and events are arranged for discussion etc. This year there were actually two books: one a non-fictional account and the other a fictionalized account of the “Honeymoon Couple” Glen and Bessie Hyde who attempted to raft the Colorado River in 1928 in a hand build wooden “scow”. Brad Dimcock’s Sunk Without a Sound, The Tragic Colorado River Honeymoon of Glen and Bessie Hyde is thoroglhy researched, photographed, and tells not only the story as the facts and accounts reveal, but also the author’s own experience in recreating the attempt in 1996. As a contrast, Lisa Michael’s Grand Ambition is a novel version of what she envision happened to the couple during [...]

This week we are fortunate to have as a Scott Leslie as a “virtual guest: for our Ocotillo Learning Objects Groups discussions: http://zircon.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/ocotillo/bb/viewforum.php?f=20 Our internal participation is so far…. well…. light… so we are hoping some other voices in the mix might make things move along. Our discussion boards ar eopen for anyone to read, and to post you simply need to request an account. Jump in! Scott’s feeling lonely inside the boards.

Last Friday we had an eager audience for Brian Lamb’s visit for our Dialogue Day on Learning Objects, Wikis, And Other Curious Things. I’d say this blog summary is delayed as some people really despise things posted on April 1, but I have some other excuses. First of all, you can find Brian’s presentation materials on our Ocotillo Learning Objects wiki, which is a Wiki-RO (Ready Only)– meaning that the wiki requires an pass key for editing (thanks to spammers). On the day of Brian’s visit, we temporarily opened it up wide. What worked well was starting off right away with a discussion and hands on wiki activity, where Brian posed a few questions related to “You may already be a learning objects user…”. He asked participants to compose their responses in their own on the spot created wiki page using the barest of simple instructions. It actually took very [...]