CogBlogged from ‘October, 2006’

After much, much too long, I am able to focus back on our Drupal work for the NMC web site. Things are looking promising for version 5, so today I tried my hand for the first time at an upgrade, using the just released beta 1 version of Drupal 5. Beyond the usual steps of backing up directory files and databases, the process outlined is easy– I needed to log in as admin to the two Drupal 4.7 sites I have; then empty the drupal code directories, upload the new code, and then add back in my site settings. Then I had to run the update script for each. The first one went smooth, as it should, since all I had was a stock template waiting for the new code. But when I went to update the second one, all kinds of MySQL errors were vomited out to my screen. [...]

I just saw a link somewhere that Firefox 2.0 was out in the open. Apparently the version 1.5.x I was running does not recognize this as an “update”, so I grabbed a fresh one. Hmmm, a few of my extensions are not there in this version. The interface changes seem to have added what the old TabMix plugin added. Okay. But then weirdness. No YouTube videos (maybe not a loss according to most pundits who proclaim, without evidence, that “99% of it is crap”), and other sites were coming up blank. Ahhh, it was not displaying Flash content, even after a fresh plugin install. What to do? Why waste time sifting through forums, FAQs, etc when the path to most answers are but a focused Google search away. Bingo! Got lucky, first hit has the answer in the Firefox 2.0 release notes. Some users have reported problems viewing Macromedia Flash [...]

At the end of the K12 Online Conferennce fireside chat last week, I was asked for a closing remark for one “recommendation” to educators facing the firehose of new technologies. Not prepared for this ahead of time, the first thing my mind fled to were two flickr images I used in a presentation a while back… as it seems I might use this as a reference, I am repurposing them here. So my “message” was to face the future with a sense of wide-eyed wonder rather then dread…. Facing the Future Linktribute: Flickr image by Eisenvater … with a sense of dread? Or, Facing the Future Linktribute: Flickr image by John Pawley … with a sense of wonder? Okay, it is simple, naive, cheery, and a bumper-sticker like philosophy statement– but honestly, it has been the way I have approached technology my entire career.

Firstly, I plead guilty. Last Tuesday and Wednesday as our NMC Online Conference n Impact of Digital Media, where we had great participation (200 registrations, highs of 112 in one live session), yet in some sampling there was hardly a ripple of coverage in the blogopshere, checking today at Technorati and Google blog search, mostly mentions of the conference announcements, but little if any, filtering, commentary on the sessions. Too bad. But then again, I’ve not posted any reviews, and in general, find myself less inspired to try and pound out notes and summaries from conference sessions. Too bad. My excuse is that in needing to facilitate sessions over two days just leaves us drained -it is non stop from an hour before the first session right passed the last one. We had excellent keynotes from Howard Rheingold and danah boyd. Lots of great interaction during the live sessions. Scratching [...]

On the heels of 2 weeks of intense NMC online conference/second life events, I’ve been relaxing for a 4 day weekend in the Arizona high country. That’s why some of the blogging is backblogging. The other thing that I did last week has have my “keynote” presentation for the K12 Online Conference. Perhaps not quite an “unconference”, I applaud the efforts of all planners, presenters, and participants for what might be considered an “alt-conference” in terms of the format. The conference place was a WordPress blog, with presentation rooms in various forms of streaming video, audio, screencasts, and what seems most interesting, more than a few wiki sites. Just thinking about it how many of the teachers involved reached for a wikispaces site to post some content is of note. When Darren asked me a few months ago to do a session, I tossed my disclaimer that I am a [...]

I am about zero for life ([1], [2]) starting an internet meme, but some folks had a nice reaction today to a word I made up ;-) It happened today, during a session on Remix Culture: Building a Digital Divide Between Students and Teachers at the NMC Online Conference. The backchannel chat was bubbling out of control, like it should. There was discussion on copyright & IP on content that gets mixed… which typically starts from Copyright 1.0 — meaning restrictions, what you cannot do, etc. My mind wandered to the flip side, the part of Creative Commons that greases the skids- the notion that the simple act of receiving attribution is sufficient to put one’s creative works out there. I still get a self-infating high when someone links to a photo, a blog post I have made. It fuels me to do more. I recently got a message from [...]

It was pretty much another curious link click of serendipity last May that led me to Stewart Mader’s Wiki/Blog Using Wiki in Education. I gotta like a domain he chose that is “wiki” spelled backwards http://www.ikiw.org/. Today Stewart is unveiling his new book/web site project Using Wiki in Education, headlined there as “A Wiki-Based Book”. I got a sneak peek a few days ago, and am rather excited to see this work go out. It includes 10 in depth case studies of educators who are using wikis in the classroom: It contains 10 case studies written by teachers that describe how they’re using the wiki to transform courses and engage today’s students in a range of environments including high school, small college, major research university, online/distance learning and research lab. This is the first book to focus specifically on the wiki in education and be developed and published using a [...]

The extent of flickr-ness keeps receding like the edge of the universe. Today, I stumbled upon flickr Scout which allows you to find which of your photos have made it to the spotlight of the flickr Explore! page– on a daily basis, flickr pops here the 500 photos uploaded in one day with the highest level of “interestingness”. The Scout not only finds your photos in this pig pile, but tracks their current level. So of course, it’s all about feeding the ego! I did not think my scouting results would come up with 5, and of these 4 are not ones myself would say are all that interesting (and the one I do like is not the conference bag ;-) 1. Bug On The Road XP 2. Obligatory WIki Photo 3. The Home for the Conference Bag 4. Woohoo! A Ribbon! 5. Daisies And even cooler! The flickr scout [...]

After 12 straight days of organizing and documenting Second Life activities for the NMC Impact of Digital Media Symposium, I am ready for an upgrade. One things that worked well in this event was

In some sense to parody myself (why not be the first in line?), I am writing here about a “presentation” in its most convoluted, extruded definition I recently unleashed for the K12 Online Conference… this being a request a few months ago from Darren to do a segment on “Basic/Advanced Training”. I started out on the LazyWeb trail by asking for some ideas of “cool tricks” with web tools and opening a wikispace for folks to respond. And respond they did, thanks. I was actually looking for more than saying “Flickr!” “Google Docs!”, as I was looking for more specific examples of lesser known things to do with tools that people may be aware of, but perhaps had not gone very deep with them. But hey, if you get feedback, that is a plus, and I did use some of the examples and suggestions as directions. I don’t think I [...]