CogBlogged from ‘April, 2006’

flickr foto Worlds Collideavailable on my flickr What is Windows XP doing on my Apple laptop? Shazam, that was easy. I Boot Camp-ed Windows XP onto my Apple MacBookPro.

Today was the rockin’ launch of the NMC Campus opened virtually in Second Life. After much morning prep, we ran two different 2 hour sessions, at 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM PST. I am working on a new NMC site that should server as the primary news outlet (read as blog published, podcast enhanced, tagged, and flickr syndication encrustated). The agenda was posted at the main “teleport” entry:

Yes, I was in my home office, but yesterday NMC had a meeting together in Second Life: We all our wearing our “official” shirts, but it may take some guesswork to identify the players. Most communication in SL is via a text chat, where anyone in proximity can see what you have to “say”. Chat comes with its own mode of communication, abbreviations, typos, but most noticeable, the overhead of focusing on the keyboard. On the “NMC Island” we are also using TeamSpeak, a server based audio application that allows us to create “channels” where we can communicate via audio in an external application, and the channels are associate with different “places”. We have also used some Skype conferencing and it makes a huge difference to be able to have audio communication “why do I keep flying into the ceiling?”, “Which way is the meeting room?”, “Why is your skin [...]

I am seeking some more voices to use as demos for my podcast presentation next week (it will be shared, but of course first it must be created). The focus is “Podcasting on the Cheap” how to do this with free/cheap readily available tools. If anyone has time, like less than 3 minutes, can you say “hello” and perhaps share some ideas for interesting uses of podcast technology beyond “recorded lectures”? Or tell me the methods you are using to do “podcasting on the cheap” Just send me an Odeo: I wish I could offer more than thanks (and Cole and Gardner, you are off the hook since you’ve previously responded). Audio will be shared/casted from http://www.odeo.com/channel/69807/view Thanks. Thanks.

The blogging has been and will be sporadic, as I am learning to crawl, then walk in my new role with the NMC. Yes, I am a newbie. It’s like thinking you are proficient on the lake, and you realize when you show up for the group trip, that your expertise with the pedal boats does not match this group of bonded river class-5 kayakers. I’ve been remiss on following the piling up things in the reader, and only marginally got to listen in on the sessions at the TCC 2006 conference where it was very cool to see as keynoters Tim Lauer and Will Richardson– most important as K-12 educators helping the mostly higher education audience better appreciate their future students. At the same time, NMC has a launch tomorrow of their Second Life space, next week is the online conference on Personal Broadcasting, and I need to go [...]

I have some feverish work to do this week on an upcoming presentation on, of all things, podcasting. (A previous post titled Sick of Podcasting was titled as a joke- I am not “sick” or “tired” of the concept, it was my own inertia of having done the same presentation twice in a week, and actually it was fun- new disclaimer coming on my titles, “not to be read at face value”). My focus on this session is “Podcasting On the Cheap”- the free/low/no coast ways of at least getting your feet wet. I’ve got my ideas lined up, but could use some help from anyone out there on sharing the sites available for posting the media files one can lump in a podcast feed. This is one of the missing or less clear links- where to hang the media files. I’ve always had my own servers available for stashing [...]

I’ve been using my iPod shuffle for exercising and playing through my car stereo (Transpod FM transmitter) for almost a year now. I’ve only listened to radio under duress or forgetfulness. But the last few weeks, I’ve left the pod home and re-inserted some CDs. This is only because I am trying to sell the 1999 VW Bug (low miles! great body shape! Flower Vase!), and I wanted to be sure the stereo on multidisc changer worked well. The surreal moment was driving to work (last week when I had to drive to work at my “old” job), and I was saying, “Wow, this random shuffle is sure bringing me a whole lot of Stevie Ray Vaughan songs in a row” when I realized the reason for this was it was on a CD, that old technology that played the songs in the same order. Now where did I leave [...]

You can never have too much online community building (activity), but do you wonder about how many online community places there will be? Liking going from a nice scattering of small rural communities to big bustling cities, are we headed down the road to sprawling Megalopoli. I am criticizing none of these efforts, nor their idea/concept. As I begin my new duties with the NMC, I am going to be involved with creating/promoting, invigorating online communities. Will I add more to the map? There is Academic Commons. And Education Commons. Places with history like Tapped In. From “down under” is TALO. And (no snarky comments today), Apple’s Education Exchange. Billions and billions of ‘em. There are regional ones (by state, by school, by department). Some have put up the plywood over the windows, like Washington’s Learning Space. And the places like PLATO? (Side note: as an undergraduate student in the [...]

With all the talk about the Net generation being so vastly, genetically different from… well everyone else, I try to avoid falling too much into the quick generalities. It’s too easy to apply labels when, as people, we are all on some sort of continuum. Like others, I have a live in subject to study. I enjoy exceptions to rules. Yesterday, I walked past 22 year old step-son’s room, where, in contrast to the usual… um.. harsh metal, I was surprised to hear the sounds of something in my iTunes rack, Highway 61 Revisited. I asked Travis, “Are you listening to Dylan?” He smiled and said, “Everyone ought to listen to Dylan.” This generation is not always as foreign as some might think.

We acknowledge Steve Jobs is the master of presentations of Insanely Great Ideas. There are tons of blogs and sites extolling his mastery of simple, non bullet-point-riddled presentations and compelling stories. Can we all be more Steve-like in our communications? As described in Steve’s Stories… (at Creating Passionate Users, great blog): He tells a story in a way that’s easy to understand, yet compelling. The stories get you from Point A to Point B smoothly and simply. At each step along the way, he keeps focus on where this whole thing is going. He keeps his passion in the story and stays focused on the target. Sounds simple. Nope. It’s really hard. So it is not just wearing black, using Keynote, or just presenting with pictures only. But there are things to learn from the Zenmaster Jobs, and while we need not imitate him, like one of those mathematical curves, [...]