Protesting Apple’s Exclusion of Flash and Scratch – There’s an App for that (or there should be!)

This morning I logged on to twitter to see that, adding insult to the injury that is the absence of Flash, Apple has decided to also ban the Scratch app from the iDevice line (iTouch, iPhone, iPad.)

Now I only recently got an iPhone, and I do like it a lot, but more and more my generative proclivites have found me running into walls, heading down dead ends, as I think up things I’d like to do with my phone.

Which led me to tweet this morning:

Simple, right? Let Apple know how cranky their users are at not being able to use some staple aspects of the web using their own mechanism. (Yes, “the web” – yes, I know it’s a format developed by a commercial firm.) Take it a step further – make the one thing the app can do is send an email to sjobs@apple.com with a polite request for their great line of products to start supporting Flash, Scratch and other ubiquitous and more generative environments.

Simple… if I had the chops to develop an iPhone app! Which a quick excursion into Apple Developer Land convinced me I do not, at least not anytime soon (though I’ll add it to the LONG list of things I would like to learn how to do, someday.)

But for an existing developer? Seems like it would be child’s play. Probably violates some part of the Developers agreement or would itself get banned from the App Store, but hey, that would make the point just as well. So – any iPhone developers out there want to take this up? Indeed – has someone already? Wouldn’t surprise me, it’s not that original an idea. But the vision of seeing the Top Downloaded App on the App Store be “iProtest” (feel free to use that 😉 really tickles my happy mutant bone. Let me know if you do build something like this – I’d sure download it, and spread the word. – SWL

Simple Feed Rolling for GReader Users – Bundles

One of the most common requests that I can think of from newcomers to the “loosely coupled teaching” approach is:

“How do I roll together a number of feeds and produce a single RSS feed for them.”

Over the years I’ve recommended any number of approaches, from Yahoo Pipes to Grazr. But in trying to share a bunch of feeds with a colleague today, I stumbled on a feature of Google Reader I hadn’t used before that makes this dead easy. Named “Bundles,” these are essentially a simple way to publish a web page that represents a folder of RSS feeds from your reader. To make a bundle, simply click on a folder in Google Reader

Then Save it…

And voila, what results is a public HTML page aggregating the feed, with a subscribe button, as well as a link to the ATOM feed and OPML file.

I’m not suggesting everyone has to drop their current approaches and flock to GReader, just that this is yet another simple technique to add to the basket that makes combining, remixing and repurposing content that flows via RSS just that much easier. And that has to be a good thing. – SWL

Follow up on BC WordCampEd discussion…

So there’s been more discussion, both in the comment thread of my initial post and in emails, about how best to facilitate some sort of gathering of BC educational WPMUHeads (so sue me!) in conjunction with the June ETUG workshop at UVIc. I want to make it clear, *I’m* not in charge here, and if someone feels different and wants to do something different, have at ‘er, fill yer boots, etc.

A few things became clear that led us to our current thinking. One was that Sunday was likely a no-go; folks from UBC indicated they couldn’t make it, and many others, myself included, didn’t feel too inclined to give up our Sunday. Wednesday also meant an extra night staying over for those from away, so more cost and time away from the office, thus less desireable. And while we’re using the ETUG gathering as a convenient way to get together people who are already going to be together, we don’t want to hijack that event or create a competing draw. So…

What a few of us (me, Clint Lalonde from Camosun, Grant Potter from UNBC and Katy Chan from UVic) seem to have settled on is the idea of proposing two formal sessions as *part* of the ETUG conference; one, a technical session, on the top five lessons learned in implementing WPMU (a discussion hosted by Clint and Grant), and a second, less technical/more pedagogical “teaching with blogs/WPMU” session (for whom a few have stepped up as potential facilitators). My hope is that, first off , both of these will be accepted, and second that they’ll be really vigorous discussion sessions (hopefully there are conference rooms suited for this that *aren’t* lecture -style rooms), not “presentations.”

We’re also hoping these get scheduled on the Monday, so that we can all convene to the pub before the BBQ that night. Part of this exercise is about community building, and so hopefully this combination of intense hour long discussion and socializing afterwards can help strengthen those bonds and see the conversation and collaborations flourish online afterwards. this was very much part of our thinking – what should we be trying to do in a f2f session that we can’t already do well online.

So there you have it. At least as far as I am concerned. I won’t be organizing a separate WordCampEd event. I expect some will be disappointed – well, speak up, it’s early enough (this isn’t until June, right?) that we can change course or that you can still organize something if you feel so moved, and I think everyone involved so far would still be interested in hearing a plan and potentially collaborating. But this felt like a good plan to accomodate the vagaries of this year’s ETUG scheduling and travel issues while still meeting the goals of facilitating some good specific discussions on applying WPMU AND buildling local community. Hope to see you there! – SWL

Open Textbooks Questions – Part Deux

Sincere thanks to everyone who took the time last week to offer up their ideas on their favourite Open Textbook example. You can see all the submissions to the Google form so far.

In conversation with some esteemed peers this week, though, it became clear that there are multiple ways to approach this issue, not just ‘what are the best open textbooks’ but also ‘in which courses would a quality open textbook have the biggest impact?’

So for folks here in BC – what course(s) in your institution would an open textbook have the biggest impact on? This might be the highest enrollment course, meaning savings for the largest number of people, but it might also be the course with an inordinately expensive text, or one with both an expesnive text and room for quality improvements. Please let me know in the comments below. We’ll definitely be looking into this same issue at the system-wide level in BC, but I am interested to hear from specific people/institutions where they think the highest impact might be. – SWL

Open Textbooks followup – Where to find good ones?

The feedback on “favourite Open Textbooks” was hugely valueable, but I felt a bit sheepish, like I shouted out for feedback before doing enough due dilligence myself. Because when I did some digging of my own, I found an enormous amount of helpful material already being produced by people focused in specifically on Open Textbooks

So I really appreciate the folks who spent the time offering links to what they felt where the best Open Textbooks. In addition to some twitter replies and emails I received the following submissions through the Google form.

These are really valuable, but I also feel a bit sheepish, like I shouted out for feedback before doing enough due dilligence myself (it’s ok, I can forgive myself if you can, I no longer can keep track of the number of balls in the air, plates spinning, irons in the fire or whatever metaphor for headswimming busy-ness you might care to choose.)

Because when I did some digging of my own, I found an enormous amount of helpful material already being produced by people focused in specifically on Open Textbooks (I am but a Johnny-come-lately.) So to make amends, I thought I’d share some of what I’ve found, lbeit not overly digested or analysed. Share early and often, right?

The first thing I found quite useful were two sites that laid out some criteria for assessing Open Textbooks. So from a Community College Open Textbook Collaborative page on Conexions I found the following criteria:

Quality of content, literary merit and format
Timeliness
Favorable reviews
Permanence/lasting value
Authority: author
Scope
Physical quality
Format: print, CD-ROM, online, etc.
reading level

while from the Open Textbook project at OER Commons I found this set of review criteria:

Clarity of course materials
Absence of Content errors
Appropriateness of course materials
Interface
Content usefulness
Consistency of course materials
Suggested changes
Exemplary features

as well as

Cultural relevance
Reading level
Readability in terms of logic and flow
Accuracy
Modularity (or the ability to take apart, mash up and remix the content)
Universal accessibility (thus permitting all populations – no matter the physical constraint – to access content)
Color printing and graphics as an available option, in all print materials
Meet as many specific course articulation requirements as possible
Ability to transport content to modalities other than print (cell phones, and other portable devices, for example)
Content should be as interoperable on as many platforms as possible
How does this open textbook compare with the best commercial textbook available in my discipline, and/or the commercially published textbook that I am using for my course.

These are all for me useful starting points in identifying “quality” Open Textbooks, a job made easier by groups like the Community College Open Textbook Collaborative providing this list of “endorsed” textbook content from the Connexions site, as well as more detailed Reviews on their own site. The Assayer is another site that is attempting to provide reviews of ‘Open Textbooks’ (understood a bit more loosely, hence the scare quotes.)

The other thing that should have been obvious to me but that only became clear as I began to dig into this a bit deeper,is that in addition to providing cheaper textbooks, we can do a service to students by pointing them to free copies of original source texts that are studied in many courses, especially in the humanities. So in addition to the VAST amounts of academic content being freed by the likes of the Open Content Alliance, and the trailblazing work by the pioneering Gutenberg Project, we can now look for (and suggest to students) free eBooks and digital versions from sites like feedbooks, manybooks, and more!

This is just the start of this for me, so expect more regularly over the next year, but I wanted to give back some of what I am finding, especially since I should have done more of this to begin with. – SWL

Feedback on Possible BC WordPress in Education Summer Camp

Last February, in the run up to Northern Voice, a bunch of us in BC post-secondary got together on the UBC campus to meet and discuss the various ways in which we were starting to use WordPress (and WPMU) on our campuses. I had some high (unrealistic) ambitions for the meeting, and while I felt like we didn’t necessarily meet those, it did feel like it was a good start to the conversation here in BC that allowed people to meet each other, see what they were doing, get inspired & encouraged about their own work, and share some of the issues we face in common.

I’ve been wanting to do a follow up, and since this year’s ETUG Spring Workshop is happening June 7-8 at the University of Victoria, some of us thought we’d try to organize another “WordCampEd” around that event, given that it typically brings together many of the interested folks.

So, three questions in this informal poll, which you can reply to in the comments below (and please circulate this as widely as you like; we’re not “exclusive” though it is likely to be mostly folks from BC post-secondary attending.)

Does this sound like something you’d like to attend? We’re not asking for you to sign up yet (it will be free), just a show of hands to help us figure out what size/type of venue we need to find
The ETUG event is on a Monday June 7th and Tuesday June 8th. Yes, I know, weird. In terms of doing this kind of session, should we be looking at:
- full day session? half-day? less?
- Sunday the 6th? (might have to be off campus.) During the ETUG meetings (potentially as a proposed session)? Afterhours on either the 7th or 8th? Or the day after, Wednesday the 9th?
What would you like to focus on? Do you want scheduled talks? Unorganized collaboration time? Self-forming interest groups? Something else? Think about what we can usefully do in a face to face session that we couldn’t just do online (and the answer might be “nothing,” which is ok too.)

Let us know. I’m not “leading” anything, just starting a discussion. So far I know there is interest from UVic, the hosts of the ETUG conference, and a few others who were instrumental in the earlier gathering have also indicated interest. You should all consider yourselves part of the organizing committee. Indeed, somebody please jump in and take over, I’m happy to help but would much prefer those with a bigger stake in their WP installations to lead the charge. – SWL

There’s a war goin’ on here, donchaknow?

I hate to use war metaphors, not only because they refer to a practice I abhor but because they are so trite. But I am getting tired of people blindly accepting the official line of copyright and intellectual “property” as some sort of eternal right, rather than the modern (and increasingly faltering) invention it is. The relationship between “content,” “owners,” “culture” and “folk” morphs and fluctuates over time, and whilst the people who have built up whole industries on selling you content would have you believe that the only role you have is as a consumer, an empty vessel into which they can pour their contenty goodness, it’s time we fought back. So join the not so secret revolution, share your content, use those non-rivalrous goods to make the world a better, more beautiful place. This one’s for you, Jimbo Groomie!

What’s your favourite Open Textbook example?

http://u.nu/7awv4

2010 promises to be the year of the Open Textbook here in BC as we turn our attention to helping existing open textbooks get adopted by institutions in our province, help our system partners get involved in existing projects and potentially start new ones.

As part of this, I am really interested in hearing about the best examples already out there of Open Textbooks. If you know of a great example, can you take 2 minutes and let us know via this google form?I promise all results wil be shared.

I know the avant garde of ed tech will gripe loudly about the content-centric nature of this request, and while I don’t philosophically disagree, given existing practices in institutions, Open Textbooks represent a near term all-round win (well, except for maybe the publishers, ahem) that we need to help entrench the philosophy of openness and sharing in our public institutions. – SWL

Secret Agent Man

It has begun

My Foray into Filmaking – Video of Horizon Report from ELI 2010

Last week I got to attend the Educause Learning Initiative meetings in fabulous Austin, Texas (my new favourite American city!) Rather than do a “trip report” (which likely no one would ever read, )my boss Paul Stacey made the creative suggestion that I instead produce a video documenting the trip, perhaps using the launch of the NMC Horizon Report as a way to structure it.

I have been playing with video since last summer when I bought a Kodak Zi-6 pocket-sized HiDef camera, so this really caught my fancy. Below is the result – thanks to all who volunteered, my poor video skills do not do enough justice to their wisdom (or beauty – Cole, you hunk! 😉 Hope you enjoy! – SWL

[bliptv AYHAqkoA]