google – Ready, set, Joe.

Stuck on OER (and somehow quotable)

One of the things on my bucket list is to be referred to (some day) as an expert. You know, like those quacks on FoxNews in the split screen with the green screened cityscapes behind them. For some reason that seems glamorous to me.

Getting quoted by a reputable blogger/educator only helps me take the first baby steps toward that goal. Enter Miguel Guhlin, a really skilled and experienced Director of Instructional Technology in TX who quoted me on his blog (woot!). The quote, well, it was from my comment left on this really interesting post at http://connectivism.ca that discussed the future of education technology and the differences (shortcomings?) of Learning Management Systems (LMS, which include Blackboard and Moodle) and Social Networking Sites (SNS, Facebook, Ning, etc.).

Here’s my comment in full, the bold is what Miguel picked out:

Great article, I really liked the fact that Martin chimed in about Moodle’s use and its design. I’ve been using it for several years and over that time have worked my best to educate teachers about the social features that can be used (as simply as the discussion forums). But training apparently isn’t enough, as course designs/construction almost always defaults to a content centric approach. It’s no fault of any Moodle administrators or trainers, it’s just that the Moodle tools provide a very easy way to organize content (and it’s often the very first thing taught to new Moodlers).

I’m eager to see the new features in Moodle 2.0, however I’m not sold that they will accomplish the necessary change alluded to in this blog post.

On another note, perhaps my biggest gripe is that we’ve provided teachers this AWESOME tool to structure courses and content that could easily be used by other teachers, but the software locks it down (or at least, it provides tools that are easily configured to “close” the content to the outside). Sure there are Moodle course exchanges, but far and wide content is closed to outsiders, difficult to procure (even if a backup is available) and not available as OER. Imagine if all the content created in Moodle were open? THAT would be a great asset to the educational community and would be ripe to transition past the “build today use for 3 years model” to more of a social approach (where the best content floats to the top of social interactions because it’s freely available).

I’ve got a soft spot for Open Educational Resources (OER — and I mean really, truly open resources, e.g. no passwords, fees, indexed by Google). Part of it is driven by the fact that I think we (the human race) should have access to every subject matter that we want to learn (for free). The idea of paying for access to certain content just seems less and less acceptable as I get older (at least some of that stems from how spoiled I am by my personal learning network and the internet, which never fails to edutain me).

The other part is driven by the fact that OER makes education easier. It’s faster to use content that’s already been created and in many cases, that content has a high probability of being higher quality and vetted (not to mention thoroughly checked and re-checked by those that have come across it before and used it likewise).

So…how might I become an expert? Well, I think the first part is to continue contributing to the discussion about OER and how it should be organized, categorized, classified, etc. The other way to turn out any and all of my content as OER (but I really haven’t found an effective way to do that either). Truly open resources are hard to come by (but they are out there: http://www.oercommons.org/), I hope to make it my job to advance and grow OER. (After all, that’s 50% of the mission of http://Coursefeeds.com)

Quote – Jonathan Rosenberg of Google

There are two components to our definition of open: open technology and open information. Open technology includes open source, meaning we release and actively support code that helps grow the Internet, and open standards, meaning we adhere to accepted standards and, if none exist, work to create standards that improve the entire Internet (and not just benefit Google). Open information means that when we have information about users we use it to provide something that is valuable to them, we are transparent about what information we have about them, and we give them ultimate control over their information. These are the things we should be doing. In many cases we aren’t there, but I hope that with this note we can start working to close the gap between reality and aspiration.

Jonathan Rosenberg, Senior Vice President, Product Management, Google – “The meaning of open“

Ben Franklin sucked at advertising

For being a pioneer in printed news papers (creating one of the first papers in PA and infamously publishing Poor Richard’s Almanac), Ben Franklin, in all modern measurements, sucked at ad-copy. I might go so far as to say that he would have been canned by any current magazine, newspaper or even blog for the wordy ads he put out.

Of course, back in the day (circa 1755) his long winded “advertisements” were the norm (perhaps even cutting edge) but these days any reader would probably just stop reading after the first line…see if you can make sense of this ad he ran in 1755 seeking to hire horses and carriages for General Braddock (who was “stateside” to protect the colonies from the belligerent French–obviously before they became the war-dodging country they are today. Brush up on the French-Indian War here).

ADVERTISEMENT. — LANCASTER, April 26, 1755.

Whereas, one hundred and fifty waggons, with four horses to each waggon, and fifteen hundred saddle or pack horses, are wanted for the service of his majesty’s forces now about to rendezvous at Will’s Creek, and his excellency General Braddock having been pleased to empower me to contract for the hire of the same, I hereby give notice that I shall attend for that purpose at Lancaster from this day to next Wednesday evening, and at York from next Thursday morning till Friday evening, where I shall be ready to agree for waggons and teams, or single horses, on the following terms, viz.:

1. That there shall be paid for each waggon, with four good horses and a driver, fifteen shillings per diem; and for each able horse with a pack-saddle, or other saddle and furniture, two shillings per diem; and for each able horse without a saddle, eighteen pence per diem.

2. That the pay commence from the time of their joining the forces at Will’s Creek, which must be on or before the 20th of May ensuing, and that a reasonable allowance be paid over and above for the time necessary for their travelling to Will’s Creek and home again after their discharge.

3. Each waggon and team, and every saddle or pack horse, is to be valued by indifferent persons chosen between me and the owner; and in case of the loss of any waggon, team, or other horse in the service, the price according to such valuation is to be allowed and paid.

4. Seven days’ pay is to be advanced and paid in hand by me to the owner of each waggon and team, or horse, at the time of contracting, if required, and the remainder to be paid by General Braddock, or by the paymaster of the army, at the time of their discharge, or from time to time, as it shall be demanded.

5. No drivers of waggons, or persons taking care of the hired horses, are on any account to be called upon to do the duty of soldiers, or be otherwise employed than in conducting or taking care of their carriages or horses.

6. All oats, Indian corn, or other forage that waggons or horses bring to the camp, more than is necessary for the subsistence of the horses, is to be taken for the use of the army, and a reasonable price paid for the same.

Note.–My son, William Franklin, is empowered to enter into like contracts with any person in Cumberland county.
B. FRANKLIN. (From the Dailylit.com version of Ben Franklin’s Autobiography)

No way that could be a Google Ad. The 425 words/2300 characters are a far cry from meeting Google or Twitter standards, but if Ben had asked, I could have helped him trim it down. Here’s the same ad as it might have been formatted for the internet-age.

Google Search Ad:

Twitter Post:

And finally Facebook:

Fair? Not really. Fun? Certainly. Franklin probably would have been a media powerhouse today (he was in his own time, amassing a fortune by 40 just through smart printing and by staying sharp). Perhaps we can take a hint from his eloquent, flowing writing style. Sure it’s formal, but it’s cordial and personal at the same time. Which says a lot more than the ad samples above.

That being said, I don’t think many people answered his original ads. After that “ad” appears in his book he talks about how he had to publish a warning to the people of PA after letting them know that the Brits would take their horses and wagons by force (since they had already asked so nicely and offered to pay).

Browser In/Efficiency

I love Google Chrome. It’s probably the biggest boost to my at home/at work productivity since I added more RAM to my laptop (before I did, my IBM could only handle 1 window of Firefox open at a time: this isn’t a good thing for someone who is currently blogging with no less than 10 tabs, two separate windows for gmail and gdocs and a music player open).

Now you might be wondering how it increased my efficiency. There are a couple of ways, mostly more noticeable to me when I’m not using my regular computer and Chrome. They are: 1 click access to the most important sites to me (which I have listed across the bookmark bar, just as icons…when you create a bookmark in Chrome, just delete the title if the site has a nice favicon and voila: instant mini shortcuts. I bet you could fit 50 or more along the bookmark toolbar) and 2 click access to my most frequently visited sites (whenever you open Chrome or a new tab all of your most recently and frequently visited sites are listed). It’s telling that my top three sites are all work related, followed by blogger (1/2 work, 1/2 play), Flickr, whatever Fantasy sports league I’m in at the time, Apple Movie trailers (I love movie trailers) and a couple other that change like the seasonal aisle at your local pharmacy or grocery store.

Chrome is also great cause I can have 10+ tabs open in multiple windows and they all show as much of the webpage as possible. I am really sold on Google’s design and am a huge Chrome-fanboy.

That being said, never before have I ever not used a website because of browser incompatibility–until now. I often switch back and forth between FF and IE to test sites and visuals when designing a new site, blogging or building courses, but if I think something is going to be a highly frequented site then I want it compatible with Chrome (because that is more and more my desktop). To manage my side-business finances I really want to use Quickbooks Simple Start as opposed to just a spreadsheet. But they don’t support Chrome. They also don’t support FF on linux/Ubuntu. That has been a big enough obstacle to prevent me from using their product so far, even though it’s free and I could easily open FF instead. I might make the leap but only after a lot of searching for an alternative.

It’s not that I’m super picky, it’s that I hate inefficiency (even if it decreases over time) no matter how minuscule. I think it’s telling too that as a consumer of online information and applications that I would be so turned off from adopting a product that doesn’t work at all/as well when paired with another technology (this is a derivation of incompatibility of OS and programs as well, however the barriers are smaller when we’re talking about browsers–but no less significant to the end user).

So, I guess the conclusion is that even if your product is the bee’s knees, it better work on whatever I’m using. And if it doesn’t (cough, Quickbooks, cough) then you might not get me as a customer as easily. And as a provider of such products in work and personal, the sites better work the first time someone comes to them or there’s probably a good chance that you’ll lose that person forever.

Now, if only I can find a better online program than Google Docs to manage our small business finances that would be sweet (suggestions welcome).