CogBlogged under ‘Rants’

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by Felipe Skroski So long as a man imagines that he cannot do this or that, so long is he determined not to do it: and consequently, so long it is impossible to him that he should do it. – Spinoza Lately I’ve been tuned into how often people, especially those who perhaps have more treelines, tell themselves they cannot do something– without having really tried. It is in many ways, the marker of those who buy into the energy of ds106 versus those who wrinkle their nose at it like some foul piece of rotten fruit. It’s what I saw in my University of Mary Washington students, who took on 16 weeks of many such challenges (of course they have to for the grade). One of my last semester students knew others taking the same course taught by the dude who [...]

I might be the last one left still using Google Reader. Why not? Although banished from the menus, it will work through July, 2013. I’m in no hurry to join the Mad Rush To Find The Perfect Reader Replacement That Does Not Exist. But I was surprised when tonight reader announced that a newer version was available, to refresh my browser to update. Could it be? Might there be a change of heart? Nah, I then got the Google Reader Death Note Reminder. It sure seems like Google has a bit of personality disorder. And we are seeing the externalization of a struggle between different personalities? Will RSS survive once Google pulls the reser plug (and likely Feedburner)? Or will Reader revive as a new force? Or shall the Do Not Eve face of Google Plus pulls dominant? Google, she has many faces.

I’m bored of cows as a MOOCy metaphor; I found a new one: cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo shared by Another Seb Isn’t he cute? The inspiration comes from a wise one — Neil Young — in The Donkey and Digital Music: The Full Dive Into Media Interview. Neil was on his stump, in grand ripping form, about how the digital music format that most people listen to, the mp3, is decrepit because it contains only 5% of the original sound quality of the high end masters. Out trots the donkey: Neil Explains the Donkey Somewhat paraphrased: We can’t control the back end of the donkey… but that’s where all the products are focused. There’s no one talking about the front end of the donkey. That’s what I’m talking about. He’s saying that our music consumption is happy to be focused on the back end of [...]

cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo shared by Johan Rd When will that MOOC[cow] finally hump over the Gartner peak and slide down to its valley of disillusionment? Is it after the last article published the cites the birth of MOOCism to the Stanford AI class? Might there actually be something out there beyond the EdXCourseraUdacity complex? Continuing the MOOC Mythology is a media created idea that it represents some sort of single entity answer, a fix for something allegedly broken. What is missing is the realization that open courses are experiments, and as Steven Johnson points out in Where Good Ideas Come From, that said ideas come from making mistakes: … error is not simply a phase you have to suffer through on the way to genius. Error often creates a path thatr leads you out of your comfortable assumptions. [Lee] de Forest was wrong about [...]

cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo shared by concretecandy The web is a fabric we weave and wear together or tear apart. Posterous yesterday announced a new feature- the web they wove back in 2008? Thrown away in 2013. To you read URLs? I bet they changed the title of the post from the first draft http://blog.posterous.com/thanks-from-posterous where “Thanks From Posterous” becomes “Posterous will turn off on April 30″. And the reason why? It is explained very clwarly: Posterous launched in 2008. Our mission was to make it easier to share photos and connect with your social networks. Since joining Twitter almost one year ago, we’ve been able to continue that journey, building features to help you discover and share what’s happening in the world – on an even larger scale. On April 30th, we will turn off posterous.com and our mobile apps in order to focus 100% [...]

When the world is full of things that don’t make sense, make a GIF. When you get tired of all the repeated echoes off the chamber walls put down that copy of The Chronicle, and make a GIF. When twitter is full of bird crap, make a GIF. Well… it’s a strategy that works for me, whatever “work” means (here as I sit at O’Hare trying to pass a night of missed plane connections, I think I should make a GIF). I was thinking some back on yesterdays GIF filled riff on the film class I signed up for form Coursera. The design is one that takes almost no advantage of the very thing that is supposed to be the power of MOOCs, the bringing together of people for a learning experience. The model (so far) is one that puts the network capability of the internet aside in lieu of [...]

I get tired of those emails form people asking to blog about their product, or to include their infographic, or to buy ad space (for the latter I sometimes reply that my starting price is $10,000 per url per month, they usually do not reply). The best are people who gush on how they love this blog, but they somehow miss this front page key warning: Lately though, it’s not even worth my time bothering with a reply. That is my time. I would like to assume that a non reply is a message, “I am not interested.” Apparently not. Some days ago I sent you my proposal for blog post deal but may be due to busy in other works or some other reason you did not replied me on blog post deal at $30. So i am offer you again if you want then we can continue our [...]

cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by desmorider For as vast and accurate as Google Searches can be, I cannot help but raise a curiosity flag when it fails elsewhere. It still frustrates me how many clicks deep you have to go to the advanced search settings to have google search for images “licensed for re-use”. In a blog post from April 2012, Martin Hawksey pointed out something I had not known of before; inside of Google Docs, when you go to embed an image, and you use thee search, the default is actually for media licensed for re-use. This is pretty cool, so if I am writing about being tired, perhaps I want to use an image of a sleeping dog; within the Google Docs image search, I see 60 results for a search on “sleeping dog”. Wow, maybe Google does care about promoting licensed media. Stop [...]

cc licensed ( BY SD ) flickr photo shared by 2493™ With no sign of any waning of MOOC Hysteria, it seems like a “course” is of course the only way of convening educators online. There is some stampeded going to create more MOOCs or various anagram soups of MOONs OOs, MOOS, whatever. Alec Couros has been floating the idea of a new one, ETMOOC: This space will act as a major information hub for #etmooc, a massively open online course focused on the use of educational technology (#edtech) and media in education. While the field of educational technology is vast, this particular course will focus on some of the recently popularized technologies, literacies and related topics such as social/participatory media, blended/online learning environments, digital literacies, open education, digital citizenship/identity, copyright/copyleft, and multimedia in education. I’m a big @coursa fan. Few in our field gather people online as quickly as [...]

I listen, and read, and listen, and try to make sense of what they are talking ’bout. But those cows just go on and on and on about their MOOcing and making cheese. On and on they go. And go. “…placental, emergent, alienating, enveloping, sometimes thriving, sometimes dead, sometimes reborn…” Whatever. Yawn. Anyone want to play around here? Anyone? I have a gane. Watch that bone, MOOcow. Silly cow. Tricks are for dogs. (I GIFfed up the wild dog and poor cow — the verb in the word of the year sense). Silly cow.