June 20, 2011
Project Reclaim: backing up to local network storage
Doug Belshaw,
dougbelshaw.com/blog, June 20, 2011.
When everybody has their own independent silo-free internet presence, they will have their own data storage. Right now it may seem a bit crazy to do this at home (but - if you think about it - isn't that where most of your files are now?) but it won't seem crazy for long, as storage costs shrink. Here's an example of what I mean: "a Netgear Stora* and two 2TB hard disks in RAID1 configuration (this means that data is written to both disks simultaneously). OK, so it's just a big hard drive, right? Yes, but importantly, it provides secure web access to all your files. Your big hard drive has just become your big web server.
Whither Writing Instruction in the 21st Century?
Jason Ohler,
educational technology & change, June 20, 2011.
I've argued this way before, but it's good to see confirmation that the nature of communication is changing. "While the essay form of writing is still very important, long narrative pieces don’t read well on the web, where they appear as walls of text to everyone except the few who are truly committed to their content. In contrast, a new kind of presentation is in wide use for effective blog or web writing that I call 'visually differentiated text' (VDT), a kind of visual rhetoric that employs a number of writing conventions that are used to visually sculpt text." Take the time to visit Jason Ohler's site
Would You Take A Free Online Ed Tech Workshop This Summer?
Kelly Walsh,
EmergingEdTech, June 20, 2011.
Kelly Walsh wants to know whether you would take a free online ed tech workshop this summer. The topics he is considering are practical: using Facebook in classroom assignments and projects; using Twitter in the classroom; using Animation applications in classroom assignments and projects; creating your own online courses; and fun digital presentation tools for the classroom (Vuvox, OneTrueMedia, Jing, and more). This post is a survey to gauge interest and participation.
[Link] [Comment] [Tweet] [Tags: Traditional and Online Courses, Twitter, Books, Project Based Learning]
10 Years of Blogging: Time for a Change and a Book
Will Richardson,
Weblogg-Ed, June 20, 2011.
Will Richardson has announced that he is discontinuing blogging on Weblogg-Ed (though the archives will remain up) and moving his online activity to Tumblr (under the http://willrichardson.com/ URL). Why? "It’s become a struggle to blog in long form here. Yet I’ve not found the short form of Twitter to be anywhere close to a substitute for the extended conversations that take place here." Tumblr, he writes,"hits a sweet spot that I’ve been looking for for a while." Of course, from my perspective, I see Tumblr as a service that allows people to create the sort of post I've been creating here in OLDaily. The major difference is that people don't have to mess with RSS - "subscriptions are disguised simply as follows on Tumblr, making it all the more simple." Of course, you have to be on Tumblr to "follow". Nothing's perfect. Tumbler's definitely worth exploring, though.
[Link] [Comment] [Tweet] [Tags: Twitter, Web Logs, Subscription Services, RSS]
Online Learning Today... And Tomorrow
Ray Schroeder,
University of Illinois Springfield, June 20, 2011.
Another new offering for MOOC-lovers. As George Siemens reports, " Today, The Center for Online Learning, Research, and Service at the University of Illinois Springfield announced that they are offering a MOOC starting June 27: eduMOOC: Online Learning Today…and Tomorrow (sign up is free, right-hand side of the page)." (See also).
[Link] [Comment] [Tweet] [Tags: Connectivism, Google, Online Learning]
Get Chrome’s Features in Your IT-Mandated Internet Explorer, No Admin Rights Necessary
Alan Henry,
LifeHacker, June 20, 2011.
Google has come up with a clever way to make Chrome available to those using locked-down institutionally-mandated versions of Internet Explorer. "The new version runs a helper process in the background that sits quietly, consumes few system resources, and loads the Chrome Frame plugin into Internet Explorer every time you open it." The extension has been around since 2009; the new release can be installed without administrator privileges. I clicked on the installer link using Firefox (because I like to be difficult) and it downloaded and then sort of vanished. Trying it with IE the add-on installed, but I couldn't detect any difference. The add-on support ranges "from a faster Javascript engine, to support for current web technologies like HTML5's offline capabilities and canvas, to modern CSS/Layout handling." Related: if you want to use Facebook at work woithout being caught, consider Excellbook, which makes Facebook look like a spreadsheet.
[Link] [Comment] [Tweet] [Tags: Microsoft, Google Chrome, Books, Membership, Google]
NRC-CISTI goes portable with launch of mobile website
Press Release,
National Research Council, June 20, 2011.
From the press release: "NRC-CISTI has launched the first federal library mobile website and one of the first federal mobile websites. NRC-CISTI Mobile makes location irrelevant, allowing NRC employees with smart phones and other mobile devices to easily and conveniently take NRC-CISTI’s collection of scientific, technical and medical information resources with them - no matter where they go." There's a QR-code, for those people unable to type the URL (see right).
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