doug - off the record http://dougpete.wordpress.com Thoughts and comments as the mood hits Sun, 08 Nov 2009 12:06:43 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ en hourly 1 http://www.gravatar.com/blavatar/a909e87a56f409007048cbe697438709?s=96&d=http://s.wordpress.com/i/buttonw-com.png doug - off the record http://dougpete.wordpress.com Just a Little Testing http://dougpete.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/just-a-little-testing/ http://dougpete.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/just-a-little-testing/#comments Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:26:11 +0000 dougpete http://dougpete.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/just-a-little-testing/ ]]>

It’s a Sunday morning and I’m just lazying around before the house wakes up and so decided to try something that I’ve wanted to try for some time.

I’ve been playing and testing Google Wave since I got my invites and it’s amazing how much functionality appears from day to day.  In my mind, though, there has to be someway to increasingly leverage things so that they become functional.  If Google Wave documents are truly going to be conversation and collaboration spaces, then we’ve got to start to see them used differently than just a glorified wiki space or a glorified email message.

The developers of content around Google Wave are an interesting collection of incredibly talented folks and so I’m sure that they’ll be the answer as we try to bring the power of all of this to our regular online routines.

So, I’m just messing around, and I mean that in the worst, ugliest way possible.  I’ve got some waves going one where I’m just learning with others and then I’ve got a bunch of private, me-only waves, where I can do really stupid things and nobody sees it.

Then, I’ve got a wave with just me and a robot.  The robot’s name is Embeddy.  Embeddy’s claim to fame is that she can generate code that will allow me to embed a wave into another document.  I’m ultimately thinking that this would be incredibly functionaly inside a wiki or in an e-learning course or wherever.  For the time being, I’m just using Embeddy to help me generate code for a webpage.  I’ve created many a webpage over the years and am always looking for tips and techniques to help me move on.  Embeddy may help me with this.

This is what I’ve done so far in my learning that I’m willing to post about publically.  Usually this means that I can replicate it at will and that it wasn’t just a dumb set of keystrokes that happened to work.

I started a new wave and entered a little text and brought in the weather extension.  Now, the key to all of this is that I have to add embeddy@appspot.com to my wave.  She agrees and hops right in.  Her immediate contribution is to generate some code for me.

You’ve got to love code.  We programmer types thrive on this stuff.  There will probably come a day when this becomes drag and drop or HTML editors have direct embeds of waves but for now, it’s a matter of putting the code into the source of a webpage in the right spot.  So, I do.  Now, we’ve got to make it available on the web so I’ve fashioned a little page here.
My learning now gets fuzzy.  If I’m logged into Wave, I can see the contents.  There is a really good reason to have multiple browsers on your computer.  So, I fire up Opera and go to the link and the embed is there but I’m challenged to log into my Google account.  Rats.  Opera isn’t supported by Wave.  OK, off to Safari then.  Hmm.  Safari doesn’t show it.  How about Google Chrome.  Bingo!  You HAD to know that that would work!  In fact, it works way better than Firefox where the Wave was originally created.

Now, my learning is on hold.  Sure, I should be able to see and work on it.  I created it and I’m logged in to it.  Why wouldn’t I?  Wave is still in limited testing but there are lots of folks with accounts.  I’ve given out a whack of invites.  Because this is a public wave, will anyone with an account be able to get in and start to collaborate?  Do I have to actually invite people and add them to the wave?

Where would you use this anyway?

Next week is the ECOO Conference.  Wouldn’t it be a real test if somehow we could get our heads around this functionality and make a backchannel Wave for those who could to share their thoughts, pictures, extensions, collaborations, all in real-time?  Wouldn’t it be awesome to have a couple of hundred people all keying content into a collaboration space all at the same time?

That’s going to take more than a little testing but I know that there are lots of folks up to the task.  Any ECOO-takers?

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]]> http://dougpete.wordpress.com/2009/11/08/links-for-2009-11-07/feed/ 0 dougpete New Media Applied to Classic Content http://dougpete.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/new-media-applied-to-classic-content/ http://dougpete.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/new-media-applied-to-classic-content/#comments Sat, 07 Nov 2009 12:30:17 +0000 dougpete http://dougpete.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/new-media-applied-to-classic-content/ ]]>

Yesterday, @danikabarker sent out a Twitter message asking people for ideas for poetry related to ghosts and the supernatural.  To me, there is only one answer to a prompt like this — Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven“.  The poem isn’t necessarily about ghosts but the death of Lenore  and the onset of insanity shows how such things play with the mind.  This poem is so powerful for me.  I’ve actually purchased a copy of a book with many of Poe’s works in it.  They’re not easy reads and you need to revisit it many times to understand the meaning and the genius behind these writings.

I didn’t always like Poe.

Like many high school students, I suffered through reading and regurgitating the content long enough to get a mark and move on.  It wasn’t until afterwards that I fully understood what “The Raven” was all about.  I bought the Alan Parson’s Project Album “Tales of Mystery and Imagination“.  At this link, read about the album and you can even listen to the song streamed to your computer.  It may take a couple of plays but the setting and the insanity becomes so clear with this musical interpretation.  My other favourite from this album is “The Cask of Amontillado”.  For me, this was such a powerful way to help understand the original work.

With apologies to Poe, while I pondered weak and weary, I remembered another interpretation.  In one of its Hallowe’en specials, “The Simpsons” had included a dramatic reading of “The Raven”.  Or, at least as dramatic as a combination of James Earl Jones and Bart Simpson could be.  I don’t ever recall the raven saying “Eat My Shorts” in the original.

Through the wonders of modern media, we can get powerful interpretations of the original content.

The Raven – Simpsons

But a search reveals more than this interpretation.  The great Vincent Price gives a full reading of the story.

The Raven- Edgar Allen Poe

Looking around YouTube, you’ll see more video and more excellent interpretation of this incredible work.   I can’t help but thinking what a powerful way for students to watch and get further insights using the modern media that they find so engaging.

It’s also an opportunity to view others’ method of interpreting the original work.  The next logical step for students would be to take a cell phone or an RCA Small Wonder and create their own interpretive work.

New and affordably created media can certainly be used for more than watching a cat flush a toilet. Maybe they’ll be inspired to look up the word “quaff” and use it in their daily lives?

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]]> http://dougpete.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/links-for-2009-11-06/feed/ 0 dougpete Twitter @ ECOO http://dougpete.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/twitter-ecoo/ http://dougpete.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/twitter-ecoo/#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:54:16 +0000 dougpete http://dougpete.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/twitter-ecoo/ ]]>

It’s another #FollowFriday on Twitter and I just sent out a tweet showing my list of Ontario Educators.  Great people, great reads when you follow them.  I would encourage you to follow them all.

As I posted the message, I also started to think about the ECOO Conference next week.  The Educational Computing Organization of Ontario hosts this conference annually.  It’s a very special year for ECOO as it celebrates its 30th annual conference.  That’s quite a record for longevity for anything.

Things have changed over the years.  For those who are regular attendees, you probably have great memories of events good and bad.  Remember the year the power went out during a heat wave?  Remember the Regal Constellation?  Remember Icon presentations?  Remember OISE?  Take a walk through ECOO history at this link.  It is great to see how time and technology has morphed through the years.

I’ve been a regular attendee, presenter, and now on the exhibit floor working the OSAPAC booth.  It’s always great to meet old friends and new friends at this event.

At the OTF Professional event last weekend, we started to lay very informal plans for a meetup of Twitter users at ECOO.  Conference organizer @brendasherry has promised to book us a room.  Somebody, somewhere decided to call it twECOO.

But, who’s coming?  As I posted my #FollowFriday list, it occurred to me that we could turn this Twitter list stuff into something productive.  So, I’ve created a new list called ECOO-Twitterers.  I would encourage all ECOO attendees who use Twitter to get themselves added to this list.  I haven’t quite figured out how to automate this yet so I’ve created a Google Form where you can add your details, if you are so inclined.  There is a little option to indicate whether or not you’re interested in attending the meetup.

If you’re headed to ECOO, please consider adding yourself to the list.  You can do so by clicking here.  I’ll look forward to seeing you there.

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]]> http://dougpete.wordpress.com/2009/11/06/links-for-2009-11-05/feed/ 0 dougpete Zoom http://dougpete.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/zoom/ http://dougpete.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/zoom/#comments Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:09:28 +0000 dougpete http://dougpete.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/zoom/ ]]>

Have you ever been to a presentation given by a person using a Macintosh computer?  One of the impressive things that presenters will do is zoom in and out on a presentation screen so that you can read it.  It’s a very effective technique if you’re showing something with small print like a website to your audience.  Then, you’ll see them zoom out, reposition, and then zoom into some other location on the screen.  It’s part of the Universal Access feature and originally designed for folks who may have challenges reading the small print.

All that you have to do is press the Command key and use a couple of fingers on the touchpad to zoom in and out.

Well, Ubuntu has the same feature – only better!  It’s really handy when you connect to a data projector for presentations to be sure.  There’s nothing better than blowing up the text for your audience.  With the smaller screen real estate, it’s a really nice feature to have.

How do you do it?  It involves holding down the Windows key.  There’s got to be some use for it on a Ubuntu computer, right?  So, hold down the Windows key and then use the scroll button on your mouse if one is connected.  If it’s not connected, just swipe a single finger up and down on the scroll area of your touchpad.  On my Mini 10v, it’s the right side of the touchpad.  However, there’s more to this than just zooming in and out.  Move your finger left and right and you can scroll anywhere you want on your desktop.

It’s a really handy feature.  Give it a try the next time you’re on your computer and see the effect.

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]]> http://dougpete.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/links-for-2009-11-04/feed/ 0 dougpete Into the Clouds http://dougpete.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/into-the-clouds/ http://dougpete.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/into-the-clouds/#comments Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:13:55 +0000 dougpete http://dougpete.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/into-the-clouds/ ]]>

As I continue my exploration with the new Ubuntu 9.10 OS, I run across an icon entitled Ubuntu One.  The name is intriguing and also is the icon itself.  There’s a little cloud attached to it.

Clouds intrigue me so I decide to check out Ubuntu One.  It is indeed taking me into the clouds.  In fact, Ubuntu One is an area in the cloud where you can store, synchronize and share files.  By creating an account, you can attach various computers to the account for sharing of files.  According to the website, 2GB is free storage and there is a pay option for more storage.  The pay option appears to have upset some – in my readings, I’ve found people who are leaving Ubuntu because of Canonical’s attempt to monetize.  It doesn’t bother me; Canonical has always sold value added goods and services to support Ubuntu.

So, back to Ubuntu One.  Yes, you can share your files, but also contact information and Tomboy notes.  This adds a little more value to the concept than some of the free storage places that you’ll find.  I can hear some of the naysayers already…you’re going to put your data up there?

Well, the service is still in beta like so much else but I am still not ready to put everything that I value up there without thoughtful consideration.  In terms of security and to manage the 2GB limit, it makes sense to compress your files.  Most file compression programs will let you put a password on your files and so that’s a good strategy.  2GB is a modest storage capacity but very nice for virtually everything that I do on a regular basis.  It’s a nice place to transport files from one computer to another.  Can’t you just email it?  Yes, but our internal email system has quotas and no other email service is option to use.  Couldn’t you just use a memory key?  Yes, but this is much cooler and also a place where you could quickly fire off files to others securely.  I must admit also that at least one of my memory keys have gone through the wash.  I do try, but drop the ball every now and again.

The possibilities in education are apparent as well.  We purchase a management system for our local area networks but it doesn’t currently allow access outside the LAN.  Whatever happens at school, stays in school.  With a Ubuntu One account, students now have the ability to transfer files from home to school and back securely.

It’s a nice concept.  It’s not the only player in the field but does come on a standard installation.  I think it’s a concept worthwhile keeping an eye on.

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