OLDaily, by Stephen Downes

[Home] [Top] [Archives] [Mobile] [About] [Threads] [Options]


June 5, 2012

files/images/7167030308_7bf5245187.jpg, size: 41461 bytes, type:  image/jpeg
MaKey MaKey: An Invention Kit for Everyone
Jay Silver, Kickstarter, June 5, 2012.


Another Kickstarter project. I will admit that MaKey MaKey caught my imagination. Basically, what it doies is connect to household objects - anything that can carry a small electrical current - and turn them into input devices. Hence for example you can turn a bunch of bananas into a musical keyboard, a hand-drawn pencil drawing into a joystick, and whatever else you can think of.

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Project Based Learning]

Share |

MOOC.me
Steve Hargadon, Website, June 5, 2012.


Brand new website dedicated to MOOCs. Sponsored by Blackboard. "MOOC.me lists your already-created MOOC, or help you create and then list one if you need help. This is a service of Classroom 2.0 and Web 2.0 Labs." In other words it duplicates exactly the function of mooc.ca (which, I confess, I have been lacking in managing).

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Web 2.0, Blackboard Inc.]

Share |

files/images/WIndows8services.png, size: 89525 bytes, type:  image/png
Fear and Loathing and Windows 8
Michael Mace, Mobile Opportunity, June 4, 2012.


I haven't looked at Windows 8 yet but this sounds ominous: "Windows 8 is a revolutionary transition in Windows, easily the biggest change since the move from DOS to Windows in the early 1990s." As someone who adapted to the new Windows from DOS very slowly (not aided in the least by a special swicth on my mouse that had to be toggled for Windows) I am wary indeed. What Microsoft intends to do, of course, is to translate its lead in deskop operating systems to mobiles and tablets. As a result, "Windows 8 is not Windows...  It looks different, it works differently, and it forces you to re-learn much of what you know today about computers." The start button is gone, control panels are gone, and it looks at first glance like the point is to transfer control of the hardware from the user to the vendor. You can't even turn it off! (Well, you can - with "five actions: a hover, a sweep, and three clicks.  Plus the command is hidden in a very non-intuitive place."

[Link] [Comment][Tags: Microsoft, Operating Systems, Paradigm Shift]

Share |

This newsletter is sent only at the request of subscribers. If you would like to unsubscribe, Click here.

Know a friend who might enjoy this newsletter? Feel free to forward OLDaily to your colleagues. If you received this issue from a friend and would like a free subscription of your own, you can join our mailing list. Click here to subscribe.

Copyright 2010 Stephen Downes Contact: stephen@downes.ca

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.