tech-ed collisions

Is Linux ready for the unsupported masses?

Linux on the desktop in enterprises/large organisations seems to have been reported on quite a bit lately. Organisations with access to good technical support are well positioned to take on such challenges but what about your average small office/home arrangement where no-one in that environment would consider themselves an expert user? At home I have been using Linux for a few years now and have played with distributions such as Red Hat, Mandrake, Vector, Gentoo and a number of other forgettable ones. Other members of my household are committed Windows users and cannot be convinced to have a go but I had hoped to change that with Ubuntu. Trialling it with a bootable CD it looked pretty good for a basic desktop with some office tools (OpenOffice), Internet tools, a few games and a few video/audio applications thrown in. I had no problems accessing the Internet so things were looking pretty good. Since I already had a Windows operating system in place I decided on a dual boot arrangement so some partitioning was required. This meant resizing the existing partition. A warning in the documentation hinted that this may not be the most robust of programs but it worked a treat. However, then things started to follow the usual path (based on my experience) with Linux distributions. That is, the documentation was either wrong or missing. In this case, quite a bit of both as the evening wore on. Getting the system up and running was relatively straightforward but then I tried to install a few apps in order to have a more efficient desktop. Following some recommendations from the documentation I tried installing Epihany, Abiword, XFCE, and a couple of others, all of which I have run before on other distros. None of these installed successfully although Abiword got as far as appearing in a menu! There was a system warning letting me know that some software was out of date and I should apply some updates so I did so. At some point in this process my network connection was lost and I could not recover from it. Not to be beaten so easily, I tried switching to my wireless network as the card was recognised but there was no way I could get that working either. However, when copying my wireless connections over (via USB memory stick) I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the operating system recognised the memory stick automatically. This is something that I have never experienced with Linux before as it has usually required quite a bit of manual effort (maybe because I have been using older distrubutions for a while). So now I had a desktop with (probably) corrupted updates, a few broken applications and no network access. Luckily for me the Windows partition still works a treat. The issue for me here is how ready is Linux for your average user who simply wants a working desktop and has no real access to technical support. Even in the Ubuntu documentation there is an article which makes the point that Linux is for the 'expert user' however expert is more or less defined as an experienced user. Since I have an interest in Linux I will probably spend a bit of effort sorting it all out but there will be a point when I have to ask myself, 'is it worth the effort'? For people at home there is often no technical support available and forums etc are not much good if you can't access the Internet. For the sake of a bit of money you can save yourself a lot of time and frustration by installing a proprietary operating system and desktop applications - well most PCs are usually bundled with them anyway! While I am still a big supporter of Linux it still has a way to go for novice home users, of which there are many. So here I am signing off (in Windows).

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Filed under  //   Linux  

Person of the year - you, me, all of us

Congratulations to all across the globe who contribute content and engage in conversations using the Web. Time Magazine has voted us all 'Person of the Year'. What an acknowledgment from a traditional media company. To some extent social networking services are being gobbled up by traditional media giants anyway (eg myspace) but this does seem to be quite a recognition of the impact that 'Web 2.0' is having at the moment. I guess the question I am left wondering is whether or not to be a little sceptical about it all - 'time' will tell.

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Filed under  //   Web 2.0  

Whatever happened to 1.0?

From twopointouch, the next big thing 'according to Tim O'Reilly' is Who 2.0. Now, while there is some really interesting discussion here on Identity, what's the deal with all things 2.0? In a previous article I suggested that Web 2.0 among other things, is a great marketing term but I probably should have refined that to just 2.0. There are so many * 2.0's out there now but some seem to just jump straight there. I am joining the bandwagon for a while and appending 2.0 to the title of this blog. Cheers.

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Filed under  //   Web 2.0  

Should this patent be allowed?

A really interesting article on blogs.zdnet this morning reveals a patent application by Apple for podcast navigation. To me it simply amounts to a simple hierarchical navigation structure, the underlying process for which has been around at least as long as IT applications have had menu structures. It appears all you need to do is put some content/context in (ie podcast, episodes etc) and you may have grounds for a patent. I really struggle to see how this should be a patent and am really concerned about the implications of it. Does this mean that if granted, you may be in breach of the patent if you have a similar navigation structure? I was really underwhelmed when I saw the parts of the patent that were published in the blog but really concerned about the implications of it. Some very interesting comments already showing up on zdnet's blog.

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Filed under  //   rant  

Protect your domain name

DCITA is conducting a review of the .au Internet domain and has released a discussion paper which is worth looking at. Among other issues of governance and policy, it also seeks comment on naming structures and poses the question of whether it should be possible to register names 'directly at the top level eg www.dcita.au'. Without commenting on whether this is a good or a bad thing, it is prudent to know if this eventually gets implemented. Over the last couple of weeks I have heard of what look like attempts to exploit someone else's 'brand' by registering their name in other domains. For example, if my site is called 'www.mysite.edu.au' and it is a well established brand, another party may try to register 'www.mysite.com.au' to exploit the traffic etc that is trying to find me. If you are eligible to register in other domains, it may be wise to register your name in them to protect your business. If the top level domain is opened up, as suggested in the discussion paper, then serious consideration needs to be given to protecting your brand if you meet the eligibility criteria for that level.

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I think therefore I license

Intellectual property and patent issues seem to be popping up all over the place at the moment. This article in the Sydney Morning Herald warns that even owning an iPod could land you in trouble:

"Owning an iPod, camera phone or a DVD recorder might be enough to land you in jail or lumbered with a large fine under the Federal Government's proposed new changes to the copyright laws, experts warn...... ....Under proposed new copyright laws, loading tracks onto a music player, which have been copied from a CD, would be classified as infringing copyright. This would apply even if that CD was legitimately purchased."
The Copyright Amendment Act must be raising concerns from those involved in education and who are aware of what is going on. Google have some concerns about this Act too. From ABC Science Online, a Google rep is quotes as saying:
"Google believes that the bill fails significantly to bring Australia's copyright act fully into the digital age,"
and goes on to champion the cause for us. Thats nice but at the same time what would happen if you want to download or remix something from YouTube. Fang has something to say about that. In the meantime, suppose you are offering some content you created to the world for free and want to support the operation of your website through (say) advertising. A read of this article may cause you to rethink that - scary stuff if it comes to fruition. Why bother selling laptops etc when a business model of that magnitude is on the horizon. Here's another one. Many learners of musical instruments use something called tablature to help them understand how to play songs. This is supposedly really useful if you can't read music and used to be available from many sites until quite recently when lawyers hit these sites with letters to stop the practice. I guess this is following the same path that online music itself took and will hopefully sort itself out in a sensible manner. I was once given some investment advice regarding mining - the only people you can guarantee will meet with success (and so should invest in) in something like a goldrush are the suppliers of the equipment. Following that concept, a career change into law may be quite profitable in this current 'boom'.

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Tech truants - or just tech savvy?

'If you build it, they wont come' is an article that attracted my attention recently. The basic premise behind the article is that technologies such as podcasting are responsible for the decline in student attendance at lectures. More worryingly is the implication that technologies are having some sort of adverse effect on the delivery of education. The arrticle contains quotes such as:

"I had started putting every possible networking technology into the class," Azevedo said, and saw a drop-off in attendance by mid-semester. "I just felt awful, because I thought it was all my fault." "Once we started webcasting, students had the choice of coming to lectures or watching them on computer. I suspect if they didn't have that option, more of them would show up," said Vince Resh, a professor of environmental science, policy, and management who has seen his attendance drop by 50 percent. "The problem is that you've got the technology people on campus wagging the dog," charges Resh. "Every year they add new technology that separates students from the classroom and each other. I think that's a really bad trend," added Resh."
Somewhat intrigued with this, I followed the trail to the original article, a piece in the UC Berkeley News. This article actually looked in more detail at tackling 'technological truancy' and while the above views were expressed, the complete article had a much more balanced approach to the percieved problem. While some educators may be experiencing this 'problem', there are efforts in place to understand why. It is really important to understand what is happening from a pedagocial perspective but lets start off with some simpler aspects of what may be going on. If you are simply recording a 'one-way communication' style lecture as a podcast or video and making it available one of the things you are doing is offering choice. Todays learners (and many of them in Higher Ed - particularly in the US where this originated) do not all fit in the traditional demographic for a student. A large percentage are not school leavers. These students have many impositions on their time and if there is an alternative to getting to a lecture to receive a basically 'one-way' conversation or listening to the same content anywhere at anytime and convenient to them, why shouldn't they take advantage of such a generous offfering? Anywhere, anytime is an important concept in today's environment. Learners will weigh up the cost benefits for themselves and decide the most appropriate mechanisms for them. At a conference earlier this year I heard of lecturers having quite different experiences with podcasting. What they were finding was that attendance was actually quite high. What they found was quite interesting. Students were not taking notes anywhere near as much. If something was interesting or important to them they simply jotted down the time in the lecture. Then, using the podcast later they could simply skip to those important parts and concentrate their revision on them. As a result, lectures tended to become much more interactive with students and lecturers able to engage with each other. In this type of environment, technology has not simply replaced a delivery mode but is being used to change and enhance it. The UC Berkley article sites a lecturer in statistics who makes extensive use of chalk and involving her students in exercises during class who has high attendance. Students in this class are experiencing quite a different style of class which is much more interactive. Obviously podcasts or videos would be nowhere near as effective. This method is great for local students but what would you do in a global context if you had to teach many, many students in different locations (is there likely to be a more pronounced teacher shortage in the future?) - How about more immersive technologies? Obviously the way in which technology is implemented, understood and used is going to make a difference. I guess my point is that we shouldn't write it off based on unsatisfactory experiences but should learn from them. We should use technology to create more opportunities for learning and not take away the traditional ones. It would also be worth examining the results being obtained by these 'tech truants'. Doing a thorough job of that is not trivial. If results are better or worse, are there any underlying causes? For example, if podcasts are recordings of one-way communication style lectures that are made available after the lecture, what has been the impact of lecturing to a potentially empty lecture theatre for the lecturer? Has this affected the quality of the lecture in a positive or negative way? This whole area is quite interesting and I look forward to seeing more commentary on the positive and negative experiences that technology is perceived responsible for.

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Show the world (at least the online bit) how to do something

YouTube is a phenomenon and gives anyone with access to a webcam/video camera the opportunity to have their 15 minutes of fame (probably at least 3 or 4 hits anyway). I am sure there are all sorts of educational opportunities around YouTube but what do you do if you want to show people (using video) how to do something. One way is obviously to stick your video on YouTube or similar sort of service or any website of your choice that lets you actually. However, there are sites that are setup specifically for this type of service. Ever wanted to know how to make an omelet? french braid hair? do pinch harmonics on a guitar? These are just some of the skills that people have decided to share with the world by contributing video how-tos to a site called www.viewdo.com. While this site is perhaps nowhere near as well known as YouTube, it is certainly looks like a great way to impart a bit of your knowledge to the world on a site that is dedicated to this. You can also make requests for clips demonstrating something you have always wanted to know how to do. I would be interested to hear of other similar sites or experiences on the value of them.

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When is a mouse not a mouse?

Some time ago in another blog I commented on the Sony VAIO Mouse Talk. Rather than simply talking about this innovative little device I now own one and can offer some real world experience of it. For those that haven't seen or heard of it this mouse from Sony doubles as an Internet phone using Skype. One of the problems that continues to plague me with Skype is the echo effect that seems to occur mostly with laptops when using the inbuilt speakers and microphones (at least, in my experience). Often this will make some conversations ineligible. Using a Skype phone (in this case, the Sony one) seems to have removed this problem completely and has improved my Skype experience dramatically. The audio quality is excellent. Having a device that performs more than one (useful) function that is not overburdened with feature bloat also helps keep the weight of my 'digital backpack' down (a little). One thing that would transform this device from being quite useful to really good would be if it were wireless. It connects to the computer by USB. I can't help thinking that Bluetooth connectivity would really transform it. As it is, the USB ports on my laptop are on the left hand side and I use the mouse right-handed. The cable seems to be quite short and really gets in the way when 'on the phone'. Formwise, it is not as ergonomic as other 'mice' however it looks quite cool if thats an important factor. The surface is very smooth and doesn't seem to 'breathe' as well as other more coarse surfaces so it feels a bit 'sweaty' after a while. Overall though, I think this is a great little innovation and should provide plenty of stimulation for other ideas.

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Are you ready for disruptive technologies?

Disruptive technologies radically change the way we do things. They can create new markets, replace existing technologies and transform business processes. What about the way we teach and learn? The iPod from Apple is a well known example that has transformed the way we listen to and purchase music. More than that however, it has changed the way in which we can listen to audio material by using technologies such as podcasting. Podcasting takes the time dependency away from broadcasting. We now listen to audio or view video content at times and locations that are convenient to us. In educational settings around the world innovative educators have recognised the potential of these types of devices and are incorporating them into their programs. Unfortunately some organisations see these disruptive technologies rather as disruptions and some have even gone as far as to ban them. There is no holding back progress though and new generations of disruptive technologies will just keep coming. Look at the Sony Mylo for example – this has all the features of iPods but is a wireless communications device as well. Users (eg students/teachers) can use it to communicate wirelessly using instant messaging, Internet phone calling and much more besides (eg sharing content wirelessly). Other technologies just keep coming as well. Ubiquitous computing (computing everywhere) and wearable computers are other examples of technologies that will change the way we live and work. Virtual worlds are moving into the mainstream and are no longer the domain of ‘geeks’ or ‘technophiles’. Second Life – one of the leading virtual worlds on the Web turns over a staggering aount of money everyday. Major (global) organisations are recognising this and holding large scale events (such as concerts) in these worlds. Some educators are implementing and offering education and training in these worlds. What sort of impact could this have on education and training or rather, what sort of impact will it have? Is it worth asking the question of your organisation – are these disruptive technologies simply disruptions that we should ignore or even ban, or do they represent opportunities for transforming the way that we can teach and learn? If we choose the former, what will be the consequences in the long term for our organisations and more importantly, for those for whom we have responsibility to educate? There are no easy answers to these questions but we cannot ignore them and should be doing what we can to make informed decisions.