THERE IS NOTHING WRONG HERE

I listened to two very interesting podcast today from Edtech Talk (they all seem to be interesting). Edtech Talk is part of the World Bridges Network, a collection of educational podcasts anyone can take part in, check their calendar for the latest daily podcast.

TTT#98

The first podcast is “Teachers Teaching Teachers # 98 - Learning to be unschooly” The conversation included teachers and students from around the world and its subject was triggered by a post on Youth Twitter by a South Korean student named Soojin. The term schooliness was coined by Clay Burell in his blog. The podcast discussion focused on how to use the Read/Write web to engage students in authentic learning and not as a fancy worksheet.

From elgg to DrupalThe second podcast, Teachers Teaching Teachers #99 - From elgg to Drupal, was very timely because I have been having a discussion with our executive director and curriculum director about developing a CMS. I have used Moodle for a couple of years, but it was installed on our ISP, which we no longer use. I have looked at Joomla, Drupal, and elgg, but don’t know much about any of them. Bill Fitzgerald from DrupalEd was in on the conversation and his advice for anyone wanting to implement a CMS is to write in one or two sentences the goal of the CMS. Dave Cormier advised to write a very detailed description of what several students would do in the course of a day using the technology. Dave is the teacher who helped developed “A partnership project helping Prince Edward Island students bring the past to life using tools of the future.” A Living Archives uses Drupal.

The good thing is that there are many quality choices for a school based CMS.

Exposing students to Big Ideas is a great way to get them excited about the world and hopefully school. Even special ed students can get excited by Big Ideas. I showed this TED Johnny Lee demos Wii Remote hacks to the students in the PREP math classes and they wanted to get a Wii remote and try it themselves. The fact that they felt they could get the free software and instructions and make their own interactive white board is encouraging. We have Smart Boards in our school and we have them use them, so they are very familiar with how interactive white boards function. We ran out of time this year to hack a Wii, but I plan to work with the students to do it next school year

I have finally started listening to Wikinomics (download from Audible). As much as I enjoy listening to the book on the ride to work and home, I miss being able to highlight and make notes in the margins. I do bookmark with my Zen Micro so that I can go back and make notes later. I should have read it a year ago and I would now have a better idea of the changes happening in front of our eyes. The industrial revolution took hundreds of years to develop and make significant changes in peoples lives. The digital revolution is happening in one life time and most people are not aware of it. It is still rare that when I mention wiki to someone they know what I am talking about. I keep assuming that I am the one who has missed the boat and other professionals are blogging and podcasting. Listening to the book I am more convinced that the education system is a relic of the 18th century and just by a force of nature it will change. The choices are that we make the changes conscience and as smooth as possible or unconscience with disruptive changes.

Speaking of podcasting it is time I had my own if I am to teach other how to create and us podcasts. We did create classroom podcasts last year at Glenbrook Middle School, but those are gone now. I want to podcast some blog entries like Wes Fryer and do some interview.

Having the cluster map has maked posting to the blog much more interesting, now I know someone somewhere has at least looked at the blog. They may have been searching for windhorse (a Buddhist term) and this popped up, what a disappointment.

If you have not read Chris Anderson’s article in Wired titled “Why $0.00 is the Future of Business” you should. His article helped me understand why so many Web 2.0 applications seem to be free. I understand how Google makes money, but how is WordPress and Edublogs, which I am using right now, making any money? Chris has broken this economic model down to six categories. Anderson’s thesis is that because the actual cost of transistors (0.000001 cents for each in Intel’s quad-core), storage (off the self terabite for $300, or 0.0000000003 cents/bite), and an over stock of fiber optics makes these cheap enough not to figure into the cost of producing applications or content. I rewateched Anderson’s TED talk in 2004 where he introduced the idea of the long tail, which I did not really understand untill now.

1. Freemium - the subscription model for web software and services. A “basic” version of a service or software is offered and the 99% who get this version is supported by the 1% who purchase the “pro” version. I am using a free older version of Camtais, the company is betting that some of use will want to upgrade and purchase the newest version.
2. Advertising - one of the oldest means of generating revenue. The most famous is Googles pay-per-click ads, and there are all the banner ads and pop-ups. With digital technology, companies can gather data that allows them to more directly target an audience and thereby spend money more wisely.
3. Cross-Subsidies - this is the loss leader mode. Buy one get one free. Make up in volume what you loose on the cost of promotion. Some musicians are now allowing fans to down load free music as publicity for a concert tour, or grow a fan base who will purchase future CD’s.
4. Zero Marginal Cost - when information distribution cost is so low that the economics of scale make it virtually free. People have been have been downloading music for free dispite the best efforts of the music industry. Some musicians have accepted the fact and are now giving away music to tap into the model above, Cross-Subsidies. E-books, articles, magazines publishing costs are approaching zero and digital makes it even easier to share.
5. Labor Exchange - you help me I help you. Google is giving away $144 million in 411 services to build a data base that they figure will be worth $2.5 billion by 2012. By using their service now you are helping them build that database. Digg and Amazon have rating services create value by either improving services or creating information they can sell.
6. Gift Economy - making money is not the motivation for all web content generators. The open source movement is interested in building well designed applications and seeing other use them. Wikipedia uses labor exchange, you add content and get to see your work used by other. Freecycle is like a giant yard sale, except no money is exchanged. The value is in trading ideas and goods.